f\ f r 'l >*/•» i.^L >7 ¦///?. ? *. « /XH aif**CT5 1'f'givetie/'e!£Ms fezptAe foy?u?ing if a. College in- thh: Colony • YJkLE-WIMiWEI&SirirY'' • iLHiBiSAmr ¦ Gift of Dr. William C. Minor 1910 This book was digitized by Microsoft Corporation in cooperation with Yale University Library, 2008. You may not reproduce this digitized copy ofthe book for any purpose other than for scholarship, research, educational, or, in limited quantity, personal use. You may not distribute or provide access to this digitized copy (or modified or partial versions of it) for commercial purposes. This book was digitized by Microsoft Corporation in cooperation with Yale University Library, 2008. You may not reproduce this digitized copy ofthe book for any purpose other than for scholarship, research, educational, or, in limited quantity, personal use. You may not distribute or provide access to this digitized copy (or modified or partial versions of it) for commercial purposes. THE GREAT EXEMPLAR OF SANCTITY AND HOLY LIFE ACCORDING TO THE CHRISTIAN INSTITUTION ; . DESCRIBED IN THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE AND DEATH OF THE EVER-BLESSED JESUS CHRIST, THE SAVIOUR OF THE WORLD. BY JEREMY TAYLOR, CHAPLAIN IN ORDINART TO KINO CHARLES THE FIRST, AND LATE LOUD BISHOF OF DOWN AND CONNOR, NEW EDITION. LONDON: .onsmans, Green, & Co. ; Rivingtons ; Hatchahds ; Hamilton, Adams, & Co.; Simpkin, Marshall, & Co.; J. Bain; E. Hodgson; II. G. Bohn; Bickers & Son; J. Van Voorst; II. Soiheran & Co. ; Hall & Co. ; Virtue & Co. Oxford : J. "Parker & Co. Cambridge : Deighton, Bell, & Co. ; Macmillan & Co. Birmingham: C. Edmonds. MDCCCLXXII. CONTENTS. THE LIFE OP OUR BLESSED LORD AND SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST. PART I. FADE Dedication .-.....,. 1 The preface ......... 5 An exhortation to the imitation of the life of Christ . . . .88 The prayer ..... .... 48 SECTION I. The history of the conception of Jesus . . . . 49 Ad Section I.] Considerations upon the annunciation ofthe blessed Virgin Mary, and the conception of the holy Jesus . . . .51 The prayer . . . . . . . . .55 SECTION II. The bearing of Jesus in the womb of the blessed Virgin . . .56 Ad Section II.] Considerations concerning the circumstances of the interval between the conception and nativity . . . . .57 The prayer . ....... 62 SECTION III. The nativity of our blessed Saviour Jesus . . . . .63 Ad Section III.] Considerations upon the birth of our blessed Saviour Jesus ......... 60 The prayer ......... 70 Discourse I. Of nursing children, in imitation of the blessed Virgin-mother 72 The prayer ......... 81 SECTION IV. Of the great and glorious accidents happening about the birth of Jesus . ibid. Ad Section IV.] Considerations upon the apparition of the angels to the shepherds ......... 87 CONTENTS. The prayer ......... Considerations ofthe epiphany ofthe blessed Jesus by a star, and the adoration of Jesus by the eastern magi ...... The prayer ......... PAGE 91 ibid. 97 SECTION V. Of the circumcision of Jesus, and His presentation in the Temple . . ibid. Ad Section V.] Considerations upon the circumcision of the holy child Jesus ......... 99 The prayer ... . . . . . . . 105 Discourse II. Of the virtue of obedience ..... 106 A prayer for the grace of holy obedience . . . . .124 Considerations upon the presentation of Jesus in the Temple . . .125 The prayer ......... 129 Disccurse III. Of meditation ...... ibid. The prayer ......... 144 SECTION VI. Of the death of the holy Innocents, or the Babes of Bethlehem, and the night of Jesus into Egypt ........ ibid. Ad Section VI.] Considerations upon the death of the Innocents, and the flight of Jesus into Egypt . ...... 148 The prayer ......... 106 SECTION VII. Of the younger years of Jesus, and His disputation with the doctors in the Temple ......... 157 Ad Section VII.] Considerations upon the disputation of Jesus with the doctors in the Temple . . . . . . .159 The prayer ......... 162 SECTION VIII. Of the preaching of John the baptist, preparative to the manifestation of Jesus ......... 163 Ad Section VIII.] Considerations upon the preaching of John the baptist 165 The prayer ......... 170 Discourse IV. Of mortification and corporal austerities . . . 171 The prayer ......... 188 SECTION IX. Of Jesus being baptized, and going into the wilderness to be tempted . . 189 Ad Section IX.] Considerations upon the baptizing, fasting, and temptation of the holy Jesus by the devil . . . . .' .193 The prayer ......... 203 Discourse V. Of temptation ....... ibid. The prayer ....... 228 CONTENTS. PAGE Discourse VI. Part I. Of baptism ........ 229 Part II. Of baptizing infants ...... 247 The prayer ......... 270 Appendix ad Section IX.] No. III. Christ's prayer at His baptism ..... 271 PART II. Dedication ......... 283 SECTION X. Ofthe first manifestation of Jesus, by the testimony of John, and a miracle . 285 Ad Section X.] Considerations touching the vocation of five disciples, and of the first miracle of Jesus done at Cana in Galilee . . . 288 The prayer ......... 294 Discourse VII. Of faith ..... . ibid. The prayer ......... 306 SECTION XI. Of Christ's going to Jerusalem to the passover the first time after His mani festation, and what followed till the expiration of the office of John the baptist ......... 307 Ad Section XI.] Considerations upon the first journey of the holy Jesus to Jerusalem, when He whipped the merchants out of the Temple . .310 The prayer ......... 313 Discourse VIII. Of the religion of holy places . . . .314 The prayer . . ....... 327 SECTION XII. Of Jesus' departure into Galilee ; His manner of life, miracles, and preaching j His calling of disciples ; and what happened until the second passover . 328 Ad Section XII.] Considerations upon the intercourse happening between the holy Jesus and the woman of Samaria The prayer ....... Ad Section XII.] Considerations upon Christ's first preaching, and the accidents happening about that time The prayer ....... Discourse IX. Of r,epenta,nce .... The prayer ....... Upon Christ's s'srmon on the mount, and of the eight beatitudes The prayer ....... Discourse X. A discourse upon that part of the Decalogue which the holy Jesus adopted into the institution and obligation of Christianity . . 409 ii. a 337314 ibid. 351 ibid. 390 391408 CONTENTS. PAGE The first commandment ....•¦• *** The second commandment ....•¦¦ 41J The third commandment ....... 4i2 The fourth commandment ...... 430 The fifth commandment ...... .433 The sixth commandment ..... • 434 The seventh commandment ....... 442 The eighth commandment ....... 444 The ninth commandment ....... 445 The tenth commandment ....... 446 The prayer .....••¦¦ 447 Of the three additional precepts which Christ superinduced, and made parts of , the christian law ........ 448 Discourse XI. Of charity, with its parts, forgiving, giving, not judging. — Parti. Of forgiveness ....... 448 Part II. Of alms ........ 459 Part III. Of not judging . . . . . . .462 The prayer ......... 463 Discourse XII. Of the second additional precept of Christ ; namely, of prayer ...... . 464 The prayer ......... 483 Discourse XIII. Of the third additional precept of Christ, namely, of the manner of fasting ... . . . . . . 484 The prayer ......... 490 Discourse XIV. Of the miracles which Jesus wrought, for confirmation of His doctrine, during the whole time of His preaching . . . 491 Tie prayer ......... 498 PART III. Dedication I. ........ 503 II. ........ 505 SECTION XIII. Of the second year of the preaching of Jesus ..... 507 Discourse XV. Of the excellence, ease, reasonableness, and advantages of bearing Christ's yoke, and living according to His institution . . 515 The prayer . . . .... 546 Discourse XVI. Of certainty of salvation ..... ibid. The prayer ......... 556 SECTION XIV. Of the third year of the preaching of Jesus ..... ibid. Discourse XVII. Of scandal, or giving and taking offence . , . 572 CONTEN-rS. PAGE The prayer ......... 583 Discourse XVIII. Of the causes and manner of the divine judgments . 584 The prayer ......... 598 SECTION XV. Of the accidents happening from the death of Lazarus until the death and burial of Jesus ........ 599 Ad Section XV] Considerations of some preparatory accidents before the entrance of Jesus into His passion ..... 619 The prayer ......... 626 Considerations upon the washing of the disciples' feet by Jesus, and His sermon of humility . . .... 628 The prayer ......... 636 Discourse XIX. Of the institution and reception of the holy sacrament of the Lord's supper ........ 637 The prayer ... ..... 659 Considerations upon the accidents happening on the vespers of the passion . 660 The prayer ......... 668 Considerations upon the scourging and other accidents happening from the apprehension till the crucifixion of Jesus ..... 669 The prayer ......... 679 Discourse XX. Of death, and the due manner of preparation to it . . 080 The prayer ......... 701 Considerations upon the crucifixion of the holy Jesus . . . ibid* The prayer ....... . 710 SECTION XVI. Of the resurrection and ascension of Jesus . . . . .711 Ad Section XVI.] Considerations upon the accidents happening in the interval after the death of the holy Jesus until His resurrection . .715 The prayer ... ..... 729 The Editor has to acknowledge the great assistance which he is receiving in the verification of the references from Alexander Taylor, Esq., B.A., Michel scholar of Queen's College. THE RIGHT HONOURABLE AND MOST TRULY NOBLE LORD, CHRISTOPHER LORD HATTON, BARON HATTON, OF KIRBY, Sic. MY LOUD, When interest divides the church, and the calentures of men f breathe out in problems and inactive discourses, each part, in pur suance of its own portion, follows that proposition which complies with and bends in all the flexures of its temporal ends ; and while all strive for truth, they hug their own opinions dressed up in her imagery, and they dispute for ever ; and either the question is indeter minable, or, which is worse, men will never be convinced. Eor such is the nature of disputings, that they begin commonly in mistakes, they proceed with zeal and fancy, and end not at all but in schisms and uncharitable names, and too often dip their feet in blood. In the mean time, he that gets the better of his adversary oftentimes gets no good to himself, because, although he hath fast hold upon the right side of the problem, he may be an ill man in the midst of his triumphant disputations. And therefore it was not here that God would have mair's felicity to grow; for our condition had been extremely miserable if our final state had been placed upon an uncertain hill, and the way to it had been upon the waters upon which no spirit but that of contradiction and discord did ever move : for the man should have tended to an end of an uncertain dwelling, and walked to it by ways not discernible, and arrived thither by chance; which, because it is irregular, would have discomposed the pleasures of a Christian hope, as the very disputing hath already destroyed charity, and disunited the continuity of faith ; and in the consequent there would be no virtue, and no felicity. But God, who II. B s DEDICATION. never loved that man should be too ambitiously busy in imitating His wisdom, (and man lost paradise for it,) is most desirous we should imitate His goodness, and transcribe copies of those excellent emana tions from His holiness whereby, as He communicates Himself to us in mercies, so He propounds Himself imitable by us in graces : and in order to this, God hath described our way plain, certain, and determined ; and although He was pleased to leave us undetermined in the questions of exterior communion, yet He put it past all ques tion that we are bound to be charitable. He hath placed the ques tion of the state of separation in the dark, in hidden and undiscerned regions ; but He hath opened the windows of heaven, and given great light to us, teaching how we are to demean ourselves in the state of conjunction. Concerning the salvation of the heathens He was not pleased to give us account ; but He hath clearly described the duty of Christians, and tells upon what terms alone we shall be saved. And although the not inquiring into the ways of God and the strict rules of practice have been instrumental to the preserving them free from the serpentine enfoldings and labyrinths of dispute, yet God also, with a great design of mercy, hath writ His commandments in so large characters, and engraven them in such tables, that no man can want the records, nor yet skill to read the hand-writing upon this wall, if he understands what he understands, that is, what is placed in his own spirit. For God was therefore desirous that human nature should be perfected with moral not intellectual excellencies, because these only are of use and compliance with our present state and conjunction. If God had given to eagles an appetite to swim, or to the elephant strong desires to fly, He would have ordered that an abode in the sea and the ah- respectively should have been proportion able to their manner of living ; for so God hath done to man, fitting him with such excellencies which are useful to him in his ways and progress to perfection. A man hath great use and need of justice, and all the instances of morality serve his natural and pohtical ends ; he cannot live without them, and be happy : but the filling the rooms of the understanding with airy and ineffective notions is just such an excellency as it is in a man to imitate the voice of birds ; at his very best the nightingale shall excel him, and it is of no use to that end which God designed him in the first intentions of creation. In pursuance of this consideration, I have chosen to serve the purposes of religion by doing assistance to that part of theology which is wholly practical; that which makes us wiser therefore because it makes us better. And truly, my lord, it is enough to weary the spirit of a disputer, that he shall argue till he hath lost his voice, and his time, and sometimes the question too, and yet no man shall be of his mind more than was before. How few turn Lutherans, or Calvinists, or Eoman catholics, from the rehgion either of their country or interest ! Possibly two or three weak or inter ested, fantastic and easy, prejudicate and effeminate understandings. DEDICATION. pass from church to church, upon grounds as weak as those for which formerly they did dissent ; and the same arguments are good or bad, as exterior accidents or interior appetites shall determine. I deny not but for great causes some opinions are to be quitted ; but when I consider how few do forsake any, and when any do, often times they choose the wrong side, and they that take the righter, do it so by contingency, and the advantage also is so little, I believe that the triumphant persons have but small reason to please them selves in gaining proselytes, since their purchase is so small, and as inconsiderable to their triumph as it is unprofitable to them who change for the worse or for the better upon unworthy motives : in all this there is nothing certain, nothing noble. But he that follows the work of God, that is, labours to gain souls, not to a sect and a subdivision, but to the Christian rehgion, that is, to the faith and obedience of the Lord Jesus, hath a promise to be assisted and re warded: and all those that go to heaven are the purchase of such undertakings, the fruit of such culture and labours ; for it is_ pnly_a holy life that lands ..us. there. And now, my lord, I have told you my reasons, I shall not be ashamed to say, that I am weary and toiled with rowing up and down in the seas of questions, which the interests of Christendom have commenced : and in many propositions of which I am heartily persuaded, I am not certain that I am not deceived ; and I find that men are most confident of those articles which they can so little prove that they never made questions of them : but I am most cer tain, that by living in the religion and fear of God, in obedience to the king, in the charities and duties of communion with my spiri tual guides, in justice and love with all the world in their several proportions, I shall not fail of that end which is perfective of human nature, and which will never be obtained by disputing. Here therefore when I had fixed my thoughts, upon sad appre hensions that God was removing our candlestick, (for why should He not, when men themselves put the light out, and pull the stars from their orbs, so hastening the day of God's judgment ?) I was desirous to put a portion of the holy fire into a repository, which might help to reenkindle the incense, when it shall please God religion shall return, and all His servants sing In convertendo captivitatem Sion with a voice of eu diarist. But now, my lord, although the results and issues of my retire ments and study do naturally run towards you, and carry no excuse for their forwardness but the confidence that your goodness rejects no emanation of a great affection; yet in this address I am apt to promise to myself a fair interpretation, because I bring you an instru ment and auxiliaries to that devotion whereby we believe you are dear to God, and know that you are to good men. And if these little sparks of holy fire which I have heaped together do not give life to your prepared and already enkindled spirit, yet they will somt>. b 2 DEDICATION. times help to entertain a thought, to actuate a passion, to employ- and hallow a fancy, and put the body of your piety into fermentation, by presenting you with the circumstances and parts of such medita tions which are symbohcal to those of your daily office, and which are the passe-temps of your severest hours. My lord, I am not so vain to think that in the matter of devotion and the rules of justice and religion, which is the business of our life, I can add any thing to your heap of excellent things : but I have known and felt comfort by reading, or hearing from other persons, what I knew myself", and it was inactive upon my spirit till it was made vigorous and effective from without : and in this sense I thought I might not be useless and impertinent. My lord, I designed to be instrumental to the salvation of all persons that shall read my book : but unless, because souls are equal in their substance and equally redeemed, we are obliged to wish the salvation of all men with the greatest, that is, with equal desires, I did intend, in the highest manner I could, to express how much I am to pay to you, by doing the offices of that duty which, although you less need, yet I was most bound to pay, even the duties and charities of rehgion; having this design, that when posterity (for certainly they will learn to distinguish things and persons) shall see your honoured name employed to separate and rescue these papers from contempt, they may with the more confidence expect in them something fit to be offered to such a personage. My lord, I have my end, if I serve God and you, and the needs and interests of souls ; but shall think my return full of reward, if you shall give me pardon, and put me into your litanies, and account me in the number of your relatives and servants ; for indeed, my lord, I am most heartily, your lordship's most affectionate and most obliged servant, JER. TAYLOR. * [Compare vol. iv. p. 315.] THE PREFACE, Christian rehgion hath so many exterior advantages to its reputa tion and advancement, from the author and from the ministers, from the fountain of its origination and the channels of conveyance ; God being the author, the Word incarnate being the great doctor and preacher of it, His life and death being its consignation, the holy Spirit being the great argument and demonstration of it, and the apostles the organs and conduits of its dissemination ; that it were glorious beyond aU opposition and disparagement, though we should uot consider the excellency of its matter, and the certainty of its pro bation, and the efficacy of its power, and the perfection and rare accomplishment of its design. But I consider that Christianity is therefore very little understood, because it is reproached upon that pretence which its very being and design does infinitely confute. It is esteemed to be a rehgion contrary in its principles or in its pre cepts- to that wisdom3 whereby the world is governed and common wealths increase and greatness is acquired and kings go to war and our ends of interest are served and promoted ; and that it is an insti tution so wholly in order to another world that it does not at all communicate with this, neither in its end nor in its discourses, neither in the pohcy nor in the philosophy : and therefore, as the doctrine of the cross was entertained at first in scorn by the Greeks, in offence and indignation by the Jews, so is the whole system and collective body of Christian philosophy esteemed imprudent by the pohtics of the world, and fiat and irrational by some men of excellent wit and sublime discourse; who, because the permissions and dictates of natural, true, and essential reason, are at no hand to be con tradicted by any superinduced discipline, think that whatsoever seems Fatis accede deisque, Et cole felices, miseros fuge: sidera terra Ut distant, et flamma mari, sic utile recto. Sceptrorum vis tota perit, si pendere justa Incipit ; evertitque arces respectus honesti. Libertas scelerum est, qus regna invisa tuetur, Sublatusque modus gladiis: facere omnia sieve Non impune licet, nisi dum facis : exeat aula Qui volet esse pius ; virtus et summa potestas Non coeunt : semper metuet quern sffiva pudebunt. — Lucan. [viii. 4S6.] O PREFACE. contrary to their reason is also violent to our nature, and offers indeed a good to us, but by ways unnatural and unreasonable. And I think they are very great strangers to the present affairs and per suasions of the world, who know not that Christianity is very much undervalued upon this principle, men insensibly becoming unchristian, because they are persuaded that much of the greatness of the world is contradicted by the religion. But certainly no mistake can be greater : for the holy Jesus by His doctrine did instruct the under standings of men, made their appetites more obedient, their reason better principled and argumentative with less deception, their wills apter for noble choices, their governments more prudent, their present fehcities greater, their hopes more excellent, and that duration which was intended to them by their Creator He made manifest to be a state of glory : and all this was to be done and obtained respectively by the ways of reason and nature, such as God gave to man then when at first He designed him to a noble and an immortal condition, the Christian law being for the substance of it nothing but the restitu tion1' and perfection of the law of nature. And this I shall represent in all the parts of its natural progression; and I intend it not only as a preface to the following books, but for an introduction and invitation to the whole rehgion. 2. For God, when He made the first emanations of His eternal being, and created man as the end of all His productions here below, designed him to an end such as Himself was pleased to choose for him, and gave him abilities proportionable to attain that end. God gave man a reasonable and an intelligent nature0; and to this noble nature He designed as noble an end : He intended man should live well and happily, in proportion to his appetites, and in the reasonable doing and enjoying those good things which God made him naturally to desire. For since God gave him proper and peculiar appetites with proportion to their own objects, and gave him reason and abilities not only to perceive the sapidness and relish of those objects, but also to make reflex acts upon such perceptions and to perceive that he did perceive, which was a rare instrument of pleasure and pain respectively; it is but reasonable to think that God, who created him in mercy, did not only proportion a being to his nature, but did also provide satisfaction for all those appetites and desires which Himself had created and put into him. For if He had not, then the being of a man had been nothing but a state of perpetual b Ovk lovSaiiTfibs, obx a'lpeais tis phia, quse pene nihil aliud agit quam ut kripa, (scil. ante diluvium) aA\' &s naturam collapsam suse restituat inno- ei7reiV, tj vvv iritjTis efj.iroKtTeuofj.ii/v eV tt? centise. — Erasm. in xi. cap. Matt, [in ver. &pri hy'ia, rod ©eou Ka6o\iKrj e/cKAijo"i(y, 44. torn. vi. col. 63.1 air' apxrjs oucra, /cal tttXTtpov iraKii* onroKa- c Ratio Dei Deus est humanis rebus \wf>esiv, eav Aristot. [Phys. viii. 6. torn. i. p. 259] Do eVSe'xeTOi, xmipx^v fxaXKov' ri (pirns c«l ccelo, [ii. 5. torn, i, p. 288.] 7TOK6 TWV SV$*XPIJ'*VU>V T^ [StKTKTTOV. 8 PREFACE. man does not naturally know there is a God ; because by the same instrument by which we know that the. world began, or that there "was a first man, by the same we know that there is a God, and that he also knew it too, and conversed with that God, and received laws from Him. For if we discourse of man and the law of nature and the first appetites and the first reasons, abstractedly and in their own complexions and without all their relations and provisions, we dis course jejunely and falsely and unprofitably. For as man did not come by chance nor by himself, but from the universal Cause, so we know that this universal Cause did do all that was necessary for him in order to the end He appointed him : and therefore to begin the history of a man's reason and the philosophy of his nature, it is not necessary for us to place him there where without the consideration of a Gode or society or law or order he is to be placed, that is, in the state of a thing rather than a person ; but God by revelations and scriptures having helped us with propositions and parts of story relating man's first and real condition, from thence we can take the surest account and make the most perfect derivation of propositions. 7. From this first appetite of man to be like God, and the first natural instrument of it, love, descend all the first obligations of re ligion ; in which there are some parts more immediately and naturally expressive, others by superinduction and positive command. Natural religion I caU such actions which either are proper to the nature of the thing we worship, such as are giving praises to Him, and speak ing excellent things of Him, and praying to Him for such things as we need, and a readiness to obey Him in whatsoever He commands : or else such as are expressions proportionate to our natures that make them ; that is, giving to God the best things we have, and by which we can declare our esteem of His honour and excellency; assigning some portion of our time, of our estate, the labours of our persons, the increase of our store, first fruits, sacrifices, oblations, and tithes f; which therefore God regards, because He hath allowed to our natures no other instrument's of doing Him honour but by giving to Him, in some manner which we believe honourable and apt, the best thing we have. 8. The next appetite a man hath is to beget one like himself, God having implanted that appetite into man for the propagation of man kind, and given it as His first blessing and permission, "It is not good for man to be alone," and, " Increase and multiply." And Artemidorus8 had something of this doctrine, when he reckons e Oil yap iaTiv eupeiV rrjs $iKaw 6' p.tKXofj.ev rt epuv irepl a-ya&D// c. xxxviii. [p. 23.] /cal /ca/cwi/.; — Chrysip. De diis, [lib, iii. ap. e De somn. sign. [lib. i. cap. 8. p. Plutarch. De stoic, repugn., vol. x. p. 20, 1.] 284.] PREFACE. 9 these two laws of nature, deum colere, mulieribus vinci, 'to worship God, and to be overcome by women,' in proportion to his two first appetites of nature, to be hke God, and, to have another like him self. This appetite God only made regular by His first provisions of satisfaction. He gave to man a woman for a wife, for the companion of his sorrows, for the instrument of multiplication ; and yet provided him but of one, and intimated he should have no more : . which we do not only know by an after revelation, the holy Jesus having de- . clared it to have been God's purpose ; but Adam himself understood it, as appears by his first discourses at, the entertainment of his new brideh. And although there were permissions afterward of polygamy, yet there might have been a greater pretence of necessity at first, be cause of enlarging and multiplying fountains rather than channels ; and three or four at first would have enlarged mankind by greater proportion than many more afterwards ; little distances near the centre make greater and larger figures than when they part near the fringes of the circle; and therefore those after permissions were to avoid a greater evil, not' a' hallowing of the license, but a reproach of their infirmity. And certainly the multiplication of wives is contrariant to that design of love and endearment which God intended at first be tween man and wife ; connubia mille, Non ulli generis nexus, non pignora curs, Sed numero languet pietas' : And amongst them that have many wivesk, the relation and ne- cessitude is trifling and loose, and they are all equally contemptible; because the mind entertains no loves or union where the object is multiplied and the act unfixed and distracted. So that this having a great commodity in order to man's great end, that is, of hving well and happily, seems to be intended by God in the nature of things and instruments natural and reasonable towards man's end ; and therefore to be a law, if not natural, yet at least positive and superinduced at first in order to man's proper end. However, by the provision which God made for satisfaction of this appetite of nature, all those actions which deflect and err from .the order of this end are unnatural and inordinate, and not permitted by the concession of God nor the order of the thing; but such actions only which naturally produce the end of this provision and satisfaction, are natural, regular, and good. 9. But by this means man grew into a. society and a family, and having productions of his own kind which he naturally desired and therefore loved, he was consequently obliged to assist them in order h Gen. ii. 24. ' Claudian. Bell. Gildon. [lin. 441.] 1 Sallust. Jugurth. [cap. 80. torn. i. p. 265.] ovSe yap Ka\bv Avolv yvvaiKolv &p8p' cV Tfvlas exelz'' 'AXV ets fxiav £AfcVoeTes ebvalav Kinrpiv ¦S,T'ipyoviriv, Sara /j.^ /ca/ccus olmTin 8i\ei Eurip. [Androm. lin. 177.] 10 PREFACE. to their end, that they might become like him, that is, perfect men, and brought up to the same state : and they also by being at first im potent, and for ever after beneficiaries1 and obliged persons, are for the present subject to their parents, and for ever after bound to duty; because there is nothing which, they can do that can directly produce so great a benefit to the parents as they have to the children. From hence naturally descend all those mutual obligations between parents and children which are instruments of protection and benefit on the one side and duty and obedience on the other ; and all these to be ex pressed according as either of their necessities shall require, or any stipulation or contract shall appoint or shall be superinduced by any positive laws of God or man. 10. In natural descent of the generations of man this one first family was multiplied so much that for conveniency they were forced to divide their dwellings ; and this they did by families especially, the great father being the major domo to all his minors. And this di vision of dwellings, although it kept the same form and power in the several families which were in the original, yet it introduced some new necessities, which, although they varied in the instance, yet were to be determined by such instruments of reason which were given to us at first upon foresight of the pubhc necessities of the world. And when the families came to be divided, that their common parent being extinct, no master of a family had power over another master, the rights of such men and their natural power became equal, because there was nothing to distinguish them, and because they might do equal injury, and invade each other's possessions, and disturb their peace, and surprise their liberty. And so also was their power of doing benefit equal, though not the same in kind. But God, who made man a sociable creature because He knew it was " not good for him to be alone," so dispensed the abilities and possibilities of doing good, that in something or other every man might need or be bene fited by every manm. Therefore, that they might pursue the end of nature and their own appetites of living well and happily, they were forced to consent to such contracts which might secure and supply to every one those good things without which he could not live happily. Both the appetites, the irascible and the concupiscible, fear of evil, and desire of benefit, were the sufficient endearments of contracts, of socie ties, and republics ; and upon this stock were decreed and hallowed all those propositions without which bodies politic and societies of men cannot be happy11. And in the transaction of these, many acci dents daily happening, it grew still reasonable, that is, necessary to l Nihil enim est liberis proprium, m [Vides quomodo] animus inveniat quod non parentum sit prius, qui aut de liberalitatis materiam, etiam inter an- suo dederant, aut acquirendi prasbuerant gustias. — Senec. De benef. [lib. i. cap. 9. causas. — Philo. [De decern oraculis. — torn. i. p. 601.] torn. ii. p. 200, ed. Maugey.] " Commoda prseterea patriae sibi prima putare.— Lucil. [apud Lactant. vi. 5.] PREFACE. 11 the end of living happily, that all those after obligations should be observed with the proportion of the same faith and endearment which bound the first contracts : for though the natural law be always the same, yet some parts of it are primely necessary, others by supposition and accident; and both are of the same necessity, that is, equally necessary in the several cases. Thus, to obey a king is as necessary and naturally reasonable as to obey a father ; that is, supposing there be a king, as it is certain naturally a man cannot be but a father must be supposed. If it be made necessary that I promise, it is also ne cessary that I perform it, for else I shall return to that inconvenience which I sought to avoid when I made the promise ; and though the instance be very far removed from the first necessities and accidents of our prime being and production, yet the reason still pursues us, and natural reason reaches up to the very last minutes and orders the most remote particulars of our well-being. 11. Thus, not to steal, not to commit adultery, not to kill, are very reasonable prosecutions of the great end of nature, of living well and happily; but when a man is said to steal, when to be a murderer, when to be incestuous, the natural law doth not teach in all cases; but when the superinduced constitution hath determined the particular law, by natural reason we are obliged to observe it, be cause, though the civil power makes the instance and determines the particular, yet right reason makes the sanction and passes the obli gation: the law of nature makes the major proposition, but the civil constitution or any superinduced law makes the assumption in a practical syllogism. To kill is not murder, but to kill such per sons whom I ought not. It was not murder among the Jews to kill a manslayer before he entered a city of refuge ; to kill the same man after his entry, was. Among the Eomans0, to kill an adulteress or a ravisher in the act, was lawful ; with us, it is murder. Murder, and incest, and theft, always were unlawful; but the same actions were not always the same crimes. And it is just with these as with disobedience ; whieh was ever criminal, but the same thing was not estimated to be disobedience, nor indeed could any thing be so, till the sanction of a superior had given the instance of obedience. So for theft : to catch fish in rivers, or deer, or pigeons, when they were esteemedjfens naturm, ' of a wild condition/ and soprimo occupantis, was lawful; just as to take or kill badgers or foxes, and beavers, and lions : but when the laws had appropriated rivers, and divided shores, and imparked deer, and housed pigeons, it became theft to take them without leave. To despoil the Egyptians was not theft, when God, who is the lord of all possessions, had bidden the Israelites ; but to do so now, were the breach of the natural law and of a divine com mandment: for the natural law, I said, is eternal in the sanction, but variable in the instance and the expression. And indeed the laws of nature are very few ; they were but two at first, and but two o Aul. Gell., lib. x. cap. 23. [p. 505.] 12 PREFACE. at last, when the great change was made from families to kingdoms : the first is, to do duty to God; the second is, to do to ourselves and our neighbours, that is, to our neighbours as to ourselves, all those actions which naturally, reasonably, or by institution or emergent necessity, are in order to a happy hfe. Our blessed Saviour reduces all the law to these two, first, Love the Lord with all thy heart; secondly, Love thy neighbour as thyself : in which I observe, in veri fication of my former discourse p, that love is the first natural bond of duty to God, and so also it is to our neighbour : and therefore all intercourse with our neighbour was founded in, and derived from, the two greatest endearments of love in the world ; a man came to have a neighbour, by being a husband and a father. 12. So that still there are but two great natural laws binding us in our relations to God and man ; we remaining, essentially and. by the very design of creation, obliged to God in all, and to our neigh bours in the proportions of equality, ' as thyself;' that is, that he be permitted and promoted in the order to his living well and happily, as thou art : for love being there not an affection, but the duty that results from the first natural bands of love, which began neighbour hood, signifies justice, equality, and such reasonable proceedings which are in order lo our common end of a happy life ; and is the same with that other, "whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do you to them;" and that is certainly the greatest and most effective love, because it best promotes that exceUent end which God designed for our natural perfection. All other particulars are but prosecutions of these two, that is, of the order of nature : save only that there is a third law which is a part of love too ; it is self- love; and therefore is rather supposed than at the first expressed, because a man is reasonably to be presumed to have in him a suffi cient stock of self-love to serve the ends of his nature and creation ; and that is, that man demean and use his own body in that decorum which is most orderly and proportionate to his perfective end of a happy life ; which Christian religion caUs sobriety ; and it is a pro hibition of those uncharitable, self-destroying sins of drunkenness, gluttony, and inordinate and unreasonable manners of lust, destruc tive of nature's intendments, or at least no ways promoting them. For it is naturally lawful to satisfy any of these desires, when the desire does not carry the satisfaction beyond the design of nature, that is, to the violation of health, or that happy living which con sists in observing those contracts which mankind thought necessary to be made in order to the same great end ; unless where God hath superinduced a restraint, making an instance of sobriety to become an act of rehgion, or to pass into an expression of duty to Him : but then it is not a natural but a religious sobriety, and may be in stanced in fasting, or abstinence from some kinds of meat or some times or maimers of conjugation. These are the three natural laws, ' cap. 1. PREFACE. 13 described in the' Christian doctrine, that we live godly, soberly, and righteously. And the particulars of the first are ordinarily to be determined by God immediately, or His vicegerents, and by reason observing .and complying with the accidents of the world and dispositions of things and persons ; the second, by the natural order of nature, by sense, and by experience; and the third, by human contracts and civil laws. 13. The result of the preceding discourse is this. Man, who was designed by God to a happy life, was fitted with sufficient means to attain that end, so that he might, if he would, be happy; . but he was a free agent, and so might choose. And it is possible that man may fail of his end and be made miserable, by God, by himself, or by his neighbour ; or by the same persons he may be made happy, in the same proportions as they relate to him. If God be angry or dis obeyed, He becomes our enemy, and so we fail ; if our neighbour be injured or impeded in the direct order to his happy living, he hath equal right against us as we against him, and so we fail that way ; and if I be intemperate, I grow sick and worsted in some faculty,. and so I am unhappy in myself: but if I obey God, and do right to my neighbour, and confine myself within the order and design of nature, I am secured in aU ends of blessing in which I can be assisted by these three ; that is, by all my relatives, there being no end of man designed by God in order to his happiness to which these are not proper and sufficient instruments. Man can have no other relations, no other discourses, no other regular appetites, but what are served and satisfied by religion, by sobriety, and by justice : there is nothing whereby we can relate to any person who can hurt us or do us benefit, but is provided for in these three : these therefore are all ; and these are sufficient. 14. But now it is to be inquired, how these become laws; oblig ing us to sin, if we transgress, even before any positive law of God be superinduced : for else, how can it be a natural law, that is, a law obliging all nations and ah persons, even such who have had no inter course with God by way of special revelation, and have lost all me mory of tradition? For either such persons, whatsoever they do, shall obtain that end which God designed for them in their nature, that is, a happy life according to the duration of an immortal nature ; or else they shall perish for prevaricating of these laws : and yet if they were no laws to them, and decreed and made sacred by sanc tion, promulgation, and appendent penalties, they could not so oblige them as to become the rule of virtue or vice. 15. When God gave us natural reason, that is, sufficient abihty to do all that should be necessary to live well and happy, He also knew that some appetites might be irregular, just as some stomachs would be sick, and some eyes blind ; and a man, being a voluntary agent, might choose an evil with as little reason as the angels of aarkness did, that is, they might do unreasonably, because they 14 PREFACE. would do so ; and then a man's understanding should serve him but as an instrument of mischief, and his will carry him on to it with a blind and impotent desire; and then the beauteous order of crea tures would be discomposed by unreasonable and .unconsidering, or evil persons. And therefore it was most necessary that man should have his appetites confined within the designs of nature and the order to his end ; for a will without the restraint of a superior power or a perfect understanding, is like a knife in a child's hand, as apt for mischief as for use. Therefore it pleased God to bind man, by the signature of laws, to observe those great natural reasons, without which man could not arrive at the great end of God's designing, that is, he could not live well and happily. God therefore made it the first law to love Him ; and, which is all one, to worship Him, to speak honour of Him, and to express it in all our ways, the chief whereof is obedience. And this we find in the instance of that posi tive precept which God gave to Adam, and which was nothing but a particular of the great general. But in this there is httle scruple, because it is not imaginable that God would in any period of time not take care that Himself be honoured, His glory being the very end why He made man ; and therefore it must be certain that this did at the very first pass into a law. 16. But concerning this and other things which are usually called natural laws, I consider that the things themselves were such, that the doing them was therefore declared to be a law because the not doing them did certainly bring a punishment proportionable to the crime, that is, first, a just deficiency from the end of creation, from a good and happy life, and also, secondly, a punishment of a guilty conscience: which I do not understand to be a fear of hell, or of any supervening penalty, unless the conscience be accidentally instructed into such fears by experience or revelation; but it is a malum in genere rationis, a disease or evil of the reasonable faculty; that as there is a rare content in the discourses of reason, there is a satisfaction, an acqui- escency, like that of creatures in their proper place and definite actions and competent perfections ; so, in prevaricating the natural law, there is a dissatisfaction, a disease, a removing out of the place, an unquiet- ness of spirit, even when there is no monitor or observer. Adeo facinora atqueflagitia sua i/psi quoque in supplicium verterant : neque frustra prazstantissimus [Plato'] sapientice firmare solitus est, si reclu- dankir tyrannorum mentes, posse aspici laniatus et ictus, quando ut corpora verberibus, ita savitia, libidine, malis consultis animus dila- ceretur, said Tacitus q out of Plato r, whose words are, aXka, tto\- \Akis rod peya\ov /3as e-7nA.a/3oju.ez>os ?) ciXXov orovovv /SatnAe'ais rj bvvdo-rov nartihev ovbev vyies ov rrjs -^rvxV^> "XKa hiaixejxaa-riyio- \iivr\v Kal ovk&v fj.eenr]v virb emopKiS>v ml abiidas. It is naturally certain that the cruelty of tyrants torments themselves, and is a hook i Annal. vi. [cap. 6. torn. i. p. 482.] r In Gorg. [§ 170. torn. iii. p. 366.] PREFACE. ] 5 in their nostrils and a scourge to their spirit8 ; and the pungency of forbidden lust is truly a thorn in the flesh, full of anguish and secret vexation ; Quid demens manifesta negas ? en pectus inusta? Deformant maculae, vitiisque inolevit imago, said Claudian' of Rufinus; and it is certain to us, and verified by the experience and observation of all wise nations, though not natu rally demonstrable, that this secret punislmient is sharpened and pro moted in degrees by the hand of heaven, the finger of the same hand that writ the law in our understandings. 17. But the prevarications of the natural law have also their por tion of a special punishment, besides the scourge of an unquiet spirit. The man that disturbs his neighbour's rest, meets with disturbances himself : and since I have naturally no more power over my neigh - bour than he hath over me (unless he descended naturally from me), he hath an equal privilege to defend himself and to secure his quiet by disturbing the order of my happy living, as I do his : and this equal permission is certainly so great a sanction and signature of the law of justice, that in the just proportion of my receding from the reasonable prosecution of my end, in the same proportion and degree my own infelicity is become certain ; and this in several degrees up to the loss of all, that is, of life itself, (for where no farther duration or differing state is known, there death is ordinarily esteemed the greatest infehcity ; where something beyond it is known, there also it is known that such prevarication makes that farther duration to be unhappy :) so that an affront is naturally punished by an affront, the loss of a tooth with the loss of a tooth, of an eye with an eye, the violent taking away of another man's goods by the losing my own ; for I am liable to as great an evil as I infer, and naturally he is not unjust that inflicts it. And he that is drunk is a fool or a madman for the time ; and that is his punishment, and declares the law and the sin : and so in proportions to the transgressions of sobriety. But when the first of the natural laws is violated, that is, God is disobeyed or dishonoured, or when the greatest of natural evils is done to our neighbour, then death became the penalty : to the first, in the first period of the world ; to the second, at the restitution of the world, that is, at the beginning of the second period. He that did attempt to kill, from the beginning of ages might have been resisted and killed, if the assaulted could not else be safe ; but he that killed ac tually, as Cain did, could not be killed himself till the law was made in Noah's time, because there was no person living that had equal power on him and had been naturally injured : while the thing was doing, the assailant and the assailed had equal power ; but when it s Lucian. in Catapl. Rhadamanth. crfy/mra k*ir\ ttjs tyvxys ireptipepsi. [vol. 'Oiroira &v tis ifj-av ¦novifpb. ipyiar)Tat iii. p. 219.] wapd Tbv fiiov, Ka8° tKaarov airSiv atpavTi ' Claudian. De Rutin, [lib. ii. 1. 504.] 16 PREFACE. was done, and one was killed, he that had the power Or right of killing his murderer, is now dead, and his power is extinguished with the man. But after the flood, the power was put into the hand of some trusted person, who was to take the forfeiture. And thus, I conceive, these natural reasons, in order to their proper end, became laws, and bound fast by the band of annexed and consequent penalties : metum prorsus et noxiam conscientiee pro fader e haberi, said Tacitus" ; and that fully explains my sense. 18. And thus death was brought into the world; not by every prevarication of any of the laws, by any instance of unreasonableness : for in proportion to the evil of the action would be the evil of the suffering, which in all cases would not arrive at death ; as every in jury, every intemperance, should not have been capital. But some things were made evil by a superinduced prohibition, as eating one kind of fruit ; some things were evil by inordination : the first was morally evil, the second was evil naturally. Now the first sort brought in death by a prime sanction ; the second, by degrees and variety of accident. For every disobedience and transgression of that law which God made as the instance of our doing Him honour and obedience, is an integral violation of all the band between Him and us; it does not grow in degrees according to the instance and subject matter, for it is as great a disobedience to eat when He hath forbidden us, as to offer to climb to heaven with an ambitious tower ; and there fore it is but reasonable for us to fear, and just in Him to make us at once suffer death, which is the greatest of natural evils, for disobejing Him. To which death we may arrive by degrees, in doing actions against the reasonableness of sobriety and justice, but cannot arrive by degrees of disobedience to God, or irreligion ; because every such act deserves the worst of things, but the other naturally deserves no greater evil than the proportion of their own inordination, till God, by a superinduced law, hath made them also to become acts of dis obedience as well as inordination, that is, morally evil as well as naturally ; for "by the law," saith St. Paul, " sin became exceedingly sinful T," that is, had a new degree of obliquity added to it. But this was not at first. For therefore saith St. Paul, " Before," or " until the law, sin was in the world ; but sin is not imputed, when there is no lawx :" meaning, that those sins which were forbidden by Moses' law, were actually in the manners of men and the customs of the world ; but they were not imputed, that is, to such personal punish ments and consequent evils which afterwards those sins did introduce ; because those sins which were only evil by inordination and discom posure of the order of man's end of living happily, were made unlaw ful upon no other stock, but that God would have man to live happily, and therefore gave him reason to effect that end, and if a man be came unreasonable and did tilings contrary to his end, it was impos sible for him to be happy ; that is, he should be miserable in propor- " Annal. vi. 4. [torn. i. p. 4-79. "] * Rom. vii. 13. * Rom. v. 13. PREFACE. 1 7 tion: but in that degree and. manner of evil they were imputed; and that was sanction enough to raise natural reason up to the con stitution of a law. 19. Thirdly, the law of nature, being thus decreed and made ob ligatory, was a sufficient instrument of making man happy, that is, in producing the end of Ms creation. But as Adam had evil discourses and irregular appetites before he fell (for they made him fall), and as the angels, who had no original sin, yet they chose evil at the first, when it was wholly arbitrary in them to do so or otherwise ; so did man. " God made man upright, but he sought out many inventions." Some men were ambitious, and by incompetent means would make their brethren to be their servants ; some were covetous, and would usurp that which, by an earlier distinction, had passed into private possession : and then they made new principles and new discourses, such which were reasonable in order to their private indirect ends, but not to the pubhc benefit, and therefore would prove unreasonable and mischievous to themselves at last. 20. And when once they broke the order of creation, it is easy to understand by what necessities of consequence they ran into many sins and irrational proceedingsy. iElian2 tells of a nation, who had a law binding them to beat their parents to death with clubs, when they lived to a decrepit and unprofitable age; the Persian magi* mingled with their mothers and all their nearest relatives ; and by a law of the Venetians, says Bodinusb, a son in banishment was redeemed from the sentence, if he killed his banished father ; and in Homer's time there were a sort of pirates0 who professed robbing, and did account it honourable. But the great prevarications of the laws of nature were in the first commandment ; when the tradition concerning God was derived by a long hne, and there were no visible remonstrances of an extraordinary power, they were quickly brought to believe that He whom they saw not, was not at all, especially being prompted to it by pride, tyranny, and a loose imperious spirit d. Others fell to low opinions concerning God, and made such as they list of their own ; and they were like to be strange gods, which were of man's making. When man, either maliciously or carelessly, became unreasonable in the things that concerned God, God was pleased to "give him over to a reprobate mind6," that is, an unreasonable understanding, and false principles concerning himself and his neighbour, that his sin against the natural law might become its own punishment, by discom posing his natural happiness; atheism and idolatry brought in all J Tivd raiv iOnum QriypiwTai, dixit Horn. Odyss. [7'. lin. 73.] Vide etiam Por. [Deabst. iv. 21. Cf. vol. ix. p. 287.] Aul. Gell., lib. xi. cap. 18. [p. 541.] * [vid. Var. hist. lib. iv. cap. 1.] d "Oaoi inrb aKaddprov TrvevfiaTOS ifjire- 11 [Teste Xantho, apud Clem. Alex., auAa>i/ Strom, iii. 2 fin. — p. 515.] Kal vSfitov irovTfpSiv Sia» irapa toTs iraXaiols Tryph. [§ 93. p. 190.] Til XycrTeieiv, dXX' iySo£ov. — Schol. in • Rom. i. 25, 26, &c. II. C 18 PREFACE. unnatural lusts, and many unreasonable injustices. And this we learn from St. Paul, " As they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient0," that is, incongruities towards the end of their creation; and so they became "full of unrighteous ness, lust, covetousness, malice, envy, strife, and murder, disobedient to parents, breakers of covenants, unnatural in their affections" and in their passions : and aU this was the consequent of breaking the first natural law; "they changed the truth of God into a he, for this cause God gave them up unto vile affections4." 21. Now God, who takes more care for the good of man than man does for his own, did not only imprint these laws in the hearts and understandings of man, but did also take care to make this light shine clear enough to walk by, by adopting some instances of the natural laws into religion. Thus the law against murder became a part of rehgion in the time of Noah ; and some other things were then added concerning worshipping God, against idolatry, and against un natural and impure mixtures. Sometimes God superadded judgments, as to the twenty three thousand Assyrians e for fornication. For although these punishments were not threatened to the crime in the sanction and expression of any definite law, and it could not naturally arrive to it by its inordination ; yet it was as agreeable to the divine justice to inflict it, as to inflict the pains of hell upon evil hvers who yet had not any revelation of such intolerable danger : for it was sufficient, that God had made such crimes to be against their very nature ; and they who will do violence to their nature, to do themselves hurt, and to displease God, deserve to lose the title to all those good things which God was pleased to design for man's final condition. And because it grew habitual, customary, and of innocent reputation, it pleased God to call this precept out of the darkness whither their evil customs and false discourses had put it, and by such an extra- regular but very signal punishment to remind them, that the natural permissions of concubinate were only confined to the ends of man kind, and were hallowed only by the faith and the design of marriage. And this was signified by St. Paul, in these words, " They that sin without the law shall also perish without the lawf," that is, by such judgments which God hath inflicted on evil hvers in several periods of the world, irregularly indeed, not signified in kind, but yet sent into the world with designs of a great mercy; that the ignorances' and prevarications and partial abolitions of the natural law might be cured and restored, and by the dispersion of prejudices the state of natural reason be redintegrate. 22. Whatsoever was besides this was accidental and emergent; such as were the discourses of wise men which God raised up in several countries and ages, as Job, and Eliphaz, and Bildad, and those of the families of the patriarchs dispersed into several countries ; and c Ver. 28, &c. * Ver. 25, 6. e [So vol. iii. p. 4t fin.] ' Rom. ii. 12. PREFACE. 19 constant tradition in some noble and more eminent descents. And yet all this was so httle and imperfect, not in itself, but in respect of the thick cloud man had drawn before his understanding, that dark ness covered the face of the earth in a great proportion. Almost all the world were idolaters ; and when they had broken the first of the natural laws, the breach of the other was not only naturally conse quent, but also by divine judgment it descended infallibly. And yet God, pitying mankind, did not only still continue the former remedies, and added blessings, "giving them fruitful seasons, and filling their hearts with food and gladness," so leaving the nations without excuse ; but also made a very noble change in the world : for having chosen an excellent family, the fathers of which lived exactly according to the natural law, and with observation of those few super added precepts in which God did specificate their prime duty; having swelled that family to a great nation, and given them possession of an excellent land, which God took from seven nations because they were egregious violators of the natural law ; He was pleased to make a very great restitution and declaration of the natural law, in many instances of rehgion and justice, which He framed into positive pre cepts, aud adopted them into the family of the first original instances, making them as necessary in the particulars as they were in the primary obligation ; but the instances were such, whereof some did relate only to the present constitution of the commonwealth ; others to such universal contracts which obliged all the world, by reason of the equal necessity of all mankind to admit them. And these Him self writ on tables of stone, and dressed up their nation into a body politic by an excellent system of pohtic laws, and adorned it with a rare rehgion, and left this nation as a piece of leaven in a mass of dough, not only to do honour to God and happiness to themselves, by those instruments which He had now very much explicated, but also to transmit the same reasonable propositions into other nations ; and He therefore multiplied them to a great necessity of a dispersion, that they might serve the ends of God and of the natural law by their ambulatory life and their numerous disseminations. And this was it which St. Paul affirms, " the law was added because of trans gressions ;" meaning, that because men did transgress the natural, God brought Moses's law into the world, to be as a strand to the inundation of impiety. And thus the world stood, till the fulness of time was come : for so we are taught by the apostle, " the law was added because of transgression ;" but the date of this was to expire at a certain period, it was added to serve but " till the seed should come, to whom the promise was made." 23. For because Moses's law was but an imperfect explication of the natural ; there being divers parts of the three laws of nature not at all exphcated by that covenant, not the rehgion of prayers, not the reasonableness of temperance and sobriety in opinion and diet ; and in S Gal. iii. 19. c 2 20 PREFACE. the more noble instances of humanity and doing benefit, it was so short, that, as St. Paul says, " the law could not make the comers thereunto perfect ;" and, which was most of all considerable, it was confined to a nation, and the other parts of mankind had made so little use of the records of that nation, that all the world was placed "in darkness, and sate in the shadow of death :" therefore it was, that in great mercy God sent His Son, " a light to lighten the gentiles, and the glory of His people Israel :" to instruct those, and consummate these ; that the imperfection of the one, and the mere darkness of the other, might be illustrated by the Sun of righteousness. And this was, by restoring the light of nature, which they by evil customs, and false principles, and evil laws, had obscured ; by restoring man to the liberty of his spirit, by freeing him from the slavery of sin, under which they were so lost and oppressed, that all their discourses and conclusions, some of their moral philosophy, and all their habitual practices, were but servants of sin, and made to co-operate to that end, not which God intended as perfective of human nature, but which the devil and vicious persons superinduced, to serve httle ends and irregular, and to destroy the greater. 24. For certain it is, Christianity is nothing else but the most per fect design that ever was to make a man be happy iu Ms whole capacity : and as the law was to the Jews, so was philosophy to the gentiles, a schoolmaster to bring them to Christ, to teach them the rudiments of happiness, and the first and lowest things of reason; that when Christ was come, all mankind might become perfect ; that is, be made regular in their appetites, wise in their understandings, assisted in their duties, directed to, and instructed in, their great ends. And this is that which the apostle calls " being perfect men in Christ Jesus ;" perfect in all the intendments of nature, and in all the designs of God : and this was brought to pass by discovering, and restoring, and improving the law of nature, and by turning it all into religion. 25. For the natural law being a sufficient and a proportionate in strument and means to bring a man to the end designed in his crea tion, and this law being eternal and unalterable, (for it ought to be as lasting and as unchangeable as the nature itself, so long as it was capable of a law,) it was not imaginable that the body of any law should make a new morality, new rules and general proportions, either of justice, or rehgion, or temperance, or felicity ; the essential parts of all these consisting in natural proportions, and means toward the consummation of man's last end, which was first intended, and is always the same. It is, as if there were a new truth in an essential and a necessary proposition. For although the instances may vary, there can be no new justice, no new temperance, no new relations, proper and natural relations, and intercourses, between God and us, but what always were ; in praises and prayers, in adoration and hoi] our, and in the symbolical expressions of God's glory and our needs. PREFACE. 0 ] 26. Hence it comes, that that which is the. most obvious and notorious appellative of the law of nature, that it is " a law written in our hearts," was also recounted as one of the glories and excellen cies of Cliristianity. Plutarch, saying that "kings ought to be governed by laws," explains lhmself, that this law must be " a word, not written in books and tables, but dwelling in the mind, a living rule, the interior guide of then manners and monitor of their hfeh." And this was the same which St. Paul expresses to be the guide of the gentiles, that is, of all men naturally; "the gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law; which show the work of the law written in their hearts'." And that we may see it was the law of nature that returned in the sanctions of Cliristianity, God declares that in the constitution of this law He would take no other course than at first, that is, He would write them in the hearts of men : indeed with a new style, with a quill taken from the wings of the holy Dove ; the Spirit of God was to be the great engraver and the scribe of the new covenant, but the hearts of men should be the tables : " for this is the covenant, that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord; I will put My laws into their hearts, and into their minds will I write them : and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no morek ;" that is, I will provide a means to expiate all the iniquities of man, and restore him to the condition of his first creation, putting him into the same order towards felicity which I first designed to him, and that also by tho same instruments. Now I consider, that the Spirit of God took very great care that all the records of the law of Jesus should be carefully kept and transmitted to posterity in books and sermons, which, being an act of providence and mercy, was a provision lest they should be lost or mistaken, as they were formerly, when God writ some of them in tables of stone for the use of the sons of Israel, and ah of them in the first tables of nature with the finger of creation, as now He did in the new creature by the finger of the Spirit. But then, writing them in the tables of our minds besides the other, can mean nothing but placing them there where they were before, and from whence we blotted them by the mixtures of impure principles and discourses. But I descend to particular and more minute considerations. 27. The laws of nature either are bands of religion, justice, or sobriety. Now I consider concerning rehgion, that whenever God hath made any particular precepts to a family, as to Abraham's ; or to a single person, as to the man of Judah prophesying against the altar of Bethel; or to a nation, as to the Jews at Sinai; or to all mankind, as to the world descending from Noah; it was nothing else but a trial or an instance of our obedience, a particular prosecu- 11 Ou/c iv /3//3A/OIS et,u yeypafip-evois, cip. inerud., torn. ix. p. 120.] ovS4 T/crj £iXois, aXX' efxtyvxos &v kavTip ' Rom. ii. 14. Xoyos, del gvvoikuiv, ... /cal fnfieiroTt t\v k Heb. x. 16, 17. 4'ux^v i&v ep-n.fJ.ov T}yefiovias. [Ad prin- 22 PREFACE. tion of the law of nature, whereby we are obliged to do honour to God, which was to be done by such expressions which are natural intercourses between God and us, or such as He hath made to be so. Now in Christianity we are wholly left to that manner of prosecuting this first natural law which is natural and proportionable to the na ture of the thing, which the holy Jesus calls "worshipping God in spirit and in truth :" in spirit, that is, with our souls, heartily and devoutly, so as to exclude hypocrisy and indifferency ; and in truth, that is, without a he, without vain imaginations and phantastic re semblances of Him, which were introduced by the evil customs of the gentiles, and without such false guises and absurd indecencies, which, as they are contrary to man's reason, so are they contrary to the glory and reputation of God1 ; such as was that universal custom of all nations of sacrificing in man's blood, and offering festival lusts and impurities in the solemnities of their rehgion; for these being against the purpose and design of God, and against right reason, are a lie, and enemies to the truth of a natural and proper religion. The holy Jesus only commanded us to pray often, and to praise God, to speak honour of His name, not to use it lightly and vainly, to believe Him, to revere the instruments and ministers of rehgion, to ask for what we need, to put our trust in God, to worship Him, to obey Him, and to love Him ; for all these are but the expressions of love. And this is ah Christ spake concerning the first natural law, the law of religion. For concerning the ceremonies or sacraments which He instituted, they are but few ; and they become matter of duty but by accident, as being instruments and rites of consigning those effects and mercies which God sent to the world by the means of this law ; and relate rather to the contract and stipulation which Christ made for us, than to the natural order between duty and felicity. 28. Now ah these are nothing but what we are taught by natural reason, that is, what God enabled us to understand to be fit instru ments of intercourse between God and us, and what was practised and taught by sober men in ah ages and all nations whose records we have received, as I shall remark at the margent of the several precepts. For to make these appear certainly and naturally neces sary, there was no more requisite but that man should know there was a God, that is, an eternal Being, which gave him ah that he had or was ; and to know what himself was, that is, indigent and necessi tous of himseh7, needing help of all the creatures, exposed to acci dents and calamity, and defensible no ways but by the same hand that made him ; creation and conservation, in the philosophy of all the world, being but the same act continuing and flowing on him from an instant to duration, as a hne from its mathematical point. And for this God took sufficient care ; for He conversed with man in the very first, in such clear, and certain, and perceptible transaction, that a man could as certainly know that God was, as that man was. 1 Polyd. Verg. De invent., [lib. v. cap 8. p. 159 sqq.] PREFACE. 23 And in all ages of the world He hath not left Himself without wit ness, but gave such testimonies of Himself that were sufficient, for they did actually persuade all nations, barbarous, and civil, into the belief of a Godm. And it is but a nicety to consider whether or no that proposition can be naturally demonstrated : for it was sufficient to all God's purposes and to ah man's, that the proposition was ac tuaUy believed ; the instances were therefore sufficient to make faith because they did it : and a man may remove himseh so far from all the degrees of aptness to believe a proposition, that nothing should make them join : for if there were a sect of witty men that durst not beheve their senses because they thought them faUible, it is no wonder if some men should think every reason reprovable. But in such cases demonstration is a relative term, and signifies every pro bation, greater or lesser, which does actually make faith in any pro position ; and in this God hath never been deficient, but hath to ah men that beheve Him given sufficient to confirm them; to those few that beheved not, sufficient to reprove them. 29. Now- in all these actions of rehgion which are naturally con sequent to this behef, there is no scruple, but in the instance of faith, which is presented to be an infused grace, an immission from God, and that for its object it hath principles supernatural, that is, naturally incredible ; and therefore, faith is supposed a grace above the greatest strength of reason. But in this I consider, that, if we look into all the sermons of Christn, we shall not easily find any doc trine that, in any sense, troubles natural philosophy, but only that of the resurrection : (for I do not think those mystical expressions of plain truths, such as are, "being born again," "eating the flesh of the Son of man," " being in the Father, and the Father in Him," to be exceptions in this assertion.) And although some gentiles did be heve and dehver that article, and particularly Chrysippus, and the Thracians (as Mela0 and Solinus report of them), yet they could not naturally discourse themselves into it, but had it from the imperfect report and opinion of some Jews that dwelt among them : and it was certainly a revelation or a proposition sent into the world by God. But then the beheving it is so far from being above or against na ture, that there is nothing in the world more reasonable than to beheve any thing winch God tells us, or which is told us by a man sent from God with mighty demonstration of His power and vera city. Naturally our bodies cannot rise, that is, there is no natural agent or natural cause sufficient to produce that effect ; but this is an effect of a divine power : and he hath but a httle stock of natural reason who cannot conclude, that the same power which made us out of nothing, can also restore us to the same condition as well and easily from dust and ashes certainly, as from mere nothing. And in m Maxim. Tyr. Dissert, [xvii. § 5. p. AdVnos, /cal 6 irocpbs, /cal 6 ao-oipos. 317 ] TaCra S "EXXrtv Ae7«> /cal 6 f3dp- " Ap. Lactant. vii. 23. [torn. i. p. 577.] 0apos Xeyei, Kal 6 faeipdrr-ns, /cal 6 da- ° L. ii. de Thracib. c. 10. [leg. 2.] »* PREFACE. this and in all the like cases, faith is a submission of the under standing to the word of God, and is nothing else but a confessing that God is truth, and that He is omnipotent; that is, He can do what He will, and He will when He hath once said it. And we are now as ignorant of the essence and nature of forms, and of that which substantially distinguishes man from man or an angel from an angel, as we were of the greatest article of our rehgion before it was revealed; and we shall remain ignorant for ever of many natural tilings unless they be revealed ; and unless we knew all the secrets of philosophy, the mysteries of nature, and the rules and propositions of all things and all creatures, we are fools if we say that what we call an article of faith, I mean, truly such, is against natural reason. It may be indeed as much against our natural reasonings as those reasonings are against truth : but if we remember how great an ignorance dwells upon us all, it will be found the most reasonable thing in the world only to inquire whether God hath revealed any such proposition ; and then not to say, It is against natural reason, and therefore an article of faith; but, I am told a truth which I knew not till now, and so my reason is become instructed into a new proposition. And although Christ hath given us no new moral pre cepts but such which were essentially and naturally reasonable in order to the end of man's creation, yet we may easily suppose Him to teach us many a new truth which we knew not, and to explicate to us many particulars of that estate which God designed for man in his first production but yet did not then declare to him, and to fur nish Mm with new revelations, and to signify the greatness of the designed end, to become so many arguments of endearment to secure his duty, that is, indeed, to secure his happiness by the infallible using the instruments of attaining it. 30. This is all I am to say concerning the precepts of rehgion Jesus taught us : He took off those many superinduced rites which God enjoined to the Jews, and reduced us to the natural re hgion ; that is, to such expressions of duty which aU wise men and nations used; save only, that He took away the rite of sacrificing beasts0, because it was now determined in the great sacrifice of Him self, which sufficiently and eternally reconciled all the world to God. AU the other things, as prayers, and adoration, and eucharist, and faith in God, are of a natural order and an unalterable expression : and, in the nature of the tiling, there is no other way of address to God than these, no other expression of His glories and our needs ; both which must for ever be signified. 31. Secondly; concerning the second natural precept, Christian rehgion hath also added nothing beyond the first obligation, but ex plained it aU : " whatsoever ye would men should do to you, do ye ° Just. Mart. Resp. ad orthod. ad qu. Moreh Nevochim, lib. iii. v. 32. [fol. 83. [p. 473.] Tertul. adv. Marcion. ii. 2. 161.] L% id. lib. v. cap. 1. et passim. ]' Maimon. PREFACE. 25 so to themP," that is the eternal rule of justice ; and that binds contracts, keeps promises, affirms truth, makes subjects obedient, and princes just; it gives security to marts and banks, and introduces an equality of condition upon aU the world, save only when an inequality is necessary, that is, in the relations of government, for the preserva tion of the common 1 rights of equal titles and possessions, that there be some common term endued with power, who is to be the father of aU men by an equal provision, that every man's rights be secured by that fear which naturaUy we shaU bear to Him, who can, and wiU, punish aU unreasonable and unjust violations of property. And con cerning this also, the holy Jesus hath added an express precept of paying tribute, and aU Caesar's dues, to Csesar : in aU other particu lars it is necessary that the instances and minutes of justice be ap pointed by the laws and customs of the several kingdoms and repub lics. And therefore it was that Christianity so weU combined with the government of heathen princes1, ; because whatsoever was natu rally just, or declared so by the political power, their rehgion bound them to observe, making obedience to be a double duty, a duty both of justice and rehgion : and the societies of Christians growing up from conventicles to assemblies, from assembhes to societies, intro duced no change in the government ; but by httle and httle turned the commonwealth into a church, till the world being Christian, and justice also being rehgion, obedience to princes, observation of laws, honesty in contracts, faithfulness in promises, gratitude to benefactors, simphcity in discourse, and ingenuity in aU pretences and transactions, became the characterisms of Christian men, and the word of a Chris tian the greatest solemnity of stipulation in the world. 32. But concerning the general, I consider that in two very great instances it was remonstrated that Christianity was the greatest pro secution of natural justice and equality in the whole world. The one was in an election of an apostle into the place of Judas : when there were two equal candidates of the same pretension and capacity, the question was determined by lots, which naturaUy was the arbitration in questions whose parts were whoUy indifferent ; and as it was used in aU times, so it is to this day used with us in many places, where, lest there be a disagreement concerning the manner of tithing some creatures, and to prevent unequal arts and unjust practices, they are tithed by lot and their fortuitous passing through the door of their fold. The other is in the cenobitic life of the first Christians and apostles : they had aU things in common ; which was that state of nature in which men lived charitably and without injustice before the P Ha;c sententia saepissime a, Severo [Publius Syrus,] _ Imperatore prolata. [Ml. Lamprid. vit. Ab alio exspectes, alten quod feceris. Alex. Sev., cap. 51.] "O M'«"> J<«|8«<1 ' Singulorum interest, si universi re- voiiatis, Tob. iv. 16. Dixit mimus, gantur. ' Nee natura potest justo secerneie iniquum, Dividit ut bona diversis, fugienda petendis.— Hor. 1. l. Sat. 3. |.lin. 11J.J 26 PREFACE. distinction of dominions and private rights, but from this' manner of life they were soon driven by the pubhc necessity and constitution of affairs. 33. Thirdly; whatsoever else is in the Christian law concerns the natural precept of sobriety, in which there is some variety and some difficulty. In the matter of carnality, the holy Jesus did clearly re duce us to the first institution of marriage in paradise, allowing no other mixture but what was first intended in the creation and first sacramental union : and in the instance, He so permitted us to the natural law, that He was pleased to mention no instance of forbidden lust but in general and comprehensive terms of adultery and fornica tion ; in the other, wMch are stiU more unnatural, as their names are concealed and hidden in shame and secrecy, we are to have no in structor but the modesty and order of nature. 34. As an instance of this law of sobriety, Christ superadded the whole doctrine of humility, which Moses did not, and which seemed almost to be extinguished in the world ; and it is caUed by St. Paul sapere ad sobrietatem, the reasonableness or wisdom of sobriety: and it is aU the reason in the world, that a man should think of himself but just as he is ; he is deceived that thinks otherwise, and is a fool. And when we consider that pride makes wars and causes affronts, and no man loves a proud man, and he loves no man but himself and his flatterers, we shaU understand that the precept of humility is an exceUent art and a happy instrument towards human felicity. And it is no way contradicted by a natural desire of honour; it only appoints just and reasonable ways of obtaining it : we are not forbidden to receive honour, but to seek it for designs of pride and complacency, or to make it rest in our hearts; but when the hand of virtue receives the honour, and transmits it to God from our own head, the desires of nature are sufficiently satisfied, and nothing of rehgion contradicted. And it is certain by aU the experience of the world, that in every state and order of men, he that is most humble in proportion to that state is, if aU things else be symbo lical, the most honoured person. For it is very observable, that when God designed man to a good and happy life as the natural end of his creation, to verify this, God was pleased to give him objects sufficient and apt to satisfy every appetite; I say, to satisfy it natu raUy, not to satisfy those extravagancies which might be accidental and procured by the irregularity either of wiU or understanding3 ; not to answer him in aU that Ms desires could extend to, but to satisfy the necessity of every appetite ; aU the desires that God made, not aU that man should make. For we see even in those appetites - Vina sitim sedent, natis Venus alma creandis Serviat : hos fines transiliisse nocet.- — Virg. [al. Basil.— Burman. antholog. vett. lat. epigram, et poem. lib. iii. ep.-85.] 'O liev Tas uirep/SoXds Sitlmiev tuv rfiiwv, auras, /cal fj.-t)Sev Si' erepov diroftawov, f) KaS' \)irep[SoXds, v) Sid npoaipecriv, iced Si' duaXaoTos. Aristot.. [Eth. uic. vii. 8.] PREFACE. 27 wMch are common to men and beasts, all the needs of nature, and aU the ends of creation, are served by the taking such proportions of their objects wMch are ordinate to their end, and which in man we caU temperance, (not as much as they naturaUy can;) such as are mix tures of sexes merely for production of their kind, eating and drink ing for needs and hunger. And yet God permitted our appetites to be able to extend beyond the limits of the mere natural design, that God, by restraimng them, and putting the fetters of laws upon them, might turn natural desires into sobriety, and sobriety into rehgion, they becoming servants of the commandment. And now we must not caU aU those sweUings of appetites natural inchnation, nor the satisfaction of such tumours and excrescencies any part of natural fehcities; but that, wMch does just co-operate to those ends wMch perfect human nature in order to its proper end. For the appetites of meat and drink and pleasures, are but intermedial and instru mental to the end, and are not made for themselves, but first for the end, and then to serve God in the instances of obedience. And just so is the natural desire of honour intended to be a spur to virtue, (for to virtue only it is naturaUy consequent, or to natural and pohtical superiority:) but to desire it beyond or besides the limit, is the swelling and the disease of the desire : and we can take no rule for its perfect value, but by the strict limits of the natural end, or the superinduced end of religion in positive restramts. 35. According to tMs discourse we may best understand, that even the severest precepts of the CMistian law are very consonant to nature and the first laws of mankind. Such is the precept of self-denial, wMch is notMng else but a confining the appetites witMn the limits of nature : for there they are permitted, (except when some greater purpose is to be served than the present answering the particular desire,) and whatsoever is beyond it is not in the natural order to felicity ; it is no better than an itch, -which, must be scratched and satisfied, but it is unnatural. But, for martyrdom itself, quitting our goods, losing lands, or any temporal interest, they are now become as reasonable in the present constitution of the world, as taking unpleasant potions, and suffering a member to be cauterized, in sickness or disease. And we see that death is naturaUy a less evU than a continual torment, and by some not so resented as a great disgrace ; and some persons have chosen it for sanctuary and remedy: and therefore much rather shaU it be accounted prudent and reason able, and agreeable to the most perfect desires of nature, to exchange a house for a hundred, a friend for a patron, a short affliction for a lasting joy, and a temporal death for an eternal hfe; for so the question is stated to us by Him that understands it best. True it is, that the suffering of losses, afflictions, and death, is naturaUy an evil, and therefore no part of a natural precept or prime injunction. But when, God having commanded instances of religion, man wiU not suffer us to obey God, or will not suffer us to live, then the 28 PREFACE. question is, wMch is most agreeable to the most perfect and reason able desires of nature, to obey God, or to obey man; to fear God, or to fear man; to preserve our bodies, or to preserve our souls; to secure a few years of uncertain and troublesome duration, or an etermty of a very glorious condition ? Some men, reasonably enough, choose to die for considerations lower than that of a happy eternity ; therefore death is not such an evil but that it may in some cases be desired and reasonably chosen, and in some be recompensed at the Mghest rate of a natural value : and if by accident we happen into an estate in wMch of necessity one evU or another must be suffered, certainly notMng is more naturaUy reasonable and eligible than to choose the least evU; and when there are two good tilings pro pounded to our choice, both wMch cannot be possessed, notMng is more certainly the object of a prudent choice than the greater good. And therefore, when once we understand the question of suffering, and self-demal, and martyrdom, to tins sense, as all Christians do, and aU wise men do, and aU sects of men do m their several per suasions, it is but remembering that to hve happily after tMs life is more intended to us by God, and is more perfective of human nature, than to hve here with aU the prosperity which this state affords ; and it wiU evidently foUow, that when violent men wiU not let us enter into that condition by the ways of nature and prime intendment, that is, of natural rehgion, justice, and sobriety, it is made, in that case and upon that supposition, certainly, naturaUy, and infaUibly reason able to secure the perfective and principal design of our felicity, though it be by such mstruments wMch are as unpleasant to our senses, as are the instruments of our restitution to health ; since both one and the other, in the present conjunction and state of affairs, are most proportionable to reason, because they are so to the present necessity ; not primarily intended to us by God, but superinduced by evfl accidents and the violence of men. And we not only find that Socrates suffered death m attestation of a God, though he flattered and discoursed himself into the behef of an immortal reward de industria consulted eequanimitatis, non de fiducia compertce veritatis, as TertuUian' says of him ; but we also find that aU men that believed the immortality of the soul firmly and unmovably, made no scruple of exchanging their life for the preservation of virtue, with the interest of their great hope, for honour sometimes, and oftentimes for their country. 36. Thus the holy Jesus perfected and restored the natural law, and drew it into a system of propositions, and made them to become of the family of rehgion. For God is so zealous to have man attain to the end to which He first designed Ihm, that those things wMch He hath put in the natural order to attain that end, He hath bound fast upon us, not only by the order of things by which it was that he that prevaricated did naturaUy fall short of felicity, but also ' [Dc anim. § 1. p. 261.] PREFACE. 29 by bauds of religion ; He hath now made Himself a party, and an enemy to those that wiU not be happy. Of old, religion was but one of the natural laws, and the instances of rehgion were distinct from the discourses, of philosophy. Now, all the law of nature is adopted into religion, and by our love and duty to God we are tied to do aU that is reason, and the parts of our rehgion are but pursuances of the natural relation between God and us. And beyond aU tins, our natural condition is, in aU senses, improved by the consequents and adherences of this rehgion : for although nature and grace are oppo site, that is, nature depraved by evU habits, by ignorance, and un godly customs, is contrary to grace, that is, to nature restored by the gospel, engaged to regular living by new revelations, and assisted by the Spirit ; yet it is observable that the law of nature and the law of grace are never opposed. "There is a law of our members11," saith St. Paul ; that is, an evU necessity introduced into our appetites by perpetual evil customs, examples, and traditions of vanity ; and there is a law of sin, that answers to this ; and they differ only as inclina tion and habit, vicious desires and vicious practices. But then con trary to these are, first, " a law of my mindu," which is the law of nature and right reason, and then the law of grace, that is, of Jesus Christ, who perfected and restored the first law, and by assistances reduced it. into a law of holy living : and these two differ as the other; the one is in order to the other, as imperfection and growing degrees and capacities are to perfection and consummation. The law of the mind had been so rased and obliterate, and we, by some means or other, so disabled from observing it exactly, that until it was_ turned into the law of grace, (wMch is a law of pardoning infirmities, and assisting us in our choices and elections,) we were in a state of defi ciency from the perfective state of man to which God intended us. 37. Now, although God always designed man to the same state which He hath now revealed by Jesus Christ, yet He told him not of it ; and his permissions and hcences were then greater, and the law itself lay closer folded up in the compact body of necessary proposi tions, in order to so much of his end as was known, or could be supposed. But now, according to the extension of the revelation, the law itself is made wider, that is, more explicit; and natural reason is thrust forward into discourses of charity and benefit, and we tied to do very much good to others, and tied to co-operate to each other's felicity. 38. That the law of charity is a law of nature v, needs no other argument but the consideration of the first constitution of man. The first instances of justice or intercourse of man with a second or third person, were to such persons towards whom he had the greatest en dearments of affection in the world, a wife and children ; and justice and charity at first was the same tiring. And it hath obtained in u Rom. vii. 23. v 'O dvBpanros euepyermbs ireipvice. — M. Anton., lib. ix. [Ad fin. p. 109.J 30 PREFACE. ages far removed from the first, that charity is called righteousness, "he hath dispersed and given to the poor, his righteousness remaineth for ever*." And it is certain Adam could not in any instance be unjust, but he must in the same also be uncharitable ; the band of his first justice being the ties of love, and aU having commenced in love. And our blessed Lord, restoring aU to the in tention of the first perfection, expresses it to the same sense, as I formerly observed ; justice to our neighbour, is loving him as our selves. For since justice obliges us to do as we would be done to, as the irascible faculty restrains us from doing evil for fear of receiv ing evil, so the concupiscible obliges us to charity that ourselves may receive good. 39. I shaU say nothing concermng the reasonableness of tins pre cept, but that it concurs rarely with the first reasonable appetite of man, of being like God. Deus est mortali juvare mortalem, atque Iuec est ad ceternam gloriam via, said Pliny? ; and, "It is more blessed to give than to receive," said our blessed Saviour : and therefore the commandment of charity, in aU its parts, is a design not only to reconcile the most miserable person to some participations and sense of fehcity, but to make the charitable man happy ; and whether tins be not very agreeable to the desires of an intelligent nature, needs no farther inquiry. And Aristotle2, asking the question, Whether a man had more need of friends in prosperity or adversity ? makes the case equal : o'l re yap aruxowre? beovrai kniKovpias, ol be evrvxovvres ot»x/3iW, K.al ow ev novr\o-ovo-iv ' when they are in want, they need assistance; when they are prosperous, they need partners of their fehcity, that, by commumcating their joy to them, it may reflect and double upon their spirits.' And certain it is, there is no greater fehcity in the world than in the content that results from the emana tions of charity. And tins is that wMch St. Johna caUs "the old commandment," and " the new commandment." It was of old, for it was from the beginning0, even in nature, and to the offices of wMch our very bodies had an organ and a seat ; for therefore nature gave to a man bowels and the passion of yearning; but it grew up into religion by parts, and was made perfect, and, in that degree, ap propriate to the law of Jesus Christ. For so the holy Jesus became * Psalm exii. 9. « [Eth. Nicom. ix. 11.] y [Nat hist., lib. ii. cap. 7. vol. i. 72.] » 1 John ii. 7, 8. b "AvSpa S3 wcpeXelv dip' Siv "Ex<" re /cal SiWto KaXXurros irSvuv. — Soph. [CEd. Tyr. lin. 314.] Hoc reges habent Magnificum et ingens, nulla quod rapiat dies ; Prodesse miseris, supplices fido lare Protegere. _ Senec. Med. [lin. 222.] Mollissima corda Humano generi dare se natura fatetur, Qua? lacrymas dedit; ha?c nostri pars optima sensus. .Tuv. [Sat. xv. lin. 131.] PREFACE. 31 our lawgiver, and added many new precepts over and above what were in the law of Moses, but not more than was in the law of nature. The reason of both is, what I have aU tins while discoursed of : CMist made a more perfect restitution of the law of nature than Moses did, and so it became the second Adam to consummate that which began to be less perfect from the prevarication of the first Adam. 40. A particular of the precept of charity is forgiving injuries; and besides that it hath many superinduced benefits by way of bless ing and reward, it rehes also upon tiris natural reason, that a pure and a simple revenge does no way restore man towards the fehcity wMch the injury did interrupt. For revenge is a doing a simple evil, and does not, in its formality, imply reparation ; for the mere repeat ing of our own right is permitted to them that will do it by charitable instruments ; and to secure myself or the public against the future by positive inflictions upon the injurious (if I be not judge myseU), is also within the moderation of an unblamable defence, (unless some accidents or circumstances vary the case ;) but forgiving injuries is a separating the malice from the wrong, the transient act from the per manent effect ; and it is certain, the act wMch is passed, cannot be rescinded ; the effect may ; and if it cannot, it does no way alleviate the evil of the accident, that I draw him that caused it into as great a misery: since every evil happening in the world is the proper object of pity, which is in some sense afflictive0; and therefore, unless we become unnatural and without bowels, it is most unreasonable that we should mcrease our own afflictions by introducing a new misery, and making a new object of pity. AU the ends of human fehcity are secured without revenge, for without it we are permitted to restore ourselves ; and therefore it is against natural reason to do an evU that no way co-operates towards the proper and perfective end of human nature. And he is a miserable person whose good is the evfl of his neighbour; and he that revenges, m many cases does worse d than he that did the injury ; in aU cases as bad. For if the first injury was an injustice to serve an end of an advantage and real benefit ; then my revenge, which is abstracted, and of a consideration separate and distinct from the reparation, is worse ; for I do him evU without doing myself any real good; wMch he did not, for he received advantage by it. But if the first injury was matter of mere malice without advantage, yet- it is no worse than revenge, for that is c [AViththis page,cf. Butler, serm.ix.] Tovrqi icaicbv Si' afabv ol/Sev ylyveraf d 'O TipnapSiv tov TrpovTrdp£avTos aSi/coi- _. Tepos. — Maxim. Tyr. Dissert. An refe- 'HiteTs Se xMP!s ™v dvayicaiav koxSiv renda sit injuria. [Diss, xviii. 9. p. 352.] Auto! trap' aura// erepa Trpoo~iropifafi.ev. AviroifjeB' &v titA. prf tis' av elirri KaK&s "kiravra rd f<2' eoTi fiaKapidnara, 'Opyityfieff- dv iSji tis ivinviov, dom just as He did over the Jews. He hath now so given to them and restored respectively aU those reasonable laws which are in order to aU good ends, personal, economical, and political, that if men will suffer Christian rehgion to do its last intention, if men wiU live according to it, there needs no other coercion of laws or power of the sword. The laws of God, revealed by Christ, are sufficient to make all societies of men happy; and over aU good men God reigns bj His ministers, by the preacliing of the word. And this was mostf evident in the three first ages of the church, in wMch aU Christian societies were, for aU their proper intercourses, perfectly guided, not by the authority and compulsion, but by the sermons of their spiritual guides; insomuch that St. Paul sharply reprehends the Corinthians, that "brother goeth to law with brother, and that before the unbelievers ;" as if he had said, " ye wiU not suffer Christ to be your judge, and His law to be your rule :" which indeed was a great fault among them, not only because they had so exceUent a law, so clearly described, (or where they might doubt they had infallible interpreters,) so reasonable and profitable, so evidently concurring to their mutual fehcity; but also because God did design Jesus to be their king, to reign over them by spiritual regiment, as Himself did over the Jews tiU they chose a king. And when the emperors became Christian, the case was no otherwise altered but that the princes themselves, submitting to Christ's yoke, were (as aU other Christians are) for their proportion to be governed by the royal priesthood, that is, by the word preached by apostolical persons ; the pohtical interest remaining as before, save that, by being sub mitted to the laws of Christ, it received tins advantage, that aU justice was turned to be religion, and became necessary and bound upon the conscience by divinity. And when it happens that a kingdom is converted to Christianity, the commonwealth is made a church, and gentile priests are Christian bishops, and the subjects of the kingdom are servants of Christ, the rehgion of the nation is turned CMistian, and the law of the nation mad<- a part of the reli gion; there is no change of government, but ciiat Christ is made king, and the temporal power is His substitute, and is to promote the interest of obedience to Him, as before he did to Christ's enemy; Christ having left His ministers as lieger ambassadors, to signify and publish the laws of Jesus, to pray aU, in Christ's stead, to be recon ciled to God; so that over the obedient Cluist wholly reigns by His mimsters publishing His laws; over the disobedient, by the 34 PREFACE. prince also putting those laws in execution. And in tins sense it is that St. Paul says, Bonis lex non est posita, ' to such (who hve after the Spirit) there is no law ;' that is, there needs no coer cion. But now, if we reject God from reigmng over us, and say, hke the people in the Gospel, nolumus hunc regnare, 'we will not have Him to reign over us' by the mimstry of His word, by the empire of the royal priesthood, then we return to the condition of heathens and persons sitting in darkness ; then God hath armed the temporal power with a sword to cut us off. If we obey not God speaking by His ministers, that is, if we hve not according to the exceUent laws of Christiamty, that is, holily, soberly, and justly in aU our relations, He hath placed three swords against us ; the sword of the Spirit, against the unholy and irreligious; the sword of natural and supervening infelicities, upon the intemperate and unsober ; and the sword of kings, against the unjust ; to remonstrate the excellency of CMistianity, and how certainly it leads to aU the fehcity of man ; because every transgression of tins law according to its proportion makes men unhappy and unfortunate. 43. What effect this discourse may have, I know not; I intended it to do honour to CMistiamty, and to represent it to be the best religion in the world, and the conjugation of aU exceUent tilings, that were in any rehgion, or in any pMlosophy, or in any discourses. For " whatsoever was honest, whatsoever was noble, whatsoever was wise, whatsoever was of good report, if there be any praise, if there be any virtueh," it is in Cliristianity : for even to foUow aU these instances of excellency, is a precept of CMistianity. And metliinks they that pretend to reason cannot more reasonably endear them selves to the reputation of reason, than by endearing their reason to Christiamty ; the conclusions and behef of wMch is the most reason able and perfect, the most exceUent design, and complying with the noblest and most proper ends of man. And if this gate may suffice to invite such persons into the recesses of the rehgion, then I shaU tell them that I have dressed it in the ensuing bocks with some variety : and as the nature of the rehgion is, some part;! whereof are apt to satisfy our discourse, some to move our affections, and yet aU of tlhs to relate to practice ; so is the design of the foUowing pages. For some men are whoUy made up of passion, and their very rehgion is but passion, put into the family and society of holy purposes ; and, for those, I have prepared considerations upon the special parts of the life of the holy Jesus: and yet there also are some tilings, mingled in the least severe and most affectionate parts, which may help to answer a question, and appease a scruple, and may give rule for determination of many cases of conscience. For I have so ordered the considerations that they spend not themselves in mere affections and ineffective passions, but they are made doctrinal, and b Phil. iv. 8. PREFACE. 35 little repositories of duty. But because of the variety of men's spirits and of men's necessities, it was necessary I should interpose some practical discourses more severe : for it is but a sad thought to consider, that piety and books of devotion are counted but entertain ment for httle understandings and softer spirits ; and although there is much fault in such imperious minds that they wiU not distinguish the weakness of the writers from the reasonableness and wisdom of the religion ; yet I cannot but think the books themselves are in a large degree the occasion of so great indevotion; because they are (some few excepted) represented naked in the conclusions of spiritual Ufe, without art or learning, and made apt for persons who can do nothing but beheve and love, not for them that can consider and love. And it is not weU that, since nothing is more reasonable and excel lent in aU perfections spiritual than the doctrines of the Spirit, or holy life ; yet notMng is offered to us so unlearnedly as this is, so miserable and empty of aU its own inteUectual perfections. If I could, I would have had it otherwise in the present books ; for since the understanding is not an idle faculty in a spiritual life, but hugely operative to aU exceUent and reasonable choices, it were very fit that this faculty were also entertained by such discourses which God intended as instruments of hallowing it, as He intended it towards the sanctification of the whole man. For want of it, busy and active men entertain themselves with notions infinitely unsatisfying and unprofitable : but in the mean time, they are not so wise ; for concerning those that study unprofitable notions, and neglect not only that wMch is wisest but that also wMch is of most real advan tage, I cannot but tMnk, as Aristotle did of Thales and Anaxagoras, that " they may be learned, but they are not wise ; or wise, but not prudent, when they are ignorant of such tilings as are profitable to them : for suppose they know the wonders of nature, and the sub tleties of metaphysics, and operations mathematical ; yet they cannot be prudent who spend themselves whoUy upon unprofitable and ineffective contemplations1." He is truly wise, that knows best to promote the best end, that wMch he is bound to desire, and is happy if he obtains, and miserable if he misses ; and that is the end of a happy eternity, wMch is obtained by the only means of living according to the purposes of God, and the prime intentions of nature; natural and prime reason being now aU one with the Christian rehgion. But then I shall only observe, that tiiis part of wisdom, and the exceUency of its secret and deep reason, is not to be discerned but by experience ; the propositions of this philosophy being (as in many other) empirical, and best found out by observa tion of real and material events. So that I may say of spiritual 1 Alb 'Ava^ayipav /cal BaXriv /cal tovs Sav/ncarTd /cal x^677^ Ka' Saifi6via elSe- toiovtovs croipobs fxev, ippovifiovs 8' oi/ vat abrovs ajaaiv, &xpjlo-ra S\ '6ri av Ta ipaaiv elvai, Stuv ISaffiv kyvoovvTas Ta dv8pitiiriva dyaBd frjTovtrtv — Aristot. Eth. v, conquirit, probat, imitatur, et laudat, TIpoSiSoxn walSas iKTeKvovfj.evos XaBpa, quod deus suus in cygno fallit, in tauro ®vr)aKovras dfj.eXe'i' fj.7f o~v */• d\X' e'-n-el rapit, ludit in satyro Scenam de ccelo KpaTtts, fecistis, et crrautes aminos per abrupta 'Aperds Slaixe. Eurip. Ion, [lin. 448.] IMITATION OF CHRIST. 41 and needs of reformation. God, by a voice from heaven, and by sixteen generations of miracles and grace, hath attested the holy Jesus to be the fountam of sanctity, and the "wonderful counsel lor," and "the captain of our sufferings," and the guide of our manners, by being His beloved Son, m whom He took pleasure and complacency to the height of satisfaction : and if any thing in the world be motive of our affections or satisfactory to our understand ings, what is there in heaven or earth we can desire or imagine beyond a likeness to God, and participation of the divme nature and perfections? And therefore as, when the sun arises, every man goes to Ms work, and warms Mmself with his heat, and is refreshed with Ms influences, and measures Ms labour with Ms course; so should we frame aU the actions of our life by His hght who hath sMned by an exceUent righteousness, that we no more walk in dark ness, or sleep m lethargies, or run a gazing after the lesser and imperfect beauties of the mght. It is the weakness of the organ that makes us hold our hand between the sun and us, and yet stand staring upon a meteor or an inflamed. jeUy. And our judgments are as mistaken, and our appetites are as sottish, if we propound to our selves, m the courses and designs of perfections, any copy but of Him, or sometMng hke Him, who is the most perfect. And lest we think His glories too great to behold, 8. Secondly : I consider, that the imitation of the hfe of Jesus is a duty of that exceUency and perfection, that we are helped in it, not only by the assistance of a good and a great example, wMch possibly might be too great, and scare our endeavours and attempts ; but also by its easiness, comphance, and proportion to usj. For Jesus, in His whole life, conversed with men with a modest virtue, winch, like a weU kindled fire fitted with just materials, casts a constant heat ; not like an inflamed heap of stubble, glaring with great emissions, and suddenly stooping into the tMckness of smoke. His piety was even, constant, unblamable, complying with civfl society, without affrightment of precedent, or prodigious instances of actions greater than the imitation of men. For if we observe our blessed Saviour in the whole story of His life, although He was without sin, yet the instances of His piety were the actions of a very holy, but of an ordinary life; and we may observe this difference in the story of Jesus from ecclesiastical writings of certain beatified persons, whose life is told rather to amaze us and to create scruples, than to lead us in the evenness and seremty of a holy conscience. Such are the prodigious penances of Simeon Stylites, the abstinence of the Beli- gs ius retired into the mountain Nitria, but especiaUy the stories of later saints, in the midst of a declimng piety and aged Christendom, where persons are represented holy by way of idea and fancy, if not to promote the mterests of a family and mstitution. But our blessed > Admonetur aetas omnis . . . fieri posse, esse jam facinora destiterunt. — S. Cy- quod factum est j . . . exempla fiunt, quae prian. [ad Donat, p. 5.] 42 EXHORTATION TO THE Saviour, though His eternal ruiion and adherencies of love and obe dience to His heavenly Father were next to infimte, yet in His external actions, in wMch only, with the correspondence of the Spirit m those actions, He propounds Himself imitable, He did so converse with men, that men, after that example, might for ever converse with Him. We find that some saints have had excrescen- cies and eruptions of holiness in the instances of uncommanded duties, wMch in the same particulars we find not m the story of the life of Jesus. John baptist was a greater mortifier than Ms Lord was, and some princes have given more money than aU Christ's family did wMlst He was alive ; but the difference wMch is observ able is, that although some men did some acts of counsel in order to attain that perfection wMch in Jesus was essential and unalter able, and was not acquired by degrees and means of danger and difficulty, yet no man ever did Ms whole duty save only the holy Jesus. The best of men did sometimes actions not precisely and strictly requisite, and such as were besides the precept; but yet in the greatest flames of their shining piety they prevaricated some- thmg of the commandment. They that have done the most tilings beyond, have also done some tihngs short of their duty; but Jesus, who intended Himself the example of piety, did in manners as m the rule of faith, wMch, because it was propounded to all men, was fitted to every understanding; it was true, necessary, short, easy, and inteMgible: so was His rule and His copy fitted, not only with exceUencies worthy, but with compliances possible to be imitated; of glories so great, that the most early and constant industry must confess its own imperfections; and yet so sweet and humane, that the greatest iiifirmity, if pious, shall find comfort and encourage ment. Thus God gave His cMldren manna from heaven; and though it was exceUent, like the food of angels, yet it conformed to every palate, according to that appetite wMch their several fancies and constitutions did produce. 9. But now, when the example of Jesus is so exceUent that it allures and tempts with its facility and sweetness, and that we are not commanded to imitate a life whose story teUs of ecstacies in prayerk, and abstractions of senses, and immaterial transportations, and fastings to the exinamtion of spirits, and disabhng aU animal operations; but a life of justice and temperance, of chastity and piety, of charity and devotion; such a life, without wMch human society cannot be conserved, and by which, as our irregularities are made regular, so our weaknesses are not upbraided, nor our miseries made a mockery ; we find so much reason to address ourselves to a heavenly imitation of so blessed a pattern, that the reasonableness of the thing wiU be a great argument to cMde every degree and minute of neglect. It was a strange and a confident encouragement, wMch k ' O.S ebxifJ-evos toIs Veois fiereupi^ri e'lKd^taBai, dixit Eunapius de Iamblicho. p.ev dirb t^s yrjs wXeov r) Se'/ca Tri)xeis [§ 22. p. 13.] IMITATION OF CHRIST. 43 Phocion1 used to a timorous Greek, who was condemned to die with him, ''Is it not enough to thee that thou must die with Pho cion ?" I am sure, he that is most mcurious of the issues of Ms hfe, is yet willing enough to reign with Jesus, when he looks upon the glories represented without the duty ; but it is a very great stu pidity and unreasonableness, not to hve with Him in the imitation of so holy and so prompt a piety. It is glorious to do what He did, and a shame to decline His sufferings, when there was a God to haUow and sanctify the actions, and a man clothed with infirmity to undergo the sharpness of the passion; so that the glory of the person added excellency to the first, and the tenderness of the person excused not from suffering the latter. 10. Thirdly : Every action of the hfe of Jesus, as it is imitable by us, is of so exceUent merit, that by making up the treasure of grace, it becomes full of assistances to us, and obtains of God grace to enable us to its imitation, by way of influence and hnpetration. For as in the acqMsition of habits, the very exercise of the action does produce a facility to the action, and in some proportion becomes the cause of itself; so does every exercise of the hfe of Christ kindle its own fires, inspires breath into itself, and makes an umvocal production of itself in a different subject. And Jesus becomes the fountain of spiritual life to us, as the prophet Ehsha to the dead child ; when he stretched Ms hands upon the cMld's hands, laid Ms mouth to Ms mouth, and formed Ms posture to the boy, and breathed into him, the spirit returned again into the child at the prayer ' of Ehsha ; so when our hves are formed into the imitation of the hfe of the holiest Jesus, the Spirit of God returns into us, not only by the efficacy of imitation, but by the merit and hnpetration of the actions of Jesus. It is reported in the Bohemian story™, that St. Wenceslaus their king one winter mght going to Ms devotions in a remote church, barefooted in the snow and sharpness of unequal and pointed ice, Ms servant Podavivus, who waited upon Ms master's piety, and endeavoured to imitate his affections, began to faint through the violence of the snow and cold, till the king commanded him to foUow him, and set his feet in the same footsteps which his feet should mark for him: the servant did so, and either fancied a cure, or found one ; for he foUowed his prince, helped forward with shame and zeal to Ms imitation, and by the forming footsteps for him in the snow. In the same manner does the blessed Jesus ; for, since our way is troublesome, obscure, fuU of objection and danger, apt to be mistaken and to affright our industry, He commands us to mark His footsteps, to tread where His feet have stood, and not only invites us forward by the argument of His example, but He hath trodden down much of the difficulty, and made the way easier and fit for our feet. For He knows our infirmities, and Himself hath 1 [Plutarch. Vit Phocion. § 36. vol. iv. m Histor. Bohem. [Dubrav., lib. v. p. 357.] p. 38.] 44 EXHORTATION TO THE 'felt their experience — in aU things but in the neighbourhoods of sin ; •and therefore He hath proportioned a way and a path to our ; strengths and capacities, and hke Jacob, hath marched softly and in evenness with the children and the cattle, to entertain us by the comforts' of His company, and the influences of a perpetual guide. 11. FourtMy: But we must know, that not every tiling wMch Christ did, is imitable by us ; neither did He, in the work of our redemption, in all tilings imitate His heavenly Father. For there are some tilings wMch are issues of an absolute power, some are ex presses of supreme dominion, some are actions of a judge. And therefore Jesus prayed for His enemies, and wept over Jerusalem, when at the same mstant His eternal Father laughed them to scorn ; for He knew that their day was coming, and Himself had decreed their ruin. But it became the holy Jesus to imitate His Father's mercies ; for Himself was the great instrument of the eternal com passion, and was the instance of mercy ; and therefore, in the opera tion of His Father's design, every action of ' His was umvocal, and He shewed the power of His divinity in notMng but in miracles of mercy, and illustrations of faith, by creating arguments of credibility. In the same proportion we foUow Jesus, as Himself foUowed His Father: for what He abated by the order to His intendment and design, we abate by the proportions of our nature ; for some exceUent acts of His were demonstrations of divimty, and an exceUent grace poured forth upon Him without measure was their instrument; to which proportions if we should extend our infirmities, we should crack our sinews, and dissolve the sUver cords, before we could enter tain the instances and support the burden. Jesus fasted forty days and forty mghts ; but the manner of our fastings hath been M aU ages limited to the term of an artificial day, and in the primitive observations and the Jewish rites men did eat their meal as soon as the stars shone in the firmament. We never read that Jesus laughed, and but once that He rejoiced in spirit ; but the declensions of our natures cannot bear the weight of a perpetual grave deportment, without the intervals of refreshment and free alacrity. Our ever blessed Saviour suffered the devotion of Mary Magdalene to transport her to an expensive expression of her rehgion, and twice to anoint His feet with costly nard ; and yet if persons whose conditions were of no greater lustre or resplendency of fortune than was conspicuous in His farmly and retinue, should suffer the same profusion upon the dressing and perfuming their bodies, possibly it might be truly said, " it might better be sold and distributed to the poor." TMs Jesus received, as He was the CMist and anointed of the Lord; and by tins He suffered HimseU to be designed to burial, and He received the oblation as eucharistical for the ejection of seven devfls; far " therefore she loved much." 12. The instances are not many. For however Jesus had some extraordinary transvolations and acts of emigration beyond the lines IMITATION OF CHRIST. 15 of His even and ordinary conversation, yet it was but seldom ; for His being exemplary was of so great consideration, that He chose to have fewer instances of wonder that He might transmit the more of an imitable virtue. And therefore we may estabhsh this for a rule and limit of our imitations; because Christ our lawgiver hath described aU His Father's wiU in sanctions and signature of laws ; whatsoever He commanded, and whatsoever He did, of precise morality, or in pursuance of the laws of nature, in that we are to trace His footsteps ; and in these His laws and His practice differ but as a map and a guide, a law and a judge, a rule and a precedent. But in the special instances of action, we are to abate the circum stances, and to separate the obedience from the effect : whatsoever was moral m a ceremonial performance, that is MgMy imitable ; and the obedience of sacrificing, and the subordination to laws actually in being, even now they are abrogated, teach us our duty, in a differing subject, upon the like reason. Jesus's going up to Jerusalem to the } feasts, and His observation of the sabbaths, teach us our duty in cele- f bration of festivals constituted by a competent and just authority : for that which gave exceUency to the observation of Mosaical rites, was an evangelical duty; and the piety of obedience did not only consecrate the observations of Levi, but taught us our duty in the constitutions of Christianity. 13. Fifthly : As the holy Jesus did some tilings wMch we are not to imitate, so we also are to do some tilings wMch we cannot learn from His example. For there are some of our duties wMch pre suppose a state of sin, and some suppose a violent temptation and promptness to it ; and the duties of prevention, and the instruments of restitution, are proper to us, but conveyed only by precept and not by precedent. Such are aU the parts and actions of repentance, the duties of mortification and self-demal. For whatsoever the holy Jesus did in the matter of austerity, looked directly upon the work of our redemption, and looked back only on us by a reflex act, as Christ did on Peter, when He looked him into repentance. Some states of life also there are, which Jesus never led ; such are those of temporal governors, kings and judges, merchants, lawyers, and the state of marriage : in the course of which lives many cases do occur, wMch need a precedent and the vivacity of an exceUent example, especially since aU the rules which they have have not prevented the subtilty of the many inventions which men have found out, nor made provision for aU contingencies. Such persons in all their special needs are to govern their actions by the rules of proportion, by analogy tp the hohness of the person of Jesus, and the sanctity of His institu tion ; considering what might become a person professing the disci pline of so holy a master, and what He would have done in the like case ; taking our heights by the exceUency of His innocency and charity. Only remember tiris, that in such cases we must always judge on the strictest side of pieiy and charity, if it be a matter con- 46 EXHORTATION TO THE cermng the interest of a second person ; and that in aU tilings we do those actions wMch are farthest removed from scandal, and such as towards ourselves are severe, towards others full of gentleness and sweetness ; for so would the righteous and merciful Jesus have done : these are the best analogies and proportions. And in such case?, when the weUs are dry, let us take water from a cistern, and pro pound to ourselves some exemplar saint the necessities of whose hfe have determined Ms piety to the like occurrences™. 14. But now from these particulars we shaU best account to what the duty of the imitation of Jesus does amount : for it signifies that we " should walk as He walked," tread in His steps, with our hand upon the guide, and our eye upon His rule ; that we should do glory to Him as He did to His Father; and that whatsoever we do, we should be careful that it do Him honour, and no reproach to His institution ; and then account these to be the integral parts of our duty, wMch are imitation of His actions, or His spirit, of His rule, or of His hfe ; there being no better imitation of Him than in such actions as do Him pleasure, however He hath expressed or intimated the precedent. 15. He that gives alms to the poor, takes Jesus by the hand; he that patiently endures injuries and affronts, helps Him to bear His cross ; he that . comforts Ms brother in affliction, gives an amiable kiss of peace to Jesus ; he that bathes Ms own and Ms neighbour's sins in tears of penance and compassion, washes Ms master's feet : we lead Jesus into the recesses of our heart by holy meditations ; and we enter into His heart, when we express Him in our actions : for so the apostle says, "he that is in CMist, walks as He also walked"." But thus the actions of our life relate to Him by way of worsMp and rehgion; but the use is admirable and effectual, when our actions refer to Him as to our copy, and we transcribe the original to the life. He that considers with what affections and lancinations of spirit, with what effusions of love, Jesus prayed, what fervours and assiduity, what innocency of wish, what modesty of posture, what subordination to His Father, and conformity to the divine pleasure, were in all His devotions, is taught and excited to holy and religious prayer ; the rare sweetness of His deportment in all temptations and violences of His passion, His charity to His enemies, His sharp reprehensions to the scribes and pharisees, His ingenuity toward all men, are living and effectual sermons to teach us patience, and humility, and zeal, and candid simplicity, and justice in all our actions. I add no more instances, because aU the foUowing dis courses wUl be prosecutions of tiiis intendment: and the life of Jesus is not described to be like a picture in a chamber of pleasure, only for beauty, and entertainment of the eye ; but like the Egyptian MeroglypMcs, whose every feature is a precept, and the images con verse with men by sense, and signification of exceUent discourses. m [Cf. Barrow, Serm. on 1 Cor. iv. 16 fin.] « 1 John ii. 6. IMITATION OF CHRIST. 47 16. It was not without great reason advised0, that every man should propound the example of a wise and virtuous personage, as Cato, or Socrates, or Brutus; and by a fiction of imagination to suppose him present as a witness, and reaUy to take his life as the direction of all our actions. The best and most exceUent of the old lawgivers and philosophers among the Greeks Jiad an aUay of vicious- ness, and could not be exemplary aU over: some were noted for flatterers, as Plato and Aristippus; some for incontinency, as Aristotle, Epicurus, Zeno, Theognis, Plato and Aristippus again; and Socrates, whom their oracle affirmed to be the wisest and most perfect man, yet was by Porphyry noted for extreme intemperance of anger, both in words and actions : and those Bomans who were offered to them for examples, although they were great in reputation, yet they had also great vices ; Brutus dipped Ms hand in the blood of Oaesar, Ms prince, and Ms father by love, endearments, and adoption; and Cato was but a wise man all day, at night he was used to drink too UberaUy; and both he and Socrates did give their wives unto their friends ; the pMlosopher and the censor were procurers of their wives' unchastity : and yet these were the best among the gentilesp. But how happy and richly furnished are Clrristians with precedents of saints, whose faith and revelations have been productive of more spiritual graces and greater degrees of moral perfections ! And this I call the privnege of a very great assistance, that I might advance the reputation and account of the hfe of the glorious Jesu, which is not abated by the imperfections of human nature, as they were, but receives great heightemngs and perfection from the divimty of His person, of wMch they were never capable. 17. Let us therefore press after Jesus, as Elisha did after Ms master, with an inseparable prosecution, even wMthersoever He goes; that, according to the reasonableness and proportion expressed in St. Paul's advice, " as we have borne the image of the earthly, we we may also bear the image of the heavenly i;" for "in vain are we caUed Christians, if we hve not according to the example and dis cipline of Christ, the father of the institution r." When St. Laurence was in the midst of the torments of the gridiron, he made tins to be the matter of Ms joy and eucharist, that he was admitted to the gates 0 Seneca, Ep. 11. [torn. ii. p. 37.] plina, Grasci Socratis et Romani Cato- p Athenagoras, lib. iii. et xiii. [Legat. nis, qui uxores suas amicis communica- pro Christ. § 17, et passim.] et Theognis verunt, quas in matrimonium duxerant de se. [p. 5.5 ad fin.] Idem testantur liberorum causa et alibi creandorum ; Laertius [In vitis philosoph. passim.] et nescio quidem an invitas ; quid nam de Lactantius. [Div. inst., lib. iii. cap. 14. castitate curarent, quam mariti tam fa- et passim.] Hoc notat S. Cyrillus, lib. cile donaverant? O sapientise atticse, vi. contra Julian, [torn. vi. par. 2. p. 0 romanae gravitatis exemplum ! lenones 185 sqq.] philosophus et censor Tertul. Apol. Narratur et prisci Catonis [cap. 39. p. 31. — Cf. vol. i. p. 85.] Saape mero caluisse virtus. Q 1 Cor. xv. 49. Horat [lib. iii. oil. 21. lin. 11.] 'Dictum Malachiae abbat. apud S, Majorum et sapientissimorum disci- Bernardum, in vita S. Mai. [col. 1939.] 43 EXHORTATION TO THE IMITATION OF CHRIST. tiirough wMch Jesus had entered; and therefore tMice happy are they who walk in His courts aU their days : and it is yet a nearer union and vicinity to imprint His life in our souls, and express it in our exterior converse; and tins is done by Mm only, who (as St. Prosper3 describes the duty) despises aU those gflded vanities which He despised, that fears none of those sadnesses wMch He suffered, that practises or also teaches those doctrines wMch He taught, and hopes for the accomplishment of aU His promises. And tins is truest rehgion, and the most solemn adoration*. THE PBAYEB. 0 eternal, holy, and most glorious Jesu, who hast united two natures of distance infinite, descending to the lownesses of human nature, that Thou mightest exalt human nature to a participation of the divinity ; we, Thy people, that sat in darkness and in the shadows of death, have seen great hght, to entertain our understandings and enlighten our souls with its exceUent influences ; for the ex ceUency of Thy sanctity, sMning gloriously in every part of Thy life, is hke Thy angel, the piUar of fire, which caUed Thy children from the darknesses of Egypt. Lord, open mine eyes, and give me power to behold Thy righteous glories ; and let my soul be so entertained with affections and holy ardours, that I may never look back upon the flames of Sodom, but may follow Thy hght, which recreates and enlightens, and guides us to the mountains of safety, and sanctuaries of hohness. Holy Jesu, since Thy image is im printed on our nature by creation, let me also express Thy image by aU the parts of a holy hfe, conforming my wiU and affections to Thy holy precepts ; submitting my understanding to Thy dictates and lessons of perfection ; imitating Thy sweetnesses and excellen cies of society, Thy devotion in prayer, Thy conformity to God, Thy zeal tempered with meekness, Thy patience heightened with charity ; that heart, and hands, and eyes, and aU my faculties, may grow up with the increase of God, till I come to the full measure of the stature of Christ, even to be a perfect man in Christ Jesus ; that at last in Thy hght I may see light, and reap the fruits of glory from the seeds of sanctity, in the imitation of Thy holy life, O blessed and holy Saviour Jesus ! Amen. s De vita contempt., lib. ii. u. 21. [p. * Religiosissimus cultus imitari.— 67.] Lactant. [Div. inst., v. 10 lin.] THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD AND SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST. PAET I. BEGINNING AT THE ANNUNCIATION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY UNTIL HIS BAPTISM AND TEMPTATION INCLUSIVELY. . SECTION I. The history ofthe conception of Jesus. 1. When the fulness of time was come, after the frequent repeti tion of promises, the expectation of the Jewish nation, the longings and tedious waitings of aU holy persons, the departure of the " scep tre from Judah, and the lawgiver from between Ms feet ;" when the number of Daniel's years was accomplished, and the Egyptian and Syrian Mngdoms had their period; God, having great compassion towards mankind, remembering His promises, and our great necessi ties, sent His Son mto the world, to take upon Him our nature, and aU that guUt of sin wMch stuck close to our nature, and ah that pumshment wMch was consequent to our sin: wMch came to pass after tins manner ; — 2.. In the days of Herod the king, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a holy maid called Mary, espoused to Joseph, and found her in a capacity and exceUent disposition to receive the greatest honour that ever was done to the daughters of men. Her employment was holy and pious, her person young, her years florid and springing, her body chaste, her mind humble, and a rare repository of divine graces. She was full of grace and excellencies ; and God poured upon her a fuU measure of honour, in making her the mother of the Messias : for the "angel came to her, and said, Hail, thou that art MgMy favoured, the Lord is with thee ; blessed art thou among women." II. E 50 OF THE CONCEPTION OF JESUS. [PART I. 3. We cannot but imagine the great mixture of innocent dis turbances and holy passions, that in the first address of the angel did rather discompose her settledness and interrupt the silence of her spirits, than dispossess her domimon wMch she ever kept over those subjects wMcn never had been taught to rebel beyond the mere possibilities of natural imperfection. But if the angel appeared in the shape of a man, it was an unusual arrest to the blessed Yir- gin, who was accustomed to retirements and solitariness, and had not known an experience of admitting a comely person, but a stranger, to her closet and privacies. But if the heavenly messenger did retain a diviner form, more symbolical to angelical nature and more proportionable to Ms glorious message, although her daily employ ment was a conversation with angels, who in their daily mimstering to the saints did behold her chaste conversation, coupled with fear, yet they used not any affrighting glories in the offices of their daily attendances, but were seen only by spiritual discermngs. However, so it happened, that "when she saw him, she was troubled at Ms saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation tins should be." 4. But the angel, who came with designs of honour and comfort to her, not willing that the inequality and glory of the messenger should, like too glorious a hght to a weaker eye, rather confound the faculty than enlighten the organ, did, before her thoughts could find a tongue, invite her to a more familiar confidence than possibly a tender virgin, though of the greatest seremty and composure, could have put on in the presence of such a beauty and such a holiness : and "the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favour with God; and behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt caU His name Jesus." 5. The holy Virgin knew herself a person very unlikely to be a mother; for although the desires of becoming a mother to the Messias were great in every of the daughters of Jacob, and about that time the expectation of His revelation was Mgh and pregnant, and therefore she was espoused to an honest and a just person of her kindred and family, and so might not despair to become a mother ; yet she was a person of a rare sanctity, and so mortified a spirit, that for all tiris desponsation of her, according to the desire of her parents and the custom of the nation, she had not set one step toward the consummation of her marriage, so much as in thought ; and possibly had set herself back from it by a vow of chastity and holy celibate : for "Mary said unto the angel, How shah tins be, seeing I know not a man ?" 6. But the angel, who was a person of that nature which knows no conjunctions but those of love and duty, knew that the piety of her soul and the rehgion of her chaste purposes was a great imitator of angelical purity, and therefore perceived where the philosophy of her question did consist; and being taught of God, declared that SECT. l.J OF THE ANNUNCIATION AND CONCEPTION. 51 the manner should be as miraculous as the message itself was glorious. For the angel told her, that this should not be done by any way, which our sin and the shame of Adam had unhaUowed, by tuning nature into a blush, and forcing her to a retirement from a public attesting the means of her own preservation; but the whole matter was from God, and so should the manner be : for " the angel said unto her, The Holy Ghost shaU come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shaU overshadow thee : therefore also that holy tiling wMch shah be born of thee shaU be caUed the Son of God." 7. When the blessed Tirgin was so ascertained that she should be a mother3 and a maid, and that two glories, like the two lumina ries of heaven, should meet in her, that she might in such a way become the mother of her Lord that she might with better advan tages be His servant ; then aU her hopes and all her desires received such satisfaction, and filled all the corners of her heart so much, as indeed it was fain to make room for its reception. But she, to whom the greatest things of rehgion and the transportations of devotion were made familiar by the assidMty and piety of her daily practices, however she was full of joy, yet she was carried like a full vessel, with out the violent tossings of a tempestuous passion or the wrecks of a stormy imagmation: and, as the power of the Holy Ghost did descend upon her like rain into a fleece of wool, without any obstre- porous noises or violences to nature, but only the extraordinariness of an exaltation; so her spirit received it with the gentleness and tranquillity fitted for the entertainment of the spirit of love, and a quietness symbolical to the holy guest of her spotless womb, the Lamb of God; for she meekly rephed, "Behold the handmaid of the Lord ; be it unto me according unto thy word : and the angel departed from her," having done Ms message. And at the same time the Holy Spirit of God did make her to conceive in her womb the immaculate Son of God, the Saviour of the world Ad SECTION I. Considerations vpon the annunciation of the blessed Virgin Mary, and the conception of the holy Jesus. 1. That wMch sMnes brightest presents itself first to the eye; and the devout soul, in the chain of exceUent and precious tilings which are represented in the counsel, design, and first beginnings of the work of our redemption, hath not leisure to attend the twinkling . qua; ventre beato Gaudia matris habens cum virginitatis honore, Nee primam similem visa es, nee habere sequentem; Sola sine exemplo placuisti fcemina Christo. Sedul. [Carm. Pasch., lib. ii. lin. 66. p. 203.] E 2 52 OF THE ANNUNCIATION, [PART I. of the lesser stars, tiU it hath stood and admired the glory and emi- nencies of the divine love manifested in the incarnation of the Word eternal. God had no necessity in order to the conservation or the heightening His own fehcity, but out of mere and perfect charity and the bowels of compassion sentb into the world His only Son, for remedy to human miseries, to ennoble our nature by an union with divimty, to sanctify it with His justice, to enrich it with His grace, to mstruct it with His doctrine, to fortify it with His example, to rescue it from servitude, to assert it into the liberty of the sons of God, and at last to make it partaker of a beatifical resurrection. 2. God, who in the infinite treasures of His wisdom and provi dence could have found out many other ways for our redemption than the incarnation of His eternal Son, was pleased to choose this, not only that the remedy by man might have proportion to the causes of our ruin, whose introduction and intromission was by the prevarication of man ; but also that we might with freer dispensation receive the influences of a Saviour with whom we commumcate in nature. Although Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, were of greater name and current, yet they were not so salutary as the waters of Jordan to cure Naaman's leprosy. And if God had made the remedy of human nature to have come aU the way clothed in pro digy, and every instant of its execution had been as terrible, affright- mg, and as fuU of majesty, as the apparitions upon mount Sinai ; yet it had not been so useful and complying to human necessities as was the descent of God to the susception of human nature, whereby (as in aU medicaments) the cure is best wrought by those instruments which have the fewest dissonances to our temper, and are the nearest to our constitution. For thus the Saviour of the world became human, aUuring, full of invitation and the sweetnesses of love, exemplary, humble, and medicinal. 3. And if we consider the reasonableness of the tiling, what can be given more exceUent for the redemption of man than the blood of the Son of God ? And what can more ennoble our nature, than that by the means of His holy humamty it was taken up into the cabinet of the mysterious Trimtyc ? What better advocate could we have for us, than He that is appointed to be our judge ? And what greater hopes of reconciliation can be imagmed, than that God, in whose power it is to give an absolute pardon, hath taken a new nature, entertained an office, and undergone a life of poverty, with a purpose to procure our pardon ? For now, though, as the righteous judge, He wiU judge the nations righteously ; yet, by the susception b Cum inter nos et Deum discordiam Nov. Test, in 2 Cor. cap. xv.] peccando fecimus, tamen ad nos Deus c Quod sperare nullus audebat : quod legatum suum prior misit, ut nos ipsi, si forte ' in mentem alicujus incidisset, qui peccavimus, ad pacem Dei rogati poterat asstimare se in blasphemiam in- veniamus.— S. Greg. [vol. iv. par. 2. currisse.— S. Primasius. [In Rom. v. col. 847. Sub nomine Alulfi de expos, p. 21 b.] SECT. I.J AND THE CONCEPTION OF JESUS. 53 of our nature, and its appendent crimes, He is become a party ; and, having obliged Himself as man, as He is God He wiU satisfy, by putting the value of an infinite merit to the actions and sufferings of His humamty. And if He had not been God, He could not have given us remedy ; if He had not been man, we should have wanted the exceUency of example. 4. And till now, human nature was less than that of angels; but, by the incarnation of the Word, was to be exalted above the cheru bims : yet the archangel Gabriel d, being dispatched in embassy to represent the joy and exaltation of Ms inferior, mstantly trims Ms wings with love and obedience, and hastens with tins narrative to the holy Virgin. And if we should reduce our prayers to action, and do God's wiU on earth, as the angels in heaven do it, we should promptly execute every part of the divine wiU, though it were to be instrumental to the exaltation of a brother above ourselves ; knowing no end but conformity to the divine wUl, and making simplicity of intention to be the fringes and exterior borders of our garments. 5. When the eternal God meant to stoop so low as to be fixed to our centre, He chose for His mother a holy person and a maid, but yet affianced to a just man, that He might not only be secure in the mnocency, but also provided for in the reputation of His holy mother : teacMng us, that we must not only satisfy ourselves in the purity of our purposes and hearty innocence, but that we must pro vide also things honest m the sight of aU men, bemg free from the suspicion and semblances of evil; so making provision for private innocence and pubhc honesty: it being necessary, m order to cha rity and edification of our bretiiren, that we hold forth no impure flames or smoking firebrands, but pure and trimmed lamps, m the eyes of all the world. 6. And yet her marriage Was more mysterious ; for as, besides the miracle, it was an eternal honour and advancement to the glory of virgmity, that He chose a virgin for His mother, so it was in that manner attempered, that the Virgin was betrothed, lest honourable marriage might be disreputed and seem inglorious by a positive rejection from any participation of the honour. Divers of the old doctors, from the authority of Ignatius e, add another reason, saying, that the blessed Jesus was therefore born of a woman betrothed and under the pretence of marriage, that the devil, who knew the Mes sias was to be born of a virgin, might not expect Him there, but so be ignorant of the person till God had served many ends of provi dence upon Him. 7. The angel, in Ms address, needed not to go m inquisition after a wandering fire, but knew she was a star fixed in her own orb : he found her at home; and lest that also might be too large a d 'Aya6$ 8' ouSels irepl ovSevos oiiSe- e Origen. Horn. vi. in Luc. [torn. ii. noTe iyyiverai r)s — S. Chrysost. [Horn. viii. in 5. p. 17.] Anno soil, tertio Olympiad. Matt., torn. vii. p. 125.] 04 NATIVITY OF JESUS. [PART I. fiscus, and paid to Augustus an appointed tribute, after the manner of other kmgs, friends and relatives of the Eoman empire ; neither doth it appear that the Eomans laid a new tribute on the Jews before the confiscation of the goods of Archelaus. Augustus there fore, sending special delegates to tax every city, made only an inquest™ after the strength of the Eoman empire in men and momes; and. did Mmself no other advantage, but was directed by Him who rules and turns the hearts of princes, that he might, by verifymg a prophecy, sigmfy and publish the divimty of the mission and the birth of Jesus.2. She that had conceived by the operation of that Spirit who dweUs within the element of love, was no ways impeded m her journey by the greatness of her burden ; but arrived at Bethlehem in the throng of strangers, who had so fiUed up the places of hospitality and pubhc entertainment, that " there was no room" for Joseph and Mary "m the inn." But yet she felt that it was necessary to retire where she might softly lay her burden, who began now to caU at the gates of His prison, and nature was ready to let Him forth. But she that was mother to the kmg of aU the creatures, could find no other but a stable, a cave of a rock", wliither she retired; where, when it began to be with her after the manner of women, she humbly bowed her knees, in the posture and guise of worsliippers, and in the midst of glorious thoughts and Mghest speculations "brought forth her first-born into the world." 3. As there was no sin in the conception, so neither had she pains in the production, as the church, from the days of Gregory Nazianzen untfl now, hath piously believed0; though before Ms days there were some opmions to the contrary, but certainly neither so pious, nor so reasonable. For to her alone did not the prmish- ment of Eve extend, that "in sorrow she should bring forth:" for where notMng of sin was an ingredient, there misery cannot cohabit. For though amongst the daughters of men many conceptions are innocent and holy, being sanctified by the word of God and prayer, haUowed by marriage, designed by prudence, seasoned by temperance, conducted by rehgion towards a just, a haUowed, and a holy end, and yet their productions are in sorrow ; yet tins of the blessed Virgm might be otherwise, because here sin was no relative, and neither was in the principle nor the derivative, m the act nor in the habit, in. the root nor in the branch : there was notMng m tins but the sanctifica tion of a virgin's womb, and that could not be the parent of sorrow, especiaUy that gate not having been opened by wMch the curse m Vide Suidam in verbo dmypaipTi. LXX., sed hanc periodum Judan erase- [col.473.] Dio, lib. lvi. [p. 588.] eTrtfj.il/ev runt ex hebrao textu ; sic et Symma- dXXovs aXXy Ta re tuv ISimruv Kal Ta chus. [Hexapl. Montf., vol. ii. p. 146.] tZv Tr6Xewv [kt^/ihto] aTroypa-tyoixtvovs. &pros SoBftaerai, mystice Bethlehem, sive n Juxta propheticum illud, Esai. xxxiii. Domus panis, indigitatur. 16. ovtos olicr)crei 4v bfr)\$ airi\Xalip ire- ° Vide Waddingum, [§ ii. cap. 36. p. Tpas lirxvpas' apros So6f)a-eTai avT'f, apud 270.] SECT. III.] NATIVITY OF JESUS. 65 always entered. And as to conceive by the Holy Ghost was glorious, so to bring forth any of " the fruits of the Spirit" is joyful, and full of felicities. And He that came from His grave fast tied with a stone and signature, and into the coUege of apostles "the doors being shut," and into the glories of His Father tiirough the sohd orbs of aU the firmament, came also (as the church piously believes) into the world so without doing violence to the virginal and pure body of His mother, that He did also leave her virgimty entire, to be as a seal, that none might open the gate of that sanctuary ; that it might be fulfilled wMch was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, "TMs gate shall be shut, it shaU not be opened, and no man shaU enter m by it ; because the Lord God of Israel hath entered by it, therefore it shaU be shutp." 4. Although aU the world were concerned in the birth of tiiis great Prince, yet I find no story of any one that mimstered at it, save only angels, who knew their duty to their Lord, and the great interests of that person; whom, as soon as He was born, they presented to His mother, who could not but receive Him with a joy next to the rejoicings of glory and beatific vision, seeing Him to be born her son, who was the Son of God, of greater beauty than the sun, purer than angels, more loving than the seraphims, as dear as the eye and heart of God, where He was from etermty engraven, His beloved and His only-begotten. 5. When the virgin mother now felt the first tenderness and yearn ings of a mother's bowels, and saw the Saviour of the world born, poor as her fortunes could represent Him, naked as the innocence of Adam, she took Him, and "wrapt Him in swaddling-clothes;", and after she had a while cradled Him m her arms, she " laid Him in a manger;" for so was the design of His humility; that as the last scene of His hfe was represented among thieves, so the first was amongst beasts, the sheep and the oxen; according to that myste rious hymn of the prophet Habakkuk, "His brightness was as the light; He had horns coming out of His hand, and there was the hiding of His power i." 6. But this place, wMch was one of the great instances of His humility, grew to be as venerable as became an instrument1, ; and it was consecrated into a church, the crib into an altar, where first lay that "Lamb of God," which afterwards was sacrificed for the sins of all the world. And when Adrian the emperor, who intended a great despite to it, bunt a temple to Venus and Adonis m that place where the holy virgin-mother, and her more holy Son, were humbly laid ; even so he could not obtain but that even amongst the gentile inhabitants of the neighbouring countries it was held in an account far above scandal and contempt. For God can ennoble even the ' Ezek. xliv. 2. r Ven. Beda de Locis Sanctis, c. 8. « Hab. iii. 4. In medio animalium [torn. iii. col. 366.] S. Hieron. epist. ccgnosceris. [v. 2.]— Sic LXX. 48. [al. 93.— torn. iv. part. 2. col. 757 sq j II. £ 66 CONSIDERATIONS UPON THE NATIVITY. [PART 1. meanest of creatures, especiaUy if it be but a relative and instrumen tal to rehgion, higher than the injuries of scoffers and malicious per sons. But it was then a temple fuU of religion, fuU of glory, when angels were the ministers, the holy Virgin was the worshipper, and CMist the deity. f£> Ad SECTION III. Considerations upon the birth of our blessed Saviour Jesus. 1. Although the blessed Jesus desired, with the ardency of an inflamed love, to be born, and to finish the work of our redemption, yet He did not prevent the period of nature, nor break the laws of the womb, and antedate His own sanctions wMch He had established for ever. He stayed Mne months, and then brake forth " as a giant joyful to run Ms course." For premature and hasty actions, and such counsels as know not how to expect the times appomted in God's decree, are like hasty fruit, or a young person snatched away in Ms florid age, sad and untimely. He that hastens to enjoy Ms wish before the time, raises his own expectation, and yet makes it un pleasant by impatience, and loseth the pleasure of the fruition when it comes, because he hath made his desires bigger than the tiling can satisfy. He that must eat an hour before Ms time, gives probation of his intemperance or Ms weakness ; and if we dare not trust God with the circumstance of the event, and stay His leisure, either we disrepute the infinity of His wisdom, or give clear demonstration of our own vanity. 2. When God descended to earth, He chose to be born in the suburbs and retirement of a smaU town, but He was pleased to die at Jerusalem, the metropohs of Judea; which chides our shame and pride, who are willing to pubhsh our gaieties in piazzas and the cor ners of the streets of most populous places ; but our defects, and the instruments of our humiliation, we carry into deserts, and cover with the night, and hide them under ground, thinking no secrecy dark enough to hide our shame, nor any theatre large enough to behold our pompous vanities ; for so we make provisions for pride, and take great care to exclude humility. 3. When the holy Virgin now perceived that the expectation of the nations was arrived at the very doors of revelation and entrance into the world, she brought forth the holy Jesus, who, like hght through transparent glass, passed through, or a ripe pomegranate from a fruitful tree, feU to the earth without doing violence to its nurse and parent. She had no mimsters to attend but angels, and neither her poverty nor her piety would permit her to provide other nurses, but herseU did the offices of a tender and pious parent. She kissed Him, and worshipped Him, and thanked Him that He would SECT. III.] CONSIDERATIONS UPON THE NATIVITY. 67 be born of her, and she suckled Him, and bound Him in her arms and swaddling-bands ; and when she had represented to God her first scene of joy and eucharist, she softly laid Him in the manger, tiU her desires and His own necessities called her to take Him and to rock Him softly in her arms : and from tMs deportment she read a lecture of piety and maternal care which mothers should perform toward their cMldren when they are born, not to neglect any of that duty which nature and maternal piety requires. 4. Jesus was pleased to be born of a poor mother, in a poor place, in a cold winter's night, far from home, amongst strangers, with all the circumstances of humility and poverty. And no man will have cause to complain of his coarse robe, if he remembers the swaddling- clothes of this holy CMld ; nor to be disquieted at Ms hard bed, when he considers Jesus laid in a manger ; nor to be discontented at his thin table, when he calls to mind the King of heaven and earth was fed with a httle breast-milk. But since the eternal Wisdom of the Father, who "knew to choose the good and refuse the evil," did choose a Hfe of poverty, it gives us demonstration that riches and honours, those idols of the world's esteem, are so far from creating true fehcities, that they are not of themselves eligible in the number of good things : however, no man is to be ashamed of innocent poverty, of wMch many wise men make vows, and of wMch the holy Jesus made election, and His apostles after Him made pubhc profes sion. And if any man wiU choose and delight in the affluence of temporal good things, suffering Mmself to be transported with caitive affections in the pleasures of every day, he may weU make a question, whether he shaU speed as weU hereafter3 ; since God's usual method is, that they only who foUow Christ here shaU be with Him for ever. 5. The condition of the person who was born is here of greatest consideration. For He that cried in the manger, that sucked the paps of a woman, that hath exposed Himself to poverty and a world of inconveniences, is " the Son of the living God," of the same sub stance with His Father, begotten before aU ages, before the morning stars; He is God eternal. He is also, by reason of the personal union of the Divimty with His human nature, " the Son of God ;" not by adoption, as good men and beatified angels are, but by an extraordinary and miraculous generation. He is "the heir" of His Father's glories and possessions, not by succession, (for His Father cannot die,) but by an equality of communication. He is "the express image of His Father's person" according to both natures; the miracle and excess of His godhead being, as upon wax, im printed upon aU the capacities of His humanity. And after aU this, He is our Saviour; that to our duties of wonder and adoration we may add the affections of love and union, as Himself, besides His ¦ Otei av robs 8av6vTas, Si NiKr)paTe, Tpv(f>r)s aTrdtyifS fieraXafiSvTas iv $l(p, TleQevyivai Tb Betov ws XeXT)B6ras ; — Philem. [apud S.Justin. Martyr. de monarch § 3. p. 38. — Diphilo adsci-ibit Clemens Alex., Strom, v. 14. n. 721.1 f2 68 CONSIDERATIONS UPON THE NATIVITY. [PART I. being admirable in Himself, is become profitable to us. Vere Verbum hoc est abbreviatum1, saith the prophet ; the eternal Word of the Father is shortened to the dimensions of an infant. 6. Here then are concentred the prodigies of greatness and good ness, of wisdom and charity, of meekness and humility, and march all the way in mystery and incomprehensible mixtures; if we consider Him in the bosom of His Father, where He is seated by the postures of love and essential felicity; and in the manger, where love also placed Him, and an infinite desire to communicate His felicities to us. As He is God, His throne is in the heaven, and He fiUs ah tilings by His immensity : as He is man, He is circumscribed by an uneasy cradle, and cries in a stable. As He is God, He is seated upon a super-exalted throne; as man, exposed to the lowest estate of uneasiness and need. As God, clothed in a robe of glory, at the same instant when you may behold and wonder at His humamty, wrapped in cheap and. unworthy cradle-bands. As God, He is encir cled with miUions of angels; as man, hi the company of beasts. As God, He is the eternal Word of the Father, eternal, sustained by Himself, aU-sufficient, and without need : and yet He submitted Him self to a condition imperfect, inglorious, indigent, and necessitous. And this consideration is apt and natural to produce great affections of love, duty, and obedience, desires of union and conformity to His sacred person, life, actions, and laws ; that we resolve aU our thoughts, and finaUy determine aU our reason and our passions and capacities, upon that saying of St. Paul, " He that loves not the Lord Jesus Christ, let Mm be accursed"." 7. Upon the consideration of these glories, if a pious soul shah, upon the supports of faith and love, enter into the stable where this great King was born, and with affections behold every member of the holy body, and thence pass into the soul of Jesus, we may see a scheme of holy meditations, enough to entertain aU the degrees of our love and of our understanding, and make the mystery of the nati vity as frmtful of holy thoughts as it was of blessings to us ; and it may se.ve instead of a description of the person of Jesus, conveyed to us in imperfect and apocryphal schemes. If we could behold His sacred feet with those affections which the holy Virgin did, we have transmitted to us those mysteries in story wMch she had first in part by spiritual and divine infused light, and- afterwards by observation. Those holy feet, tender, and unable to support His sacred body, should bear Him over all the province of His cure, with great zeal for the gaining of souls to the belief and obedience of His holy laws ; those are the feet that should walk upon seas and hiUs of water as upon firm pavement ; at which the lepers and diseased persons should stoop, and gather health up ; wMch Mary Magdalen should wash with tears, and wipe with her hair, and anoint with costly nard, as expres- ' [Verbum breviatum faciet Dominus et cf. Anaclet. epist. ii. cap. 4.] in universo orbe. Esai. x. 23. vers, ant., u 1 Cor. xvi. 22. SECT. III.] CONSIDERATIONS UPON THE NATIVITY. 69 sions of love and adoration, and there find absolution and remedy for !her sins; and which, finally, should be rent by the nails of the cross, '• and afterwards ascend above the heavens, making the earth to be His j footstool. From hence take patterns of imitation, that our piety be j symbolical, that our affections be passionate and eucharistical, full of (love, and wonder, and adoration; that our feet tread in the same .; steps, and that we transfer the symbol into mystery, and the mystery j to devotion, praying the holy Jesus to actuate the same mercies in us 1 which were finished at His holy feet, forgiving our sms, healing our \ sicknesses ; and then place ourselves irremovably, becoming His dis- i ciples, and strictly observing the rules of His holy institution, " sit ting at the feet" of tins our greatest Master. 8. In the same manner a pious person may, with the blessed Virgin, pass to the consideration of His holy hands, wMch were so often lifted up to God in prayer; whose touch was miraculous and medicinal, cleansing lepers, restoring perishing limbs, opening blind eyes, raising dead persons to hfe; those hands which fed many thousands by two miracles of multiplication ; that purged the temple from profaneness ; that in a sacramental manner bare His own body, and gave it to be the food and refreshment of elect souls, and after were cloven and rent upon the cross, till the wounds became after the resurrection so many transparencies and glorious instruments of solemn, spiritual, and efficacious benediction. Transmit this medita tion into affections and practices, "lifting up pure hands" in prayer, that our devotions be united to the merits of His glorious interces sion ; and putting ourselves into His hands and holy providence, let us beg those effects upon our souls and spiritual cures, wMch His ' precious hands did operate upon their bodies, transferring those simi- Uitudes to our ghostly and personal advantages. 9. We may also behold His holy breast, and consider that there lay that sacred heart, like the dove within the ark, speaking peace to us, being the regiment of love and sorrows, the fountain of both the sacraments, running out in the two holy streams of blood and water, when the rock was smitten, when His holy side was pierced : and there, with St. John, let us lay our head, and place our heart, and thence draw a treasure of holy revelations and affections, that we may rest m Him only, and upon Him lay our burdens, filling every corner of our heart with thoughts of the most amiable and beloved Jesus. 10. In hke manner we may unite the day of His nativity with the day of His passion, and consider aU the parts of His body, as it was instrumental in aU the work of our redemption ; and so imitate, and in some proportion partake of, that great variety of sweetnesses, and amorous reflexes, and gracious intercourses, which passed between the blessed Virgin and the holy Child, according to His present capaci ties, and the clarity of that hght wMch was commumcated to her by divine infusion. And aU the members of tins blessed Child, His eyes, His face, His head, aU the organs of His senses, afford variety 70 CONSIDERATIONS UPON THE NATIVITY. [PART I. of entertainment and motion to our affections, according as they served, in their several employments and co-operations, in the myste ries of our restitution. 11. But His body was but His soul's upper garment, and the con siderations of this are as immaterial and spiritual as the soul itself, and more immediate to the mystery of the nativity. TMs soul is of the same nature and substance with ours; in this inferior to the angels, that of itself it is incomplete, and discursive in a lower order of ratiocination ; but in this superior : first, that it is personaUy united to the Divinity, fuU of the Holy Ghost, overrunning with grace, which was dispensed to it without measure ; and by the mediation of this union, as itself is exalted far above aU orders of intelligences, so we also have contracted aUiance with God, teacMng us not to unra vel our exceUencies by infamous deportments : secondly, here also we may meditate, that His memory is indeterminable and unalterable, ever remembering to do us good, and to present our needs to God by the means of His holy intercession : thirdly, that His understandmg is without ignorance, knowing the secrets of our hearts, full of myste rious secrets of His Father's kingdom, in which " aU the treasures of the wisdom and knowledge of God are MddenT :" fourtidy, that His wiU is impeccable, entertained with an uninterrupted act of love to God, greater than aU angels and beatified spirits present to God in the midst of the transportations and ravishments of paradise : that tins will is full of love to us, of humihty in itself, of conformity to God. wholly resigned by acts of adoration and obedience. It was moved by six wings; zeal of the honour of God, and compunction for our sins; pity to our miseries, and hatred of our impieties; desires of satisfying the wrath of God, and great joy at the consideration of aU the fruits of His nativity, the appeasing of His Father, the redemp tion of His bretiiren. And upon these wings He mounted up into the throne of glory, carrying our nature with Him above the seats of angels. These second considerations present themselves to aU that with piety and devotion behold the "holy Babe lying in the obscure and humble place of His nativity. THE PEAYEE. Holy and immortal Jesus, I adore and worsMp Thee with the lowest prostrations and humility of soul and body, and give Thee aU thanks for that great love to us, whereof Thy nativity hath made demonstration ; for that humility of Thine, expressed in the poor and ignoble circumstances which Thou didst voluntarily choose in the manner of Thy birth. And I present to Thy holy humanity, enchased in the adorable divinity, my body and soul; humbly desiring, that as Thou didst clothe Thyself with a human body, Thou mayest invest me with the robes of righteousness, covering ' Col. ii. 3. SECT. III.] CONSIDERATIONS UPON THE NATIVITY. 71 my sins, enabling my weaknesses, and sustaining my mortality, till I shaU finally, in conformity to Thy beauties and perfections, be clothed with the stole of glory. Amen. II. Vouchsafe to come to me by a more intimate and spiritual approxi mation, that so Thou mayest lead me to Thy Father ; for of myself I cannot move one step toward Thee. Take me by the hand, place me in Thy heart, that there I may hve, and there I may die : that as Thou hast umted our nature to Thy eternal being, Thou mightest also unite my person to TMne by the interior adunations of love, and obedience, and conformity. Let Thy ears be open to my prayers, Thy merciful eyes look upon my miseries, Thy holy hands be stretched out to my relief and succour : let some of those precious distilhng tears wMch nature, and Thy compassion, and Thy sufferings, did cause to distil and drop from those sacred fontinels, water my stony heart, and make it soft, apt for the impressions of a melting, obedient, and corresponding love; and moisten mine eyes, that I may, upon Thy stock of pity and weep ing, mourn for my sins ; that so my tears and sorrows, being drops of water coming from that holy Eock, may indeed be umted unto TMne, and made precious by such holy mixtures. Amen. III. Blessed Jesus, now that Thou hast sanctified and exalted human nature, and made even my body precious by a personal uniting it to the divimty, teach me so reverently to account of it, that I may not dare to profane it with impure lusts or caitive affections, and unhaUow that ground where Thy holy feet have trodden. Give to me ardent desires and efficacious prosecutions of these holy effects wMch Thou didst design for us in Thy nativity and other parts of our redemption : give me great confidence in Thee, wMch Thou hast encouraged by the exhibition of so glorious favours; great sorrow and confusion of face at the sight of mine own imperfec tions, and estrangements, and great distances from Thee and the perfections of Thy soul ; and bring me to Thee by the strictnesses of a zealous and affectionate imitation of those sanctities wMch, next to the hypostatical union, added lustre and exceUency to Thy humanity ; that I may hve here with Thee m the expresses of a holy life, and die with Thee by mortification and an unwearied patience, and reign with Thee in immortal glories, world without end. Amen. /"' 72 THE DUTY OF NURSING CHILDREN. [PART I. DISCOUESE I. Of nursing children, in imitation of the blessed Virgin-mother. 1. These later ages of the world have declined into a softness above the effeminacy of Asian princes, and have contracted customs wMch those innocent and healthful days of our ancestors knew not ; whose piety was natural, whose charity was operative, whose pohcy was just and valiant, and whose economy was sincere, and propor tionable to the dispositions and requisites of nature. And in tins particular the good women of old gave one of their instances *; the greatest personages nursed their own chfldren, did the work of mothers, and thought it was unlikely women should become virtuous by ornaments and superadditions of morality, who did dechne the laws and prescriptions of nature, whose principles supply us with the first and most common rules of manners and more perfect actions. In imitation of whom, and especiaUy of the Virgin Mary, who was mother and nurse to the holy Jesus, I shall endeavour to correct those softnesses and unnatural rejections of children, wMch are popular up to a custom and fasMon, even where no necessities of nature or just reason can make excuse. 2. And I cannot think the question despicable, and the duty of meanest consideration, although it be specified in an office of smaU esteem, and suggested to us by the principles of reason, and not by express sanctions of divinity. For although other actions are more perfect and spiritual, yet tins is more natural and humane; other things, being superadded to a full duty, rise higher, but tins builds stronger, and is like a part of the foundation, having no lustre, but much strength; and however the others are full of ornament, yet tins hath in it some degrees of necessity, and possibly is with more danger and irregularity omitted, than actions which spread their leaves fairer, and look more gloriously. 3. First : Here I consider, that there are many sins in the scene of the body and the matter of sobriety, wMch are higMy criminal, and yet the laws of God expressed in scripture name them not; but men are taught to distinguish them by that reason wMch is given us by nature, and is imprinted in our understandmg in order to the conser vation of human kind. For since every creature hath sometMng m it sufficient to propagate the kind, and to conserve the individuals from * Quod si pudica mulier in partem juvet Domum atque dulces liberos, Sabina qualis, aut perusta solibus Pernicis uxor Appuli ; Non me Lucrina juverint conchylia Magis, &c— Hor. Epod. ii. Oin. 39.] SECT. III. J THE DUTY OF NURSING CHILDREN. 73 perisMng in confusions and general disorders, which in beasts we call instinct, that is, an habitual or prime disposition to do certain things, which are proportionable to the end wMther it is designed ; man also, if he be not more imperfect, must have the like : and because he knows and makes reflections upon Ms own acts, and understands the reason of it, that which in them is instinct, in Mm is natural reason, wMch is, a desire to preserve himself and Ms own kind ; and differs from instinct, because he understands Ms instinct and the reasonable ness of it, and they do not. But man, being a higher thing even in the order of creation, and designed to a more noble end in his animal capacity, Ms argumentative instinct is larger than the natural instinct of beasts : for he hath instincts in Mm in order to the conservation of society7, and therefore hath principles, that is, he hath natural desires to it for his own good,- and because he understands them, they are caUed principles, and laws of nature, but are no other than what I have now declared ; for beasts do the same things we do, and have many the same inclinations wMch in us are the laws of nature, even aU wMch we have in order to our common end. But that which in beasts is nature and an impulsive force, in us must be duty and an inviting power : we must do the same tilings with an actual or habitual designation of that end to which God designs beasts, supplying by His wisdom their want of understanding ; and then what is mere nature in them, in us is natural reason. And therefore marriage in men is made sacred, when the mixtures of other creatures are so merely natural that they are not capable of being virtuous, because men are bound to intend that end which God made. And tins, with the superaddition of other ends of which marriage is repre sentative in part and in part effective, does consecrate marriage, and makes it holy and mysterious. But then there are in marriage many duties which we are taught by instinct, that is, by that reason whereby we understand what are the best means to promote the end wMch we have assigned us ; and by these laws aU unnatural mix tures are made unlawful, and the decencies which are to be observed in marriage are prescribed us by this. 4. Secondly : Upon the supposition of this discourse, I consider again, that although to observe this instinct or these laws of nature in which I now have instanced, be no great virtue in any eminency of degree, as no man is much commended for not killing himself, or for not degenerating into beastly lusts ; yet to prevaricate some of these laws may become almost the greatest sin in the world. And therefore although to live according to nature be a testimony fit to be given to a sober and a temperate man, and rises no Mgher ; yet, to do an action against nature is the greatest dishonour and impiety y Naturale jus, partim, rb SUaiov, ira- avBpJnruv filov. — Joseph. Orig. xvi. 10. trie dv8pdnrois bjjjoias . . XvaiTtX4aTaToV [Ant. Jud., lib. xvi. cap. 6. .ad fin. p. partim, ri irpbs KaXoKayaBlav . . Koivbv 724.] drrao-i, Ka\ fj-ivov iKavbv Siaatfeiv Tbv tuv 74 THE DUTY OF NURSING CHILDREN. [PART I. in the world (I mean of actions whose scene hes in the body), and disentitles us to all relations to God, and vicimty to virtue. 5. Thirdly : Now amongst actions which we are taught by nature, some concern the being and the necessities of nature, some appertain to her convenience and advantage : and the transgressions of these respectively have their heightemngs or depressions; and therefore to kiU a man is worse than some preternatural poUutions, because more destructive of the end and designation of nature and the pur pose of instinct. 6. Fourftuy : Every part of this instinct is then in some sense a law, when it is in a direct order to a necessary end, and by that is made reasonable. I say in some sense it is a law ; that is, it is in a near disposition to become a law. It is a rule, without obligation to a particular pumshment, beyond the effect of the natural inordination and obhquity of the act ; it is not the measure of a moral good or evil, but of the natural ; that is, of comely and uncomely. For if in the individuals it should fail, or that there pass some greater obliga tion upon the person in order to a higher end, not consistent with those means designed in order to the lesser end, in that particular it is no fault, but sometimes a virtue. And therefore although it be an instinct, or reasonable towards many purposes, that every one should beget a man in his own image, in order to the preservation of nature ; yet if there be a superaddition of another and higher end, and contrary means persuaded m order to it (such as is holy celibate or virginity m order to a spiritual hfe in some persons), there the instinct of nature is very far from passing obhgation upon the con science, and in that instance ceases to be reasonable. And there fore the Eomans, who invited men to marriage with privileges, and punished morose and ungentle natures that refused it, yet they had their chaste and unmarried vestals : the first, in order to the common wealth ; these, in a nearer order to rehgion. 7. Fifthly: These instincts or reasonable inducements become laws, obliging us in conscience and in the way of rehgion ;. and the breach of them is directly criminal, when the instance violates any end of justice, or charity, or sobriety, either designed in nature's first intention, or superinduced by God or man. For every thing that is unreasonable to some certain purpose, is not presently criminal, much less is it against the law of nature, unless every man that goes out of his way sins against the law of nature : and every contradicting of a natural desire or inclination is not a sin against a law of nature; for the restraining sometimes of a lawful and a permitted desire is an act of great virtue, and pursues a greater reason, as in the former instance; but those firings only against which such a reason as mixes with charity or justice or something that is now in order to a farther end of a commanded instance of piety, may be without error brought, those things are only criminal. And God having first made our instincts reasonable, hath now made our reason and instincts to SECT. III.] THE DUTY OF NURSING CHILDREN. 75 be spiritual; and having sometimes restrained our instincts, and always made them regular, He hath by the intermixture of other principles made a separation of instinct from instinct, leaving one in the form of natural inchnation, — and they rise no higher than a per mission, or a decency, ' it is lawful,' or ' it is comely so to do :' for no man can affirm it to be a duty to kiU Mm that assaults my hfe ; or to maintain my chndren for ever without their own industry, when they are able, what degrees of natural fondness soever I have towards them ; nor that I sin if I do not marry, when I can contain : and yet every one of these may proceed from the affections and first incli nations of nature ; but until they mingle with justice, or charity, or some instance of religion and obedience, they are no laws ; — the other that are so mingled, being raised to duty and religion. Nature inchnes us, and reason judges it apt and reqmsite in order to certain ends ; but then every particular of it is made to be an act of religion from some other principle : as yet, it is but fit and reasonable, not rehgion and particular duty, till God or man hath interposed ; but whatsoever particular in nature was fit to be made a law of religion, is made such by the superaddition of another principle ; and this is derived to us by tradition from Adam to Noah, or else transmitted to us by the consent of aU the world upon a natural and prompt reason, or else by some other instrument derived to us from God, but espe- ciaUy by the Christian rehgion, which hath adopted all those things wMch we caU "things honest, tilings comely, and tilings of good report," into a law and a duty : as appears Phil. iv. 8. 8. Upon these propositions I shaU infer, by way of instance, that it is a duty that women should nurse their own children. For first, it is taught to women by that instinct wMch nature hath implanted in them. For, as Phavorinus2 the philosopher discoursed, it is but to be half a mother to bring forth children, and not to nourish them; and it is some kind of abortion, or an exposing of the infant, which in the reputation of aU wise nations is infamous and uncharitable. And if the name of mother be an appeUative of affection and endear ments, why should the mother be willing to divide it with a stranger? The earth is the mother of us ah, not only because we were made of her red clay, but chiefly that she daUy gives us food from her bowels and breasts; and plants and beasts give nourishment to their off springs, after their production, with greater tenderness than they bare tliem in their wombs : and yet women give nourishment to the embryo, which whether it be deformed or perfect they know not, and cannot love what they never saw ; and yet when they do see it, when they have rejoiced that a child is born and forgotten the sorrows of production, they, who then can first begin to love it, if they begin to divorce the infant from the mother, the object from the affection, cut off the opportunities and occasions of their charity or piety. 9. For why hath nature given to women two exuberant fontinels, z Apud Aul. Gell. [lib. xii. cap. 1. p. 543.] 76 THE DUTY OF NURSING CHILDREN. [PART 1. which, "like two roes that are twins, feed among the lilies3," and drop milk like dew from Hermon, and hath invited that nourishment from the secret recesses where the infant dwelt at first up to the breast where naturaUy now the cMld is cradled in the entertainments of love and maternal embraces0; but that nature, having removed the babe, and carried its meat after it, intends that it should be pre served by the matter and ingredients of its constitution, and have the same diet prepared with a more mature and proportionable digestion? If nature intended them not for nourishment, I am sure it less in tended them for pride and wantonness ; they are needless excrescences and vices of nature, unless employed in nature's work and proper intendment. And if it be a matter of consideration of what blood children are derived, we may also consider that the derivation conti nues after the birth ; and therefore, abating the sensuality, the nurse is as much the mother as she that brought it forth ; and so much the more, as there is a longer communication of constituent nourishment (for so are the first emanations) in tins than in the other ; so that here is first the instinct or prime intendment of nature. 10. Secondly: And that tins instinct may also become humane and reasonable, we see it by experience in many places that foster- children are dearer to the nurse than to the mother, as receiving and ministering respectively perpetual prettinesses of love, and fondness, and trouble, and need, and invitations, and aU the instruments of endearment; besides a vichrity of dispositions and relative tempers by the communication of blood and spirits from the nurse to the suckling, which makes use the more natural and nature more accus tomed. And therefore the affections which these exposed or derelict cMldren bear to their mothers have no grounds of nature or assiduity, but civility and opimonc ; and that httle of love wMch is abated from the foster-parents upon pubhc report that they are not natural, that little, is transferred to mothers upon the same ophrion, and no more. Hence come those unnatural aversions, those unrelenting disposi tions, those carelessnesses and incurious deportments towards their cMldren, wMch are such ill-sown seeds from whence may arise up a bitterness of disposition and mutual provocation. The affection which cMldren bear to their nurses was Mghly remarked in the instance of Scipio Asiaticus, who rejected the importumty of his brother Afri- " Cant. iv. 5. 6 Ilicet exundans claustris erumpere gestit Humor; Si prohibes, furit in mammis, turbasque dolorum Miscet, et ingrata poenas a matre reposcit ; Sponte ftuunt alimenta suis accominoda rebus, Cognatumque bibunt membra haud invita liquorem. Sammarth. Paedotroph. [lib. i. lin. 74 sqq. p. 3.] c Obliteratis et abolitis nativse pietatis amor est, sed civilis et opinabilis. — Pha elementis, quicquid ita educati liberi vor. apud Aul. Gell. [lib. xii. cap. I. amare patrem atque rnatrem videntur, p. 547.] magnam fere partem non naturalis ille SECT. III. J THE DUTY OF NURSING CHILDREN. 77 eanus in behalf of the ten captains who were condemned for offering violence to the vestals, but pardoned them at the request of his fos ter-sister : and being asked why he did more for Ms nurse's daughter than for his own mother's son, gave tMs answer, " I esteem her rather to be my mother that brought me up than her that bare me and for sook me." And I have read the observation, that many tyrants have killed their mothers, but never any did violence to Ms nurse ; as if they were desirous to suck the blood of their mother raw, which she refused to give to them digested into milk. And the bastard-brother of the GraccM, returning from his victories in Asia to Eome, pre sented Ms mother with a jewel of silver, and Ms nurse with a girdle of gold, upon the same account. Sometimes children are exchanged, and artificial bastardies introduced into a family, and the right heir supplanted. It happened so to Artabanus, king of Epirus. His chUd was changed at nurse, and the son of a mean knight succeeded in the kingdom ; the event of wMch was tliis : the nurse too late discovered the treason ; a bloody war was commenced ; both the pre tenders slain in battle ; and the kingdom itself was usurped by Alex ander, the brother to Olympias, the wife of Philip the Macedonian. At the best, though there happen no such extravagant and rare acci dents, yet it is not likely a stranger should love the child better than the mother ; and if the mother's care could suffer it to be exposed, a stranger's care may suffer it to be neglected. For how shall a hire ling endure the inconvemences, the tediousnesses, and unhandsome- nesses of a nursery, when she, whose natural affection might have made it pleasant, out of wantonness or softness hath declined the burden ? But the sad accidents which, by too frequent observation, are daily seen happening to nurse-children, give great probation that this intendment of nature, designing mothers to be the nurses, that their affection might secure and increase their care, and the care best provide for their babes, is most reasonable and proportionable to the discourses of humanity. 11. But as tMs instinct was made reasonable, so in tMs also the reason is in order to grace and spiritual effects; and therefore is among those tilings which God hath separated from the common instincts of nature, and made properly to be laws by the mixtures of justice and charity. For it is part of that education wMch mothers as a duty owe to their children, that they do in aU circumstances, and with aU their powers which God to that purpose gave them, promote their capacities and improve then faculties4. Now in tMs also, as the temper of the body is considerable in order to the inchnations of * Nam Gracchorum eloquentise mul- sapientes Chrysippus optavit — [Ibid. p. turn contulisse accepimus Corneliam ma- 13.] TaXa aXX6Tpiov f3Xaf3epbv, yaXa trem. — Quinct. [Inst, or., lib. i. cap. i. iSiov u serm- iv- de eP>Ph- [P- 28-l 56 HISTORY OF THE ACCIDENTS [PART I. young child, and to bring' him word," pretending that he would " come and worsMp Mm also." 11. The wise men prosecuted the business of their journey, and " having heard the king, they departed ; and the star" (wMch, as it seems, attended their motion) " went before them, until it came and stood over where the young cMld was ;" where " when they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy;" such a joy as is usual to wearied traveUers when they are entering mto their inn; such a joy as when our hopes and greatest longings are laying hold upon the proper objects of their desires; a joy of certainty immediately before the possession : for that is the greatest joy wMch possesses before it is satisfied, and rejoices with a joy not abated by the surfeits of possession, but heightened with aU the apprehensions and fancies of hope and the neighbourhood of fruition ; a joy of nature, of won der, and of rehgion. And now their hearts laboured with a tirrong of spirits and passions, and ran into the house, to the embracement of Jesus, even before their feet : but " when they were come into the house, they saw the young cMld, with Mary His mother." And possibly their expectation was something lessened and their wonder heightened, when they saw their hope empty of pomp and gaiety, the great King^s throne to be a manger, a stable to His chamber of pre sence, a thin court, and no ministers, and the King Mmself a pretty babe ; and, but that He had a star over His head, notMng to distin- gmsh Hhn from the common condition of children, or to excuse Him from the miseries of a poor and empty fortune. 12. This did not scandalize those wise persons; but being con vinced by that testimony from heaven, and the union of aU circum stances, " they feU down and worshipped Him," after the manner of the easterlings when they do veneration to their kings, not with an empty Ave and gay blessing of fine words, but " they bring presents and come into His courts;" for "when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto Him gifts, gold, frankincense, and myrrh." And if these gifts were mysterious1, beyond the acknowledgment of Him to be the king of the Jews, and CMist, that should come into the world ; frankincense might signify Him to be acknowledged a God, myrrh to be a man, and gold to be a Mng : unless we choose by gold to signify the acts of mercy ; by myrrh, "the chastity cf minds and purity of our bodies, to the incorruption of which myrrh is especiaUy instrumental ; and by incense we intend our prayers s, as the most apt presents and oblations to the honour and service of this young king. But however the fancies of religion may represent variety of ideas, the act of adoration was direct and religious, and the myrrh was medicinal to His tender body ; the incense possibly no more than was necessary in a stable, the first throne of His humility : and the gold was a good antidote * S. Ambros. in Luc. ii. 6. [§ 44. torn. L 14.] S.Bernard, in Serm. ii. de Epiph. col. 1296.] S. Leo, Serm. de Epiph. [iv. [col. 77.— Cf. Prudent, cathem. xii. 65.] vi. pp. 29, 31.] Theophyl. in Matt. ii. [p. » Phil. iv. 18 ; Ps. cxli. 2 ; Rev. v. 8. SECT. IV.] HAPPENING ABOUT THE NATIVITY. 87 against the present mdigencies of His poverty : presents such as were used m aU the Levant (especially in Arabia and Saba, to which the growth of myrrh and frankincense were proper) in their addresses to their God and to their kmg ; and were instruments with which, under the veil of flesh, they worshipped the eternal Word ; the wisdom of God, under infant innocency; the almighty power, in so great weak ness ; and under the lowness of human nature, the altitude of majesty and the infimty of divme glory. And so was verified the prediction of the prophet Esay* under the type of the son of the prophetess, " before a child shaU have knowledge to cry, My father and my mother, he shall take the spoil of Damascus and Samaria from before the king of Assyria." 13. When they had paid the tribute of their offerings and adoration, " being warned in their sleep by an angel not to return to Herod, they returned into their own country another way ;" where, having been satisfied with the pleasures of religion, and taught by that rare demonstration wMch was made by Christ how man's happiness did notMng at aU consist in the affluence of worldly possessions or the tumours of honour ; having seen the eternal Son of God poor and weak and unclothed of all exterior ornaments ; they renounced the world, and retired empty into the recesses of rehgion and the dehghts of pMlosophy. " _^^ M SECTION IV. Considerations upon the apparition ofthe angels to the shepherds. 1. When the angels saw that come to pass which Gabriel, the great ambassador of God, had declared ; that wMch had been prayed for and expected four thousand years : and that by the merits of tMs new-born Prince their younger bretiiren and inferiors in the order of inteUigent creatures were now to be redeemed, that men should partake the glories of their secret habitations, and should fiU up those void places which the fall of Lucifer and the third part of the stars11 had made, their joy was great as their understanding ; and these mountains did leap with joy, because the vaUeys were fiUed with benediction and a fruitful shower from heaven. And if at the conversion of one sinner there is jubflation and a festival kept among the angels, how great shaU we imagine this rejoicing to be, when salvation and redemption was sent to aU the world ! But we also, to whom the joy did more personally relate (for they rejoiced for our sakes), should learn to estimate the grace done us, and beheve there is sometiring very extra ordinary in the piety and salvation of a man, when the angels, who in 1 Isa. viii. 4. Justin. M. Dial, cum cont. Marcion. cap. 13. [p. 404.] iVyphon. [§ 78. p. 175.] Tertul., lib. iii. " [Rev. xii. 4.— Milton, P. L. v. 710. | 88 CONSIDERATIONS UPON [PART 1. respect of us are unconcerned in the commuMcations, rejoice with the joy of conquerors, or persons suddenly ransomed from tortures and death. 2. But the angels also had other motions : for besides the pleasures of that joy, which they had in beholding human nature so MgMy exalted, and that God was man, and man was God ; they were transported with admiration at the ineffable counsel of God's predestination, prostrating themselves with adoration and modesty, seeing God so humbled, and man so changed, and so full of charity, that God stooped to the con dition of man, and man was inflamed beyond the love of serapMm, and was made more knowing than cherubim', more estabhshed than tin-ones, more happy than aU the orders of angels. The issue of this consideration teaches us to learn their charity, and to exterminate aU the mtimations and beginmngs of envy, that we may as much rejoice at the good of others as of ourselves : for then we love good for God's sake, when we love good wherever God hath placed it : and that joy is charitable which overflows our neighbours' fields when ourselves are unconcerned in the personal accruements ; for so we are "made partakers of aU that fear God," when charity unites their joy to ours, as it makes us partakers of their common sufferings. 3. And now the angels, who had adored the holy Jesus in heaven, come also to pay their homage to Him upon earth ; and laying aside their flaming swords, they take mto their hands instruments of music, and sing, " Glory be to God on high :" first, signifying to us that the incarnation of the holy Jesus was a very great instrument of the glorification of God, and those divme perfections in wMch He is cMefly pleased to commumcate Hhnself to us were in notMng manifested so much as in the mysteriousness of this work : secondly ; and in vain doth man satisfy himself with complacencies and ambitious designs upon earth, when he sees before Mm God in the form of a servant, humble, and poor, and cjjying, and an infant full of need and weakness. 4. But God hath pleased to reconcUe His glory with our eternal benefit ; and that also was part of the angels' song, " In earth, peace to men of goodwiU"." For now we need not, with Adam, to fly from the presence of the Lord, saying, " I heard Thy voice, and I was afraid, and Md myself;" for He, from whom our sins made us once to fly, now weeps, and is an infant in His mother's arms, seeking strange means to be reconcfled to us ; hath forgotten aU His anger, and is swaUowed up with love, and encircled with irradiations of amorous affections and good wiU : and the effects of tMs good wiU are not referred only to persons of heroical and eminent graces and operations, of vast and expensive charities, of prodigious abstinencies, of eremitical retirements, of ascetical diet, of perfect rehgion, and canonized persons; but to aU " men of good wiU," whose souls are haUowed with holy purposes and pious desires, though the beauties of the religion and holy thoughts were not spent in exterior acts, nor caned out by the opportunities of a rich and expressive fortune. -^ 1 [Cf. vol. iv. pp. 10 and 40, notes.] » [Sic ed. vulg.] SECT. IV.] THE ANGELICAL APPARITION. 89 5. But here we know where the seat and regiment of peace is placed, and aU of it must pass by us and descend upon us as duty and reward : it proceeds from the Word incarnate, from the Son of God undertaking to reconcfle us to His Father ; and it is mimstered and consigned unto us by every event and act of providence, whether it be deciphered m characters of paternal indulgence^or of correction, or absolution. For that is not peace from above, to have all tilings according to our human and natural wishes ; but to be in favour with God, that is peace : always remembering, that to be chastised by Hhn is not a certain testimony of His mere wrath, but to aU His servants a character of love and of paternal provision, since " He chastises every son whom He receives." Whosoever seeks to avoid aU tMs world's adversity, can never find peace ; but he only who hath resolved aU Ms affections, and placed them in the heart of God ; he who demes Ms own wiU, and hath killed self-love, and aU those enemies witirin that make afflictions to become miseries indeed, and fuU of bitterness ; he only enjoys tMs peace : and in proportion to every man's mortification and self-demal, so are the degrees of Ms peace. And tMs is the peace wMch the angel proclaimed at the enunciation of that birth, wMch taught humility, and contempt of tilings below and aU their vainer glories, by the greatest argument m the world, even the poverty of God incarnate. And if God sent His own natural, only-begotten, and beloved Son, m aU the dresses of poverty and contempt; that person is vam who thinks God wiU love Mm better than He loved His own Son, or that He wiU express His love any other or gentler way than to make him partaker of the fortune of His eldest Son. There is one other postern to the dwellings of peace, and that is, " good wfll to men ;" for so much charity as we have to others, such a measure of peace also we may enjoy at home : for peace was only proclaimed to " men of good wiU," to them that are at peace with God and aU the world. 6. But the angel brought the message to shepherds, to persons simple, and mean, and humble ; persons likely to be more apprehensive of the mystery, and less of the scandal, of the poverty of the Messias : for they whose custom or affections dweU in secular pomps, who are not used by charity or humility to stoop to an evenness and considera tion of their brethren of equal natures though of unequal fortunes, are persons of aU the world most indisposed and removed from the understanding of spiritual exceUencies, especiaUy when they do not come clothed with advantages of the world and of such beauties wMch they admire. God himself in poverty, comes in a prejudice to them that love riches, and simplicity is foUy to crafty persons" ; a mean birth u At nos virtutes ipsas invertimus, atque Sincerum cupimus vas incrustare. Probus quis Nobiscum vivit ? multum est demissus homo. Illi Tardo, cognomen pingui damus. 90 CONSIDERATIONS UPON [PART I. is an ignoble stam, beggary is a scandal, and the cross an unanswerable objection. But the angel's moral in the circumstance of his address, and inviting the poor shepherds to BetMehem, is, that none are fit to come to Christ but those who are poor m spirit, despisers of the world, simple in their hearts, without craft and secular designs ; and therefore neither did the angel teU the story, to Herod, nor to the scribes and pharisees, whose ambition had ends contradictory to the simphcity and poverty of the birth of Jesus. 7. These shepherds when they conversed with angels, were "watching over their flocks by night ;" no revellers, but in a painful and dangerous employment, the work of an honest caUing, securing their folds against incursions of wild beasts, wMch in those countries are not seldom or unfrequent. And Christ bemg the great Shepherd, (and possibly for the analogy's sake the sooner manifested to shepherds,) hath made His mimsters overseers of their flocks, distinguished in their particular folds, and conveys the mysteriousness of His lringdom first to the pastors, and by their mimstry to the flocks. But although aU of them be admitted to the mimstry, yet those only to the interior recesses and nearer imitations of Jesus, who are watcMul over their flocks, assiduous in their labours, painful in their sufferings, present in the dangers of the sheep, ready to interpose their persons and sacrifice their hves ; these are shepherds who first converse with angels, and finally shall enter into the presence of the Lord. But besides tMs symbol, we are taught m the significations of the letter; that he that is diligent m the business of an honest caUing, is then doing service to God; and a work so pleasing to Him, who hath appointed the sons of men to labour, that to these shepherds He made a return and recompense by the conversation of an angel; and hath advanced the reputation of an honest and a mean employment to such a testimony of acceptance, that no honest person, though busied in meaner offices, may ever hereafter in the estimation of Christ's disciples become contemptible. 8. The signs wMch the angel gave to discover the babe, were no marks of lustre and vamty; but they should find, first, a babe; secondly, swaddled ; thirdly, lying in a manger : the first a testimony of His humility, the second of His poverty, the third of His incommodity and uneasiness. For Christ came to combat the whole body of sin, and to destroy every province of Satan's kingdom; for these are direct antinomies to " the lusts of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life :" against the first, CMist opposed His hard and uneasy lodgmg ; against the second, the poorness of His swaddling bands and mantle ; and the third is combated by the great dignation and descent of Christ, from a tilrone of majesty to the state of a sucking babe. And these are the first lessons He hath taught us for our imitation ; Simplicior quis ut forte legentem Aut taciturn impellat quovis sermone ? molestus ! Communi sensu plane caret, inquimus. Hor. [Sat, lib. i. 3. lin. 55.] SECT. IV.] THE ANGELICAL APPARITION. 9l wMch that we may the better do, as we must take Him for our pattern, so also for our helper, and pray to the holy CMld, and He will not only teach us, but also give us power and ability. THE PEAYEE. 0 blessed and eternal Jesu, at whose birth the quires of angels sang praises to God and proclaimed peace to men, sanctify my wiU and inferior affections ; make me to be witirin the conditions of peace, that I be holy and mortified, a despiser of the world and exterior vanities, humble and charitable ; that by Thy eminent example I may be so fixed in the designs and prosecution of the ends of God and a blissful etermty, that I be unmoved with the terrors of the world, unaltered with its aUurements and seductions, not ambitious of its honour, not desirous of its fulness and plenty ; but make me diligent in the employment Thou givest me, faithful in discharge of my trust, modest m my desires, content in the issues of Thy providence ; that in such dispositions I may receive and entertain visitations from heaven and revelations of the mysteries and bhsses evangelical; that by such directions I may be brought into Thy presence, there to see Thy beauties and admire Thy graces, and imitate aU Thy imitable excellencies, and rest in Thee for ever ; in tMs world, by the perseverance of a holy and comfortable life, and in the world to come, in the participation of Thy essential glories and felicities, 0 blessed and eternal Jesus ! Considerations of the epiphany of the blessed Jems by a star, and the adoration of Jesus by the eastern 1. God, who is the universal Father of aU men, at the nativity of the Messias gave notice of it to aU the world, as they were repre sented by the grand division of Jews and gentiles; to the Jewish shepherds by an angel, to the eastern magi by a star. For the gos pel is of universal dissemination, not confined within the limits of a national prerogative, but catholic and diffused : as God's love was, so was the dispensation of it, " without respect of persons ;" for aU, being mcluded under the curse of sin, were to Him equal and indif ferent, undistingmshable objects of mercy: and Jesus, descended of the Jews, was also "the expectation of the gentiles," and therefore commrmicated to aU ; the grace of God being like the air we breathe ; and " it hath appeared to aU menx," saith St. Paul : but the convey ances and commumcations of it were different in the degrees of clarity and iUustration; the angel told the shepherds the story of * Tit, ii. 11. 92 CONSIDERATIONS UPON THE EPIPHANY, [PART I. the nativity plainly and literahy ; the star Mvited the wise men by its rareness and preternatural apparition; to which also, as by a foot path, they had been led by the prophecy of Balaam. 2. But here first the grace of God prevents us ; without Him we can do notMng; He lays the first stone in every spiritual buildmg, and then expects, by that strength He first gave us, that we make the superstructures. But as a stone tiirown into a river, first moves the water and disturbs its surface into a circle, and then its own force wafts the neighbouring drops mto a larger figure by its proper weight : so is the grace of God the first principle of our spiritual motion ; and when it moves us into its own figure, and hath actuated and enno bled our natural powers by the influence of that first incentive, we continue the motion, and enlarge the progress. But as the circle on the face of the waters grows weaker, till it hath smoothed itself into a natural and even current, unless the force be renewed or continued ; so does ah our natural endeavour, when first set a-work by God's preventing grace, dechne to the imperfection of its own kind, unless the same force be made energetical and operative by the continuation and renewing of the same supernatural influence. 3. And therefore the eastern magi, being first raised up into won der and curiosity by the apparition of the star, were very far from finding Jesus by such general and indefinite significations ; but then the goodness of God's grace increased its own influence; for an inspiration from the Spirit of God admoMshed them to observe the star, shewed the star that they might find it, taught them to acknow- lege ity, mstructed them to understand its purpose, and Mvited them to foUow it, and never left them tiU they had found the holy Jesus. Thus also God deals with us. He gives us the first grace, and adds the second; He enlightens our understandmgs, and actuates our faculties, and sweetly allures us by the proposition of rewards, and wounds us with the arrows of His love, and inflames us with fire from heaven ; ever giving us new assistances, or increasing the old, refreshing us with comforts, or arming us with patience ; sometimes stirring our affections by the rights held out to our understanding, sometimes bringing confirmation to our understandmg by the motion of our affections, tiU by variety of means we at last arrive at Betirie- hem, in the service and entertainments of the holy Jesus ; wMch we shah certainly do, if we foUow the Mvitations of grace and exterior assistances wMch are given us to instruct us, to help us, and to Mvite us, but not to force our endeavours and co-operations. 4. As it was an unsearchable wisdom, so it was an unmeasurable grace of providence and dispensation, wMch God did exhibit to the wise men; to them, as to all men, disposing the ministries of His grace sweetly, and by proportion to the capacities of the person sus- cipient. For God caUed the gentries by such means wMch their ' Dedit . . intellectum qui pra?stitit signum. — S. Leo, Serm. 1. de Epiph. "p. 26.] SECT. IV. J AND THE ADORATION BY THE WISE MEN. 93 customs and learning had made prompt and easy. For these magi were great philosophers and astronomers, and therefore God sent a miraculous star, to invite and lead them to a new and more glorious light, the rights of grace and glory. And God so blessed them in following the star, to which their innocent curiosity and national customs were apt to lead them, that their custom was changed to grace, and their learmng heightened with inspiration; and God crowned aU with a spiritual and glorious event. It was not much unlike which God did to the princes and divmers among the Philis tines, who sent the ark back with five golden emerods and five golden mice ; an act proportionable to the custom and sense of their nation and rehgion : yet God accepted their ophrion and divination to the utmost end they designed it, and took the plagues of emerods and mice from them. For oftentimes the custom or the philosophy of the opinions of a nation are made instrumental, through God's accept ance, to ends higher than they can produce by their own energy and intendment. And thus the astrological divinations of the magi were turned into the order of a greater design than the whole art could promise, their employment being altered into grace, and nature into a miracle. But then, when the wise men were brought by this means, and had seen Jesus, then God takes ways more immediate and proportionable to the kmgdom of grace; the next time, God speaks to them by an angel. For so is God's usual manner, to bring us to Hhn first by ways agreeable to us, and then to mcrease by ways agreeable to Himseri. And when He hath furmshed us with new capacities, He gives new lights m order to more perfect employments ; and "to Mm that hath shall be given, fuU measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over;" the eternal kindness of God bemg like the sea, which delights to run in its old channel, and to fiU the hoUownesses of the earth wMch itself hath made and hath once watered. 5. TMs star wMch conducted the wise men to Betiriehem (if at least it was properly a star, and not an angel) was set in its place to be seen by all, but was not observed, or not understood, nor its mes sage obeyed, by any but the three wise men. And indeed no man hath cause to complain of God, as if ever He would be deficient in assistances necessary to His service ; but first the grace of God sepa rates us from the common condition of incapacity and indisposition, and then we separate ourselves one from another by the use or neg lect of tMs grace ; and God doing His part to us hath cause to com plain of us, who neglect that wMch is our portion of the work. And. howevei even the issues and the kindnesses of God's predestination and antecedent mercy do very much toward the malting the grace to be effective of its purpose, yet the manner of aU those influences and operations being moral, persuasive, reasonable, and divisible, by con course of various circumstances, the cause and the effect are brought nearer and nearer in various suscipients, but not brought so close 9t CONSIDERATIONS UPON THE EPIPHANY, [rART 1 together but that God expects us to do something towards itz; so that we may say with St. Paul, " it is not I, but the grace of God that is with me :" and at the same time when by reason of our co-ope ration we actuate and improve God's grace, and become distingmshcd from other persons more neghgent under the same opportunities, God is He who also does distingmsh us by the proportions and cir cumstantiate applications of His grace to every singular capacity; that we may be careful not to neglect the grace, and yet to return the entire glory to Goda. 6. Although God, to second the generous design of these wise personages in their enquiry of the new prince, made the star to guide them through the difficulties of their journey, yet when they came to Jerusalem the star disappeared ; God so resolving to try their faith and the activity of their desires ; to remonstrate to them that God is the lord of aU His creatures, and a voluntary dispenser of His own favours, and can as weU take them away as indulge them; and to engage them upon the use of ordinary means and ministries when they are to be had : for now the extraordinary and miraculous guide for a time did cease ; that they, being at Jerusalem, might enqmre of them whose office and profession of sacred mysteries did obhge them to publish the Messias. For God is so great a lover of orderb, so regular and certain an exactor of us to use those ordinary ministries of His own appointing, that He, having used the extraordinary but as arcMtects do frames of wood, to support the arches tiU they be built, takes them away when the work is ready, and leaves us to those other of His designation; and hath given such efficacy to these, that they are as persuasive and operative as a miracle; and St. Paul's sermon would convert as many as if Moses should rise from the grave. And now the doctrines of Christiamty have not only the same truth, but the same evidence and virtue also they had in the midst of those prime demonstrations extraordinary by miracle and prophecy, if men were equaUy disposed 7. When they were come to the doctors of the Jews, they asked confidently and with great openness, under the ear and eye of a tyrant prince, bloody and timorous, jealous and ambitious, "Where is He that is born king of the Jews ?" and so gave evidence of their faith, of their magnanimity, and fearless confidence and profession of it, and of their love of the mystery and object in pursuance of which they had taken so troublesome and vexatious journeys : and z 'AW, '6Tav (TwevSri tis avrbs, x& Bebs o-vvdwTtTai. 'Hs to?s Bavovffl XP^0^ obS'ev wqjeXe?. jEschyl. Pers. [linn. 742, 842.] a Qeov Se Sap6v icrTiv ebrvxttv fipoTotis. ¦Sschyl. [Sept. lin. 625.] 0 Tovro ydp io-Tiv airy Kal -ri ehai crocplav, leal Td£iv, Kal TeXeiiTTfTa. — Hie- troipia, rb 4v rdi\ei Kal TeXeiSTTjTi irpodytiv rocl. [p. 18.] TTfv Trotrjo'iv acre crvveio~ievai aXXr)Xais SECT. IV. J AND THE ADORATION BY THE WISE MEN. 95 besides that they upbraided the tepidity and infidel baseness of the Jewish nation, who stood unmoved and unconcerned by aU the cir cumstances of wonder, and stirred not one step to make enquiry after or to visit the new-born King; they also teach us to be open and confident in our religion and faith, and not to consider our temporal when they once come to contest against our religious interests. 8. The doctors of the Jews told the wise men where Christ was to be born; the magi, they address themselves with haste to see Him and to worsMp, and the doctors themselves stir not; God not only serving Himself with truth out of the mouths of impious persons, but magnifying the recesses of His counsel and wisdom and predes tination, who uses the same doctrine to glorify Himself and to con found His enemies, to save the scholars and to condemn the tutors, to instruct one and upbraid the other ; making it an instrument of faith and a conviction of infidelity; the sermons of the doctors m such cases being like the spoils of beavers, sheep, and silk-worms, designed to clothe others, and are made the occasions of their own nakedness and the causes of their death. But as it is a demonstra tion of the divine wisdom, so it is of human foUy; there bemg no greater imprudence in the world, than to do others' advantage, and to neglect our ownc. "If thou doest weU unto thyself, men will speak good of thee ;" but if thou beest hke a channel M a garden, through which the water runs to cool and moisten the herbs, but notMng for its own use, thou bmldest a fortune to them upon the ruins of thine own house, while, " after thy preacMng to others, thou thyself dost become a cast-away." 9. When the wise men departed from Jerusalem, the star again appeared, and they rejoiced with exceeding great joy : and indeed to new converts and persons in their first addresses to the worsMp of God, such spiritual and exterior comforts are often indulged ; because then God judges them to be most necessary, as being invitations to duty by the entertainments of our affections with such sweetnesses wMch represent the glory of the reward by the antepasts and refresh ments dispensed even m the ruggedness of the way and mcommodities of the journey : aU other dehghts are the pleasures of beasts or the sports of children ; these are the antepasts and preventions of the fuU feasts and overflowings of eternity. 10. When they came to Betiflehem, and the star pointed them to a stable, they entered m ; and being enlightened with a divine ray proceeding from the face of the holy child, and seeing tMough the cloud, and passing tMough the scandal of His mean lodgmg and poor condition, they bowed themselves to the earth; first giving themselves an oblation to this great King, then they made offering of their gifts ; for a man's person is first accepted, then his gift. God first regarded Abel, and then accepted his offering : wlrich we are best taught to c Piaga mortale che si non puo guarire, Vivere in altrui, et in se stesso morire. 96 CONSIDERATIONS UPON THE EPIPHANY. [PART I. understand by the present instance ; for it means no more but that aU outward services and oblations are made acceptable by the prior pre sentation of an inward sacrifice. If we have first presented ourselves, then our gift is pleasant, as coming but to express the truth of the first sacrifice ; but if our persons be not first made a holocaust to God, the lesser oblations of outward presents are like sacrifices without salt and fire, notMng to make them pleasant or religious. For aU other senses of tMs proposition charge upon God the distinguishing and acceptation of persons, against which He solemnly protests : God regards no man's person, but according to the doing of his duty ; but then God is said first to accept the person, and then the gift, when the person is first sanctified and given to God by the vows and habits of a holy life ; and then aU the actions of Ms rehgion are homogeneal to their principle, and accepted by the acceptation of the man. 11. These magi presented to the holy babe, gold, frankincense, and myrrh, protesting their faith of three articles by the symbolical oblation : by gold, that He was a king ; by incense, that He was a God ; by myrrh, that He was a man. And the presents also were representative of interior virtues : the myrrh signifying faith, mortifi cation, chastity, compunction, and aU the actions of the purgative way of spiritual life; the incense signifying hope, prayer, obedience, good intention, and aU the actions and devotions of the iUuminative ; the giving the gold representing love to God and our neighbours, the contempt of riches, poverty of spirit, and aU the emmencies and spiritual riches of the unitive life. And these oblations if we present to the holy Jesus, both our persons and our gifts shaU be accepted, our sms shaU be purged, our understandings enlightened, and our wills umted to tMs holy Child, and entitled to a communion of all His glories. 12. And thus, in one view and two instances, God hath drawn aU the world to Himself by His Son Jesus, in the instance of the shep herds and the Arabian magi, Jews and gentiles, learned and un learned, rich and poor, noble and ignoble ; that in Him all nations, and aU conditions, and aU families, and aU persons, might be blessedd ; having caUed aU by one star or other, by natural reason, or by the secrets of philosophy; by the revelations of the gospel, or by the mimstry of angels ; by the iUuminations of the Spirit, or by the ser mons and dictates of spiritual fathers : and hath consigned tMs lesson to us, that we must never appear before the Lord empty ; offering gifts to Him, by the expenses or by the affections of charity ; either the worshipping or the oblations of rehgion, either the riches of the world d Nam simul terris animisque duri, Nunc ibi ritus viget angelorum, Et sua Bessi nive duriores, Et latet Justus quibus ipse latro Nunc oves facti, duce te, gregantur Vixit in antris. Pacis in aulam. S. Paulinus in reditu Nicetse. [linn. 205, 25. pp. 420, 1.] Mos ubi quondam fuerat ferarum, SECT. V.] HISTORY OF THE CIRCUMCISION, &C. 97 or the love of the soul : for if we cannot bring gold witli the rich Arabians, we may, with the poor shepherds, come and "kiss the Son, lest He be angry ;" and in all cases come and " serve Him with fear and reverence" and spiritual rejoicings. 4 _„#» THE PEAYEE. Most holy Jesu, Thou art the glory of Thy people Israel, and a Hght to the gentiles, and wert pleased to call the gentiles to the adoration and knowledge of Thy sacred person and laws, communicating the inestimable riches of Thy holy discipline to aU, with an universal undistingMsMng love ; give unto us spirits docible, pious, prudent, and ductile, that no motion or invitation of grace be ineffectual, but may produce exceUent effects upon us, and the secret whispers of Thy Spirit may prevail upon our affections, in order to piety and obedience, as certainly as the loudest and most clamorous sermons of the gospel. Create in us such exceUencies as are fit to be pre sented to Thy glorious majesty ; accept of the oblation of myseri, and my entire services : but be Thou pleased to verify my offering, and secure the possession to Thyself, that the enemy may not poUute the sacrifice, or divide the gift, or question the title, but that I mny be whoUy Thine, and for ever ; clarify my understanding, sanctify my wiU, replenish my memory with arguments of piety ; then shall I present to Thee an oblation rich and precious as the treble gift of the Levantine princes. Lord, I am Thine, reject me not from Thy favour, exclude me not from Thy presence ; then shall I serve Thee all the days of my life, and partake of the glories of Thy kingdom, in winch Thou reignest gloriously and eternally. Amen. SECTION V. Of the circumcision of Jesus, and His presentation in the temple. 1. And now the blessed Saviour of the world began to do the work of His mission and our redemption : and because man had prevaricated aU the divine commandments, to wMch aU human nature respectively to the persons of several capacities was obliged, and therefore the whole nature was obnoxious to the just rewards of its demerits; first Christ was to put that nature He had assumed into a saveable con dition by fulfilling His Father's preceptive wiU, and then to reconcile it actuaUy by suffering the just deservings of its prevarications. He therefore addresses Himself to all the parts of an active obedience ; " and when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising _ of the cMld " He exposed His tender body to the sharpness of the circum cising stone, and shed His blood in drops, giving an earnest of those n. 98 HISTORY OF THE CIRCUMCISION, &C [PART I. rivers wMch He did afterwards pour out for the cleansmg aU human nature, and extingmshmg the wrath of God. 2.. He that had no sin, nor was conceived by natural generation, could have no adherences to His soul or body which needed to be pared away by a rite and cleansed by a mystery ; neither indeed do we find it expressed that circumcisione was ordained for abolition or pardon of original sin; it is indeed presumed so; but it was in stituted to be a seal of a covenant between God and Abraham and Abraham's posterity, "a seal of the righteousness of faith," and therefore was not improper for Him to suffer who was the child of Abraham, and who was the prince of the covenant, and " the author and finisher of that faith" wMch was consigned to Abraham in cir cumcision. But so mysterious were aU the actions of Jesus, that tMs one served many ends : for first, it gave demonstration of the verity of human nature ; secondly, so He began to fulfil the law ; tirirdly, and took from Himself the scandal of uncircumcision, wMch would eternally have prejudiced the Jews against His entertainment and communion ; fourtMy, and then He took upon Him that name, wMch declared Him to be the Saviour of the world ; wMch, as it was con summate in the blood of the cross, so was it maugurated in the blood of circumcision : for " when the eight days were accomphshed for circumcising of the chfld, His name was caUed Jesus." 3. But tMs holy family, who had laid up their joys in the eyes and heart of God, longed till they might be permitted an address to the temple, that there they might present the holy babe unto His Father; and indeed that He, who had no other, might be brought to His own house. For although while He was a child He did differ notMng from a servant, yet He was the lord of the place : it was His Father's house, and He was " the Lord of aU :" and therefore " when the days of the purification were accomplished, they brought Him to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord," to whom He was holy, as being the first-born ; the " first-born of His mother," the " only-begotten Son of His Father," and " the first-born of every creature :" and they " did with Him according to the law of Moses, offering a pair of turtle doves" for His redemption. 4. But there was no pubhc act about tins holy child but it was attended by something miraculous and extraordinary; and at tins instant the Spirit of God directed a holy person into the temple, that he might feel the fulfilling of a prophecy made to himself, that he might before his death "behold the Lord's Christ," and embrace " the glory and consolation of Israel, and the light of the gentiles," in his arms : for old " Simeon came by the Spirit into the temple : and when the parents brought m the child Jesus, then took he Him * "Oj ttoB' erjs iraVpijs 4£i)yaye S7ov 'A&pad/j,, Autos air' ovpavoBev KeXtT' dvipa rcavTl crvv oXkic ^Sdpic' diroirvXricral 7rdV0?js &rro' Kal p' 4TeXecra'ev. Euseb. Pra;p. evang. [lib. ix. cap. 22. p. 248.] SECT. V.] CONSIDERATIONS UPON THE CIRCUMCISION. 99 up in Ms arms, and blessed God," and prophesied, and spake glo rious tilings of that child, and tilings sad and glorious concerning His mother ; that the " child was set for the rising and falling of many m Israel, for a sign that should be spoken against :" and the bitterness of that contradiction should pierce the heart of the holy Virgin-mother hke a sword, that her joy at the present accidents might be tempered with present revelation of her future trouble, and the exceUent favour of being the mother of God might be crowned with the reward of martyrdom, and a mother's love be raised up to an exceUency great enough to make her suffer the bitterness of being transfixed with His love and sorrow, as with a sword. 5. But old Anna the prophetess came also in, fuU of years and joy, and found the reward of her long prayers and fasting in the temple: the long looked-for redemption of Israel was now in the temple, and she saw with her eyes the hght of the world, the heir of heaven, the long lopked-for Messias, whom the nations had desired and expected till their hearts were faint and their eyes dim with looking farther and apprehending greater distances. She also pro phesied, "and gave thanks unto the Lord. But Joseph and His mother marvelled at those things which were spoken of Him." Ad SECTION V. Considerations upon the circumcision ofthe holy child Jesus. 1. When eight days were come, the holy Jesus was circumcised, and shed the first frmts of His blood ; offering them to God like the prelibation of a sacrifice, and earnest of the great seas of effusion designed for His passion, not for the expiation of any stain Himself had contracted; for He was spotless as the face of the sun, and had contracted no wrinkle from the aged and poUuted brow of Adam : but it was an act of obedience, and yet of choice and voluntary sus- eeption, to winch no obligation had passed upon Him in the condition of His own person. For as He was included in the verge of Abraham's posterity, and had put on the common outside of His nation, His parents had intimation enough to pass upon Him the sacrament of the national covenant, and it became an act of excellent obedience : but because He was a person extraordinary, and exempt from the reasons of circumcision, and Himseri in person was to give period to the rite, therefore it was an act of choice in Him, and in both the capacities becomes a precedent of duty to us ; in the first, of obedience; in the second, of humility. 2. But it is considerable, that the holy Jesus, who might have pleaded His exemption, especiaUy in a matter of pain and dishonour, yet chose that way which was more severe and regular ; so teaching h 2 IOO CONSIDERATIONS UPON THE CIRCUMCISION. [PART I, us to be strict in our duties, and sparing in the rights of privflege and dispensation. We pretend every indisposition of body to excuse us from penal duties, from fasting, from going to church ; and instantly we satisfy ourselves with saying, " God will have mercy, and not sacrifice ;" so making ourselves judges of our own privileges, in wMch commonly we are parties against God, and therefore likely to pass unequal sentence. It is not an easy argument that will bring us to the severities and rigours of duty ; but we snatch at occasions of dispensation, and therefore possibly may mistake the justice of the opportunities by the importunities of our desires. However, if this too much easiness be in any case excusable from sin, yet in aU cases it is an argument of infirmity, and the regular observation of the com mandment is the surer way to perfection. For not every inconvenience * of body is fit to be pleaded against the inconvemence of losing spiritual advantages, but only such wlrich upon prudent account does intrench upon the laws of charity ; or such whose consequent is likely to be [ impediment of a duty in a greater degree of loss than the present '. omission. For the spirit being in many perfections more eminent ) than the body, aU spiritual improvements have the same proportions ; S so that if we were just estimators of things, it ought not to be less than a great incommodity to the body wlrich we mean to prevent by the i loss of a spiritual benefit, or the omission of a duty : he were very \ improvident who would lose a finger for the good husbandry of saving \ a ducat ; . and it would be an unhandsome excuse from the duties of ^repentance, to pretend care of the body. The proportions and degrees [of this are so Mee and of so difficult determination, that men are more ;apt to untie the girdle of discipline with the loose hands of dispensation land excuse, than to strain her too hard by the strictures and bindings !of severity ; but the error were the surer on this side. 3. The blessed Jesus refused not the signature of this bloody covenant, though it were the character of a sinner; and did sacra- mentaUy rescind the impure reliques of Adam, and the contractions of evil customs ; wMch was the greatest descent of humility that is imaginable, that He should put Himself to pain to be reckoned amongst sinners, and to have their sacraments and their protesta tions, though His innocence was purer than the flames of cherubim. But we use arts to seem more righteous than we are, desiring rather to be counted holy than to be so, as tirinking the vamty of reputa tion more useful to us than the happiness of a remote and far distant eternity. But if (as it is said) circumcision was ordained, besides the signing of the covenant, to abolish the guilt of original sin, we are willing to confess that; it being no act of humiliation to confess a crime that aU the world is equally guilty of, that could not be avoided by our timeliest industry, and that serves us for so many ends in the excuse and minoration of our actual impieties : so that, as Diogenes trampled upon Plato's pride with a greater fastuousness and humorous ostentation; so we do with original sin, declaim SECT. V.] CONSIDERATIONS UPON THE CIRCUMCISION. 101 against it bitterly to save the others harmless, and are free in the publication of this, that we may be instructed how to conceal the actual. The blessed Jesus had M Him no principle of sin, original nor actual; and therefore tMs designation of His, m submitting Himself to the bloody covenant of circumcision, which was a just express and sacramental abscission of it, was an act of glorious humi- hty ; yet our charging of ourselves so promptly with Adam's fault, whatever truth it may have in the strictness of theology, hath (forsi- tan) but an ril end m morality ; and so I now consider it, without any reflection upon the precise question. 4. For though the fall of Adam lost to Mm all those supernatural assistances wMch God put into our nature by way of grace, yet it is by accident that we are more prone to many sins than we are to virtue. Adam's sin did discompose Ms understandmg and affections ; and every sin we do does stril make us more unreasonable, more violent, more sensual, more apt stiU to the multiplication of the same or the like actions : the first rebellion of the inferior faculties against the wiU and understanding, and every victory the flesh gets over the spirit, makes the inferior insolent, strong, tumultuous, domineering, and triumphant upon the proportionable rmns of the spirit ; bhndmg our reason and bindmg our wiU; and aU these violations of our powers are increased by the perpetual ril customs and false principles and ridiculous gmses of the world, which make the later ages to be worse than the former*, unless some other accident do intervene to stop the rum and declension of virtue ; such as are God's judgments, the sending of prophets, new imposition of laws, messages from heaven, diviner Mstitutions, such as in particular was the great dis cipline of Christiamty. And even in tMs sense here is origination enough for sin and rinpairing of the reasonable faculties of human souls, without charging our faults upon Adam. 5. But besides tMs, God, who hath propounded to man glorious conditions, and designed Mm to an exceUent state of immortality, hath reqmred of him such a duty as shaU put man to labour, and present to God a service of a free and difficult obedience : for there fore God hath given us laws which come cross and are restraints to our natural inclinations, that we may part with something in the service of God wMch we value; for although tMs is notMng in respect of God, yet to man it is the greatest he can do. What thanks were it to man to obey God in such things wMch he would do though he were not commanded ? But to leave aU our own desires, and to take up objects of God's propounding contrary to our own, and desires against our nature, tMs is that wMch God designed as a sacrifice of ourselves to Him ; and therefore God hath made many of His laws to be proMbitions in the matter of natural pleasure, and f Toils traXaiobs Kal 4yybs Be&v yeyo- vofn'i^eaBai. — Porphyr. De non esu ani- j/oVas, fSeXTio-Tovs Te ivTas ipvtret, Kal to' Ephes. ii. 3. veiv Tobs vir' ineivov [©eoC] SioptaBevTas SECT. V.] CONSIDERATIONS UPON THE CIRCUMCISION. 103 premises we shaU observe, in order to practice, that sin creeps upon us M our education so tacitly and undiscernibly1 that we mistake the cause of it, and yet so prevalently and effectuaUy that we judge it to be our very nature, and charge it upon Adam, to lessen the imputa tion upon us, or to Mcrease the hcence or the confidence, when every one of us is the Adam, the " man of sin," and the parent of our own rinpurities. For it is notorious that our own imquities do so discom pose our naturals, and evil customs and examples do so encourage impiety, and the law of God enjoins such virtues wMch do violence to nature, that our prochvity to sin is occasioned by the accident, and is caused by ourselves ; whatever miscMef Adam did to us, we do more to ourselvesk. We are taught to be revengeful in our cradles, and are taught to strike our neighbour as a means to still our frowardness and to satisfy our wranglings. Our nurses teach us to know the greatness of our birth, or the riches of our inheritance ; or they learn us to be proud, or to be impatient, before they learn us to know God, or to say our prayers : and then, because the use of reason comes at no definite trine, but msensibly and divisibly, we are permitted such acts with impumty too long; deferring to repute them to be sins, till the habit is grown strong, natural, and mascu line. And because from the infancy it began in inclinations, and tender overtures, and slighter actions, Adam is laid in the fault, and original sin did aU: and this clearly we therefore confess1, that our faults may seem the less, and the misery be pretended natural, that it may be thought to be irremediable, and therefore we not engaged to endeavour a cure; so that the confession of our original sin is no imitation of Christ's humility M suffering circumcision, but too often an act of pride, carelessness, ignorance, and security. 8. At the circumcision, His parents imposed the holy name told to the Virgin by the angel, "His name was caUed Jesus;" a name 1 Nee enim nos tarditatis natura dam- tt\v ifivxbv exovja o-irovSaiav, TavWr\v ydp navit, sed . . ultra nobis quam oportebat eKdinov elvaiSaifuiva. — Aristot. Top. [lib. indulsimus : ita non tarn ingenio illi nos ii. cap. 6. torn. J. p. 112J superarunt quam proposito.— Quinctil. 'HpdicXeiTos tyy, is t)Bos avBpdnrip Sai- [Inst. or., lib. ii. cap. 5. torn. i. p._153.] fiiov.— Stob. [Tit. civ, 23. torn. m. p. ZevoKpdTTjS <()r]0'lv, evSaifiova. elvai Tbv 351.] k Denique teipsum Concute, num qua tibi vitiorum inseverit olim Natura, aut etiam consuetudo mala : namque Neglectis urenda filix innascitur agris. Hor. [Sat, lib. i. 3. lin. 34.] A.nte palatum eorum quam os institu- guantur a natura dati, exorianturque el imus; . . . gaudemus, si quid licentius confirmentur contraria vitia.— Cic. [De dixerint; verba ne Alexandrinis quidem legg., lib. i. cap. 12. torn. iii. p. 125.] permittenda deliciis risu et osculo exci- ' ZlaBacri yap oi irXe"u7Toi tZv avBpdi- pimus : . . fit ex his consuetudo, deinde nuv o\>x oSras 4-iraiveiv Kal Tifmv tovs 4k natura ; discunt hsec miseri, antequam tw Tfarepaiv t&v evSoKifjovvrav yeyovi- sciunt 'vitia esse.— Quinctil. [Inst, or., Tas, as Tabs 4k t&v Svo-k6x.uv Kal xoAe- lib i cap. 2. torn. i. p. 26.] ™v, fyvep epaivuvrai /iijSei' '6/j.oioi to'is Tanta est corruptela malse consuetu- yovevaiv ovres.— Isocr. [Ep. ad Timoth. dinis, ut ab ea tanquam igniculi extin- § 3. p. (.05.] 104 CONSIDERATIONS UPON THE CIRCUMCISION. [PART 1. above every name. For in old times, God was known by names of power, of nature, of majesty; but His name of mercy was reserved tiU now, when God did purpose to pour out the whole treasure of His mercy by the mediation and ministry of His holy Son. And because God gave to the holy babe the name in wMch the treasures of mercy were deposited, and exalted " tMs name above aU names," we are taught that the purpose of His counsel was, to exalt and magnify His mercy above aU His other works ; He being delighted with tMs exceUent demonstration of it, in the mission, and manifes tation, and crucifixion of His Son, He hath changed the ineffable name into a name utterable by man, and desirable by aU the world; the majesty is aU arrayed m robes of mercy, the tetragrammatonm, or adorable mystery of the patriarchs, is made fit for pronunciation and expression, when it becometh the name of the Lord's Christ. And if Jehovah be full of majesty and terror, the name Jesus is full of sweetness and mercy; it is God clothed with circumstances of facility, and opportumties of approximation. The great and Mghest name of God could not be pronounced truly, tril it came to be finished with a guttural, that made up the name given by this angel to the holy child ; nor God received or entertained by men, tiU He was made human and sensible by the adoption of a sensitive nature, hke vowels pronunciable by the intertexture of a consonant. Thus was His person made tangible, and His name utterable, and His mercy brought home to our necessities, and the mystery made expli cate, at the circumcision of tMs holy babe. 9. But now God's mercy was at full sea, now was the time when God made no reserves to the effusion of His mercy. For to the patriarchs and persons of eminent sanctity and employment in the elder ages of the world, God, according to the decrees of His mani festation or present purpose, would give them one letter of tMs ineffable name. For the reward that Abraham had in the change of Ms name, was that he had the honour done Mm to have one of the letters of Jehovah put into it ; and so had Joshua, when he was a type of CMist, and the prince of the Israelitish armies : and when God took away11 one of these letters, it was a curse. But now He communicated aU the whole name to tMs holy child, and put a letter more to it, to signify that He was the glory of God, " the express image of His Father's person," God eternal; and then manifested to the world in His humanity, that aU the intelligent world, who expected beatitude and had treasured aU their hopes in the ineffable m Nomen enim Jesu hebraice prola- apud Galatinum. [lib. ii. cap. 10 sq. turn nihil aliud est nisi TerpaypdfxpaTov col. 74 sqq.] Ad eundem sensum fuit vocatum per Schin. Videat, cui animus vaticinium Sibylla?, [lib. i. prop. fin. p. est, multa de mysterio hujus nominis 12 A.] A7; -roVe /cal fieydXoio Qeov irais dvBpwTroitriv "H£ei (TapKO. — Hierocl. [p. 24.] Ttrrapa fieprf SieX6[j.evoi, fxavTLKTjv p.ev oXiytp tovto' Sti ov aoijiia iroioiev a iroi- SECT. V.] OF MEDITATION. 141 the suburbs of beatifical apprehensions : but whether or no tMs be any tiring besides a too intense and indiscreet pressure of the faculties of the soul to Mconvemences of understanding, or else a credulous, busy, and untamed fancy, they that tirink best of it cannot give a certainty. There are, and have been, some religious, who have acted madness, and pretended inspirations ; and when these are destitute of a pro phetic spirit, if they resolve to serve themselves upon the pretences of it, they are disposed to the imitation, if not to the sufferings, of madness : and it would be a great foUy to caU such Dei plenos, full of God, who are no better than fantastic and mad people. 23. TMs we are sure of, that many illusions have come in the like ness of visions, and absurd fancies under the pretence of raptures ; and what some have caUed the spirit of prophecy, hath been the spirit of lying : and contemplation hath been notiring but melancholy and unnatural lengths; and stiUness of prayer hath been a mere dream and hypochondriacal devotion, and hath ended M pride or despair, or some sottish and dangerous temptation. It is reported of Heron the monk, that having rived a retired, mortified, and religious life for many years together, at last he came to that habit of austerity or singularity that he refused the festival refection and freer meals of Easter and other solemMties, that he might do more eminently than the rest, and spend Ms time in greater abstractions and contemplations; but the devil, taking advantage of the weakness of Ms melancholy and unsettled spirit, gave Mm a transportation and an ecstasy, in wMch he fancied himself to have attained so great perfection that he was as dear to God as a crowned martyr, and angels would be Ms security for Mdermrity, though he tlirew Mmself to the bottom of a weU. He obeyed Ms fancy and temptation, did so, brMsed himself to death, and died possessed with a persuasion of the verity of that ecstasy and transportation. 24. I will not say that all violences and extravagances of a religious fancy are illusions, but I say that they are aU unnatural, not haUowed by the warrant of a revelation, nothing reasonable, notMng secure ; I am not sure that they ever consist with humility; but it is con fessed that they are often produced by self-love, arrogancy, and the great ophrion others have of us. I will not judge the condition of those persons who are said to have suffered these extraordinaries, for I know not the circumstances, or causes, or attendants, or the effects, or whether the stories be true that make report of them ; but I shall only advise that we foUow the Mtimation of our blessed Saviour, that we " sit down in the lowest place, till the master of the feast comes and bids us sit up Mgher." If we entertain the inward man in the purgative and iUuminative way, that is, in actions of repentance, virtue, and precise duty, that is the surest way of uniting us to God, oTev aAAa (picrei tivI Kal ivSovcridfyvTes obSev &v Xeyoviri.— [Id. Apol. § 7. torn. Siirirep oi BeofJ&vreis /cal oi xPVo0dji', & Tobs 4 In Scorpiace, cap. 8. [p. 493 D.] SECT. VI.] AND FLIGHT OF JESUS INTO EGYPT. 147 the destruction of the last temple, and the dissolution of the nation. Certain it is that such a Zachary the son of Baruch (if we may be lieve Josephus') was slain in the middle of the temple, a little before it was destroyed ; and it is agreeable to the nature of the prophecy and reproof here made by our blessed Saviour, that 'from Abel to Zachary' should take in " all the righteous blood" from first to last, tUl the MiqMty was complete ; and it is not imaginable that the blood of our blessed Lord, and of St. James their bishop (for whose death many of themselves thought God destroyed their city), should be left out of the account, wMch yet would certaMly be left out, if any other Zachary shoMd be meant than he whom they last slew : and in pro portion to this, Cyprian de Valerau expounds that which we read in the past tense, to signify the future, 'ye slew,' i.e. 'shall slay;' ac cording to the style often used by prophets, and as the aorist of an uncertain sigMfication wiU bear. But the first great instance of the divine vengeance for these executions was upon Herod, who in very few years after was smitten of God with so many plagues and tortures, that himself alone seemed like an hospital of the incurabili : for he was tormented with a soft slow fire, hke that of burning iron or the cMders of yew, in his body ; in his bowels, with intolerable cohcs and ulcers ; in Ms natural parts, with worms ; in his feet, with gout ; in his nerves, with convulsions, difficulty of breathing ; and out of divers parts of Ms body issued out so impure and Mcerous a steam, that the loathsomeness, pain, and indignation, made him once to snatch a kmfe with purpose to have killed himself, but that he was prevented by a nephew of his that stood there in his attendance. 7. But as the flesh of beasts grows caUous by stripes and the pres sures of the yoke, so did the heart of Herod by the loads of divine vengeance; God began Ms heU here, and the pains of heU never made any man less impious. For Herod, perceiving that he must now diex, first put to death his son Antipater, under pretence that he would have poisoned him ; and that the last scene of his hfe might for pure malice and exalted spite outdo aU the rest, because he be lieved the Jewish nation would rejoice at Ms death, he assembled all the nobles of the people and put them in prison, giving in charge to Ms sister Salome that when he was expiring Ms last aU the nobility should be slam, that Ms death might be lamented with a perfect and universal sorrow. 8. But God, that brings to nought the counsels of wicked princes, turned the design against the intendment of Herod ; for when he was dead, and could not call his sister to account for disobeying his most bloody and unrighteous commands, she released all the imprisoned and despairing gentlemen, and made the day of her brother's death a ' [De bell. Jud., lib. iv. cap. 5. § 4. torn. ii. p. 1185.] » [On Matt, xxiii. 35.] * Ataial ydp Konai Kal diroixofJ-ivoio Xeovros. [Plut. in Mario, c. xiv. torn. ii. p. 892.] l2 148 THE DEATH OF THE INNOCENTS, [PART I. perfect jubilee, a day of joy, such as was that when the nation was delivered from the violence of Hainan in the days of Purim. 9. And all tMs wlirie God had provided a sanctuary for the holy chfld Jesus. For God, seeing the secret purposes of blood which Herod had, sent His angel y, " who appeared to Joseph M a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and His mother, and fly Mto Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word; for Herod will seek the young child to destroy Him. Then he arose, and took the young child and His mother by Mght, and departed into Egypt." And they made their first abode in Hermopolis, in the country of Thebais ; wlrither when they first arrived, the child Jesus beMg by design or providence carried into a temple, all the statues of the idol-gods feU down1, like Dagon at the presence of the ark, and suffered their timely and just dissolution and dishonour, according to the prophecy of Isaiah, " Behold the Lord shall come into Egypt, and the idols of Egypt shaU be moved at His presence"." And in the life of the prophet Jeremyb written by Epiphamus, it is reported " that he told the Egyptian priests, that ¦ then their idols should be broken in pieces, when a holy virgM, with her child, should enter Mto their country;" which prophecy possibly might be the cause that the Egyptians did, besides their vaMties, worsMp also an infant M a manger, and a virgin in her bed. 10. From Hermopolis to Maturea went these holy pilgrims in pursuance of their safety and provisions ; where, it was reported, they dwelt in a garden of balsam, till Joseph being at the end of seven years (as it is commoMy believed) ascertaMed by an angel of the death of Herod, and commanded to return to the land of Israel, he was obedient to the heaveMy vision and returned. But hearing that Archelaus did reign in the place of Ms father, and knowing that the cruelty and ambition of Herod was hereditary, or entailed upon Archelaus, being also warned to turn aside Mto the parts of Galilee, wMch was of a distinct jurisdiction, governed indeed by one of He rod's sons, but not by Archelaus, thither he diverted ; and there that holy family remained in the city of Nazareth, whence the holy Child had the appeUative of a Nazarene. Ad SECTION VI. Considerations upon the death of the Innocents, and the flight of the holy Jesus into Egypt. 1. Herod, having caUed the wise men, and received information of their design, and the circumstances of the child, pretended religion y Matt. ii. 13. " Isa. xix. 1. 2 Euseb.de Demonstr. [lib. ix. cap. 2.] b Dorotheus in Synopsi. [p. 146 B.] S. Athanas. lib. de Incarn. Verb. [§ 32. Pallad. in vita S. Apollon. [vid. not torn. i. p. 74.] Palladius in vita S. Apol- z sup.] Ion. [Hist. Lausiac, cap. Iii. init p. 977.] SECT. Vl.J AND FLIGHT OF JESUS INTO EGYPT. 149 too, and desired them to bring Mm word when they had found the babe, " that he imght come and worship Him ;" meaning to make a sacrifice of Him to whom he should pay his adoration ; and instead of investing the young prince with the royal purple, he would have stained His swaddling-bands with His blood. It is ever dangerous when a wicked prince pretends religion ; his design is then foulest by how much it needs to put on a fairer outside ; but it was an early policy in the world, and it concerned men's interest to seem religious when they thought that to be so was an abatement of great designs. When Jezebel designed the robbing and destroying Naboth, she sent to the elders to proclaim a fast ; for the external and visible remon strances of religion leave in the spirits of men a great reputation of the seeming person, and therefore they wril not rush into a furious sentence against his actions, at least not judge them with prejudice against the man towards whom they are so fairly prepared, but do some violence to their own understanding, and either disbelieve their own reason, or excuse the fact, or tirink it but an error, or a less crime, or the incidences of humanity ; or however are so long in decreeing agaMst Mm whom they think to be religious, that the rumour is abated, or the stream of indignation is diverted by other laborious arts, intervening before our zeal is kindled ; and so the person is unjudged, or at least the design secured. 2. But m this, human policy was exceedingly infatuated : and though Herod had trusted Ms design to no keeper but Mmself, aud had pretended fair, having rehgion for the word, and " caUed the wise men privately," and intrusted them with no employment but a civil request, an account of the success of their journey, wMch they had no reason, or desire, to conceal ; yet his heart was opened to the eye of heaven, and the sun was not more visible than Ms dark purpose was to God ; and it succeeded accordingly ; the child was sent away, the wise men warned not to return, Herod was mocked and enraged ; and so Ms craft became foolish and vaM : and so are ari counsels in tended agaMst God, or any tiring of wMch He Mmself hath under taken the protection. For although we understand not the reasons of security, because we see not that admirable concentring of infimte tirings in the divMe providence whereby God brings His purposes to act by ways uMooked for and sometimes contradictory, yet the pubhc and perpetual experience of the world hath given continual demon strations that aU evil counsels have come to nought ; that the suc ceeding of an impious design is no argument that the man is pros perous ; that the curse is then surest when Ms fortune spreads the largest ; that the contradictions and rinpossibffities of deliverance to pious persons are but an opportunity and engagement for God to do wonders, and to glorify His power and to exalt His mercy by the instances of miraculous or extraordinary events. And as the afflictions happemng to good men are alleviated by the support of God's good Spirit, and enduring them here are but consignations to an honourable 150 THE DEATH OF THE INNOCENTS, [PART I. amends hereafter ; so the succeeding prosperities of fortunate impiety, when they meet with punishment in the next, or M the third age, or in the deletion of a people five ages after, are the greatest arguments of God's providence, who keeps wrath in store, and forgets not to "do judgment for aU them that are oppressed with wrong." It was laid up with God, and was perpetuaUy in His eye, being the matter of a lasting, durable, and unremitted anger. 3. But God had care of the holy Child ; He sent His angel to warn Joseph, with the babe and His mother, to fly into Egypt. Joseph and Mary instantly arise ; and without enqMry how they shall hve there, or when they shah return, or how be secured, or what accom modations they shall have in their journey, at the same hour of the Mght begin the pflgrimage with the cheerfulness of obedience, and the securities of faith, and the confidence of hope, and the joys of love, knowing themselves to be recompensed for aU the trouble they could endure ; that they were instruments of the safety of the holy Jesus ; that they then were serving God ; that they were encircled with the securities of the divine providence ; and in these dispositions aU places were alike, for every region was a paradise where they were in company with Jesus. And indeed that man wants many degrees of faith and prudence, who is solicitous for the support of Ms neces sities when he is doing the commandment of God0. If He commands thee to offer a sacrifice, Himself will provide a lamb, or enable thee to find one ; and He would remove thee into a state of separation where thy body needs no supplies of provision, if He meant thou shouldest serve Him without provisions. He wril certaMly take away thy need, or satisfy itd ; He will feed thee Himself, as He did the Israelites ; or take away thy hunger, as He did to Moses ; or send ravens to feed thee, as He did to Ehas ; or make charitable people minister to thee, as the widow to Ehsha ; or give thee His own por tion, as He maintained the Levites ; or make tirine enemies to pity thee, as the Assyrians did the captive Jews. For whatsoever the world hath, and whatsoever can be conveyed by wonder or by providence, aU that is thy security for provisions so long as thou doest the work of God. And remember, that the assurance of blessing, and health, and salvation, is not made by doing what we list, or being where we desire, but by doing God's will, and being in the place of His appomt- ment. We may be safe M Egypt, if we be there in obedience to God; and we may perish among the babes of Betlilehem, if we be there by our own election. 4. Joseph and Mary did not argue against the angel's message, because they had a confidence of their charge, who with the breath of His mouth could have destroyed Herod, though he had been abetted with aU the legions marching under the Eoman eagles ; but ¦ tous Beobs exaJ/ T1S &v ipiXovs, dp'io-Trfv fjavTiKTfv evoi Siuois. — Eurip. [Hel, 759.] * Heb. xiii. 5, 6. SECT. VI.] AND FLIGHT OF JESUS INTO EGYPT. 151 they, like the two cherubims about the propitiatory, took the child between them, and fled, giving way to the fury of persecution, which possibly, when the materials are withdrawn, might expire and die, like fire, which else would rage for ever. Jesus fled, undertook a sad journey, in which the roughness of the ways, His own tenderness, the youth of His mother, the old age of His supposed father, the small- ness of their viaticum and accommodation for their voyage, the no- kindred they were to go to, hopeless of comforts and exterior supphes, were so many circumstances of poverty and lesser strokes of the per secution; tirings that Himself did choose, to demonstrate the verity of His nature, the infirmity of His person, the humility of His spirit, the austerity of His undertakMg, the burden of His charge; and by wMch He did teach us the same virtues He then expressed, and also consigned tMs permission to all His disciples in future ages, that they also may fly from their persecutors, when the case is so that their work is not done, that is, they may glorify God with their lives more than with their death. And of this they are ascertained by the arguments of prudent account ; for sometimes we are called to glorify God by dying, and the interest of the church and the faith of many may be concerned in it ; then we must abide by it : in other cases it is true that Demosthenes said in apology for Ms own escaping from a lost field, " A man that runs away may fight again e ;" and St. Paul made use of a guard of soldiers to rescue Mm from the treachery of the Jewish rulers, and of a basket to escape from the inqmsition of the governor of Damascus ; and the primitive Christians, of grots and subterraneous retirements ; and St. Athanasius, of a fair lady's house ; and others, of deserts and graves ; as knowing it was no shame to fly, when their Master Mmself had fled that His time and His work might be fulfilled, and when it was, He then laid His life down. 5. It is hard to set down particular rules that may indefinitely guide all persons M the stating of their own case, because aU things that depend upon circumstances are alterable unto Mfhrite. But as God's glory and the good of the church are the great considerations to be carried before us all the way, and in proportions to them we are to determine and judge our questions, so also our infirmities are aUowable in the scrutiny ; for I doubt not but God intended it a mercy, and a comphance with human weakness, when He gave us this permission, as weU as it was a design to secure the opportunities of His service, and the consummation of His own work by us. And since our fears, and the incommodities of flight, and the sadness of exile, and the insecurities and inconveniences of a strange and new abode, are part of the persecution ; provided that God's glory be not certaMly and apparently neglected, nor the church evidently scandal ized by our flight, all interpretations of the question in favour of our selves, and the declension of that part which may tempt us to apos tasy or hazard our confidence, and the choosing the lesser part of the e 'Aj^o S fyevywv Ka) iriuv fjaxvpoS'iT7] f3poTo7s. Antiphan. [Inccrt. comced. p. G35.J SECT. VIII.] AND CORPORAL AUSTERITIES. 183 actions corporal ; the soul may from those become lustful or chaste, cheerful or sad, timorous or confident : but yet even in these the soul receives but some dispositions thence, and more forward Mcrinations : but nothing from the body can be operative in the begetting or in crease of charity, or the love of God, or devotion, or in mortifying spiritual and Mtettectual vices : and therefore those greater perfec tions and heights of the soul, such as are designed in tMs highest degree of mortification, are not apt to be enkindled by corporal aus terities. And Nigrinus, in Lucian0, finds fault with those philoso phers who thought virtue was to be purchased by cutting the skin with whips, binding the nerves, razing the body with iron : but he taught that virtue is to be placed in the mind by actions internal and immaterial, and that from thence remedies are to be derived against perturbations and actions criminal. And tMs is determined by the apostle M fairest intimation, "mortify therefore your eartiriy mem bers1";" and he instances in carnal crimes, "fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness," which are tilings may be sometiring abated by corporal mortifications : and that these are by distinct manner to be helped from other more spiritual vices, he adds, "but now therefore put off aU these, anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication, and lyingq." To both these sorts of sins mortification beMg the general remedy, particMar applications are to be made, and it must be oMy spiritual, or also corporal, in proportion to the nature of the sins1; he seems to dis tinguish the remedy by separation of the nature of the crimes, and possibly also by the differing words of 'mortify3' applied to carnal sins, and 'put off*' to crimes spiritual. 18. Secondly : But in the lesser degrees of mortification, in order to subdmng of aU passions of the sensitive appetite, and the consequent and symbolical sinsu, bodily austerities are of good use, if weU under stood and prudently undertaken. To which purpose I also consider, no acts of corporal austerity or external rehgion are of themselves to be esteemed holy or acceptable to God, are no where precisely com manded, no Mstruments of union with Christ, no immediate parts of divMe worsMp; and therefore to suffer corporal austerities with 0 AtjXos Se t)v Kal ruv toiovtuv kktc- Karal^vovTes. r)ye7To ydp xpyvai rroXv irp6- yvcoKus iXoir6v, o? toiSt^c &o~Krpriv apt- repov iv rats ipvxa7s to o-refybv tovto Kal ttjs vireXdfj.f3avov, t)v iroXXais avdyKats diraBes KaTaffKevdffai. — Lucian. Nigrin. Kal 7rdVois Tobs viovs dvTexeiv KaTayvfx- [torn. i. p. 46.] vdo~ao~i' tovto /j,ev Se7v oi iroXXol KeXev- v Col. iii. 5. ovTes, &XX01 Se, fiaffTiyovvres' oi Se xaPl~ q Ver. 8. eo-Ttpoi, Kal criSiiptp rds iirupaveias abT&v ' Ut corpus redimas, ferrum patieris et ignes, Arida nee sitiens ora lavabis aqua ; Ut valeas animo, quicquam tolerare negabis ? [Ovid. Remed. Amor. 229.] s NeKpdtraTe Th peXrf. [Vid. etiam] Clem. Alex. Paedag., lib. ii ' 'AiroBeoBe to irdvTa. [passim.] u 'O 4yybs Kvplov TrXf)pris fxao-Tiywv. — 181 OF MORTIFICATION - [PART I. thoughts determining upon the external action or imaginations of sanctity Mherent in the action, is against the purity, the spirituality, and simplicity of the gospel. And this is the meaning of St. Paul, " it is a good tiring that the heart be established with grace, not with meats, which have not profited them wMch have walked in themx ;" and, "the kingdom of God consists not in meat and drink, but in righteousness, and peace, and joy in the holy Ghosty ;" and, " bodily exercise profiteth little, but godliness is profitable unto aU things2." Now if external mortifications are not for themselves, then they are to receive their estimate as they co-operate to the end : whatsoever is a prudent restraint of an extravagant passion, whatsoever is a direct denial of a sin, whatsoever makes provision for the spirit, or with draws the fuel from the impure fires of carnality, that is an act of mortification; but those austerities wMch Baal's priests did use, or the flagellantes, an ignorant faction that went up and down viUages wMpping themselves, or those wMch return periodically on a set day of disciphrie, and using rudenesses to the body by way of ceremony and solemMty, not directed against the actual Mcursion of a pungent lust, are not witirin the verge of the grace of mortification. For un less the temptation to a carnal sin be actuaUy incumbent and press- Mg upon the soul, pains of infliction and smart do no benefit toward suppressing the habit or inclination: for such sharp disciplines are but short and transient troubles ; and although they take away the present fancies of a temptation, yet (udess it be rash and unchari table) there is no effect remanent upon the body but that the temp tation may speedily return. As is the danger, so must be the appli cation of the remedy. Actual severities are not imprudently under taken in case of imminent danger ; but to cure an habitual lust, such corporal mortifications are most reasonable whose effect is permanent, and which takes away whatsoever does miMster more fuel, and puts a torch to the pile. 19. But tMs is altogether a discourse of CMistian prudence, not of precise duty and religion ; for if we do by any means provide for our indemmty, and secure our mnocence, aU other exterior mortifications are not necessary, and they are convenient but as they do facflitate or co-operate towards the end. And if that be well understood, it wiU concern us that they be used with prudence and caution, with purity of intention, and without pride : for since they are nothing in them selves, but are hallowed and adopted into the family of religious ac tions by participation of the end, the doing them not for themselves takes off all complacency and fancy reflecting from an opririon of the external actions, guides and purifies the intention, and teaches us to be prudent in the managing of those austerities wMch, as they are in themselves afflictive, so have in them nothing that is eligible if they be imprudent. 20. And now supposing these premises as our gmde to choose and ' Heb. xiii. 9. r Rom. xiv. 17 z 1 Tim. iv. 8. SECT. VIII.] AND CORPORAL AUSTERITIES. 185 enter Mto the action, prudence must be caUed into the execution and discharge of it, and the manner of its managing. And for the pru dential part, I shall first give the advice of Nigrinus in the disciprine of the old philosophers, "He that wfll best institute and Mstruct men in the studies of virtue and true philosophy, must have regard to the mMd, to the body, to the age, to the former education, and capacities or incapacities of the person a;" to wMch all such circum stances may be added as are to be accounted for in aU prudent esti mations ; such as are national customs, dangers of scandal, the pre sence of other remedies, or disbandMg of the inebriation. 21. Secondly : It may also concern the prudence of tMs duty not to neglect the smaUest inadvertencies and minutes of lust or spiritual inconvemence, but to contradict them in their weakness and first begimrings. We see that great disturbances are wrought from the smallest occasions meeting with an impatient spirit, hke great flames kindled from a httle spark fatten into a heap of prepared Mtre. St. Austin b teUs a story of a certain person much vexed with flies M the region of his dwelling, and himself heightened the trouble by too violent and busy reflections upon the Mconsiderableness of the Mstru- ment, and the greatness of the vexation alighting upon a peevish spirit. In tMs disposition he was visited by a Mamchee (a heretic that demed God to be the maker of tilings visible) : he bemg busy to rub his infection upon the next tiring he met, asked the impatient person whom he thought to be the maker of flies ? He answered, I think the devil was ; for they are Mstruments of great vexation and perpetual trouble. What he rather fancied than believed, or expressed by anger rather than at aU had entertained within, the Mamchee con firmed by such arguments, to wMch his adversary was very apt to give consent by reason of Ms impatience and peevishness. The Ma- nichee, havmg set his foot firm upon Ms first breach, proceeded M Ms question. If the devil made flies, why not bees, who are but a little bigger, and have a sting too ? The consideration of the sting made him fit to think, that the little difference in bigness needed not a distinct and a greater efficient, especiaUy sMce the same workman can make a great as weU as a httle vessel. The Manichee proceeded, If a bee, why not a locust? if a locust, then a lizard? if a lizard, then a bird ? if a bird, then a lamb ? and thence he made bold to proceed to a cow, to an elephant, to a man. His adversary by tMs time being insnared by granting so much, and now ashamed not to grant more, lest Ms first concessions should seem unreasonable and impious, confessed the devil to be the maker of aU creatures visible. The use wMch is made of this story is this caution, that the devil do not abuse us in flies, and provoke our spirits by trifles and imperti- a Kal tSv HpiffTa TraiSedeiv dvdpc&irovs grin. [torn. i. p. 47.] wpoatpoipievov, tovto fj'ev >(ivxt)s, tovto Be b In Joan. Tract i. [torn. iii. par. ii. c&fiaTos, tovto Se TjXucias Te Kal ttjs Trp6- col. 295.] *epov dywyris 4ffTOX^oBau — Lucian. Ni- 180 OF MORTIFICATION [PART I. nent accidents ; for if we be unmortified in our smaUest motions, it is not imagMable we should stand the blast of an impetuous accident and violent perturbation. Let us not therefore give our passions course M a smaU accident, because the instance is Mconsiderable; for though it be, the consequence may be dangerous, and a wave may foUow a wave tril the Mundation be general and desperate. And therefore here it is intended for advice, that we be observant of the accidents of our domestic affairs, and curious that every trifling inad vertency of a servant, or slight misbecoming action, or imprudent words, be not apprehended as instruments of vexation ; for so many small occasions, if they be productive of many small disturbances, will produce an habitual churlishness and immortification of spirit. 22. Thirdly : Let our greatest diligence and care be employed M mortifying our predonrinant passion: for if our care be so great as not to entertain the smaUest, and our resolution so strong and holy as not to be subdued by the greatest and most passionate desires, the Spirit hath done att its work, secures the future, and sanctifies the present ; and notMng is wanting but perseverance M the same pru dence and religion. And tMs is typicaUy commanded in the precept of God to Moses and Aaron, in the matter of Peor, " vex the Midian- ites, because they vexed you, and made you sin by their daughters." And PMnehas did so ; he killed a prince of the house of Simeon, and a princess of Midian, and God confirmed the priesthood to him for ever ; meamng, that we shall for ever be admitted to a nearer relation to God, if we sacrifice to God our dearest lust. And tMs is not so properly an act, as the end of mortification ; therefore it con cerns the prudence of the duty, that aU the efficacy and violence of it be employed agaMst the strongest, and there where is the most dan gerous hostility, 23. Fourthly : But if we mean to be masters of the field and put our victory past dispute, let us mortify our morosity and natural aversations, reducing them to an indifferency, having in our wiUs no fondnesses, M our spirits no faction of persons or nations, beMg pre pared to love all men, and to endure all tirings, and to undertake all employments, wMch are duty or counsel in aU circumstances and disadvantages. For the excellency of evangelical sanctity does sur mount aU antipatiries, as a vessel clMibs up and rides upon a wave ; "the wolf and the lamb shaU cohabit, and a child shaU play and put his fingers in the cavern of an aspick;" nations whose Mterests are most contradictory, must be kmt by the confederations of a mortified and a Christian spirit, and single persons must triumph over the difficulties of an indisposed nature, or else their own will is unmor tified, and nature is stronger than can weU consist with the dommion and absolute empire of grace. To tMs I reduce such peevish and unhandsome Mcenesses in matters of rehgion, that are unsatisfied unless they have aU exterior circumstances trimmed up and made pompous for their religious offices; such who cannot pray without a SECT. Vni.] AND CORPORAL AUSTERITIES. 187 conveMent room, and their devotion is made active only by a weU- built chapel, and they cannot sing lauds without church music, and too much hght dissolves their Mtention, and too much dark promotes their melancholy ; and because these and the like exterior ministries are good advantages, therefore without them they can do notMng, wMch certainly is a great intimation and likeness to immortification. Our wril should be hke the candle of the eye, without all colour in itself, that it may entertain the species of all colours from without : and when we lust after mandrakes, and deliciousness of exterior mriristries, we many times are brought to betray our own interest, and prostitute our dearest affections to more ignoble and stranger desires. Let us love aU natures, and serve att persons, and pray M all places, and fast without opportuMties, and do ahns above our power, and set ourselves heartily on work, to neglect and frustrate those lower temptations of the devil, who will frequently enough make our rehgion inopportune, if we then wril make it infrequent ; and will present us with objects enough and flies to disqmet our persons, if our natures be petulant, peevish, curious, and unmortified. 24. It is a great mercy of God to have an affable, sweet, and well- disposed nature, and it does half the work of mortification for us; we have the less trouble to subdue our passions and destroy our lusts. But then, as those whose natures are morose, choleric, peevish, and lustful, have greater difficulty, so is their virtue of greater exceUence, and returned with a more ample reward : but it is in aU men's natures as with them who gathered manna, " they that gathered httle had no lack, and they that gathered much had nothMg over :" they who are of ril natures shall want no assistance of God's grace to work their curec, though their flesh be longer hearing ; and they who are sweetly tempered, being naturaUy meek and modest, chaste or temperate, wril find work enough to contest against their temptations from without, though from witiiin possibly they may have fewer. Yet there are greater degrees of virtue and heroical exceUencies, and great rewards, to wMch God hath designed them by so fair dispositions, and it wiU concern aU their industry to mortify their spirit, wMch though it be maUeable and more ductile, yet it is as bare and naked of imagery as the rudest and most iron nature : so that mortification will be every man's duty ; no nature, nor piety, nor wisdom, nor perfection, but wfll need it, either to subdue a lust, or a passion ; to cut off an occasion, or to resist a temptation ; to persevere, or to go on ; to secure our present estate, or to proceed towards per fection. But aU men do not think so. 25. For there are some who have great peace, no fightings within, no troubles without, no disputes or contradictions in their spirit ; but these men have the peace of tributaries, or a conquered people ; the gates of their city stand open day and Mght, that aU the carriages c Nemo adeo ferns est ut non mitesccre possit Si modo culture patientem commodet aurein — Hor. [epist., lib. i. 1. lin. 39.] 188 OF MORTIFICATION [PART I. may enter without disputing the pass ; the flesh and the spirit dispute not, because the spirit is there in pupillage or in bonds, and the- flesh rides in triumph, with the tyranny, and pride, and impotency, of a female tyrant. For in the sense of religion we all are warriors or slaves ; either ourselves are stark dead in trespasses and sMs, or we need to stand perpetually upon our guards in continual observa tion, and in contestation against our lusts and our passions ; so long denying and contradicting our own wills, tril we will and choose to do things against our wills, having an eye always to those infinite satisfactions, wMch shall glorify our wiUs and aU our faculties, when we arrive to that state in wMch there shaU be no more contradiction, but only that " our mortal shall put on immortality." 26. But as some have a vain and dangerous peace, so others double their trouble by too nice and rinpertinent scruples, tirinkMg that every temptation is a degree of immortification. As long as we hve, we shall have to do with enemies : but as tMs rife is ever a state of imperfection, so the very design and purpose of mortification is not to take away temptations, but to overcome them; it endeavours to facMtate the work, and secure our condition, by removing aU occasions it can : but the opportumty of a crime, and the solicitation to a sin, is no fault of ours, unless it be of our procuring, or finds entertainment when it comes unsent for. To suffer a temptation is a misery ; but if we then set upon the mortification of it, it is an occasion of virtue, and never is criminal unless we give consent. But then also it would be con sidered, that it is not good offering ourselves to fire ordeal, to confirm our innocence ; nor prudent to enter into battle without need, and to shew our valour ; nor safe to procure a temptation, that we may have the reward of mortification of it. For mortification of the spirit is not commanded as a duty finally resting in itself, or immediately landing upon God's glory, such as are acts of charity and devotion, chastity and justice ; but it is the great instrument of hunririty and aU other graces ; and therefore is to be undertaken to destroy a sin, and to secure a virtuous habit. And besides thatd to caU on a danger is to tempt God and to invite the devil (and no man is sure of a vic tory), it is also great imprudence to create a need that we may take it away again ; to drink poison, to make experiment of the antidote ; and at the best, it is but a running back to come just to the same place again : for he that is not tempted does not sin ; but he that invites a temptation that he might overcome it, or provokes a passion that" he may allay it, is then but in the same condition after Ms pains and his danger ; he was not sure he should come so far. THE PEAYEE. 0 dearest God, who hast framed man of soul and body, and fitted him with faculties and proportionable instruments to serve Thee accord- d Vide Disc, of Temptation. SECT. VHI.] AND CORPORAL AUSTERITIES. 189 ing to aU our capacities, let Thy holy Spirit mle and sanctify every power and member both of soul and body, that they may- keep that beauteous order which in our creation Thou didst intend, and to which Thou dost restore Thy people in the renovations of grace ; that our affections may be gmded by reason, our understandmg may be enlightened with Thy word, and then may gride and persuade our wril ; that we suffer no violent transportation of passions, nor be overcome by a temptation, nor consent to the impure solicitations of lust ; that " sin may not reign in our mortal bodies," but that both bodies and soMs may be conformable to the sufferings of the holy Jesus ; that M our body we may bear the marks and dyMg of our Lord, and in our spirits we may be humble and mortified, and like Him in aU His imitable perfections ; that we may die to sin, and hve to righteousness, and after our suffering together with Him in this world, we may reign together with Him hereafter ; to whom, in the unity of the most mysterious TrMity, be aU glory, and domririon, and praise, for ever and ever. Amen. SECTION IX. Of Jesus being baptized, and going into the wilderness to be tempted. 1. Now the fuU time was come, Jesus took leave of His mother and His trade, to begin His Fathers work, and the office prophetical, in order to the redemption of the world ; and when " John was bap tizing in Jordan, Jesus came to John to be baptized of him." The Baptist had never seen His face, because they had been from their infancy driven to several places, designed to several employments, and never met till now. But immediately the holy Ghost inspired St. John with a discermng and knowing spirit, and at His first arrival he knew Him and did Him worsMp. And when Jesus desired to be baptized, " John forbade Him, saying, I have need to be baptized of Thee, and comest Thou to me ?" For the baptism of John, although it was not a direct instrument of the Spirit for the coUation of grace, neither find we it admhristered in any form of words, — not so much as M the name of CMist to come, as many dreame; because even after John had baptized, the pharisees still doubted if he were the Messias ; wMch they woMd not, if in Ms form of miMstration he had published Christ to come after Mm ; and also because it had not been proper for Christ Mmself to have received that baptism, whose form had specified Himself to come hereafter ; neither coMd it consist with the revelation which John had, and the coMession wMch he made, to baptize in the name of Christ to come, whom the Spirit marked out to Mm to be come already, and Mmself pointed at Him with Ms finger, — yet it was a ceremonious consignation of the doctrine e Gabriel, Sotus, Scotus, &c. 190 HISTORY OF THE BAPTISM [PART I. of repentance', which was one great part of the covenant evangelical ; and was a divine institution, the susception of it was in order to the fulfilling aU righteousness ; it was a sign of humility, the persons baptized confessed their sms ; it was a sacramental disposing to the baptism and faith of Christ8 ; but therefore John wondered why the Messias, the Lamb of God, pure and without spot, who needed not the abstersions of repentance or the wasMngs of baptism, should de mand it, and of him, a sinner, and His servant. And in the Hebrew gospel of St. Matthew, wMch the Nazarenes used at Bercea (as St. Hierom reports'1), these words are added1, " The mother of the Lord and His brethren said unto Him, John baptist baptizeth to the re mission of sins, let us go and be baptized of Mm. He said to them, What have I sinned, that I should go and be baptized of Mm ?" And tMs part of the story is also told by Justin Martyr. But Jesus wanted not a proposition to consign by His baptism, proportionable enough to the analogy of its institution ; for as others professed their return towards innocence, so He avowed His perseverance M it ; and though He was never called in scripture a sinner, yet He was made sin for us; that is, He did undergo the shame and the pumshment; and therefore it was proper enough for Him to perform the sacrament of sinners. 2. But the holy Jesus, who came (as Himself, in answer to the Baptist's question, professed) "to fulfil aU righteousness," would receive that rite which His Father had Mstituted M order to the manifestation of His Son. For although the Baptist had a glimpse of Him by the first irradiations of the Spirit, yet John professed that he therefore came baptizing with water, that " Jesus might be mamfested to Israel k ;" and it was also a sign given to the Baptist himself, that " on whomsoever he saw the Spirit descendmg and remaining," He is the person " that baptizeth with the holy Ghost." And God chose to actuate the sign at the waters of Jordan, in great and religious assem blies convened there at John's baptism ; and therefore Jesus came to be baptized, and by tMs baptism became known to John, who, as before he gave to Him an indiscriminate testimony, so now he pomted out the person in Ms sermons and discourses, and by calling Him the Lamb of God1, prophesied of His passion, and preached Him to be the world's Eedeemer and the sacrifice for mankind. He was now manifest to Israel : He confirmed the baptism of John ; He sanctified the water to become sacramental and ministerial in the remission of sins ;. He Acts xix. 4. ovk auTbs diropvrrs fy VTjffTttas xfitiav s Tlpootfiiov tov eiiayyeXlov tt}s x^PiTor* extov ^ KaBdpaews, 6 Trj (pvaei KaBapbs Kal — [Qusest. xxxvii. ad Orthod. Justino 3-yios; clXX"lva Kal 'ladvvri aXifBeiav irpoa- Mart. attrib., Append, p. 455.] fxapTvpifari, Kal bpuv vwoypafJifibv irapdo'X'n- h [De script, eccl., cap. iii. torn. iv. par. rai Clem. Const. Apost, lib. vii. c. 2. col. 102.] 23. [fol. 113 b.] 1 [S. Hieron. adv. Pelag., lib. iii. torn. ' Symbolum supplicii crucis. — Just iv. par. 2. col. 533.] Mart. [Dial. cumTryph. cap. 40. p. 137.] k 'ZBawrio-Bii Se Kal ivrftrTevo-ev ('Itjo-oOs, ) SECT. IX.] AND TEMPTATION OF JESUS. 191 by a real event declared, that to them who should rightly be baptized the kingdom of heaven shoMd certainly be opened; He inserted Himself by that ceremony Mto the society and participation of holy people, of which commumon Himself was head and prince ; and He did in a symbol purify human nature, whose staMs and guilt He had undertaken. 3. As soon as John had performed Ms mimstry, and Jesus was baptized, He prayed, and the heavens were opened, and the air clari fied by a new and glorious lightm; "and the holy Ghost, in the manner of a dove, alighted upon" His sacred head, and God the Father gave " a voice from heaven, saying, Thou art My beloved Son, in whom I am weU pleased." This was the inauguration and pro clamation of the Messias, when He began to be the great prophet of the new covenant. And tMs was the greatest meeting that ever was upon earth, where the whole cabinet of the mysterious Trinity was opened and shewn, as much as the capacities of our present imper fections wril permit ; the second Person M the veil of humanity, the third in the shape or with the motion of a dove"; but the first kept His primitive state ; and as to the Israelites He gave notice by way of caution, " Ye saw no shape, but ye heard a voice," so now also God the Father gave testimony to His holy Son and appeared, oMy in a voice without any visible representment. 4. When the rite and the solemmty was over, " Christ ascended up out of the waters," and left so much virtue beMnd Him, that, as Gregorius Turonensis reports0, that creek of the river where His holy body had been baptized, was endued with a hearing quality, and a power of curing lepers that bathed themselves in those waters in the faith and with invocation of the holy name of Jesus. But the manifestation of tMs power was not till afterwards, for as yet Jesus did no miracles. 5. As soon as ever the Saviour of the world was baptized, had opened the heavens, wMch yet never had been opened to man, and was declared the Son of God, " Jesus was by the Spirit driven into the wilderness," not by an unnatural violence, but by the efficacies of inspiration, and a supernatural inclination and activity of resolu tion ; for it was the holy Spirit that bare Him tirither ; He was led by the good Spirit to be tempted by the evil : wMther also He was pleased to retire, to make demonstration, that even in an active life, such as He was designed to and intended, some recesses and tempo rary demissions of the world are most expedient, for such persons especiaUy whose office is prophetical and for institution of others, that by such vacancies in prayer and contemplation they may be ™ Kal tvBbs irepieXa/nifie rbv riirov Vim temperatam dii quoque provehunt In majus ; iidem odere vires Omne nefas amnio moventes. — [Hor. Od. iii. 4. lin. 01-.] 208 OF TEMPTATION. [PART I. dren, and gold for men ; the kingdoms of the world for the ambition of princes, and the vanities of the world for the intemperate ; he hath discourses and fair-spoken principles to abuse the pretenders to rea son, and he hath common prejudices for the more vulgar understand ings. Amongst these I choose to consider such as are by way of principle or proposition. 8. The first great principle of temptation I shaU note, is a general mistake which excuses very many of our crimes upon pretence of in firmity, calling all those sins to which by natural disposition we are inclined, though by carelessness and evil customs they are height ened to a habit, by the name of sins of infirmity ; to wMch men sup pose they have reason and title to pretend. If when they have com mitted a crime their conscience checks them, and they are troubled, and during the interval and abatement of the heats of desire resolve against it, and commit it readily at the next opportuMty ; then they cry out against the weakness of their nature, and think, as long as tMs body of death is about them, it must be thus, and that tMs con dition may stand with the state of grace : and then the sins shdl return periodicaUy, like the revolutions of a quartan ague, weU and ril for ever, till death surprises the mistaker. TMs is a patron of sins, and makes the temptation prevalent by an authentic instrument, ; and they pretend the words of St. PaM, " for the good that I would, that I do not ; but the evil that I wodd not, that I do : for there is a law in my members rebelling against the law of my mind, bringing me into captivity to the law of sink." And thus the state of sin is mistaken for a state of grace, and the imperfections of the law are miscdled the affections and necessities of nature, that they might seem to be incurable, and the persons apt for an excuse, therefore because for nature there is no absolute cure. But that these words of St. Pad may not become a savour of death and instruments of a temptation to us, it is observable that the apostle, by a fiction of per son (as is usual with Mm1) speaks of hrinself, not as in the state of regeneration under the Gospel, but under the difficMties, obscurities, insufficiencies, and imperfections of the law ; which indeed he there contends to have been a rule good and holy, apt to remonstrate our misery, because by its prohibitions and limits given to natural desires it made actions, before indifferent, now to be sins ; it added many curses to the breakers of it, and by an efficacy of contrariety it made us more desirous of what was now unlawful : but it was a covenant in wMch our nature was restrained, but not helped ; it was provoked, but not sweetly assisted; our understandings were instructed, but our wrils not sanctified : and there were no suppletories of repentance ; every greater sin was hke the fdl of an angel, irreparable by any mys tery, or express, recorded or enjoined. Now of a man under tMs covenant he describes the condition to be such, that he understands " Rom. vii. 19. 23. 18; 1 Cor. vi. 12; and x: 23. 29, 30 1 Ut videre est, Rom. iii. 7 ; Gal. ii. and xiii. 2. SECT. IX.] OF TEMPTATION. 209 Ms duty, but by the infirmities of nature he is certain to faU, and by the helps of the law not strengthened against it nor restored after it ; and therefore he caUs Mmself under that notion " a miserable man, sold under sin," not doing according to the rdes of the law or the dictates of his reason, but by the unaltered misery of Ms nature cer tain to prevaricate. But the person described here is not St. Pad, is not any justified person, not so much as a Christian, but one who is under a state of direct opposition to the state of grace; as will manifestly appear if we observe the antithesis from St. Paul's own characters. For the man here named is such as in whom "sin wrought aU concupiscence, in whom sin rived, and slew Mm," so that he was dead in trespasses and sms ; and although he " did delight in the law after Ms inward man," that is, Ms understandMg had intel- lectud complacencies and satisfactions, wMch afterwards he calls " serving the law of God with his mind," that is, in the first disposi tions and preparations of his spirit, yet he could act notMng; for the law in Ms members did enslave him, " and brought Mm into capti vity to the law of sin™ ;" so that Ms person was MU of actud and effective lusts, he was a slave to sin, and dead M trespasses : but the state of a regenerate person is such as to have " crucified the flesh, with the affections and lusts" ;" in whom sin did not reign, not only in the mind, but even dso not in the mortd body ; over whom sin had no domririon ; m whom the old man was crucffied, and the body of sin was destroyed, and sin not at aU served. And to make the antithe sis yet clearer, M the very begriming of the next chapter the apostle sarin, "that the spirit of hfe in CMist Jesus had made Mm free from the law of sin and death0;" under which law, he compldned imme diately before, he was sold and kitted, to shew the person was not the same M these so different and contradictory representments. No man in the state of grace can say, " the evil that I wodd not, that I do;" if by evil he means any evil that is habitud or in its own nature deadly. 9. So that now let no man pretend an inevitable necessity to sin; for if ever it comes to a custom or to a great violation though but in a single act, it is a condition of carnality, not of spiritud life ; and those are not the infirmities of nature, but the weaknesses of grace, that make us sin so frequently; wMch the apostle trdy affirms to the same purpose, "the flesh lusteth agdnst the Spirit, and the Spi rit against the flesh; and these are contrary the one to the other, so that ye cannot (or that ye do not*) do the tilings that ye wodd0.." This disability proceeds from the strength of the flesh, and weakness of the Spirit; for he adds, "but if ye be led by the Spirit, ye are not under the law :" saying plaidy, that the state of such a combat, and disability of doing good, is a state of man under the law, or in the •n Rom. viii. 8, 11, 22, 23, 25. p "I"« P-h ironJTt. n Gal. v. 24; Rom. vi. 6, 12, 14. « Gal. v. 17. ° Rom. viii. 2. ir. p 210 OF TEMPTATION. [PART I. flesh, wMch he accounts all one ; but every man that is sanctified under the gospel is led by the Spirit, and walks in the Spirit, and brings forth the frmts of the Spirit. It is not our excuse but the aggravation of our sin, that we fall again in despite of so many reso lutions to the contrary. And let us not flatter ourselves into a con fidence of sin by supposing the state of grace can stand with the cus tom of any sin ; for it is the state either of an animalis homo, (as the apostle caUs him',) that is, a man M pure naturds, without the cla rity of divine revelations, who "cannot perceive or understand the things of God ;" or else of the carnal man5, that is, a person who, though in Ms mind he is convinced, yet he is not yet freed from the dominion of sin, but only hath his eyes opened, but not Ms bonds loosed. For by the perpetual analogy and frequent expresses in scripture, the spiritud person, or the man " redeemed by the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus," is free from the law, and the dominion and the kingdom and the power of all sin ; " for to be carnally nrinded is death, but to be spirituaUy minded is life and peace'." 10. But sins of infirmity, M true sense of scripture, signify nothing but the sins of an unholy and an unsanctified nature, when they are taken for actions done agdnst the strength of resolution, out of the strength of naturd appetite and violence of desire ; and therefore in scripture the state of sin and the state of infirmity is aU one. " For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly," saith the apostle" ; the condition in which we were when Christ became a sacrifice for us, was certaidy a condition of sM and enmity with God, and yet this he calls a being without strength, or in a state of weakness or infirmity ; wMch we, who beheve all our strength to be derived from CMist's death, and the assistance of the holy Spirit, the frdt of His ascension, may soon apprehend to be the true meaMng of the word. And in this sense is that sayMg of our blessed Saviour, "the whole have no need of a physician, but they that are weak :" for therefore " Christ came into the world to save sinners," those are the persons of Christ's infirmary, whose restitution and reduction to a state of life and hedth was His great design. So that whoever sin habitually, that is, constantly, periodically, at the revolution of a temptation, or frequently, or easily, are persons who still remaM m the state of sM and death*; and their intervds of piety are but preparations to a state of grace, wMch they may then be when they are not used to countenance or excuse the sin, or to flatter the person. But if the intermediate resolutions of emendation, though they never run beyond the next assault of passion or desire, be taken for a state of grace blended with infirmities of nature, they r [1 Cor. ii. 14.] that is, 'ungodly.' • [Rom. vii. 14.] * Vide S. August. De peccatorum me- ' Rom. viii. 6. ritis, lib. ii. cap. 17. [torn. x. col. 54.] e " Rom. v. 6. 'Ovtojv rffuav daBevmv, Enchirid. cap. 81. [torn. vi. coh 227.] TomeaTiv dvefiuv, 'without strength,' SECT. IX.] OF TEMPTATION. 2 1 1 become destructive of all those purposes, tMough our mistake, which they might have promoted if they had been rightly understood, ob served, and cherished. Sometimes indeed the greatness of a tempta tion may become an instrument to excuse some degrees of the sin, and make the man pitiable, whose rain seems almost certain because of the greatness and violence of the enemy meeting with a natural aptness ; but then the question will be, wMther, and to what actions, that strong temptation carries him ? whether to a work of a mortal nature, or only to a smdl irregdarity ? that is, whether to death, or to a wound ? for whatever the principle be, if the effect be death, the man's case was therefore to be pitied because his ruin was the more inevitable, not so pitied as to excuse Mm from the state of death. For let the temptation be never so strong, every Christian man hath assistances sufficient to support Mm, so as that without his own yield ing no temptation is stronger than that grace wMch God offers him ; for if it were, it were not so much as a sm of infirmity ; it were no sin at all. TMs therefore must be certain to us ; when the violence of our passions or desires overcomes our resolutions and fdrer pur poses, against the dictate of our reason, that Mdeed is a state of infir mity, but it is dso of sin and death ; a state of immortification ; be cause the offices of grace are to crucify the old man, that is, our former and impurer conversation, to subdue the petdancy of our pas sions, to reduce them to reason, and to restore empire and dominion to the superior facMties. So that tMs condition, in proper speaking, is not so good as the infirmity of grace, but it is no grace at all ; for "whoever are Christ's, have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts y ;" those other imperfect, ineffective resolutions are but the first approaches of the kingdom of Christ, nothing but the clarities of hghtmng, dark as soon as light ; and they therefore cannot be ex cuses to us, because the contrary weaknesses (as we call them) do not make the sin involuntary, but chosen and pursued, and in true speaking is the strength of the lust, not the infirmity of a state of grace. 11. But yet there is a condition of grace wMch is a state of httle and imperfect ones, such as are cdled M scripture " smoking flax and braised reeds ;" which is a state of the first dawning of the Sun of righteousness, when the hghts of grace new rise upon our eyes ; and then indeed they are weak, and have a more dangerous neighbour hood of temptations and desires, but they are not subdued by them2 : they sin not by direct election ; their actions crimMd are but like the slime of Nilus, leavmg rats half formed; they sin but seldom, and when they do it is M small Mstances, and then also by sur prise, by inadvertency, and then dso they interrupt their own acts, and lessen them perpetually ; and never do an act of sinfrriness, but the principle is such as makes it to be Mvoluntary in many degrees. y Gal. v. 24. * S. August. De grat. et lib, arbitr., cap. xvii. [lorn. a. col. 735.] et cap. xxix. p 2 212 OF TEMPTATION. [PART I. For when the understanding is clear, and the dictate of reason undis turbed and determinate, whatsoever then produces an irregular action excuses not, because the action is not made the less voluntary by it : for the action is not made involuntary from any other principle but from some defect of understanding, either in act, or habit, or facMty. For where there is no such defect, there is a full deliberation accord ing to the capacity of the man, and then the act of election that fol lows is clear and full, and is that proper disposition which makes Mm truly capable of puMshment or reward respectively. Now dthougli in the first begimrings of grace there is not a direct ignorance to ex cuse totally ; yet because a sudden surprise or an Madvertency is not always in our power to prevent, these tirings do lessen the election and freedom of the action : and then, because they are but seldom, and never proceed to any length of time, or any great Mstances of crime, and are every day still made more infrequent, because grace growing stronger, the observation and advertency of the spirit, and the attendance of the inner man, grows more effectual and busy; tMs is a state of the imperfection of grace, but a state of grace it is. And it is more commoMy observed to be expressed in the imperfection of our good actions, than in the irregdarity of bad actions ; and in this sense are those words of our blessed Saviour, " the spirit truly is will ing, but the flesh is weak ;" which in tMs instance was not expressed in sin, but in a naturd imperfection, which then was a recession from a civility, a not watcMng with the Lord : and tMs is the ody infir mity that can consist with the state of grace. 12. So that now we may lay what load we please upon our nature, and call our violent and unmortified desires by the name of an imper fect grace, but then we are dangerously mistaken, and flatter ourselves Mto an opMion of piety when we are "in the gaU of bitterness;" so making our misery the more certain and irremediable, because we tirink it needs notMng but a perpetirity and perseverance to bring us to heaven. The violence of passion and desires is a misery of nature, but a perfect principle of sin ; mMtiplying and repeating the acts, but not lessening the malignity ; but sMs of infirmity, when we mean sins of a less and lower malice, are sMs of a less and imperfect choice, because of the unavoidable imperfection of the understanding. Sins of infirmity are dways infirm sins, that is, weak and imperfect in their principle, and M their nature, and in their design ; that is, they are actions incomplete in aU their capacities ; but then passions and periodical inebriations consisting with a regular and determined and actud understandMg, must never be their principle ; for whatsoever proceeds thence is destructive of spiritud life, and inconsistent with the state of grace. But sins of infirmity, when they pretend to a less degree of mahgmty and a greater degree of excuse, are such as are little more than sins of pure and inculpable ignorance ; for iu that degree in which any other principle is mixed with them, m the same degree they are crimind and inexcusable. For as a sin of in- SECT. IX.] OF TEMPTATION^ 215 firmity is pretended to be httle M its vdue and mahgnity, so it is certdn if it be great M the instance, it is not a sin of infirmity, that is, it is a state or act of death, and absolutely inconsistent with the state of grace. 13. Secondly : Another principle of temptation, pregnant with sin and frmtful of monsters, is a weaker pretence wMch less wary and credMous persons abuse themselves withal, pretending as a ground for their confidence and incorrigible pursuance of their courses that they have a good meaning, that they intend sometimes weU, and sometimes not ril ; and this shall be sufficient to sanctify their actions and to hallow their sM. And tMs is of worse malice, when rehgion is the colour for a war, and the preservation of frith made the warrant for destruction of charity, and a zed for God made the fdse hght to lead us to disobedience to man, and hatred of idolatry is the usher of sacrilege, and the defiance of superstition the introducer of profane- ness, and reformation made the colour for a scMsm, and liberty of conscience the way to a bold and saucy heresy ; for the end may in deed haUow an indifferent action, but can never make straight a crooked and irregdar. It was not enough for Saul to cry, " for God and the sacrifice," that he spared the fat flocks of Amdek ; and it would be a strange zeal and forwardness that, rather than the dtar of incense should not smoke, wiU burn assa fostida, or the marrow of a maris bones. For as God will be honoured by us, so dso- in ways of His own appointment : for we are the makers of our religion, if we in our zeal for God do what He hath forbidden usa; and every sin committed for rehgion, is just such a violence done to it as it seeks to prevent or remedy. 14. And so it is if it be committed for an end or pretence of charity as weU as of rehgion. We must be curious that no pretence engage us upon an action that is certaidy crimMd in its own nature. Charity may sometimes require our hves, but no obhgation can en dear a damnation to us ; we are not bound to the choice of an eternd rain, to save another. Indeed so far as an option will go, it may concern the excrescences of piety to choose, by a tacit or express act of volition, "to become anathema for our brethren b," that is, by putting a case and fiction of law, to suppose it better, and wish it rather, that I shodd perish than my nation. Thus far is charitable, because it is Mnocent ; for as it is great love to our country, so it is no uncharitableness to ourselves : for such options dways are in effective, and produce notMng but rewards of charity and a greater glory. And the holy Jesus himself, who only codd be, and was, effectively accursed to save us, got by it an exceeding and mighty glorification ; and St. Pad did himself advantage by Ms charitable devotion for Ms countrymen. But sMce God never puts the question to us so that either we or our nation must be damned, He having fixed every man's find condition upon Ms own actions, in the virtue and " Vide historiam Uzzae, 2 Sam. vi. 6—9. b Rom. ix. 3. 214 OF TEMPTATION. [PART I. obedience of Christ, if we mistake the expresses of charity, and suffer ourselves to be damned Mdeed for God's glory or our bretirren's good, we spoil the duty, and ruin ourselves, when our option comes to act. But it is observable that although religion is often pretended to justify a sm, yet charity is but seldom; wMch makes it full of suspicion, that religion is but the cover to the death's head, and at the best is but an accusing of God, that He is not willing or not able to preserve religion without our irregular and impious co-operations. But however, though it might concern us to wish ourselves rather accursed, than rehgion, or our prince, or our country, should perish (for I find no instances that it is lawfd so much as to wish it for the preservation of a single friend), yet it is against charity to bring such a wish to pass, and by sin to damn ourselves really for a good end either of religion or charity. 15. Let us therefore serve God as He hath described the way; for all our accesses to Him, beMg acts of His free concession and grace, must be by His own designation and appointment. We might as well have chosen what shape our bodies should be of, as of what m- stances the substance of our rehgion sMmld consist. 16. Thirdly : A third principle of temptation is, an ophrion of pro secuting actions of civility, compliance, and society, to the luxation of a point of piety and stricter duty : and good natures, persons of humane and sweeter dispositions, are too apt to dash upon tMs rock of offence. But the evil that I wodd note is, that there are some conditions of men to whom a vice is so accustomed, that he that mMgles with them must handle the crime and touch the venom. There are some vices which are nationd ; there are some that are points of honour ; some are civilities of entertainment; and they are therefore accounted unavoidable, because the understandMgs of men are degenerous as their manners, and it is accounted sottish and fan- tasticd not to commumcate in their accustomed loosenesses. Amongst some men aU their first addresses are drinkings, their entertainments intemperate beyond the permissions of Christian austerity ; their drink is humourous, and their humours quarrelous ; and it is dishonourable not to engage in duel, and venture your sod to ascertrin an empty reputation. These inconveMences rely upon fdse ophrions and vain fancies, having no greater foundation than the sottish discourses of ignorant and ungodly persons ; and they have no peculiar and appro priate remedy, but a resolute severity of manners, and a consideration what is reqdred of us as Christians, to confront agdnst those fonder customs and expectations from us, as we engage in the puddles of the world, and are blended in society. 17. To which purposes we must be careful not to engage too freely in looser company, never without business or unavoidable acci dents ; and when we mingle in affairs, it will concern our safety to watch lest multitude of tdk, goodness, and facility of nature, the de light of company, and the freedom and ill-customed civflities do by SECT. IX.] OF TEMPTATION. 215 degrees draw us away from our guards and retirement of spirit. For in these cases every degree of dissolution disarms us of our strengths ; and if we give way so far as we tirink it tolerable, we instantly and. undiscernibly pass into unlawful and criminal. But our best defences are deposited in a severe and prudent understanding, and discerning the sottishness of such principles, wlrich represent vice in civil lan guage, and propound a crime to you under the cover of kindness ; wMch is just so much recompense, as it is satisfaction to a condemned person that he was accused by a witty orator and sentenced by an eloquent judge. Remember dways that " the friendsMps of the world are enmity with God;" and that those societies which are combined by relations of drink, and wantonness, and impertinency, and crimes, are either inconsiderable in civility, or reason, or reputation ; no wise man is moved by their testimony or discourses ; and they are so im potent, rude, and undiscerrring a theatre, that most commonly he is the best man who from thence is the worst reported and represented. 18. But in aU the instances of this great evil, the very stating the question right is above hari the victory. For it is a question between mistaken civility and certain duty ; piety on one side, and the dis guises of humanity on the other. God and man are the parties in terested ; and to counterpoise the influence of the sight and face of man, (wMch being in a visible commumeation, it is not M some natures to neglect or contradict,) there are all the excellencies of God, the effects of His power, His certrin presence and ommscience, the severities of His judgment, and the sweetness and invitation of His mercies ; besides the prudence, wisdom, and satisfaction to the spirit, when we wisely neglect such sottish and low abuses and temptations, to conform to the rules of reason and duty, in comphance with the purposes of God and our own fehcities. 19. TMrdy : These ill-managed principles are dangers as umversal as an infected air; yet there are some diseases more proper to the particdar state of religion. First, to young begmners in rehgion he represents the difficulties of religion, and propounds the greater ex amples of holy persons, and affrights them with those mountains of piety ; observing where, and upon what instance of severity, Ms fancy will be most apprehensive and afflicted : and this he fails not often to represent, with a purpose that, by believing no piety less than the greatest can be good, he may despair of those heights, and retire into the securities and indifferencies of a careless life. But this is to be cured by all those instruments of piety, wMch in special are incentives of the love of God, and endearments of spiritud and religious affec tions ; and partiedarly by consideration of the divine goodness, who "knows whereof we are made, and remembers that we are but dust," and wril require no more of us than according to our powers and present capacities. But the subject-matter of tMs temptation is considered and refuted in the discourse of the love of Godc. c Part ii. iu Explication of the Decalogue, ] Com. 216 OF TEMPTATION. [PART I. 20. Secondly: But most commonly young beginners are zedous and high, and not so easily tempted to a recession till, after a long time, by a revolution of affections, they are abated by a defervescency in holy actions. The devil uses to prompt them on ; not that he loves the piety and the progress, but that he would engage the person in im prudences, and such forwardness of expresses, wMch either are in their own nature indiscretions, or from wMch by reason of the mca- pacity of the person it is necessary for him to retire. A new convert is like a bird newly entered into a net, tMough which possibly she might pass without danger, if her fears and unreasonable strivings did not entangle her ; but when by busy and disturbed flutterings she discomposes the order of it, she is entangled and unpenned, and made a prey to her treacherous enemy. Such are the mdiscreet strivings and too forward enterprises of new penitents; whom we shall observe too often undertaking great austerities, making vows, and casting bands upon their liberty and snares upon their persons ; tirinking notiring great enough to expiate their sM, or to present to God, or to endear their services, or secure their perseverance ; and therefore they lay a load of fetters upon themselves, or rather cut off their legs, that they may never go back ; therefore laying an obliga tion of vows and intolerable burdens on themselves, that by these they may by a compendium of piety redeem the time, and by those make it impossible to prevaricate. But the observation of the sad events and final accidents of these men, hath given probation of the indiscretion of such furious addresses and begMMngs. And it was prudently done of Meletiusd of Antioch, when he visited the dioceses of Syria and the several religious persons famous for severe under takings ; espying that Simeon Styhtes dwelt upon a pillar, and had bound Ms leg with a strong chain of iron, he sent for a smith, causmg it to be knocked off, and said, "To a man that loves God Ms mind is a sufficient chain." For the loads of voluntary austerities rasMy undertaken, make religion a burden when their first heats expire; and their vows, which are intended to secure the practice and per petuate the piety, are but the occasions of an aggravate crime; and the vow does not secure the piety, but the weariness and satiety of the duty tempts to the breakMg of the vow, or at least makes the man impatient, when he cannot persist with content, nor retire with safety. 21. It therefore concerns all spiritual gMdes to manage their new converts with sober counsels and moderate permissions, knowMg that subhme specMations m the metaphysics are not fit entertainment for an infant understanding. There is " milk for babes, and strong meat for men" of riper piety ; and it witt employ all the regdar strength of young beginners to contest against the rehcs of those miseMefs wMch remdn since the expulsion of the old man, and to master those diffi culties which by the nature of the state are certddy consequent to so late mutation. And if we, by the furies of zeal and the impatience d Theod. H. E., lib. v. cap. 4. [et. Philoth. cap. xxvi. torn. iii. pp. 1019, 265.] SECT. IX.] OF TEMPTATION. 217 of mistaken piety, are violent and indiscreet in the destroying of our enemies, we probably may tread the tiristle down, and trample upon all its appearances, and yet leave the root in the ground, with haste and imprudent forwardness. Gentle and soft counsels are the surest enemies to your vice, and the best conservators and promoters of a virtuous state ; but a hasty charge, and the conduct of a young, leader, may engage an early spirit M dangers and dishonours. And this temptation is of so much greater danger, because it hath a face of zed, and meets with all encouragements from without ; every man being apt to cherish a convert, and to inflame Ms new fires ; but few consider the inconveMences that are consequent to indiscreet begM- mngs, and the worse events usuaUy appendent to such inconveMences. 22. Indeed it is not usual that prudence and a new-kindled zed meet in the same person : but it wril therefore concern the safety of new converts, who cannot gmde themselves, to give themselves up to the conduct of an experienced spiritud person, who being disinterested in those heats of the first apprehensions, and being long taught by the observation of the accidents of a spiritual hfe upon what rocks rash ness and zeal usuaUy do engage us, can best teU what degrees and what instances of rehgion they may with most safety undertake : but for the general, it is best in the addresses of grace to follow the course of nature ; let there be an infancy, and a childhood, and a vigorous youth ; and by the divers and distant degrees of increment, let the persons be established in wisdom and grace. But above aU things let them be carefd that they do not lay upon themselves necessities of any lasting course, no vows of perpetmty M any instance of un- commanded action or degree of rehgion; for he may dter M Ms capacity and exterior condition ; he may see by experience that the particular engagement is imprudent ; he may by the virtue of obe dience be engaged on a duty Mconsistent with the conveMences and advantages of the other ; and Ms very loss of liberty in an uncom- manded instance may tempt Mm to inconvemence. But then for the single and transient actions of piety, dthough in them the danger is less, even though the imprudence be great, yet it were wett if new beginners M rehgion would attempt a moderate and an even piety, rather than actions of eminency, lest they retire with shame, and be afflicted with scruple when their first heats are spent, and expire in weariness and temptation. It is good to keep within the circmts of a man's affections, not stretching out all the degrees of fancy and desire, but leavMg the appetites of rehgion rather unsatisfied, and still desiring more, than by stretcMng out the whole facdty, leave no desires but what are fulfilled and wearied. 23. Thirdly : I shdl not need here to observe such temptations wliich are direct invitations to sin, upon occasion of the piety of holy persons; such as are security, too much confidence, pride, and vanity: these are part of every maris danger, and are to be considered upon their several arguments. Here I was ody to note the generd instru- 218 OF TEMPTATION. [PART I. ments of mischief. It remains now that I speak of such remedies and general antidotes, not wMch are proportioned to sins M special, but such as are preventions, or remedies, and good advices M generd. 24. First : Let every man abstain from all occasions of sin, as much as Ms condition wril permit. And it were better to do some violence to our secular affairs, than to procure apparent or probable danger to our souls. For if we see not a way open and ready pre pared to our iniquity, our desires oftentimes are not willing to be troubled, but opportumty gives hfe and activeness to our appetites. If David had not from Ms towers beheld the private beauties of Bath- sheba, Uriah had lived, and his wife been unattempted ; but sin was brought to him by that chance, and entering at the casements of Ms eyes, set his heart on fire, and despoiled hrin of Ms robes of honour and innocence. The riches of the wedge of gold, and the beauty of the Babylomsh garment, made Achan sacrilegious upon the place, who was innocent enough M his preceding purposes : and therefore that soul that makes itself an object to sin, and invites an enemy to view its possessions and hve M the vicinage, loves the sin itself; and he that is pleased with the danger, wodd willingly be betrayed into the necessity and the pleasure of the sin : for he can have no other ends to entertain the hazards, but that he hath a farther purpose to serve upon them ; he loves the pleasure of the sin, and therefore lie woMd make the condition of sinmng certain and unavoidable. And therefore holy scripture, wMch is admirable and curious in the cautions and securities of virtue, does not determine its precepts M the precise commands of virtuous actions, but dso binds up our senses, obstructs the passage of temptation, blocks up all the ways and avenues of vice, commanding us " to make a covenant with our eyes ; not to look upon a mrid ; not to sit with a woman that is a sMger ; not to con sider the wine when it sparkles, and gives its colour rightly in the cup ;" but " to set a watch before our mouths, to keep the door of our lips ;" and many more instances to this purpose, that sin may not come so near as to be repulsed ; as knowing sin hath then prevailed too far, when we give the demd to its- solicitations. 25. We read a story of a virtuous lady that desired of St. Athana- sius to procure for her, out of the number of the widows fed from the ecclesiasticd corban, an old woman, morose, peevish, and impa tient ; that she might by the society of so ungentle a person have often occasion to exercise her patience, her forgiveness and charity. I know not how well the counsel succeeded with her ; I am sure it was not very safe : and to invite the trouble, to triumph over, it, is to wage a war of an uncertain issue, for uo end but to get the pleasures of the victory, wMch oftentimes do not pay for the trouble, never for the danger. An Egyptian, who acknowledged fire for his god, one day doing his devotions, kissed Ms god after the manner of worsMp- pers, and burnt his lips. It was not in the power of that false and imaginary deity to cure the real hurt he had done, to Ms devoutest SECT. IX.] OF TEMPTATION. 219 worshipper. Just such a fool is he that Msses a danger though with a design of virtue, and hugs an opportumty of sin for an advantage of piety ; he burns himself in the neighbourhood of the flame, and twenty to one but he may perish in its embraces. And he that looks out a danger that he may overcome it, does as did the Persian, who worsMpping the sun, looked upon Mm, when he prayed him to cure Ms sore eyes. The sun may as well cure a weak eye, or a great burden kMt a broken arm, as a danger can do him advantage, that seeks such a combat wMch may rdn him, and after wMch he rarely may have tMs reward, that it may be said of Mm, he had the good fortune not to perish in Ms folly. It is easier to prevent a miscMef than to cure it ; and besides the pdn of the wound, it is MfiMtely more full of difficdty to cure a broken leg, which a little care and observation would have preserved whole. To recover from a sin is none of the easiest labours that concern the sons of men ; and therefore it con cerns them rather not to enter into such a narrow strait, from wMch they can never draw back their head without leaving their hair and skin and their ears behind. If God please to try us, He means us no hurt, and He does it with great reason and great mercy ; but if we go to try ourselves, we may mean well, but not wisely : for as it is simply unlawful for weak persons to seek a temptation, so for the more perfect it is dangerous. We have enemies enough without, and one of our own witMne : but we become our own tempter, when we ran out to meet the world, or invite the devil home that we may tiirow holy water upon his flames, and cdl the danger nearer that we may run from itf. And certriMy men are more guilty of many of their temptations than the devil, tMough their incuriousness or rash ness doing as much mischief to themselves as he can : for he can but offer ; and so much we do, when we run Mto danger. Such were those stories8 of St. Antony provoking the devil to battle : if the stories had been as true as the actions were rash and ridicdous, the story had fastened a note of indiscretion upon that good man ; though now I tirink there is nothing but a mark of fiction and fdsehood on the writer. 26. Secondly: Possibly without fault we may be engaged in a temptation, but then we must be diligent to resist the first begin nings : for when our strength is yet entire and unabated, if we suffer ourselves to be overcome and consent to its first and weakest attempts, how shall we be able to resist when it hath tired our contestation and wearied our patience, when we are weaker and prevailed upon, and « Sed quid ego omne malum mundique hominumque maligni Hostis ad invidiam detorqueo ? quum mala nostra Ex nostris concreta animis, genus, et caput, et vim, Quid sint, quid valeant, sumant de corde parente. Prud. Hamartig. [lin. 553. torn. i. p. 541.] ' Ecclus. xxi. 27. Quum exsecratur « [S. Athan. in vit. S. Anton., cap. ix. impius Satanam, suam ipsius animam torn. ii. p. 803.] exsecratur. 220 OF TEMPTATION. LPART *• the temptation is stronger and triumphant M many degrees of vic tory ? By how much a hectic fever is harder to be cured than a tertian, or a consumption of the lungs than a httle distillation of rheum upon the throat, by so much is it harder to prevail upon a triumphing lust than upon its first insmuations. But the ways of resisting are of a different consideration, proportionably to the nature of the crimes. 27. First : If the temptation be to crimes of pleasure and sensu ality, let the resistance be by flight h : for in case of lust, even to con sider the arguments agaMst it is half as great temptation as to press the arguments for it ; for all considerations of such atturements make the sod perceive sometiring of its relish, and entertam the fancy. Even the putting pitch from our clothes defiles the fingers ; and some adherences of pleasant and carnd sins wiU be remanent even from those considerations, which stay within the circmt of the flames, though but with purpose to quench the fire and preserve the house. Chastity cannot suffer the least thought of the reproaches of the spirit of impurity: and it is necessary to att that will keep their purity and Mnocence against sensud temptations, to avoid every tiring that may prejudice decorum. LibaMus the sopMst reports that a paMter bemg one day desirous to paMt Apollo upon a laurel-board, the colours wodd not stick, but were rejected ; out of wMch Ms fancy found out tMs extraction : that the chaste Daphne (concenring whom the poets feign that, flying from Apotto who attempted to ravish her, she was turned Mto a laurel-tree) could not endure Mm even in printing', and rejected him dter the loss of her sensitive powers. And indeed chaste soMs do, even to death, resent the least image and offer of impurity : whatsoever is like a sM of uncleanness, he that means to preserve Mmself chaste, must avoid, as he would avoid the sin; in tMs case there beMg no difference but of degrees between the inward temptation and the crime. 28. Secondly : If the temptation be to crimes of troublesome and preternaturd desires, or MteUectud nature, let the resistance be made conserta manu, by a perfect fight, by the amassing of such arguments in general, and remedies in particular, wMch are apt to become de- letories to the sm, and to abate the temptation. But M both these instances, the resistance must at least be as soon as the attempt is, lest the violence of the temptation outrun our powers : for if agamst our full strength it hath prevailed to the first degrees, its progress to a complete victory is not so improbable as were its successes at the first beginnmgs. But to serve tMs and all other ends M the resisting and subddng a temptation, these foUowing considerations have the best and most universd influence. 29. First: Consideration of the presence of God, who is witness h Time videre unde possis cadere ; noli col. 463.] fieri perversa simplicitate seeurus— S. > Kal apveiTai tSv eporra Kal to SevSpov. August [Enarr. in Psalm. 1. § 3. tom.iv. — [Liban. Progymn., torn. i. p. 147.] SECT. IX.] OF TEMPTATION. 221 of all our actions, and a revenger of aU impiety. TMs is so great an instrument of fear and religion, that whoever does actuaUy consider God to be present, and considers what the first consideration sigMfies, either must be restrained from the present temptation, or must have thrown off all the possibilities and aptnesses for virtue ; such as are modesty, and reverence, and holy fear. For if the face of a man scatters all base machinations, and we dare not act our crimes in the theatre unless we be impudent as well as criminal ; much more does the sense of a present deity fill the places of our heart with veneration and the awe of rehgion, when it is througlriy apprehended and ac tually considered. We see not God; " He is not in our thoughts," when we run into darkness to act our impurities. For we dare not commit addtery if a boy be present ; behold, the boy is sent off with an excuse, and God abides there, but yet we commit the crime : it is because, as Jacob said at Bethel, " God was in that place, and we knew not of it ;" and yet we neither breathe, nor move an artery, but in Him, and by His assistance; "in Hrin we rive, and move, and have our beingk;" and, " dl tMngs are naked and open in His sight1." "The iniquity of My people is very great; for they say, The Lord seeth notm;" " Shall not He that made the eye see" ?" "To Him the mght and day are both alike0." These and many more to the same design are the voices of scripture, that our spirits may retire into the beholding of God, to the purposes of fear and holiness, with whom we do cohabit by the necessities of nature, and the condition of our essence, wholly in dependence ; and then only we may sin securely, when we can contrive to do it so that God may not see us. 30. There are many men who are " servants of the eyesp," as the apostle's phrase is; who, when they are looked on, act virtue with much pompousness and theatricd bravery q; but these men, when the theatre is empty, put off their upper garment, and retire into their primitive baseness. Diogenes endured the extremity of win ter's cold, that the people might wonder at Ms austerity and philoso phical patience ; but Plato, seeing the people admiring the man and pitying the sufferance, told them that the way to make Mm warm himself was for them to be gone and to take no notice of Mm. For they that walk as in the sight of men, serve that design weU enough when they fill the public voice with noises and opririons, and are not by their purposes engaged to act in private ; but they who are ser vants pf the eyes of God, and walk as M the divine presence, perceive the same restraMts in darkness, and closets, and grots, as in the right k Acts xvii. 28. rentur philosophi laborabant ; sed vultum 1 Heb. iv. 13. et tristitiam, et dissentientem a ceteris m Ezek. ix. 9 ; Jer. xxiii. 24. habitum, pessimis moribus preetendebant, D Psalm xciv. 9. — Quinctil. [Inst or., lib. i. prooem. p. 8.] • Psalm exxxix. 1 2. Ambitio et luxuria et impotentia sce- P Ephes. vi. 6. 'OipBaX/idSovXot. nam desiderant ; sanabis ista, si abscon- ' Non enirn virtute-ac studiis ut habe- deris — Sen. [ep. xciv. torn. ii. p. 454.] 222 OF TEMPTATION. [PART I. and midst of theatres ; and that consideration imposes upon us a happy necessity of doing virtuously, wMch presents us placed in the eyes of our Judger. And therefore it was not unhandsomely sdd of a Jewish doctor, " If every man would consider God to be the great eye of the world, watcMng perpetudly over aU our actions, and that His hand is indefatigable, and His ear ever open, possibly sin might be extirpated from off the face of the earth." And tMs is the condi tion of beatitude ; and the blessed sods witirin their regions of hght and felicity cannot sin, because of the vision beatified, they dways behold the face of God : and those who partake of tMs state by way of consideration, which is essentid to the condition of the blessed, and derive it into practice and discourse, in proportion to this shall retain an innocence and a part of glory. 31. For it is a great declension of human reason and a disreputa tion to our spirits, that we are so wholly led by sense, that we will not walk in the regions of the Spirit, and behold God by our eyes of faith and discourse, suffering our course of life to be gMded by such principles wMch distingmsh our natures from beasts, and our condi tions from vicious, and our spirits from the world, and our hopes from the common satisfactions of sense and corruption. The better half of our nature is of the same constitution with that of angels; and therefore dthough we are drenched in matter and the commu nications of earth, yet our better part was designed to converse with God : and we had, besides the eye of reason, another eye of faith put into our sods, and both clarified with revelations and demon strations of the Spirit, expressing to us so visible and clear charac ters of God's presence, that the expression of the same Spirit is, " we may feel Him, for He is witirin uss" and about us, and we are in Him, and in the comprehensions of His embracMgs, as birds in the air, or infants in the wombs of their pregnant mothers. And that God is pleased not to communicate Himself to the eyes of our body, but still to remaM invisible, besides that it is His own glory and per fection, it is also no more to us but like a retreat behind a curtain, where when we know our Judge stands as an espid and a watch over our actions', we shaU be sottish if we dare to provoke His jealousy because we see Him not, when we know that He is close by though beMnd the cloud. 32. There are some generd impressions upon our spirits, which by way of presumption and custom possess our persuasions, and make restrdnt upon us to exceUent purposes ; such as'are the rehgion of ' Magna vobis est, et dissimulare non tis. — Boeth. De consol., lib. v. pros, ult, vultis, necessitas indicta probitatis, cum [p. 1116.] ante oculos agitis judicis cuncta cernen- * Acts xvii. 27. ' Tleireicrpevni 8ti 01 8eo\ 'Hepa efftrdfievoi it&vtij oiTw(riv i-ir* alav. [Hesiod. Op. et Dies, lin. 124. p. 24.] 'AvBptlmiev Vf3pets re Kal evvoplas iipopuvrts. [Horn. Od. p>. 487.] SECT. IX.] OF TEMPTATION. 223 holy places, reverence of our parents, presence of an austere, an honourable, or a virtuous person11. For many sins are prevented by the company of a witness, especiaUy if, besides the ties of modesty, we have dso towards him an endearment of reverence and fair opi nion" ; and if he were with us in our privacies, he woMd cause our retirements to be more holy. St. Ambrose7 reports of the Yirgin Mary, that she had so much piety and rehgion in her countenance and deportment, that divers persons, moved by the veneration and regard of her person, M her presence have first commenced their re solutions of chastity and sober living. However the story be, her person certaidy was of so express and great devotion and sanctity, that he must needs have been of a very impudent disposition and firm immodesty, who durst have spoken unhandsome language in the presence of so rare a person. And why then any rudeness in the presence of God, if that were as certriMy believed and considered ? For whatsoever amongst men can be a restraMt of vice or an endear ment of virtue, att this is higMy verified in the presence of God, to whom our conscience in its very concedments is as a fair table writ ten in capital letters by His own finger ; and then, if we fail of the advantage of this exercise, it must proceed either from our dishonour able opririon of God, or our own fearless Madvertency, or from a di rect spirit of reprobation : for it is certdn that this consideration is in its own nature apt to correct our manners, to produce the fear of Godz, and humility, and spiritud and holy thoughts, and the knowledge of God and of ourselves, and the consequents of all these, holy walking, and holy comforts ; and by this ody argument St.Paph- nutius and St. EpMem are reported in church story to have converted two harlots from a course of dissolution to great sanctity and auste rity. 33. But then tMs presence of God must not be a mere speculation - of the understanding ; though so only it is of very great benefit and immediate efficacy, yet it must reflect as weU from the will as from discourse : and then ody we walk M the presence of God, when by frith we behold Him present, when we speak to Him in frequent and holy prayers, when we beg aid from Him in dl our needs, and ask counsel of Him in att our doubts, and before Him bewail our sins, and tremble at His presence. TMs is an entire exercise of rehgion. And beside that the presence of God serves to att tMs, it hath dso u Aliquem habeat animus quern vere- obtectis libidinibus, dum Sejanum dilexit atur, cujus auctoritate etiam secretum timuitve ; postremo in scelera simul ac suum sanctius facit. — Sen. ep. xi. [torn, dedecora prorupit, postquam remoto pu- ii. p. 37.] Quid prodest inclusam esse dore et metu suo tantum ingenio uteba- conscientiam 1 patemus Deo. tur. — Tac. [Annal. vi. 51.] x Tiberius inter bona malaque mixtus, f [Vid. De inst. virg., cap. vii. § 50. incolumi matre ; intestabilis saevitia, sed torn. ii. p. 261.] * 'Opui ydp iffids ovSev ijvras &XXo irXty EiSaX' oVonreo ffifiev fl KoiKpTjv ffKtdv. Toiavra to'ivvv elffop&v, inrepKoirov MijSeV tot' etirris abrbs els Beobs eiros.— Soph. [Aj. 125.] 224 OF TEMPTATION. [PART I. especial influence in the disimprovement of temptations, because it hath in it many tirings contrariant to the nature and efficacy of temp tations; such as are consideration, reverence, spiritud thoughts, and the fear of God: for wherever tiris consideration is actud, there either God is MgMy despised, or certainly feared. In tMs case we are made to declare ; for our purposes are conceded oMy in an incu- riousness and inconsideration ; but whoever considers God as present, will M all reason be as religious as in a temple, the reverence of wMch place custom or religion hath imprinted in the spirits of most men: so that, as Ahasuerus said of Haman, "will he ravish the queen in my own house ?" aggravating the crime by the incivility of the circumstance ; God may well say to us, whose rehgion compels us to beheve God every where present; sMce the divMe presence hath made all places holy, and every place hath a numen in it, even the eternal God, we unhdlow the place, and desecrate the ground whereon we stand, supported by the arm of God, placed in His heart, and enlightened by His eye, when we sin in so sacred a presence. 34. The second great Mstrument agdnst temptation, is " medita tion of death"." Eaderus reports, that a certain virgM, to restrain the inordination of intemperate desires, wMch were like thorns in her flesh, and disturbed her spiritud peace, shut herself up in a sepdcMe, and for twelve years dwelt in that scene of death. It were good we did so too, making tombs and coffins presentid to us by frequent meditation. For God hath given us aU a defimtive arrest in Adam ; and from it there hes no apped, but it is Mfdhbly and unalterably " appointed for aU men once to dieb," or to " be changed," to pass from hence to a condition of eternity, good or bad. Now because this law is certaM0, and the time and the manner of its execution is uncertaM, and from this moment eternity depends, and that dter this life the final sentence is irrevocable, that all the pleasures here are sudden, transient, and unsatisfying, and vam; he must needs be a fool, that knows not to distingmsh moments from eternity d: and since it is a condition of necessity, established by divine decrees, and fixed by the indispensable laws of nature, that we shall after a very little duration pass on to a condition strange, not understood, then • Tota philosophia nihil est nisi meditatio mortis. — Plato. [Phaed. § xxi. torn. ». p. 161.] b MoVos Btuv yap BdvaTos ov Su>paiv epa. obS' &v ti 8vav,ovY iirio-irevSav &vois. — jEschyl. [in Niobe; ap. Stobseum, cxviii. 1.] 'Adavacias 6° obK etrriv, obb* A.V trvvaydyris t& TavrdXov TcLxavr 4xt7va Xey6fj.eva. — Menand. [ap. Stob. xxii. 19.] Vita humana prope uti ferrum est : si Metrodor. Phil. [ap. Stob. cxviii. 33.] exerceas, conteritur ; si non exerceas, ta- a Dies iste quem tanquam extremum men rubigo interficit. — Cato apud Aul. reformidas, aetemi natalis est. — Sen. ep, Gell., lib. xi. cap. 2. [p. 519.] cii. [torn. ii. p. 509.] Per hoc spatium, 0 IIpos fiiv tA &XXa irdvTa daipdXeidv quod ab infantia patet in senectutem, ir io-Ti irpot(rTao-8aim xfy'v Se Bavdrov, irdv- aliam naturae sumimur partem. res HvBpaiiroi drtlxarTov irdXiv oiKovfjev. SECT. IX.] OF TEMPTATION. 225 undterable, and yet of great mutation from this, even of greater dis tance from that in which we are here, than tMs is from the state of beasts ; _ tMs when it is considered must in aU reason make the same impression upon our understandMgs and affections, which naturally aU strange things and att great considerations are apt to do ; that is, create resolutions and results passing tMough the heart of man, such as are reasonable and prudent in order to our own felicities, that we neglect the vanities of the present temptation, and secure our Mture condition, which wril, till eternity itself expires, remain such as we make it to be by our deportment in tMs short transition and passage through the world. 35. And that tMs discourse is reasonable I am therefore confirmed, because I find it to be to the same purpose used by the Spirit of God, and the wisest personages in the world. " My soul is always in my hand, therefore do I keep Thy commandments," said David e : he looked upon hrinseri as a dying person, and that restrained att Ms Mordinations, and so he prayed; " Lord, teach me to number my days, that I may apply my heart unto wisdom." And therefore the Egyp tians used to serve up a skeleton to their feasts', that the dissolution and vapours of wme might be restrained with that bunch of myrrh, and the vaMties of their eyes chastised by that sad object : for they thought it unlikely a man should be transported far with any tiring low or vicious B, that looked long and often into the hoUow eye-pits of a death's head, or dwelt in a charnel-house. And such consider ations make aU the importunity and violence of sensual desires to disband. For when a man stands perpetually at the door of eternity, and, as did John the dmoner, every day is building of his sepdcMe, and every night one day of our Me is gone and passed into the pos session of death, it will coneern us to take care that the door leading to hell do not open upon us, that we be not crashed to rain by the stones of our grave, and that our death become not a consignation to us to a sad eternity. For all the pleasures of the whole worldh, and in aU its duration, cannot make recompense for one hour's tor ment in heU : and yet if wicked persons were to sit in heU for ever without any change of posture or variety of torment beyond that session, it were insufferable beyond the endurance of nature1 : and therefore where httle less than Mfimte misery M an infimte duration shall pumsh the pleasures of sudden and transient crimes, the gain of pleasure, and the exchange of banks here for a condition of eternd and miserable death, is a permutation fit to be made by none-i but ' Psalm cxix. 1 09 ; xc. 1 2. Tjfxepav, Kal obSev obSeiroTe Taireivbv iv&v- f [See vol. iii. p. 292.] P^ay, obSe &yav iiriBvp^o-eis tivSs. — Epict- t* QdvaTOS irpb otp8aXfj,wv effTie troi Kad' Enchir., c. 28. [But see vol. vii. p. 386.] 11 Linquenda tellus, et domus, et placens Uxor; neque harum, quas colis, arborum Te, praeter invisas cupressos, Ulla brevem dominum sequetur. — Hor. [Od. ii. 14. lin. 21.] ' [See p. 731 below ; and cf. vol. iv. p. 568.] J [Cf. vol. iii. p. 352.] II. « 826 OF TEMPTATION. [PART I. fools and desperate persons, who made no use of a reasonable sod, but that they M their perishing might be convMced of unreasonable ness, and die by their own fmrit. 36. The use that wise men have made when they reduced this consideration to practice is, to beheve every day to be the last of their life ; for so it may be, and for aught we know it will ; and then tirink what you would avoid, or what you would do, if you were dying, or were to-day to suffer death by sentence and conviction ; and that, in all reason, and in proportion to the strength of your consideration, you will do every day. For " that is the subrimity of wisdom, to do those tirings riving, which are to be desired and chosen by dying persons'." An darm of death, every day renewed, and pressed earnestly, will watch a man so tame and soft, that the precepts of rehgion will dwell deep in Ms spirit. But they "that make a- cove nant with the grave, and put the evil day far from them," they are the men that eat spiders and toads for meat greedily, and a temp tation to them is as welcome as joy, and they seldom dispute the point in behdf of piety or mortification : for they that look upon death at distance, apprehend it not but in such general lines and great repre- sentments that describe it only as future and possible ; but nothing of its terrors or affrightments, or circumstances of advantage, are dis cernible by such an eye that disturbs its sight, and discomposes the posture, that the object may seem another thing than what it is truly and really. St. Austin1, with Ms mother MoMca, was led one day by a Roman praetor to see the tomb of Cassar. Himself thus describes the corpse; "it looked of a blue moMd, the bone of the nose laid bare, the flesh of the nether rip quite fallen off, Ms mouth fdl of worms, and M his eye-pits two hungry toads feasting upon the rema nent portion of flesh and moisture ; and so he dwelt in his house of darkness*." And if every person tempted by an opportuMty of lust or intemperance, would choose such a room for his privacy, that com pany for Ms witness, that object to attay Ms appetite, he wodd soon find Ms spirit more sober, and Ms desires obedient1. I end this with the counsel of St. Bernard, " Let every man in the first address to Ms actions consider whether, if he were now to die, he might safely and prudently do such an act, and whether he would not be infinitely troubled that death should surprise Mm in the present dispositions, and then let him proceed accordingly :" for smce "our treasure is m earthen vessels" wMch may be broken M pieces by the colhsion of ten thousand accidents, it were not sde to treasure up wrath M them ; for if we do, we shall certainly drink it in the day of recompense. ' Hie est apex summae sapientias, ea petenda. viventem facere, qua? morienti essent ap- i [Serm. xlviii. ad fratres in eremo] k Kal ydp iyii cnroS6s eipii, Nfrou fjieydXris f3a John iv. 14. « 1 Pet. iii. 21. 230 OF BAPTISM. [PART T. ceremony, as baptism trdy is, properly capable of having a type; itself is but a type of a greater mysteriousness. And the nature of types is, in shadow to describe by dark lines a future substance ">: so that, dthough circumcision might be a type of the effects and graces bestowed in baptism, yet of the baptism or ablution itself it cannot be properly, because of the unlikeness of the symbols and configurations, and because they are both equally distant from substances, which types are to consign and represent. The first bishops of Jerusalem, and all the Christian Jews for many years, retained circumcision1 together with baptism ; and Christ himself, who was circumcised, was dso baptized ; and therefore it is not so proper to call circumcision a type of baptism : it was rather a sed and sign of the same covenant to Abraham, and the fathers, and to aU Israel, as baptism is to all ages of the Christian church. 6. And because tins rite coMd not be administered to all persons, and was not at aU times after its institution, God was pleased by a proper and specific type to consign tMs rite of baptism, which He intended to aU, and that for ever : and God, when the family of His church grew separate, notorious, numerous, and distinct, sent them Mto their own country by a baptism, tMough wlrich the whole nation passed ; for " all the fathers were under the cloud, and all passed tMough the sea, and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud, and in the seas," so by a double figure foretelling, that as they were Mitiated to Moses's law by the cloud above and the sea beneath, so shodd att the persons of the church, men, women, and children, be initiated unto Christ by the Spirit from above and the water below : for it was the design of the apostle in that discourse to represent that the fathers and we were equal as to the privileges of the covenant; he proved that we do not exceed them, and it ought therefore to be certain that they do not exceed us, nor their children ours. 7. But after this something was to remain, wMch might not ody consign the covenant which God made with Abraham, but be as a passage from the fathers tMough the synagogue to the church, from Abraham by Moses to CMist : and that was circumcision, which was a rite which God chose to be a mark to the posterity of Abraham, to distinguish them from the nations wlrich were not witirin the covenant of grace, and to be " a seal of the righteousness of frith" wMch God made to be the spirit and life of the covenant. 8. But because circumcision, although it was mriristered to all the mdes, yet it was not to the femdes, dthough they and aU the nation were baptized and Mitiated into " Moses in the cloud and M the sea:" therefore the chfldren of Israel, by imitation of the patriarchs the posterity of Noah, used also ceremonid baptisms to their women, and to their proselytes, and to aU that were circumcised ; and the . * Umbra in lege, imago in evangelio, col. 63.] Veritas in ccelestibus. — S. Ambr. [De off. ' [See vol. vi. p. 659, note i.] miuistr., lib. i. cap. 48. § 248. torn. ii. ¦ 1 Cor. x. 1,2. SECT. IX..] OF BAPTISM. 231 Jews deliver that Sarah and Rebecca, when they were adopted into the family of the church, that is, of Abraham and Isaac, were bap tized : and so were aU strangers that were married to the sons of Israel. And that we may think tMs to be typicd of Christian bap tism, the doctors of the Jews had a tradition that when the Messias wodd come, there should be so many proselytes that they codd not be circumcised, but should be baptized. The tradition proved true, but not for their reason. But that this rite of admitting into mysteries and institutions and offices of rehgion by baptisms, was used by the posterity of Noah, or at least very early among the Jews, besides the testimomes of their own doctors, I am the rather induced to beheve, because the heathens had the same rite in many places, and in severd religions : so they initiated disciples into the secrets of Mitiira'; and the priests of Cotytto were called Baptse, because by baptism they were admitted into the rehgion" ; and they thought murder, incest, rapes, and the worst of crimes, were purged by dipping in the sea or fresh springs31 : and a proselyte is catted in Arrianus^ /3e/3a/x/j,o>os, intinctus, ' a bap tized person.' 9. But tMs ceremony of baptizing was so certain and usual among the Jews in their admitting proselytes and adopting into institutions, that to baptize and to make disciples are att one ; and when John the baptist by an order from heaven went to prepare the way to the coming of our blessed Lord, he preached repentance, and baptized aU that professed they did repent. He taught the Jews to live good rives, and baptized with the baptism of a prophet, such as was not unusually done by extraordinary and holy persons in the change or renewmg of disciphne or religion. Whether " John's baptism was from heaven, or of men," CMist asked the pharisees. That it was from heaven the people therefore believed, because he was a prophet and a holy person : but it implies dso that such baptisms are sometimes from men, that is, used by persons of an eminent rehgion or extraordinary fame, for the gathering of disciples and admitting proselytes ; and the disciples of Christ did so too2 ; even before Christ had instituted the sacrament for the Christian church, the disciples that came to Christ were bap tized by His apostles. 10. And now we are come to the gates of baptism. All these, till John, were but types and preparatory baptisms, and John's baptism was but the prologue to the baptism of CMist. The Jewish baptisms admitted proselytes to Moses, and to the law of ceremomes ; John's baptism called them to believe M the Messias now appearing, and to repent of their sins, to enter into the kingdom wMch was now at hand, ' Tertul. de Prsescript., cap. 40. [p. 216 " Scholiast, in Juv. Sat. ii. lib. I. [Ad D-] , lin- ?2,1 1 O nimium faciles, qui tristia crimina caedis Tolli fluminea posse putatis aqua. — [Ovid. Fast. ii. 45.] r [Comment, in Epict. ii. 9.] * John iv. 2. 232 OF BAPTISM. [PARTI. and preached that repentance which should be for the remission of sins. His baptism remitted no sMsz, but preached and consigned repentance, which, in the belief of the Messias, whom he pointed to, shodd pardon sins. But because he was taken from his office before the work was completed, the disciples of Christ finished it : they went forth preacMng the same sermon of repentance, and the approach of the kingdom, and baptized, or made proselytes or disciples, as John did ; only they (as it is probable) baptized in the name of Jesus, wlrich it is not so likely John did. And tMs very thMg might be the cause of the different forms of baptism recorded in the Acts3, of " baptizing in the name of Jesus V' and at other times "in the name of the Father, Son, and holy Ghost0;" the former beMg the maimer of doing it M pursuance of the design of John's baptism, and the latter the form of institution by Christ for the whole Christian church, appointed after His resurrection ; the disciples at first usMg promis cuously what was used by the same authority, though with some difference of mystery. 11. The holy Jesus having found His way ready prepared by the preacMng of John, and by his baptism and the Jewish manner of adopting proselytes and disciples into the rehgion a way chalked out for Him to Mitiate disciples into His religion, took what was so pre pared, and changed it into a perpetual sacrament. He kept the ceremony, that they who were led ody by outward tirings might be the better cdled in, and easier enticed into the religion, when they entered by a ceremony which their nation always used M the hke cases : and therefore without change of the outward act, He put into it a new spirit, and gave it a new grace, and a proper efficacy ; He sublimed it to Mgher ends, and adorned it with stars of heaven; He made it to signify greater mysteries, to convey greater blessings, to consign the bigger promises, to cleanse deeper than the skin, and to carry proselytes farther than the gates of the Mstitution. For so He was pleased to do in the other sacrament : He took the ceremony wMch He found ready M the custom of the Jews, where the major domo, after the paschd supper, gave bread and wMe to every person of his family ; He changed notMng of it without, but transferred the rite to greater mysteries, and put His own spirit to their sign, and it became a sacrament evangehed. It was so dso in the matter of excommurication, where the Jewish practice was made to pass mto Christian discipline : without violence and noise " old tilings became new," whiles He fulfilled the law, making it up in full measures of the Spirit. 12. By these steps baptism passed on to a divine evangehed in- z Audi quid scripturae doceant ; Joan- cationem Christi subsequutura. — Hieron, nis baptisma non tam peccata dimisit, adv. Lucif. [torn. iv. col. 293.] quam pcenitentiae baptisma fuit in pecca- ¦ Vide supra, Sect. ix. n. 1. torum remissionem, id est, futuram re- b Acts viii. 16; ii. 38. missionem, quae esset postea per sanctifi- c Matt, xxviii. 19. SECT. IX.] OF BAPTISM. 233 stitution, which we find to be consigned by three evangelists'1, " Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing tliem in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Ghost." It was one of the last commandments the holy Jesus gave upon the earth, when He taught His apostles " the things wlrich concerned His kingdom ;" for "he that believeth and is baptized, shaU be saved e," but "udess a man be bom of water and the holy Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven';" agreeable to the decretory words of God by Abraham in the circumcision, to which baptism does succeed M the consignation of the same covenant, and the same spiritud promises8, " the uncircumcised cMld, whose flesh is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from Ms people : he hath broken My covenant." The Manichees, Seleucus, Hermias, and their followers11, people of a day's abode and smaU Mterest, but of malicious doctrine, taught baptism not to be necessary, not to be used, upon tMs ground ; because they supposed that it was proper to John to baptize with water, and re served for Christ, as His peculiar, to " baptize with the holy Ghost and with fire." Indeed CMist baptized none otherwise ; He sent His Spirit upon the church M Pentecost, and baptized them with fire, the Spirit appearing hke a flame : but He appointed His apostles to baptize with water, and they did so, and their successors after them, every where and for ever, not expounding but obeying the preceptive words of their Lord, wMch were almost the last that He spake upon earth. And I cannot tirink it needful to prove tiris to be necessary by any more arguments ; for the words are so plain that they need no exposition : and yet if they had been obscure, the uni- versd practice of the apostles and the church for ever, is a sufficient declaration of the commandment ; no tradition is more universal, no, not of scripture itself; no words are plainer, no, not the ten com mandments : and if any suspicion can be superinduced by any jedous or less discerning person, it wiU need no other refutation, but to turn Ms eyes to those rights by wMch himself sees scripture to be the word of God, and the commandments to be the declaration of His witt. 13. But that wMch will be of greatest concernment M tiris affair is, to consider the great benefits are conveyed to us M this sacra ment; for tMs witt MgMy conclude that the precept was for ever, wMch God so seconds with His grace and mighty blessings; and the susception of it necessary because we cannot be without those excellent things wMch are the graces of the sacrament. 14. First : The first frait is, that " M baptism we are admitted to the kingdom of Christ," presented unto Him, consigned with His sacrament, enter into His militia, give up our understandings and our choice to the obedience of Christ, and, in all senses that we can, become His disciples, witnessing a good confession, and undertaking " Matt, xxviii. 19. e Gen. xvii. 14. e Mark xvi. 16. h S. August. Haer. 46. 59. [torn. viii. 1 John iii. 5. coll. 17, 20.] 234 OF BAPTISM. [PART I. a holy Hfe : and therefore M scripture p.aOr\reveiv and Pairri&iv are conjoined in their significations, as they are in the mystery ; it is a giving up our names to Christ, and it is part of the foundation, or the first principles, of the rehgion, as appears in St. Pad's catechism1; it is so the first tiling, that it is for babes and neophytes, in wMch they are matricdated and adopted into the house of their Father, and taken Mto the hands of their mother. Upon tMs account, bap tism is caUed in antiqdty ecclesia janua, porta gratia, et primus in- troitus sanctorum ad aternam Dei et ecclesice consuetudinem*, 'the gate of the church, the door of grace, the first entrance of the saints to an eternd conversation with God and the church.' St. Bernard1 calls it sacramentum initiationis, et intrantium Christianismum in- vestituram, ' the sacrament of initiation, and the investiture of them that enter into the rehgion/ And the person so entering is caUed ¦neneio-pivos and avyKarare6eipevosm, one of the rehgion, or a pro selyte and convert, and one added to the number of the church, m imitation of that of St. Luke, 6 Kvpios Trpoa-erfflei o-a>(oiJ.evovsn rfj ek- KArjcriq, 'God added to the church those that shodd be saved;' just as the church does to tMs day and for ever, baptizing infants and catechumens ; (6p.evoi. Trpoo-rttievrai, they are added to the church, that they may be added to the Lord, and the number of the inhabi tants of heaven. 15. Secondly: The next step beyond this is "adoption Mto the covenant0," wMch is an immediate consequent of the first presenta tion ; tMs being the first act of man, that the first act of God. And this is called by St. Paul, a being " baptized M one Spirit Mto one bodyp," that is, we are made capable of the commudon of sdnts, the blessings of the faithfd, the privileges of the church : by tMs we are as St. Luke calls it, Tera.yp.ivoi els CU>VV aldviov% 'orddned, or disposed, put Mto the order of eternd life,' bemg made members of the mysticd body under Christ our Head. 16. Thirdly: And therefore "baptism is a new birth" by wMch we enter Mto the new world, the new creation, the blessmgs and spiritualities of the Mngdom : and tMs is the expression wMch our Saviour himself used to Nicodemus, "Unless a man be born of water and the Spirit1;" and it is by St. Pad called Aovrpbv TiaXiyyeveo-las", 'the laver of regeneration;' for now we begin to be reckoned in a new census or account ; God has become our Father, Christ our elder Brother, the Spirit " the earnest of our inheritance," the church our mother ; our food is the body and blood of our Lord, faith is our learnMg, religion our employment, and our whole life is spiritud, 1 Heb. vi. 1. x^tiv.— Cyril. Hierosol.[Catech. iii. §13. 11 S. August. De catech. rud. [vid. cap. p. 46 D.] xx. torn. vi. col. 285.] v 1 Cor. xii. 13. 1 [Serm. ii. in Coen. Dom. col. 145.] •> Acts xiii. 40. m Just. Martyr. [Apol. i. § 65. p. 82.] ' John iii. 5. " [Tobs earicrp6s. z [In Joan. iii. torn. v. col. 475.] -Damasc Orthod. Fid. lib. iv. [cap. 9.] * LIn tlle church of S. Sophia at CP. » Lib de liapt. c. 1. [p. 221 A.] Grelot, 'Voyage' &c. p. 197. ed. 1681.] 236 OF BAPTISM. [PART 1t not my face only.' And so it is intended and promised; "Arise and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, and call on the name of the Lord3," said Ananias to Saul ; for "Christ loved the church, and gave Himself for it, that He might sanctify and cleanse it t£ Aour/xS rod vbaros ev prjp.ari, with the washMg of water M the wordb," that is, baptism in the CMistian religion : and therefore Tertdhan caUs baptism lavacrum compendiatum", ' a compendious laver,' that is, an entire cleansing the sod in that one action justly and rightly per formed"1.' In the rehearsal of wMch doctrine it was not an unplea sant etymology that Anastasius Sindtae gave of baptism, fiAimarpa, quasi j3diTTaio-p,a, ev Eph. v. 26. c Adv. Marc. [lib. iv. 9. p. 419 D.] QdXairaa KXv£ei irdvra t' dvBpdjiriav nana. Gr. Prov. [Eurip. Iph. in Taur. 1193.] " An non ita credimus, quia omne ge- pendio cum indulgentissimo creditore nus peccati cum ad salutare lavacrum transactum est. — Ambros., lib. i. cap. 7. venimus aufertur. — Origen. Horn. xv. in de Poenit. Josu. [§ 5. torn. ii. p. 434 B.] h Qui dicit peccata in baptismate fun- ¦ [Viae dux, de etymol. p. 64. 4to. ditus non dimitti, dlcat in mari rubra Ingoldst, 1606.] .ffigyptios non veraciter mortuos S. 1 Arator, Hist. Apost, lib. ii. [lin. Greg. M., [lib. xi. ep. 45. torn. ii. col. 11*5.] 113!.] s Ecce quicquid iniquitatum sempiter- * Rev. vii. 14. nus ignis excoquere et expiare vix posset, k 1 John i. 7 ; Acts xxii. 16 ; Tit. iii subito sacro fonte submersum est, et de 5 ; Heb. ix. 1 4. aeternis debitis brevissimo lavacri com- SECT. IX.] OF BAPTISM. 237 els to ev elo-i, 'these three agree in one,' or are to one purpose > ; they agree in baptism, and M the whole pursuance of the assistances wMch a Christian needs aU the days of Ms Me. And therefore St. Cyril k calls baptism, t&v too XpioroC TraOrmdraiv avrtrvnov, 'the antitype of the passions of Christ.' It does preconsign the death of Christ, and does the infancy of the work, of grace, but not weakly : it brings from death to life ; and though it brings us but to the birth in the new life, yet that is a greater change than is in all the periods of our growth to manhood, to " a perfect man in Christ Jesus." 18. Fifthly : Baptism does not oMy pardon our sMs, but puts us into a state of pardon for the time to come. For baptism is the be- ginMng of the new life, and an admission of us Mto the evangehed covenant, wMch on our parts consists in a sincere and timely endea vour to glorify God by faith and obedience ; and on God's part He will pardon what is past, assist us for the future, and not measure us by grrins and scruples, or exact our duties by the measure of an angel, but by the span of a man's hand. So that by baptism we are consigned to the mercies of God and the graces of the gospel; that is, that our pardon be continued, and our piety be a state of repentance. And therefore that baptism, which in the Nicene creed we profess to be for "the remission of sins," is called in the Jerusdem creed1, "the baptism of repentance;" that is, it is the entrance of a new life, the gate to a perpetual change and reformation, all the way contindng our title to, and hopes of, forgiveness of sins. And this exceUency is clearly recorded by St. Paul : " The kMdness and love of God our Saviour towards man hath appeared : not by works of righteousness which we have donem :" that is the formality of the gospel covenant, not to be exacted by the strict measures of the law : " but according to His mercy He saved us," that is, by gen tleness and remissions, by pitying and pardoning us, by relieving and supporting us ; because " He remembers that we are but dust." And aU this mercy we are admitted to, and is conveyed to us bia \ovrpov irakiyyeveo-ias, ' by the laver of regeneration,' and the " renewMg of the holy Ghost." And this plain, evident doctrine, was observed, explicated, and urged against the Messahans, who sdd that baptism was like a razor, that cuts away dl the sins that were past, or pre sently adhering, but not the sins of our future life ; ovbe yap tovto fiovov eirayyeXAerai to pvurr\piov, aAKa. ra tovtojv pelfo Kal reAeto- repa' appaj3!i)v ydp eVri t&v peAXovTiav dyaO&v, kcu rrjs ecropevins avaaTuaebos twos, Kal Koivcovia t&v besn" 'this sacra ment promises more and greater tirings; it is the earnest of future i 1 John v. 8. m Titus iii. 4, 5. k [Catech. xx. § G. p. 313 C] " Theodoret. ep. de divin. decr^t., ' TS. Cyril. Hier. Catech. xviii. cap. 22, cap. de baptism, [al. haeret. fab. lib. v. and xix. cap. 9. pp. 295, 309.] cap. 18.— torn. iv. p. 441.] 238 OF BAPTISM. [PART I. good tirings, the type of the resurrection, the commumcation of the Lord's passion, the partaking of His resurrection, the robe of righte ousness, the garment of gladness, the vestment of light, or rather hght itself.' And for this reason it is that baptism is not to be re peated, because it does at once aU that it can do at a hundred times ; for it admits us to the condition of repentance and evangelical mercy; to a state of pardon for our infirmities and sins, which we timely and effectually leave ; and this is a thing that can be done but once, as a man can begM but once. He that hath once entered in at this gate of life is always in possibility of pardon, if he be in a possibility of working and doing after the manner of a man that, which he hath promised to the Son of God. And tiris was expressly dehvered and observed by St. Austin0 : " That which the apostle says, ' cleansing him with the washing of water in the word,' is to be understood, that in the same laver of regeneration and word of sanctification aU the evils of the regenerate are cleansed and healed ; not ody the sins that are past, which are aU now remitted in baptism, but dso those that are contracted afterwards by human ignorance and infirmity: not that baptism be repeated as often as we sin, but because by this, wMch is once admMistered, is brought to pass that pardon of all sins, not ody of those that are past but dso those which will be committed afterwards p, is obtdned." TheMessalians deMed this, and it was part of their heresy M the undervahring of baptism ; and for it they are most excellently confuted by Isidore Pelusiot, in his third book, epistle cxcv.q to the Count fiermM, whither I refer the reader. 19. In proportion to this doctrine it is, that the holy scripture calls upon us to live a holy hfe in pursuance of this grace of baptism. And St. PaM recalls the lapsed Galatians to their covenant, and the grace of God stipulated in baptism, " ye are all children of God by faith in Jesus CMisf;" that is, "heirs of the promise, and Abraham's seed;" that promise which cannot be disannulled, increased, or diminished, but is the same to us as it was to Abraham, the same before the law and after. Therefore do not you hope to be "justified by the law ;" for you are entered into the covenant of faith, and are to be justified thereby. This is aU your hope ; by this you must stand for ever, or you cannot stand at dl ; but by this you may : for " you are God's children by frith," that is, not by the law, or the covenant of works. And that you may remember whence you are going, and return again, he proves that they are the children of God by faith in Jesus Christ, because they " have been baptized into CMist8," and so "put on Christ." This makes you cMldren, and such as are "to be saved by frith," that is, a covenant, " not of works," but of pardon in Jesus Christ, the author and establisher of this covenant. For ° De Nupt [lib. i. cap. 33, torn. x. i [p. 333.] col. 298.] Tract, cxxiv. in Joan. [cap. r Gal. iii. 26. 29. 5. torn. iii. col. 822.] s Ver. 27. f Vide Salmer., torn. xiii. [p. 487.] SECT. IX.] OF BAPTISM. 239 tMs is the covenant made in baptism, that " being justified by His grace, we shall be heirs of life eternal : for by grace," that is, by favour, remission, and forgiveness in Jesus Christ, "ye are saved." This is the oMy way that we have of being justified, and this must remain as long as we are in hopes of heaven; for besides tMs we have no hopes : and aU tMs is stipulated and consigned M baptism, and is of force after our faUings- into sin and risings agdn. In pursuance of tMs the same apostle declares that the several states of sin are so many recessions from the state of baptismal grace : and if we arrive to the direct apostasy and renouncing of, or a contradiction to, the state of baptism, we are then unpardonable, because we are fatten from our state of pardon. This St. Paul conditions most strictly, in Ms epistle to the Hebrews : " This is the covenant I witt make in those days, I will put My laws in their hearts, and their sins and iniqmties witt I remember no more. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin';" that is, our sins are so pardoned, that we need "no more oblation;" we are then made partakers of the death of Christ, wMch we afterwards renew in memory, and eucharist, and representment. But the great work is done in baptism ; for so it follows, " having boldness to enter into the hottest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, that is, by the veil of His flesh," His incarnation. But how do we enter Mto tMs ? Baptism is the door, and the ground of this confidence for ever : for so he adds, " let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water;" tiris is the consignation of this blessed state, and the gate to all tMs mercy. " Let us hold fast the profession of our faith"," that is, the religion of a Christian, the faith into wMch we were baptized, for that is the faith that justifies and saves us ; let us therefore hold fast this profession of tMs faith, and do att the Mtermedid works m order to the conservation of it ; such as are assembling in the commumon of saints, (the use of the word and sacrament is included in the precept,) mutual exhortation, good example7, and the like. "For if we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth," that is, if we sin against the profession of this faith, and hold it not fast, but let the frith and the profession go wilfully, wMch afterwards he caUs " a treading under foot the Son of God, accounting the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy tiring," and " a doMg despite to the spirit of grace," viz. wMch moved upon those waters, and did illu minate Mm in baptism ; if we do this, " there is no more sacrifice for sins," no more deaths of Christ into wMch you may be baptized ; that is, you are fallen from the state of pardon and repentance Mto wMch you were admitted in baptism, and M wMch you continue so 1 Heb. x. 16. 19. 29. T 4irip KaOatpei to or&pa, to be irvevpa o-qbpayCCei rrjv ^rvxfiv 'the water washes the body, and the Spirit seds the soul,' viz. to a participation of those promises which He hath made, and to wMch we receive a title by our baptism. ¦ 1 Cor. xii. 13. ° 2 Cor. i. 22 ; Eph.iv. 30 ; Johnvi. 27. a John iii. 5. S. Basil, de Spir. S. c Eph. i. 13. S. Cyril. Hieros. Catech. r. 15. [torn. iii. p. 29.] iii. [§ 4. p. 41 A.] II. E 242 OF BAPTISM. [PART I. 22. Secondly : The second effect of the Spirit is light or illumina tion; that is, the holy Spirit becomes unto us the author of holy thoughts and Mm persuasions, and " sets to His seal that the word of God is true," Mto the belief of which we are then baptized, and makes faith to be a grace, and the understandMg resigned, and the witt confident, and the assent stronger than the premises, and the propositions to be believed because they are beloved; and we are taught the ways of godiness after a new manner, that is, we are made to perceive the secrets of the kingdom, and to love religion, and to long for heaven and heaveMy things, and to despise the world, and to have new resolutions, and new perceptions, and new dehcacies, in order to the establishment of faith and its increments and persever ance. Tf/ Aap-noiiio-rj ^/v)(fj curb KaraKAvirpov avibpvBels 6 ®ebs, olovel dpovov avrrfv eavrip KarepydCe^' 'God sits in the soul when it is illuminated in baptism, as if He sat in His tin-one;' that is, He rules by a firm persuasion, and entire principles of obedience. And therefore baptism is called in scripture cpojTiapbs, and the baptized (pamo-Bevres, 'illuminated;' "call to mind the former days, in wMch you were iUuminatede." And the same phrase is in the sixth to the Hebrews', where the paraUel places expound each other. For that which St. Paul calls a-nal; qbooTiaOevres, ' once illuminated,' he calls after, kafZovres tj]v eiriyvcoonv rfjs akrjdeias, ' a receiving the know ledge of the truth : ' and that you may perceive this to be wholly meant of baptism, the apostle expresses it still by synonymas, " tast ing of the heavenly gift, and made partakers of the holy Ghost, . . sprinkled in our hearts from an evil conscience, and washed in our bodies with pure water8;" all wMch dso are a syllabus or coUection of the severd effects of the graces bestowed in baptism. But we are now instancmg in that wMch relates most properly to the under standing, in which respect the holy Spirit dso is cdled anointing or unction ; and the mystery is explicated by St. John, " the anointing which ye have received of Him abideth in you ; and ye need not that any man teach you, but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things11." 23. TMrdy : The holy Spirit descends upon us M baptism, to be come the principle of a new rife, to become a holy seed springmg up to holiness ; and is called by St. John, cnreppa &eov, ' the seed of God':' and the purpose of it we are taught by him; "whosoever is born of God" (that is, he that is regenerated and entered into tMs new birth) "doth not commit sin; for His seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin because he is born of God." The Spirit of God is the Spirit of life ; and now that he by the Spirit is born anew, he hath in Mm that principle which, if it be cherished, witt grow up to d S. Basil, in Psal. xxviii. [cap. 7. e Heb. vi. 4 ; x. 22. torn. i. p. 361.] M John ii. 20, 27. « Heb. x. 32. • 1 John iii. 9. r Ver. 4. SECT. IX.] OF BAPTISM. 24,0 life, to hfe eternd. And this is "the Spirit of sanctification, the victory over the world," the deletery of concupiscence, the hfe of the sod, and the perpetud principle of grace sown in our spirits in the day of our adoption to be the sons of God and members of CMistis body. But take tMs mystery M the words of St. Basil1'; "there are two ends proposed in baptism ; to wit, to abolish the body of sM, that we may no more bring forth fruit unto death ; and to hve in the Spirit, and to have our fruit to sanctification. The water represents the image of death, receiving the body in its bosom as M a sepulcMe ; but the qdckening Spirit sends upon us a vigorous bvvapiv, power or efficacy, even from the beginning renewing our soMs from the death of sin unto hfe : for as our mortification is perfected M the water, so the Spirit works life in us." To this purpose is the discourse of St. Paul : having largely discoursed of our being baptized into the death of CMist, he adds this as the coroUary of all1, "he that is dead™ is freed from sin;" that is, being mortified and buried11 in the waters of baptism, we have a new Me of righteousness put into us, we are quitted from the domhrion of sin, and are planted together in the likeness of Christ's resurrection0, that henceforth we should not serve sMp. 24. Fourtiily : But all these intermedial blessings tend to a glo rious conclusion, for baptism does also consign us to a holy resurrec tion. It takes the sting of death from us by burying us together with Christ ; and takes off sin, which is the sting of death : and then we shall be partakers of a blessed resurrection. This we are taught by St. Paul ; "know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized Mto His death ? . . For if we have been planted together M the likeness of His death, we shall be dso in the likeness of His resurrection q." That declares the real event in its due season. But because baptism consigns it, and admits us to a title to it, we are said, with St. Paul, to be "risen with Christ in baptism; buried with Him in baptism, wherein also you are risen with Him, through the faith of the operation of God wMch hath raised Him from the deadr." Which expression I desire to be remembered, that by it we may better un derstand those other sayings of the apostle, of " putting on Christ M baptism," " putting on the new man," &c. for these only sigmfy em- yelp-qpa, or the design on God's part, and the endeavour and duty on maris. We are then consigned to our duty, and to our reward; we undertake one, and have a title to the other. And though men of ripeness and reason enter instantly into their portion of work, and have present use of the assistances, and sometiring of their reward in * Lib. de Spir. S. c. [15. torn. iii. p. ° Ver. 5. 29 C] p Ver. 6. Vide Disc, ix., of Repentance, 1 Rom. vi. 7. ". 46. m xpVO'Tbv iroietv, i. e. diroKTivvivai « Rom. vi. 3. 5. Plut. [Quaest. Rom., torn. vii. p. 121.] ' Col. ii. 12. n Rom. vi. 4. R 2 244 OF BAPTISM. [PART L hand ; yet we cannot conclude that those that cannot do it presently, are not baptized rightly, because they are not in capacity to " put on the new man" in righteousness, that is, in an actud holy life ; for they may "put on the new man" in baptism, just as "they are risen with CMist :" which because it may be done by faith before it is done in real event, and it may be done by sacrament and design before it be done by a proper faith ; so dso may our putting on the new man be ; it is done sacramentally, and that part which is whoUy the work of God does only antedate the work of man wlrich is to succeed in its due time, and is after the manner of preventing grace. But this is by the bye : in order to the present article, baptism is by Theodoret called perovo-la ttjs beo-KOTLKrjs dvao-rdcreh>sT, ' a participation of the Lord's resurrection.' 25. Fifthly and lastly: "By baptism we are saved:" that is, we are brought from death to life here, and that is " the first resurrec tion;" and we are brought from death to rife heredter, by virtue of the covenant of the state of grace into wMch in baptism we enter, and are preserved from the second death, and receive a glorious and an eternal rife. " He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved3," said our blessed Saviour ; and " accordMg to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the holy Ghost'." 26. After these great blessings, so plainly testified M scripture and the doctrine of the primitive church, which are regdarly consigned and bestowed M baptism, I shall less need to descend to tempord blessings, or rare contingencies, or miracdous events, or probable notices of things less certdn. Of tMs nature are those stories re corded in the writings of the church, that Constantine" was cured of a leprosy in baptism ; Theodosius'" recovered of Ms disease, being baptized by the bishop of ThessaloMca ; and a paralytic Jew* was cured as soon as he became a Christian, and was baptized by Atticus of CP. : and bishop Aimdph baptizmg a leper, also cured Mm, said Vincentius Bettovacensis?. It is more considerable, wMch is generally and piously believed by very many enrihent persons in the church, that at our baptism God assigns an angel-guardian ; for then the catechumen, being made a servant and a brother to the Lord of angels, is sure not to want the aids of them who " pitch their tents round about them that fear the Lordz;" and that tMs guard and ministry is then appointed when themselves are admitted into the inheritance of the promises and their title to salvation, is hugely agreeable to the words of St. Paul, "are they not aU mhristering spirits, sent forth to mhrister to them who shall be heirs of salva tion3 ?" where it appears that the title to the inheritance is the title to tMs ministry, and therefore must begM and end together. But I ' [vid. in Rom. vi. 4.] * Id., lib. vii. cap. 4. [p. 350.] ¦ Mark xvi. 16. ' Titus iii. 5. y [lib. xxiii. 76.] u Niceph. [lib. vii. cap. 33.] z Psalm xxxiv. 7. » Socr,, lib. v. cap. 6. [p. 267.] « Heb. i. 14. SECT. IX.] OF BAPTISM. 245 Msist not on tMs, though it seems to me hugely probable. All these blessings put into one syllabus, have given to baptism many honour able appellatives iu scripture and other divine writers b, calhng it avayevvrjaw, -nakiyyeveaiav, o^pa Trpbs Oebv, oyypa irpbs ovpavbv, flao'ikelas irpofcevov, rqv Kkelba rqs fiaaikeias t&v ovpav&v, peydkr\v ¦nepiToprfv dyeipo-noir]TOV, avaKaCvcoo-iv, eirepairnpa, appa/3&va, eve\v- pov, dirobei^iv, avdKriaiv, evbvpa (pujreivbv, sacramentum vita et aterna salutis, ' a new birth, a regeneration, a renovation, a chariot carrying us to God, the great circumcision, a circumcision made with out hands, the key of the kingdom, the paranymph of the Mngdom, the earnest of our Mheritance, the answer of a good conscience, the robe of hght, the sacrament of a new life and of eternal salvation.' "Apicrrov pev vbajpc- this is celestid water, springing from the sides of the Bock upon wlrich the church was built when the rock was smitten with the rod of God. 27. It remains now that we enqdre what concerns our duty, and in what persons, or in what dispositions, baptism produces att these glorious effects : for the sacraments of the church work in the virtue of Christ, but yet ody upon such as are servants of CMist, and Mnder not the work of the Spirit of grace. For the water of the font, and the Spirit of the sacrament, are indeed to wash away our sMs and to purify our sods ; but not udess we have a mind to be purified. The sacrament works pardon for them that hate their sM, and procures grace for them that love it. They that are guilty of sins, must repent of them and renounce them, and they must make a profession of the faith of Christ, and give, or be given, up to the obedience of Christ ; and then they are rightly disposed. " He that beheveth, and is bap tized, shall be saved d," saith Christ;' and St. Peter called out to the whole assembly, " Bepent, and be baptized, every one of youe." Concerning tMs, Justin Martyr' gives the same account of the faith and practice of the church, ocroi av ¦neicrd&a-i Kal -nio-revajcriv, &c. ' whosoever are persuaded and beheve those tirings to be true which are delivered and spoken by us, and undertake to rive accordingly, they are commanded to fast and pray and to ask of God remission of their former sins, we also praying together with them and fasting ; then they are brought to us where water is, and are regenerated in the same manner of regeneration by wMch we ourselves are regenerated.' For M baptism, St. Peter observes, there are two parts, the body and the spirit ; that is, aapKos cmoOeo-is pvirov, ' the putting away the filth of the fleshy' that is, the materid wasMng ; and tMs is baptism no " Basil. [De Spir. Sanct. cap. 15. torn. sqq.J Aug. cont. Crescoa Gram., lib. ii. iii. p. 29.] Theod. [Ep. cli. torn. iv. p. cap. 13. [torn. ix. col. 417 D.] 1310.] Epiphan. [Adv. haer., lib. i. torn. c Pind. 01. i. 1. 2. haer. xxviii. § 4. vol. i. p. 112.] Na- d Mark xvi. 16. zianz. [Orat. xl. cap. 4. torn. i. p. 693.] e Acts ii. 38. CoL ii. 2. Cyril. Hieros. [passim, e. g. ' Apol. ad Anton. Caes. [Apol. i. § 61. Catech. i. § 2. p. 16 C sqq.] Dionys. p. 79.] Areop. [De eccl. hierarch., cap. ii. p. 74 >1 Pet. in. 21. 246 OF BAPTISM. [PART I. otherwise than a dead corpse is a man : the other is o-weiSTjo-ecus dyadrjs eirepdrripa, ' the answer of a good conscience towards God,' that is, the conversion of the sod to God ; that is, the effective dis position in which baptism does save us. And in the same sense are those sayings of the primitive doctors to be understood, anima non lavatione sed responsione sanciturh, ' the sod is not healed by wash ing,' viz. done, ' but by the answer,' the eirep^rripa M St. Peter, the correspondent of our part of the covenant: for that is the perfect sense of this unusud expression. And the effect is attributed to this, and denied to the other, when they are distingmshed. So Justin Martyr affirms, " the only baptism that can heal us is repentance, and the knowledge of God ; for what need is there of that baptism that can ody cleanse the flesh and the body ? Be washed in your flesh from wrath and covetousness, from envy and hatred, and behold the body is pure1." And Clemens Alexandrinus J, upon that pro- verbid saying, "ladt pi) kovrpS akka ro'si Kadapbs, 'be not pure M the laver, but in the mind/ adds, "I suppose that an exact and a firm repentance is a sufficient purification to a man ; if judgmg and con sidering ourselves for the facts we have done before, we proceed to that which is before us, considering that which foUows, and cleansing or wasMng our mind from sensud affections, and from former sMs." Just as we use to deny the effect to the instrumentd cause, and attribute it to the principd, in the manner of speaking, when our purpose is to affirm tMs to be the principal, and of cMef influence. So we say, it is not the good lute, but the skilful hand, that makes the music : it is not the body, but the sod, that is the man : and yet he is not the man without both. For baptism is but the materid part in the sacrament, " it is the Spirit that giveth Me ;" whose work is faith and repentance begun by Himself without the sacra ment, and consigned in the sacrament, and actuated and increased in the co-operation of our whole hfe. And therefore baptism is called in the Jerusalem* creed, ev {Zdnria-pa peravoias els dipeo-w t&v apapTi&v, ' one baptism of repentance for the remission of sms :' and by Justin Martyr1, kovrpbv rfjs peravoias Kal rrjs yvaxrems rov ®eov, b virep rrjs dvopias t&v ka&v tov ®eov yeyovev, ' the baptism of repentance and the knowledge of God, wMch was made for the sins of the people of God.' He explaMs himself a httle dter, to fiairTurpa to povov Kadapiaai tovto peravorfcravTas bvvapevov, 'bap tism that can ody cleanse them that are penitent.' In sacramen- tis Trinitati oecurrit fides credentium et professio, qua apud acta conflcitur angelorum, ubi miscentur cmlestia et spiritualia semina ; ut sancto germine nova possit renascentium indoles procreari, ut dum Trinitas cum fide concordat, qui natus fuerit sceculo renascatur spiri- h Tert. De res. earn. [cap. 48. p. 355 k [S. Cyril. Hieros. Catech. xviii. cap. B.] 21. p. 295 C] ' Ad Tryphon. Jud. [§ 14. p. 114.] ' Dial, cum Tryph. [§ 14. p. 114 C] I [Strom., lib. iv. cap. 22. p. 629.] SECT. IX.] OF BAPTISM. 247 tmaliter Deo : sic fit hominum pater Deus, sancta fit mater ecclesia, said Optatusm ; ' the faith and profession of the believers meets with the ever-blessed Trinity, and is recorded in the register of angels, where heaveMy and spiritual seeds are mingled ; that from so holy a spring may be produced a new nature of the regeneration, that while the Trririty' (viz. that is invocated upon the baptized) ' meets with the faith of the catechumen, he that was born to the world, may be born spiritually to God. So God is made a father to the man, and the holy church a mother.' Faith and repentance strip the old man naked, and make Mm fit for baptism ; and then the holy Spirit, moving upon the waters, cleanses the soul, and makes it to put on the new man, who grows up to perfection and a spiritual hfe, to a hfe of glory, by our verification of our undertaking in baptism on our part, and the graces of the Spirit on the other. For the waters pierce no farther than the skin, till the person puts off Ms affection to the sin that he hath contracted; and then he may say, aqua intraverunt usque ad animam meam, ' the waters are entered even unto my sod,' to purify and cleanse it, by the washing of water, and the renewing by the holy Spirit. The sum is this", /3aTmC6pevoi TiCdpeOa, <£&mfo'- juevoi vloiroiovpeOa, vloiroiovpevoi rekeiovpeOa, rekeiovpevoi dOavari- (jopeda- ' being baptized we are illuminated, being illuminated we are adopted to the inheritance of sons, being adopted we are promoted towards perfection, and bemg perfected we are made immortd •' Quisquis in hos fontes vir venerit, exeat inde Semideus, tactis cito nobilitetur in undis. 28. This is the whole doctrine of baptism, as it is in itself consi dered, without relation to rare circumstances or accidental cases : and it witt also serve to the right understanding of the reasons why the church of God hath in all ages baptized all persons that were within her power, for whom the church codd stipdate that they were, or might be, relatives of Christ, sons of God, heirs of the promises, and partners of the covenant, and such as did not Mnder the work of bap tism upon their soMs. And such were not only persons of age and choice, but the Mfants of Christian parents : for the understanding and verifying of wMch truth, I shall only need to apply the parts of the former discourse to their particdar case, premismg first these propositions. PART II. Of baptizing infants. 1. Baptism is the key in Christ's hand, and therefore opens as He opens, and shuts by His rule : and as Christ Mmsett did not do dl His blessings and effects unto every one, but gave to every one as ¦» Adv. Parm., lib. ii. [cap. 10. p. 38.] n Clem. Alex. Paedag., lib. i. cap. 6. [torn. i. p. 113.] 248 OF BAPTIZING INFANTS. [PART I. they had need ; so does baptism. Christ did not cure all men's eyes, but them ody that were bhnd ; " Christ came not to call the right eous, but sinners to repentance :" that is, they that lived in the fear of God, according to the covenant in which they were debtors, were indeed improved and promoted Mgher by Christ, but not called to that repentance to which He caUed the vicious gentiles, and the adul terous persons among the Jews, and the hypocriticd pharisees. There are some so innocent that they " need no repentance," sdth the scrip ture ; meaning, that though they do need contrition for their single acts of sin, yet they are within the state of grace, and need not re pentance as it is a conversion of the whole man. And so it is in baptism, wMch does .aU its effects upon them that need them all, and some upon them that need but some ; and therefore, as it pardons sins to them that have committed them, and do repent and believe ; so to the others who have not committed them, it does all the work which is done to the others above or besides that pardon. 2. Secondy : When the ordinary effect of a sacrament is done already by some other efficiency or instrument, yet the sacrament is still as obligatory as before, not for so many reasons or necessities, but for the same commandment. Baptism is the first ordinary cur rent in wMch the Spirit moves and descends upon us ; and where God's Spirit is, they are the sons of God, for Christ's Spirit descends upon none but them that are His : and yet Cornelius0, who had re ceived the holy Spirit, and was heard by God, and visited by an angel, and accepted M Ms alms, and fastings, and prayers, was tied to the susception of baptism. To wMch may be added, that the receiving the effects of baptism beforehand was used as an argument the rather to administer baptism. The effect of wMch consideration is tMs, that baptism and its effect may be separated, and do not dways go in conjunction ; the effect may be before, and therefore much rather may it be after its susception ; the sacrament operating in the virtue of CMist, even " as the Spirit shaU move :" according to that saying of St. Austinp, sacrosancto lavacro inchoatur innovatio novi hominis ut proficiendo perficiatur, in aliis citius, in aliis tardius ; and St. Bernard"1, lavari quidem cito possumus, ad sanandum vero opus est curatione multa; 'the work of regeneration, that is begun in the ministry of baptism, is perfected in some sooner, in some later,' — ' we may soon be washed, but to be healed is a work of a long cure.' 3. Thirdy : The dispositions which are reqdred to the ordmary susception of baptism, are not necessary to the efficacy, or required to the nature, of the sacrament, but accidentally, and because of the superinduced necessities of some men ; and therefore the condtions are not regdarly to be required. But in those accidents, it was necessary for a gentile proselyte to repent of his sins, and to beheve • Acts x. 47. i Bern. De Ccen. Dom. Serm. [i. col P August. De mor. eccles. cathol., lib. i. 145 C] cap. 35. [torn. i. col. 716.] I SECT. IX.] OF BAPTIZING INFANTS. 249 in Moses' law, before he coMd be circumcised : but Abraham was not tied to the same conditions, but only to frith in God ; but Isaac was not tied to so much ; and circumcision was not of Moses, but of the fathers : and yet after the sanction of Moses' law men were tied to condtions, which were then made necessary to them that entered into the covenant, but not necessary to the nature of the covenant itself. And so it is M the susception of baptism : if a sinner enters into the font, it is necessary he be stripped of those appendages wMch Mmself sewed upon Ms nature, and then repentance is a necessary disposition : if Ms understandMg hath been a stranger to religion, polluted with evil principles and a false rehgion, it is necessary he have an actual faith, that he be given M his under standing up to the obedience of Christ. And the reason of this is plain ; because in these persons there is a dsposition contrary to the state and effects of baptism ; and therefore they must be taken off by their contraries, faith and repentance, that they may be reduced to the state of pure receptives. Arid this is the sense of those words of our blessed Saviour, " unless ye become like one of these httle ones, re shall not enter mto the kingdom of heaven ;" that is, ye cannot e admitted into the gospel covenant, udess all your contrarieties and impedments be taken from you, and you be as apt as children to receive the new immissions from heaven. And tMs proposition relies upon a great example, and a certain reason. The example is our blessed Saviour, who was nullius potnitentia debitor r; He had committed no sin, and needed no repentance ; He needed not to be saved by faith, for of faith He was " the author and fhrisher" and the great object, and its perfection and reward : and yet He was bap tized by the baptism of John, the baptism of repentance. And therefore it is certain that repentance and faith are not necessary to the susception of baptism, but necessary to some persons that are baptized. For it is necessary we should much consider the difference. If the sacrament by any person may be justly received in whom such dspositions are not to be found, then the depositions are not necessary or Mtrinsicd to the susception of the sacrament ; and yet some persons coming to tMs sacrament may have such necessities of their own as wril make the sacrament ineffectual without such dspositions. These I call necessary to the person, but not to the sacrament; that is, necessary to all such, but not necessary to dl absolutely. And faith is necessary sometimes, where repentance is not ; sometimes repentance and faith together, and sometimes other wise. When Philip3 baptized the eunuch, he ody required of him to believe, not to repent. But St. Peter*, when he preached to the Jews and converted them, only required repentance ; which although it in their case implied faith, yet there was no explicit stipulation for it : they had "crucified the Lord of lifeu;" and if they would come to ¦ * [Tert. De bapt., cap. xii. p. 229 A.] ' Acts ii. 38. » Acts viii. 37. ' Acts iii. 15. 250 OF BAPTIZING INFANTS. [PART I. God by baptism, they must renounce their sin ; that was att was then stood upon. It is as the case is, or as the persons have superinduced necessities upon themselves. In children the case is evident as to the one part, wMch is equally required ; I mean repentance : the not doing of which cannot prejudice them as to the susception of baptism, because they, having done no evil, are not bound to repent ; and to repent is as necessary to the susception of baptism as faith is. But tMs shews that they are accidentally necessary; that is, not absolutely, not to all, not to infants : and if they may be excused from one duty which is indispensably necessary to baptism, why they may not from the other is a secret wMch will not be found out by these whom it concerns to believe it. 4. And therefore when our blessed Lord made a stipdation and express commandment for faith, with the greatest annexed penalty to them that, had it not, "he that beheveth not, shall be damned," the proposition is not to be verified or understood as relative to every period of time ; for then no man coMd be converted from infidehty to the Christian faith, and from the power of the devil to the kingdom of Christ, but Ms present infidelity shaU be his final ruin. It is not therefore yvcapi] but xpda, not a sentence but a use, a predctiou and intermination. It is not Mee that saymg, " God is true, and every man a liar," and " every good and every perfect gift is from above ;" for these are true in every Mstant, without reference to circumstances : but " he that beheveth not, shaU be damned," is a prediction, or that which in rhetoric is cdled xpela, or a use, because tMs is the affirm ation of that wMch usually or frequently comes to pass ; such as this, "' he that strikes with the sword shaU perish by the sword ;" " he that robs a church shall be like a wheel," of a vertiginous and unstable estate ; " he that loves wine and off, shall not be rich :" and therefore it is a declaration of that wMch is umversatty or commody true ; but not so that in what instant soever a man is not a believer, in that instant it is true to say he is damned ; for some are called the third, some the sixth, some the ninth hour; and they that come in bemg first called at the eleventh hour, shall have their reward : so that this sentence stands true at the day and the judgment of the Lord, not at the judgment or day of man. And in the same necessity as faith stands to salvation, in the same it stands to baptism ; that is, to be measured by the whole latitude of its extent. Our baptism shall no more do att its intention udess faith supervene, than a man is in possibility of being saved without faith ; it must come in its due time, but is not indspensably necessary in att instances and periods. Baptism is the seal of our election and adoption ; and as election is brought to effect by faith and its consequents, so is baptism : but to neither is faith necessary as to its beginmng and first entrance. To which dso I add this consideration : that actud faith is necessary, not to the susception, but to the consequent effects of baptism, appears, because the church, and particularly the apostles, did baptize SECT. IX.] OF BAPTIZING INFANTS. 261 some persons who had not faith, but were hypocrites ; such as were Simon Magus, Alexander the coppersmith, Demas, and Diotrephes ; and such was Judas when he was baptized, and such were the Gnostic teachers. For the effect depends upon God who knows the heart, but the outward susception depends upon them who do not know it ; wMch is a certain argument that the same faith which is necessary to the effect of the sacrament, is not necessary to its susception ; and if it can be admriristered to hypocrites, much more to infants; if to those who really Mnder the effect, much rather to them that Mnder not. And if it be objected that the church does not know but the pretenders have fdth, but she knows infants have not ; I reply, that the church does not know but the pretenders hinder the effect and are contrary to the grace of the sacrament, but she knows that Mfants do not: the first possibly may receive the grace, the other cannot Mnder it. 5. But besides these tirings it is considerable, that when it is re quired persons have faith, it is true, they that require baptism should give a reason why they do ; so it was in the case of the eunuch bap tized by Philip : but this is not to be required of others that do not ask it, and yet they may be of the church, and of the faith ; for by faith is dso understood the Christian rehgion, and the CMistian faith is the CMistian rehgion, and of tMs a man may be, though he make no coMession of Ms fdth, as a man may be of the church, and yet not be of the number of God's secret ones ; and to tMs more is re quired than to that : to the first, it is sufficient that he be admitted by a sacrament or a ceremony; wMch is MfaMbly certain, because hypocrites and wicked people are in the visible communion of the church, and are reckoned as members of it, and yet to them- there was nothing done but the ceremony administered; and therefore when that is done to infants, they also are to be reckoned in the church communion. And indeed in the examples of scripture we find more inserted Mto the number of God's family by outward cere mony than by the inward grace. Of tMs number were all those who were circumcised the eighth day, who were admitted tirither, as the woman's daughter was cured in the gospel, by the faith of their mother, their natural parents, or their spiritual ; to whose faith it is as certain God will take heed, as to their faith who brought one to Christ who codd not come himself, the poor paralytic; for whei\ Christ saw their faith, He cured their friend : and yet it is to be ob served that Christ did use to exact faith, actud faith, of them that came to Him to be cured ; "accordng to your faith be it unto you v." ' The case is equal in its whole kind. And it is considerable what Christ saith to the poor man that came in behalf of Ms son, " all things are possible to him that believeth*:" it is possible for a son to receive the blessing and benefit of his father's faith ; and it was so in his case, and is possible to any, for "to faith all things are pos- * Matt. ix. 29. * Mark ix. 23. 252 OF BAPTIZING INFANTS. [PART I. sibkr" And as to the event of things, it is evident in the story of the gospel that the faith of their relatives was equally effective to children and friends or servants, absent or sick, as the faith of the interested person was to Mmself; as appears beyond aU exception M the case of the friends of the paralytic let down with cords through the tiles ; of the centuriony, in behalf of his servant ; of the nobleman, for his son sick at Capernaum2; of the SyvophoeMcian, for her daughter : and Christ reqdred faith of no sick man, but of Mm that presented him- sett to Hima and desired for Mmself that he might be cured, as it was in the case of the blind man. Though they could not beheve, yet Christ required belief of them that came to Hrin on their behalf : and why then it may not be so, or is not so, M the case of infants' baptism, I confess it is past my skill to conjecture. The reason on which tMs farther rehes, is contaMed in the next proposition. 6. Fourtiily : No dsposition or act of man can deserve the first grace, or the grace of pardon : for so long as a man is unpardoned, he is an enemy to God, and as a dead person ; and udess he be pre vented by the grace of God, cannot do a smgle act in order to his pardon and restitution ; so that the first work wMch God does upon a man is so whoUy His own, that the man hath notMng in it but to entertain it, that is, not to Mnder the work of God upon him. And tMs is done in them that have M them notiring that can Mnder the work of grace, or in them who remove the Mndrances. Of the latter sort are aU sinners who have lived in a state contrary to God ; of the first are they who are prevented by the grace of God before they can choose, that is, little cMldren, and those that become hke unto httle children. So that faith and repentance are not necessary at first to the reception of the first grace, but by accident. If sM have drawn curtains and put bars and coverings to the windows, these must be taken away, and that is done by faith and repentance ; but if the win dows be not shut, so that the light can pass tMough them, the eye of heaven witt. pass in and dwell there. " No man can come unto Me udess My Father draw himb;" that is, the first access to CMist is notMng of our own, but wholly of God ; and it is as in our crea tion, in wMch we have an obedential capacity, but co-operate not; ody if we be contrary to the work of grace, that contrariety must be caken off; else there is no necessity. And if all men, accordmg to Christ's sayMg, must "receive the kingdom of God as little children0," it is certain httle children do receive it ; they receive it as all men ought ; that is, without any impedment or obstruction, without any tiring witirin that is contrary to that state. 7. FiftMy: Baptism is not to be estimated as one act, transient and effective to single purposes, but it is an entrance to a conjugation and a state of blessings. All our life is to be transacted by the mea- y Matt. viii. 13. b John vi. 44. » John iv. 50. ' Mark x. 15. [and compare vol. v. p » Matt. ix. 28. 565.] SECT. IX.] OF BAPTIZING INFANTS. 253 sures of. the gospel covenant, and that covenant is consigned by bap tism ; there we have our title and adoption to it : and the grace that is then given to us is like a piece of leaven put mto a lump of dough, and faith and repentance do in all the periods of our hfe put it into fermentation and activity. Then the seed of God is put Mto the ground of our hearts, and repentance waters it, and fdth makes it subactum solum, the ground and furrows apt to produce fruits ; and therefore faith and repentance are necessary to the effect of baptism, not to its susception ; that is, necessary to all those parts of life, in which baptism does operate, not to the first sanction or entering into the covenant. The seed may he long in the ground, and produce frrits in its due season, if it be refreshed with " the former and the latter rain," that is, the repentance that first changes the state, and converts the man, and afterwards returns Mm to Ms title, and recalls him from his wanderings, and keeps Mm in the state of grace and witMn the limits of the covenant : and att the way faith gives efficacy and acceptation to this repentance ; that is, continues our title to the promise of not havMg righteousness exacted by the measures of the law, but by the covenant and promise of grace into which we entered in baptism, and walk in the same dl the days of our hfe. 8. Sixthly : The holy Spirit wMch descends upon the waters of baptism does not instantly produce its effects in the sod of the bap tized ; and when He does, it is irregularly, and as He pleases. " The Spirit bloweth where it listeth, and no man knoweth whence it com eth, nor whither it goeth :" and the catechumen is admitted into the kingdom, yet "the kingdom of God cometh not with observation11:" and this saying of our blessed Saviour was spoken of " the kingdom of God that is witMn use," that is, the Spirit of grace, the "power of the gospel put into our hearts, concerning which He affirmed that it operates so secretly, that it comes not with outward show, " neither shaU they say, Lo, here, or lo, there." Which tiring I desire the rather to be observed, because in the same discourse, which our blessed Saviour continued to that assembly, He affirms this " king dom of God" to belong unto " httle cMldrenf," this kingdom that " eometh not with outward significations" or present expresses, this kingdom that is witirin us. For the present, the use I make of it is this : that no man can conclude that tMs kingdom of power, that is, the spirit of sanctification, is not come upon iMants, because there is no sign or expression of it. It is " witirin us," therefore it hath no signification. It is "the seed of God;" and it is no good argument to say, here is no seed in the bowels of the earth because there is notMng green upon the face of it. For the church gives the sacra ment, God gives the grace of the sacrament. But because He does not dways give it at the instant in wMch the church gives the sacra ment, (as if there be a secret impediment in the suscipient,) and yet " Luke xvii. 20. • Ver. 21. » Luke xviii. 16. 254 OF BAPTIZING INFANTS. [PART I. afterwards does give it when the impediment is removed, (as to them that repent of that impediment,) it follows that the church may ad minister rightly, even before God gives the red grace of the sacra ment : and if God gives this grace afterwards by parts, and yet all of it is the effect of that covenant which was consigned M baptism, He that defers some may defer all, and verify every part as well as any part. For it is certain that in the instance now made all the grace is deferred ; in Mfants it is not certain but that some is collated or infused : however, be it so or no, yet upon tMs account the admhris- tration of the sacrament is not Mndered. 9. Seventhly : When the scripture speaks of the effects of, or ds- positions to, baptism, it speaks in general expressions, as being most apt to signify a common duty, or a general effect, or a more umversal event, or the proper order of things : but those general expressions do not supponere universaliter, that is, are not to be understood ex clusively to all that are not so quahfied, or uMversally of all suscipients or of aU the subjects of the proposition. When the prophets com plain of the Jews that they are fallen from God and turned to idols, and walk not in the way of their fathers ; and at other times the scrip ture speaks the same thing of their fathers, that they wdked per versely toward God, "starting aside like a broken bow;" M these, and the like expressions, the holy Scripture uses a synecdoche, or sig nifies many oMy, under the notion of a more large and indefmite expression : for neither were dl the fathers good, neither dd aU the sons prevaricate ; but among the fathers there were enough to recom mend to posterity by way of example, and among the cMldren there were enough to stdn the reputation of the age ; but neither the one part nor the other was true of every single person. St. John the baptist spake to the whole audence, saymg, "0 generation of vipers!" and yet he did not mean that all Jerusdem and Judea that " went out to be baptized of him," were such ; but he under an undetermi- nate reproof intended those that were such, that is, especially the priests and the pharisees. And it is more considerable yet in the story of the event of Christ's sermon M the synagogue, upon His text taken out of Isaiah, " all wondered at His gracious words, and bare Him witness8;" and a httle dter, "all they in the synagogue were fitted with wrath : " that is, it was generally so, but hardy to be supposed true of every single person, in both the contrary humours and usages. Thus Christ said to the apostles, " ye have abidden with Me in My temptations;" and yet Judas was all the way a follower of interest and the bag rather than CMist, and afterwards none of them all did abide with Christ in His greatest temptations. Thus also, to come nearer the present question, the secret effects of election and of the Spirit are in scripture attributed to all that are of the outward communion. So St. Peter calls aU the Christian strangers of the e Luka iv. 22. 28. SECT. IX.] OF BAPTIZING INFANTS. 255 eastern dispersion, " elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father11;" and St. Pad saith of all the Eoman Christians, and the same of the Thessalonians, that their " faith was spoken of in all the world :" and yet amongst them it is not to be supposed that all the professors had an unreprovable fdth, or that every one of the church of Thessdonica was an excellent and a charitable person ; and yet the apostle useth tMs expression, "your faith groweth exceedngly, and the charity of every one of you all towards each other aboundeth1'." These are usuaUy sigrificant of a generd custom or order of tilings, or duty of men, or design, and naturd or proper expectation of events. Such are these dso in tiris very question, " as many of you as are baptized into Christ, have put on Christ;" that is, so it is regularly, and so it wiU be in its due time, and that is the order of things, and the designed event : but from hence we cannot conclude of every person, and in every period of time, TMs man hath been baptized, therefore now he is clothed with Christ, he hath put on Christ ; nor thus, This person cannot M a spiritud sense as yet put on Christ, therefore he hath not been baptized, that is, he hath not put Him on in a sacramental sense. Such is the sayMg of St. Pad, " whom He hath predestinated, them He also called ; and whom He called, them He also justified ; and whom He justified, them He also glorifiedV this also declares the regdar event, or at least the order of things and the design of God, but not the actual verification of it to all persons. These sayings concerning baptism in the like manner are to be so understood, that they cannot exclude att persons from the sacrament that have not all those red effects of the sacrament at all times, which some men have at some times, and all men must have at some time or other, viz. when the sacrament obtains its last Mtention : but he that shdl argue from hence that cMldren are not rightly baptized, because they cannot in a spiritual sense put on Christ, concludes nothing, unless these propositions dd signify uni- versaUy, and at all times, and M every person, and in every manner; which can no more pretend to truth than that all Christians are God's elect, and all that are baptized are sdnts, and att that are called are justified, and all that are once justified shall be_ saved finally. These things declare only the event of tirings, and their order, and the usual effect, and the proper design, in their proper season, in their hmited proportions. 10. Eightiriy: A negative argument for matters of fact M scripture cannot conclude a law, or a necessary or a regdar event; and there fore supposing that it be not intimated that the apostles dd baptize infants, it follows not that they did not, and if they dd not, it does not follow that they might not, or that the church may not. For it is unreasonable to argue, the scripture speaks nothing of the baptism of the holy Virgin-mother, therefore she was not baptized. The words •> 1 Pet. i. 2. '2 Thess. i. 3. k Rom. viii. SO. 256 OF BAPTIZING INFANTS. [PART I. and deeds of CMist are infinite wMch are not recorded, and of the acts of the apostles we may suppose the "same M their proportion : and therefore what they dd not is no rde to us, uMess they did it not because they were forbidden. So that it can be no good argu ment to say, the apostles are not read to have baptized infants, therefore Mfants are not to be baptized : but thus, we do not find that infants are excluded from the common sacraments and ceremonies of Christian institution, therefore we may not presume to exclude them. For although the negative of a fact is no good argument, yet the negative of a law is a very good one. We may not say, the apostles did not, therefore we may not : but thus, they were not forbidden to do it, there is no law against it, therefore it may be done. No man's deeds can prejudicate a dvine law expressed in general terms, much less can it be prejudced by those tirings that were not done. "That wMch is wanting cannot be numbered1," cannot be effectud; there fore 'baptize aU nations' must signify all that it can signify, all that are reckoned in the capitations and accounts of a nation. Now smce all contradiction to tMs question depends wholly upon these two grounds, the negative argument in matter of fact, and the pretences that faith and repentance are required to baptism ; since the first is wholly notMng, and Mfirm upon an infinite account, and the second may conclude that Mfants can no more be saved than be baptized, because faith is more necessary to sdvation than to baptism, it being said, " he that beheveth not, shall be damned," and it is not said, " he that believeth not, shaU be excluded from baptism ;" it follows that the doctrine of those that refuse to baptize their Mfants is upon both its legs weak, and broken, and insufficient. 11. Upon the supposition of these grounds, the baptism of infants, according to the perpetual practice of the church of God, will stand firm and unshaken upon its own base. For as the eunuch said to PMlip, "what hinders them to be baptized?" If they can receive benefit by it, it is infaffibly certain that it belongs to them also to receive it, and to their parents to procure it ; for nothing can deprive us of so great a grace but an unwortiriness, or a dsabMty; they are not dsabled to receive it, if they need it, and if it does them good; and they have, neither done good nor evil, and, therefore they have not forfeited their right to it. TMs therefore shall be the first great argument or combination of inducements; infants receive many benefits by the susception of baptism, and therefore M charity and in duty we are to bring them to baptism. 12. First : The first effect of baptism is, that in it we are admitted to the kingdom of Christ, offered and presented unto Him. In which certainly there is the same act of worsMp to God, and the same blessing to the cMldren of Christians, as there was in presenting the first-born among the Jews. For our children can be God's own portion as well as theirs : and as they presented the first-born to God, 1 Eecles. i. 15. 9KCT. IX.] OF BAPTIZING INFANTS. 257 and so acknowledged that God might have taken his life in sacrifice, as well as the sacrifice of the lamb or the oblation of a beast ; yet when the right was confessed, God gave him back again, and took a lamb in exchange, or a pair of doves : so are our children presented to God as forfeit, and God might take the forfeiture, and not admit the babe to the promises of grace ; but when the presentation of the child and our acknowledgment is made to God, God takes the Lamb of the world m exchange, and He hath paid our forfeiture, and the children are " holy unto the Lord." And what hinders here ? Cannot a cripple receive an dms at the beautiful gate of the temple, unless he go thither himself? or cannot a gift be presented to God by the hands of the owners, and the gift become holy and pleasing to God, without its own consent ? The parents have a portion of the posses sion : children are blessings, and God's gifts, and the father's greatest wealth, and therefore are to be given again to Him. In other things we give somethmg to God of all that He gives us ; all we do not, because our needs force us to retain the greater part, and the less sanctifies the whole : but our cMldren must all be returned to God ; for we may love them, and so may God too, and they are the better om- own by being made holy in their presentation. Whatsoever is given to God is holy, every tiring in its proportion and capacity ; a lamb is holy when it becomes a sacrifice, and a table is holy when it becomes an dtar, and a house is holy when it becomes a church ; and a man is holy when he is consecrated to be a priest, and so is every one that is dedcated to rehgion ; these are holy persons, the others are holy things : and iMants are between both : they have the sanc tification that belongs to them, the hohness that can be of a reasonable nature offered and destined to God's service, but not in that degree that is in an understandng, choosing person. Certain it is that infants may be given to God ; and if they may be, they must be : for it is not here as in goods, where we are permitted to use all, or some, and give what portion we please out of them ; but we cannot do our duty towards our children unless we give them whoUy to God, and offer them to His service and to His grace : the first does honour to God ; the second does charity to the childen. The effects and red advantages will appear in the sequel. In the mean time, tMs argument extends thus far, that children may be presented to God acceptably in order to His service. And it was highly preceptive when our blessed Saviour commanded that we should " suffer little children to come to" Him ; and when they came, they carried away a blessing dong with them. He was desirous they shodd partake of His merits; He is notwilhng, neither is it His Father's will, "that any of these httle ones shodd perish ;" and therefore He died for them, and loved, and blessed them ; and so He will now, if they be brought to Him, and presented as candidates of the rehgion, and of the resurrection. Christ hath a blessing for our children; but let them come to Him, that is, be presented at the doors of the church 11. s 258 OF BAPTIZING INFANTS. [PART f. to the sacrament of adoption and initiation ; for I know no other way for them to come. 13. Secondy : Children may be adopted into the covenant of the gospel, that is, "made partakers of the communion of srints," which is the second effect of baptism ; parts of the church, members of Christ's mystical body, and put into the order of eternal life. Now concerning tMs, it is certaM the church clearly hath power to do her offices in order to it : the faitiifd can pray for aU men, they can do their piety to some persons with more regard, and greater earnestness ; they can admit whom they please, in their proper dispositions, to a participation of att their holy prayers, and communions, and preach ings, and exhortations : and if all this be a blessMg, and att this be the actions of our own charity, who can hinder the church of God from admitting Mfants to the communion of all their pious offices, which can do them benefit in their present capacity ? How tMs does necessarily Mfer baptism, I shall afterwards dscoursem : but for the present I enumerate, that the blessings of baptism are commumcable to them ; they may be admitted into a fellowship of all the prayers and privileges of the church, and the communion of saints, in blessings, and prayers, and holy offices. But that which is of greatest persuasion and convMcing efficacy in this particMar is, that the children of the church are as capable of the same covenant as the children of the Jews : but it was the same covenant that circumcision did consign, a spiritual covenant under a veil, and now it is the same spiritual covenant without the veil; wMch is evident to him that considers it, thus : 14. The words of the covenant are these : "I am the almighty God, walk before Me, and be thou perfect; I will mdtiply thee exceedingly ; thou shalt be a father of many nations ; thy name shall not be Abram, but Abraham : nations and kings shall be out of thee ; I will be a God unto thee and unto thy seed after thee ; and I will give aU the land of Canaan to thy seed : and aU the mdes shdl be circumcised ; and it shaU be a token of the covenant between Me and thee ; and he that is not circumcised shall be cut off from Ms people"." The covenant wlrich was on Abraham's part was, to walk before God, and to be perfect ; on God's part, to bless birn with a numerous issue, and them with the land of Canaan ; and the sign was circumcision, the token of the covenant. Now in all tMs here was no duty to wMch the posterity was obliged, nor any blessing wMch Abraham could perceive or feel, because neither he nor Ms posterity dd enjoy the promise for many Minded years dter the covenant : and therefore, as there was a duty for the posterity which is not here expressed ; so there was a blessing for Abraham wMch was concealed under the leaves of a temporal promise, and wMch we shall better understand from them whom the Spirit of God hath taught the mysteriousness of tMs transaction. The argument indeed, ™ Sect. xxv. &c. " Gen. xvii. 1, &c SECT. IX.] OF BAPTIZING INFANTS. 259 and the observation, is wholly St. Paul's0. Abraham and the patri archs "ded in faith, not having received the promises," viz. of a possession in Canaan : " they saw the promises afar off," they em braced them, and looked tMough the cloud and the temporal veil ; tMs was not it : they might have returned to Canaan, if that had been the object of their desires, and the design of the promise ; but they desired and did seek a country, but it was a better, and that a heaveMy. TMs was the object of their desire, and the end of their search, and the reward of their faith, and the secret of their promise. And therefore circumcision was " a seal of the righteousness of faith wMch he had before Ms circumcision^," before the making this covenant; and therefore it must principally relate to an effect and a blessing greater than was afterwards expressed in the temporal promise : which effect was " forgiveness of sins, a not imputing to us our infirmities, justification by fdth, accounting that for right eousness :" and these effects or graces were promised to Abraham, not ody for Ms posterity after the flesh, but his cMldren after the Spirit, even to dl that shall beheve, and "walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham which he walked in being yet uncircumcised." 15. This was no other but the covenant of the gospel, though afterwards otherwise consigned : for so the apostle expressly affirms, that Abraham was the father of circumcision (viz. by virtue of this covenant) " not only to them that are circumcised, but to aU that beheve q : for tMs promise was not tMough the law" of works, or of circumcision, " but of fdth." And therefore, as St. Paul observes, God promised that Abraham should be a father, not of that nation ody, but " of many nations, and the heir of the world ; that the blessing of Abraham might come on the gentiles through Jesus CMisf, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through fdth ; and if ye be Christ's, then ye are Abraham's seed, and heirs ac cording to the promise." Since then the covenant of the gospel is the covenant of faith, and not of works ; and the promises are spiritud, not secdar ; and Abraham, the father of the faitliful gentiles as well as the circumcised Jews, and the heir of the world, not by himself, but by his seed, or the Son of man, our Lord Jesus : it follows that the promises wMch circumcision dd seal were the same promises which are consigned in baptism ; the covenant is the same, only that God's people are not impaled in Palestine, and the veil is taken away, and the tempord is passed into spiritud ; and the resdt will be tMs, that to as many persons, and in as many capacities and in the same dspositions, as the promises were applied and did relate in circum cision, to the same they do belong and may be apphed in baptism9. ° Heb. xi. 13 — 6. aapKiKTf virqpeT-fio-ao-a xP^fi tus T7Jj p [Rom. iv. 3 — 12.] fj.eyaXijs irepiTo/jiris, tovt4bti tov fimr- 1 [ver. 13 — 7.] Tiap-aTos tov irepiTefivovTos 7)p.as airb ' Gal. iii. 14. 29. dfj.apTnp.dTuv, Kal atppaylaavros ffP-ds tis ' Oi tvttoi iv rip vipup Ji Btia ivTtp tbayytXiif 4Kt7 ydp Tf nepiTOfiif scil. Epicur. [torn. i. p. 19 D.] S 2 260 OF BAPTIZING INFANTS. [PART I. And let it be remembered that the covenant wMch circumcision did sign was a covenant of grace and faith ; the promises were of the Spirit, or spiritual; it was made before the law, and could not be rescinded by the legd covenant; notMng coMd be added to it, or taken from it ; and we that are partakers of tMs grace are therefore Eartakers of it by being Christ's servants, umted to Christ, and so are ecome Abraham's seed, as the apostle at large and professedly proves in divers places, but especially in the fourth to the Bomans, and the third to the Galatians : and therefore if Mfants were then admitted to it and consigned to it by a sacrament wMch they understood not any more than ours do, there is not any reason why ours shodd not enter in at the ordnary gate and door of grace as weU as they. Their child-en were circumcised the eighth day, but were mstructed afterwards when they could enquire what these things meant. Indeed their proselytes were first taught, then circumcised ; so are ours bap tized : but their infants were consigned first, and so must ours. 16. Thirdly : In baptism we are born again ; and this infants need in the present circumstances, and for the same great reason that men of age and reason do. For our naturd birth is either of itself insufficient, or is made so by the faU of Adam, and the consequent evils, that nature alone, or our first birth, cannot bring us to heaven, which .is a supernatural end, that is, an end above all the power of our nature as now it is. So that if nature cannot bring us to heaven, grace must, or we can never get thither ; if the first birth cannot, a second must : but the second birth spoken of M scripture is baptism : " a man must be born of water and the Spirit." And therefore bap tism is kovrpbv irakiyyeveaias, ' the laver of a new birth'.' Either then infants cannot go to heaven any way that we know of, or they must be baptized. To say they are to be left to God, is an excuse, and no answer : for when God hath opened the door, and calls that the " entrance into heaven," we do not leave them to God, when we will not carry them to Him in the way wMch He hath described, and at the door which Himself hath opened ; we leave them indeed, but it is but helpless and destitute : and though God is better than man, yet that is no warrant to us ; what it will be to the children, that we cannot warrant or conjecture. And if it be objected that to the new birth are reqdred dspositions of our own, which are to be wrought by and in them that have the use of reason : besides that tMs is wholly agaMst the analogy of a new birth, in wMch the person to be born is wholly a passive, and hath put into him the principle that m time will produce its proper actions ; it is certain that they that can receive the new birth, are capable of it. The effect of it is a possi- bMty of being saved, and arriving to a supernaturd fehcity : if infants can receive this effect; then dso the new birth without wMch they cannot receive the effect : and if they can receive sdvation, the effect of the new birth, what Mnders them but they may receive that that * Titus iii. 5. SECT. IX.] OF BAPTIZING INFANTS. 261 is in order to that effect, and ordained only for it, and which is notMng of itself but in its institution and relation, and wlrich may be received by the same capacity in which one may be created, that is, a passivity, or a capacity obedentid ? 17. FourtMy : Concerning pardon of sins, wlrich is one great effect of baptism, it is certain that idants have not that benefit wlrich men of sin and age may receive. He that hath a sickly stomach, drinks wine, and it not only refreshes his spirits, but cures his stomach : he that drinks wine, and hath not that disease, receives good by Ms wine, though it does not mririster to so many needs ; it refreshes, though it does not cure Mm : and when oil is poured upon a man's head, it does not dways heal a wound, but sometimes makes him a cheerful countenance, sometimes it consigns Mm to be a king, or a priest. So it is in baptism : it does not heal the wounds of actud sins, because they have not committed them ; but it takes off the evil of original sin : whatsoever is imputed to us by Adam's prevarication, is washed off by the death of the second Adamu, into wlrich we are baptized. But concerning origind sin, because there are so many disputes wlrich may intricate the question, I shall make use only of that which is confessed on both sides, and material to our purpose. Death came upon att men by Adam's sin, and the necessity of it remdns upon us as an evil consequent of the disobedence. For though death is na tural, yet it was kept off from man by God's favour ; which when he lost, the banks were broken, and the water reverted to its natural course, and our nature became a curse, and death a pumshment. Now that this also relates to Mfants so far, is certain, because they are sick, and die : this the Pelagians demed not*. But to whomso ever tMs evil descended, for them dso a remedy is provided by the second Adam, "that as in Adam all de, even so in CMist shall dl be made alive;" that is, at the day of judgment : then death shall be destroyed. In the mean time, death hath a sting and a bitterness, a curse it is, and an express of the divine anger : and if tiris sting be not taken away here, we shall have no participation of the final victory over death. Either therefore infants must be for ever without remedy in this evil consequent of their father's sin, or they must be adopted into the participation of Christ's death, which is the remedy. Now how can they partake of Christ's death, but by baptism into His death? For if there be any spiritud way fancied, it will by a stronger argu ment admit them to baptism : for if they can receive spiritud effects, they can also receive the outward sacrament ; this being demed only upon pretence they cannot have the other. If there be no spiritud way extraordnary, then the ordinary way is only left for them; if there be an extraordMary, let it be shewn, and Christians will be at rest concermng their chiklren. One tiring only I desire to be observed, „ r, 17 18 Jur' ^b- vi- caP' *• tleS- Cont- Julian., • VideAugust. cont, duas epist.Pelag.; lib. vi. passim, e. g. cap. 27. col. 1353.] lib. iv. c. 4. [torn. x. col. 471.] Cont. 262 OF BAPTIZING INFANTS. [PART I. that Pelagius denied original sin, but yet denied not the necessity of infants' baptism ; and being accused of it M an epistle to pope Inno cent the firsty, he purged himself of the suspicion, and dlowed the practice, but demed the inducement of it ; which shews that their arts are weak that think baptism to be useless to infants if they be not formally guilty of the prevarication of Adam. By wMch I dso gather that it was so umversd, so primitive a practice to baptize infants, that it was greater than dl pretences to the contrary ; for it wodd much have conduced to the introducing Ms opinion against grace and original sin if he had destroyed that practice, wMch seemed so very much to have its greatest necessity from the doctrine he demed. But against Pelagius, and against all that follow the parts of his opinion, it is of good use which St. Austin, Prosper2, and Fnlgentius" argue : if infants are punished for Adam's sin, then they are dso guilty of it in some sense, nimis enim impium est hoc de Dei sentire Justitia, quod a pravaricatione liberos cum reisvoluerit esse damnatos; so Prosper, dispendia qua nascentes flendo testantur, dicite quo merito sub justissimo et omnipotentissimo judice eis, si nullum peccatum ad- trahunt, inrogentur, said St. Austin b. For the guilt of it signifies notMng but the obligation to the punishment ; and he that feels the evil consequent, to him the sin is rinputed ; not as to all the same dishonour, or moral accounts, but to the more material, to the natural account : and in holy scripture the taking off the pumshment is the pardon of the sin ; and in the same degree the punishment is abolished, in the same God is appeased, and then the person stands upright, being reconciled to God by His grace. Since therefore Mfants have the punisMnent of sm, it is certain the sin is imputed to them, and therefore they need being reconcfled to God by Christ ; and if so, then when they are baptized into Christ's death and into His resur rection, their sins are pardoned, because the pumshment is taken off; the sting of natural death is taken away, because God's anger is re moved, and they shall partake of CMist's resurrection ; wMch because baptism does signify and consign, they dso are to be baptized. To which dso add tMs appendent consideration, that whatsoever the sacraments do consign, that dso they do convey and minister : they do it, that is, God by them does it ; lest we shodd think the sacra ments to be mere illusions, and abusmg us by deceitfd ineffective signs : and therefore to Mfants the grace of a title to a resurrection and reconcMation to God by the death of Christ is conveyed, because it signifies and consigns this to them more to the hfe and andogy of resemblance, than circumcision to the infant sons of Israel. I end tMs consideration with the words of Nazianzen ; r\ yivvr\o-is e/c ftav- TiapaTos ttciv to &vo> y [Inopp. S.August., torn. ii. col. 617.] " [Deincarn. et grat.cap. xiv. p. 301. | 1 Prosper contra Collatorem. [cap. ix. *> [Cont. Jul., lib. ii. cap. 95. torn, i in opp. S. August, torn. a. append, col. col. 989 D.] 180 G.] SECT. IX.] OF BAPTIZING INFANTS. 263 (oniv knavdyec ' our birth by baptism does cut off every unclean ap pendage of our natural birth, and leads us to a celestid Mec.' And tMs in cMldren is therefore more necessary, because the evil came upon them without their own act of reason and choice, and therefore the grace and remedy ought not to stay the leisure of dull nature and the formahties of the civil law. 18. FiftMy : The baptism of infants does to them the greatest part of that benefit, wMch belongs to the remission of sins : for baptism is a state of repentance and pardon for ever. TMs I suppose to be already proved ; to wMch I ody add this caution, that the Pelagians, to undervalue the necessity of supervening grace, affirmed that bap tism did minister to us grace sufficient to live perfectly and without sin for ever. Against tMs St. Jerome sharply declaims, and affirms, baptismum praterita donare peccata, non futuram servare justitiamA, that is, non statim justum facit et omni plenum justitia, as he ex pounds Ms meamng in another place6 : Vetera peccata conscindit, novas virtutes non tribuit ; dimittif a carcere, et dimisso, si labora- verit, pramia pollicetur. Baptism does not so forgive future sins that we may do what we please, or so as we need not labour, and watch, and fear, perpetually, and make use of God's grace to actuate our endeavours ; but puts us into a state of pardon, that is, in a covenant of grace, in which so long as we labour and repent, and strive to do our duty, so long our infirmities are pitied, and our sins certain to be pardoned, upon their certain condtions ; that is, by virtue of it we are capable of pardon, and must work for it, and may hope it. And therefore infants have a most certain capacity and pro per dsposition to baptism : for sin creeps before it can go ; and httle undecencies are soon learned, and malice is before their years, and they can do mischief and irregdarities betimes ; and though we know not when, nor how far, they are imputed in every month of their lives, yet it is an admirable art of the Spirit of grace, to put them into a state of pardon, that their remedy may at least be as soon as their necessity : and therefore Tertullianf and Gregory NazianzenS advised the baptism of children to be at three or four years of age ; meaning, that they then begin to have httle inadvertencies and hasty follies, and actions so evil as did need a lavatory. But if baptism hath an influence upon sins in the succeedng portions of our life, then it is certaM that their being presently innocent does not Mnder, and ought not to retard, the sacrament : and therefore TertdhanV, Quid festinat innocens atas ad remissionem peccatorum, ' what need inno cents hasten to the remission of sins ?' is soon answered. It is true, they need not in respect of any actual sins, for so they are innocent ; ' Orat. xl. de Bapt. [cap. 2. torn. i^p. ' [Vid. De bapt, cap. xviii. p. 231 C, 692 A 1 ^'J ' d Ad-v Pelag., lib. iii. [init. torn. iv. * [Orat. xl. cap. 28. torn. i. p. 714 A.] par. 3. co'l. 532.] " De baPtis-> caP- xviii- CP- 231 D-l e Lib. i. [col. 498.] 264 OF BAPTIZING INFANTS. [PART I. but in respect of the evils of their nature derived from their origind, and in respect of future sins in the whole state of their life, it is neces sary they be put into a state of pardon before they sin ; because some sin early, some sin later : and therefore miless they be baptized sc early as to prevent the first sins, they may chance de in a sin to the pardon of wMch they have yet derived no title from Christ. 19. Sixtiriy : The next great effect of baptism wMch cMldren can have, is the Spirit of sanctification ; and if they can be " baptized with water and the Spirit," it will be sacrilege to rob them of so holy treasures. And concerMng tMs, dthough it be with them as St. Paul. says of heirs, " the heir, so long as he is a child, differeth notMng from a servant, though he be lord of all:" and children, dthough they receive the spirit of promise and the spirit of grace, yet in respect of actual exercise they differ not from them that have them not at all ; yet this Mnders not but they may have them. For as the reasonable sod and all its facdties are in children, will and understandng, pas sions, and powers of attraction and propdsion ; yet these facdties do not operate or come abroad, tril time and art, observation and expe rience, have drawn them forth into action : so may the spirit of grace, the principle of Christian life, be infused, and yet he without action till in its own day it is drawn forth. For in every Christian there are tMee parts concurring to Ms integral constitution, body, and sod, and spirit ; and all these have their proper activities and times ; but " every one in his own order, fost that wMch is natural, then that wMch is spiritud." And what Aristotle said, " A man first hves the life of a plant, then of a beast, and lastly of a man," is true m this sense : and the more spiritud the principle is, the longer it is before it operates, because more tirings concur to spiritual actions than to natural : and these are necessary, and therefore first ; the other are perfect, and therefore last. And who is he that so well understands the pMlosophy of tMs tMrd principle of a Christian's Me, the spirit, as to know how or when it is infused, and how it operates in all its periods, and what it is in its beMg and proper nature ; and whether it be like the soul, or like the facdty, or like a habit ; or how or to what purposes God in att varieties does dispense it ? These are secrets, wMch none but bold people use to decree, and build propo sitions upon their own dreams. That wMch is certrin is, That the Spirit is the principle of a new life, or a new birth : That baptism is the laver of this new birth : That it is the seed of God, and may he long in the furrows before it springs up : That from the facdty to the act, the passage is not dways sudden and quick : That the Spirit is " the earnest of our inheritance," that is, of resurrection to eternal hfe; wlrich inheritance because children we hope shall have, they cannot be denied to have its seal and earnest ; that is, if they shall have all, they are not to be denied a part : That children have some effects of the Spirit, and therefore do receive it ; and are " baptized with the Spirit," and therefore may with water : which thing is SECT. IX.] OF BAPTIZING INFANTS. 265 therefore true and evident, because some cMldren are sanctified, as Jeremiah and the Baptist, and therefore att may ; and because all sanctification of persons is an effect of the holy Ghost, there is no per adventure but they that can be sanctified by God, can in that capacity receive the holy Ghost. And aU the ground of dissenting here, is only upon a mistake ; because Mfants do no act of hohness, they suppose them Mcapable of the grace of sanctification : now sanctifi cation of children is their adoption to the inheritance of sons, their presentation to Christ, their consignation to Christ's service and to resurrection, their being put into a possibility of being saved, their restitution to God's favour, wMch naturally, that is, as our nature is depraved and puMshed, they codd not have. And M short the case is tMs. OrigMal righteousness was M Adam after the manner of nature, but it was an act or effect of grace ; and by it men were not made, but born righteous. The inferior facdties obeyed the superior, the mind was whole and right, and conformable to the dvMe image, the reason and the will dways concurring, the will followed reason, and reason followed the laws of God1 ; and so long as a man had not lost tMs, he was pleasing to God, and shodd have passed to a more perfect state. Now because tMs, if Adam had stood, should have been born with every child, there was in infants a principle, which was the seed of holy Me here, and a blessed hereafter ; and yet the children should have gone in the road of nature then as well as now, and the Spirit shodd have operated at nature's leisure ; God, being the giver of both, wodd have made them Mstrumentd to and per fective of each other, but not destructive. Now what was lost by Adamk is restored by CMist; the same righteousness, only it is not born, but superinduced ; not integrd, but interrupted ; but such as it is, there is no difference but that the same or the like principle may be derived to us from Christ as there shodd have been from Adam, that is, a principle of obedience, a regdarity of facdties, a beauty in the soM, and a state of acceptation with God. And we see also in men of understandng and reason, " the Spirit of God dwells in them," wMch Tatianus1 describing, uses these words, v be \jnjxn &o~nep evavo-pa rrjs bvvdpeoos avrov [Trvevparos'] KeKT-npeirn, ' the sod is possessed with sparks or materials of the power of the Spirit :' and yet it is sometimes ineffective and unactive, sometimes more, some times less, and does no more do its work at all times, than the sod does at all times understand. Add to tMs, that if there be m Mfants naturally an evil principle, a proclivity to sM, an ignorance and pravity of mind, a disorder of affections, (as experience teaches us there is, and the perpetud doctrine of the church, and the umversd miscMefs ' TV dvBpaireiav (pviriv dpxvBev airb k Ut quod perdideramus in Adam, id ruv Be'mv dyaBSiv dvoyTus 4\oXiaB-i\aaaav est, secundum imaginem et similitudinem j) noXimaBto-TdTTi faij SiaSextTai, Kal tJp esse Dei, hoc in Christo Jesu reciperemus. tou QBopoitoiov BavdTov v4pas.— Dionys. — Iren., lib. iii. [cap. 18. § 1. p. 209.] Areop. Eccles. Hier., cap. iii. par. 3. [p. ' [Cap. xxii. p. 53.] 101 A.] 266 OF BAPTIZING INFANTS. [PART I. issmng from mankind, and the sin of every man, does witness too much,) why cannot infants have a good principle M them, though it works not till its own season, as well as an evil principle ? If there were not by nature some evil principle, it is not possible that dl the world shodd choose sm. In free agents it was never heard that aU indviduds loved and chose the same tiring to which they were not naturally inclined. Neither do dl men choose to marry, neither do all choose to abstain ; and in this instance there is a naturd inebriation to one part : but of all the men and women in the world, there is no one that hath never sinned ; " if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not inusm," said an apostle. If therefore nature hath in infants an evil principle, wMch operates when the child can choose, but is all the wMle witMn the soul ; either Mfants have by grace a principle put into them, or else " sin abounds, where grace does" not " superabound," expressly against the doctrine of the apostle. — The event of tMs discourse is, That if infants be capable of the Spirit of grace, there is no reason but they may and ought to be baptized, as well as men and women ; unless God had expressly forbidden them, wMch cannot be pretended. And that infants are capable of the Spirit of grace, I tirink is made very credble ; Christus infantibus inf ans f actus, sanctificans infantes, said Irenaeus11, 'Christ became an iMant among the Mfants, and does sanctify riifants ;' and St. Cyprian0 affirms, esse apud omnes, sive infantes sive majores natu, unam divini muneris cequalAtatem, ' there is the same dspensation of the dvine grace to all alike, to infants as well as to men.' And in this royd priesthood, as it is in the secdar, Mngs may be anointed in their crades. Dat (Deus) sui Spiritus occultissimam gratiam, quam latenter infundit et parvulisP, 'God gives the most secret grace of His Spirit, which He dso secretly infuses into infants.' And if a secret Mfusion be rejected because it cannot be proved at the place and at the instant, many men that hope for heaven witt be very much to seek for a proof of their earnest, and need an earnest of the earnest. For aU that have the Spirit of God, cannot in dl instants prove it, or certainly know it; neither is it defined, by how many indices the Spirit's presence can be proved or signified. And they limit the Spirit too much, and understand it too httle, who take accounts of His secret workings, and measure them by the material Mies and methods of naturd and admal effects. And yet, because whatsoever is holy is made so by the holy Spirit, we are certain that the children of believing, that is, of Christian parents, are holy. St. Paul affirmed it, and by it hath dstingdshed ours from the children of unbehevers, and our marriages from theirs. And because the cMldren of the heathen, when they come to choice and reason, may enter into baptism and the covenant, if they will ; our children have no privilege beyond ™ 1 John i. 8. lxiv. p. 160.] B [Lib. ii. cap. 22. § 4. p. 147.] ' S. August. De pec. mer. et remiss 0 Ep. ad Fidum, lib. iii. ep. 8. [Ep. [lib. i. cap. 9. torn. x. col. 7.] SECT. IX.] OF BAPTIZING INFANTS; 267 the children of Turks or heathens, unless it be M the present capacity, that is, either by receiving the holy Ghost immedately, and the promises, or at least having a title to the sacrament, and entering by that door. If they have the Spirit, notMng can Mnder them from a title to the water ; and if they have only a title to the water of the sacrament, then they shaU receive the promise of the holy Spirit, the benefits of the sacrament; else their privilege is none at all but a dish of cold water, wMch every village nurse can provide for her new-born babe. 20. But it is in our case as it was with the Jews' cMldren, our children are a holy seed ; for if it were not so with Christiamty, how codd St. Peter move the Jews to Christianity by teMng them " the promise was to them and their children ?" for if our childen be not capable of the Spirit of promise and hohness, and yet their children were holy, it had been a better argument to have kept them in the synagogue, than to have called them to the CMistian church. Either therefore first, there is some hohness in a reasonable nature wMch is not from the Spirit of hohness ; or else secondly, our children do re ceive the holy Spirit, because they are holy ; or if they be not holy, they are in worse condition under CMist than under Moses; or if none of all this be true, then our children are holy by having received the holy Spirit of promise, and consequently nothing can hinder them from beMg baptized. 21. And indeed if the CMistian Jews, whose children are circum cised, and made partakers of the same promises and title, and inhe ritance, and sacraments, which themselves had at their conversion to the fdth of Christ, had seen their children now shut out from these new sacraments, it is not to be doubted but they wodd have raised a storm greater than codd easily have been suppressed, since about their circumcisions they had raised such tragedies and implacable dis putations. And there had been great reason to look for a storm ; for their children were circumcised, and if not baptized, then they were left under a burden wMch their fathers were qdt of; for St. Paul said, " whosoever is circumcised, is a debtor to keep the whole law." These children therefore that were circumcised stood obhged, for want of baptism, to perform the law of ceremonies, to be presented into the temple, to pay their price, to be redeemed with silver and gold, to be bound by the law of pollutions and carnd ordinances ; and therefore if they had been thus left, it woMd be no wonder if the Jews had complained and made a tumdt ; they used to do it for less matters. 22. To wlrich let tMs be added, that the first book of the New testament was not written till eight years after Christ's ascension, and St. Mark's gospel twelve years ; in the mean time, to what scriptures did they appeal ? by the analogy or proportion of what writings did they end their questions ? whence dd they prove their articles ? They only appealed to the Old testament, and only added what ti* j Lord 26& OF BAPTIZING INFANTS. [PART U superadded. Now either it must be said that our blessed Lord com manded that infants should not be baptized, wMch is no where pre tended, and if it were cannot at all be proved ; or if by the proportion of scriptures they dd serve God and preach the rehgion, it is pldn that by the analogy of the Old testament, that is, of those scriptures by wMch they proved CMist to be come and to have suffered, they also approved the baptism of infants, or the admitting them to the society of the fritiifd Jews, of wMch also the church dd then prin cipally consist. 23. Seventlily : That baptism, wMch consigns men and women to a blessed resurrection, doth also equally consign infants to it, hath notMng that I know of pretended against it ; there being the same signature and the same grace, and M this thing all being ahke pas sive, and we no way co-operating to the consignation and promise of grace. And infants have an equal necessity, as being liable to sick ness and groaning with as sad accents, and dying sooner than men and women, and less able to complain, and more apt to be pitied, and broken with the unhappy consequents of a short hfe and a speedy death, et infelieitate priscorum hominum, 'with the Mfehcity and folly of their first parents :' and therefore have as great need as any; and that is capacity enough to receive a remedy for the evil wMch was brought upon them by the fault of another. 24. Eighthly : And dter all tMs, if baptism be that means wMch God hath appointed to save us, it were well if we wodd do our parts towards Mfants' find interest; which whether it depends upon the sacrament and its proper grace, we have notMng to rely upon but those texts of scripture wMch make baptism the ordnary way of entering into the state of sdvation : save oMy we are to add tins, that because of tMs law, since infants are not personally capable, but the church for them, as for aU others indefinitely, we have reason to believe that their friends' neglect shall by some way be supplied; but hope hath in it nothing beyond a probability. TMs we may be certain of, that naturally we cannot be heirs of salvation, for " by nature we are children of wrath;" and therefore an eternal separation from God is an infallible consequent to our evil nature : either therefore chil dren must be put into the state of grace, or they shdl dwell for ever where God's face does never sMne. Now there are but two ways of being put into the state of grace and sdvation : the inward by the Spirit, and the outward by water ; wMch regularly are together. If they be renewed by the Spirit, " what Mnders them to be baptized, who receive the holy Ghost as well as we?" If they are not capable of the Spirit, they are capable of water ; and if of neither, where is their title to heaveni which is neither internal nor external, neither spiritud nor sacramentd, neither secret nor manifest, neither natural ' Nisi quis renatus fuerit, &c. TJti- de Abr. patr., lib. ii. cap. 11. [§ 84. torn que nullum excipit, non infantem, non i. col. 350.] aliqua prfeventum necessitate. — Ambr. SECT. IX.] OF BAPTIZING INFANTS. 200 nor gracious, neither origind nor derivative? And well may we lament the death of poor babes that are afiairToi, concermng whom if we neglect what is regdarly prescribed to att that enter heaven without any difference expressed or case reserved, we have no reason to be comforted over our dead children, but may " weep as they that have no hope." We may hope, when our neglect was not the Mn- drance, because God hath wholly taken the matter into His own hand, and then it cannot miscarry ; and though we know notMng of the childen, yet we know much of God's goodness : but when God hath permitted it to us, that is, offered and permitted children to our ministry, whatever happens to the Mnocents, we may well fear lest God will require the souls at our hands ; and we cannot be otherwise secure but that it wril be sdd concerning our childen, which St. Ambrose used in a case hke this, anima ilia potuit salva fieri si habuisset purga- tionemT, ' tMs sod might have gone to God if it had been purified and washed.' We know God is good, infinitely good ; but we know it is not at all good to tempt His goodness : and he tempts Hhn that leaves the usual way and pretends it is not made for Mm, and yet hopes to be at Ms journey's end, or expects to meet Ms child in heaven, when Mmself shuts the door against him wMch, for aught he knows, is the ody one that stands open. St. Austin was severe in this question against unbaptized Mfants ; therefore he is called, durus paler infantum*; though I know not why the original of that opinion should be attributed to Mm, sMce St. Arnbrose said the same before him, as appears M Ms words before quoted in the margent. 25. And now that I have enumerated the blessings wlrich are con sequent to baptism, and have also made apparent that infants can receive these blessings, I suppose I need not use any other persua sions to bring cMldren to baptism. If it be certain they may receive these good tirings by it, it is certain they are not to be Mndered of them without the greatest impiety and sacrilege and uncharitableness in the world. Nay, if it be only probable that they receive these blessings, or if it be but possible they may, nay, udess it be impos sible they shodd, and so declared by revelation or demonstratively certain; it were intolerable unkindness and injustice to our pretty innocents to let their crying be unpitied, and their natural misery eterndly irremedable, and their sorrows without remedy, and their sods no more capable of relief than their bodies of physic, and their | death left with the sting M, and their souls without spirits to go to j God, and no angel guardan to be assigned them in the assemblies \ of the faitiriul, and they not to be reckoned in the accounts of God / and God's church. All these are sad stories. 26. There are in scripture very many other probabdties to persuade the baptism of infants ; but because the places admit of divers inter pretations, the arguments have so many diminutions, and the certainty » Lib. ii. cap. 11. de Abr. patr. [ubi sup.] • [Cf. vol. vi. p. 417.] 270 OF BAPTIZING INFANTS. [PART I. that is in them is too fine for easy understandings, I have chosen to build the ancient doctrines upon such principles wMch are more easy and certain, and have not been yet sdhed and rifled with the con tentions of an adversary. This ody I shall observe, that the words of our blessed Lord, " unless a man be born of water and the Spirit, h e cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven," cannot be expounded to the exclusion of children, but the same expositions wiU also make baptism not necessary for men : for if they be both necessary ingre dients, water and the Spirit, then let us provide water, and God witt provide the Spirit; if we bring wood to the sacrifice, He wd provide, a lamb : and if they signify distinctly, one is ordnarily as necessary as the other; and then infants must be baptized, or not be saved. But if one be exegeticd and explicative of the other, and by " water and the Spirit" is meant ody the purification of the Spirit, then where is the necessity of baptism for men ? It witt be, as the other sacrament, at most hut highly convedent, not simply necessary; and all the other places wiU easily be answered, if this be avoided. But however, these words being spoken M so decretory a manner are to be used with fear and reverence ; and we must be infallibly sure by some certain infallible arguments that infants ought not to be baptized, or we ought to fear concerning the effect of these decretory words. I shall ody add two tirings by way of corollary to this dis course. 27. That the church of God, ever since her numbers were full, hath for very many ages consisted almost wholly of assembhes of them who have been baptized in their infancy : and although M the first calhngs of the gentiles the chiefest and most frequent baptisms were of converted and repenting persons and believers ; yet from the beginMng dso the church hath baptized the Mfants of Christian parents, accordng to the prophecy of Isaiah, " Behold, I will lift up my hands to the gentiles, and set up a standard to the people ; ana they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders8." Concermng which I shall not only bring the testimomes of the matter of fact, but either a report of an apostolical tradtion, or some argument from the fathers, wMch will make their testimony more effectual in all that shaU relate to the question. 28. The author of the book of ecclesiasticd hierarchy attributed to St. Dems the Areopagite*, takes notice that certain unholy persons and enemies to the Christian rehgion tMnk it a ridicdous tiring that infants, who as yet cannot understand the dvme mysteries, should be partakers of the sacraments, and that professions and abrenunciations should be made by others for them and in their names. He answers, that " holy men, governors of churches, have so taught, having re ceived a tradition from their fathers and elders in CMist." By wMch • Isa. xlix. 22. . [De eccl. hier., cap. vii. p. 152.] SECT. IX.] OF BAPTIZING INFANTS. 271 answer of Ms as it appears that he himself was later than the Areo- pagite ; so it is so early by him affirmed that even then there was an ancient tradtion for the baptism of infants, and the use of godathers in the mimstry of the sacrament. Concermng which, it having been so ancient a constitution of the church, it were well if men woMd rather humbly and modestly observe, than hke scomers deride it ; in which they shew their own folly, as well as immodesty. For what undecency or incongruity is it that our parents, natural or spiritud, should stipdate for us, when it is agreeable to the practice of all the laws and transactions of the world, an effect of the communion of saints and of Christian economy ? For why may not infants be stipu lated for, as weU as we ? All were included in the stipdation made with Adam ; he made a losing bargain for himself, and we smarted for Ms folly : and if the fadts of parents, and Mngs, and relatives, do bring evil upon their children, and subjects, and correlatives, it is but equal that our cMldren may have benefit dso by our charity and piety. But concerMng maMng an agreement for them, we find that God was confident concermng Abraham, that " he wodd teach his cMldren :" and there is no doubt but parents have great power, by strict education and prudent dscipline, to efform the minds of their children to virtue. Joshua did expressly undertake for Ms household, " I and my house will serve the Lord." And for childen we may better do it, because, till they are of perfect choice, no government in the world is so great as that of parents over their cMldren, M that wMch can concern the parts of this question : for they rde over their understandngs, and children know nothing but what they are told, and they beheve it infimtely. And it is a rare art of the Spirit to engage parents to bring them up well, " in the nurture and admonition of the Lord ;" and they are persons obhged by a superinduced band ; they are to give them instructions and holy principles, as they give them meat. And it is certain that parents may better stipdate for their children, than the church can for men and women : for they may be present impostors and hypocrites, as the church story teUs of some, and con sequently are ¦napafidimo-Tai, not really converted, and ineffectively baptized ; and the next day they may change their resolution and grow weary of their vow : and that is the most that children can do when they come to age ; and it is very much in the parents whether the cMldren shall do any such tiring or no. ¦ purus et insons (Ut me collaudem) si vivo et carus amicis, Causa fuit pater his ; Ipse mihi custos incorruptissimus omnes Circum doctores aderat : quid multa ? pudicum (Qui primus virtutis honos) servavit ab omni Non solum facto, verum opprobrio quoque turpi : . ob hoc nunc Laus illi debetur, et a me gratia major". 0 Hor. [Sat. i. 6. lin. 69.] 272 OF BAPTIZING INFANTS. [PART I. For education can introduce a habit and a second nature, against wMch children cannot kick uMess they do some violence to them-. selves and their inclinations. And dthough it fails too often whenever it fails, yet we pronounce prudently concerning future tirings, when we have a less influence into the event than in the present case, and therefore are more unapt persons to 'stipulate ; and less reason in the tiring itself, and therefore have not so much reason to be confident. Is not the greatest prudence of generds Mstanced M their foreseeing future events, and guessing at the designs of their enemies? concermng which they have less reason to be confident than parents of their children's belief of the Christian creed. To wMch I add this consideration: That parents or godfathers may therefore safely and prudently promise that their children shall be of the Christian fdth, because we not only see millions of men and women who not only beheve the whole creed ody upon the stock of their education, but there are none that ever do renounce the faith of their country and breedmg, uMess they be violently tempted by mterest or weakness, antecedent or consequent. He that sees all men almost to be Christians because they are bid to be so, need not question the fittingness of godfathers promising in behalf of the children for whom they answer. 29. And however the matter be for godfathers, yet the fradtion of baptizmg infants passed tMough the hands of Irenseusv, omnem atatem sanctificans per illam qua ad ipsum erat similitudinem : omnes enim venit per semetipsum salvare, omnes, inquam, qui per eum renascumtur in Deum, infantes, et parvulos, et pueros, et juvenes, et senior es: ideo per omnem venit cetatem, et infantibus inf ans foetus, sanctificans infantes, in parvulis parvulus, &c. 'Christ dd sanctify every age by His own susception of it, and similitude to it : for He came to save all men by Himself; I say, att who by Him are born agam unto God, Mfants, and children, and boys, and young men, and old men. He was made an infant to infants, sanctifying infants ; a little one to the httle ones,' &c. And Origen* is express, eeclesia ab apostolis traditionem suscepit etiam parvulis baplismum dare, 'the church hath received a tradtion from the apostles to give baptism to children.' And St. Cyprian in Ms epistle to Fidus gives account of this article : for beMg questioned by some less skilful persons whether it were lawful to baptize children before the eighth day, he gives account of the whole question; and a whole council of sixty-six bishops upon very good reason decreed, that their baptism shodd at no hand be deferred ; though whether six, or eight, or ten days, was no matter, so there be no danger or present necessity. The whole epistle is worth the readng. T Lib. ii. [cap. 22. p. 147 ] Vide etiam * Lib. v. ad Rom. vi. [torn, iv. p. Constit. Clement, [lib. vi. cap. 15.] 565 A.] Idem Horn. xiv. in Lucam &airTl£tTe Se vfiav Kal tA vfyrta, kcu [torn. iii. p. 948 E.] Horn. viii. in Levit iicrptiptre abrd 4v TaiSeia Kal vovBeaia [torn. ii. p. 230 C] 8ecv. SPOT. IX.] OF BAPTIZING INFANTS. 273 30. But besides these authorities of such who writ before the starting of the Pelagian questions, it will not be useless to bring the discourses of them and others, I mean the reason upon which the church did it both before and after. 31. Irenseus's argument was this: Christ took upon Him our nature, to sanctify and to save it; and passed through the several periods of it, even unto death, which is the symbol and effect of old age ; and therefore it is certain He did sanctify all the periods of it : and why shodd He be an idant, but that infants should receive the crown of their age, the purification of their stained nature, the sanc tification of their persons, and the saving of their sods by their infant Lord and elder Brother ? 32. Omnis enim anima eousque in Adam censetur, donee in Christo recenseatur ; tamdiu immunda, quamdiu recenseafairy , 'every sod is accounted in Adam, till it be new accounted in Christ ; and so long as it is accounted in Adam, so long it is unclean;' and we know, " no unclean thing can enter into heaven ; " and therefore our Lord hath defined it, " udess ye be born of water and the Spirit, ye can not enter into the kingdom of heaven;" that is, ye cannot be holy. It was the argument of TertuUian : which the rather is to be received, because he was one less favourable to the custom of the church in his time of baptizing infants, which custom he noted and acknow ledged, and hath also in the preceding discourse fairly proved. And indeed (that St. Cyprian2 may superadd Ms symbol) "God, who is no accepter of persons, will also be no accepter of ages. — For if to the greatest delinquents, sinning long before against God, remission of sins be given when afterwards they berieve, and from baptism and from grace no man is forbidden ; how much more ought not an infant be forbidden, who, being new born, hath sinned nothing, save only that being in the flesh born of Adam, in his first birth he hath contracted the contagion of an old death; who therefore comes the easier to obtain remission of sins, because to him are forgiven not his own, but the sins of another man. None ought to be driven from bap- 1 tism and the grace of God (who is merciful, and gentle, and pious j unto att), . . and therefore much less infants, who more deserve our aid, and more need3 the divine mercy, because in the first beginning of their birth, crying and weeping, they can do nothing but call fori mercy and relief." "For this reason it was," saith Origenb, "that they to whom the secrets of the divine mysteries were committed, did baptize their infants, because there was born with them the impurities of sin," which did need material ablution, as a sacrament of spiritual purification. For that it may appear that our sins have a proper andogy to tMs sacrament, the body itself is called the "body of sin:" and therefore the wasMng of the body is not ineffectual towards the r Tertul. De anima. [cap. xl. p. 294 a [Plus merentur.] jj -| b Origen, lib. v. ad Rom. vi. [§ 9 '» S. Cyprian, ep. ad Fidum. [p. 160, 1.] torn. iv. p. 565 A.] II. T 274 OF BAPTIZING INFANTS. [PART T. great work of pardon and abohtion. Indeed after tMs ablution there remains concupiscence, or the material part of our misery and sin ; for Christ by His death ody took away that wMch, when He did de for us, He bare M His own body upon the tree. Now Christ ody bare the punishment of our sin, and therefore we shall not de for it; but the material part of the sin Christ bare not : sin codd not come so near Him; it might make Him sick and de, but not dsordered and stained. He was pure from original and actud sins ; and there fore that remdns in the body, though the guilt and punishment be taken off, and changed into advantages and grace ; and the actual are relieved by the Spirit of grace descending afterwards upon the church, and sent by our Lord to the same purpose. 33. But it is not rationally to be answered what St. Ambrose saysc, quia omnis peceato obnoxia, ideo omnis atas Sacramento idonea ; for i it were strange that sin and misery should seize upon the innocent j and most unconsenting persons, and that they only should be left ' without a sacrament and an instrument of expiation. And dthough they cannot consent to the present susception, yet neither do they refuse ; and yet they consent as much to the grace of the sacrament as to the prevarication of Adam; and because they suffer under tMs, it were but reason they should be relieved by that. And " it were better," as Gregory Nazianzen affirms"1, " that they shodd be con signed and sanctified without their own knowledge, than to de with out their being sanctified;" for so it happened to the circumcised ; babes of Israel : and if the conspersion and wasMng the door-posts with the blood of a lamb did sacramentdly preserve att the first-born of Goshen ; it cannot be thought impossible or unreasonable that the want of understandng in children shodd Mnder them from the blessMg of a sacrament, and from being redeemed and washed with the blood of the holy Lamb who was " slain" for aU " from the be- gindng of the world." 34. After att tMs it is not inconsiderable, that we say the church | hath great power and authority about the sacraments ; which is ob- I servable in many instances. She appointed what persons she pleased, and in equal power made an unequd dispensation and ministry. The apostles first dispensed all things, and then they left off exterior minis tries to attend to "the word of God and prayer :" and St. Pad ac counted it no part of Ms office to baptize, when he had been separated by imposition of hands at Antioch to the work of preacMng and greater mmistries ; and accounted that act of the church the act of Christ, saying, "CMist sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel." They used various forms in the midstration of baptism : sometimes baptizing "in the name of Christ," sometimes expressly invocating the holy and ever-blessed Trinity ; one while, " I baptize c S. Ambros. de Abr. Patr., lib.ii. cap. ft aweX8e7v da^payiara Kal dreXeara. — 11. [§ 81. torn. i. col. 349.] Orat. xl. in S. Bapt. [cap. 28 torn. i. " Kpeto-crov ydp avaio-SifTus dyiao-Brjvai, p. 713 D.] SECT. IX.] OF BAPTIZING INFANTS. 275 thee," as in the Latin church, but in the Greek, "Let the servant of Christ be baptized ;" and in aU ecclesiastical mimstries the church invented the forms, and M most things hath often changed them, as in absolution, excommudcation. And sometimes they baptized people under their profession of repentance, and then taught them ; as it j happened to the gaoler and all his fairily ; in whose case there was no exphcit faith aforehand in the mysteries of religion, so far as appears : and yet he, and not ody he but all Ms house, were baptized at that hour of the night when the earthquake was terrible and the fear was pregnant upon them ; and this upon their master's account, as it is hkely : but others were baptized in the conditions of a previous faith, and a new-begun repentance6. They baptized in rivers or in lavatories, by dpping or by sprinkring : for so we find that St. Lau rence did, as he went to martyrdom ; and so the church dd sometimes to crimes ; and so it is highly convenient to be done in northern countries ; accordng to the prophecy of Isaiah f, " So shall He sprinkle many nations," accordng as the typical expiations among the Jews were usually by sprinkhrig : and it is fairly relative to the mystery, to the " sprinkling with the blood of Christ s," and the water- mg of the furrows of our sods with the dew of heaven, to make them to bring forth frdt unto the Spirit and unto hohness11. The church sometimes dipt the catechumen tixree times, sometimes but once. Some churches use fire in their baptisms ; so do the Ethiopians ; and the custom was ancient in some places'. And so in the other sacra ment : sometimes they stood, and sometimes kneeled ; and sometimes received it in the mouth, and sometimes in the hand ; one while in leavened, another while in unleavened bread ; sometimes the wine and water were mingled, sometimes they were pure : and they ad mitted some persons to it sometimes, which at other times they re jected : sometimes the consecration was made by one form, sometimes by another : and, to conclude, sometimes it was given to infants, sometimes not. And she had power so to do ; for in all things where there was not a commandment of CMist, expressed, or implied in the nature and in the end of the institution, the church had power to dter the particulars as was most expedient, or conducing to edification. And dthough the after ages of the church, which refused to commu nicate infants, have found some little tirings against the lawfdness, and those ages that used it found out some pretences for its necessity; yet both the one and the other had liberty to follow their own neces sities, so in all tirings they followed CMist. Certaidy there is infi nitely more reason why Mfants may be communicated, than why they e Non ut delinquere desinant, sed quia ad bonos fructus inferendos divinis mune- desierunt, as Tertullian phraseth it. [De ribus irrigatur.— Cassiodor. [in Ps. xxii. pcenit., cap. vi. p. 125 J\.) 2. ten. ii. p. 79.] __ ' Isaiah Iii. 15. ' "Evioi irvpl Ta Sra tZv 0-tppayiaafj.eviov « 1 Peter i. 2. KaTeo~i)f4vavT0, dixit Heracleon apud h ' Aqua refectionis,' est baptismi lava- Clem. Alex. [Prophet. Eclog., cap. xxv. crum, quo anima sterilis ariditate peccati torn. ii. p. 995.] T 2 276 OF BAPTIZING INFANTS. [PART I. may not be baptized. And, that this dscourse may revert to its first intention, dthough there is no record extant of any church in the world wMch, from the apostles' days inclusively to this very day, ever refused to baptize their children ; yet if they had upon any present reason, they might dso change their practice when the reason shodd be changed : and therefore if there were nothing else in it, yet the udversd practice of all churches M all ages is abundantly sufficient to determine us, and to legitimate the practice, since Christ hath not forbidden it. It is a sufficient confutation to dsagreeing people, to use the words of St. Pad, "We have no such custom, nor the churches of God," to suffer children to be strangers from the covenant of pro mise titt they shall enter into it as Jews or Turks may enter, that is, by choice and disputation. But although tMs done, to modest and obedent, that is, to Christian spirits, be sufficient : yet tMs is more than the question did need : it can stand upon its proper foundation. Quicunque parvulos recentes ab uteris matrum baptizandos negat, . . anathema esto*, ' he that refuseth to baptize Ms Mfants, shaU be in danger of the council/ THE PEAYEE. 0 holy and eternd Jesus, who in Thine own person wert pleased to sanctify the waters of baptism, and by Thy institution and com mandment didst make them effectual to excellent purposes of grace and remedy ; be pleased to verify the holy effects of baptism to me and all Thy servants, whose names are dedicated to Thee in an early and timely presentation, and enable us with Thy grace to verify all our promises by wMch we were bound then when Thou ddst first make us Thy own portion and relatives in the consummation of a holy covenant. 0 be pleased to pardon all those undecencies and unhandsome interruptions of that state of favour, in which Thou didst plant us by Thy grace, and admit us by the gates of baptism : and let that Spirit wMch moved upon those holy waters never be absent from us, but call upon us, and invite us by a perpetud ar gument and daily sohcitations and inducements to hohness ; that we may never return to the filtiriness of sin, but by the answer of a good conscience may please Thee, and glorify Thy name, and do honour to Thy religion and institution in tMs world, and may re ceive the blessings and the rewards of it M the world to come, being presented to Thee pure and spotless in the day of Thy power, when Thou shdt lead Thy church to a kingdom and endless glories. Amen. k Cone. Milev., can. 2. [torn. L coL 1217 ] sect. ix.J Christ's prayer at his baptism. 277 APPENDIX AD SECT. IX. No. 3. OF JESUS BEING BAPTIZED. Christ 's prayer al His baptism}. Z,Z\..Zj j_a <_ico .jal^O A..001 i^liO. tpj .|oj oj _i0 }j| ' Z^jo .|*jj ^i*a> ^Jlcn A»2iio .1*ctZ\ JloA° jAXoAo So oiAix^o Zrla^ L»aio .fcpoVi.i; laaa^o |i|'o Jj,_oa2> A»I\5a* oj .A*JZ,_a. 1 «iii-^\ Ij-Aa-io; ]A»aa,o; ja>;_a jociZ? ;<-,v. w^ \ U^Dro Lij jWvZ] |xsai : ]«g>oVi,i Jjaio! Uf^j jooi v '-¦" -; fcaa)o jiVr uwAa .uZ\,> jZa\. , ¦*-> joj oj ^_.? Ajj .LA^ioj Jjoio; too^do jfj; i^,|o .JAj'oVi \ v^; l»oi \ss\a \>lA. ^^d i^o; ;,— »o :q-Yi. \ ~r; j>oi j co; a a |^«j Jjlsoi .oia2o t.ivi. .» jAl\oAo» .jZy* | ilO OlXiO vOjj jZ\OJO .jalil^lN ^Qjj JO-JO .OUi^CUO |j^|o )Zoa_Xlo> jZo^o uX.; }_ «|o i), N,.; j ¦n ,qj] ^ v y ._i*,cuZ\ JiDjX lupoiojj {joi_a f m, ,Vi, ,\ a^wioZj V.' .oaii\ }jj jooi; ^jZ^oi : jZ»w cta.ZL.?> Jjoid pO \Vi\ vo-o -i *j A^jioo -^ vv* wAioj ^^ao *JZqZ\, j'oua j.aiD,,_oo jA*^.; '—.fiai*. oio: jA^oYi \ So ^>-i>. Lu.j£> J-a-o; jj^ ',_a^I*o rZoA vooiZol\2>j» ^r*L£ .j-*o .A^kj A.j.™^ .. .. .v.,0 jjj yjo Jjol2 ; <^-jo .j«i;.o A*ooi oiAX$So» Christ s prayer at His baptism. ' 0 Father, accordng to the good pleasure of Thy will I am made a man ; and from the time M wMch I was born of a virgm unto tMs day, I have finished those things wMch are agreemg to the nature of man ; and with due observance have performed all Thy com mandments, the mysteries and types of the law : and now iruly I am baptized ; and so have I ordaMed baptism, that from thence, 1 Hanc orationem transcripsit et trans- in Academia Dubliniensi apud Hibernos, misit eruditissimus vir, et linguarum Ori- Professor linguarum Orientalium apud entaliiirn apprime gnarus, Dud. Loftus, eosdem. [Corrected to the MS. Ed.] J. 17. D. et Juris Civilis Professor publicus N 278 of christ's prayer at his baptism. [part i. as from the place of spiritud birth, the regeneration of men may be accomplished : and as John was the last of the legal priests, so am I the fost of the evangehcal. Thou therefore, O Father, by the mediation of My prayer, open the heavens, and from thence send Thy holy Spirit upon this womb of baptism : that as He did untie the womb of the virgin, and thence form Me, so also He would loose this baptismd womb, and so sanctify it unto men, that from thence new men may be begotten, who may become Thy sons, and My bretirren, and heirs of Thy Mngdom. And what the priests under the law, until John, codd not do, grant unto the priests of the New testament, (whose cMef I am in the oblation of tMs prayer,) that whensoever they shall celebrate baptism, or pour forth prayers unto Thee, as the holy Spirit is seen with Me in open vision, so dso it may be made manifest that the same Spirit witt adjom Himself in their society a more secret way, and will by them per form the ministries of the New testament, for which I am made a man ; and as the high priest, I do offer these prayers M Thy sight.' This prayer was transcribed out of the Syriac Catena m upon the third chapter of St. Luke's gospel, and is by the author of that Catena reported to have been made by our blessed Saviour immedately before the opening of the heavens at His baptism : and that the holy Spirit did descend upon Him while He was thus praying : and for it he cites the authority of St. Phfloxenus. I cannot but foresee that there is one clause in it wMch will be used as an objection against the authority of this prayer ; viz. " as John was the last of the legd priests :" for he was no priest at all, nor ever officiated in the temple or at the Mosaic rites. But this is nothing : because, that the Baptist was of the family of the priests, his father Zachary is a demonstration: that he did not officiate, Ms bemg employed M another ministry is a sufficient answer ; that he was the last of the priests is to be understood in tMs sense, that he was the period of the law, the common term between the law and the gospel : by Mm the gospel was first preached solemnly, and therefore in him the law first ended. And as he was the last of the prophets, so he was the last of the priests : not but that after Mm many had the gift of prophecy, and some dd officiate in the Mosdcd priesthood ; but that his office put the first period to the solermrity of Moses's law ; that is, at Mm the dispensation evangehcal dd first enter. That the ministers of the gospel are here called priests, ought not to be a prejudce against this prayer in the persuasions of any men ; because it was usual with our blessed Saviour to retdn the words of the Jews, His countrymen, before whom He spake, that they might by words to which they were used be instructed in the notice of persons and tilings, offices and mriristries evangehed, wMch afterwards were to be represented under other, that is, under their proper names. ™ [e MSS. Biblioth. Coll. SS. Trinitatis apud Dublinienses B. 2. 9. p. 411.] sect. ix. J of Christ's prayer at his baptism. 279 And now all that I shall say of it is this : 1. That it is not udikely but our blessed Saviour prayed when He was baptized, and when the holy Ghost descended upon Him ; not only because it was an employment symbolicd to the grace He was to receive, but also to become to us a precedent by what means we are to receive the holy Spirit of God. 2. That it is very likely our blessed Lord wodd consecrate the waters of baptism to those mysterious ends whither He designed them, as well as the bread and chalice of the holy supper. 3. That it is most likely the Easterlings dd preserve a record of many words and actions of the holy Jesus wMch are not transmitted to us. 4. It is certain that our blessed Lord dd do and say many more things, than are in the holy scriptures ; and that tMs was one of them, we have the credit of this ancient author, and the authority of St. PM- loxenus. However, it is much better to make such good use of it as the matter and piety of the prayer will minister, than to quarrel at it by the imperfection of uncertain conjectures. END OF THE FIRST PART THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE AND DEATH OF THE HOLY JESUS. PAET II. BEGINNING AT THE TIME OF HIS FIRST MIRACLE, UNTIL THE SECOND YEAR OF HIS PREACHING : WITH CONSIDERATIONS AND DISCOURSES UPON THE SEVERAL PARTS OF THE STORY ; AND PRAYERS FITTED TO THE SEVERAL MYSTERIES. Tb dmo'Teiv rats 4vToXa7s 4k tov irpbs Tyv 4KnX-fipu>o'iv 4KXeXvffBai tSiv ePToXiv yivtrai. — Chrysost. ad Demetr. [vid. p. 302 infra.] RIGHT HONOURABLE AND EXCELLENT LADY, LADY MARY, COUNTESS DOWAGER OF NORTHAMPTON. I am now to present to your honour part of that production of wMch your great love to sanctity was parent ; and which was partly designed to satisfy those great appetites to virtue, which have made you hugely apprehensive and forward to entertain any instrument whereby you may grow and increase in the service of God, and the communion and charities of holy people. Your honour best knows in what soil the first design of these papers grew ; and, but that the excellent personage who was their first root is transplanted for a time, that he may not have his righteous sod vexed with the impurer conversation of ill-minded men, I am confident you wodd have received the frdts of his abode to more excellent purposes. But because he was pleased to leave the managing of tMs to me, I hope your honour witt for Ms sake entertain what that rare person ' conceived/ though I was left to the pains and danger of ' bringing forth ;' and that it may dweU with you for its first relation, rather than be rejected for its appendent imperfections, which it contracted not in the fountain, but in the channels of its progress and emanation. Madam, I shall beg of God that your honour may 284 DEDICATION. receive as great increment of piety and ghostly strength in the readng tMs book, as I receive honour if you shaU be pleased to accept and own tMs as a confession of your great worthiness, and a testimony of the service wMch ought to be prid to your honour by. Madam, Your honour's most humble And most obliged servant, JER. TAYLOR. THE HISTOBY OF THE LIFE AND DEATH OF THE HOLY JESUS. PABT II. BEGINNING at the time of his first miracle, until THE SECOND YEAR OF HIS PREACHING. SECTION X. Of the first manifestation of Jesus, by the testimony of John and a miracle. 1. After that the Baptist by a sign from heaven was confirmed in spirit and understanding that Jesus was the Messias, he immediately published to the Jews what God had manifested to Mm. And first to the priests and levites, sent in legation from the Sanhedrim, he professed indefimtely, in answer to their question, that Mmself was " not the CMist, nor Elias, nor that prophet" whom they, by a special tradtion, dd expect to be revealed, they knew not when : and con cerning Mmself defimtely he said nothing, but that he was " the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord ;" He it was who was then " amongst them," but " not known," a person of great dgdty, to- whom the Baptist was "not worth/' to do the office of the lowest mriristry, " who, coming after John, was preferred far before him3," who was to increaseb, and the Baptist was to decrease, who did "baptize with the holy Ghost and with firec." 2. This was the character of His personal prerogatives ; but as yet no demonstration was made of His person titt after the descent of the holy Ghost upon Jesus, and then whenever the Baptist saw Jesus, he points Him out with his finger, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world; tMs is Hed." Then he shews Him to Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, with the same designation, and to another disciple with Mm, "who both followed Jesus, and abode with Him all nighte :" Andrew brings Ms brother Simon with Mm, and then Christ changes Ms name from Simon to Peter, or Cephas, wMch sigMfies a stone. Then Jesus himself finds out Philip of Bethsaida, and bade him follow Him ; and Philip finds out Na- » John i. 15, 20—30. d John i. 29, 86. 6 John iii. 30. e John i. 37, 9. « Matt. iii. 11. 286 OF THE FIRST MANIFESTATION OF JESUS. [PART II. thanael, and calls hrin to see. Thus persons bred in a dark ceU, upon their first ascent up to the chambers of hght, dl run, staring upon the beauties of the sun, and call the partners of their darkness to communicate in their new and stranger revelation. 3. When Nathanael was come to Jesus, Christ saw Ms heart, and gave Mm a testimony to be truly honest and full of holy simplicity, " a true Israelite, without guile." And Nathanael being overjoyed that he had found the Messias, believing out of love, and loving by reason of his joy and no suspicion, took that for a proof and verifi cation of His person wMch was very insufficient to confirm a doubt or ratify a probability : but so we believe a story which we love, taking probabilities for demonstrations, and casual accidents for probabilities : and any thing creates vehement presumptions; in wMch cases our guides are not our knowing facdties, but our affections ; and if they be holy, God gddes them into the right persuasions, as He does httle birds to make rare nests, though they understand not the mystery of operation, nor the design and purpose of the action. 4. But Jesus took Ms wril and forwardness of affections in so good part, that He promised him greater things ; and this gave occasion to the first prophecy wlrich was made by Jesus : for " Jesus said unto him, Because I said I saw thee under the fig-tree, believest thou? thou shdt see greater things than these :" and then He prophesied that he should see "heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descendng upon the Son of man ;" but beMg a doctor of the law, Christ chose Mm not at aU to the college of apostles f. 5. Much about the same time there happened to be a marriage m Cana of Gahlee, in the vicinage of His dwelling, where John the evangelist is by some supposed to have been the bridegroom (but of this there is no certainty) ; and thither Jesus being with His' mother invited, He went, to do civility to the persons espoused, and to do honour to the holy rite of marriage. The persons then married were but of indifferent fortunes, richer in love of neighbours than in the fulness of rich possessions ; they had more company than wine. For the master of the feast (whom, according to the order and piety of the nation, they chose from the order of priests to be the president of the feast g, by the reverence of his person to restrdn att inordi nation, by Ms discretion to govern and order the circumstances, by his religious knowledge to direct the solemnities of marriage, and to retain dl the persons and actions in the bonds of prudence and modesty) complained to the bridegroom that the guests wanted wine. 6. As soon as the holy Virgin- mother had notice of the want, out f S. Aug. in Joan, [tract, vii. § 17. torn. oure dpifv ti twv alaxp&v oUrt aKobeiv \mo- iii. par. 2. col. 349.] fievovTos' dXXa Kal robs avv&VTas eu-roV- t Gaudent. Brixian. Tract ix. [p. 958.] tois Kal dvv&pio-rois iraiSlais xpno'Bai Kal Hujusmodi fuerunt modesta ilia Sertorii Gal. vi. 15. * @avu.aoT))v £vvapiSa. [ut loquuntui • 1 Cor. vii. 19. Graeci pa; res ; Grotius in Eph. i. 15.] 298 OF FAITH. [part II. hold of Ms elder brother's heel, it makes a timely and a prosperous birth, and gives certain title to the eternd promises : for let us give the right of primogedture to faith, yet the blessing, yea, and the inheritance too, will at last fall to charity; not that faith is dsm- herited, but that charity ody enters into the possession. The nature of faith passes into the excellency of charity before they can be rewarded ; and that both may have their estimate, that which justifies and saves us keeps the name of faith, but doth not do the deed till it hath the nature of charity. For to tirink well, or to have a good ophriou, or an excellent or a fortunate understandng, entitles us not to the love of God and the consequent inheritance3; but to choose the ways of the Spirit, and to relinqdsh the paths of dark ness, this is the way of the kingdom, and the purpose of the gospel, and the proper work of faith. 6. And if we consider upon what stock faith itself is Mstrumental and operative of salvation, we shall find it is in itself acceptable, because it is a duty, and commanded ; and therefore it is an act of obedence, a work of the gospel, a submitting the understanding, a denying the affections, a laying aside all interests, and a bringing our thoughts under the obedence of CMist. TMs the apostle calls " the obedience of faith*." And it is of the same condtion and consti tution with other graces, all which equally relate to Christ, and are as firm instruments of uMon, and are washed by the blood of Christ, and are sanctified by His death, and apprehend Him in their capacity and degrees, some Mgher, and some not so Mgh : but hope and charity apprehend CMist in a measure and proportion greater than faith, when it dstingdshes from them. So that if faith does the work of justification, as it is a mere relation to Christ, then so also does hope and charity ; or if these are duties and good works, so dso is fdth : and they all being alike commanded in order to the same end, and encouraged by the same reward, are also accepted upon the same stock, wlrich is, that they are acts of obedence and relation too ; they obey Christ, and lay hold upon CMist's merits, and are but severd instances of the great duty of a CMistian, but the actions of several facdties of the new creature. But because faith is the beginning grace, and hath influence and causdity M the produc tion of the other, therefore all the other as they are umted in duty, are dso umted in their title and appellative ; they are dl called by the name of fdth, because they are parts of faith, as fdth is taken m the larger sense : and when it is taken in the strictest and dstin- guislring sense, they are effects and proper products by way of natural emanation. 7. That a good life is the gendne and true-born issue of faith, no Tb dyaBobs fxev elvai fipids f) KaKobs, ObSev KepSos byiovs iriaTtws, Tijv iroAi- i Bebs o'vkJv rp yviaei eB-qKt yivaaKo- Ttias SieipBapfievifs. — Chrysost. De sacerd. ftivmv, &AA.a ev Tji aipto-ei tuv aipovpevav. lib. iv. [ad fin. torn. i. p. 414, C. j —Just Mart. Resp. ad orthod. [ad qu. ' Rom. xvi. 26. viii. Append, p. 444.] SECT. X. | OF FAITH. 299 man questions that knows himself the dsciple of the holy Jesus : but that obedence is the same thing with faithu, and that all CMistian graces are parts of its bulk and constitution, is dso the doctrine of the holy Ghost, and the grammar of scripture, making faith and obedence to be terms coincident and expressive of each other. For faith is not a single star, but a constellation, a chdn of graces, cdled by St. Pad "the power of God unto sdvation to every believer*;" that is, fdth is all that great instrument by wMch God intends to bring us to heaven : and he gives this reason, " in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith ;" for " it is written. The just shall live by faith." WMch dscourse makes faith to be a course of sanctity and holy habits, a continuation of a Christian's duty, such a duty as not ody gives the first breath, but by wMch a man rives the life of grace. "The just shall live by faith ;" that is, such a faith as grows from step to step till the whole right eousness of God be fulfilled in it. " From faith to faith," saith the apostle; wMch St. Austin expounds, from faith believing, to faith obeying7 ; from imperfect faith, to faith made perfect by the arrimation of charity ; that " he who is justified, may be justified still." For as there are several degrees and parts of justification, so there are severd degrees of faith answerable to it ; that in att senses it may be true that " by faith we are justified, and by faith we Uve, and by faith we are saved." For if we proceed " from faith to faith," from believing to obeying, from faith in the understandng to faith in the will, from faith barely assenting to the revelations of God to faith obeying the commandnents of God, from the body of faith to the soul of faith, that is, to faith formed and made dive by charity ; then we shall proceed, from justification to justification, that is, from remission of sins to become the sons of God, and at last to an actud possession of those glories to wMch we were here consigned by the fruits of the holy Ghost. 8. And in this sense the holy Jesus is called by the apostle " the author and finisher of our fdth2 :" He is the principle, and He is the promoter; He begins our faith in revelations, and perfects it in com mandments; He leads us by the assent of our understandng, and fimshes the work of His grace by a holy hfe : which St. Paul there expresses by its severd constituent parts; as "laying aside every weight and the sin that so easily besets us, and runmrig with patience the race that is set before us, . . resisting unto blood, striving agaMst sina;" for in these tirings Jesus is therefore made our example, because He is " the author and finisher of our faith ;" without these ° Fides (auetore Cicerone [Orat. part. * Rom. i. 16, 17. cap. 3. torn. i. p. 509.]) estfirma opinio, y Ex fide annunciantium evangelium et est fida mandatorum executio. Dicta in fidem obedientium evangelio. — S. Au- est autem fides (ut ait idem Cicero de gust. [De spir, et lit, cap. xi. torn. x. Officiis [lib. i. cap. 7. torn. iii. p. 183.]) col. 95 A.] a fio, quod id fieri debeat quod dictum z Heb. xii. 2. pt promissum est. " Heb. xii. 1. 4. 300 OF FAITH. [PART II. faith is imperfect. But the tiring is sometiring plainer yet, for St. James says that faith rives not but by charity b; and the life or essence of a tiring is certamly the better part of its constitution, as the soul is to a man. And if we mark the manner of his probation, it wiU come home to the main point : for he proves that Abraham's faith was therefore imputed to him for righteousness, because he was justified by works ; " was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he offered up his son ? and the scripture was fdfilled, saying, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed to Mm for righteousness • for faith wrought with Ms works, and made Ms faith perfect." It was a dead and an imperfect faith, unless obedience gave it being, and all its integral or essential parts. So that faith and charity, in the sense of a Christian, are but one duty, as the understandng and the will are but one reasonable soul; ody they produce several actions in order to one another, wMch are but "dvers operations and the same spirit." 9. Thus St. Pad, describing the faith of the Thessalom'ans, calls it that whereby they " turned from idols," and whereby they " served the living Godc;" and the faith of the patriarchs "believed the world's creation, received the promises, did miracles, wrought righte ousness d," and dd and suffered so many tilings as make up the integrity of a holy life. And therefore dsobedence and unrighteous ness is called " want of faith e," and heresy, which is opposed to faith, is " a work of the fleshf," because faith itself is a work of righteous ness. And that I may enumerate no more particdars, the tiling is so known, that the word direideia^, wMch in propriety of language signifies mispersuasion or infidelity, is rendered dsobedience; and the "not providing for our families" is an act of infidelity, by the same reason and analogy that obedence, or charity, and a holy life, are the duties of a Christian, of a justifying faith. And dthough in the natural or philosopMcd sense, faith and charity are distinct habits; yet in the sense of a CMistian, and the signification of duty, they are the same ; for we cannot beheve aright, as behevMg is in the com mandment, udess we live aright; for our faith is put upon the account just as it is made precious by charity; according to that rare saying of St. Bartholomew, recorded by the supposed St. Denis, " Charity is the greatest and the least theologyh :" all our faith, that is, all our religion, is completed in the duties of universd charity ; as our charity or our manner of riving is, so is our faith. If our hfe be unholy, it may be the faith of devils, but not the faith of CMistians. For this is the difference ; 10. The faith of the devils hath more of the understandMg in it, ¦> Jam. ii. 20—3, 6. * Eph. ii. 2, et v. 6 ; 1 Tim. v. 8. ' 1 Thess. i. 8, 9. h t) dydirri BeoXoyia iroXXii, Kal iXa- d Heb. xi. per totum. X^")- De myst. theol. [vid. cap. i. p " Col. iii. 6 ; 2 Thess. iii. 2. 273 A.] f Gal. v. 20. SMUT. X.] OF FAITH. 801 the faith of Christians more of the will; the devils in their faith have better discourse, the CMistians better affections ; they in their faith have better arguments, we more charity. So that charity or a good hfe is so necessary an ingredent into the definition of a Christian's faith, that we have nothing else to distingmsh it from the faith of devils ; and we need no trial of our faith but the examination of our lives. If you " keep the commandments of God," then have you the faith of Jesus ; they are immedate, in St. John's expression' : but if you be importune and ungody, you are in St. Pad's listk amongst them that have no faith. Every vice that rdes amongst us, and sullies the fair beauty of our sods, is a conviction of infidelity. 11. For it was the faith of Moses that made Mm despise the riches of Egypt ; the faith of Joshua, that made him vdiant ; the faith of Joseph, that made him chaste ; Abraham's faith made him obedent ; St. Mary Magdden's faith made her pedtent ; and the faith of St. PaM made Mm travel so far and suffer so much, titt he became a prodigy both of zed and patience. Faith is a catholicon, and cures all the dstemperatures of the sod ; it " overcomes the world1," saith St. John; it "works righteousness™," saith St. Paul; it "purifies the heart"," saith St. Peter; "it works miracles," saith our blessed Saviour ; miracles in grace always, as it dd miracles in nature at its first publication : and whatsoever is good, if it be a grace, it is an act of faith; if it be a reward, it is the frdt of faith. So that as att the actions of man are but the productions of the sod, so are aU the actions of the new man the effects of faith. For faith is the life of Christiamty, and a good life is the life of faith. 12. Upon the grounds of this dscourse, we may understand the sense of that question of our blessed Saviour; "when the Son of man comes, shdl He find faith on earth0 ?" truly, just so much as He finds charity and holy riving, and no more. For then ody we can be confident that fdth is not " failed from among the cMlden of men," when we feel the heats of the primitive charity return, and the calentures of the first old devotion are renewed ; when it shall be ac counted honourable to be a servant of CMist, and a shame to commit a sin. Then, and then ody, our churches shaU be assembhes of the faitirful, and the kingdoms of the world Christian countries. But so long as it is notorious that we have made CMistian religion another tiring than what the holy Jesus designed it to be ; when it does not make us hve good rives, but itsett is made a pretence to dl manner of impiety, a stratagem to serve ends, the ends of covetous ness, of ambition, and revenge; when the CMistian charity ends in killing one another for conscience sake, so that faith is made to cut the throat of charity, and our faith kiUs more than our charity pre serves ; when the humihty of a CMistian hath Mdeed a name amongst us, but it is hke a mute person, talked of ody ; while ambition and » Apoc. xiv. 12. k 2 Thess. iii. 2. ' 1 John v. i. « Heb. xi. 33. ¦ Acts xv. 9. <> Luke xviii 8 302 OF FAITH. [PART II, rebellion, pride and scorn, self-seeking and proud undertakMgs, transact most of the great affairs of Christendom ; when the custody of our senses is to no other purposes but that no opportunity of pleasing them pass away ; when our oaths are like the fringes of our discourses, going round about them as if they were ornaments and trimmings; when our blasphemies, profanation, sacrilege, and irre- ligion, are become scanddous to the very Turks and Jews; wMle our lusts are dways habitual, sometimes unnatural; will any wise man think that we believe those doctrines p of humility and obedience, of chastity and charity, of temperance and justice, which the Saviour of the world made sacred by His sermon and example, or indeed any thing He either sdd or did, promised or tiireatened ? For is it pos sible a man with Ms wits about Mm, and believing that he shodd certaidy be damned (that is, be eternaUy tormented M body and sod with torments greater than can be in this world) if he be a swearer, or liar, or drunkard, or cheats Ms neighbour ; that tMs man shodd dare to do these tirings to wMch the temptations are so small, in which the delight is so inconsiderable, and the satisfaction so none at all?13. We see by the experience of the whole world, that the behef of an honest man, M a matter of temporal advantage, makes us do actions of such danger and difficdty, that half so much industry and sufferance would ascertain us into a possession of all the promises evangehcal. Now let any man be asked, whether he had rather be rich or be saved ? he will tell you without all doubt, heaven is the better option by infimte degrees : for it cannot be that riches, or revenge, or lust, shodd be directly preferred, that is, be thought more eligible than the glories of immortality. That therefore men neglect so great salvation, and so greedly run after the satisfaction of their baser appetites, can be attributed to nothing but want of faith ; they do not heartily beheve that heaven is worth so much ; there is upon them a stupidity of spirit, and their faith is ddl, and its actions suspended most commonly, and often interrupted, and it never enters into the wiU : so that the propositions are considered nakedy and precisely in themselves, but not as referring to us or our interests ; there is notMng of fdth in it, but so much as is the first and direct act of understandng; there is no consideration or reflection upon the act, or upon the person, or upon the subject. So that even as it is seated in the understanding, our faith is com- mody lame, mutilous, and imperfect; and therefore much more is it cdpable, because it is destitute of all co-operation of the rational appetite. 14. But let us consider the power and efficacy of worldly belief. If a man beheves that there is gold to be had in Peru for fetching, or pearls and rich jewels in Inda for the exchange of trifles, he P Tb diriffTe7v [ra7s 4vtoXo.7s~\ yivtTai tuv ivroXcov. — S. Chrys. ad Demetr. 4k rod irpbs t^jv iKirX'fipcco-iv eKXeXvtrBai [cap. ii. torn. i. p. 125.] SECT. X.j OF FAITH. 303 instantly, if he be in capacity, leaves the wife of Ms bosom, and the pretty delights of children, and Ms own security, and ventures into the dangers of waters and unknown seas, and freezings and calen tures, thirst and hunger, pirates and shipwrecks; and hath witirin Mm a principle strong enough to answer all objections, because he beheves that riches are desirable, and by such means likely to be had. Our blessed Saviour, comparing the gospel to "a merchant man, that found a pearl of great price," and "sold aU to buy it," hath brought tMs instance home to the present dscourse. For if we dd as verily believe that in heaven those great felicities wlrich transcend all our apprehensions, are certaidy to be obtained by leav ing om- vices and lower desires, what can Mnder us but we should at least do as much for obtaining those great felicities as for the lesser, if the belief were equal ? for if any man thinks he may have them without holiness and justice and charity, then he wants faith, for he believes not the sayMg of St. Paul, "follow peace with dl men, and holiness, without which no man shall ever see Godq." If a man beheves learMng to be the ody or chiefest ornament and beauty of sods, that wMch will ennoble hrin to a fair employment in his own time, and an honourable memory to succeedng ages; this if he believes heartily, it hath power to make him endure catarrhs, gouts, hypochondriacal passions, to read till his eyes almost fix in their orbs, to despise the pleasures of ideness or tedious sports, and to undervdue whatsoever does not co-operate to the end of his faith, the desire of learning. Why is the Italian so abstemious in his drinkings, or the Helvetian so valiant in Ms fight or so true to the prince that employs hhn, but that they believe it to be noble so to be? If they believed the same and had the same honourable thoughts of other virtues, they dso would be as national as these. For faith witt do its proper work. And when the understandng is peremptorily and fully deternrined upon the persuasion of a proposi tion, if the will shodd then dissent and choose the contrary, it were unnatural and monstrous : and possibly no man ever does so ; for that men do things without reason and against their conscience, is because they have put out their hght, and dscourse their wills into the election of a sensible good, and want faith to believe trdy all circumstances wMch are necessary by way of predisposition for choice of the inteUectual. 15. But when men's faith is confident, their resolution and actions are in proportion : for thus the fdth of Mahometans makes them to abstaM from wine for ever ; and therefore, if we had the CMis tian faith, we shodd much rather abstain from drunkenness for ever; it being an express rde apostolical, "be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess r." The faith of the Circumcelhans made them to run greedily to violent and horrid deaths, as wittingly as to a crown; for they thought it was the king's lrighway to mar. i Heb. xii. 14. r Eph. v. 18. 304 OF FAITH. [PART II. tyrdom. And there was never any man zedous for Ms rehgion, and of an imperious bold faith, but he was dso witting to de for it ; and therefore also by as much reason to hve in it, and to be a strict observer of its prescriptions. And the stories of the strict sanctity, and prodgious sufferings, and severe dsciplines, and expen sive religion, and compliant and laborious charity, of the primitive CMistians, is abundant argument to convince us that the fdth of Christians is infhriteiy more frdtful, and productive of its umvocd and proper issues, than the faith of heretics, or the fdse religions of misbelievers, or the persuasions of secMar persons, or the spirit of antichrist. And therefore when we see men serving their prince with such dfficdt and ambitious services, because they beheve him able to reward them, though of Ms will they are not so certain, and yet so supinely negligent and Mcurious of their services to God, of whose power and will to reward us infinitely there is certainty absolute and irrespective ; it is certain probation that we beheve it not : for if we believe there is such a tiring as heaven, and that every single man's portion of heaven is far better than att the wealth M the world, it is mordly impossible we shodd prefer so httle before so great profit. 16. I instance but once more. The faith of Abraham was instanced in the matter of confidence or trust in the dvine promises ; and he being " the father of the faitirfd," we must imitate Ms faith by a clear dereliction of ourselves and our own interests, and an entire confident relying upon the divine goodness M all cases of our needs or danger. Now tMs also is a trid of the verity of our faith, the exceUency of our condtion, and what title we have to the glorious names of CMistians, and faitiifd, and behevers. If our fathers when we were in pupilage and minority, or a true and an able friend when we were in need, had made promises to supply our necessities, our con fidence was so great that our care deternrined. It were dso weU that we were as confident of God, and as secure of the event when we had disposed ourselves to reception of the blessing, as we were of our friend or parents. We all profess that God is almighty, that aU His promises are certaM, and yet when it comes to a pinch, we find that man to be more confident that hath ten thousand pounds in his purse, than he that reads God's promises over ten thousand timess. " Men of a common spirit," saith St. CMysostom, " of an ordnary sanctity, witt not steal, or kill, or he, or commit addtery ; but it re quires a rare faith and a sublimity of pious affections, to beheve that God will work a dehverance wMch to me seems impossible." And indeed St. CMysostom hit upon the right. He had need be a good man, and love God well, that puts Ms trust M Him. For those we * Clare cognoseeres non adeo esse facile confidere, magni et ccelestis animi est Deo soli, re alia non assumpta, credere, opus, et ejus qui nullis amplius capiatur propter earn, quse in nobis est, cum mor- earum quas videmus rerum illecebris. — tali compage cognationem. — Ab his au- Phil. Jud. libr. Quis rer. div. ha;res. tern purgari omnibus, . . uni autem Deo [torn. iv. p. 42.] SFCT. X.] OF FAITH. 305 love, we are most apt to trust1; and although trust and confidence is sometimes founded upon experience, yet it is also begotten and in creased by love, as often as by reason and discourse. And to this purpose it was excellently said by St. Basil, that "the knowledge wlrich one man learneth of another is made perfect by continud use and exercise; but that wlrich tMough the grace of God is engrafted in the mind of man, is made absolute by justice, gentleness, and charity." So that if you are willing even in death to codess not ody the articles, but in affliction and death to trust the promises ; if in the lowest nakedness of poverty you can cherish yourselves with the expectation of God's promises and dspensation, being as con fident of food and raiment, and deliverance or support, when all is in God's hand, as you are when it is in your own ; if you can be cheer ful in a storm, smile when the world frowns, be content in the midst of spiritud desertions and angdsh of spirit, expecting all shodd work together for the best, according to the promise; if you can strengthen yourselves in God when you are weakest, beheve when you see no hope, and entertain no jealousies or suspicions of God, though you see nothing to make you confident ; then, and then ody, you have faith, wMch, in conjunction with its other parts, is able to save your sods. For in this precise duty of trusting God there are the rays of hope, and great proportions of charity and resignation. 17. The sum is that pious and most CMistian sentence of the author of the Ordinary Gloss, "to believe in God tMough Jesus Christ is, by believing to love Him, to adhere to Him, to be united to Him by charity and obedience, and to be incorporated into CMist's mystical body, in the communion of saints"." I conclude this with a collation of certain excellent words of St. Pad, higlriy to the present purpose : " Examine yourselves, brethren, whether ye be in the faith ; prove your own selves x." Well, but how? "Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?" there is the touchstone of faith. If Jesus CMist dwells in us, then we are true believers ; if He does not, we are reprobates, we have no faith. But how shall we know, whether Christ be in us or no? St. Pad tells us that too ; " if Christ be in you, the body is dead by reason of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness''." That is the Christian's mark, and the characteristic of a true believer ; a death unto sin, and a living unto righteousness; a mortified body, and a quickened spirit : this is plain enough ; and by this we see what we must trust to. A man of a wicked life does in vain hope to be saved by Ms faith ; for indeed his faith is but eqdvocal and dead, wlrich, as to Ms purpose, is just none at att ; and therefore let [ "Evea-Ti ydp ttws tovto ttj TvpavviSi vio-71/j.a, to7s iplxoitri fj.ii ireiroiBevai. — .Slschyl. Prom. [224.] u CredereinDeum est credendo amare, in Rom. iv. [ver. 5; sc. post S. Aug. in credendo diligere, credendo in eum ire, S. Joan, tract, xxix. § 6.] et membris ejus incorporari. — Gloss. Ord. " 2 Cor. xiii. 5. r Rom. viii. 10. II. X 306 OF FAITH. [PART II. him no more deceive himself. For, that I may still use the words of St. Pad, "this is a faitMd sayMg, and these tilings I wril that thou affirm constantly, that they wMch have believed M God might be careful to maMtain good works1." For such, and such oMy, M the great scrutiny for fdth in the day of doom, shall have their portion in the bosom of faitMd Abraham. THE PBAYEB. I. 0 eternal God, fountrin of att truth and hohness, in whom to beheve is life eternd; let Thy grace descend with a mighty power mto my sod, beating down every strong hold and vdner imagMation, and bringMg every proud thought, and my confident and ignorant understandng, into the obedence of Jesus. Take from me all disobedence and refractariness of spirit, all ambition, and private and baser interests; remove from me att prejudce and weakness of persuasfon, that I may wholly resign my understandmg to the persuasions of Christiamty, acknowledgMg Thee to be the principle of truth, and Thy word the measure of knowledge, and Thy laws the rule of my life, and Thy promises the satisfaction of my hopes, and an udon with Thee to be the consummation of charity M the fnrition of glory. Amen. II. Holy Jesus, make me to acknowledge Thee to be my Lord and Master, and myself a servant and disciple of Thy holy dsciphne and institution ; let me love to sit at Thy feet, and suck m with my ears and heart the sweetness of Thy holy sermons. Let my soul be shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, with a peaceable and docile disposition. Give me great boldness M the public confession of Thy name and the truth of Thy gospel, m despite of att hostilities and temptations. And grant I may dways remember that Thy name is cdled upon me, and I may so behave myself, that I neither give scandd to others, nor cause dsrepu- tation to the honour of religion ; but that Thou mayest be glorified in me, and I by Thy mercies, after a strict observance of dl the holy laws of Christiamty. Amen. III. 0 holy and ever blessed Spirit, let Thy gracious influences be the perpetual gmde of my rationd facdties : inspire me with wisdom and knowledge, spiritual understandng, and a holy faith; and sanctify my faith, that it may arise up to the confidence of hope * Titus iii. 8. SECT. X.J OF FAITH. 307 and the adherences of charity, and be fruitful in a holy conver sation. Mortify in me all peevishness and pride of spirit, aU hereticd dspositions, and whatsoever is contrary to sound doctrine ; that when the eternal Son of God, the " author and finisher of our faith," shall come to make scrutiny, and an inquest for faith, I may receive the promises laid up for them that believe in the Lord Jesus, and wait for His conring in holiness and purity : to whom with the Father, and Thee, 0 blessed Spirit, be all honour and eternd adoration paid, with all sanctity, and joy, and eucharist, now and for ever. Amen. SECTION XI. Of Christ s going to Jerusalem to the passover, the first time after His manifestation, and what followed, till the expiration of the office of John the baptist. 1. Immediately after this miracle Jesus abode a few days in Capernaum, but because of the approach of the great feast of pass- over He ascended to Jerusdem; and the first pubhc act of record that He dd was an act of holy zeal and rehgion in behalf of the honour of the temple. For divers merchants and exchangers of money made the temple to be the market and the bank, and brought beasts tirither to be sold for sacrifice against the great paschal solem- mty. At the sight of wMch, Jesus, being moved with zeal and Mdignation, " made a wMp of cords, and drave the beasts out of the temple, overthrew the accounting tables, and commanded them that sold the doves to take them from thence." For His anger was holy, and He wodd nringle no Mjury with it; and therefore the doves, wMch, if let loose, would be detrimental to the owners, he caused to be fairly removed ; and published the rehgion of holy places, esta- blishmg their sacredness for ever, by His Mst gospel sermon that He made at Jerusalem. " Take these tirings hence : make not My Father's house a house of merchandze; for it shall be caUed a house of prayer to all nations." And beMg required to give a sign of His vocation, (for tMs, being an action like the rehgion of the zedots among the Jews, if it was not attested by sometiring extraor dinary, might be abused into an excess of liberty,) He ody foretold the resurrection of His body after tirree days' death, but He expressed it M the metaphor of the temple, " destroy this temple, and I will build it again in tirree days. He spake of the temple of His body ;" and they understood Him of the temple at Jerusdem ; and it was never rightly construed till it was accomplished. 2. At tMs pubhc convention of the Jewish nation Jesus dd many miracles, published Himself to be the Messias, and persuaded many disciples, amongst whom was Nicodemus, a doctor of the law, and a x 2 308 history of Christ's first going [part ii. c der of the nation : "he came by night to Jesus," and affirmed Mm self to be convinced by the miracles wMch he had seen ; for " no man oould do those miracles except God be with Mm." When Jesus per ceived his understandng to be so far dsposed, He began to instruct him in the great secret and mysteriousness of regeneration, telling dim, "that every production is of the same nature and condtionwith its parent; from flesh comes flesh and corruption, from the Spirit >;omes spirit, and hfe, and immortahty; and notMng from a principle of nature codd arrive to a supernatural end ; and therefore the only door to enter into the kingdom of God, was water, by the manuduc- tion of the Spirit ; and by this regeneration we are put Mto a new capacity, of riving a spiritual Me in order to a spiritud and super natural end." 3. TMs was strange philosophy to Nicodemus; but Jesus bade him not to wonder : for tMs is not a work of humaMty, but a frdt of God's Spirit, and an issue of predestination. For ' the Spirit bloweth where it listeth,' and is, as the wind, certain and notorious M the effects, but secret in the principle and in the manner of production. And therefore tMs doctrine was not to be estimated by any propor tions to natural principles or experiments of sense, but to the secrets of a new metaphysic, and abstracted, separate specdations. Then CMist proceeds in His sermon, telling him there are yet higher tirings for him to apprehend and believe ; for tiris, in respect of some other mysteriousness of His Gospel, was but as earth in comparison of heaven. Then He tells of His own descent from heaven, foretells His death and ascension, and the blessing of redemption which He came to work for mankind ; He preaches of the love of the Father, the mission of the Son, the rewards of faith, and the glories of eternity; He upbraids the unbehevmg and Mrpemtent, and declares the differ ences of a holy and a corrupt conscience, the shame and fears of the one, the confidence and serenity of the other. And this is the sum of His sermon to Nicodemus, which was the fullest of mystery and speculation and abstracted senses, of any that He ever made, except that wMch He made immediately before His passion ; att His other sermons being more practical. 4. From Jerusdem Jesus goeth into the country of Judea, attended by dvers dsciples, whose understandings were brought into subjection and obedence to Christ upon confidence of the dvinity of His mira cles. There His dsciples dd receive aU comers, and baptized them, as John at the same time did ; and by that ceremony admitted them to the dscipline and institution; according to the custom of the doctors and great prophets among the Jews, whose baptizing their scholars was the ceremony of their admission. As soon as John heard it, he acquitted himself in pubhc by renewing Ms former testimony concerning Jesus ; affirming Him " to be the Messias," and now the time was come that "Christ must increase, and the Baptist suffer diminution; for Christ came "from above," was "above all," and SECT. XI. _| TO THE PASSOVER. 309 the sum of His doctrine was "that which He had heard and seen from the Father;" "whom God sent to that purpose," "to whom God had set His seal that He was true," "who spake the words of God," " whom the Father loved, to whom He gave the Spirit without mea sure," and "into whose hands God had delivered aU things;" tiris was He whose " testimony the world received not." And that they might know not ody what person they slighted, but how great salva tion also they neglected, he sums up all his sermons, and finishes his mission with tMs saymg, " He that believeth on the Son, hath everlasting life ; and he that believeth not on the Son, shaU not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on lrima." 5. For now that the Baptist had fdfilled Ms office of bearing wit ness unto Jesus, God was pleased to give him his writ of ease, and bring him to his reward, upon tiris occasion : John, who had so learned to despise the world, and aU its exterior vamties and imperti nent relations, dd Ms duty justly, and so without respect of persons, that as he reproved the people for their prevarications, so he spared not Herod for Ms ; but abstaimng from dl expresses of the spirit of scorn and asperity, mingling no dscontents, interests, nor mutinous intimations with his sermons, he told Herod, "it was not lawfd for lrim to have Ms brother's wifeb." For which sermon he felt the furies and malice of a woman's spleen, was cast into prison, and about a year after was sacrificed to the scorn and pride of a lustfd woman, and her immodest daughter ; being, at the end of the second year of Christ's preacMng, beheaded by Herod's command, who wodd not retract Ms promise, because of Ms honour, and a rash vow he made m the gaiety of Ms lust, and complacencies of Ms riotous dancings. His head was brought up in a dsh, and made a festival present to the young girl, who gave it to her mother : a cruelty that was not known among the barbarisms of the worst of people, to nringle banquetings with blood and sights of death; an insolence and M- humaMty, for which the Boman orators accused Q. FlamMius of treason, because to satisfy the wanton cruelty of Placentia, he caused a condemned slave to be kitted at supper ; and wMch had no precedent but in the furies of Marius, who caused the head of the consd Antodus to be brought up to Mm M Ms feasts, wlrich he handled with much pleasure and insolency ". 6. But God's judgments, wlrich sleep not long4, found out Herod. » John iii. 36. tam iniqua recitatione. Marcioni autem b Montanistae, et eum his Tertul. adv. evangelium neganti hoc ohtrudere in Marcion., lib. iv. cap. 34. [p.450 D.] aiunt facili erat. Philippum defunctum fuisse, etinde pro- c Sen. eontrov. [lih.iv. 25. tern. iii. p. bare satagunt secundas nuptias illicitas 301.] Liv. xxxix. [cap. 42.] Plut. in esse ; sed hoe tam aperta fraude, ut agens Mario, [cap. xliv. torn. ii. p. 889.] adv. catholicos Tertullianus abstineat abs d "OffTis Se Bvv)tujv fiefiipeTai ret 8e7', bWi ovk ebBbs, aXXd t$ XP ^KiffTa Siav fiy o'iKoSofj,e7v. Et barbara- ^ ° Ta alo-8i)erifla"' ^ia rds irpotpaivofievas Svff- ovv Kal iittctTpityaTe, Acts iii. 19. Huic xept'ias, itpoo'aKT4ov Se t}jv e£iv, y irdvra enim promittitur peccatorum remiasio in -rd KaXd -yiyeTai Brfpard tois &v8pt&irois. — seq. tis tS 4£aXei(p6iivai vfxav Tas dftap- Polybius. [lib. x. cap. 11. § ii. torn. iii. ti'oj. p. 302.] Vide etiam Clem. Alex. Strom., '' Matt xii. 41. lib. ii. [cap. xii. sq. p. 458.] ubi ad eun- * Jonah iii. 8. 10. dem sensum definit pcenitentiam. SECT. XII.] OF REPENTANCE. 375 imply repentance to be the deletery of sins. " Eepentance from dead works h" St. Pad affirms to be the prime fundamentd of the religion ; that is, conversion, or returning from dead works : for unless re pentance be so construed, it is not good sense. And this is there fore higlily verified, because repentance is intended to set us into the condtion of our first undertaking, and articles covenanted with God. And therefore it is " a redemption of the time," that is, a recovering what we lost, and making it up by our doubled industry. " Eemember whence thou art fallen, repent," that is, return, "and do thy fost works," said the Spirit to the angel of the church of Ephesus, or else "I will remove thy candestick, except thou repent1." It is a restitution; "if a man be overtaken in a fadt, restore such a onek,'" that is, put him where he was. And then, that repentance also im plies a doing all good, is certain by the sermon of the Baptist, " bring forth fruits meet for repentance1:" "Do thy first works," was the sermon of the Spirit ; " laying aside every weight, and the sin that easily encircles us, let us run with patience the race that is set before us ;" so St. Paul taught. And St. Peter gives charge that when we " have escaped the corruptions of the world, and of lusts m," besides this, we " give all diligence" to acqdre the rosary and conjugation of Christian virtues. And they are proper effects, or rather constituent parts, of a holy repentance : " for gody sorrow worketh repentance," saith St. Pad, "not to be repented of":" and that ye may know what is signified by repentance, behold the product was " carefulness, clear ing of themselves, indgnation, fear, vehement desires, zed, and re venge ;" to which if we add the epithet of holy, (for these were the results of a gody sorrow, and the members of a repentance not to be repented of,) we are taught that repentance, besides the purging out the malice of iniqdty, is also a sanctification of the whole man, a turning nature into grace, passions into reason, and the flesh into spirit. 35. To tids purpose I reckon those pMases of scripture catting it a "renewing of our minds0;" a "renewing of the holy Ghost P;" a " cleansing of our hands, and purifying our hearts'1," that is, a becom ing holy in our affections and righteous in our actions ; a " transform ation1'," or utter change ; a " crucifying the flesh, with the affections and lusts 8 ;" a "mortified state*;" a " purging out the old leaven, and becoming a new conspersion" ;" a " waking out of sleep v, and walking honestly, as in the day* ;" a "bemg born again," and being "born from abovey;" a "new hfe." And I consider that these preparative b MeTdvoia ditb tSv vtKpuvepyuv, Heb. vi. 1. ' Jam. iv. 8. ' Apocal. ii. 5. r Rom. xii. 2. " Gal. vi. I. * Gal. v. 24. 1 Matt. iii. 8. ' Col. iii. 5. - 2 Pet. i. 4, 5. u 1 Cor. v. 7. ° 2 Cor. vii. 10. ' Eph. v. 14; Rom. xiii. 11. 0 Rom. xii. 2. x Rom. xiii. 13. P Tit. iii. 5. ' John iii. 5. 376 OF REPENTANCE. [PART II. actions of repentance, such as are sorrow, and confession of sins, and fasting, and exterior mortifications, and severities, are but fore runners of repentance2, some of the retinue, and they are of the family, but they no more complete the duty of repentance than the harbingers are the whole court, or than the fingers are all the body. There "is more joy in heaven," said our blessed Saviour, " over one sinner that repenteth, than over dnety-dne just persons who need no repentance." There is no man but needs a tear and a sorrow, even for his daily weaknesses, and possibly they are the instrumental expiations of our sudden, and frequent, and lesser surprizes of im perfection ; but the "just persons need no repentance," that is, need no inversion of state, no transformation from condition to condtion, but from the less to the more perfect the best man hath. And there fore those are vain persons who, when they " owe God a hundred," will " write fourscore," or " a thousand," will " write fifty." It was the saying of an excellent person that " repentance is the beginning of philosophy, a flight and renunciation of evil works and words, and the first preparation and entrance into a Me which is never to be repented of : and therefore a penitent is not taken with umbrages and appearances, nor quits a real good for an imaginary, or chooses evil for fear of enemies and adverse accidents ; but peremptorily conforms his sentence to the divine laws, and submits Ms whole hfe in a coMormity with thema." He that said those excellent words had not been taught the CMistian institution, but it was admirable reason and deep philosophy, and most consonant to the reasonableness of virtue, and the proportions and designs of repentance, and no other than the doctrine of Christian pMlosophy. 36. And it is considerable, smce M scripture there is a repentance mentioned wMch is impertinent and ineffectual as to the obtariring pardon, a repentance implied wMch is to be repented of, and another expressed which is " never to be repented of," and tiris is described to be a new state of life, a whole conversion and transformation of the man ; it follows that whatsoever in any sense can be called re pentance, and yet is less than this new hfe, must be that ineffective repentance. A sorrow is a repentance, and all the acts of dolorous expression are but the same sorrow in other characters, and they are good when they are parts or instruments of the true repentance : but M'hen they are the whole repentance, that repentance is no better 2 • Scelerum si bene pcenitet, Eradenda cupidinis Pravi sunt elementa; et teneraa nimis Mentes asperioribus Formandas studiis. — Hor. [Od. iii. 24. lin. 50.] » 'K Se jxeTavoia avrif OjiXoo-ocpias dpxh av irapiSrj, ofae twv ivaVTiwv T7jy Aristot. Rhet [lib. ii. cap. 3.] toS xaxov irpd£iv aipifa-eTau — Hierocl. [In 'AyaBol apiSaKpves dvSpes. — Hom. Pythag. p. 126.] [lege, Schol. in Hom. II. a. 349, et t'. 5. 878 OF REPENTANCE. [PART II. no present benefit of his sorrow, because it had no naturd principle, but a violent, unnatural, and intolerable cause, inconsistent with a free, placid, and mord election. But ..this I speak ody by way of caution : for God's mercy is infinite, and can, if He please, make it otherwise ; but it is not good to venture udess you have a promise. 37. The same also I consider concerning the purpose of a new life, wlrich that any man shodd judge to be repentance, that duty wMch restores us, is more unreasonable than to tMnk sorrow will do it. For as a man may sorrow, and yet never be restored (and he may sorrow so much the more because he shall never be restored, as Esau did, as the five foolish virgins did, and as many more do) ; so he that purposes to lead a new life hath convinced himself that the duty is undone, and therefore Ms pardon not granted, nor Ms condtion restored. As a letter is not a word, nor a word an action; as an embryo is not a man, nor the seed the frrit : so is a purpose of obe dience but the element of repentance, the first imaginations of it dffering from the grace itself as a disposition from a habit, or (be cause itself will best express itself) as the purpose does from the act0. For either a holy life is necessary, or it is not necessary. If it be not, why does any man hope to " escape the wrath to come" by resolving to do an unnecessary thing ? or if he does not purpose it when he pretends he does, that is a mocking of God, and that is a great way from being an instrument of his restitution. But if a holy life be necessary, as it is certain by infinite testimomes of scriptures it is the unum necessarium, ' the one great necessary,' it cannot rea sonably be thought that any tiring less than doing it shall serve our turns ; that which is only M purpose is not yet done, and yet it is necessary it should be done because it is necessary we should pur pose it. And in tMs we are sufficiently concluded by that ingenrinate expression used by St. Pad, " in Jesus Christ nothing can avail but a new creature :" notMng but " faith workmg by charity," notMng but a "keeping the commandments of Godd :" "and as many as walk accordng to tiris rde, peace be on them, and mercy : they are the Israel of Gode." 38. TMs consideration I intended to oppose agdnst the carnd security of death-bed pedtents, who have (it is to be feared) spent a vicious Me, who have therefore mocked themselves, because they meant to mock God: they wodd reap what they sowed not; but "be not deceived," saith the apostle ; " he that soweth to the flesh shdl of the flesh reap corruption; but he that- soweth to the Spirit shdl of the Spirit reap life everlastingf." Ody tiris, " let us not be weary of well-doing; for in due season we shall reap, if we fdnt not^:" c Nam illi qui ex aliis propositis in Sen. Ep. xxiii. [torn. ii. p. 87.] alia transiliunt, aut ne transiliunt qui- d Gal. vi. 15; v. 6; 1 Cor. vii. )'.'. dem, sed casu quodam transmittuntur, ' Gal. vi. 16. quomodo habere quicquam certum man- ' Ver. 7, 8. suruinve possunt, suspensi et vagi?— s Ver. 9- SECT. XII.] OF REPENTANCE. 379 meaning, that by a persevering industry, and a long work, and a suc cession of religious times, we must sow to the Spirit; a work of such length, that the greatest danger is of fainting and intercision : but he that sows to the Spirit, not being weary of well-doing, not fainting in the long process, he, and he oMy, shall reap life ever lasting. But a purpose is none of all this : if it comes to act, and be productive of a holy life, then it is usefd, and it was hke the eve of a holyday, festival in the midst of its abstinence and vigils, it was the begimrings of a repentance ; but if it never come to act, it was to no purpose, a mocking of God, an act of direct hypocrisy, a pro vocation of God and a deceiving our own selves ; you are unhappy you began not early, or that your earlier days return not together with your good purposes'1. 39. And neither can tMs have any other sentence, though the purpose be made upon our death-bed. For God hath made no cove nant with us on our death-bed dstinct from that He made with us in our life and hedth. And since in our life and present abilities, good purposes and resolutions and vows (for they are but the same thing in differing degrees) did signify nothing tril they came to act, and no man was reconciled to God by good intentions, but by doing the witt of God ; can we imagine that such purposes can more prevail at the end of a wicked life than at the beginning ? that less piety will serve our turns after fifty or sixty years' impiety, than after but five or ten ? that a wicked and sinful life should by less pains be expi ated than an unhappy year ? For it is not in the state of grace as in other exterior actions of rehgion or charity, where God will accept the will for the deed, when the externd act is inculpably out of our powers, and may also be supplied by the internal; as bendings of the body by the prostration of the soul, alms by charity, preaching by praying for conversion. These tirings are necessary because they are precepts, and obligatory ody in certain circumstances, wMch may fail, and we be innocent and disobliged. But it is otherwise in the essentid parts of our duty, which God hath made the immediate and next condtion of our sdvation, such which are never out of our power but by our own faMt '. Such are charity, forgiveness, repent ance, and faith ; such to which we are assisted by God, such wMch 6 Mutatus Dices, heu ! quoties te in speculo videris alteram, Quse mens est hodie, cur eadem non puero fuit 1 Vel cur his animis incolumes non redeunt gena? ? Hor. [Od. iv. 10. lin. 5.] 1 Els iro7ov en XP^V0V dvaf^dXrf to twv av Toivvv d/teX-fiays, Kal faBvixforfs, Kal ael $eXrio-TOjv d£iqvv o-eavrbv, /cal 4v fxifSevl imtpBeffets e£ vTrepBeffeav iroirjs, TpoBtaets irapafialveiv Tbv Siaipovvra x6yov ; itapei- iK irpoBitrewv, Kal iffiepas a\Aas ii? dX- \r) Hie est locus solvendi seris al.eni. — xciii. torn. ii. p. 436.] Sen. [ibid.] * Male vivunt qui semper vivere inci- Mortem venientem nemo hilaris ex- p-unt. — Non potest stare paratus ad mor- cipit, nisi qui se ad earn diu composuerat torn, qui mode- incipit vivere. — Quidam — Idem, Ep. xxx. [torn. ii. p 115] SECT. XII.] OF REPENTANCE. 387 day be called to-day, we must remember that our duty is such as re quires a time, a duration ; it is a course, " a race that is set before us ;" a duty requiring patience, and longanimity, and perseverance, and great care and dhgence, " that we faint not." And supposing we could gather probably by circumstarices, when the last period of our hopes begins; yet he that stands out as long as he can, gives probation that he came not in of good witt or choice ; that he loves not the present service; that Ms body is present, but his heart is estranged from the yoke of Ms present employment; and then all that he can do is odious to God, being a sacrifice without a heart, an offertory of shells and husks, while the devil and the man's lusts have devoured the kernels2. 49. So that tMs question is not to be asked beforehand ; but after a man hath done much of the work, and in some sense lived holfly, then he may enquire into his condtion ; whether, if he persevere in that, he may hope for the mercies of Jesus. But he that enqdres beforehand, as commonly he means ill, so he can be answered by none but God ; because the satisfaction of such a vain question de pends upon future contingencies, and accidents depending upon God's secret pleasure and predestination. He that repents but to day, repents late enough, that he put it off from yesterday. It may be that some may begin to-day, and find mercy, and to another person it may be too late ; but no man is safe or wise that puts it off till to-morrow. And that it may appear how necessary it is to begin early, and that the work is of dfficdty and continuance, and that time still increases the objections, it is certain that all the time that is lost must be redeemed by sometiring in the sequel, eqdvalent, or fit to make up the breach, and to cure the wounds long since made, and long festering ; and this must be done by doing the first works, by sometiring that God hath declared He will accept instead of them : the intension of the following actions, and the frequent repetition, must make up the defect in the extension and co-existence, with a longer time. It was an act of an heroical repentance, and great de- z Qui peccatum moriens dimittit, et ipsa In serum tempus difiert admissa fateri, Non tam dimittit, quam dimittatur ab illis. Alcimus Avitus. [Lib. v. De transitu mar. rub. ad fin. p. 617 E.] Non potest stare paratus ad mortem hoc judicas mirum, adjiciam quod magis qui modo incipit vivere. Id agendum admireris: Quidam ante viveve desierunt est, ut satis vixerimus. — Quidam vivere quam inciperent — Sen. Ep. xxiii. [torn. tunc incipiunt cum desinendum est. Si ii. p. 87.] Cras te victurum, eras dicis, Postume, semper ; Die mihi, Cras istud, Postume, quando venit ? Cras vives? hodie jam vivere, Postume, serum est: Hie sapit quisquis, Postume, vixit heri. — Mart. [Ep. v. 53.] Non bene distuleris, videas qua? posse negari ; Et solum hoc ducas, quod fuit, esse tuum. Non est, crede mihi, sapientis dicere, Vivam. Sera nimis vita est crastina ; vive hodie. — [Id. i. 16.] cc 2 388 OF REPENTANCE. [PART II. testation of the crime, which Thomas Cantipratanus" relates, of a young gentleman condemned to die for robberies ; who, endeavouring to testify Ms repentance, and, as far as was then permitted him, to expiate the crime, begged of the judge that tormentors might be appoMted hrin, that he might be long a dying, and be cut in small pieces, that the severity of the execution might be proportionable to the immensity of Ms sorrow and greatness of the iniqdty. Such great acts do facilitate our pardon, and hasten the restitution, and in a few days comprise the elapsed duty of many months : but to rely upon such acts is the last remedy, and like unlikely physic to a despairing person : if it does well, it is well ; if it happen otherwise, he must thank himself, it is but what in reason he codd expect. The Bomans sacrificed a dog to Mana Geneta and prayed ne quis domi natorum bonus fiat, ' that none of their domestics might be good •' that is, that they might not die (saith Plutarch a), because dead people are called good. But if they be so ody when they de, they will hardly find the reward of goodness in the reckodngs of eternity, when to kiU and to make good is att one (as Aristotle ob served it to be in the Spartan covenant with the Tegeateb, and as it is in the case of penitents, never mendng their rives till their lives be done) ; that goodness is fatal, and the prologue of an eternal death. 50. I conclude this point with the words of St. Pad : " God will render to every man according to his deeds : to them who, by patient continuance in well-doing, seek for glory, and honour, and immortality," to them " eternal life : but to them that are conten tious, and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness," to them " indignation and wrath, tribdation and angdsh upon every sod of man that doth evilc." 51. Having now discoursed of repentance upon distinct prin ciples, I shall not need to consider upon those particdars,' which are usuaUy reckoned parts or instances of repentance ; such as are con trition, confession, and satisfaction. Bepentance is the fulfilling all righteousness, and includes in it whatsoever is matter of Christian duty, and expressly commanded ; such as is contrition or gody sor row, and confession to God, both wMch are declared in scripture to be in order to pardon and purgation of our sins : " a contrite and a broken heart, 0 God, Thou wilt not despise ;" and, " if we confess our sins, God is just and righteous to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from att iniquity." To wMch add concerning satisfaction, that it is a judging and pudsMng of ourselves ; that it dso is an instrument of repentance, and a frdt of gody sorrow, and of good advantage for obtaining mercy of God: for "indignation and re venge" are reckoned by St. Pad effects of " a godly sorrow ;" and the blessing wMch encourages its practice is instanced by the same 1 [Lib. ii. cap. 51. § 5. p. 471.] b MrfSeva xpino-Tbv iroieiv, i. e. diroKTiv- * TeAcurtSi/Tej xPVO'toI. 'Pa/ja'iK. Kelp. vivai. — Plut. ibid, ex Aristotele. v$ [Plut.Qua;st. Rom. torn. vii. p. 121.] c Rom. ii. 6—9. SECT. XII.] OF REPENTANCE. 389 saint, " When we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord ; but if we wodd judge ourselves, we shodd not be judged:" where he expounds ' judged' by ' chastened ;' if we were severer to our selves, God wodd be gentle and remiss d. And there are ody thess two cautions to be annexed, and then the drection is sufficient ; First, that when promise of pardon is annexed to any of these or another grace, or any good action, it is not to be understood as if done it were effectual, either to the abolition or pardon of sins ; but the promise is made to it, as to a member of the whole body of piety. In the coadunation and conjunction of parts the title is firm, but not at all M distinction and separation. For it is certain, if wc fail in one, we are guilty of all ; and therefore cannot be repaired by any one grace, or one action, or one habit. And therefore, " charity hides a mdtitude of sinse" with men and God too; "alms deliver from deathf;" "hunrihty pierceth the clouds," and will not depart before its answer be gracious; and "hope purifieth6," and "makes not ashamed11;" and patience, and faith, and piety to parents, and prayer, and the eight beatitudes, " have promises of this life, and of that wMch is to come1," respectively : and yet notMng witt obtain these promises, but the harmony and umting of these graces M a holy and habitual confederation. And when we consider the pro mise as singularly relating to that one grace, it is to be understood comparatively; that is, such persons are happy, if compared with those who have contrary dspositions. For such a capacity does its portion of the work towards complete felicity, from which the con trary quality does estrange and disentitle us. Secondy, the special and minute actions and instances of these tliree preparatives of repentance, are not under any command in the particulars, but are to be disposed of by CMistian prudence, in order to those ends to which they are most aptly instrumental and de signed : such as are fasting, and corpord severities in satisfaction, or the punitive parts of repentance ; they are either vindctive of what is past, and so are proper acts or effects of contrition and godly sorrow ; or else they relate to the present and future estate, and are intended for correction or emendation, and so are of good use as they are medicinal, and in that proportion not to be omitted. And so is confession to a spiritud person an excellent instrument of ds- cipline, a bride of Mtemperate passions, an opportudty of restitu tion : " Ye wMch are spiritud, restore such a person overtaken in a fadtk," saith the apostle ; it is the apphcation of a remedy, the con sulting with a gmde, and the best security to a weak, or lapsed, or an ignorant person, in all wMch cases he is unfit to judge Ms own 11 Toils piev yap dvTiXeyovras Kal dp- ' Tob. iv. 10. vovp.4vovs ftaXXov icoXafapev' itpbs Se tovs b' 1 John iii. 3. bpioXoyovvTas SiKaitas KoXa^errBai irav6- b Rom. v. 5. ueBa 8vp.obiJ.evoi. — Aristot. Rhet. [lib. ii. ' 1 Tim. iv. 8. cap. 3. torn. ii. p. 1380.] k Gal. vi. 1. ' Jam. v. 20. [1 Pet. iv. 8.] 390 OF REPENTANCE. [PART II. questions, and in these he is also committed to the care and conduct of another. But these special instances of repentance are capable of suppletories, and are, like the corporal works of mercy, necessary ody in time and -place, and in accidental obligations. He that relieves the poor, or visits the sick, choosing it for the instance of his charity, though he do not redeem captives, is charitable, and hath done his aMis. And he that cures Ms sin by any instruments, by external, or interior and spiritud remedies, is penitent, though Ms det be not ascetic and afflictive, or his lodging hard, or Ms sorrow bursting out into tears, or his expressions passionate and dolorous1. I ody add tMs, that acts of public repentance must be by using the instruments of the church, such as she hath appointed ; of private, such as, by ex perience, or by reason, or by the counsel we can get, we shall learn to be most effective of our penitential purposes. And yet it is a great argument that the exterior expressions of corpord severities are of good benefit, because in all ages wise men and severe pedtents have chosen them for their instruments. THE PBAYEB. 0 eternal God, who wert pleased M mercy to look upon us when we were in our blood, to reconcile us when we were enemies, to for give us in the midst of our provocations of Thy infimte and eternal majesty, finding out a remedy for us wMch mankind codd never ask, even making an atonement for us by the death of Thy Son, sanctifying us by the blood of the everlasting covenant and Thy all-hallowing and dvinest Spirit; let Thy graces so perpetually assist and encourage my endeavours, conduct my will, and fortify my intentions, that I may persevere in that holy condition wMch Thou hast put me in by the grace of the covenant, and the mercies of the holy Jesus. 0 let me never fall into those sins, and retire to that vain conversation, from wMch the eternal and mercifd Saviour of the world hath redeemed me; but let me grow M grace, addMg virtue to virtue, reducing my purposes to act, and increasing my acts till they grow into habits, and my habits till they be confirmed, and still confirming them till they be consum mate in a blessed and holy perseverance. Let Thy preventing grace clash all temptations in their approach ; let Thy concomitant grace enable me to resist them in the assadt, and overcome them in the fight : that my hopes be never dscomposed, nor my fdth weakened, nor my confidence made remiss, or my title and por tion in the covenant be lessened. Or if Thou permittest me at any time to fall, (wMch, holy Jesu, avert, for Thy mercy and compassion's sake,) yet let me not sleep in sin, but recall me in ' Vide Disc, of Mortification, Part i. and Disc, of Fasting, Part ii. SECT. XII.] OF REPENTANCE. 391 stantly by the clamours of a nice and tender conscience, and the quickening sermons of the Spirit, that I may never pass from sin to sin, from one degree to another; lest sin shodd get the domi nion over me, lest Thou be angry with me, and reject me from the covenant, and I perish. Purify me from all uncleanness, sanctify my spirit that I may be holy as Thou art, and let me never provoke Thy jealousy, nor presume upon Thy goodness, nor distrust Thy mercies, nor defer my repentance, nor rely upon vain confidences ; but that I may by a constant, seddous, and timely endeavour, make my calling and election sure, living to Thee and dying to Thee ; that having sowed to the Spirit, I may from Thy mercies reap in the Spirit bliss, and eternal sanctity, and everlast ing life, through Jesus Christ our Saviour, our hope, and our mighty and ever glorious Bedeemer. Amen. Vpon Christ's sermon on the mount, and of the eight beatitudes. ] . The holy Jesus, being entered upon His prophetical office, in the first solemn sermon gave testimony that He M'as not only an in terpreter of laws then in being, but dso a lawgiver, and an angel of the new and everlasting covenant; which because God meant to establish with mankind by the mediation of His Son, by His Son dso He now began to publish the condtions of it : and that the pub lication of the Christian law might retain some proportion at least, and analogy of circumstance, with the promdgation of the law of Moses, CMist went up into a mountain, and from thence gave the oracle. And here He taught all the disciples ; for Mrhat He was now to speak was to become a law, a part of the condition on wlrich He, established the covenant, and founded our hopes of heaven. Our excellent and gracious Lawgiver, knowing that the great argument in dl practicd dsciphnes is the proposd of the end, which is their crown and their reward, begins His sermon, as David began his most divine collection of hymns, with "blessedness." And having enumerated eight duties, which are the rde of the spirits of CMis tians, He begins every duty with a beatitude, and concludes it with a reward ; to manifest the reasonableness, and to invite and determine our choice to such graces which are circumscribed with fehcities, wlrich have blessedness in present possession and glory in the con sequence, M'hich in the midst of the most passive and afflictive of them tells us that we are blessed, wMch is Mdeed a fehcity, as a hope is good, or as a rich heir is rich, who, in the midst of Ms dscipline, and the severity of tutors and governors, knows he is designed to, and certain of, a great inheritance. 2. The eight beatitudes, wMch are the duty of a Christian and the rule of our spirit, and the special discipline of Christ, seem like so 392 CONSIDERATIONS UPON [PART II. many paradoxes and impossibilities reduced to reason ; and are indeed virtues made excellent by rewards, by the sublimity of grace, and the mercies of God, hallowing and crowdng those habits which are de spised by the world, and are esteemed the condtions of lower and less considerable people. But God " sees not as man sees," and His rules of estimate and judgment are not borrowed from the exterior splendour, Mdich is apt to seduce childen, and cosen1 fools, and please the appetites of sense and abused fancy ; but they are such as He makes Himself, excellencies wMch, by abstractions and separa tions from things below, land us upon celestid appetites. And they are states of suffering rather than states of life : for the great em ployment of a Christian being to bear the cross, CMist laid the pedestal so low, that the rewards were like rich mines interred in the deeps and inaccessible retirements, and dd choose to build our feli cities upon the torrents and violences of affliction and sorrow. With out these graces we cannot get heaven ; and without sorrow and sad accidents we cannot exercise these graces : such are, 3. First : "Blessed are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the kMg dom of heaven." Poverty of spirit is in respect of secdar affluence and abundance, or in respect of great opimon and Mgh thoughts™; either of which have dvers acts and offices. That the first is one of the meanings of tiris text is certain, because St. Luke, repeating tMs beatitude, delivers it plaidy, "Blessed are the poor";" and to it he opposes riches. And our blessed Saviour0 speaks so suspiciously of riches and rich men, that He represents the condtion to be full of danger and temptation : and St. James p calls it full of sin; describmg rich men to be oppressors, litigious, proud, spiteful, and contentious ; which sayings, like all others of that nature, are to be understood in common and most frequent accidents, not regdarly, but very impro bable to be otherwise. For if we consider our vocation, St. Pad informs us, that "not many mighty, not many noble, are called;" but " God hath chosen the poor of tMs world, rich in faith." And how "hard it is for a rich man to enter into heaven," our great Master hath taught us, by saying, " it is more easy for a camel to pass through a neede's eye." And the reason is, because of the infinite temptation wMch riches minister to our spirits; it being such an opportunity of vices, that notMng remdns to countermand the act, but a strong, resolute, unaltered, and habitual purpose, and pure love of virtue; riches, in the mean time, offering to us occasions of lust, fuel for revenge, instruments of pride, enter tainment of our desires, engaging them in low, worldy, and sot tish appetites, inviting us to shew our power in oppression, our greatness in vanities, our M'edth in prodigal expenses, and to answer the importunity of our lusts, not by a deMal, but by a correspondence 1 [Sic ed.— See vol. vii. p. 3. note a.] " Luke vi. 20. '" UpoKoirif tyvxys irpoKoirrj Taireivoi- ° Luke vi. 24. re, SiKaiOTdroiv avBpojirojv, dixit Homerus de Mysis et Hippomol- gaevos dixit qui vescebantur lacte et cibo gis, II. lib. xiii. [lin. 6.] Justissimos et Ion- modesto. ' Satis est [populis] fluviusque Ceresque. — Lucan, [iv. 381.] 'E7rel tI Se7 f3poTo7(Ti irXfy Svoiv p.6vov, AifftifTobs aKTijs, ittj}fj.aros 8' bSpifxtov, "Airep trdpeaTi, Kal itiipux' VP-ds Tpeipeiv. Eurip. [Athen. iv. 48. torn. i. p. 354.] 394 CONSIDERATIONS UPON [PART II. either with injustice or with avarice, either with wrong or impotency of action or affection. Not hke Laberius described by the poef, who thought notMng so criminal as poverty, and every spending of a sesterce was the loss of a moral virtue, and every gariring of a talent was an action glorious and heroicd : but poverty of spirit accounts riches to be the servants of God fost, and then of ourselves, being sent by God, and to return when He pleases, and all the wMle they are with us to do His busMess ; it is a looking upon riches and things of the earth, as they do who look upon it from heaven, to whom it appears little and unprofitable. And because the residence of this blessed poverty is in the mind, it foUows that it be here understood that att that exinanition and renunciation, abjection and humility of mind, wMch depauperates the spirit, makMg it less worldy and more spiritual, is the duty here enjoined. For if a man tiirows away Ms gold, as did Crates the Thebans, or the proud philosopher Diogenes, and yet leaves a spirit high, airy, fantastical, and vam, pleasing Mmself, and with complacency reflecting upon Ms own act, his poverty is but a circumstance of pride, and the opportudty of an imaginary and a secdar greatness. Anamas and Sapphira renounced the world by selling their possessions ; but because they were not " poor in spirit," but still retained the affections to the world, there fore they " kept back part of the price," and lost their hopes. The church of Laodicea' was possessed with a spirit of pride, and flattered themselves in imaginary riches ; they were not poor in spirit, but they M'ere poor in possession and condition. These wanted humility, the other wanted a generous contempt of worldy things ; and both were destitute of tiris grace. 5. The acts of tMs grace are : First, to cast off all inordinate affec tion to riches". Secondy, in heart and spirit, that is, preparation of mind, to quit the possession of all riches, and actually so to do when God requires it, that is, when the retaming riches loses a virtue. Thirdly, to be well pleased with the M'hole economy of God, His providence and dspensation of all tilings, being contented in all estates. Fourthly, to employ that wealth God hath given us*, in actions of justice and religion. Fifthly, to be thankfd to God in ' ¦ Quoad vixit, credidit ingens Pauperiem vitium, et cavit nil acrius ; ut si Forte minus locuples uno quadrante periret, Ipse videretur sibi nequior. — Hor. [Sat. ii. 3. lin. 91.] * [Diog. Laert. vi. 87.] * Apocal. iii. 17. u 'E7o< t &v ovW' 'AfiaXBirfs f3ovXotfj,r]v Kepas, oirrt Ta wevTiiKovTd Te Kal eKaTbv TapTijo'o'ov fiaaiXevaai. Anacreon [apud Strabonem, lib. iii. p. 225.] x Non possidentem multa vocaveris Recte beatum : rectius occupat Nomen beati, qui deorum Muneribus sapienter uti, Duramque callet pauperiem pati, Pejusque letho flagitium timet, &c. — Hor. [Od. iv. 9. lin. 45.] SECT. XII. J THE EIGHT BEATITUDES. 895 all temporal losses. Sixthly, not to distrust God, or to be solicitous and fearful of want in the future. Seventhly, to put off the spirit of vanity, pride, and fantastic complacency in ourselves, tirinking lowly or meanly of Mdatsoever we are or do. Eightlriy, to prefer others before ourselves, doing honour and prelation to them, and either contentedy receiving affronts done to us, or modestly undervaldng ourselves. NintMy, not to praise ourselves but when God's glory and the edification of our neighbour is concerned in it, nor willingly to hear others praise us. Tentiily, to despoil ourselves of all interior propriety, denying our own Mill in all instances of subordination to our superiors, and our own judgment in matters of difficulty and question, permitting ourselves and our affairs to the advice of wiser men, and the decision of those who are trusted Mith the cure of our sods. Eleventhly, emptying ourselves of ourselves, and throwing ourselves M'hotty upon God, relying upon His pro vidence, trusting His promises, craving His grace, and depending upon His strength for all our actions, and deliverances, and duties. 6. The reward promised is "the kingdom of heaven." "Fear not, little flock, it is your Father's pleasure to give you a kingdom y." To be little in our own eyes is to be great in God's ; the poverty of the spirit shall be rewarded with the riches of the kingdoms, of both kingdoms1 : that of heaven is expressed ; poverty is the Mghway of eternity ; but therefore the kingdom of grace is taken in the way, the way to our country ; and it being the forerunner of glory and notiring else but an antedated eternity, is part of the reM'ard as well as of our duty. And therefore whatsoever is signified by ' kingdom,' in the appropriate evangehed sense, is there intended as a recom pense : for the kingdom of the gospel is a congregation and society of Christ's poor, of His " little ones ;" they are the communion of samts, and their present entertainment is knowledge of the truth, remission of sins, the gift of the holy Ghost, and what else in scrip ture is sigmfied to be a part or grace or condition of the kingdom. For " to the poor the gospel is preached3 ;" that is, to the poor the kingdom is promised and midstered. 7. Secondy: "Blessed are they that mourn; for they shall be comforted." This duty of CMistian mourning is commanded not for itself, but in order to many good ends. First, it is in order to patience ; " tribulation worketh patience," and therefore " we glory in them," saith St. Pad b ; and St. Jamesc, " my brethren, count it all joy when ye enter into divers temptations, knowing that the trial of your faith," viz. by afflictions, "worketh patience." Secondy, it ' 1 atius regnes avidum domando _ Spiritum, quam si Libyam remotis Gadibus jungas, et uterque Pcenus Serviat uni.— Hor. [Od. ii. 2. lin. 9.] Serviet ajtemum, qui parvo nesciet uti. — Hor. [Ep. i. x. lin. 41.] ' Matt. xi. 11 ; xviii. 4. = Matt. xi. 5. " Rom. v. 3. Gaudet patientia duris. [Lucan. ix. 483.] c James i. 2,3, 396 CONSIDERATIONS UPON [PART II. is in order to repentance; "godly sorrow worketh repentance0:" by consequence it is M order to pardon ; for " a contrite heart God will not reject :" and after all tMs it leads to joy; and there fore St. James preached a homily of sorrow, "Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep," that is, in peMtentid mourmng; for he adds, " humble yourselves M the sight of the Lord, and He shall rift you upd." — The acts of this duty are : First, to bewdl our own sins. Secondly, to lament our infirmities, as they are principles of sin, and recessions from our first state. Thirdy, to weep6 for our own evils and sad accidents, as they are issues of the dvine anger. Fourthly, to be sad for the miseries and calamities of the church, or of any member of it ; and indeed to " weep with every one that M'eeps ;" that is, not to rejoice in his evil, but to be compassionate, and pitiful, and apt to bear another's burden. FiftMy, to avoid all loose and immoderate laughter, all dssolution of spirit and manners, uncomely jestings, free revellings, carnivals, and balls, which are the perdtion of precious hours allowed us for repentance and possihdties of heaven; which are the instruments of infinite vanity, ide talkmg, impertinency, and lust, and very much below the severity and re- tiredness of a Christian spirit. Of tMs CMist became to us the great example ; for St. Basil1 reports a tradition of Him that He never laughed, but wept often ; and if we mourn with Him, we dso shall rejoice M the joys of eternity. 8. TMrdy. "Blessed are the meek; for they shall possess the earth :" that is, the gentle and softer spirits, persons not turbdent or unquiet, not clamorous or impatient, not over-bold or impudent, not querdous or discontented, not brawlers or contentious, not mee or curious, but men Mrho submit to God, and know no choice of fortune or employment or success but what God chooses for them, having peace at home, because notMng from without does dscom- pose their spirit. In some, meekness is an indfferency to any exte rior accident, a being reconciled to all condtions and Mstances of Providence, a reducing ourselves to such an evenness and interior satisfaction, that there is the same coMormity of spirit and fortune by complyMg with my fortune, as if my fortune dd comply with my spirit8. And therefore in the order of beatitudes, meekness is set between mourmng and desire, that it might balance and attemper those actions by indfferency, which by reason of their abode are apt c 2 Cor. vii. 10. a James iv. 9, 10. " Sic enim per oculos cum notas turpes trahat, Rursus per ipsos lacrymas fundit pias, . Egressione ut eluat quae ingressa sunt Dum dolemus admissa, admittenda ex- col. 360.] clftdimus ; et fit quaedam de condemna- s TIpae7s elo-iv oi KaTeffTaXfxevoi to tione culpae disciplina innocentiae. — S. ffBif, Kal irdvTos irdBovs dirnXXayfj.tvoi, us Ambros. [De pcenit, lib. ii. cap. 10. § 92. fj.-nSefj.lav extiv rapaxbv ivoiKovaav avTuy torn. ii. col. 436.] Tais $vxa7s. — S. Basil, in Psal. xxxiii. ' [Reg. fus. tract, cap. xvii. § i. torn. ii. [cap. 2. torn. i. p. 145 C] SECT. XII.] THE EIGHT BEATITUDES. 397 to the transportation of passion". The reward expressed is " a pos session" of the earth," that is, a possession of all that is excellent here below, to consign him to a future glory, as Canaan was a type of heaven. For meekness is the best cement and combining of friend- sMps, it is a great endearment of us to our company. It is an ornament to have "a meek and quiet spirit1," a prevention of quar rels, and pacifier of wrath5 ; it purchaseth peace, and is itself a quietness of spirit : it is the greatest affront to all injuries in the world; for it returns them upon the injurious, and makes them useless, ineffective, and innocent ; and is an antidote against all the evil consequents of anger and adversity, and tramples upon the usurpmg passions of the irascible faculty. 9. But the greatest part of this paysage and landscape is sky ; and as a man in all countries can see more of heaven than of the earth he dwells on, so dso he may in tMs promise. For although the Chris tian hears the promise of "the inheritance of the earth," yet he must place Ms eye, and fix his heart, upon heaven, wMch by looking down ward also upon tMs promise, as in a vessel of limpid water, he may see by reflection, without looking upwards by a drect intdtion. lt is heaven that is designed by this promise as weU as by any of the rest ; though this grace takes in also the refreshments of the earth by eqdvalence, and a suppletory design. But "here we have no abiding city," and therefore no inheritance ; tMs is not our country, and therefore here cannot be our portion; unless we choose, as did the prodgal, to go into a strange country, and spend our portion with riotous and beastly living, and forfeit our Father's blessing. The devil, carrying our blessed Saviour to a high mountain, shewed Him all the kingdoms of the world ; but, besides that they were offered upon iU condtions, they were not eligible by Him upon any ; and neither are they to be chosen by us for our inheritance and portion evangehed; for the gospel is founded upon "better promises," and therefore the hopes of a Christian ought not to determine upon any tiring less than heaven. Indeed our blessed Saviour chose to describe this beatitude M the words of the Psalmist, so inviting His disciples to an exceUent precept by the insinuation of those scriptures which themselves admitted. But as the earth which was promised to the h Mansuetus et aequus secundum Arist. est evTvx&v p.4Tptos, et aTvxiav fxeyaX6- ipvxos. "Otrtra re Saifiovlrjcri Tvxais PpoTol dXye' exovciv, *Elv &v fj.o7pav exys, irp^ais i>. [Ka?apcns, aTnJ/cp.- t James iii. 17, SECT. XII.] THE EIGHT BEATITUDES. 405 and on earth peace, good will towards men ; " sigmfying the two great errands upon wlrich CMist was despatched in His legation from heaven to earth. He is "the Prince of peace." ".Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man ever shall see God." The acts of tiris grace are : First, to mortify our anger, peevishness, and fiery dispositions, apt to enkindle upon every slight accident, in - advertency, or misfortune of a friend or servant. Secondly, not to be hasty, rash, provocative, or upbraiding in our language. Thirdly, to hve qdetly and serenely in our families and neighbourhoods. Fourthly, not to backbite, slander, misreport, or undervdue any man, carrying tdes, or sowing dissension between brethren. Fifthly, not to interest ourselves in the quarrels of others, by abetting either part, except where charity calls us to rescue the oppressed ; and then also to do a work of charity without mixtures of uncharitableness. SixtMy, to avoid aU suits of law, as much as is possible without intrencMng upon any other coUateral obhgation towards a third interest, or a necessary support for ourselves or great conveniency for our families ; or, if we be engaged in law, to pursue our just interests with just means and charitable maintenance. Seventhly, to endeavour by all means to reconcile dis agreeing persons. Eighthly, to endeavour by affability and fair de portment to M'in the love of our neighbours. Ninthly, to offer satis faction to all whom we have wronged or slandered, and to remit the offences of others, and in trials of right to find out the most charitable expedient to determine it, as by indifferent arbitration, or something like it. Tenthly, to be open, free, and ingenuous, in reprehensions and fair expostdations with persons whom we conceive to have wronged us, that no seed of malice or rancour may be latent in us, and upon the breath of a new displeasure break out into a flame. EleventMy, to be modest in our argririgs, dsputings, and demands, not laying great in terest upon trifles. TM'elftiily, to moderate, balance, and temper our zeal by the rdes of prudence and the allay of charity, that we quarrel not for opidons, nor entitle God in our impotent and mistaken fancies, nor lose charity for a pretence of an article of faith. Thirteenthly, to pray heartily for our enemies, real or imaginary, dways loving and being apt to benefit their persons, and to cure their fadts by charitable remedes. Fourteenthly, to abstain from doing all affronts, dsgraces, shghtings, and uncomely jeerings and mockings of our neighbour, not giving Mm appellatives of scorn or irrision. Fifteentiriy, to submit to all our superiors in all things, either doing M'hat they command, or suf fering what they impose ; at no hand hfting our heel against those upon whom the characters of God, and the marks of Jesus, are imprinted in signal and eminent authority ; such as are principally the king, and' then the bishops, whom God hath set to " watch over our sods." Six- teentiriy, not to invade the possessions of our neighbours, or commence M'ar, but when Mre are bound by justice and legal trust to. defend the rights of others, or our own, in order to our duty. Seventeenthly, not to " speak evil of digmties," or undervalue their persons, or publish 406 CONSIDERATIONS UPON [PART II. their fadts, or upbraid the levities of our governors ; knowing that they also are designed by God, to be converted to us for castigation and amendment of us. EighteentMy, not to be busy in other men's affairs. And then "the peace of God will rest upon usa." — The reward is no less than the adoption and idieritance of sons; for " He hath given unto us poM'er to be called the sons of God;" for He is the Father of peace, and the sons of peace are the sons of God, and therefore have a title to the inheritance of sons, to be heirs with God, and co-heirs with Christ, in the Mngdom of peace and essential and never -failing charityb. 18. EightMy : "Blessed are they wMch are persecuted for righte ousness' sake : for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." TMs being the hardest comma M the whole discipline of Jesus, is fortified with a double blessedness; for it follows immedately, "Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, and persecute you ;" meaning, that aU persecution for a cause of righteousness, though the affliction be instanced ody m reproacMd language, shaU be a title to the bless edness. Any suffering for any good or harmless action is a degree of martyrdom ; it being the greatest testimony in the world of the greatest love, to quit0 that for God wMch hath possessed our most natural, regdar, and orderly affections : it is a preferring God's cause before our own interest; it is a loving of virtue without secular ends ; it is the noblest, the most resigned, ingenuous, variant act in the world, to die for God, whom we never have seen ; it is the crown of faith, the confidence of hope, and our greatest charity. The primitive churches living under persecution commenced many pretty opinions concermng the state and specid dignity of martyrs, appor tioning to them one of the tirree coronets which themselves dd knit, and supposed as pendants to the great "crown of righteousness." They made it suppletory of baptism, expiatory of sin, satisfactory of public penances ; they placed them in bliss d immediately, declared them to need no after-prayer, such as the devotion of those times used to pour upon the graves of the faitMd : with great prudence they did endeavour to alleviate this burden, and sweeten the bitter chdice ; and they did it by such doctrines, wMch dd ody remon strate this great truth, that smce " no love was greater than to lay down our lives," nothing codd be so great but God wodd Mddge to them. And indeed whatsoever they said in this had no inconve nience, nor wodd it now, unless men shodd think mere suffering ¦ Phil.iv. 9; 1 Thess. v. 23; 2 Thess. b Rom. viii. 17. iii. 16 ; Heb. xiii. 20. c Dulce periculum est, O Lenase, sequi deum Cingentem viridi tempora pampino. Hor. [Od. iii. 25. lin. 18.] d Animas praelio aut suppliers per- endi contemptus. — C. Tacitus de Judffiis. emptorum aeternas putant; hinc . . mori- [Hist v. 5.] SECT. XII.] THE EIGHT BEATITUDES. 107 to be sufficient to excuse a M'icked life, or that they be invited to dishonour an excellent patience with the mixture of an impure action. There are many who would die for Christ if they were put to it, and yet will not qdt a Mste for Him : those are hardly to be esteemed Christ's martyrs : udess they be " dead unto sin," their dying for an article or a good action, will not pass the great scrutiny. And it may be boldness of spirit, or sullenness, or an honourable gallantry of mind, or sometiring that is excellent in civil and pohticd estimate, moves the person, and endears the suffering ; but that love only " which keeps the commandments" will teach us to die for love, and from love to pass to blessedness through the red sea of blood. And indeed it is more easy to die for chastity, than to live with itf : and many women have been found who suffered death under the violence of tyrants for defence of their holy vows and purity, who, had they long continued amongst pleasures, courtships, curiosities, and impor tunities of men, might perchance have yielded that to a lover which they denied to an executioner. St. Cyprian8 observes, that our blessed Lord, in admitting the innocent babes of Bethlehem first to die for Him, did to all generations of Christendom consign tMs lesson, that only persons holy and innocent were fit to be Christ's martyrs. And I remember that the prince of the Latin poets", over against the region and seats of infants, places in the shades below persons that suffered death wrongfully ; but adds, that tMs their death M'as not enough to place them in such blessed mansions, but the Judge first made enquiry into their rives, and accordngly designed their station. It is certain that such dyings, or great sufferings are heroical actions, and of power to make great compensations, and redemptions of time, and of omissions and imperfections; but if the man be unholy, so also are his sufferings' ; for heretics have ded, and vicious persons have suffered in a good cause, and a dog's neck-> may be cut off in sacrifice, and swine's blood may fill the trench about the altar : but God only accepts the sacrifice which is pure and spotless, first sea soned with salt, then seasoned Mith fire. The true martyr must have all the preceding graces, and then he shall receive all the beatitudes. 19. The acts of this duty are : First, boldy to coMess the faith, nobly to exercise public virtues, not to be ashamed of any thing that is honest, and rather to quit our goods, our liberty, our health, e Non est autem consentaneum, qui [lib. i. cap. 20. torn. iii. p. 196.] metu non frangatur, eum frangi cupidi- l Tert. de Cast. [vid. cap. xiii. p. 525.] tate; nee qui invictum se a labore prae- * [Vid. Ep. lviii. p. 123.] stiterit, vinci a voluptate. — Cic. de Off. 11 Hos juxta falso damnati crimine mortis. Nee vero hae sine sorte data?, ^ine judice, sedes ; Quassitor Minos urnam move't ; ille silentum Conciliumque vocat, vitasque et crimina discit. — Vii-g [Mn. vi. 430.] 1 Athleta non vincit statim quiaexui- [Paulin. ad] Sever, ep. ii. [al. xxiv. § 7,] tur, nee ideo transnatant quia se spoliant. ¦> [Is. Ixvi. 3.] 408 CONSIDERATIONS UPON [PART II. and life itself, than to deny M'hat we are bound to affirm, or to omit M'hat Mre are bound to do, or to pretend contrary to our present per suasion. Secondy, to rejoice in afflictions ; counting it honourable to be conformable to CMist, and to wear the cognizance of CMistianity, whose certain lot it is to suffer the hostility and violence of enemies, visible and invisible. Thirdly, not to revile our persecutors, but to bear the cross with evenness, tranquility, patience, aud charity. FourtHy, to offer our sufferings to the glory of God, and to join them with the passions of CMist, by doing it in love to God, and obedience to His sanctions, and testimony of some part of His religion, and designmg it as a part of duty. — The reM'ard is "the kingdom of heaven;" which can be no other but eternal salvation, in case the martyrdom be consummate: and "they also shall be made perfect;" so the words of the reward were read in Clement's11 time. If it be less, it keeps its proportion : all suffering persons are the combination of saints ; they make the church, they are the people of the kingdom, and heirs of the covenant. For if they be but confessors, and confess Christ in prison, though they never preach upon the rack or under the axe, yet "CMist will coMess them before His hea venly Father;" and "they shall have a portion where they shall never be persecuted any more1." THE PBAYER. 0 blessed Jesus, who art become to us the fountain of peace and sanctity, of righteousness and charity, of Me and perpetud bene diction, imprint in our spirits these glorious characterisms of Christianity, that we by such excellent dispositions may be con signed to the infimty of blessedness, which Thou earnest to reveal and mimster and exhibit to mankind. Give us great humility of spirit ; and deny us not when we beg sorrow of Thee, the mourn ing and sadness of true pedtents, that we may imitate Thy excel lencies and coMorm to Thy sufferings. Make us meek, patient, indifferent, and resigned in all accidents, changes, and issues of divine providence. Mortify all inordinate anger in us, dl wrath, strife, contention, murmurings, malice, and envy; and interrupt, and then blot out, all peevish dspositions and morosities, all ds- turbances and unevenness of spirit or of habit, that may hinder us in our duty. Oh teach me so to " hunger and thirst dter" the Mays of " righteousness," that it may be " meat and drink" to me " to do Thy Father's will." Baise my affections to heaven and heavenly things, fix my heart there, and prepare a treasure for me, which I may receive in the great dffusions and commudcations of w'Oti avTol tcrovTai TtXeiot. [Strom., riodus; Sti e£ovci rdnov Snov ob 5ta>- lib. iv. cap. 6. iom. i p. 582.] xMloovrai. [ibid.] ' Sic etiam olim legebacur hsec pe- SECT. XII.] THE EIGHT BEATITUDES. 4U'J Thy glory. And in tMs sad interval of infirmity and temptations, strengthen my hopes, and fortify my faith, by such emissions of hght and grace from Thy Spirit, that I may relish those blessings which Thou preparest for Thy saints with so great appetite, that I may despise the world and all its gilded vadties, and may desire notMng but the crown of righteousness, and the paths that lead tirither, the graces of Thy kingdom and the glories of it; that when I have served Thee in holiness and strict obedience, I may reign with Thee in the glories of eternity : for Thou, 0 holy Jesus, art our hope, and our life, and glory, our exceeding great reward. Amen. II. Mercifd Jesu, who art infimtely pleased in demonstrations of Thy mercy, and ddst descend into a state of misery, suffering persecu tion and affronts, that Thou mightest give us Thy mercy, and re concile us to Thy Father, and make us partakers of Thy purities ; give unto us tender bowels, that we may suffer together with our cdamitous and necessitous bretMen, that we, having a fellow-feel ing of their miseries, may use all our powers to help them, and ease ourselves of our common sufferings. But do Thou, 0 holy Jesu, take from us dso att our great calamities, the carnahty of our affections, our sensuarities and impurities, that we may first be pure, then peaceable, riving in peace with all men, and preserving the peace wMch Thou hast made for us with our God, that we may never commit a sin which may interrupt so blessed an atone ment. Let neither hope nor fear, tribdation, nor anguish, plea sure nor pain, make us to relinqdsh our interest in Thee, and our portion of the everlasting covenant. But give us hearts constant, bold, and variant, to confess Thee before all the world in the midst of att dsadvantages and contradctory circumstances, choosing rather to beg, or to be dsgraced, or afflicted, or to de, than qdt a holy conscience, or renounce an article of Christiamty : that we, either in act, when Thou shalt call us, or always in prepa ration of mind, suffering with Thee, may also reign with Thee in the church triumphant, 0 holy and most mercifd Saviour Jesu. Amen. DISCOUESE X. A discourse upon that part of the decalogue which the holy Jesus adopted into the institution and obligation of Christianity. 1 . When the holy Jesus had described the characterisms of Chris tianity in these eight graces and beatitudes, He adds His mjunctions 410 OP THE DECAIOGUE. [PART 11. that in these virtues they shodd be eminent and exemplar, that they might adorn the doctrine of God ; for He intended that the gospel should be as leaven in a lump of dough, to season the M'hole mass; and that Christians should be the instruments of communicating the excellency and reputation of this holy institution to all the Morldm. Therefore Christ calls them salt, and hght ; and the societies of Chris tians, " a city set upon a hill," and " a light set in a candlestick," whose office and energy is to illuminate all the vicinage: wlrich is dso. expressed in these preceptive words, " Let your hght so shine before men, that they may see your good M'orks, and glorify your Father which is in heaven ; " wMch I consider not only as a circumstance of other parts, but as a precise duty itself, and one of the sanctions of Chris tiamty ; wMch hath so confederated the souls of the disciples of the institution, that it hath in some proportion obhged every man to take care of his brother's sod. And since, reverence to God, and charity to our brother, are the two greatest ends M'hich the best laws can have, this precept of exemplary living is enjoined in order to them both; we must "-shine as lights M the world," that God may be glorified, and our brother edified ; that the excellency of the act may endear the reputation of the religion, and invite men to confess God according to the sanctions of so holy an institution. And if we be curious that vanity do not mingle in the intention, and that the intention do not spoil the action, and that we suffer not our lights to shine that men may magnify us, and not glorify God ; this duty is soon performed by way of adherence to our other actions, and hath no other diffiedty in it but that- it M'itt require our prudence and care, to preserve the sim plicity of our purposes and humility of our spirit in the midst of that exceUent reputation wMch will certaidy be consequent to a holy and exemplary life. 2. But smce the holy Jesus had set us up to be lights in the world, He took care we should not be stars of the least magmtude, but eminent, and such as might by their great emissions of light give evidence of their being immediately derivative from the Sun of right eousness. He was now giving His law ; and meant to retain so much of Moses as Moses had of natural and essentid justice and charity, and superadd many degrees of His own ; that as far as Moses was ex ceeded by Christ M the capacity of a lawgiver, so far Christianity might be more excellent and holy than the Mosaicd sanctions. And therefore as a preface to the Christian law, the holy Jesus declares that " udess our righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes and pharisees," that is, of the stricter sects of the Mosaical institu tion, "' M'e shaU not enter into the kingdom of heaven"." WMch not only relates to the prevaricating practices of the pharisees, but even to their doctrines and commentaries upon the law of Moses, as ap- m "Oirep iirnv iv g-iipiaTi \pvxif, tout' Sic S. Paulus, iv ots ipalveffBe &s w f3eXTWTov n>aiv6fxevov %0-tih Nereus) had been recently canonized; aoi vipos dirapdj3aTOS. Epict c.75. [p.38.] ' abv Tip SiKattp ydp fxey' e^eaTiv (ppove7v. — Soph. Aj, [U25.] il. k n 418 OF THE DECALOGUE. [PART II. ments : for some are of malleable natures, others are morose ; some are of healthful and temperate constitutions, others are lustful, full of fancy, full of appetite; some have exceUent leisure and opportu nities of retirement, others are busy in an active hfe, and cannot with advantages attend to the choice of the better part ; some are peace able, and timorous, and some are in aU instances serene ; others are of tumultuous and unqdet spirits : and these become opportmrities of temptation on one side, and on the other occasions of a virtue : but every change of facdty and variety of circumstance hath influ ence upon morality ; and therefore their duties are persondly altered, and increase M obligation or are slackened by necessities, according to the infinite alteration of exterior accidents, and interior possibihties. 14. Thirdly: Our love to God must be totally exclusive of any affection to sin, and engage us upon a great, assiduous, and laborious care, to resist aU temptations, to subdue sin, to acquire the habits of virtues, and hve holily ; as it is already expressed in the Discourse of Bepentance. We must prefer God as the object of our hopes, we must choose to obey Him rather than man, to please Him rather than satisfy ourselves, and we must do violence to our strongest passions, when they once contest against a divine commandment. If our passions are thus regdated, let them be fixed upon any lawful object whatsoever, if at the same time M'e prefer heaven and heavenly tirings, that is, would rather choose to lose our tempord love than our eternal hopes (which we can best discern by our refusing to sin upon the solicitation or engagement of the temporal object) ; then, although we feel the transportation of a sensual love toM'ards a wife, or child, or friend, actuaUy more pungent and sensible than passions of religion are, they are less perfect, but they are not crimind. Our love to God requires that we do His commandments, and that we do not sin ; but in other things M'e are permitted in the condtion ot our nature to be more sensitively moved by visible than by invisible and spiritual objects. Ody this ; M'e must ever have a dsposition and a mind prepared to quit our sensitive and pleasant objects, rather than quit a grace, or commit a sin. Every act of sin is agamst the love of God, and every man does many single actions of hostility and provocation against Him ; but the state of the love of God is that Mdrich M'e actually caU the state of grace. When Christ reigns in us, and sin does not reign, but the spirit is quickened, and the lusts are mortified ; when we are habituaUy virtuous and do acts of piety, temperance, and justice, frequently, easily, cheerfdly, and with a suc cessive, constant, moral, and human ' industry, according to the talent which God hath intrusted to us M the banks of nature and grace ; then we are in the love of God, then ire "love Him with all our heart." But if sin groM's upon us, and is committed more frequently, or gets a victory with less difficulty, or is obeyed more readly, or entertained M'ith a freer complacency; then we love not God as He rcqdres ; vie divide between Him and sin, and God is not the Lord 1 ['humane' edd. — 'Humane' and ' nuinan' are not distinguished in eailj cdd.-, Compare Milton, Par. Lost, book ix. line 732.] SECT. XII.] OF THE DECALOGUE. 419 of all our facdties. But the instances of scripture are the best ex position of this commandment : for David " followed God with all Ms heart, to do that which was right in His eyes m ;" and Josiah "turned to the Lord with dl Ms heart, and with all his soul, and with all Ms might n." Both these kings did it: and yet there was some imperfection in David, and more violent recessions ; for so saith the scripture of Josiah, " like unto Mm M'as there no king before Mm;" David was not so exact as he, and yet he "foUowed God with all his heart." From wMch these two corollaries are certaidy deducible : that to love God with all our heart admits variety of degrees, and the lower degree is yet a love with all our heart ; and yet to love God requires a holy life, a dihgent walking in the commandments, either according to the sense of innocence or of penitence, either by first or second counsels, by the spirit of rege neration, or the spirit of renovation and restitution. The sum is this : the sense of tMs precept is such as may be reconciled with the infirmities of our nature, but not with a vice in our manners ; M'ith the recession of single acts, seldom done, and always disputed against, and long fought with, but not with an habitual aversation, or a ready obedience to sin, or an easy victory. 15. This commandment, being the sum of the first table, had in Moses' law particular instances M'hich CMist did not insert into His institution : and He added no other particular but that which we call the third commandment, concerning veneration and reverence to the name of God. The other two, viz. concerning images and the sab bath, have some special considerations. The second commandment. 16. The Jews receive daily offence against the catechisms of some churches, who in the recitation of the decalogue omit the second commandment, as supposing it to be a part of the first, according as M'e account them ; and their offence rises Mgher because they observe that in the New testament, where the decalogue is six times repeated in special recitation and in summaries, there is no M'ord prolribiting the making, retaining, or respect of images. Concerning wMch things CMistians consider, that God forbade to the Jews0 the very having and making images and representments, not only of the true God, or of false and imaginary deitiesp, but of visible creatures, which, because it M'as but of temporary reason, and relative consi- m 1 Kings xiv. 8. Nicostrati et sociorum, qui, cum peritis- n 2 Kings xxlii. 25. simi fuerant statuarii, mortem potius ° cO Mavo-ijs Tds SoKipiovs Kal yXaipvpds ferre quam gentilibus simulacra facere rexvas, faypaip'iav Kal avSpiavTOirouav, 4k maluerunt. — [Surius de Sanct. hist, torn. ttjs kot' abrbv iroXneias i^Xaat.— Philo vi. p. 165.] de Gigant. [torn. ii. p. 380.] "AyaXp-a . . ob KaTeaKeiaire, Sid Tb fj,)i ' Vide Exod. xxxiv. 1 3 ; Deut. iv. 16; vofiifr eiv av8puit6fj.optpov elvai tSv Bebv— vii. 5 ; Num. xxxiii. 52. Imo et ecclesia Diod. Sic. de Moyse. [Bibl. Hist, eclog. viii. Novemb. celebrat martyrium Claudii, e lib. xl. torn. ii. p. 543.] E e 2 420 OF THE DECALOGUE. [PAKT II. deration of their aptness to superstition, and their conversing M'ith idolatrous nations, M'as a command proper to the nation, part of their covenant, not of essential, indispensable, and eternal reason, not of that wlrich we usuaUy call "the law of nature." Of which also God gave testimony, because Himself commanded the signs and represent ment of seraphim to be set upon the mercy-seat, toward M'hich the priest and the people made their addresses in their religious adora tions ; and of the brazen serpent, to which they looked when they called to God for help against the sting of the venomous snakes. These instances tell us that to make pictures or statues of creatures is not against a natural reason ; and that they may have uses which are profitable, as well as be abused to danger and superstition. Now dthough the nature of that people was apt to the abuse, and their intercourse with the nations in their confines was too great an invi tation to entertain the danger ; yet Christianity hath so far removed that danger, by the analogy and design of the religion, by clear doc trines, revelations, and infinite treasures of wisdom, and demonstra tions of the Spirit, that our blessed Lawgiver thought it not necessary to remove us from superstition by a prohibition of the use of images and pictures : and therefore left us to the sense of the great com mandment, and the dictates of right reason, to take care that we do not dishonour the invisible God with visible representations of what we never saw nor cannot understand, nor yet convey any of God's incommunicable worship in the fore-named instances to any thing but Himself. And for the matter of images we have no other rule left us in the New testament ; the rules of reason and nature, and the other parts of the institution, are abundantly sufficient for our security. And possibly St. Pad might relate to this when he affirmed concerning the fifth, that " it was the first commandment with pro mise :" for in the second commandment to the Jews, as there was :i great threatening, so also a greater promise of " shewing mercy to a thousand generations ;" but because the body of tMs commandment was not transcribed into the Christian law, the first of the decdogue M'hich we retain, and in wlrich a promise is inserted, "is the fifth com mandment. And therefore the wisdom of the church was remarkable in the variety of sentences concerning the permission of images. At first when they were blended in the danger and impure mixtures of gentilism, and men were newly recovered from the snare, and had the relics of a long custom to superstitious and false worshippings, they endured no images, but merely civil ; but as the danger ceased, and CMistiamty prevailed, they found that pictures had a natural use of good concernment, to move less knoM'ing people by the represent ment and declaration of a story; and then they, knowing themselves permitted to the liberties of Christianity, and the restraints of nature and reason, and not being stiU M-eak under prejudice and childish dangers, but fortified by the exceUency of a wise religion, took them into lawful uses, doing honour to saints, as unto the absent emperors, SECT. XII.] OF THE DECALOGUE. 421 according to the custom of the empire ; they erected statues to their honour, and transcribed a history, and sometimes a precept, into a table, by figures makmg more lasting impressions than by words and sentences. While the church stood within these limits, she had naturd reason for her warrant, and the custom of the several coun tries, and no precept of CMist to countermand it; they who went farther were unreasonable, and, accordmg to the degree of that ex cess, were superstitious. 17. The duties of this commandment are learned by the intents of it : for it M'as directed against the false religion of the nations M'ho believed the images of their gods to be died with the Deity ; and it . was dso a caution, to prevent our low imaginations of God, lest we shodd come to tirink God to be hke man0-. And thus far there M'as indispensable and eternal reason M the precept : and tMs was never lessened in any thing by the holy Jesus, and obliges us Christians to make our addresses and worshippings to no God but the God of the CMistians, that is, of all the world; and not to do tMs in or before an image of Him, because He cannot be represented. For the images of Christ and His saints, they come not into either of the two considerations ; and we are to understand our duty by the pro portions of our reverence to God, expressed in the great command ment. Our fathers in CMistianity, as I observed now, made no scruple of using the images and pictures of their princes arid learned men; wMch the JeM's understood to be forbidden to them in the commandment. Then they admitted, even in the utensils of the church, some celatures and engravings; such was that Tertdlianr speaks of, "the good shepherd in the chdice." Afterwards they admitted pictures ; but not before the time of Constantine, for in the council of Eliberis5 they M'ere forbidden. And in succession of time the scruples lessened with the danger, and all the M'ay they signified their belief to be, that this commandment was only so far retained by Christ as it rehed upon naturd reason, or was a particular instance of the great commandment; that is, images were forbidden where they did dishonour God, or lessen His reputation, or estrange our duties, or became idols, or the direct matter of superstitious observ ances, charms, or senseless confidences ; but they were permitted to represent the humamty of CMist, to remember saints and martyrs, to q Tbv aopaTov ehlovoypafpe7v $ SiairXacr- ovtuiv ipvirtv. tovtov Si) Tiy av eW6va irXdr- aeiv obx Saiov. — Philo de Legatione. [p. Tew BafiftJitreie vovv %xo>v bpoiav Tivd tuiv 1032 E, ed. fol. Lutet. 1640.] Trap' iffjiv; aXX' iav Se7 iraaav Ipavoiroiav, Prioribus clxx. annis templa quidem Tefxevos atpopliravTas, Kal o-nKbv d£i6xoyov aedificabant [Romani], simulacrum vero Tifiqv elSovs xaP^s- — Strab., lib. xvi. [p. nullum effigiatum faciebant; perinde at- 1082.] que nefas esset meliora per deteriorum '0(p8aX/j.o7s obx bpaTai, obS4vi eotKev' similitudines exprimere. — Plutarch. Ku- Si6wep abrbv obSels iK/j.o.8e7v 4% cIk6vos ma [cap. 8. torn. i. p. 258.] Sbvarai. — Antisth. [Apud Clem. Alex. Eft; ydp ev tovto fxdvos BebsTb irepiexov Strom., lib. v. cap. 14. p. 714.] iffj,as diravTas Kal yr/v Kal BdXaTTav, % r [De pudicit. § 7. p. 559 B.] •caXovpiev ovpavbv, Kal MoV/toe, Kal Tifv t&v s [Can. xxxvi. torn. i. col, 264.] 422 OF THE DECALOGUE. [PART II. recount a story, to imprint a memory, to do honour and reputation to absent persons, and to be the instruments of a relative civility and esteem. But in this particular infinite care is to be taken of scandal and danger, of a forward and zealous ignorance, or of a mistaken and peevish confidence ; and where a society hath such persons in it, the little good of images must not be violently retained, with the greater danger and certain offence of such persons of whom consider ation is to be had in the cure of souls. I only add this, that the first Christians made no scruple of sduting the statues of their princes, and were confident it made no entrenchment upon the natu ral prohibition contained in tMs commandment; because they had observed that exterior Mclinations and addresses of the body, though in the lowest manner, were not proper to God, but in scripture found also to be communicated to creatures, to kings, to prophets, to parents, to religious persons * : and because they found it to be death to do affront to the pictures and statues of their emperors, they con cluded in reason (wMch they also saw verified by the practice and opinion of all the world) that the respect they dd at the emperor's statue M'as accepted as a veneration to his person. But these things are but sparingly to be drawn into rehgion, because the customs of this world are altered, and their opidons new ; and many who have not weak understandings, have weak consciences ; and the necessity for the entertainment of them is not so great as the offence is or may be. The third commandment. 18. "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain":" tMs our blessed Saviour repeating, expresses it thus, "It hath been said to them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thy self;" to which Christ adds, out of Numb. xxx. 2, "but thou shalt perform thy oaths unto the Lord." The meaning of the one we are taught by the other. We must not invocate the name of God m any promise in vain, that is, with a he : which happens either out of levity, that we change our purpose wMch at first we redly intended ; or when our intention at that instant was fallacious, and contradictory to the undertaking. This is " to take the name of God," that is, to use it, to take it into our mouths, "for vanity;" that is, accordng ' Gen. xxiii. 12; xxvii. 29; xiii. 6; quis jurans pejerasset, castigabatur fus- and xlviii. 12; 1 Sam. xx. 41 ; I Kings tibus, cum hoc elogio, Temere ne jura. — i. 16. 'Si duo patroni,' Sect fin. de Jurejur. u Apud Romanos sancitum est, ut si [Ibid. § 13. p. 310.] perDeum jurans quis pejeraret, ad Deum Lysander dixit homines uti posse pro ipsum plectendus remitteretur, quem sa- suo commodo jnramentis, sicut pueri as- tis esse idoneum sua? majestatis vindicem tragalis.— Plutarch, in Lysand. [cap. 8. dicebant. — [Tac. Annal. i. 73.] L. Juris- torn. iii. p. 15.] *urandi, C. de Rebus credit, et Jurejur. Idem in jEmilio ait, Macedonas usos [Digest, lib._ xii. titt. 1, 2. torn. i. pp. esse juramento uti moneta. 301-14.] Sin per genium principis SECT. XII.] OF THE DECALOGUE. 423 to the perpetual style of scripture, for a lie. "Every one hath spoken vamty to his neighbour*," that is, he hath lied unto him ; for so it follows, "with flattering lips, and with a double heart :" and "swear ing deceitfdly" is by the Psalmist cdled " lifting up his soul unto vanity x." And Philo the Jewy, M'ho well understood the law and the language of his nation, renders the sense of this commandment to be, " to call God to witness to a lie." And tMs is to be under stood only in promises, for so Christ explains it, by the appendix out of the law, "Thou shalt perform thy oaths :" for lying in judgment, wlrich is also with an oath, or taking God's name for witness, is for bidden in the ninth commandment. To this Christ added a farther restraint. For whereas by the natural law it was not unlawful to swear by any oath that implied not idolatry, or the belief of a false god ; I say, any grave and prudent oath, when they spake a grave truth ; and whereas it was lawfd for the JeM's in ordnary intercourse to swear by God, so they did not SM'ear to a lie (to M'hich also swear ing to an impertinency might be reduced by a proportion of reason, and was so accounted of in the practice of the JeM's), but else, and in other cases, they used to swear by God, or by a creature, respec tively ; for, " they that swear by Him shall be commended," saith the Psalmist2; and "swearing to the Lord of hosts," is called "speaking the language of Canaan3." Most of this was rescinded; Christ forbade " att swearing," not only swearing to a he, but also SM'earing to a truth in common affairs ; not only swearing commonly by the name of God, but swearing commonly " by heaven," and " by the earth," " by our head," or by any other oath : only let our speech be yea, or nay; that is, plainly affirming or denyMgb. In these, I say, Christ corrected the licence and vanities of the Jews and gentiles. For as the Jews accounted it religion to name God, and therefore would not swear by Him but in the more solemn occasions of their life ; but in trifles they would SM'ear by their fathers, or the light of heaven, or the ground they trod on : so the Greeks were also careful not to swear by the gods lightly, much less fallaciously ; but ther M'ould swear by any thing about them, or near them, upon an occa sion as vain as their oathc. But because these oaths are either in directly to be referred to God (and Christ instances in divers), or else they are but a vain testimony, or else they give a dvine honour v Psalm xii. 2. ed. fol. Lutet 1640.] 1 Psalm xxiv. 4. [LXX.] Owe %Xa&ev * Psalm lxiii. 11. iirl paralip tt)v tfivx^v uvtov. a 1 Sam. xx. 17 ; Isa. xix. 18. y MdpTvpa Se KaXe7v iirl ipevSel Bebv b A7rAa ydp iari Tijs aXijBeias eirij. — dvoaiwraTov. — Philo. [In Decalog. p. 756. iEschyl. ["OirXaiv Kpinis. Stob. FI. xi. 8. ] - Ecce negas, jurasque mihi per templa tonantis ; Non credo; jura, verpe, per Anchialum, id est, per Elohim Hebraeorum. — Mart. [lib. xi. ep. 94. — Grot, ut infra.] Vide Harmenopulum [leg. Hermo- Mi) irpoireT&s KaTd t&v Be&v bfxvveiv, aum]in Plin., lib. v. c. 27. [sig. 1.8. b.] aXXa KaTd t&v irpoiTTvyxavovToiv. — In- et Scalig. De emend, temp, in append, terpr. in Hom. [notaute Hug, Grotio, in libror. [Prolegom. p. 40.] Matt. v. 34.] 424 OF THE DECALOGUE. [PAllT II. to a creature by making it a judge of truth and discerner of spirits ; therefore Christ seems to forbid all forms of swearing M'hatsoever. In pursuance of wlrich law Basilides", being converted at the prayers of Potamisena a virgin martyr, and reqdred by his fellow soldiers to SM'ear upon some occasion then happening, answered, it was not lawfd for him to swear, for he was a Christian ; and many of the fathers have followed the words of CMist in so severe a sense, that their words seem to admit no exception. 19. But here a grain of salt must be taken, lest the letter destroy the spirit. First, it is certain the holy Jesus forbade a custom of swearing; it being great irreligion to despise and lessen the name of God6, wlrich is the instrument and conveyance of our adorations to Him, by making it common and applicable to trifles and ordinary ac cidents of our life. He that swears often, many times swears false, and, however, lays by that reverence which beMg due to God, the scripture determines it to be due at His name ; His name " is to be loved and feared." And therefore Christ commands that our " com munication be yea, yea," or "nay, nay;" that is, our ordinary dis courses shodd be simply affirmative or negative. In order to this, Plutarch f affirms out of Phavorinus, that the reason why the Greeks forbade childen M'ho were about to SM'ear by Hercules, to swear within doors, was that by this delay and preparation they might be taught not to be hasty or quick in swearing, but all such invocations should be restrained and retarded by ceremony : and Hercules him self was observed never to have sworn in all his Me-time but once. Secondly, not ody customary sM'earing is forbidden, but all swearing upon a slight cause : St. Basil g upbraids some Christians his contem poraries with the example of CMrias the Pythagorean, who rather than he M'odd swear suffered a mdct of three talents : and att the followers of Pythagoras'1 admitted no oath, unless the matter were grave, neces sary, and charitable ; and the wisest and gravest persons among the heathens were very severe in their counsels concerning oaths. Thirdly, but there are some cases in M'hich the interests of kingdoms and bo des politic, peace and confederacies, require the sanction of promis sory oaths ; and they M'hom we are bound to obey, and who may kill us if we do not, require that their interests be secured by an oath : and that in this case, and all that are equd, our blessed Saviour did not forbid oaths, is certdn not only by the example of Christians, but of all the world before and since this prohibition, understanding it to ¦* Euseb. Hist., lib. vi. [cap. 5. p. 262.] vov. as $af3wp7vos eXeye' rb yap Surirep en. e Vide Ecclus. xxiii. 9, 11, 13. TrapaffKtvijs fxeXXijiriv 4fiiroie7, Kal fiovXev- Dominus et Jacobus ideo prohibuerunt crao-Bai SiSoxri. — [Quaest Rom., torn. vii. jusjurandum, non ut illud prorsus e re- p. 98.] bus humanis tollerent, sed quia cavere- s [Serm. xiii. De patient, torn. iii. ap- mus a perjurio non facile jurando. — Vid. pend. p. 549.] S. August, de verb, apost. [Serm. clxxx. h [Jambl. in vit. Pythag., capp. ix. § 3. torn. v. col. 860.] xxviii. pp. 35. 126. Diog. Laert in vit. f 'Va.-p.aiKi) iirio-xio-is iaTi rrjs irpbs Tbv Pythag., lib. viii. cap. 1. § 22. torn, ii 'ipKOv ebxtptlas Kal TaxvTi\Tos tS yiv6fj.e- p. 256.] SECT. XII.] OF THE DECALOGUE. 425 be of the nature of such natural bands and securities without which commonwealths in some cases are not easily combined, and therefore to be a thing necessary, and therefore not to be forbidden. Now what is by Christians to be esteemed a shght cause, we may deter mine by the account we take of other tirings. The glory of God is certainly no light matter ; and therefore when that is evidently and certainly concerned, not fantastically, and by vdn and imaginary con sequences, but by prudent and true estimation, then M'e may lawfully swear. We have St. Paul's example, who well understood the pre cept of his Master, and is not to be supposed easily to have done any violence to it ; but yet we find religious affirmations, and God invoked for "witness as a record upon his sod," in his epistles to the Bomans, Gdatians, and Corinthians1. But these oaths were ody assertory. Tertulriank affirmeth that Christians refused to SM'ear by the gemus of their prince, because it was a demon ; but they SM'are by his hedth, and their solemn oath was by God, and Christ, and the holy Spirit, and the majesty of the emperor. The fathers of the Ephesine council made Nestorius and "Victor swear ; and the bishops at Chdcedon sware by the health of their princes. But as St. Pad did it extra-judcially, when the glory of God was concerned in it, and the interest of souls ; so the CMistians used to swear in a cause of piety and religion, in obedience, and upon pubhc command, or for the ends of charity and justice, both with oaths promissory and assertory, as the matter required : with tMs only difference, that they never did swear in the causes of justice or charity, but when they were before a magistrate ; but if it were in a cause of religion, and in matters of promise, they did indeed swear among themselves, but always to or in communities and societies, obliging themselves by oath not to commit wickedness, robberies, sacrilege, not to deceive their trust, not to detain the pledge; M'Mch rather was an act of drect intercourse with God, than a solemn or religious obhgation to man. WMch very tiring Pliny1 also reports of the CMistians. 20. The sum is this m : Since the whole subject matter of this precept is oaths promissory, or vom's; dl promises with oaths are regdarly' forbidden to Christians, unless they be made tc* God or God's vicegerent, in a matter not trifling. For in the first case, a promise made to God, and a swearing by God to perform the pro mise, to Him is all one : for the name of Gcd being the instrument and determMation of all our addesses, we cannot be supposed to speak to God without using of His name explicitly, or by implication : and therefore he that promises to God makes a promise, and uses ' Rom. i. 9; 2 Cor. xi. 31; Gal. i. 20. irepiexeTai. — S. Basil, de Spir. Sanct. k [Apolog., § 32. p. 28 A.] [cap. 1. § 2. torn. iii. p. 2 E.] 1 [Ep. lib. x. 97. torn. ii. p. 128.] Necessitas, magnum humanse imbecil- m To vol, Kal to oi, (TvXXal3al Sio- aXX' litatis praesidium, quicquid cogit, excu- 'dfxois to KpdTiffTov t&v dyaB&v i) dxi)8eia, sat. — Sen. [vid. Controv. xxvii. torn. iii. Kal b %0-xaTos. 'dpos Trjs irovijplas Tb tyevSos, p. 321.] Tots fj.ncpo7s tovtois fyr\p.aai ttoXXukis 4fj- 428 OF THE DECALOGUE. [PART II. God's name in the promise ; the promise itself being in the nature of a prayer, or solemn invocation of God. In the second case, when the public necessity reqdres it, of wMch M'e are not judges, but are under authority, we find the lawfulness by being bound to believe, or not to contradct, the pretence of its necessity ; ody care is to be taken that the matter be grave or religious, that is, it is to be es teemed and presumed so by us, if the oath be imposed by our lawfd superiors, and to be cared for by them : or else it is so to be pro vided for by ourselves, when our intercourse is with God, as in vows and promises passed to / God; being carefd that wc do not offer to " God goat's hair, or the fumes of mushrooms, or the blood of swine ; that is, tirings either impious or vain. But in our communication, that is, in our ordinary intercourse M'ith men, we must promise by simple testimony, not by religious adjurations, though a creature be the instrument of the oath. 21. But this forbids not assertory oaths at all, or deposing in judgment; for of this Christ speaks not here, it being the proper matter of another commandment : and since (as St. Paul affirms) "an oath is the end of all controversy11," and that the necessity of com monwealths requires that a period should be fixed to questions, and a rule for the nearest certainty for judgment ; whatsoever is necessary is not unlaM'ful ; and Christ, M'ho came to knit the bonds of govern ment faster by the stricture of more religious ties, cannot be under stood to have given precepts to dissolve the instruments of judicature and prudent government. But concerning assertory oaths, although they are not forbidden, but supposed in the Mnth commandment to be done before our judges in the cause of om- neighbour ; yet because they are only so supposed, and no way else mentioned, by permission or intimation, therefore they are to be estimated by the proportions of this precept concermng promissory oaths : they may be taken in judgment and righteousness, but never lightly, never extra-judicially ; only a less cause, so it be judicial, may authorize an assertory than a promissory oath ; because many cases occur in wMch peace and jus tice may be concerned which without an oath are interminable, but there are' but few necessities to confirm a promise by an oath. And therefore the reverence of the name of God ought not to be in trenched upon in accidents of httle or no necessity ; God not having made many necessities in this case, M'ould not in the matter of pro mise give leave to use His name but when an extraordnary case happens. An oath in promises is of no use for ending questions and giving judicid sentences ; and the faith of a CMistian and the word of a just person will do most of the work of promises ; and it is very much to the disreputation of our religion or ourselves, if we fall into hypocrisy or deceit, or if a CMistian asseveration were not of value equal M'ith an oath. And therefore CMist forbiddng pro- nissory oaths, and commanding so great simplicity of spirit and - Heb. vi. 16. SECT. XII.] OF THE DECALOGUE. 427 honesty, did consonantly to the design and perfection of His institu tion, intending to make us so just and sincere, that our religion being infimte obligation to us, our own promises shodd pass for bond enough to others, and the religion receive great honour by being esteemed a sufficient security and instrument of public intercourse0. And tMs was intimated by our Lord Mmself in that reason He is pleased to give of the prohibition of swearing : " Let your communi cation be Yea, yea ; Nay, nay : for whatsoever is more cometh of evilp:" that is, as good laws come from ill manners, the modesty of clothing from the shame of sM, antidotes and physic by occasion of poisons and dseases ; so is swearing an effect of distrust and want of faith or honesty, on one or both sides. Men dare not trust the word of a Christian, or a Christian is not just and punctual to his promises, and this calls for confirmation by an oath. So that oaths suppose a fadt, though they are not faults arrays themselves ; what soever is more than yea or nay, is not always evil, but it always cometh of evil. And therefore the Essenes? esteemed every man that M'as put to Ms oath no better than an infamous person, a perjurer, or at least suspected, not esteemed a just man : and the heathens M'ould not suffer the priest of Jupiter to swearr, because all men had great opinion of Ms sanctity and authority : and the Scythians8 derided Alexander's caution and timorous provision, when he required an oath of them ; nos religionem in ipsa fide novimus, our faith is our bond : and they who are willing to deceive men will not stick to deceive God, when they have called God to witness'- But I have a caution to insert for each, which I propound as an humble advice to persons eminent and publicly interested. 22. First : That princes, and such as have power of decreeing the injunction of promissory oaths, be very curious and reserved, not rightly enjoimng such promises, neither in respect of the matter trivial, nor yet frequently11, nor without great reason eMorcing. The matter of such promises must be only what is already matter of duty or religion ; for else the matter is not grave enough for the calling of God to testimony : but when it is a matter of duty, then the oath 0 M^o/wiWi Beovs' dcrKeiv ydpavTbv Se7v r Verbum sacerdotis apud Christianas d\ibirio-Tov irap4xeiv. — Hierocl. [potius ecclesia; ministros etiam hodie manet Diog. Laert. in vit Pythag., cap. xix. loco juramenti. — Ad eundem sensum tom.ii. p. 256.] Vide Marc. Anton, in de- apud antiquos fuerunt verba ilia prsetoris scriptione viriboni, lib. iii. [cap. v. p. 21], ex edicto perpetuo, Sacerdotem vesta- fffire SpKov Sedpievos. — T&vSiKaiavval eoTi lem et flaminem dialem in omni mea vol, Kal oS 4aTiv oi, tritum est; ita scil. ut jurisdictione jurare non cogam. — A. Gell. facta dictis respondere justorum sit — [lib. x. cap. 15. p. 488.] KaXXicrTov, Kal fitwtpeXea-TaTOV, Kal dp- s Curtius, lib. vii. [cap. 8. § 35. p. 235.] pbTTov Trj Xoyiiqi ipvaei to avd/iorov, o'v- ' Qui non reverentur homines fallent tws dXifBeieiv 6(j>' eKdo-Tov SeSiSaypievri , dis Deos. — Cicero pro Roscio. [i.e. pro R. Tobs Xbyovs tipicovs elvai vofj.(£e irvev/ia- S. August, in Joann. [Tract, iii. § 19, tik&s, /xeX4Tti vipov xahav' ov 0-difj.aTos torn. iii. col. 311.] Et in Psal. xcii. [§ 1. dveirei, Sijfjiovpyiav Beov Savfidfav, obx tom' iv. col. 990.] idem fere. SECT. XII.J OF THE DECALOGUE. 433 The fifth commandment. 26. "Honour thy father and thy mother." TMs commandment Christ made also to be christian by His frequent repetition and mention of it in His sermons and laws, and so ordered it that it should be the band of civil government and society. In the deca logue God sets this precept immediately after the duties that concern Himself h, our duty to parents being in the confines with our duty to God, the parents being in order of nature next to God, the cause of our being and production, and the great almoners of etermty, con veying to us the essences of reasonable creatures, and the charities of heaven. And when our blessed Saviour in a sermon to the pharisees spake of duty to parents, He rescued it from the impediments of a vain tradition, and secured this duty though against a pretence of duty towards God, telling us that God would not Himself accept a gift which we took from our parents' needs. This duty to parents is the very firmament and band of commonwealths. He that honours Ms parents Mill also love Ms brethren derived from the same loins, he will dearly account of aU Ms relatives and persons of the same cognation1 ; and so families are united, and of them cities and so cieties are framed. And because parents and patriarchs of families and of nations bad regal power, they who by any change succeeded in the care and government of cities and kingdoms, succeeded in the power and authority of fathers, and became so, in estimate of law and true divinity, to aU their people. So that the duty here com manded is due to all our fathers in the sense of scripture and laws, not bMy to our natural, but to our civil fathers, that is, to kings and governors. And the scripture adds, mothers ; for they also, being instruments of the blessing, are the objects of the duty. The duty is, "honour;" that is, reverence, and support1 if they shall need it: and that wMch our blessed Saviour calls "not honouring our n 'O XoiSop&v tSv irarepa Sva Ubi furoris insederit virus, libidinis — Cassian. [Inst vi. cap. 23. De spir. quoque inct-ndium necesse est penetrare. forme, p. 164.] Numquid ego a te Magno prognatain deposco consule — Velatamquc stola, inea cum conferbuit ira? — Hor. [Sat. i. 2. lin. 69.] SECT. XII.] OF THE DECALOGUE. 443 of their omti doctors : of M'hich I reckon this a sufficient probation, because they permitted stranger virgins and captives to fornicate; only they believed it sinful in the Hebrew maidens. And when two harlots pleaded before Solomon for the bastard child, he gave sen tence of their question, but nothing of their crime. Strangers k, with the Hebrews, signified many times harlots ; because they M'ere per mitted to be such, and M'ere entertained to such purposes. But these were the licences of a looser interpretation ; God having to all nations given sufficient testimony of His detestation of all concubinate not hallowed by marriage : of which among the nations there was abun dant testimony ; in that the harlots were not permitted to abide in the cities, and wore veils, in testimony of their shame and habitual undecencies ; wMch we observe in the story of Thamar1, and dso in CMysippus™; and although it passed without punishment, yet never without shame and a note of turpitude. And the abstinence of for mcation was one of the precepts of Noah, to wlrich the Jews obliged the stranger proselytes, M'ho were only proselytes of the house : and the apostles enforce it upon the gentries in their first decree at Jeru salem, as renewing an old stock of precepts and obligations in which aU the converted and religious gentiles did communicate with the Jews. 38. To tMs Christ added, that the eyes must not be adulterous; His dsciples must not ody abstain from the act of udawfd con cubinate, but from the impurer intdtion of a wife of another man : so, according to the design of His whole sermon, opposing the right eousness of the Spirit to that of the law, or of works, in wMch the Jews confided. CMistians must have chaste desires, not MddgMg to themselves a liberty of looser thoughts"; keeping the tiireshold of their temples pure, that the holy Ghost may observe notMng unclean m the entry of His habitation. Por he that- lusts after a woman M'ants nothing to the consummation of the' act but some convenient circumstances ; which because they are not in our power, the act is impeded, but nothing of the mdice abated. But so severe in tMs was our blessed Master, that He commanded us rather to "put our eyes out," than to suffer them to become an offence to us, that is, an inlet of sin, or an invitation or transmission of impurity : by "putting our eye out," meaning the extinction of dl incentives of lust, the k EeVos vocarunt Graeci meretrices et "¦ [Orig. contr. Cels., lib. iv. c. 63.] peregrinas, ad morem et ad verbum He- » Nihil refert quibus membris adulte- braorum; et Menandrum transferens, raveris, dixit Arcesilaus philosophus. — Terentius peregrinam vocat Andriam. Plutarch. [De san. tuend., t. vi. p. 479.] [notante Grotio in Matt. ix. 27.] 'Apxh ™v epuiros 'Spams.— Plato, [ap. 1 Gen. xxxviii. 14. Clem. Alex, strom. vi. 2.] Ut jam servaris bene corpus, adultera mens est: Omnibus occlusis intus adulter erit. — Ovid. [Amor. iii. Eleg. 4.] Incesta est etiam sine stupro qua; cupit stuprum. — Sen. [Excerpt. Controv., lib. vi. 8. torn. iii. p. 477.] ZliBev itot dpa yiverai poix&v yevos ; 4k kpiBi&vtos avSpbs iv drppoSiirtois. — Cleanthes. [atmd Stob. Floril, vi. 20.] 44* OF THE DECALOGUE. [PART II. rejection of all opportunities and occasions, the qdtting all condtion* of advantage which ministers fuel to this hell-fire. And by tMs seve rity we must understand all beginnings, temptations, hkenesses, and insinuations and minutes of lust and impurity, to be forbidden to Clrristians; such as are all morose delectations in vanity, M'anton words, gestures, baUs, revelttngs, wanton diet, garish and lascivious dressings and trimmings of the body, looser banquetings : att " making provisions for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts of it," all lust of concupiscence, and aU " lust of the eye," and all lust of the hand, unclean contracts, are to be rescinded, all lust of the tongue and palate, all surfeiting and drunkenness : for it is impossible to keep the spirit pure, if it be exposed to all the entertainment of enemies. And if CMist forbade the wanton eye, and placed it under the pro- Mbition of addtery, it is certain whatsoever ministers to that vice and invites to it, is within the same restraint ; it is the eye, or the hand, or the foot, that is to be cut off. To tMs commandment fastings and severe abstinences are apt to be reduced, as being the proper abscission of the instruments and temptations of lust, to which Christ Mvites by the mixed proposition of tirreatemng and reM'ard; for " better it is to go to heaven with but one eye, or one foot," that is, with a body half nourished, than with full meals and an active lust to " enter into hell." And in tMs our blessed Lord is a physician rather than a lawgiver : for abstinence from all impure concubinate and morose delectations so much as in thought, being the commandment of God ; that Christ bids us retrench the occasions and insinuations of lust, it is a facilitating the duty, not a new seve rity, but a security and caution of prudence. The eighth commandment. 39. "Thou shdt not sted." To tMs precept CMist added no tMng, because God had already in the decalogue fortified tMs pre cept with a restraint upon the desires0. Por the tenth command ment forbids all coveting of our neighbour's goods p : for the wife there reckoned, and forbidden to be desired from another man, is not a restraint of libidnous appetite, but of the covetous ; it being ac counted part of wealth to have a numerous family, many wives, and D Crescit indulgens sibi dirus hydrops, Nee sitim pellit, nisi causa morbi Fugerit venis, et aquosus albo Corpore languor. — Hor. [Od. ii. 2. lin. 13.] ' 'O ydp to7s dXXoTplois iiriKexvvas, cal. p. 763 C. ed. Lutet. 1640.] Koivbs irbXeus ixBp6r PovX-f/crei /xev Ta KXoirrf fxev xPVfdraiv dveXevBepov. — irdvTaiv, Svvdftei Serd tivwv aipaipoi/xevos. Plato, De legg. [lib. xii. § i. torn. viii. — Philo in Exposit Gener. [i. e. De de- p. 576.] Ads a7o6r;, Sp-n-af Se KaKr), Bavd\oio S&reipa. — Hesiod. Op. [lin. 354.] SECT. XII.] OF THE DECALOGUE. 445 many servants : and this also God, by the prophet Nathani, up braided to David, as an instance of David's wedth and God's libe rality. But yet this commandment Christ adopted into His law, it being proMbited by the naturd law, or the law of right reason, commonwedths not being able to subsist without dstinction of donririon, nor industry to be encouraged but by propriety, nor families to be maintained but by defence of just rights and truly purchased possessions. And this prohibition extends to all injustice, whether done by force or fraud; whether it be by ablation, or pre vention, or detaining of rights ; any thing in which injury is done, directly or obliquely, to our neighbour's fortune1-. The ninth commandment. 40. "Thou shalt not bear false witness." That is, thou shalt not answer in judgment against thy neighbour falsely3 : wMch testimony, in the law, was given solemdy and by oath, invokMg the name of God. " I adjure thee by God that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ," said the high-priest to the blessed Jesus, that is, speak upon thy oath ; and then He told them fully, though they made it the pretence of murdering Him, and He knew they would do so; Cod'essmg and witnessing truth is giving glory to God : but fdse witness is high injustice, it is inhumanity and treason against the quietness, or life, or possession of a just person ; it is in itself irre gular and unreasonable, and therefore is so forbidden to CMistians, not only as it is unjust, but as it is false. Por a lie in commum- cation and private converse is also forbidden, as well as unjust testi mony'; "Let every man speak truth with his neighbour"," that is, in private society : and whether a lie be in jest or earnest, when the purpose is to deceive and abuse, though in the smallest instance, it is in that degree criminal as it is injurious". I find not the same affirmed in every deception of our neighbours, wherein no man is injured, and some are benefited; the error of the affirmation being 1 [2 Sam. xii. 8.] 1452.] Ulpian. 1. ' Probrum,' D. de r Paulus J. C. lib. i. D. de Furtis. verborum significatione. [Ibid., lib. 1. tit. [Digest, Lb. xlvii. tit. 2. § 1. torn. iii. p. 6. § 42. torn. iii. p. 1634.] * Oi yap iirl ifievSeo-tri rraTrip Zebs iaaeT dpwyds — Hom. [II. A. 235.] 40s Se Ke fxapTvpirfClv eKiiiv iir'iopKov 6/ioWas VevireTal, ev Se S'lKlfv pxdtyas, v4]KeCT0V ddaBif, TovSe t' apavpor4pr\ yevei) fjeTbirioBe XeXenrrai — Hesiod. Op. [lin. 280.J ' 'AXifBeid 4 heaven serve Thee with harmony, concord, and peace; so let us all join in the service of Thy majesty, with peace and purity, and love unfeigned ; that as all the angels are in peace, and amongst them there is no persecutor, and none persecuted, there is none afflicting or afflicted, none assaulting or assadted, but all in sweetness and peaceable serenity glorifying Thee ; so let Thy will be done on earth, by all the world, in peace and umty, in charity and tranqdMty ; that with one heart and one voice we may glorify Thee, our umversal Father ; having in us notMng that may displease Thee, having qdtted all our own desires and pretensions, living in angehc conformity, our sods subject to Thee, and our passions to our souls ; that in earth also Thy will may be done, as in the spirit and sod, M'Mch is a portion of the heavedy substance. — These three petitions are ad dressed to God, by May of adoration. In the first, the sod puts on the affections of a child, and dvests itself of its own interest, offering itself up wholly to the designs and glorifications of God. In the second, it puts on the relation and duty of a subject to her legitimate prince, seeking the promotion of his regal interest. In the third, she puts on the affection of a spouse, loving the same love, and choosing the same object, and delighting M unions and codormities. The next part descends lower, aud makes addresses to God in re lntion to our own necessities. 7. " Give us tMs day our daily bread d ;" that is, give unto us aU that is necessary for the support of our lives e, the bread of our ne- '' 'Eiriovaios, ab 4irwvaa, quod diem urnum,' sive indies necessarium, to Kaff posterum significat. NazarenorumEvan- rf/xepav. gelium (referente S. Hieronymo [in e ttXovtSs 4ari KTijais ab/x/xerpos irpbs Matt. vi. torn. iv. par. i. col. 21.]) legit evSai/xovlav. 'panem crastinum ;' S. Lucas ' panem di- Vivitur parvo bene, cui paternum Splendet in mensa tenui salinum, Nee leves somnos timor aut cupido Sordidus aufert— Hor. [Od. ii. 16. lin. 13.] Fructibus Agrippae Siculis, quos colligis, Icci, Si recte frueris, non est ut copia major Ab Jove donari possit tibi ; tolle querelas : Pauper enim non est cui rerum suppetit usus. Si ventri bene, si lateri est pedibusque tuis, nil Divitiae poterunt regales addere majus. Hor. ad ledum [Ep, i. 12. lin. 1.] SECT. XI1.J EXPOSITION OF THE LORD'S PRAYER. 469 cessity; so the Syriac interpreter reads it, "TMs day give us the portion of bread which is day by day necessary ;" give us the bread or support wMch we shaU need all our lives, only tMs day mririster our present part. For we pray for the necessary bread or mainte nance wMch God knows we shaU need all our days; but, that we " be not careful for to-morrow," we are taught to pray, not that it be all at once represented or deposited, but that God would midster it as we need it, how He pleases : but our needs are to be the measure of our desires, our desires must not make our needs ; that we may be confident of the divine providence, and not at all covetous : for therefore God feeds His people with extemporary provisions, that by needng dways, they may learn to pray to Him ; and by being still supplied, may learn to trust Hrin for the future, and thank Him for that is past, and rejoice in the present. So God rained down manna, giving them their daily portion ; and so all fathers and masters midster to their children and servants, giving them their proportion as they eat it, not the meat of a year at once ; and yet no child or servant fears want, if Ms parent or lord were good, and wise, and rich. And it is necessary for all to pray this prayer : the poor, be cause they want the bread, and have it not deposited but in the hands of God : " mercy plouglring the fields of heaven" (as Job's expression is) brings them corn; and "the cattle upon a thousand hills are God's," and they find the poor man meat. The rich also need this prayer; because although they have the bread, yet they need the blessing ; and M'hat they have now may perish, or be taken from them ; and as preservation is a perpetual creation, so the con tinuing to rich men what God hath already bestowed is a continud giving it. Young men must pray, because their needs are like to be the longer ; and old men, because they are present. But all these are to pray but for the present1, that M'hich in estimation of law is to be reckoned as imminent upon the present, and part of tMs state and condition ; but it is great improvidence, and an unchristian spirit, for old men to heap up provisions, and load their sumpters still the more by how much their M'ay is shorter.- — But there is also a Bread M'hich came down from heaven, a diviner nutriment e of our sods, the food and wine of angels, CMist himself, as He communi- M?) fxbvov tov $fjv, dXXd Kal tov diro- Plutarch. [Sept. Sap. Conviv., torn. vi. BvfjaKeiv, t%v Tpocpriv 4ip6Siov oiiaav. — p. 609.] f La?tus in praesens animus quod ultra est Oderit curare ; et amara lento Temperet risu. — Hor. [Od. ii. 16. lin. 25.] quid asternis minorem Consiliis animum fatigas ? — [Id. Od. ii. 11. lin. 11.] Vitae summa brevis spem nos vetat inchoare longam : Jam te premet nox, fabulseque manes, Et domus exilis Plutonia.— [Id. Od. i. 4. lin. 15.] s 'AvayKaidraTov 4Xobs laadaBai, Kal Saifioviuvras 4£op- b [Antiq., lib. xviii. cap. 4. § 3. p. 798.] Ki^eiv, t&v peyioTaiv epyav thai, &c. — " 'Evoplaare abrbv eivai vibv ®eov, eirel Julian, apud Cyril, [contr. Julian., lib. vi, XaXobs Kal TVipXobs iBepdirevae, dixit lorn. vi. p. 191 E.] Celsus apud Origen. [contr. Cels., lib. ii. ' [Tac. Hist. iv. 81.] cap. 48. torn. i. p. 422 C] 496 OF THE MIRACLES WROUGHT BY JESUS. [PART II. told Mm that he also should recover'. But although Vespasian, by the help of Apollonius Tyaneus, who was Ms familiar, who also had the devil to be Ms, might do any thing witirin the power of nature, or by permission might do much more ; yet, besides that this was of an uncertain and less credible report, if it had been true, it was also infinitely short of what Christ did, and was a weak, silly imitation and usurping of the argument wlrich had already prevailed upon the persuasions of men beyond dl possibility of confutation. And for that of Adrian, to have reported it is enough to make it ridicdous ; and it had been a strange power to have cured two blind persons, and yet be so unable to help Mmself, as to attempt to kill himself, by reason of anguish, impatience, and despair. 9. Fifthly: When the Jews and pharisees believed not Christ for His miracles, and yet perpetually called for a sign, He refused to give them a sign which might be less than their prejudice or the persuasions of their interest; but gave them one wMch alone is greater than all the miracles wMch ever were done, or said to be done, by any antichrist, or the enemies of the religion put all toge ther : a miracle which could have no suspicion of imposture ; a miracle without instance, or precedent, or imitation : and that is, Jesus's lying in the grave three days and three nights, and then rising again, and appearing to many, and conversing for forty days toge ther; giving probation of His rising, of the verity of His body, making a glorious promise which at Pentecost was verified, and speaking such tirings which became precepts and parts of the law for ever after. 10. Sixthly : I add two things more to this consideration. First, that the apostles did such miracles wMch were infinitely greater than the pretensions of any adversary, and inimitable by all the poM'ers of man or darkness. They rdsed the dead, they cured all diseases by their very shadow passing by, and by the touch of garments ; they converted nations, they foretold future events, they themselves spake with tongues, and they gave the holy Ghost by imposition of hands, wMch enabled others to speak languages which immp.dia.tply before they understood not, and to cure diseases, and to eject devils. Now supposing miracles to be done by gentile pMlosophers and magicians after ; yet when they fall short of these in power, and yet teach a contrary doctrine, it is a demonstration that it is a lesser power, and therefore the doctrine not of dvMe authority and sanction. And it is remarkable that among all the gentiles none ever reasonably pre tended to a power of casting out devils. For the devils codd not get so much by it, as things then stood : and besides, in whose name should they do it, who worshipped none but devils and false gods ? which is too violent presumption, that the devil was the architect in all such buildings. And when the seven sons of Scevag, who M'as a ' Spartianus in Adriano [cap. xxi.] ; facta fuisse per simulationem. qui addit, Marium Maximum dixisse hae s Acts xix. 14 — 19. SECT. XII.] OF THE MIRACLES WROUGHT BY JESUS. 497 Jew (amongst M'hom it M-as sometimes granted to cure demoniacs), offered to exorcise a possessed person, the devil M'odd by no means endure it, but beat them for their pains. And yet, because it might have been for his purpose to have enervated the reputation of St. Paul, and by a voluntary cession equalled St. Paul's enemies to . him, either the devil could not go out but at the command of a Christian, or else to have gone out wodd have been a disservice and rdn to his kingdom; either of which declares, that the poM'er of casting out devils is a testimony of God, and a probation of the di vinity of a doctrine, and a proper argument of Christianity. 11. SeventMy: But besides this I consider, that the holy Jesus, having first possessed upon just title all the reasonableness of human understanding by His demonstration of a miraculous power, in His infinite M'isdom knew that the devil would attempt to gain a party by the same instrument, and therefore so ordered it that the miracles wMch should be done, or pretended to, by the devil, or any of the enemies of the cross of Christ, shodd be a confirmation of Christian ity, not do it disservice : for He foretold that antichrist and other enemies " shodd come in prodigies, and lying M'onders and signs." Concerning which although it may be disputed whether they M'ere truly miracles, or mere deceptions and magical pretences ; yet be cause they M'ere such which the people could not discern from mi racles really such, therefore it is all one, and in this consideration are to be supposed such : but certaidy He that could foretell such a future contingency, or such a secret of predestination, was able also to know from what principle it came ; and M'e have the same reason to believe that antichrist shall do miracles to evil purposes, as that he shall do any at all ; He that foretold us of the man, foretold us dso of the imposture, and commanded us not to trust him. And it had been more likely for antichrist to prevail upon Christians by doing no miracles, than by doing any : for if he had done none, he might have escaped without dscovery : but by doing miracles, as he verified the wisdom and prescience of Jesus, so he declared to dl the church that he was the enemy of their Lord, and therefore less likely to deceive : for which reason it is said, that " he shdl deceive, if it were possible, the very elect ;" that is therefore not possible, because that by M'hich he insinuates himself to others, is by the elect, the church, and chosen of God, understood to be Ms sign and mark of discovery, and a M'arning. And therefore as the prophecies of Jesus were an infinite verification of His miracles, so also tMs pro phecy of Christ concerning antichrist disgraces the reputation and faith of the miracles he shall act. The old prophets foretold of the Messias, and of His miracles of poM'er and mercy, to prepare for His reception and entertainment : Christ alone and His apostles from Him, foretold of anticlirist, and that he should come in all miracles of deception and lying ; that is, with true or fdse miracles to per suade a lie ; and this M'as to prejudice Ms being accepted, according u. k k 498 OF THE MIRACLES WROUGHT BY JESUS. [PART II. to the law of Moses h. So that as all that spake of CMist bade us believe Him for the miracles ; so all that foretold of antichrist, bade us disbeheve him the rather for Ms : and the reason of both is the same, because the mighty and " surer word of prophecy," as St. Peter calls it, being the greatest testimony in the world of a dvine prin ciple, gives authority, or reprobates, with the same power. They who are the predestinate of God, and they that are the praseiti, the 'foreknown' and marked people, must needs stand or faU to the divine sentence ; and such must this be acknoM'ledged : for no enemy of the cross, not the devil himself, ever foretold such a contingency, or so rare, so personal, so voluntary, so unnaturd an event, as this of the great antichrist. 12. And thus the holy Jesus having shewed forth the treasures of His Father's wisdom in revelations and holy precepts,- and upon the stock of His Father's greatness having dspended and demon strated great power in miracles, and these being instanced M acts of mercy. He mingled the glories of heaven to transmit them to earth, to raise us up to the participations of heaven : He was pleased by hearing the bodes of infirm persons to invite their spirits to His discipline, and by His power to convey hearing, and by that mercy to lead us into the treasures of revelation ; that both bodies and souls, our wills and understandngs, by dvine instruments might be brought to dvine perfections in the participations of a divine nature. It was a miracdous mercy that God should look upon us in our blood, and a miraculous condescension that His Son should take our nature ; and even tMs favour we could not believe without many miracles : and so contrary was our condition to all possibilities of happiness, that if salvation had not marched to us all the M'ay in miracle, we had perished in the ruins of a sad eternity. And noM' it would be but reasonable that since God for our sakes hath rescinded so many laws of natural establishment, we also, for His, and for our own, wodd be content to do violence to those natural inclinations M'hich are also criminal when they derive into action. Every man riving in the state of grace is a perpetud miracle, and his passions are made reasonable as his reason is turned to faith, and his sod to spirit, and Ms body to a temple, and earth to heaven ; and less than tMs wril not dispose us to such glories which, being the portion of saints and angels, and the nearest commumcations with God, are infimtely above M'hat we see, or hear, or understand. THE PBAYEB. 0 eternd Jesu, who ddst receive great power, that by it Thou mightest convey Thy Father's mercies to us, impotent and wretched people. ; give me grace to believe that heavenly doc- h Deut. xiii. 1 — 3. SECT. XII.] OF THE MIRACLES WROUGHT BY JESUS. 499 trine wMch Thou ddst ratify with arguments from above, that I may fully assent to all those mysterious truths M'hich integrate that doctrine and dscipline in which the obligations of my duty and the hopes of my felicity are deposited. And to all those glorious verifications of Thy goodness and Thy power add also tMs miracle, that I, who am stained with leprosy of sin, may be cleansed, and my eyes may be opened, that 1 may see the won drous things of Thy law ; and raise Thou me up from the death of sM to the Me of righteousness, that I may for ever walk in the land of the living, abhorring the works of death and darkuess; that as I am by Thy miracMous mercy partaker of the first, so dso I may be accounted worthy of the second resurrection : and as by faith, hope, charity, and obedence, I receive the fririt of Thy miracles M tMs rife, so in the other I may partake of Thy glories, wMch is a mercy above aU miracles. Lord, if Thou writ, Thou canst make me clean. Lord, I beheve; help mine unbelief; and grant that no indisposition or Mcapacity of mine may hinder the wonderfd operations of Thy grace ; but let it be Thy first miracle to turn my water into wine,, my barrenness into fruitfdness, my aversations from Thee Mto unions and intimate adhesions to Thy infimty, wMch is the fountain of mercy and power. Grant this for Thy mercy's sake, and for the honour of those glorious attri butes in wMch Thou hast revealed Thyself and Thy Father's excellencies to the world, 0 holy and eternal Jesu. Amen. END OF THE SECOND PART. "O "AflOS 'ISXTP02', ' [See vol. v. p. 605.] Kk2 THE HISTORY THE LIFE AND DEATH HOLY JESUS. PABT 111. BEGINNING AT THE SECOND YEAR OF HIS PREACHING UNTIL HIS ASCENSION : WITH CONSIDERATIONS AND DISCOURSES UPON THE SEVERAL PARTS OF THE STORY ; AND PRAYERS FITTED TO THE SEVERAL MYSTERIES. Seneca [in libb. moralis philosophise ; qui non extant.] apud Lactant institut., lib. vi. c. 17. [torn. i. p. 482.] Hie est ille homo .. qui sive toto corpore tormenta patienda sunt, sive fiamma ore rucipienda' est, sive extendendae per patibulum manus, non quaarit quid patiatuv, sed quam bene. * [al. 'iapienda.'] BIGHT HONOUBABLE AND VIRTUOUS LADY, THE LADY FRANCES, COUNTESS OF OARBERY. MADAM, Since the dvine Providence hath been pleased to bind up the great breaches of my little fortune by your charity and nobleness of a religious tenderness, I account it an excellent circumstance and handsomeness of condtion that I have the fortune of St.Athanasius, to have my persecution relieved and comforted by an honourable and excellent lady ; and I have notMng to return for this honour done to me but to do as the poor paralytics and infirm people in the gospel did when our blessed Saviour cured them; they went and told it to all the country, and made the vicMage full of the report, as themselves were of hedth and joy. And dthough I know the modesty of your person and religion had rather do favours than own them, yet give me leave to draw aside the cnrtaM and retirement of your charity ; for I had rather your virtue shodd blush, than my un- thankfdriess make me ashamed. Madam, I intended by this addess not ody to return you spirituds for your temporals, but to make your noble usages of me and mine to become, like your other charities, productive of advantages to the standers by. For dthough the beams of the sun, reflected from a marble, return not home to the body and fountam of light, yet they that walk below feel the benefit of a doubled heat : so whatever reflections or returns of your favours 504 dedication. I can make although they faU short of what your worth does most reasonably challenge, and can proceed but towards you with forward desires and distant approaches, yet I am desirous to believe that those who walk between us may receive assistances from tMs inter course ; and the following papers may be auxiliary to the enkMdling of their piety, as to the confirming and estabrisMng yours. For although the great prudence of your most noble lord, and the modesties of your own temperate and sweeter dspositions, become the great endearments of virtue to you ; yet because it is necessary that you make religion the business of your life, I thought it not an impertinent application to express my thankfulness to your honour by that which may best become my duty and my gratitude, because it may do you the greatest service. Madam, I must beg your pardon that I have opened the sanctuary of your retired virtues ; but I was obliged to publish the endearments and favours of your noble lord and yourself towards me and my relatives : for as your hands are so clasped that one ring is the ligature of them both ; so I have found emanations from that conjuncture of hands with a consent so forward and apt, that notMng can satisfy for my obligations but by being in the greatest eminency of thankfdness and humility of person. Madam, your honour's most obliged and most humble servant, JEB. TAYLOE. RIGHT HONOURABLE AND VIRTUOUS LADY, LADY ALICE*, COUNTESS OF CARBERY. Madam, By the dvine providence wMch dsposes all things wisely and charitably, you are in the affections of your noblest lord successor to a very dear and most excellent person, and designed to fill up those offices of piety to her dear pledges, which the haste which God made to glorify and secure her wodd not permit her to fimsh. I have much ado to refrain from telling great stories of her wisdom, piety, judgment, sweetness, and religion; but that it would renew the wound, and make our sins bleed afresh at the memory of that dear saint : and we hope that much of the storm of the divine anger is over, because He hath repaired the breach by sendmg you to go on upon her account, and to give countenance and establishment to aU those graces which were warranted and derived from her example. Madam, the nobleness of your family, your education, and your ex cellent principles, your fair dspositions, and affable comportment, have not ody made all your servants confident of your wortirihess and great virtues, but have disposed you so MgMy and necessarily towards an active and a zealous religion, that we expect it shodd grow to the height of a great example ; that you may draw others ¦ [This dedication was added in the bery having died meantime, and the lady third edition; the former countess of Car- Alice Egerton succeeded in her room.] 506 dedication. after you, as the eye follows the light, in all the angles of its retire ment, or open stages of its publication. In order to tMs, I have chosen your honour into a new relation, and have endeared you to tMs instrument of piety ; that if you wril please to do it countenance, and employ it in your counsels and pious offices, it may minister to your appetites of religion ; which as they are dready fair and pros perous, so they may swell up to a vastness large enough to entertain all the secrets and pleasures of religion : that so you may add to the blessings and prosperities which already dwell in that family where you are now fixed, new title to more, upon the stock of all those promises which have secured and entailed felicities upon such persons who have no vamties, but very many virtues. Madam, I codd not do you any service but by doing myself tMs honour, to adorn my book with tiris fairest title and inscription of your name. You may observe, but cannot blame, my ambition ; so long as it is Mstanced in a religious service, and means notMng but tMs, that I may signify how much I honour that person M'ho is designed to bring new bless ings to that family, wMch is so honourable in itself, and for so many reasons dear to me. Madam, upon that account, besides the stock of your own wortiriness, I am your honour's most humble and obedent servant, JEB. TAYLOR. THE HISTOBY or THE LIFE AND DEATH OF THE HOLY JESUS. PABT III. BEGINNING AT THE SECOND YEAR OF HIS PREACHING UNTIL HIS ASCENSION. SECTION XIII. Of the second year of the preaching of Jesus. 1. When the first year of Jesus, the year of peace and unds- turbed preacMng, was expired, " there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusdem8." TMs feast was the second passover He kept after He began to preach b ; not the feast of pentecost, or tabernacles, both which M'ere past before Jesus came last from Judea : wMther when He was now come, He finds an "impotent person lymg at the pool of Bethesda, writing till the angel should move the waters, after wMch whosoever first stepped in was cured of his M- firmity." The poor man had wdted thirty-eight years, and still was prevented by some other of the hospitd that needed a physician. But Jesus seeing Mm had pity on Mm, cured Mm, and bade Mm "take up his bed and M'alk." This cure happened to be wrought " upon the sabbath," for wMch the Jews were so moved with Mdig- nation, that they " thought to slay Him :" and their anger was en raged by His catting Himself "the Son of God," and "makMg Himself equd with God." 2. Upon occasion of tMs offence, wMch they snatched at before it was ministered, Jesus dscourses0 upon His mission and deriv ation of His authority from the Father ; of the umon between them, and the excellent commmrications of power, participation of dgmty, delegation of judicature, reciprocations and reflections of honour from the Father to the Son, and back agdn to the Father. He preaches of rife and sdvation to them that believe in Hrin ; prophesies of the resurrection of the dead by the efficacy of the voice of the Son of God; speaks of the day of judgment, the differing condtions after, ¦ John v. 1 sqq. p. 147.] b Iren. [Adv. ha?r., lib. ii. cap. 22. § 3. c John v. 19, &c. 508 HISTORY OF THE SECOND YEAR [PART III. of sdvation and damnation respectively; confirms His words and mission by the testimony of John the baptist, of Moses, and the other scriptures, and of God Mmself. And still the scandd rises Mgher : for "in the second sabbath u after the first," that is, in the first day of unleavened bread, wMch happened the next day after the weekly sabbath, the disciples of Jesus pull ripe ears of corn, rub them in their hands, and eat them, to satisfy their hunger ; for which He offered satisfaction to their scruples, convincing them, that works of necessity are to be permitted, even to the breach of a positive tem porary constitution ; and that works of mercy are the best serving of God upon any day whatsoever, or any part of the day, that is vacant to other offices, and proper for a religious festivd. 3. But when neither reason nor religion wodd give them satis faction, but that they went about to kill Him, He withdrew Himself from Jerusdem, and returned to Galilee; wMther the scribes and pharisees followed Him, observing His actions, and whether or not He wodd prosecute that which they called profanation of their sab bath, by doing acts of mercy upon that day. He still dd so : for entering into one of the synagogues of Gahlee upon the sabbath, Jesus saw a man (whom St. Hierome reports to have been a mason) coming to Tyre, and complariring that his hand was withered', and desiring help of Him, that he might again be restored to the use of his hands, lest he shodd be compelled with misery and shame to beg his bread. Jesus restored his hand as whole as the other, in the midst of all those spies and enemies. Upon wMch act being con firmed in their malice, the pharisees went forth and joined with the herodans (a sect of people who said Herod was the Messias, because by the decree of the Boman senate, when the sceptre departed from Judah, he was declared kmgs) and both together took counsel how they might kill Him. 4. Jesus therefore departed again to the sea coast, and His com- pades increased as His fame ; for He was now followed by new "mdtitudes from GaMee, from Judea, from Jerusdem, from Idumea, from beyond Jordan, from about Tyre and Sidon ;" who hearing the report of His miracMous power to cure all diseases by the word of His mouth, or the touch of His hand, or the handling His garment, came with their ambulatory hospitd of sick, and their possessed ; and they pressed on Him but to touch Him, and were all immedately cured : the devils coMessing publicly that He was "the Son of God," till they were upon all such occasions restrained, and compelled to silence. 4 Suidas, voc. adffParov, [col. 3238.] Hehr. in Graecum transtulit. [in Matt • Evangel. Naz. quod S. Hieron. ex xii. 10. torn. iv. par. i. col. 47.] 1 "Hfxio-v fiov TeBvifKe, Tb S' r)fiiav Xifibs iXtyxti. iuadv fxov, PaaiXev, fxovaiKbv rffxWofxov. — [Antholog. Brunck., torn. ii. p. 261.] 5 Sic Tertullianus [De prsescr. haer. et Theophylactus [In Marc. iii. 6. p. 204.] § 45. p. 219 B.] Epiphanius [Adv. haer. et Hieron. Dialog, advers. Lucif. [torn, xx. lib. i. torn. i. p. 45.] Chrysostomus iv. par. ii. col. 304.] uno ore affirmant SECT. XIII.] OF THE PREACHING OF JESUS. 509 5. But now Jesus, having commanded a sMp to be in readiness agamst any mconveMence or troublesome pressures of the mdtitude, "went up into a mountdn to pray, and continued in prayer dl mght," intendng to make the first ordination of apostles ; which the next day He dd, choosmg out of the number of Iiis disciples these twelve to be apostles h : Simon Peter and Andrew ; James and John, the sons of thunder ; Philip and Bartholomew ; Matthew and Thomas ; James the son of Alpheus, and Simon the zelot ; Judas the brother of James, and Judas Iscariot. With these descendng from the mountdn to the plain, He repeated the same sermon, or much of it, wMch He had before preached in the first begimring of His prophe- syings ; that He might publish His gospel to these new audtors, and also more particdarly inform His apostles in "the doctrine of the kMgdom :" for now, because He " saw Israel scattered like sheep having no shepherd," He did purpose to send these twelve abroad, to preach repentance and the approximation of the kingdom ; and there fore first instructed them in the mysterious parts of His holy doctrine, and gave them also particdar instructions together with their tem porary commission for that journey. 6. For Jesus " sent them out by tM'o and two, giving them poM'er over unclean spirits," and to heal all manner of sickness and diseases ; teMng them they were ' the light,' and 'the eyes,' and 'the sdt of the world,' so intimating their duties of diligence, holiness, and in corruption ; giving them in charge to preach the gospel, to dispense their power and miracles freely as they had received it, to anoint sick persons M'ith oil, not to enter into any Samaritan toM'n, but to "go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel," to provide no viaticum for their journeys, but to put themselves upon the religion and piety of their proselytes : He arms them against persecutions, gives them leave to fly the storm from city to city, promises them the assistances of His Spirit, encourages them by His own example of long-sufferance, and by instances of divine providence expressed even to creatures of smallest value, and by promise of great rewards to the confident coMession of His name ; and furnishes them M'ith some propositions, wMch are like so many bills of exchange, upon the trust of wMch they might take up necessaries ; promising great retri butions, not ody to them who qdt any thing of value for the sake of Jesus, but to them that offer a cup of M'ater to a thirsty dsciple. And with these instructions they departed to preach in the cities. 7. And Jesus, returning to Capernaum, received the addess of a fdthful centurion of the legion catted the Iron legion' (which usually quartered in Judea), in behdf of his servant M'hom he loved, and h Sic et apostolici semper duodenus honoris Fulget apex, numero menses imitatus et horas, Omnibus ut rebus semper tibi militet annus. Sedul. [Carm. Pasch., lib. i. lin. 361.] 1 Dio, Hist. Rom. lib. Iv. [p. 564.] 510 HISTORY OF THE SECOND YEAR [PART III. M-ho was grievously afflicted with the palsy; and healed him, as a reward and honour to his faith. And from thence going to the city Nairn, He raised to life the ody son of a widow, whom the mourners followed in the street, bearing the corpse sady to his funerd. Upon the fame of these and divers other miracles, John the baptist, who was still in prison (for he was not put to death till the latter end of tMs year), sent two of his disciples to Him, by dvine providence, or else by John's designation, to midster occasion of His greater publi cation, enquiring if He was the Messias. To whom Jesus returned no answer but a demonstration taken from the nature of the tiring, and the glory of the miracles, saying, " Beturn to John, and tell him what ye see; for the deaf hear, the blMd see, the lame walk, the dead are raised, and the lepers are cleansed, and to the poor the gospel is preached :" which were the characteristic notes of the Messias according to the predctions ofthe holy prophets K 8. When John's disciples were gone with tMs answer, Jesus began to speak concermng John ; of the austerity and holiness of his per son, the greatness of his function, the dvidty of Ms commission, saying, that he was greater than a prophet, a burning and sMning light, the Ehas that was to come, and the consummation or ending of the old prophets : adding M'ithal, that the perverseness of that age was most notorious in the entertainment of Himself and the Bap tist: for neither codd the Baptist, who came neither eating nor drinking, that by his austerity and mortified deportment he might invade the judgment and affections of the people, nor Jesus, who came both eating and drinking, that by a moderate and an affable life, framed to the comphance and common use of men, He might sweetly insinuate into the affections of the multitude, obtain belief amongst them. They coMd object against every thing, but nothing coMd please them. But wisdom and righteousness had. a theatre in its own family, and is justified of all her children. Then He pro ceeds to a more applied reprehension of Capernaum, and Chorazin, and Bethsaida, for being pertinacious M their sins and infidehty, in defiance and reproof of all the mighty works which had been wrought in them. But these things were not reveded to all dis positions ; the wise and the mighty of the M'orld were not subjects prepared for the simplicity and softer impresses of the gospel, and the downright severity of its sanctions. And therefore Jesus glorified God for the magnifying of His mercy, in that these things which were hid from the great ones, were revealed to babes ; and concludes this sermon with an invitation of all wearied and disconsolate persons loaded with sm and misery, to come to Him, promising ease to their burdens, and refreshment to their weariness, and to exchange their heavy pressures into an easy yoke, and a light burden. 9. When Jesus had ended this sermon, one of the pharisees11 J Isa. xxxv. 4, 5. k Luke vii. 36 — 50. SECT. XIII. J OF THE PREACHING OF JESUS. 511 named Simon invited Him to "eat with him;" into whose house when He was entered, a certain " woman that was a sinner," abiding there in the city, heard of it ; her name was Mary : she had been married to a noble personage, a native of the town and castle of Magdd, from whence she had her name of Magdden, though she herself was born in Bethany ; a widow she was, and prompted by her wealth, hberty, and youth, to an intemperate life, and too free enter tainments. She came to Jesus into the pharisee's house : not, as dd the staring mdtitude, to glut her eyes with the sight of a mira cdous and glorious person ; nor, as did the centurion, or the Syro- phcenician, or the rder of the synagogue, for cure of her sickness, or in behalf of her friend, or child, or servant ; but (the only example of so coming) she came in remorse and regret for her sins, she came to Jesus to lay her burden at His feet, and to present Him with a broken heart, and a weeping eye, and great affection, and a box of nard pistic, sdutary and precious. For she came trembhng, and fell down before Him, weepMg bitterly for her sins', pouring out a flood great enough to "wash the feet" of the blessed Jesus, and "wiping them M'ith the hairs of her head;" after which she "brake the box," and " anointed His feet with ointment." WMch expres sion was so great an ecstasy of love, sorrow, and adoration, that to anoint the feet even of the greatest monarch was long unknoM'n, and in all the pomps and greatnesses of the Boman prodgality it was not used, till Otho taught it to Nero ; in whose instance it was by Pliny m reckoned for a prodgy of unnecessary profusion : and in itself, without the circumstance of so free a dispensation, it was a present for a prince, and an alabaster box of nard pistic n was sent as a present from Cambyses to the king of Etiriopia. 10. When Simon observed tMs sinner so busy in the expresses of her rehgion and veneration to Jesus, he thought with himself that this M'as no prophet that did not know her to be a sinner : or no just person, that M'ould suffer her to touch him. For although the JeM's' rehgion did permit harlots of their own nation to live, and enjoy the privileges of their nation, save that their oblations were refused : yet the pharisees, who pretended to . a greater degree of sanctity than others, wodd not admit them to civil usages, or the benefits of ordinary society; and thought religion itself, and the honour of a prophet, M'as concerned in the interests of the same superciliousness : and therefore Simon made an objection within himself. Which Jesus knowing, (for He understood his thoughts as well as his words,) made her apology and His own in a civil 1 purgata recessit Per gemitum; propriique lavans in gurgite fletus, Munda suis lacrymis redit, et detersa capillis. Sedul. [Carm. Tasch., lib. iv. lin. 79.] " Plin. Natur. Hist., lib. xiii. [cap. u. 30. [cap. 78. torn. ii. p. 1232.] 35.] Vide Athen. Deipnosoph., lib. xii. n Herod. [Thai. cap. 20.] 512 HISTORY OF THE SECOND YEAR [PART III. question, expressed in a parable of two debtors, to whom a greater and a less debt respectively was forgiven : both of them concludng that they would love their merciful creditor in proportion to his mercy and donative : and this was the case of Mary Magdalen ; to whom because " much M'as forgiven, she loved much," and expressed it in characters so large, that the pharisee might read Ms own in civilities and inhospitable entertainment of the Master, when it stood coMronted with the inagmficency of Mary Magdalen's penance and charity. 11. When Jesus had dned, He was presented with the sad sight of a poor demoniac possessed with a bhrid and a dumb devil, in whose behalf his friends entreated Jesus that He would cast the devil out ; wMch He did immediately, and " the blind man saw, and the dumb spake," so much to the amazement of the people that they ran in so prodigious companies dter Him, and so scanddized the pharisees, who thought that by means of tMs prophet their reputation M'odd be lessened and their schools empty, that first a rumour Mas scattered up and down, from an uncertain principle, but communi cated with tumult and apparent noises, that Jesus was " beside Him self :" upon wMch rumour His friends and kinded came together to see, and to make provisions accordingly ; and the holy Virgin-mother came herself, but without any apprehensions of any such horrid ac cident. The words and things she had from the beginning laid up in her heart wodd furnish her with principles exclusive of all appa ritions of such fancies; but she came to see what that persecution was which under that colour it was likely the pharisees might commence. 12. When the mother of Jesus and His kindred came, they found Him in a house encircled with people full of M'onder and admiration : and there the holy Yirgin-mother might hear part of her omti pro phecy verified, that the generations of the earth shodd call her blessed ; for a woman, M'orshipping Jesus, cried out, " Blessed is the womb that bare Thee, and the paps that gave Thee suck." To tMs Jesus rephed, not denying her to be highly blessed M'ho had received the honour of being the mother of the Messias, but advanc ing the digMties of spiritud excellencies far above this greatest tem pord honour in the world : " Yea rather blessed are they that hear the word of God, and do it." For in respect of the issues of spiri tual perfections and their proportionable benedictions, all immunities and temporal honours are empty and hollow blessings; and all re lations of kinded disband and empty themselves into the greater channels and floods of divinity. 13. For when, Jesus being in the house, they told Him "His mother and His brethren staid for Him without," He told them those relations M'ere less than the ties of duty and religion : for those dear names of mother and brethren, which are hdlowed by the laws of God and the endearments of nature, are made far more sacred SECT. XIII.] OF THE PREACHING OF JESUS. 5 1 ;i when a spiritud cognation does supervene, M'hen the relations are subjected in persons religious and holy : but if they be abstract and separate, the conjunction of persons in spiritud bands, in the same fdth, and the same hope, and the union of them in the same mystical head, is an adunation nearer to identity than those distances between parents and children, wMch are only cemented by the actions of nature as it is of dstinct consideration from the spirit. For Jesus, pomting to His disciples, said, " Behold My mother and My bretMen ; for whosoever doeth the witt of My Father wMch is in heaven, he is My brother, and sister, and mother." 14. But the pharisees upon the occasion of the miracles renewed the old quarrel: "He casteth out devils by Beelzebub." Which senseless and illiterate objection CMist having confuted, charged them MgMy upon the guilt of an unpardonable crime, teMng them that the so charging those actions of His, done in the virtue of the divine Spirit, is a sin against the holy Ghost ; and however they might be bold with the Son of man, and prevarications against His words or injuries to His person might upon repentance and baptism find a pardon, yet it was a matter of greater consideration to sin against the holy Ghost; that woMd find no pardon here nor hereafter. But taking occasion upon this dscourse, He by an ingemous'and mysteri ous parable gives the world great caution of recidivation and back- slidng after repentance : for if " the devil returns into a house once swept and garnished, he bringeth seven spirits more impure than himself; and the last estate of that man is worse than the first." 15. After this, Jesus went from the house of the pharisee, and coming to the sea of Tiberias or Gennesareth (for it M'as called the sea of Tiberias from a toM'n on the banks of the lake) taught the people upon the shore, Himself sitting in the ship ; but He taught them by parables, under which were Md mysterious senses, which slrined tMough their veil, like a bright sun through an eye closed with a tfriri eye-lid ; it being hght enough to shew their infidehty, but not to dspel those tirick Egyptian darknesses which they had contracted by their habitual indspositions and pertinacious aver- sations. By the parable of the sower scattering his seed by the way side, and some on stony, some on thorny, some on good ground, He intimated the several capacities or Mdispositions of men's hearts, the carelessness of some, the frowardness and levity of others, the easi ness and softness of a third ; and how they are spoiled M'ith worldi ness and cares, and how many ways there are to miscarry, and that but one sort of men receive the word and bring forth the fruits of a holy life. By the parable of tares permitted to grow amongst the wheat, He intimated the toleration of dssenting opmions not destruc tive of piety or civil societies. By the tliree parables of the seed growing insensibly, of the grain of mustard seed sweMng up to a tree, of a little leaven qualifyMg the whole lump, He signified the incre ment of the gospel and the blessings upon the apostohcd sermons. ir. l 1 514 HISTORY OF THE SECOND YEAR [PART III. 16. Which parables when He had privately to His apostles ren dered into their proper senses, He added to them two parables con cerning the digdty of the gospel, comparing it to treasure Md in a field, and a jewel of great price, for the purchase of which every good merchant must qdt dl that he hath, rather than miss it : telhng them withal, that however purity and spiritud perfections were in tended by the gospel, yet it wodd not be acquired by every person ; but the public professors of christiamty should be a mixed mdti- tude, like a net, enclosing fishes good and bad. After wMch ds courses, He retired from the sea-side, and went to His own city of Nazareth ; where He preached so excellently upon certain words of the prophet Isaiah0, that all the people wondered at the wisdom which He expressed in His divine discourses. But the men of Naza reth did not do honour to the Prophet that was their countryman, because they knew Him in all the disadvantages of youth, and Mn- dred, and trade, and poverty ; still retahring in their minds the in firmities and humilities of His first years, and keeping the same apprehensions of Him, a man, and a glorious prophet, which they had to Him, a chttd, in the shop of a carpenter. But when Jesus in His sermon had reproved their infidelity (at wMch He wondered, and therefore dd but few miracles there in respect of what He had done at Capernaum), and intimated the prelation of that city before Nazareth, "they thrust Him out of the city, and led Him to the brow of the Mil on wlrich the city was built," intending to "tiirow Him down headong." But His M'ork M'as not yet finished ; therefore He, " passing through the midst of them, went His way." 17. Jesus therefore, departing from Nazareth, went up and doMii to all the towns and castles of Gahlee, attended by His dsciples, and certain women, out of whom He had cast unclean spirits ; such as M-ere Mary Magdalen, Johanna M'ife to Chuza Herod's steward, Susanna, and some others, who did for Him offices of provision, and " ministered to Him out of their own substance," and became parts of that holy college, wMch about this time began to be full; be cause now the apostles were returned from their preacMng, full of joy that the devils were made subject to the word of their mouth, and the empire of their prayers, and invocation of the holy name of Jesus. But their Master gave them a lenitive to assuage the tumour and excrescency, intimating that such privileges are not sohd foun dations of a holy joy, but so far as they co-operate toward the great end of God's glory, and their own salvation, to which when they are consigned, and "their names written in heaven," in the book of election and registers of predestination, then their joy is reasonable, holy, true, and perpetudp. 18. But when Herod had heard these things of Jesus, presently 0 Isaiah lxi, 1. ' Vide Discourse of Certainty of Salvation, num. 3. SECT. XIII.] OF THE PREACHING OF JESUS. 515 his apprehensions were such as derived from Ms gdlt ; he thought it was John the baptist who was risen from the dead, and that these mighty works were demonstrations of Ms power, deceased by the superaddtions of immortahty and dvmer mfluences made propor tionable to the honour of a martyr, and the state of separation0.. For a httle before tMs time, Herod had sent to the castle of Machas- runsr, where John was prisoner, and caused him to be beheaded. His head Herodas buried in her own pdace8, tMnking to secure it against a re-udon, lest it shodd agdn dsturb her unlawfd lusts, and dsqdet Herod's conscience. But the body the disciples of John gathered up, and carried it with honour and sorrow, and buried it in Sebaste', in the confines of Samaria, making Ms grave between the bodies of Ehzeus and Abdas, the prophets. And about this time was the passover of the Jews. DISCOUBSE XV u- Of the excellency, ease, reasonableness, and advantages of bearing Christ s yoke, and living according to His institution. 1. The holy Jesus came to break from off our necks two great yokes : the one of sin, by which we were fettered and imprisoned in the condtion of slaves and miserable persons ; the other, of Moses' law, by wMch we were kept in pupilage and minority, and a state of imperfection : and asserted us into" "the glorious liberty of the sons of God." The first was a despotic empire, and the government of a tyrant : the second was of a schoolmaster, severe, absolute, and im perious5'; but it was in order to a further good, yet nothing pleasant in the sufferance and load. And now Christ, having taken off these two, hath put on a tirird. He quits us of our burden, but not of our duty ; and hath changed the former tyranny and the less perfect dscipline into the sweetness of paternal regiment, and the excellency of such an institution whose every precept carries part of its reward in hand, and assurances of after glories. Moses' law M'as like sharp and unpleasant physic, certaidy painfd, but uncertainly hedthfd. For it was not then communicated to them by promise and udversal revelations that the end of their obedence shodd be Me eternal: but they were full of hopes it might be so, as M'e are of hedth when we have a learned and wise physician ; but as yet the reward was in i Virtutem incolumem odimus, of § 12) had been written as a sermon, Sublatam ex oculis quasrimus invidi. and was afterwards published in that Hor. [Od. iii. 24. lin. 31.] form, (see vol. i. p. 115,) and the various r [Joseph. Antiq., xviii. 6. § 2.] readings are here given with mark 'A.'] » [e MS. Arab.— Act. Sanct. Jun. 24.] " [' unto us,' A.] ' [S. Hieron. Ep. lxxxvi.] ' [Absolute and imperious, om. A.] " [A portion of this discourse (to end L 1 2 516 OF THE EXCELLENCY, EASINESS, &C [PART III. a cloud, and the hopes in fetters and confinement. But the law of Christ is like Christ's hearing of diseases ; He does it easily, and He does it iMattibly. The event is certainly consequent ; and the manner of cure is by a touch of His hand, or a word of His mouth, or an approximation to the hem of His garment, without pain and vexa tious instruments. My meaning is, that Christianity is, by the as sistance of Christ's spirit, wMch He promised us and gave us in the gospel, made very easy to us : and yet a reward so great is promised, as were enough to make a lame man to wdk, and a broken arm endure the burden ; a reward great enough to make us willing to do violence to all our inclinations, passions, and desires. A hundred weight to a giant is a light burden, because his strength is dispro- portionably great, and makes it as easy to him as an ounce is to a cMld. And yet if we had not the strength of giants, if the Minded weight were of gold or jewels, a M'eaker person wodd think it no trouble to bear that burden, if it M'ere the reward of his portage and the hire of his labours. The Spirit is given to us to enable us, and heaven is promised to encourage us ; the first makes us able, and the second makes us willing : and when we have poM'er and affections, we cannot complain of pressure. And this is the meaning of our blessed Saviour's invitation, " Come to Me, for My burden is hght, My yoke is easy" :" M'hich St. John dso observed, " For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments ; and His command ments are not grievous. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world; and tMs is- the victory that overcometh, even our faithv :" that is, our belief of God's promises, the promise of the Spirit for present aid, and of heaven for the future reM'ard, is strength enough to overcome all the world. 2. But besides that God hath made His yoke easy by exterior supports, more than ever was in any other rehgion ; Christianity is of itself, according to human estimate, a religion more easy and desi rable by our naturd and reasonable appetites, than sin, M the midst of aU its pleasures and imaginary felicities. Virtue hath more pleasure in it than sin, and hath all satisfactions to every desire of man, in order to human and prudent ends ; which I shall represent in the consideration of these particulars. First, to live according to the laws of Jesus is, in some things, most natural, and proportionable to the desires and first intentions of nature ; secondly, there is in it less trouble than in sin ; thirdly, it conduces Mfinitely to the content of our lives, and natural and political satisfactions ; fourthly, it is a means to preserve our temporal lives long and hedthy ; fifthly, it is most reasonable, and he only is prudent that does so, and he a fool that does not. And all tMs, besides the considerations of a glorious and happy eternity. 3. Concerning the first, I consider that M'e do very ill M'hen, in- u Matt. xi. 30. v i joml v. gt 4, SECT. XIII.] OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 517 stead of making our natural infirmity an instrument of humihty and of recourse to the grace of God, we pretend the sin of Adam to countenance our actual sins, natural infirmity to excuse our malice ; either laying Adam in fadt for deriving the dsabdty upon us, or God for putting us into the necessity. But the evils that we feel in tMs are from the rebellion of the inferior appetite against reason, or against any religion that puts restraint upon our first desires. And therefore in carnal and sensual instances accidentally, Me find the more natural averseness, because God's laws have put our irascible and concupiscible facdties in fetters and restraints ; yet in matters of duty M'Mch are of immaterial and spiritual concernment, all our natural reason is a perfect enemy and contradiction to, and a law against, vice. It is naturd for us to love our parents, and they who do not, are unnatural; they do violence to those dispositions M'hich God gave us to the constitution of our nature and for the designs of virtue : -and all those tendernesses of affection, those bowels and re lenting dispositions, which are the endearments of parents and children, are dso the bands of duty. Every degree of love makes duty delectable : and therefore either by nature M'e are inclined to hate our parents, which is against all reason and experience, or else we are by nature inclined to do to them all that, wlrich is the effect of love to such superiors and principles of being and de pendency : and every prevarication from the rde, effects, and expresses of love, is a contradiction to nature,, and a mortification ; to wMch we cannot be invited by any tiring from witMn, but by something from without that is violent and preternatural. There are dso many other virtues, even in the matter of sensud appetite, M'Mch none can lose but by altering in some degree the natural dsposition. And I instance in the matter of carnality and uncleanness, to M'hich possibly some natures may tMnk themselves apt and dsposed : but yet God hath put into our mouths a bridle to curb the licentiousness of our speedy appetite, putting into om very natures a principle as strong to restrain it, as there is M us a ds position apt to invite us ; and tMs is also in persons who are most apt to the vice, women and young persons, to M-hom God hath given a modesty and shame of nature, that the entertainments of lusts may become contradictions to our retreating and backward modesty, more than they are satisfactions to our too forward appetites. It is as great a mortification and violence to nature to blush, as to lose a desire ; and we find it true, when persons are invited to coMess their sins, or to ask forgiveness publicly, a secret smart is not so violent as a public shame : and therefore to do an action which brings shame all dong, and opens the sanctuaries of nature, and makes all her retirements public, and dsmantles her enclosure, as lust does, and the shame of carnality, hath m it more asperity and abuse to nature than the short pleasure to wMch we are invited can repay. There are unnatural lusts, lusts which are such in their very condtion and 518 OF THE EXCELLENCY, EASINESS, &C. [PART III. constitution, that a man must turn a woman, and a woman become a beast, in acting them ; and all lusts that are not unnaturd in their OM'n complexion, are unnatural by a consequent and accidental violence. And if lust hath in it dssonancies to nature, there are but few apolo gies left to excuse our sMs upon nature's stock : and all that system of principles and reasonable inducements to virtue, wMch we call 'the law of nature,' is notMng else but that firm Ugature and incorporation of virtue to our natural principles and dspositions, wMch whoso prevaricates does more agaMst nature than he that restrains Ms appetite. And besides these particulars, there is not in our natural dscourse any Mclination directly and by intention of itself contrary to the love of God, because by God we understand that Fountam of being which is infinitely perfect in itself, and of great good to us ; and whatsoever is so apprehended, it is as natural for us to love, as to love any thing in the world ; for we can love notMng but M'hat Me beheve to be good in itself, or good to usw- And beyond this, there are in nature many principles and reasons to make an aptness to acknowledge and confess God ; and by the consent of nations, M'hich they dso have learned from the dctates of their nature, all men in some manner or other worsMp Godx. And therefore when tMs our nature is determined in its own Mdefinite principle to the manner of worship, all acts against the love, the obedience, and the worship of God, are also against nature, and offer it some rudeness and violence. And I shall observe tMs, and refer it to every maris reason and ex. perience, that the great dfliculties of virtue, commonly apprehended, commence not so much upon the stock of nature, as of education and evil habits y. Our virtues are drificdt, because we at first get ill habits, and these habits must be unrooted before we do well ; and that's our trouble. But if by the strictness of dsciphne and whole some education we begin at first M our duty and the practice of virtuous principles, we shall find virtue made as natural to us while it is customary and habitual, as we pretend infirmity to be and pro pensity to vicious practices. And tMs we are taught by that exceUent Hebrew who said, " Wisdom is easily seen of them that love her, and found of such as seek her; she preventeth them that desire her, in making herself first known unto them ; whoso seeketh her early shall have no great travel, for he shall find her sitting at his doors2." 4. Secondy : In the strict observances of the law of Christianity w 'Ey& yap dv obSev aXXo irtpl Beov Paivtiv fxijSapirj Tobs inr' iKeivov Siopuf- Stiovv eXiroifxi, i) 8V1 dyaBbs Te iravTa- Bevras vbfiovs. — Hierocl. [In Pythag. iraaiv etrf, Kal £vfxiravTa iv tjj i^ovaia rp p. 28.] avTov exti. Xeyerta Se Siairep yivtoaKeiv v Siquidem Leonides, Alexandripaeda- eKaaTos virep abr&v oXeTai, Kal lepebs Kal gogus, . . quibusdam eum vitiis imbuit, ISi&Tns. — Procop. [De Bell. Goth., lib. i. quae robustum quoque et jam maximum cap. 3. torn. i. p. 6.] regem ab ilia institutione puerili sunt * Toiovros /xev oZv b to7s XoyiKo7s prosecuta Quinctil. [Inst, or., lib. i. yeveiriv ivovaiwtxevos '6pKos, exeaBai tov cap. 1. torn. i. p. 15.1 waTobs avT&v Kal iroiryrov, Kal p?t) irapa- z Wisd. vi. 12 — 14. SECT. XIII.] OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 519 there is less trouble than in the habitud courses of sina. For if we consider the general design of Christianity, it propounds to us in this world nothing that is of difficdt purchase, notMng beyond what God dlots us by the ordinary and common providence, such things which we are to receive without care and sohcitous vexation : so that the ends are not big, and the way is easy ; and this M'alked over with much simphcity and sweetness, and those obtained without dfficdty. He that propounds to himself to live low, pious, humble, and retired, Ms main employment is nothing but sitting quiet, and undisturbed with variety of impertinent affairs : but he that loves the world and its acquisitions, entertains a thousand businesses, and every business hath a world of employment, and every employment is multiplied and made intricate by circumstances, and every circumstance is to be disputed, and he that disputes ever hath two sides in enmity and opposition ; and by this time there is a genealogy, a long descent and cognation of troubles, branched into so many particdars that it is troublesome to understand them, and much more to run through them. The ways of virtue are very much upon the defensive, and the work one, uniform and little ; they are like M'ar within a strong castle, if they stand upon their guard they seldom need to strike a stroke. But a vice is like storming of a fort, full of noise, trouble, labour, danger, and disease. How easy a thing is it to restore the pledge ; but if a man means to defeat him that trusted him, M'hat a world of arts must he use to make pretences ; to delay first, then to excuse, then to object, then to intricate the business, next to quarrel, then to forswear it, and all the way to palliate his crime, and repre sent himself honest. And if an oppressing and greedy person have a design to cozen a young heir or to get his neighbour's land, the cares of every day, and the interruptions of every mght's sleep, are more than the purchase is M'orth ; since he might buy virtue at hah that watching, and the less painfd care of a feM'er number of days. A plain story is soonest told, and best confutes an intricate he ; and when a person is examined in judgment, one fdse answer asks more wit for its support and maintenance than a history of truthb. And such persons are put to so many shamefd retreats, false colours, focuses, and daubings with untempered mortar, to avoid contradiction or discovery, that the labour of a false story seems in the order of things to be designed the begMmng of its punishment. And if we consider how great a part of our rehgion consists M prayer, and how • Multo difficilius est facere ista quae cum in recte faetis aheat labor, maneat .facitis: quid enim quiete otiosius animi? honestas. — Muson. [apud Aul. Gell., quid ira laboriosius? quid dementia re- lib. xvi. cap. 1. p. 708. Sic Hierocl., p. missius ? quid crudelitate negotiosius? 540 inf. not. a.] vacat pudicitia, libido occupatissima est : b Nam statum cujusque ac securitatem omnium denique virtutum tutela facilior melius innocentiatuetur, quam eloquentia. est; vitia magno coluntur. — Sen. [De —Quinctil. [Dial. de oratt. qui Tacito fere ira, lib. ii. cap. 13. torn. i. p. 59.] adscribitur. § 11. Tac. Opp., torn. iv. In vitiis abit voluptas, manetturpitudo; p. 366.] 520 OF THE EXCELLENCY, EASINESS, frc. [PART III. easy a thing God requires of us when He commands us to pray for blessings, the duty of a Christian cannot seem very troublesome. 5. And indeed I can hardly instance in any vice, but there is visibly more pain in the order of acting and observing it than in the acquist or promotion of virtue1-'. I have seen drunken persons'1, in their seas of drink and talk, dead every cup as a blow, and they have used devices and private arts to escape the punishment of a full draught ; and the poor wretch, being condemned by the laws of drinking to his measure, M-as forced and hded to execution ; and he suffered it, and thought himself engaged to that person who with much kindness and importunity invited him to a fever. But cer tainly there M'as more pain in it than in the strictness of holy and severe temperance. And he that shall compare the troubles and dangers of an ambitious M'ar with the gentleness and easiness of peace, witt soon perceive that every tyrant and usurping prince that snatches at his neighbour's rights hath tM'o armies, one of men, and the other of cares. Peace sheds no blood but of the pruned vine ; and hath no business but modest and quiet entertdnments of the time, opportune for piety, and circled with reward. But God often punishes ambition and pride with lust ; and He sent a " thorn in the flesh"5," as a corrective to the elevations and grandezza of St. Pad, groM'ing up from the mdtitude of Ms revelations; and it is not likely the pumshment shodd have less trouble than the crime whose pleasures and obliquity tMs was designed to pumsh. And indeed every experience can verify, that an adulterer hath in hrin the impatience of desires, the burnings of lust, the fear of shame, the apprehensions of a jealous, abused, and an enraged husband': he endures affronts, mistinrings, tedous waitings, the ddness of delay, the regret of interruption, the confusion and amazements of discovery, the scorn of a reproached vice, the debasings of contempt upon it ; udess the man grows impudent, and then he is more miserable upon another stock. But David was so put to it to attempt, to obtain, to enjoy Bathsheba, and to prevent the shame of it, that the diffiedty was greater than all Ms wit and power ; and it dove him into base and unworthy arts, wlrich discovered him the more, and mdtiphed Ms crime : but while he enjoyed the innocent pleasures of Ms lawful bed, he had no more trouble in it than there was in McMring his head upon Ms pillow8. The ways of sin are crooked, desert, rocky, c Quid namque a nobis exigit (religio), %VTtv%iv dpyaXeov elvai SoKe7, ptXerr} Se q'uid prsestari sibi a nobis jubet, nisi solam H]Su!tov, Kal i\ iiriXoytafxov aipipepov. tantummodo fidem, castitatem, humili- AvaKoXaiTepov rf Kaxia tjjs dperris. — S. tatem, sobrietatem, misericordiam, sancti- Chrysost. [In Ps. vii. § 13. torn. v. tatem, quae utique omnia non onerant p. 72.] nos, sed ornant. — Salvian. [De guhern. i 'O 7roAAo irlvwv k' Qafxaprdvei. Dei, lib. vii. p. 133.] e [So vol. iii. p. 67 ; but see bp. Bull's 'H apeTrf (pavTaaia pev 4irl tV irpbxtipov Sermon on the subject.] et Cecropise domus ^Sternum opprobrium, quod male harbaras Regum est ulta libidines. — Hor. [Od. iv. 12. lin. 6.1 * [See p. 731 below.] SECT. XIII.] OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 521 and uneven11; they are broad indeed, and there is variety of ruins and allurements to entice fools, and a large theatre to act the bloody tragedies of sods upon : but they are nothing smooth, or safe, or dehcate. The ways of virtue are strait, but not crooked ; narrow, but not unpleasant. There are two vices for one virtue, and there fore the way to heU must needs be of greater extent, latitude, and dissemination ; but because virtue is but one way, therefore it is easy, regdar, and apt to walk in, without error or diversions. " Narrow is the gate and strdt is the way," it is true, considering our evfl customs and depraved natures by which we have made it so to us ; but God hath made it more passable by His grace and present aids ; and St. John baptist receiving Ms commission to preach repent ance, it was expressed in these words, " Make plain the paths of the Lord." Indeed repentance is a rough and a sharp virtue, and hke a mattock and spade, breaks away aU the roughnesses of the .passage and Mnderances of sin; but when we enter into the dspositions which Christ hath designed to us, the way is more plain and easy' than the ways of death and hell. Labour it hath in it, just as all things that are excellent; but no confusions, no distractions of thought, no amazements, no labyrinths, and intricacy of counsels : but it is like the labours of agricdture, full of health and simplicity, plain and profitable ; requiring diligence, but such in which crdts and pdnful stratagems are useless and impertinent. But vice hath oftentimes so troublesome a retinue, and so many objections in the event of tilings, is so entangled in dfficult and contradctory circum stances, hath in it parts so opposite to each other, and so inconsistent with the present condition of the man, or some secret design of Ms, that those little pleasures M'hich are its fucus and pretence are less perceived and least enjoyed, while they begin in fantastic semblances, and rise up in smoke, vaM and hurtfd, and end in dissatisfaction. 6. But it is considerable, that God, and the sinner, and the devil, all join in increasing the diffiedty and trouble of sin ; upon contrary designs indeed, but all co-operate to the verification of this dscourse. For God, by His restraining grace, and the checks of a tender conscience, and the bands of public honesty, and the sense of honour and reputation, and the customs of nations, and the severities of Ws, makes that in most men the choice of vice is imperfect, dubious, and troublesome, and the pleasures abated, and the appre hensions various, and in differing degrees : and men act their crimes wMle they are disputing agdnst them, and the bdance is cast by a few grdns, and scruples vex and disquiet the possession ; and the difference is perceived to be so httle, that inconsideration and inad vertency is the greatest means to determine many men to the enter- trinment of a sin. And tMs God does M'ith a design to lessen our choice, and to dsabuse our persuasions from arguments and weak h AioStieiv ipifixovs d$drovs. — Wisd. v. 7. 522 OF THE EXCELLENCY, EASINESS, &C, [PART III, pretences of vice, and to invite us to the trials of virtue, when we see its enemy giving us so ill condtions. And yet the sinner himself makes the business of sin greater ; for its nature is so loathsome, and its pleasures so little, and its promises so unperformed, that when it hes open, easy and apt to be dscerned, there is no argument in it ready to invite us ; and men hate a vice, wMch is every day offered and prostitute; and when they seek for pleasure, unless diffiedty presents it, as there is notMng in it really to persuade a choice, so there is notMng strong or witty enough to abuse a man. And to tMs purpose, amongst some others wMch are malicious and crafty, the devil gives assistance, knowMg that men despise what is cheap . and common, and suspect a latent excellency to be in difficult and forbidden objects : and therefore the devil sometimes crosses an op- portuMty of sin, knowing that the desire is the iriqdty, and does his work sufficiently ; and yet the crossing the desire, by impeding the act, heightens the appetite, and makes it more violent and impatient. But by all these means sin is made more troublesome than the plea sures of the temptation can account for : and it will be a strange im prudence to leave virtue upon pretence of its difficMty, when for that very reason we the rather entertdn the instances of sin, despismg a cheap sin and a costly virtue ; choosMg to walk tMough the brambles of a desert, rather than to climb the fruit-trees of paradise. 7. Tlddy: Virtue conduces infimtely to the content of our lives, to secdar felicities and poriticd satisfactions g; and vice does the quite contrary. For the blessings of tMs Me are these, that make it happy; peace and qdetness; content and satisfaction of desires; riches; love of friends and neighbours; honour and reputation abroad; a hedtMM body, and a long life. This last is a dstinct consideration, but the other are proper to this title. For the first, it is certain peace was so designed by the holy Jesus, that He framed all His laws in compliance to that design. He that returns good for evil, a soft answer to the asperity of Ms enemy, kindness to injuries, lessens the contention dways, and sometimes gets a friend ; and when he does not, he shames his enemy. Every httle accident in a family to peevish and angry persons'1, is the matter of a quarrel; and every quarrel discomposes the peace of the house, and sets it on fire ; and no man can teU how far that may burn ; it may be to a dssolution of the whole fabric. But whosoever obeys the laws of Jesus, bears with the infirmities of his relatives and society, seeks with sweetness to remedy what is ill, and to prevent what it may produce; and tirrows water upon a spark, and lives sweetly with his wife, affection ately with Ms cMlden, providently and dscreetiy with Ms servants ; and they all love the major-domo, and look upon him as their parent, their guardan, their friend, their patron, their proveditore. But look 8 'Ev t$ avT$ 4ari tS evae/iks Kal av/xipepov. — Arrian. [In Epict., lib. i. cap. 27. p. 99,] b Hominem malignum forsan esse tu credas, Ego esse miserum credo, cui placet nemo. — Mart. [lib. v. ep. 29.] SECT. XIII.] ' OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 523 upon a person angry, peaceless, and dsturbed ; when he enters upon Ms tlireshold, it gives an darm to Ms house, and puts them to flight, or upon their defence ; and the wife reckons the joy of her day is done, when he returns ; and the children enquire Mto their father's age, and tirink Ms. Me tedious; and the servants curse privately, and do their service as slaves do, ody when they dare not do otherwise ; and they serve Mm as they serve a lion, they obey Ms strength, and fear Ms cruelty, and despise Ms manners, and hate Ms person. No man enjoys content in Ms family but he that is peaceful and charit able, just and loving, forbearing and forgivMg, carefd and provident. He that is not so, Ms house may be Ms castle, but it is manned by enemies ; his house is bdlt, not upon the sand, but upon the waves, and upon a tempest; the foundation is uncertain, but Ms rdn is not so. 8. And if we extend the relations of the man beyond his own walls, he that does Ms duty to Ms neighbour, that is, all offices of kindness, gentleness, and humamty, notMng of injury and affront, is certain never to meet with a wrong so great, as is the inconvenience of a law-sdt, or the contention of neighbours, and all the consequent dangers and mconvemence. Kindness wril create and invite kind ness ; an injury provokes an Mjury. And since ' the love of neigh bours' is one of those beauties which Solomon dd admire, and that tiris beauty is witirin the combmation of precious things which adorn and reM'ard a peaceable, charitable disposition ; he that is in love m ith spiritual excellencies, with intellectual rectitudes, with peace, and with blessmgs of society, knows they grow amongst the rose-bushes of virtue and holy obedience to the laws of Jesus. And " for a good ' man some will even dare to de;" and a sweet and charitable dis position is received with fondness, and all the endearments of the neighbourhood. He that observes how many families are rdned by contention k, and how many spirits are broken by the care, and con tumely, and fear, and spite, wlrich are entertaMed as advocates to promote a sdt of law, will soon coMess that a gr^at loss, and peace able quitting of a considerable interest, is a purchase and a gaM M respect of a long sdt and a vexatious quarrel. And still if the pro portion rises higher, the reason sM'ells and grows more necessary and determinate. For if we M'ould hve according to the dscipline of christian religion, one of the great plagues wMch vex the world wodd be no more. That there shodd be no wars, was one of the designs of christiamty; and the living according to that institution M'Mch is able to prevent all M'ars, and to establish an universd and eternd peace, when it is obeyed, is the using an hridrible Mstrument toward that part of our political happiness wlrich consists M peace. TMs world wodd be an image of heaven, if all men were charitable, peaceable, just, and loving. To this excellency all those precepts of Christ which consist in forbearance and forgiveness, do co-operate. 1 [See vul. i. p. 76.] k "Oirov ydp £r,Xos Kal ipiBeia, e/ce? aKaraoTaala, /cat irdv ipuvXov irpdypa. — Jac. iii. 16. 524 OF THE EXCELLENCY, EASINESS, &C. [PART III. 9. But the next instance of the reward of holy obedience and con formity to Christ's laws, is itself a duty, and needs no more but a mere repetition of it. We must be content1* in every state ; and be cause Christianity teaches us this lesson, it teaches us to be happy : for notMng from without1 can make us miserable udess we jom our own consents to it, and apprehend it such, and entertain it M our sad and melancholic retirements. A prison is but a retirement and op portunity of serious thoughts to a person whose spirit is confined and apt to sit still, and desires no edargement beyond the cancels of the body till the state of separation cdls it forth into a fair liberty. But every retirement is a prison to a loose and wandering fancy, for whose wttdness no precepts are restraint, no band of duty is con finement; who, when he hath broken the first hedge of duty, can never after endure any enclosure so much as in a symbol. But tMs precept is so necessary, that it is not more a duty than a rde of pru dence, and in many accidents of our lives it is the ody cure of sad ness : for it is certain that no providence less than dvine can prevent evil and cross accidents ; but that is an exceUent remedy to the evil, that receives the accident within its power, and takes out the sting, paring the nails and drawing the teeth of the wild beast, that it may be tame, or harmless and medicinal. For all content consists m the proportion of the object to the appetite : and because external acci dents are not in our power, and it were notMng excellent that things happened to us accordng to our first desires, God hath by His grace put it into our own power to make the happiness, by malting our desires descend to the event, and comply with the chance, and com bine Math all the issues of dvine providence. And then we are noble persons, when we borrow not our content from tilings below us, but make our satisfactions from within™. And it may be considered, that fe AvrdpKeia tov P'iov (piXoffotpia avTO- * Neque mala vel bona, quse vulgus SiSaKTOS. — Pol. [i.e. Polybius ; following putet : multos qui conflictari adversis Suidas, in abrdpKeia, but see Kuster's videantur, beatos ; ac plerosque, quam- note. ] quam magnas per opes, miserrimos; si Vitio vertunt quia multa egeo ; et ego illi gravem fortunam constanter tolerent, illis, quia nequeunt egere — M. Cato hi prospera inconsulte utantur. — Tac. apud Aul. Gell., lib. xiii. [cap. 23. p. 616.] Annal. [vi. 22.] ¦ Si celeres [fortuna] quatit Pennas, resigno quae dedit, et mea Virtute me involvo, probamque Pauperiem sine dote quasro. — Hor. [Od. iii. 29. lin. 53.] KdXXiaTbv iaTi to&vSikov ireipvKtvai' AwaTOV Se tS £rjv Hvoaov* %SiaTov 8' Stoi TldpeaTi Xijtyis Sr ipa KaB' rffxepav. — Soph. [Cretts. ap. Stob. Flor. ciii. 15.] m Non enim gazae, neque consularis Summovet lictor miseros tumultus Mentis, et curas laqueata circum Tecta volantes. — Hor. [Od. ii. 16. lin. 9.] Quemcunque fortem videris, miserum neges. — Sen. Trag. [Here. Fur. 464.] TiicTovai ydp toi Kal vbaovs Sva8vp'iai.—Soph. [Tyro, ap. Stob. Flor. xcix. 19,] M^ ai yt ab£dvt tV el/xap/xevijv. — Zoroast. [p. 10 b.] SECT. XIII.] OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 525 every httle care may disqdet us, and may increase itself by reflection upon its own acts ; and every discontent may discompose our spirits, and put an edge, and make afflictions poignant, but cannot take off one from us, but makes every one to be two. But content removes not the accident, but complies with it ; it takes away the sharpness and displeasure of it, and, by stooping down, makes the lowest1™ equal, proportionable, and commensurate. Impatience makes an ague to be a fever, and every fever to be a calenture, and that calenture may expire in madness : but a quiet spirit is a great disposition to health, and for the present does alleviate the sickness. And this also is no torious in the instance of covetousness : " the love of money is the root of all evil, wlrich while some have coveted after, they have pierced themselves with many sorrows11;" vice makes poor, and does iU endure it. 10. For he that in the school of Christ hath learned to determine Iris desires when his needs are served, and to judge of Ms needs by the proportions of nature, hath nothing wanting towards riches. Virtue makes poverty become rich ; and no riches can satisfy a covetous mind, or rescue him from the affliction of the worst kind of poverty0. He only wants, that is not- satisfied. And there is great infehcity in a family where poverty dwells with discontent : there the husband and wife quarrel for want of a full table and a rich wardobe : and their love, that M'as built upon false arches p, sinks when such temporary supporters are removed ; they are like two millstones, wMch set the miU on fire when they want corn : and then their combinations and society were unions of lust, or not supported with religious'1 love. But we may easily suppose St. Joseph and the holy Virgin-mother in Egypt poor as hunger, forsaken as bamshment, disconsolate as strangers ; and yet their present lot gave them no affliction, because the angel fed them with a necessary hospitality, m [So Cave, 1675 ; 'heights' A; Indignoque pecuniam 'highest' 1649.] Haeredi properet. Scilicet improbas * 1 Tim. vi. 10. Crescunt divitia? ; tamen ° Cum perjura patris fides Curtas nescio quid semper abest rei. Consortem socium fallat et hospitem, Hor. [Od. iii. 24. lin. 59.] Vel die, quid referat intra Nature fines viventi, jugera centum an Mille aret ; Ut, tibi si sit opus liquidi non amplius urna, Vel .cyatho, et dicas, Magno de flumine mallem Quam ex hoc fonticulo tantundem sumere. Eo fit, Plenior ut si quos delectet copia justo, Cum ripa simul avulsos ferat Aufidus acer : At qui tantulo eget quanto est opus, is neque limo Turbatam haurit aquam, neque vitam amittit in undis. Hor. [Sat. i. 1. linn. 49, 54.] Upovolas ovSev dvdpdnrois tipu KepSos Aa/SeTy d/xeivov, obSe vov aoipov. — Soph. [Electr. 1015.] » [' riches' A.] ' [' sacramental and religious,' A.I 526 OF THE EXCELLENCY, EASINESS, &C. [PART III. and their desires were no larger than their tables, and their eyes looked ody upwards, and they were careless of the future, and careful of their duty, and so made their life pleasant by the measures and discourses of dvMe pMlosophy. When Ehsha stretched himself upon the body of the cMld, and laid hands to hands, and applied mouth to mouth, and so shrunk himself into the posture of com- mensuration with the child, he brought life into the dead trunk: and so may we, by applying our spirits to the proportions of a narrow fortune, bring life and vivacity into our dead and lost con dition, and make it live till it grows bigger, or else returns to health and sdutary uses. 11. And besides this philosopMcal extraction of gold from stones, and riches from the dungeon of poverty, a holy life does most pro bably procure such a proportion of riches, wMch can be usefd to us, or consistent with our fehcity. For besides that the holy Jesus hath promised att tirings wMch " our heaveMy Father knows we need," provided we do our duty, and that we find great securities and rest from care when we have once cast our cares upon God and placed our hopes in His bosom; besides all tMs, the temperance, sobriety, and prudence of a Christian is a great income, and by not despising it, a small revenue combines its parts, till it grows to a heap big enough for the emissions of charity, and all the offices of justice, and the supphes of all necessities ; whilst vice is unwary, prodgd, and in- dscreet, tixrowing away great revenues as tributes to intemperance and vamty, and suffering dissolution and forfeiture of estates as a pumshment and curse. Some sins are direct improvidence and ill husbandry ; I reckon in this number intemperance, lust, litigiousness, ambition, bribery, prodigality, gaming °, pride, sacrilege, which is the greatest spender of them all, and makes a fair estate evaporate hke camphire, turning it into nothing, no man knows M'hich way. But what the Bomanp gave as an estimate of a rich man, saymg, " He that can maintdn an army, is rich," was but a short account ; for he that can maintain an army may be beggared by one vice, and it is a vast revenue that wd pay the debt-books of intemperance or lust. 12. To these if we add that virtue is honourable q, and a great advantage to a fair reputation, that it is praisedr by them that love it not, that it is honoured by the foUowers and family of vice, that it forces glory out of shame, honour from contempt, that it reconciles8 men to the fountain of honour, the dmighty God, who will "honom 0 Aleam . . exercent tanta lucrandi tate et de corpore contendant, — Tac, is perdendive temeritate, ut cum omnia mor. Germ. [cap. xxiv.] defecerunt, . . novissimo jactu de liber- » [Crassus ; Cic. off. i. 8.] ' Virtus, repulsae nescia sordida;, Intaminatis fulget honoribus ; Nee sumit aut ponit secures Arbitrio popularis aurae Hor. [Od. iii. 2. lin. 17.] ' Virtus laudator, et alget. [vid. Juv. i. 74.] s rgCe vol. vii. p. 71.] SECT. XIII.] OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 527 them that honour Him ;" there are but a few more exceUencies in the world to make up the rosary of temporal felicity. And it is so eertrin that rehgion serves even our tempord ends, that no great end of state can weU be served without it ; not ambition, not desires of wedth, not any great design, but religion must be made its usher1' or support6. If a new opinion be commenced, and the author would make a sect, and daw dsciples after him, at least he: must be thought to be religious ; wMch is a demonstration how great an instrument of reputation piety and religion is : and if the pretence will do us good offices amongst men, the redity will do the same, besides the advantages which we shall receive from the dvine benediction. The "power of godliness" will certaidy do more than the "form" alone. And it is most notorious in the affairs of the clergy, whose lot it hath been to fall from great riches to poverty when their wedth made them less curious of their duty; but when humility, and chastity, and exemplary sanctity, have been the enamel of their holy order, the people, hke the Gdatians, would putt out their own eyes to do them benefit. And indeed God hath singdarly blessed' such in struments to the beMg the ody remedies to repair the breaches made by sacrilege and irreligion. But certdn it is no man was ever honoured for that wMch was esteemed vicious. Vice hathgot money and a curse many times, and vice hath adhered to the Mstruments and purchases of honour : but among all nations whatsoever, those called honourable put on the face and pretence of virtue. But I choose to instance in the proper cognizance of a Christian, humihty ; wMch seems contradictory to the purposes and reception of honour, and yet in the world nothing is a more certain means to purchase it. Do not att the world hate a proud man ? and therefore what is con trary to humility is also contradictory to honour and reputation. And when the apostle had given command, that " in giving honour, we should one go before another," he laid the foundation of praises, and panegyrics, and triumphs. And as humility is secure against affronts and tempests of despite, because it is below them ; so when by employment, or any other issue of divine providence, it is drawn from its sheath and secrecy, it shines clear and bright as the purest and most polished metals. Hunririty is like a tree, whose root, when it sets deepest in the earth, rises Mgher, and spreads fairer, and stands surer, and lasts longer ; every step of its descent is like a rib of iron, combhring its parts in udons indissoluble, and placing it in the chambers of security. No wise man ever lost any thing by cession ; but he receives the hostility of violent persons into his embraces, hke a stone into a lap of wool ; it rests and sits down soft and inuo- r ['huisher' in first edition.] [vid. lib. ix. tit. 45. ad cap. 4. torn. iii. 8 Prsecipuam imperatorias majestatis p. 395.] curam esse prospicimus religionis inda- ' Dedit enim hoc providentia homi- ginem ; cujus si cultum retinere potue- nibus munus, ut honesta magis juvarent. rimus, iter prosperitatis humanis aperitur — Quinctil. [Inst, or., lib. i. cap. 12, inceptis. — Theod.etValent.inCod.Theod. torn. i. p. 125.] 628 OF THE EXCELLENCY, EASINESS, &C. [PART III. cently; but a stone falling upon a stone makes a collision, and extracts fire, and finds no rest : and just so are two proud persons, despised by each other, contemned by all, living in perpetual dsso- nancies, dways fighting agaMst affronts, jedous of every person, ds- turbed by every accident, a perpetual storm witMn, and ddly hiss ings from without. 13. Fourthly: Hohness and obedence is an exceUent preservative of life, and makes it long and hedthful. In order to wMch dscourse, because it is new, materid, and argumentative, apt to persuade men, who prefer life before all their other Mterests, I consider many tirings. First : In the Old testament, a long and a prosperous life were the great promises of the covenant ; their hopes were built upon it, and that was made the support of all their duty : " if thou wilt driigently hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, I will put none of the dseases upon thee wMch I brought upon the Egyp tians ; for I am the Lord that healeth theeu." And more particdarly yet, that we may not think piety to be security ody agamst the plagues of Egypt, God makes His promise more indefinite and un- confined : "Ye shall serve the Lord your God, and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee, and will fulfil the number of thy daysT;" that is, the period of nature shall be the period of thy person ; thou shdt hve long, and de M a seasonable and ripe age, And tMs promise was so verified by a long experience, that by David's time it grew up to a rde ; " What man is he that desireth life, and loveth many days, that he may see good ? Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips that they speak no guile x." And the same argument was pressed by Solomon, who was an excellent philosopher, and well skilled in the naturd and accidental means of preservation of our rives : " Fear the Lord, and depart from evil ; and it shaU he hedth to thy navel, and marrow to thy bonesy;" "length of days is in the right hand of Wisdom," for " she is a tree of hfe to them that lay hold upon herz:" meaning, that the tree of life and immortality which God had planted in paradse, and wlrich, if man had stood, he shodd have tasted, and have rived for ever, the frdt of that tree is offered upon the same conditions ; if M'e will keep the commandments of God, our obedence, like the tree of Me, shall consign us to im mortality hereafter, by a long and a healtiifd Me here. And there fore although in Moses' time the days of man had been shortened till they came to " threescore years and ten, or fourscore years, and then their strength is but labour and sorrow3;" (for Moses M'as author of that psalm ;) yet to sheM' the great privilege of those per sons whose piety was great, Moses Mmself attdned to one Minded and twenty years, which was dmost double to the ordinary and de- ternrined period. But Enoch and Ettas never died, and became a Exod. xv. 26. y Prov. iii. 7, 8. ? Exod. xxiii. 25, 26. * Ver. 16, 18. * Ps. xxxiv. 12, 13. ¦ Ps. xc. 10. SECT. XIII.] OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 529 great examples to us that a spotless and holy life might possibly have been immortd. 14. I shall add no more examples, but one great conjugation of precedent observed by the Jewish writers; who tell us that in the second temple there were tirree hundred high priests, (I suppose they set down a certain number for an uncertain11, and by three Minded they mean very many,) and yet that temple lasted but four hundred and twenty years ; the reason of this so rapid and violent abscission of their priests being their great and scanddous impieties : and yet in the first temple, whose abode was within ten years as long as the second, there was a succession but of eighteen high priests : for they being generally very pious, and the preservers of their rights and re hgion against the schism of Jeroboam, and the defection of Israel, and the idolatry and irreligion of many of the kings of Judah, God took delight to reward it with a long and honourable old age. And Bdaam knew well enough what he said, when in his ecstasy and prophetic rapture he made his prayer to God, " let my soul die the death of the righteous b." It was not a prayer that his sod might be saved, or that he might repent at last, for repentance and immor tality were revelations of a later date : but he in Ms prophetic ecstasy seeing what God had purposed to the Moabites, and what blessings He had reserved for Israel, prays that he might not de, as the Moab ites were like to die, with an untimely death, by the sword of their enemies, dspossessed of their country, spoiled of their goods, in the period and last hour of their nation : but " let my sod die the death of the just," the death designed for the faitMd Israehtes; such a death wMch God promised to Abraham, that he should return to his fathers in peace, and in a good old age. For the death c of the righteous is like the descendmg of ripe and wholesome frdts from a pleasant and florid tree ; our senses entire, our limbs unbroken, without horrid tortures, after provision made for our children, with a blessing entailed upon posterity, in the presence of our friends, our dearest relative closing up our eyes and bindng our feet, leaving a good name behind us. 0 let my sod die such a death! for this, in whole or in part, according as God sees it good, is the manner that the righteous die. And this was Bdaam's prayer. And this was the state and condition in the Old testament. 15. In the gospel the case is notMng altered. For besides that those austerities, rigours, and mortifications, wMch are in the gospel advised or commanded respectively, are more salutary, or of less cor- pord inconvedence, than a vicious life of intemperance, or lust, or * [Cf. Hor. sat i. 5. lin. 12.] b Num. xxiii. 10. c MrfSe fxoi &KXavaTos BdvaTOS fxbXoi, aA\& (plXoiai KaXXtliroi/xi Baviiv aXyta Kal aTovaxds. Solon, [apud Stob. Floril. cxxii. 3.] Cicero, in Tuscul. 1. [cap. 49. torn. ii. p. 274.] sic reddit :_ _ Mors mea non careat lacrymis : linquamus amieis Mcerorem, ut celebrent funera cum gemitu. ii. M m 530 OF THE EXCELLENCY, EASINESS, &C [PART III, carefulness, or tyrant covetousness ; there is no accident or change to the sufferance of wMch the gospel hath engaged us, but in the very thing our life is carefully provided for, either in kind, or by a gainful exchange ; " he that loseth his life for My sake, shall find it, and he that will save Ms life, shall lose itd." And although God, who promised long life to them that obey, dd not promise that Him self wodd never call for our life, borrowing it of us, and repaying it in a glorious and advantageous exchange ; yet this very promise of giving us a better life in exchange for tMs when we exposed it in martyrdom, does confirm our title to this, this being the instrument of permutation with the other : for God, obliging Himself to give us another in exchange for this when in cases extraordinary He calls for this, says plainly that this is our present right by grace and the title of the divine promises. But the promises are clear. For St. Pad calls children to the observation of the fifth commandment by the same argument which God used in the first promdgation of it, "honour thy father and thy mother, (which is the first command ment with promise,) that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest live long upon the earth6." For although the gospel be built upon better promises than the law, yet it hath the same too, not as its foundation, 'but as appendencies and adjuncts of grace, and supplies of need. " Godliness*1 hath the promise of this life, as wefl as of the life that is to come8." That is plain. And although Christ revealed His Father's mercies to us in new expresses and great abundance : yet He took nothing from the world which ever did in any sense invite piety, or endear obedience, or co-operate towards fe licity. And therefore the promises which were made of old, are also presupposed in the new, and mentioned by intimation and implication M'ithin the greater. When our blessed Saviour, in seven of the eight beatitudes, had instanced in new promises and rewards, as 'heaven,' 'seeing of God,' 'life eternal11;' in one of them, to which heaven is as certrinly consequent as to any of the rest, He did choose to instance in a temporal blessing, and in the very words of the Old testament1 ; to shew that that part of the old covenant which concerns morality and the rewards of obedience, remains firm, and included witirin the condtions of the gospel. 16. To tMs purpose is that saymg of our blessed Saviour, "man liveth not by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of Godk ;" meaning, that besides natural means ordained for the preservation of our rives, there are means supernatural and divine. God's blessmg does as much as bread: nay, it is "every word proceeding out of the mouth of God;" that is, every precept •» Matt. x. 39. e Ephes. vi, 2, 3. f r\ ydp eba4peia avvBvr\aKti jSootoTs* K&v £&ai, kS,v edvaaiv, ovk dirbXAvrai. — Soph. Philoct. [1443.] 6 1 Tim. iv. 8. i Psalm xxxvii. 11. h Matt. v. 3, sqq. Ver. 5. k Matt. iv. 4 ; Deut. viii. 3. SECT. XIII. J OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 531 and commandment of God is so for our good, that it is intended as food and physic to us, a means to make us live long. And therefore God hath done in this as in other graces and issues evangelical M'hich He purposed to continue in His church for ever : He first gave it in miraedous and extraordnary manner, and then gave it by May of perpetud mimstry. The holy Ghost appeared at first like a prodgy, and with miracle ; He descended in visible representments, express ing Himself m revelations and powers extraordinary : but it being a promise intended to descend upon all ages of the church, there was appointed a perpetud mhristry for its conveyance ; and still, though without a sign or miraculous representment, it is ministered M con firmation by Miposition of the bishop's hands. And thus also health and. long life, which by way of ordnary benedction is consequent to piety, faith, and obedence evangehcal, was at first given in a miracu lous manner, that so the ordinary effects, being at first confirmed by miracdous and extraordnary instances and manners of operation, might for ever after be confidently expected without any dubitation, since it was M the same manner consigned by which aU the whole rehgion was, by a voice from heaven, and a verification of miracles and extraordnary supernatural effects. That the gift of hearing, and preservation and restitution of life, was at first miracdous, needs no particdar probation ; all the story of the gospel is one entire argu ment to prove it : and amongst the frdts of the Spirit, St. Paul reckons " gifts of hearing, and government, and helps," or exterior assistances and advantages, to represent, that it was intended the hfe of christian people shodd be happy and healthfd for ever. Now that tMs grace dso descended afterwards M an ordinary ministry, is recorded by St. James : " Is any man sick amongst you ? let Mm caU for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anoint ing him with oil in the name of the Lord1 :" that was then the cere mony, and the blessing and effect is still ; for " the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up." For it is ob servable that the blessing of healing and recovery is not appendent to the anering, but to the prayer, of the church : to manifest, that the ceremony went with the first miracdous and extraordinary man ner : yet that there was an ordinary ministry appointed for the daily conveyance of the blessing : the faithfd prayers and offices of holy priests shall obtain rife and hedth to such persons who are receptive of it, and in spiritual and apt dspositions. And when we see by a eontinud flux of extraordinary benedction, that even some christian princes™ are instruments of the Spirit, not only in the government, but in the gifts of healing too, as a reward for their promoting the just interests of christiamty; we may acknowledge ourselves con vinced that a holy life, in the fdth and obedence of Jesus Christ, may be of great advantage for our health and life, by that instance ' Jam. v. 14, 5. m [See bp. Bull, serm. on 2 Cor. xii. 7 sqq. — Archseol. Journ. 39.] M m 2 532 OF THE EXCELLENCY, EASINESS, &C [PART III. to entertain our present desires, and to establish our hopes of life eternd"1. 17. For I consider, first, that the fear of God is therefore the best antidote M the world agdnst sickness and death, because it is the direct enemy to sin, wMch brought in sickness and death. And be sides tMs, that God by spiritual means shodd produce alterations natural, is not hard to be understood by a christian pMlosopher, take him in either of the two capacities. For secondy, there is a rule of proportion and analogy of effects, that if sin destroys not ody the soul but the body also, then may piety preserve both, and that much rather : for " if sin," that is, the effects and consequents of sin, "hath abounded, then shaU grace superabound n ;" that is, Christ hath done us more benefit than the fall of Adam hath done us Mjury ; and therefore the effects of sin are not greater upon the body, than either are to be restored or prevented by a pious life. Thirdly, there is so near a conjunction between sod and body, that it is no wonder if God, meamng to glorify both by the means of a spiritud Me, suffers spirit and matter to commumcate in effects and mutud im presses : thus the waters of baptism purify the sod ; and the holy eucharist, not the symbohcal, but the mysterious and spiritud part of it, makes the body dso partaker of the death of Christ and a holy union : the flames of hell, whatsoever they are, torment accursed sods ; and the stings of conscience vex and disqdet the body. And fourthly, if we consider that in the glories of heaven, when we shall hve a hfe purely spiritual, our bodies also are so clarified and made spiritual that they also become immortal ; that state of glory being notMng else but a perfection of the state of grace, it is not unimaginable but that the soul may have some proportion of the same operation upon the body, as to conduce to its prolongation, as to an antepast of im-' mortality. For fiftMy, since the body hath all its Me from its con junction with the sod, why not also the perfection of Me, according to its present capacity, that is, health and duration, from the perfec tion of the soul, I mean, from the ornaments of grace ? And as the blessedness of the soM (saith the philosopher) consists M the specu lation of honest and just things ; sO the perfection of the body, and of the whole man, consists in the practic, the exercise, and operations of virtue.18. But tMs problem in cMistian philosophy is yet more inteUi- gible, and will be reduced to certdn experience, if M'e consider good hfe in union and concretion with particdar, material, and circum stantiate actions of piety : for these have great powers and influences, even in nature, to restore hedth and preserve our rives. Witness the sweet sleeps of temperate persons, and their constant appetite; m Futures nobis resurrectionis virorem tu adolescentiam in aliena aetate mentins. in te nobis Dominus ostendit, ut peccati — S. Hieron. Paulo Concordiensi, vegeto sciamus esse, quod casteri adhuc viventes et pio seni. [ep. x. torn, iv.par. ii. col. 16.] praemoriuntur in came ; jusiitise, quod " Rom. v. 20. SECT. XIII.] OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 533 which Timotheus the son of Conon observed, when he dieted in Plato's academy with severe and moderated det, " they that sup with Plato are well the next day0." Witness the symmetry of pas sions in meek men, their freedom from the violence of enraged and passionate indispositions, the admirable harmony and sweetness of content which dwells in the retirements of a holy conscience; to which if we add those joys M-hich they ody understand trdy who feel them inwardly, the joys of the holy Ghost, the content and joys M'hich are attending upon the lives of holy persons are most likely to make them long and healthf d. " For now we rive," saith St. Pad, " if ye stand fast in the Lordp :" it would prolong St. Paul's life to see Ms ghostly children persevere in holiness ; and if M'e understood the joys of it, it wodd do much greater advantage to ourselves. But if we consider a spiritual Me abstractedly and in itself, piety produces our rife, not by a naturd efficiency, but by divine bene diction. God gives a healthy and a long Me as a reM'ard and bless ing to crown our piety even before the sons of men ; " for such as be blessed of Him shall inherit the earth, but they that be cursed of Him shall be cut off "J." So that tMs whole matter is principally to be referred to the act of God, either by ways of nature, or by instru ments of specid providence rewardng piety with a long Me. And we shall more fully apprehend this, if upon the grounds of scripture, reason, and experience, we weigh the contrary. "Wickedness" is the way to "shorten our days1." 19. Sin brought death in first; and yet man lived almost a thou sand years. But he sinned more, and then death came nearer to him : for when all the world was first droMmed in wickedness and then in water, God cut Mm shorter by one half, and five hundred years M'as Ms ordinary period. And man sinned still, and had strange imaginations, and built towers in the air; and then, about Peleg's time, God cut Mm shorter by one half yet, two Minded and odd years M'as his determination. And yet the generations of the world returned not unaMmously to God ; and God cut Mm off another half yet, and reduced him to one Minded and tM'enty years. And by Moses' time one half of the find remanent portion was pared away, reducing him to threescore years and ten : so that, udess it be by special dspensation, men live not beyond that term or thereabout. But if God had gone on still in the same method, and shortened our days as we mdtiphed our sins, we shodd have been but as an ephe- meron, man should have rived the Me of a fly or a gourd ; the morn ing shodd htve seen his birth, his hfe have been the term of a day, and the evening must have provided Mm of a sMoud. But God 0 "On oi irapd TLXaroivi SeiirvovvTes Kal turn apud Thucyd. [i. 70.] t?7 voTepala KaX&s yivovrai. [Athen., lib. p I Thess. iii. 8. x. cap. 14.' torn. ii. p. 926.] i Psalm xxxvii. 22. M^Te eoprrfV ixXXo Ti r)yovVTai, ff Tb rd r Prov. x. 27. SeovTa irpd^ai. — De Atheniensibus die- 534 OF THE EXCELLENCY, EASINESS, &C. [PART HI. seeing " maris thoughts were ody evil continually," He was resolved no longer so to strive with him, nor destroy the kind, but pumsh in dividuals ody, and single persons ; and if they sinned, or if they did obey, regdarly their hfe should be proportionable. TMs God set down for His rule, "evil shall slay the wicked person8;" and, "he that keepeth the commandments keepeth Ms own sod, but he that despiseth his own ways shall die'." 20. But that we may speak more exactly in this problem, we must observe that in scripture tirree generd causes of natural death are assigned; nature, providence, and chance. By these tirree I ody mean the several manners of divine influence and operation. For God only predetermines ; and what is changed in the following events by dvine permission, to this God and man in their several manners do co-operate. The saymg of David concermng Saul with admirable philosophy describes the three ways of endng man's life. "David said furthermore, As the Lord liveth, the Lord shall smite him, or his day shaU come to de, or he shall descend into battle and perish"." The first is specid providence; the second means the term of nature ; the tirird is that which, in our want of words, we call chance or accident, but is, in effect, notMng else but another manner of the dvine providence. That in dl these sm does in terrupt and retrench our hves, is the undertaking of the following periods. 21. First : In nature, sin is a cause of dyscrasies and dstempers, making our bodies healthless, and our days few*. For dthough God hath prefixed a period to nature by an umversd and antecedent de termination, and that naturally every man that hves temperately, and by no supervemng accident is interrupted, shall arrive tirither ; yet because the greatest part of our lives is governed by will and under standing, and there are temptations to intemperance and to violations of our health, the period of nature is so distinct a thing from the period of our person, that few men attain to that which God had fixed by His first law and preceding purpose, but end their days with folly, and in a period wMch God appointed them with anger, and a determination secondary, consequent, and accidentd. And therefore says David, " health is far from the ungodly, for they regard- not Thy statutes." And to this purpose is that saying of Abenezray, " he that is united to God, the fountain of life, his soul, being im- 8 Psalm xxxiv. 21. trine in the above paragraph, a striking ' Prov. xix. 16. and beautiful passage in Bentley's ser- " 1 Sam. xxvi. 10. mon before king George the first; being » Audax omnia perpeti a comment upon Ps. Iv. 25, ' The blood- Gens humana ruit per vetitum nefas. t>»rsty and deceitful men shall not live Post ignem jetherea dome out half tlieir days.'— Works, vol. m. P- Subductum, macies et nova febrium 2?4. 8v0- Dond. 1838.] Terris incubuit cohors ; y In Exod. xxiii. (Juicunque unitur Semotique prius tarda necessitas Deo, ipsi corrbboratur calidum et liunii- Lethi corripuit gradum. — Hor. [Od. dum per vim anima?, ct tunc vivit homo i. 3. lin. 25. — Compare with Taylor's doc- ultra limitatum tempus. SECT. XIII.] OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 535 proved by grace, communicates to the body an establishment of its radical moisture and natural heat to make it more healtirful, that so it may be more Mstrumental to the spiritual operations and pro ductions of the sod, and itself be preserved in perfect constitution." Now how tMs blessMg is contradicted by the impious hfe of a wicked person, is easy to be understood if we consider that from drunken surfeits1 come dissolution of members, headachs, apoplexies, dan gerous falls, fracture of bones, denclrings and dilution of the brain, inflammation of the liver, crudties of the stomach, and thousands more ; wMch Solomon sums up M general terms, " Who hath woe ? who hath sorrow ? M'ho hath redness of eyes ? they that tarry long at the wmea." I shall not need to Mstance, M the sad and uncleanly consequents of lust, the wounds and accidental deaths which are occasioned by jealousies, by vamty, by peevishness, vain reputation, and ammosities, by melancholy, and the despair of evil consciences ; and yet these are abundant argument that when God so permits a man to run his course of nature that Himself does not intervene by an extraordnary influence, or any special acts of providence, but ody gives His ordnary assistance to natural causes, a very great part of men make their natural period shorter, and by sM make their days miserable and few. 22. Secondy : Oftentimes providence Mtervenes, and makes the way shorter; God, for the iniqdty of man, not suffering nature to take her course, but stopping her M the midst of her journey : against tMs David prayed, " 0 my God, cut me not off in the midst of my daysb." But M tMs there is some variety ; for God does it sometimes in mercy, sometimes in judgment. "The righteous de, and no man regardeth ; not considering, that they are taken away from the evil to comec." God takes the righteous man hastily to Ms crown, lest temptation snatch it from Mm by Mterrupting his hopes and sanctity. And tMs was the case of the old world. For from Adam to the flood, by the patriarchs were eleven generations ; but by CaM's line there were but eight, so that Cain's posterity were longer rived ; because God, intendng to bring the flood upon the world, took delight to rescue His elect from the dangers of the pre sent impurity and trie future deluge. Abraham rived five years less 2 Eubulus apud Athenseum, lib. ii. [cap. 3. torn. i. p. 82.], introducit Bacchum loquentem in hunc modum : Tres tantum sanis ego crateras misceo : Unum valetudinis, et hunc primum QSdipum ; Secundum amoris, et sopqris tertium : Quo, qui sapere solent, eunt hausto domum. Nam quartus est haud amplius crater meus, Sed contumelia; ; velut huic proximus Clamoris, &c. Nam plurimum vini inditum in vas parvulum Sternit sine omni, quern replet, negotio. * Prov. xxiii. 29, 30. " Psalm cii. 24. c isa- iT;^ j_ 536 OF THE EXCELLENCY, EASINESS, &C. [PART III. than his son Isaac, it being (say the doctors of the Jews) intended for mercy to him, that he might not see the iniquity of Ms grand child Esau. And this the church for many ages hath believed in the case of baptized infants dying before the use of reason ; for besides other causes in the order of divine providence, one kind of mercy is done to them too ; for although their condition be of a lower form, yet it is secured by that timely (shall I call it ?) or untimely death. But these are cases extra-regdar : ordinarily, and by rde, God hath revealed His purposes of interruption of the lives of sinners to be in anger and judgment ; for when men commit any signal and grand impiety, God suffers not nature to take her course, but strikes a stroke with His oM'n hand. To which purpose I tirink it a remark able instance which is reported by Epiphaniusd, that, for three thousand tiiree hundred and thirty-two years, even to the twentieth age, there was not one example of a son that ded before Ms father, but the course of nature was kept, that he who was first born in the descending hne did die first ; (I speak of naturd death, and therefore Abel cannot be opposed to tMs observation ;) till that Terah the father of Abraham taught the people to make images of clay, and worship them ; and concerning him it was first remarked, that " Haran ded before Ms father Terah, in the land of his nativitye :" God, by an unheard-of judgment, and a rare accident, purislring his newly invented crime. And whenever such intercision of a Me happens to a vicious person, let all the world acknoM'ledge it for a judgment; and when any man is guilty of evil habits or unrepented sins, he may therefore expect it, because it is tirreatened and designed for the lot and curse of such persons. This is tMeatened to covet ousness, injustice, and oppression : "As a partridge sitteth on eggs, and hatcheth them not ; so he that getteth riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at Ms end shaU be a foolf." The same is tMeatened to voluptuous persons M the Mghest caresses of dehght : and Christ told a parable with the same design ; the rich man said, " Soul, take thy ease ; but God answered, 0 fool, tiris night shall thy sod be required of thee." Zrinri and Cozbi were slain in the trophies of their lust ; and it M'as a sad story wMch was told by Thomas Cantipratanusg : two religious persons, tempted by each other, in the vigour of their youth, in their very first pleasures and opportunities of sin, Mere both struck dead in their embraces and posture of entertainment. God smote Jeroboam for Ms usurpation and tyranny, and he died11. Saul died for disobedience against God, and asking counsel of a Pythoness1. God smote TJzziah with a leprosy for Ms profanenessk ; and dstressed Ahaz sorely for his sacrilege1 ; and sent a horrid dsease upon Jehoram for Ms ido- d Panar., lib. i. torn. i. [§ 6. p. 8 A.] h 2 Chron. xiii. 20. ' Gen. xi. 28. ' 1 Chron. x. 13. ' Jer. xvii. 11. k 2 Chron. xxvi. 19. * [Lib. ii. cap. 30. § 20. p. 331.] '2 Kings xvi. SECT. XIII.] OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 537 latry™. These Mstances represent voluptuousness and covetousness, rapine and injustice, idolatry and lust, profaneness and sacrilege, as re marked by the signature of exemplary judgments, to be the means of shortenMg the days of man ; God himself proving the executioner of His own fierce wrath. I instance no more, but in the singdar case of Hananiah, the fdse prophet; "Thus sdth the Lord, Behold, I will cut thee from off the face of the earth ; tMs year thou shdt die, because thou hast taught rebelhon against the Lord11 :" that is the curse and portion of a fdse prophet ; a short life, and a sudden death, of God's own particular and more immedate infliction. 23. And thus dso the sentence of the dvMe anger went forth upon crimind persons M the New testament : witness the dsease of Herod, Judas's hangMg himself, the blindness of Elymas, the sudden death of AnaMas and Sapphira, the buffetings with wMch Satan afflicted the bodes of persons excommumcate. Yea, the blessed sacrament of CMist's body and blood, wMch is intended for our spiritud Me, if it be unworthily received, proves the cause of a naturd death; "for this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many are fatten asleep0," saith St. Paul to the Corinthian church. 24. Thirdy: But there is yet another manner of endng man's hfe, by way of chance or contingency ; meaning thereby the manner of God's providence, and event of things wMch is not produced by the dsposition of naturd causes, nor yet by any particdar and special act of God ; but the event which depends upon accidental causes, not so certaM and regular as nature, not so conclusive and deter- nrined as the acts of decretory providence, but comes, by disposition of causes irregular, to events rare and accidental. TMs David ex presses by " entering into battle ;" and in tMs, as m the other, M'e must separate cases extraordinary and rare from the ordnary and common. Extra-regularly, and upon extraordinary reasons and permissions, we find that holy persons have miscarried in battle. So the Israelites fell before Benjamin, and Jonathan, and Uriah, aud many of the Lord's champions, fighting against the Philistines : but in these deaths as God served other ends of providence, so He kept to the good men that fell dl the mercies of the promise, by giving them a greater blessing of event and compensation. In the more ordinary course of dvine dspensation, they that prevaricate the laM a of God are put out of protection ; God withdraws His specid pro vidence, or their tutelar angel, and leaves them exposed to the in fluences of heaven, to the power of a constellation", to the accidents of humamty, to the chances of a battle, wMch are so many and' various that it is ten thousand to one a man in that case never escapes ; and in such variety of contingencies there is no probable way to assure our safety, but by a holy life to endear the providence ¦» 2 Chron. xxi. 18. ° 1 Cor. xi. 30. " Jer. xxviii Ki. ' [See Index, 'Stars.'] 638 OF THE EXCELLENCY, EASINESS, &C. [PART III. of God to be our guardan. It was a remarkable saying of Deborah, " the stars fought M their courses," or, in their orbs, " against Si- sera p." Sisera fought, when there was an evil aspect or malignant influence of heaven upon him. For even the smallest tiring that is in opposition to us is enough to turn the chance of a battle; that although it be necessary for defence of the gody that a special providence shodd intervene, yet to confound the impious no special act is requisite : if God exposes them to the ill aspect of a planet, or any other casualty, their days are interrupted, and they die. And tMs is the meamng of the prophet Jeremy q, "be not ye dismayed at the signs of heaven, for the heathen are dismayed at themr;" meaning that God witt overrde all Mferior causes for the safety of His servants, but the wicked shall be exposed to chance and human accidents ; and the signs of heaven, wMch of themselves do but signify, or at most but dspose and Mcline towards events, shall be enough to actuate and consummate their rdn. And tMs is the meamng of that proverb of the Jews, "Israel hath no planet8:" which they expounded to mean, if they observe the law, the planets shall not hurt them, God witt overrde all their influences ; but if they prevaricate and rebel, the least star in the firmament of heaven shall bid them battle and overthrow them. A stone shall he m a wicked man's way, and God shall so expose him to it, leaving Mm so unguarded and defenceless, that he shall stumble at it, and fall, and break a bone, and that shall produce a fever, and the fever shall end Ms days. Por not ody every creature, when it is set on by God, can prove a rdn ; but if we be not by the providence of God defended against it, we cannot behold the least atom M the sun without danger of losing an eye, nor eat a grape without fear of choking, nor sneeze without breaking of a vein. And Alius*, going to the ground, purged Ms entrails forth, and fell down unto the earth and died. Such, and so miserable, is the great insecurity of a sinner. And of this Job had an excellent meditation, " How oft is the cande of the wicked put out ! and how oft cometh their destruction upon them ! God distributeth sorrows in His anger. For what pleasure v Judges v. 20. fausta reputabatur, unde proverbium 4v i Jer. x. 2. TCTpdSi yeyevvr)a8at. Hujusmodi dies r Gentes signa dierum et numerum Grasci diroippdSas vocant ; Latin! nefastos. mensis aut hebdomadae cum metu super- Hesiodus quintas omnino suspectas stitioso observarunt. Quarta luna in- habet : Tl4fxirras 6° 4£aXeaa8ai, 4irel xaXtnai Te Kal alvai' 'Ev ireirfXTy ydp cpaaiv 'Epivvvas dpiipnroXeveiv. — [Dies. lin. 38.] 3 Non est planeta Israeli. [i. e. Hermes apud Lact. Div. Inst., lib. Mia vXaKi) tbaefieia' ebaefSovs ydp ii. cap. 17. torn. i. p. 178.] dvBp&irov ob Saipaiv KaKbs, otire elfxap/xevif Avvarai 6 4iriaTiifxo)V iroXXds diroarpt* KpaTti. ®tbs ydp ptitTai Tbv evatPr) 4k tpai ivtpyeias t&v daTtpuv. — Ptolem. iraVTbs KaKov. to ydp ev Kal pibvov iv av- [Carp. 5. p. 55.^ Bpt&irois iarlv dyaBbv ebaefieia. — Lactant. Id est, sapiens dominabitur astris. 1 [Socr. Hist, eccles., lib. i cap. 38.] SECT. XIII.] OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 539 hath he in Ms house after Mm, when the number of Ms months is cut off M the midst ?" TMs is he that " deth M Ms full strength, bemg whoUy at ease and qdetV 25. I sum up tMs discourse with an observation that is made concermng the family of Eli, upon wMch, for the remissness of dscipline on the father's part, and for the impiety and profaneness of Ms sons, God sent tMs curse, "all the increase of their house shall die in the flower of their agex." Accordng to that sad rnale- dction it happened for many generations ; the heir of the family ded as soon as he begat a son to succeed him : till the family, being wearied by so long a curse, by the counsel of Babbi Johanan Ben Zachary x, betook themselves universally to a sedulous and most devout meditation of the law, that is, to an exemplar devotion and strict religion : but then the curse was turned into a blessing, and the line mascdine lived to an honourable old age. For the doctors of the Jews said that God often changes His purposes concermng the death of man, when the sick person is " liberd in alms," or " fervent in prayer," or " changes Ms name," that is, gives up Ms name to God by the serious purposes and religious vows of holy obedence. " He that foUoweth after righteousness" ('dms' it is M the vdgar Latin) " and mercy, findeth Mey :" that verifies the first : and the fervent prayer of flezekiah is a great instance of the second : and aU the precedent dscourse was intended for probation of the third, and proves that no dsease is so deady as a deadly sin ; and the ways of righteousness are therefore advantages of hedth and preservatives of life (when health and life are good for us), because they are certain title to att God's promises and blessings. 26. Upon supposition of these premises, I consider there is no cause to wonder that tender persons and the softest women endure the violences of art and physic, sharp pads of caustics and cupping- glasses, the abscission of the most sensible part, for preservation of a mutilous and imperfect body: but it is a wonder that when God hath appointed a remedy in grace apt to preserve nature, and that a dying unto sin shodd prolong our naturd hfe, yet few men are willing to try the experiment; they will buy their Me upon any conditions in the world but those wMch are the best and easiest, any tiring but religion and sanctity ; dthough for so domg they are promised that immortahty shall be added to the end of a long life, to make the hfe of a mortal partake of the eternd duration of an angel, or of God himself. 27. FiftMy : The last testimony of the excellency and gentleness of Christ's yoke, the fair load of cMistiamty, is the reasonableness of it, and the unreasonableness of its contrary1. For whatsoever the " Job xxi. 17, 21, 23. entia religionem. — Lactant. [Div. Inst., » 1 Sam. ii. 33. lib. iv. cap. 3, 4. torn. i. p. 277 sqq.] * [Cf. vol. iv. p. 377.] 2o(/xj> yap alirxpbv i^a/xapTdveiv. — » Prov. xxi. 21. Msa\\. Prom. [1039.] " Religio sapientiam adauget, et sapi- 540 OF THE EXCELLENCY, EASINESS, &C. [PART III. wisest men in the world in all nations and religions did agree upon as most excellent in itself, and of greatest power to make pohtical or future and immaterid felicities, dl that and much more the holy Jesus adopted into His law: for they, receiving sparks or single irradiations from the regions of light, or else having fair tapers shining indeed excellently m representations and expresses of mo rality, were all involved and swariowed up into the body of hght, the Sun of righteousness. Christ's dscipline was the breviary of all the wisdom of the best men, and a fair copy and transcript of His Father's M'isdom ; and there is notMng in the laws of our rehgion, but what is perfective of our spirits, excellent rdes of religion, and rare expe dients of obeying God by the nearest ways of imitation, and such duties wMch are the proper ways of doMg benefits to all capacities and orders of men. But I remember my design now is not to re present Christianity to be a better religion than any other; for I speak to Christians, amongst whom we presuppose that : but I design to invite all Christians in name to be such as they are called, upon the interest of such arguments which represent the advantages of obedi ence to our religion, as it is commanded us by God. And this I shall do yet farther by considering, as touching those christian names who apprehend religion as the fasMon of their country, and know no other use of a church but customary, or secular and profane, that supposing christian religion to have come from God, as we att profess to beheve, there are no greater fools in the world than such whose life eoMorms not to the pretence of their baptism and institution. They have all the signs and characters of fools, and undscreet, unwary persons. 28. First: Wicked persons, like children and fools, choose the present, whatsoever it is, and neglect the Mfinite treasures of the future. They that have no faith nor foresight, have an excuse foT snatcMng at what is now represented, because it is that ' all' which can move them : but then such persons are infinitely dstant from wisdom, whose understandng neither reason nor revelation hath car ried farther than the present adherencies ; not only because they are narrow souls, who cannot look forward, and have notMng to ds- tingdsh them from beasts, who enjoy the present, being careless of what is to come ; but dso because whatsoever is present, is not fit satisfaction to the spirit, notMng but gluttings of the sense and sot tish appetites3. Moses was a wise person, and so esteemed and re ported by the Spirit of God, because " he despised the pleasures of Pharaoh's court, havMg an eye to the recompense of reM'ard ;" that is, because he despised all the present arguments of dehght, and pre ferred those excellencies which he knew shodd be infimtely greater, as well as he knew they shodd be at att. He that M'odd have rather chosen to stay in the theatre and see the sports out, than quit the present spectacle upon assurance to be adopted into Caesar's family, « El pev ydp irpaTTonb ti pe8' rfSovrjs KaKbv fxivei. — Hierocl. [in Pythag. p. 134. alaxpbv, r) /xev rfSovii irapr/XBe, to St — Cf. Muson. in p. 519, not. a, supra.] SECT. XIII.] OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 541 had an offer made him too great for a fool ; and yet his misfortune was not big enough for pity, because he understood nothing of his fehcity, and rejected what he understood not : but he that prefers moments before eternity, and despises the infinite successions of eternd ages that he may enjoy the present, not daring to trust God for what he sees not, and having no objects of Ms affections but those wlrich are the objects of Ms eyes, hath the impatience of a child, and the indiscretion of a fool, and the faithlessness of an un believer. The faith and hope of a Christian are the graces and por tions of spiritual wisdom wMch Christ designed as an antidote against this folly. 29. Secondy: Children and fools choose to please their senses rather than their reason, because they still dweU within the regions of sense, and have but httle residence amongst inteUectud essences. And because the needs of nature first employ our sensud appetites, these, being first in possession, wodd dso fain retdn it, and there fore for ever continue their title, and perpetually fight for it : but because the Mferior faculty, fighting against the superior, is no better than a rebel, arid that it takes reason for its enemy, it shews such actions wMch please the sense and do not please the reason, to be unnatural, monstrous, and unreasonable. And it is a great dsrepu- tation to the understanding of a man, to be so cozened and deceived, as to choose money before a moral virtue ; to please that wMch is common to him and beasts, rather than that part which is a commu nication of the divine nature ; to see him run dter a bubble which Mmself hath made, and the sun hath particoloured, and to despise a treasure wlrich is offered to Mm to call him off from pursdng that emptiness and nothing. But so does every vicious person, feeds upon husks, and loathes manna; worships cats and odons, the beggarly and basest of Egyptian deities, and neglects to adore and honour the etemd God; he prefers the society of drunkards before the com munion of saints ; or the fellowsMp of harlots before a quire of pure, chaste, and immaterial angels ; the sickness and filth of luxury before the health and purities of chastity and temperance; a dsh of red lentil pottage before a benison; dink before immortality, money before mercy, wantonness before the severe precepts of cMistian pM- losophy, earth before heaven, and folly before the crowns, and sceptres, and glories of a kingdom. Against tMs folly christian rehgion op poses contempt of tirings below, and setting our affections on things above. 30. Thirdy: Children and fools propound to themselves ends silly, low, and cheap ; the getting of a nut-shell, or a bag of cherry stones, a gaud to entertain the fancy of a few minutes ; and in order to such ends direct their counsels and designs. And indeed in tMs they are innocent ; but persons not living according to the dsciphrie of christiaMty are as foolish in the designation of their ends, choos ing tilings as unprofitable and vdn to themselves, and yet with many 542 OF THE EXCELLENCY, EASINESS, &C. [PART III. mixtures of mahce and injuriousness both to themselves and others. His end is to cozen his brother of a piece of land, or to disgrace him by telring of a lie, to supplant Ms fortune, to make him miserable : ends wMch wise men and good men look upon as miseries and perse cutions, instruments of affliction and regret ; because every man is a member of a society, and hath some common terms of udon and conjuncture wMch make dl the body susceptive of all accidents to any part : and it is a great folly for pleasing of the eye to snatch a knife which cuts our fingers ; to bring affliction upon my brother or relative, wMch either must affect me, or else I am an useless, a base, or dead person. The ends of vice are ignoble and dishonourable : to dscompose the qdet of a family, or to create jealousies, or to raise wars, or to make a man less happy or apparently miserable, or to fish for the devil and gaM sods to our enemy, or to please a passion that undoes us, or to get sometiring that cannot satisfy us : tMs is the chain of counsels, and the great aims of unchristian livers ; they are all of them extreme great miseries. And it is a great undecency for a man to propound an end less and more imperfect than our present condtion ; as if we went about to unravel our present composure, and to udte every degree of essence and capacity, and to retire back to our first matter and unshapen state, hoping to get to our journey's end by gomg backwards : against tMs folly the holy Jesus opposed the fourth beatitude or precept, of " hungering and thirsting after righteousness." 31. FourtMy : But children and fools, whatever their ends be, they pursue them with as much weakness and folly as they first chose them with indscretion : runnmg to broken cisterns or to puddes to quench their thirst ; when they are hungry, they make fantastic ban quets, or put coloqdntida into their pottage that they may be fur- Mshed with pot herbs ; or are like the ass that desired to flatter Ms master, and therefore fawned upon him rike a spaniel, and brmsed Ms shoulders. Such undecencies of means and prosecutions of in terest we find in uncMistian courses. It may be, they propound to themselves riches for their end, and they use covetousness for their means, and that brings nought home ; or else they steal to get it, and they are apprehended, and made to restore fourfold. Like moths gnawing a garment, they devour their own house, and by greediness of desire they destroy their content, making impatience the parent and instrument of all their felicity15. Or they are so greedy and imagi native, and have raised their expectation by an over-vddng esteem of temporary felicities, that when they come they fall short of their promises, and are indeed less than they wodd have been, by being beforehand apprehended greater than they codd be. If their design b Tti SeiXd KipSij irriixovds ipydfarai. — rum, praesentihus careant, dum futura Soph. [Antig. 326.] prospectant. — Panegyr. [Eumenii] ad Hos felicitas ingrata subterfluit, ut Constant filium. [cap. xv. ad calc. Plin. semper pleni sperum, vacui commodo- Epist, ed. Bipont., p. 305.] SECT. XIII.] OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 548 be to represent themselves Mnocent and guiltless of a suspicion or a fault, they deny the fact, and double it. When they wodd repair their losses, they fall to gaming ; and besides that they are Mfidtely full of fears, passions, wrath, and violent disturbances, in the various chances of their game, that wMch they use to restore their fortune ruins even the httle remnant, and condemns them to beggary or what is M-orse. Thus evil men seek for content out of tirings that cannot satisfy, and take care to get that content ; that is, they raise war to enjoy present peace, and renounce all content to get it ; they strive to depress their neighbours that they may be their equds; to dis grace them to get reputation to themselves (wMch arts, being ig noble, do them the most disparagement) ; and resolve never to enter into the felicities of God by content taken in the prosperities of man ; M'hich is a making ourselves wretched by being wicked. Malice and envy is indeed a mighty curse ; and the devil can shew us nothing more foolish and unreasonable than envy, wlrich is M its very for- mdity a curse, an eating of coals and vipers because my neighbour's table is full and his cup is crowned with health and plenty. — The clrristian rehgion, as it chooseth excellent ends, so it useth propor tionate and apt means. The most contradctory accident in the world, when it becomes hallowed by pious and christian design, be comes a certain means of fehcity and content. To quit our lands for Christ's sake, witt certainly make us rich ; to depart from our friends, will increase our relations and beneficiaries : but the striving to secure our temporal interests by any other means than obedient actions or obedient sufferings, is declared by the holy Jesus to be the greatest improvidence and ril husbandry in the world. Even M tMs world CMist will repay us an hundred fold for aU our losses wMch we suffer for the interests of Christianity. In the same proportion we find that dl graces do the work of human fehcities with a more certain power and Mfallible effect than their contraries : gratitude endears benefits, and procures more friendships : coMession gets a pardon: impudence and lying doubles the fadt, and exaspe rates the offended person: innocence is bold, and rocks a man asleep; but an evil conscience is a continual darm. Against this folly, of using disproportionate means in order to their ends, the holy Jesus hath opposed the eight beatitudes, which by con- tradctions of nature and improbable causes, according to human and erring estimate, bring our best and wisest ends to pass infd- hbly and dvinely. 32. But tMs is too large a field to walk in : for it represents all the flatteries of sin to be a mere cozenage and deception of the understanding ; and M'e find by tMs scrutiny that evil and uncMistian persons are infinitely unwise, because they neglect the counsel of their superiors and their guides. They dote passionately upon trifles • they rely upon fdse foundations and deceiving principles ; they are most confident when they are most abused ; they are like shelled fish 514 OF THE EXCELLENCY, EASINESS, &C. [PART III. singing loudest when their house is on fire about their ears, and being merriest when they are most miserable and perishing; when they have the option of two tirings, they ever choose the worst; they are not masters of their own actions, but break all purposes at the first temptation ; they take more pdns to do themselves a miscMef than would secure heaven ; that is, they are rude, ignorant, foohsh, unwary, and undiscermng people, in all senses and to all purposes ; and are incurable but by their obedience and conformity to the holy Jesus, the eternal Wisdom of the Father. 33. Upon the strength of these premises, the yoke of cMistianity must needs be apprehended light, though it had in it more pressure than it hath; because lightness or heaviness, being relative terms, are to be esteemed by comparison to others. Christianity is far easier than the yoke of Moses' law, not ody because it consists of fewer rites, but also because those perfecting and excellent graces M'Mch integrate the body of our religion are made easy by God's assisting and the gifts of the holy Ghost ; and we may yet make it easier by love and by fear, which are the proper products of the evangelical promises and tiireatenings. For I have seen persons in affrightment have carried burdens, and leaped dtches, and climbed walls, M'hich their naturd power could never have done : and if we understood the sadnesses of a cursed etermty from which we are commanded to fly, and yet knew how near we are to it and how likely to fall into it, it wodd create fears greater than a sudden fire or a midnight alarm. And those unhappy souls who come to feel this truth M'hen their condition is without remedy, are made the more miserable by the apprehension of their stupid folly; for certaidy the accursed spirits feel the smart of hell once doubled upon them, by considering by what vain, unsatisfying trifles they lost their happiness, Mith what pads they perished, and with how great ease they might have been beatified. And certain it is, cMistian religion hath so furmshed us M'ith assistances both exterior and mterior, both of persuasion and advantages, that whatsoever CMist hath doubled upon us in perfec tion, He hath alleviated in aids. 34. And then if we compare the state of christiamty with sin, all the preceding discourses were intended to represent how much easier it is to be a CMistian than a vile and wicked person. And he that remembers that whatever fair dlurements may be pretended as in vitations to a sin, are such fdse and unsatisfying pretences that they drive a man to repent him of Ms folly, and hke a great laughter, end iu a sigh, and expire in weariness and indgnation ; must needs con fess himself a fool for doing that wMch he knows witt make him repent that he ever dd it. A sm makes a man afraid when it thunders ; and in all dangers the sM detracts the visor and affrights Mm ; and visits him when he comes to die, upbrriding him with guilt, and tirreatemng misery. So that cMistianity is the easiest law, and the easiest state; it is more perfect and less troublesome; it SECT. XIII.] OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 545 brings us to felicity by ways proportionable, landing us in rest by easy and unperplexed journeys. TMs dscourse I therefore thought necessary, because it reconciles our rehgion with those passions and desires which are commonly made the Mstruments and arguments of sin. For we rarely meet with such spirits wMch love virtue so metaphysically as to abstract her from all sensible and dehcious compositions, and love the purity of the idea. St. Lewis b the king sent Ivo bishop of Chartres on an embassy ; and he told, that he met a grave matron on the way, with fire in one hand and water in the other ; and observing her to have a melancholic, rehgious, and fantastic deportment and look, asked her what those symbols meant, and what she meant to do with her fire and water? She answered, "My purpose is, with the fire to burn paradse, and with my water to quench the flames of hell, that men may serve God without the incentives of hope and fear, and purely for the love of God." Whether the woman were only imagi native and sad, or dso zedous, I know not. But God knows He wodd have few dsciples, if the arguments of Mvitation were not of greater promise than the labours of virtue are of trouble : and therefore the Spirit of God, knowMg to what we are inflexible, and by what we are made most ductile and malleable, hath propounded virtue clothed and dressed with such advantages as may entertain even our sensitive part and first desires0, that those also may be in vited to virtue who understand not what is just and reasonable, but what is profitable ; who are more moved with advantage than justice : and because emolument is more felt than innocence, and a man may be poor for aU his gift of chastity ; the holy Jesus, to endear the practices of rehgion, hath represented godliness unto us under the notion of grin, and sin as unfruitful. And yet besides all the natural and reasonable advantages, every virtue hath a supernaturd reward, a gracious promise attending; and every vice is not only naturaUy deformed, but is made more ugly by a threatemng, and horrid by an appendent curse. — Henceforth therefore let no man complain that the commandments of God are impossible ; for they are not only possible, but easy ; and they that say otherwise and do accordingly, take more pains to carry the instruments of their own death, than wodd serve to ascertaM them of Me ; and if we wodd do as much for Christ as we have done for sin, we shodd find the pains less, and the pleasure more. And therefore such complainers are without ex cuse ; for certain it is they that can go in fod ways must not say " [Joinville, histoirc de St, Louis, p. 93.— fol. Par. 17G1 — Cf. vol. iv. p. 477.] c Quis enim virtutem amplectitur ipsam Prsemia si tollas? — Juv. [x. 141.] Sublatis studiorum pretiis, etiam studia [Si ergo] virtus per seipsam beata non peritura. Ut minus decora, &c. — Tacit, est, quoniam in perferendis, ut dixi, malis [Annal. xi. 7. ] tota vis ejus est; — Idem, cap. 12. [torn. Vide Ciceron. Tuscul. ii. Lact. Instit, i. p. 215.] Aug. Ep. xii. [Qu. cxx. al. lib. iii. cap. 27. [torn. i. p. 261.] cxl. passim, torn. ii. col. 422 sqq.] ii- n n 546 OF THE EXCELLENCY, EASINESS, &C. [PART III. they cannot walk in fair ; they that march over rocks m despite of so many impedments, can travel the even ways of rehgion and peace, when the holy Jesus is their gmde, and the Spirit is their guardan, and infinite felicities are at their journey's end, and all the reason of the world, politicd, economical, and personal, do entertdn and sup port them M the travel of the passage. THE PBAYEB. 0 eternal Jesus, who gavest laws unto the world, that mankind being united to Thee by the bands of obedience might partake of all Thy glories and felicities ; open our understandng, give us the spirit of discerdng, and just apprehension of att the beauties with wMch Thou hast enamelled virtue to represent it beauteous and amiable in our eyes ; that by the allurements of exterior decencies and appendent blessings our present desires may be entertained, our hopes promoted, our affections satisfied ; and love, entering in by these doors, may dwell in the Mterior regions of the witt. 0 make us to love Thee for Thyself, and rehgion for Thee, and all the in struments of religion M order to Thy glory and our own felicities. Pull off the visors of sin, and dscover its deformities by the lan tern of Thy word and the light of the Spirit, that I may never he bewitched with sottish appetites : be pleased to build up all the contents I expect in tMs world upon the interests of a virtuous Me and the support of rehgion ; that I may be rich in good works, content in the issues of Thy providence, my health may be the resdt of temperance and severity, my mirth in spiritual emanations, my rest in hope, my peace in a good conscience, my satisfaction and acqdescence M Thee ; that from content I may pass to an eternal fdness, from health to immortality, from grace to glory; walking in the paths of righteousness, by the waters of comfort, to the land of everlasting rest ; to feast in the glorious communica tions of etermty, eternally adoring, lovMg, and enjoymg the in finity of the ever-blessed and mysterious Trimty ; to whom be glory, and honour, and dominion, now and for ever. Amen. DISCOUBSE XVI. Of certainty of 'salvation6. 1. When the holy Jesus took an account of the first legation and voyage of His apostles, He found them rejoicing M privileges and d Ad Num. 1 7. SECT. XIII.] OF CERTAINTY OF SALVATION. 547 exterior powers, in their authority over unclean spirits ; but weigMng it in His balance, He found the cause too hght, and therefore diverted it upon the right object, "Bejoice that your names are written M heavene." The revelation was confirmed, and more persondly ap plied, in answer to St. Peter's question, " we have forsaken all, and followed Thee; what shall we have therefore ?" their Lord answered, "ye shall sit upon twelve tiirones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." Amongst these persons to whom Christ spake, Judas was; he was one of the twelve, and he had a throne allotted for him ; his name was described M the book of hfe, and a sceptre and a crown was deposited for him too. For we must not judge of Christ's meamng by the event, since He spake these words to produce in them faith, comfort, and joy in the best objects ; it was a sermon of duty as well as a homily of comfort, and therefore was equally intended to all the college; and since the number of tiirones is proportioned to the number of men, it is certdn there was no exception of any man there included, and yet it is as certain Judas never came to sit upon the throne, and Ms name was blotted out of the book of life. Now if M'e put these ends together, that in scripture it was not revealed to any man concerning Ms final condition, but to the dying pemtent thief, and to the twelve apostles, that twelve tMones were designed for them, and a promise made of their enthronization ; and yet that no man's final estate is so clearly declared miserable and lost as that of Judas, one of the twelve to whom a tiirone was promised ; the resdt will be, that the election of holy persons is a condition allied to duty, absolute and infallible in the general, and supposing all the dispositions and reqdsites concurring ; but faMble in the particdar, if we fall off from the mercies of the covenant, and prevaricate the conditions. But the thing wMch is most observable is, that if in persons so eminent and privileged, and to whom a revelation of their election was made as a particdar grace, their condition had one weak leg, upon which be cause it dd rely for one half of the interest, it could be no stronger than its supporters : the condition of lower persons, to whom no re velation is made, no privileges are inddged, no greatness of spiritual eminency is appendent, as they have no greater certamty in the thing, so they have less in person ; and are therefore to work out their sal vation with great fears and tremblings of spirit. 2. The purpose of this consideration is, that M'e do not judge of our find condition by any dscourses of our own, relying upon God's secret counsels and predestination of eternity. This is a mountain upon • Quod dixit Jesus lxxii. discipulis, gaudii tantum enarrare justam et legi- [Luc. x. 20.] eorum nomina descripta timam ; ex suppositione scil. et quando esse in ccelo ; praedestinationem licet hoc contigerit, aut ad effectum perdu- aliquatenus denotet, non tamen ad glo- cetur. Utcunque autem verba signi- riam, sed ad munus evangelicum et ficent, certum est doctores ecclesiaa non ministerium in regno. Alii autem verba paucos tradidisse lxxii. discipulos Chris- ilia non rem facti denotare, sed causam turn reliquisse, nee rediisse denuo. N n 2 548 OF CERTAINTY OF SALVATION. [PART HI. which whosoever climbs, hke Moses, to behold the land of Canaan at great distances, may please Ms eyes or satisfy his curiosity, but is certain never to enter that M'ayf. It is hke enquiring into fortunes, concerning which Phavorinuss the philosopher spake not unhand somely, " They that foretell events of destiny and secret providence, either foretell sad tirings, or prosperous. If they promise prosperous, and deceive, you are made miserable by a vain specdation. If they tin-eaten itt fortune, and say false, thou art made wretched by a false fear. But if they foretell adversity, and say true, thou art made miserable by thy own apprehension before thou art so by destiny ; and many times the fear is worse than the evil feared. But if they promise felicities, and promise trdy what shall come to pass, then thou shalt be wearied by an impatience and a suspended hope, and thy hope shall ravish and deflower the joys of thy possession11." Much of it is hugely applicable to the present question ; and our blessed Lord, when He was petitioned that He wodd grant to the two sons of Zebedee that they might sit, one on the right hand and the other on the left, in His kingdom, rejected their desire, and only promised them what concerned their duty and their suffering ; referring them to that, and leaving the final event of men to the disposition of His Father. This is the great secret of the kingdom, M'hich God hatl: locked up and sealed with the counsels of eternity. "The sure foundation of God standeth, havMg this seal, The Lord knoM'etk whc are His1." This sed shall never be broken up till the great day oi Christ ; in the mean trine, the dvine knoM'ledge is the only repository of the find sentences, and this 'way of God is unsearchable, and past finding out.' And therefore if we be solicitous and curious to knoM' ¦ what God in the counsels of eternity hath decreed concermng us ; He hath in two fair tables described dl those sentences from whence we must take accounts, the revelations of scripture, and the book of conscience. The first recites the law and the condtions, the other gives in evidence ; the first is clear, evident, and conspicuous ; the other, when it is written with large characters, may dso be discerned ; but there are many little accents, periods, dstinctions, and httle significations of actions, which either are there M'ritten in M'ater, or sullied over with carelessness, or blotted with forgetfulness, or not legible by ignorance, or misconstrued by interest and partiality, that it will be extremely difficdt to read the hand upon the wall, or to copy out one line of the eternal sentence. And therefore excellent ' Ad scelus ab hujusmodi votis facillime transitur. — Tac. [Hist i. 22.] Nos pravum ac dehile vulgus Scrutamur penitus superos ; hinc pallor et irse, Hinc scelus, insidiseque, et nulla modestia voti. — Statius. [Theb. iii. 563.] s Aul. Gell. [lib. xiv. cap. i. p. 641.] h Futurum gaudii fructum spes tibi jam prsefloraverit. — [Ubi sup.] ' 2 Tim. ii. 19. SECT. XIII.] OF CERTAINTY OF SALVATION. 549 was the counsel of the son of Sirach, " Seek not out the tilings that are too hard for thee, neither search the things that are above thy strength : but what is commanded thee, tirink thereupon with reve rence ; for it is not needd for thee to see with thine eyes the things that are M secret11." For whatsoever God hath reveded in general concerning election, it concerns all persons within the pale of cMis- tiamty; He hath conveyed notice to att cMistian people that they are the sons of God, that they are the heirs of etermty, " co-heirs with Christ, partakers of the dvine nature ;" meaning that such they are by the design of God and the purposes of trie manifestation of His Son. The election of God is dsputed in scripture to be an act of God separating whole nations and rejecting others : in each of wMch, many particdar instances there were contrary to the general and universd purpose ; and of the elect nations, many particdars perished, and many of the rejected people " sat down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven :" and to those persons to whom God was more particular, and was pleased to shew the scrolls of His eternal counsels, and to reveal their particular elections, as He did to the twelve apostles. He shewed them wrapped up and sealed ; and to take off their confidences or presumptions, He gave probation in one Mstance that those scrolls may be cancelled, that His purpose concerning particdars may be dtered by us ; and there fore that He dd not discover the bottom of the abyss, but some purposes of special grace and indefimte design. But His peremptory, final, unalterable decree. He keeps in the cabinets of the eternal ages, never to be unlocked tiU the angel of the covenant shall declare the undterable, universal sentence. 3. But, as we take the measure of the course of the sun by the dmensions of the shadows made by our own bodies, or om- own instruments ; so must we take the measures of eternity by the span of a man's hand, and guess at what God decrees of us, by considering how our relations and endearments are to Him. And it is observable that all the confidences wMch the Spirit of God hath created in the elect, are built upon duty, and stand or fall according to the strength or weakness of such supporters. " We know we are translated from death to life, by our love unto the bretirren1 :" meaning that the per formance of our duty is the best consignation to eternity, and the only testimony God gives us of our election : and therefore we are to make our judgments accordnglyl* And here I consider, that there is no state of a Christian in wMch, by virtue of the covenant of the gospel, it is effectively and fully declared that his sins are actually pardoned, but only in baptism, at our first coming to CMist ; when He " redeems us from our vdn conversation ;" when He makes us be come "sons of God;" when He "justifies us freely by His grace," when we are purified by faith, when we make a covenant with CMist, k Ecclus. iii. 21, 22. ¦ 1 John iii. 14. 550 OF CERTAINTY OF SALVATION. [PART III. to live for ever according to His laws. And tMs I shall suppose I have already proved and explicated in the Discourse of Bepentance, So that whoever is certain he hath not offended God sincerthat time, and in nothing transgresseth the laws of Christianity, he is certain that he actudly remains in the state of baptismd purity : but it is too certain that this certdnty remains not long, but we commody throw some dirt into our waters of baptism, and stdn our white robe wMch we then put on. 4. But then because our restitution to this state is a. tiring that consists of so many parts, is so dvisible, various, and uncertain whether it be arrived to the degree of innocence, and our innocence consists in a mathematical point, and is not capable of degrees any more than unity, because one stain destroys our being innocent,; it is therefore a very dfficdt matter to say that we have done att our duty towards our restitution to baptismd grace ; and if we have not done all that we can do, it is harder to say that God hath accepted that wlrich is less than the conditions we entered into when we received the great justification and pardon of sins. We all know we do less than our duty, and we hope that God makes abatements for human infirmities ; but we have but a few rdes to judge by, and they are not hifdrible in themselves, and we yet more fallible in the applica tion, whether we have not mingled some little minutes of malice in the body of infirmities, and how much will bear excuse ; and in what time, and to M'hat persons, and to what degrees, and upon what en deavours, M'e shall be pardoned : so that all trie Mterval between our losing baptismal grace and the day of our death, we walk in a cloud, having lost the certain knowledge of our present condtion by our pre varications. And indeed it is a very hard tiring for a man to know Ms OM'n heart; and he that shall observe how often Mmself hath been abused by confidences and secret imperfections, and how the . greatest part of CMistians (in name ody) do tirihk themselves m a very good condtion, when God knows they are infimtely removed from it ; and yet if they dd not think themselves well and sure, it is unimaginable they shodd sleep so qdetiy, and walk securely, and consider negligently, and yet proceed confidently : — he that considers tMs, and upon what weak and fdse principles of divririty men have raised their strengths and persuasions, wiU easily consent to tiris j. that it is very easy for men to be deceived in taking estimate of their present condtion, oftheir being (fti the state of grace. 5. But there is great variety of men, and difference of degrees; and every step of returning to God may reasonably add one degree of hope, till at last it comes to the certdnty and top of hope. Many men believe themselves to be in the state of grace, and are not ; many are in the state of grace, and are infinitely fearful they are out of it ; and many that are in God's favour, do think they are so, and they are not deceived. And all this is certain. For some sm that sin of presumption and flattery of themselves, and some good persons are SECT. XIII.] OF CERTAINTY OF SALVATION. 551 vexed with violent fears and temptations to despair, and all are not ; and when their hopes are right, yet some are strong, and some are weak ; for they that are well persuaded of their present condition, have persuasions as different as are the degrees of their approach to innocence ; and he that is at the highest, hath also such abatements wMch are apt and proper for the conservation of humility and gody fear. " I am guilty of nothing," saith St. Paul, " but I am not hereby justified111 ;" meaning thus : Though I be innocent for aught I know, yet God, M'ho judges otherwise than M'e judge, may find sometiring to reprove in me ; it is God that judges, that is, con cerning my degrees of acceptance and hopes of glory. If the person be newly recovering from a state of sin, because Ms state is imperfect, and Ms sin not dead, and Ms lust active, and his habit not quite extinct, it is easy for a man to be too hasty in pronouncing well". He is wrapt up in a cloak of clouds, Mdden and encumbered ; and Ms brightest day is but twilight, and his discernings dark, conjectural, and imperfect ; and his heart is like a cold hand newly applied to the fire, full of pain, and whether the heat or the cold be strongest is not easy to determine ; or like midde colours, wMch no man can tell to which of the extremes they are to be accounted. But ac cording as persons grow in grace, so they may grow in confidence of their present condtion. It is not certain they will do so : for some times the beauty of the tabernacle is . covered with goat's hdr and skins of beasts, and holy people do infinitely deplore the want of such graces which God observes in them with great complacency and acceptance. Both these cases say, that to be certaidy persuaded of our present condition is not a duty : sometimes it is not possible, and sometimes it is better to be otherwise. But if we consider of this certaMty as a blessing and a reward, there is no question but in a great and an eminent sanctity of life there may also be a great confidence and fulness of persuasion that our present being is M'ell und gracious, and then it is certain that such persons are not de ceived. For the thing itself being sure, if the persuasion ansM'ers to it, it is needless to dispute of the degree of certainty and the manner of it. Some persons are heartily persuaded of their being reconciled ; and of these, some are deceived, and some are not deceived ; and there is no sign to dstinguish them but by that which is the thing signified : a holy life, according to the strict rules of christian dis cipline, tells what persons are confident, and who are presumptuous. But the certaMty is reasonable in none but in old Christians, habi- m 1 Cor. iv. 4. ter hanc causam propheta ait, Delicta Cum multis in rebus offendamus omnes quis intelligit ? — S. Basil. Monast. Con- [Deum], majorem tamen offensarum par- stit, [cap. i. torn. ii. p. 669 B. fol. Par. tern ne intelligimus quidem ; idcirco 1618. — Cap. i. § 3. torn, ii. p. 536 E. ed. apostolus dicebat, Nihil mihi conscius Gamier.] sum, &c. q. d., Multa delicta committo, " Eccles. ix. 1, 2. qua? committere me non intelligo. Prop- 552 OF CERTAINTY OF SALVATION. [PART III. tually holy persons ; not in new converts, or in lately lapsed people : for concerning them we find the Spirit of God speaking with clauses of restraint and ambiguity; a "perhaps0," and "who knoweth," and "peradventure the thoughts of thy heart maybe forgiven thee;" God may have mercy on thee : and that God hath done so they only have reason to be confident whom God hath blessed with a lasting, continring piety, and who have wrought out the habits of their pre contracted vices. 6. But we find in scripture many precepts given to holy persons, being in the state of grace, to secure their standng, and perpetuate their present condition. Por " he that endureth unto the end," he only " shdl be saved p," said our blessed Saviour : and " he that standeth, let him take heed lest he fallq :" and, "thou standest by faith; be not high-minded, but fear1':" and "work out your sdva tion with fear and trembling s :" " hold fast that thou hast, and let no man take the crown from thee1 ;" and it was excellent advice, for one church had "lost their first loveu," and was likely also to lose their crown. And St. Pad Mmself, M'ho had once entered witMn the veil, and seen unutterable glories, yet was forced to endure hard ship, and to fight against his oM'n disobedient appetite, and to do violence to his inclinations, for fear that "M'hilst he preached to others himself shodd become a cast-away." And since we observe in holy story, that Adam and Eve fell in paradise, and the angels fell in heaven itself, stumbling at the very jeM'els which pave the streets of the celestial Jerusalem ; and in Christ's family, one man, for whom his Lord had prepared a throne, turned devil; and that in the number of ihe deacons it is said that oneT turned, apostate, who yet had been a man fdl of the holy Ghost ; it will lessen our train and discompose the gayeties of our present confidence, to think that our securities cannot be redly distinguished from danger and uncer tainties. For every man walks upon two legs ; one is firm, invari able, constant, and eternal ; but the other is his own. God's pro mises are the objects of our faith ; but the events and find conditions of our souls, which is consequent to our duty, can at the best be but the objects of our hope. And either there must in tMs be a less cer tainty, or else faith and hope are not two dstinct graces. God's gifts and vocation " are without repentancex ;" meamng, on God's part ¦ but the very people concerning whom St. Pad used the expression, were reprobate and cut off, and in good time shall be called agam ; in the mean time many single persons perish. "There is no con- ° Beatus Daniel, prascius futurorum, i 1 Cor. x. 12. de sententia Dei dubitat. Rem temera- r Bom. xi. 20. riam faciunt, qui audacter peccatoribus s Phil. ii. 12. indulgentiam pollicentur. — S. Hieron. in ' Rev. iii. 11. Dan. iv. 27. [torn. iii. col. 1090.] Joel ii. u [Chap. ii. 4.] 14 ; Acts viii. 22. » [Sc.Nicolas.— Actsvi.5; Rev.ii.C,15.J P Matt. xxiv. 13. * Rom. xi. 29. SECT. XI II.] OF CERTAINTY OF SALVATION. 553 demnation to them that are in Christ Jesus ? ;" God will look to that, and it will never fail : but then they must secure the following period, and "not walk after the flesh, but after the Spirit:" "behold the goodness of God towards thee," saith St. Pad, " if thou continue in His goodness; otherwise thou also shalt be cut offz." And if this be true concerning the whole church of the gentries, to whom the apostle then made the address, and concerning whose election the decree was public and manifest, that they might be cut off, and their abode in God's favour was upon condtion of their perseverance in the faith ; much more is it true in single persons, whose election in particular is shut up in the abyss, and permitted to the condition of our faith and obedence, and the revelations of doomsday. 7. Certain it is that God hath given to holy persons "the spirit of adoption," enabling them to "cry, abba, Father"," and to account themselves for sons ; and by tiris " Spirit we know we dM'ett in Himb." And therefore it is called in scripture, " the earnest of the Spirit0 :" though at its first mission, and when the apostle wrote and used tMs appellative, the holy Ghost was of greater signification, and a more visible earnest and endearment of their hopes, than it is to most of us since ; for the visible sendng of the holy Ghost upon many behevers, in gifts, signs, and prodigies, was infimte argument to make them expect events as great beyond that, as that was beyond the common gifts of men ; (just as miracles and prophecy, wMch are gifts of the holy Ghost, were arguments of probation for the whole doctrine of Christianity ;) and this being a mighty verification of the great promise, the promise of the Father, was an apt instru ment to raise their hopes and confidences concerning those other promises wMch Jesus made, the promises of immortality and eternal life, of which the present miracdous graces of the holy Spirit M-ere an earnest, and in the nature of a contracting penny. And still dso the holy Ghost, though in another manner, is an earnest of the great price of the heavenly catting, the rewards of heaven ; though not so visible and apparent as at first, yet as certain and demonstrative, where it is dscerned, or where it is believed, as it is and ought to be in every person who does any part of Ms duty, because by the Spirit we do it, and without Him Mre cannot. And since we either feel or believe the presence and gifts of the holy Ghost to holy purposes, (for whom we receive voluntarily we cannot easily receive without a knowledge of His reception,) we cannot but entertain Him as an ar gument of greater good hereafter, and an earnest-penny of the per fection of the present grace, that is, of the rewards of glory; glory and grace differing no otherwise than as an earnest, in part of pay ment, does from the whole price, "the price d of our high caUing." So that the Spirit is an earnest, not because He dways signifies to ' Rom. viii. 1. b 1 John iv. 13. * Rom. xi. 22. c 2 Cor. i. 22 ; v. 5. ¦ Rom. viii. 15. d [See vol. iv. p. 500, note b.] 554 OF CERTAINTY OF SALVATION. [PART IIT. us that we are actudly in the state of grace, but by way of argument or reflection ; we know we do belong to God, when we receive His Spirit; (and att christian people have received Him, if they were rightly baptized and confirmed ;) I say, we know by that testimony that we belong to God ; that is, we are the people with whom God hath made a covenant, to whom He hath promised and intends greater blessings, to wMch the present gifts of the Spirit are in order. But all this is conditiond, and is not an immedate testimony of the certainty and future event ; but of the event as it is possibly future, and may (without our fadt) be reduced to act as certaidy as it is promised, or as the earnest is given in hand. And tMs the Spirit of God oftentimes tells us, in secret visitations and public testimomes : and tMs is that which St. Pad calls " tasting of the heavedy gift, and partaking of the holy Ghost," and " tasting of the good work of God, and the powers of the world to comed." But yet some that have done so have fallen away, and have " quenched the Spirit," and have given back the earnest of the Spirit, and contracted new re lations ; and God hath been their Father no longer, for they have done the works of the devil. So that if new converts be uncertam of their present state, old CMistians are not absolutely certain they shaU persevere. They are as sure of it as they can be of future acts of theirs which God hath permitted to their own power :. but tMs certainly cannot exclude att fear, till their charity be perfect; ody according to the strength of their habits, so is the confidence of their abodes in grace. 8. Beyond tMs, some holy persons have degrees of persuasion superadded as largesses and acts of grace ; God loving to bless one degree of grace with another, till it comes to a confirmation M grace, wlrich is a state of salvation drectly opposite to obduration ; and as this is irremedable and irrecoverable, so is the other inamissible : as God never saves a person obdurate and obstinately impenitent, so He never loses a man whom He hath cordrmed M gracee. " Whom He (so) loves, He loves unto the end ;" and to others Mdeed He offers His persevering love, but they wril not entertain it with a persevering duty, they will not be beloved unto the end. But I insert this caution, that every man that is in this condition of a confirmed grace does not dways know it ; but sometimes God draws aside the curtains of peace, and shews him His tMone, and visits him with irradiations of glory, and sends Mm a little star to stand over Ms dweffing, and then again covers it with a cloud. It is certain concerning some persons, that they shall never faU, and that God will not permit them to the danger or probability of it : to such it is morally impossible : but these are but few, and themselves know it not as they know a demonstrative proposition, but as they see the sun, sometimes break- d Heb. vi. 4, 5. -Hie felix, nullo turban te deorum ; Is, nullo parcente, reiser. [Lucan. viii. 707.] SECT. XIII.] OF CERTAINTY OF SALVATION. 555 ing from a cloud very brightly, but all day long giving necessary and sufficient light. 9. Concerning the mdtitude of behevers tMs discourse is not pertinent ; for they only take their own accounts by the imperfections of their own duty blended with the mercies of God : the cloud gives hght on one side and is dark upon the other; and sometimes a blight ray peeps tMough the fringes of a shower, and immediately Mdes ¦itself: that M'e might be humble and diligent; striving forwards, and looking upwards ; endeavouring our duty, and longing after heaven : "working out our salvation with fear and trembhng;" and in good trine "our calling and election" may be assured, when we first, ac cording to the precept of the apostle, " use all diligence." St. Pad, when he writ his first epistle to the Corinthians, was more fearfd of being reprobate f, and therefore he used exterior arts of mortification : but when he writ to the Bomans, wMch was a good M'hile after, we find Mm more confident of Ms find condition, " persuaded that nei ther height nor depth, angel nor principahty nor power, codd sepa rate him from the love of God in Jesus CMists :" and when he grew to his latter end, when he wrote to St. Timothy11, he was more confi dent yet, and declared that now a " crown of righteousness was" cer tainly " laid up for him ;" for now he had " fought the fight, and finished his course ; the time of his departure was at hand :" hence forth he knew no more fear ; Ms love was perfect as this state M'ould permit, and that " cast out aU fear." Accordng to this precedent if we reckon our securities, M'e are not likely to be reproved by any words of scripture, or by the condition of human infcmity. But when the confidence outruns our growth in grace, it is itself a sin ; though when the confidence is equal with the grace, it is of itself no regdar and universd duty, but a blessing and a reward, inddged by specid dspensation, and in order to personal necessities or accidental purposes. For only so much hope is simply necessary, as excludes despair, and encourages our duty, and glorifies God, and entertains His mercy ; but that the hope should be without fear, is not given but to the highest faith, and the most excellent charity, and to habi tual, ratified, and confirmed Christians ; and to them also with some variety. The sum is tMs : att that are in the state of beginners and imperfection, have a condtional certdnty, changeable and faMble in respect of us, (for we medde not Mith what it is in God's secret pur poses ;) changeable, I say, as their wills and resolutions. They that are grown towards perfection have more reason to be confident, aud many times are so ; but still, although the strength of the habits of grace adds degrees of mord certainty to their expectation, yet it is but as their condtion is, hopeful and promising, and of a moral de termination. But to those few to whom God hath given confirmation in grace, He hath also given a certainty of condition : and therefore ' 1 Cor. ix. 27 B Rom. viii, 38. '' 2 Tim. iv. 6—8, 550 OF CERTAINTY OF SALVATION. [PART III. if that be revealed to them, their persuasions are certain and infal lible ; if it be not revealed to them, their condtion is in itself cer tain, but their persuasion is not so, but in the highest kind of hope, " an anchor of the sod, sure and stedfast." THE PBAYEB. O eternal God, whose counsels are in the great deep, and Thy ways past finding out; Thou hast built our faith upon Thy promises, our hopes upon Thy goodness, and hast described our paths be tween the waters of comfort and the dry barren land of our own duties and affections ; we acknowledge that all our comforts derive from Thee, and to ourselves we owe all our shame, and confusions, and degrees of desperation. Give us the assistances of the holy Ghost to help us in performing our duty ; and give us those com forts and visitations of the holy Ghost which Thou, in Thy infinite and eternd wisdom, knowest most apt and expedent to encourage our duties, to entertain our hopes, to alleviate our sadnesses, to refresh our spirits, and to endure our abode and constant endea vours in the strictnesses of religion and sanctity. Lead us, dearest • God, from grace to grace, from imperfection to strength, from acts to habits, from habits to confirmation in grace, that we may also pass into the regions of comfort, receivMg the earnest of the Spirit and the adoption of sons ; tiU by such a signature we be consigned to glory, and enter into the possession of the inherit ance which we expect in the kingdom of Thy Son, and in the fruition of the felicities of Thee, 0 gracious Father, God eternal. Amen. SECTION XIV. Of the third year of the preaching of Jesus. 1. But Jesus, knowing of the death of the Baptist, Herod's jealousy, and the envy of the pharisees, retired Mto a desert place beyond the lake, together with His apostles : for the people pressed so upon them they had not leisure to eat. But neither there codd He be hid, but great mdtitudes flocked tirither dso ; to whom He preached many things. And afterwards because there were no vil lages in the neighbourhood, lest they shodd faMt in their return to their houses, He caused them to sit down upon the grass, and, with five loaves of barley and two small fishes He satisfied five thousand men, besides women and children, and caused the disciples to gather SECT, xiv.] of the preaching OF JESUS. 557 up the fragments, wMch, being amassed together, filled twelve baskets. WMch miracles had so much proportion to the understanding, and met so happily with the affections of the people, that they were con- vmced that tMs was the " Messias who was to come into the world," and had a purpose to have " taken Him by force and made Him a king." 2. But He that left His Father's kingdom to take upon Him the miseries and infelicities of the world, fled from the offers of a king dom, and their tumdtuary election, as from an enemy ; and therefore sending His disciples to the ship before towards Bethsdda, He ran into the mountains to hide Himself till the multitude shodd scatter to their several habitations ; He in the meantime taking the opportu nity of that retirement for the advantage of His prayers. But M'hen the apostles were far engaged in the deep, a great tempest arose, with which they were pressed to the extremity of danger and the last refuges, labouring in sadness and hopelessness till " the fourth watch of the mght," when in the midst of their fears and labour " Jesus comes, walking on the sea," and appeared to them; which turned their fears into affrightments, for "they supposed it had been a spirit ;" but He appeased their fears, M'ith His presence, and mani festation who He was. Which yet they desired to have proved to them by a sign ; for " Simon Peter said unto Him, Master, if it be Thou, command me to come to Thee on the waters : " the Lord did so : and Peter, throwing himself upon the confidence of His Master's power and providence, came out of the sMp ; and his fear began to weigh him down, and " he cried, saying, Lord, save me : Jesus took Mm by the hand," reproved the timorousness of his faith, and " went with Mm Mto the sMp :" where when they had "worsMpped Hrin," and admired the divinity of His power and person, they presently " came into the land of Genesareth," the ship arriving " at the port immedately." And "dl that M'ere sick," or possessed M'ith unclean spirits, "were brought to Him, and as many as touched the border of His garment M'ere made whole." 3. By this time, they whom Jesus had left on the other side of the lake had come as far as Capernaum to seek Him, wondering that He was there before them : but upon the occasion of their so diligent inqdsition, Jesus observes to them, that it was not the divinity of the miracle that provoked their zeal, but the satisfaction they had in the loaves, a carnal complacency in their meal ; and upon that inti mation, speaks of celestial bread, the dvMe nutriment of sods ; and then dscourses of the mysterious and symbolical manducation of CMist himself, aflirming that He Mmself M'as 'the bread of life, that came down from heaven,' that He wodd give His disciples ' His flesh to eat, and His blood to drink,' and all this should be ' for the Me of the world,' to nourish unto life eternal ; so that Mithout it a happy eternity codd not be obtained. Upon this discourse " divers of His dsciples" (amongst whom St. Mark the evangelist is said to 558 HISTORY OF THE THIRD YEAR [PART III. be one, though he was afterwards recalled by Simon Peter1) "forsook Him," being scandalized by their literal and carnd understanding of those words of Jesus which He intended in a spiritual sense. For " the words that He spake" were not profitable in the sense of flesh and blood, but "they are spirit, and they are Me," Himself bemg the expounder, who best knew His own meaning. 4. When Jesus saw this great defection of His dsciples from Him, He turned Him to the twelve apostles, and asked if they " dso wodd go away ? Srinon Peter answered, Lord, wMther shall we go ? Thou hast the words of eternal life ; and we believe, and are sure, Thou art that CMist, the Son of the living God." Although this public con fession was made by Peter in the name and confidence of the other apostles, yet Jesus told them that even amongst the twelve there was "one devil;" meaning Judas Iscariot, "who dterwards betrayed Him." This He told them prophetically, that they might perceive the sad accidents which afterwards happened dd not invade and sur prise Him in the disadvantages of ignorance or improvision, but came by His own knowledge and providence. 5. Then came to Him the pharisees, and some scribes, wlrich came from Jerusalem and GaMee, (for " Jesus would not go to Judea, because the Jews laid wait to kill Him,") and quarrelled with Hrin about certain impertinent, unnecessary rites, derived to them not by divine sanction, but " ordinances of man : " such as were washing their hands oft M'hen they eat, baptizing cups and platters, and wash ing tables and beds ; which ceremonies the apostles of Jesus did not observe, but attended ddgently to the simplicity and spiritud hoh ness of their Master's doctrine. But in return to their vain demands Jesus gave them a sharp reproof, for prosecuting these and many other traditions to the dscountenance of divine precepts; and in particdar, they taught men to give to the corban, and refused to supply the necessity of their parents, thinking it to be rehgion though they neglected piety and charity. And again He thunders out woes and sadnesses against their impieties, for being curious of minutes, and punctual in rites and ceremonials, but most negligent and in curious of judgment and the love of God; for their pride, for their hypocrisy, for their imposing burdens upon' others, which themselves helped not to support ; for taking aM'ay the key of knowledge from the people, obstructing the passages to heaven ; for approving the acts of their fathers in persecuting the prophets. But for the question itself concerning M'ashings, Jesus taught the people that no outward Mrpurity did stain the sod in the sight of God, but all pollution is from within, from the corruption of the heart, and impure thoughts, unchaste desires, and unholy purposes, and that charity is the best purifier in the world. 6. And thence " Jesus departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, > Epiphan. Adv. ha;r. Ii. [§ 6. lib. i. torn. i. p. 428 A.] SECT. XIV.] OF THE PREACHING OF JESUS. 559 and entered into a house" that He might "not be known." The diligence of a mother's love, and sorrow and necessity, found Him out in His retirement ; for a " Syrophcemcian woman came and be sought Him that He would cast the devil out of her daughter." But Jesus dscoursed to her by way of discomfort and rejection of her, for her nation's sake. But the seeming denid did but enkindle her de sires, and made her importunity more bold and undeniable; she begged but " some crumbs that fell from the children's table," but one instance of favour to her daughter, which He poured forth with out measure upon the sons and daughters of Israel. Jesus was pleased with her zed and dscretion, and pitied her daughter's in felicity, and dismissed her with saying "the devil was gone out of her daughter." 7. But Jesus staid not long here, but returmng "to the sea of GaMee, through the midst of Decapolis, they brought unto Him a man deaf and dumb," whom Jesus cured by " touching his tongue, and putting His fingers in his ears :" which caused the people to give a large testimony in approbation of all His actions. And they fol lowed Him unto a mountain, bringing to Him mdtitudes of diseased people, and He heded them all. But because the people had fol lowed Him " three days, and had nothing to eat," Jesus in pity to their need resolved to feast them once more at the charge of a miracle ; therefore taking " seven loaves and a few small fishes, He blessed them, and satisfied four thousand men, besides women and childen ;" and there remained " seven baskets full" of broken bread and fish. Prom whence Jesus departed by sMp to the coasts of Mageddon and Dalmanutha : whither " the pharisees and sadducees came, seeking of Him a sign :" but Jesus rejected their impertinent and captious demand, knoM'ing they did it to ill purposes, and with dsaffection ; reproving them, that they " discerned the face of the sky," and the prognostics of " fair or fod weather," but " not the signs of the times" of the Son of man. However, since they had neglected so great demonstrations of miracles, gracious discourses, holy laM's and prophecies, they must expect " no other sign but the sign of the prophet Jonas," meamng the resurrection of His body after tirree days' burial; and so He dismissed the impertinent inqdsitors. 8. And passing again over the lake, as His dsciples were solicitous because " they had forgot to take bread," He gave them caution to " beware of the leaven of the pharisees and sadducees, and the leaven of Herod ;" meaning, the hypocrisy and vanities of the one, and the heresy of the other : for Herod's leaven was the pretence that he was the Messias, which the sect of the Herodans did earnestly and spite fully promoted And after this entertainment of themselves by the way, they came together to Bethsaida, M'here Jesus cured a blind * [vid. p. 508. not. g sup.] 560 HISTORY OF THE THIRP YEAR [FART IU. man with a collyrium of spittle, salutary as balsam or the purest eye- bright, when His divine benediction once had hdlowed it. But Jesus staid not there, but departing thence into the coasts of Gaesarea Philippi, out of Herod's power (for it was in Philip's jurisdiction), after He had " prayed with His dsciples," He enqdred what ophrion the world had of Him, and " whom they reported Him to be ? they answered, Some say thou art John the baptist, some that thou art Ehas, or Jeremias, or one of the prophets." For in Galilee especially the sect of the pharisees was mightily dsseminated, whose opinion it was that the souls of dead men, according to their several merits, did transmigrate into other bodies of very perfect and excellent persons ; and therefore in all this variety none hit upon the right, or fancied Him to be a distinct person from the ancients, but dthough they dffered in the assignation of His name, yet generally they agreed it was the sod of a departed prophet which had passed into another body. But Jesus asked the apostles their opinion ; and Peter in the name of all the rest made an open and confident confession, " Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God." 9. This coMession Jesus not only confirmed as true, but as "re- veded by God," and of fundamentd necessity : for after the blessing of Peter's person, upon allusion of Peter's name, Jesus said that " upon tMs rock (the article of Peter's coMession) He wodd build His church," promising to it assistances, even to perpetdty, inso much that " the gates of hell," that is, persecution, and death, and the grave, " should never prevail against it :" addng withal a pro mise to Peter, in behalf of dl the rest, as he had made a confession for them all, that He would " give unto him the keys of the kingdom of heaven, so that whatsoever He shodd bind on earth, shodd be bound M heaven : and whatsoever he should loose on earth, shodd be loosed M heaven :" a power which He never communicated before or since, but to their successors ; greater than the large charter of nature, and the donative of creation, in which all the creatures under heaven were made subject to man's empire, but tril now heaven itself was never subordinate to human ministration. 10. And now the days from henceforward to the death of Jesus we must reckon to be like the vigils or eves of His passion ; for now He began, and often did ingeminate, those sad predictions of His unhandsome usage He should shortly find ; that He shodd be " re jected of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and suffer many things at Jerusalem, and be killed, and be raised up the tirird day." But Peter, hearing that sad discourse, so contrary to his hopes, wMch he had blended with temporal expectances (for he had learned the doctrine of Christ's advent, but not the mystery of the cross), in great and mistaken civility took Jesus aside, " and began to rebuke Him, saying, Be it far from Thee, Lord : this shall not be unto Thee." But Jesus, full of zeal against so soft and human admonition, that savoured nothing of God, or of abstracted immaterial considerations, SECT. XIV.] OF THE PREACHING OF JESUS. 561 chid Peter bitterly ; " Get thee behind Me, Satan, thou art an offence unto Me ;" and calling His dsciples to Him, told them a second part of a sad doctrine, that not only Himself, but dl they dso must suffer. For when the head was to be crowned with thorns, if the members were wrapt in softnesses, it was an unhandsome undecency, and a disumon too near an antipathy : and therefore whoever will be the disciple of Jesus, must " take up his cross, deny himself" and Ms own fonder appetites, and trace Ms Master's footsteps, marked out with blood, that He shed for our redemption and restitution. And that there be no escape from the participation of CMist's suffering, Jesus added tMs dilemma ; " He that will save his life, shall lose it ; and he that witt lose it, shall save it" to eternity. Wlrich part soever we choose, there is a Me to be lost ; but as the first are foolish to the extremest misery that wiU lose their souls to gain the world, so they are most wise and fortunate that will give their lives for Him ; be cause when " the Son of man shdl come in His own glory and His Father's and of His angels, He shall reward every man accordng to his works." This dscourse Jesus concluded with a prophecy, that " some standing" in that presence " shodd not de till they saw the Son of man coming in His kingdom." Il- Of the greater glories of M'hich, in due time to be reveded, "Jesus -after eight days" gave a bright and excellent probation. For " taking with Him Peter, and James, and John, He went up into the mountain Tabor to pray; and M'Mle He prayed, He was transfigured before them, and His face did shine ttke the sun, and His garments were wMte and ghstering : and there appeared talking with Him Moses and Ettas gloriously, speaking of the decease which He shodd accomplish at Jerusalem;" which glory these apostles, after they had awaked from sleep, dd behold. And the interlocutors with Jesus, having fhrished their embassy of death, which they delivered in forms of glory, representing the ex cellencies of the reward together with the sharpness of the pas sage and interval, departed, leaving the apostles "full of fear" and wonder and ecstasy; insomuch that "Peter talked, he knew not what," but nothing amiss, sometiring prophetical, saying, "Mas ter, it is good to be here ; let us build tirree tabernacles :" and some devout persons, in memory of the mystery, did erect three churches in the same place M after ages1. But after the departure of those attendant saints, "a cloud encircled Jesus" and the dis ciples, " and a voice came from the excellent glory, This is My be loved Son, hear Him." The cloud qdckly dsappeared, and freed the dsciples from the fear it had put them in. So they attended Jesus, and "descended from the mountain," being commanded silence, which they observed, " till the resurrection." 12. The next day came to Jesus a man praying in behalf of Ms son, " lunatic and sore troubled with a devil," who sought oft " to 1 Beda de Loc. Sanct., cap. 17. [torn. iii. col. 370.] II. 0 0 562 HISTORY OF THE THIRD YEAR [PART III. destroy him in fire and water111," that Jesus would be pleased to deliver him. For His apostles tried, and " codd not," by reason of the want of faith : for tiris grace, if it be true, though in a less degree, is of power to " remove mountains," to pluck up trees by the roots, and to give them solid foundation in the waters. "And Jesus rebuked the devil, and he departed out of him" from that very hour. Thence Jesus departed privately into GaMee, and M His journey repeated those sadnesses of His approacMng passion : M'Mch so afflicted the spirits of the disciples that they durst no more pro voke Him to dscourse, lest He should take occasion to interweave sometiring of that unpleasant argument with it. For sad and dis consolate persons use to create comforts to themselves by fiction of fancy, and use arts of avocation to remove displeasure from them, and stratagems to remove it from their presence by removing it from their apprehensions, thinking the Mcommodty of it is then taken away when they have lost the sense. 13. When Jesus was now come to Capernaum, the exactors of rates came to Simon Peter, asking Mm if Ms Master paid the accustomed imposition, viz. a side, or didrachm, the fourth part of an ounce of silver, wMch was the tribute" which the Lord imposed' upon all the sons of Israel, from twenty years old and above, to pay for redemption and propitiation, and for the use of the tabernacle. "When Peter came into the house, Jesus," knowing the message that he was big with, " prevented him," by asking him, " Of whom do the kings of the nations take tribute ? of their own childen or of strangers ? Peter answered, Of strangers :" then " said Jesus, then are the children free ;" meamng, that since the gentile kings do not exact tribute of their sons, neither will God of His ; and therefore tiris pension to be pdd for the use of the tabernacle, for the service of God, for the redemption of their sods, was not to be paid by Him who was the Son of God, but by strangers : " yet to avoid offence," He sent Peter a-fisMng, and provided a fish with two ddachms of silver in it, wMch He commanded Peter to pay for them two. 14. But when the dsciples were together with "Jesus in the house, He asked them what they discoursed of upon the way ;" for they had fallen upon an ambitious and mistaken quarrel, "wMch of them shodd be greatest in their Master's kMgdom," wMch they still did deam shodd be an external and secular royalty, full of fancy and honour. But the Master was diligent to check their forwardness, establishing a rde for clerical deportment, "he that will be greatest among you, let him be your midster :" so supposmg a greater and a lesser, a midster, and a person to be ministered unto ; but dividng the grandeur of the person from the greatness of m Saepe fui sorbendus aquis, sa;pe igne vorandus; Sed timuere tuas ignis et unda manus. " Exod. xxx. 13, 14. SECT. XIV.] OF THE PREACHING OF JESUS. 563 office, that the Mgher the employment is, the more humble should be the man. Because in spiritual prelation it is not as in secular pomps, where the dominion is despotic, the coercion bloody, the dctates imperious, the laws externally compulsory, and the titles arrogant and vain ; and all the advantages are so passed upon the person, that making that first to be splendid, it passes from the person to the subjects, who in abstracted essences do not easily apprehend regalities in veneration, but as they are subjected in persons made excellent by such superstructures of majesty ; but in digdties ecclesiasticd the donrinion is paternal, the regiment per suasive and argumentative, the coercion by censures immaterial, by cession and consent, by denid of benefits, by the interest of virtues, and the efficacy of hopes, and impresses upon the spirit ; the laws are full of admonition and sermon ; the titles of honour momtors of duty, and memorials of labour and offices ; and aU the advantages which from the office usuaUy pass upon the person, are to be divested by the humihty of the man ; and when they are of greatest venera tion, they are abstracted exceUencies and immaterial, not passing through the person to the people, and reflected to Ms lustre, but transmitted by Ms labour and mimstry, and give him honour for Ms labour's sake (wlrich is his personal exceUency), not for Ms honour and title, M'hich is either a derivative from Christ, or from the constitution of pious persons estimating and valuing the relatives of religion. 15. Then "Jesus taketh a little child, and setteth him in the midst," propounding him by way of emblem a pattern of humihty and simplicity, without the mixtures of ambition or caitive dstempers; such id'ant candour, and loM'ttness of spirit, being the necessary port tMough which we must pass if M'e will enter into the courts of heaven. But as a current of wholesome waters, breaking from its restraint, runs out in a succession of waters, and every preceding draught draws out the next ; so M'ere the discourses of Jesus . ex- cellent_and opportune, creating occasions for others ; that the whole doctrine of the gospel, and the entire will of the Father, might be communicated upon design, even the chances of words and actions being made regular and orderly by dvine providence. For from the instance of humility in the symbol and hieroglyphic of the child, Jesus discourses of the care God takes of little children, whether naturally or spiritually such ; the danger of doing them scandal and offences ; the care and power of their angels guardian ; of the ne cessity in the event that scandds should arise, and of the great woe and infelicity of those persons who M'ere the active ministers of such offences. 16. But if in the traverses of our hfe discontents and injuries be done, Jesus teaches how the injured person should demean Mmself0 ; 0 Iniuriam qui tulit, oblivisci potest ; usually the hardest to reconcile, because qui fecit, nunquam.— Tac. [cf. p. 458sup. they are still in doubt of their pardon." " Thev who have done the offence are — Leighton, on 1 Pet. iii. 18.] 0 0 2 564 HISTORY OF THE THIRD YEAR [PART III. First, reprove the offendng party privately ; if he repent, forgive him for ever, with a mercy as unwearied and as mdtiplied as Ms repent ance ; for the servant to whom his lord had forgiven ten thousand talents, because he refused to forgive his fellow-servant one hundred pence was delivered to the tormentors p till he should pay that debt, which his lord once forgave, till the servant's impiety forced him to repent his donative and remission. But if he refuses the charity of private correction, let him be reproved before a few M'itnesses ; and in case he be still incorrigible, let Mm be brought to the tribunal of the church ; against whose advices if he shall kick, let him feel her power, and be cut off from the communion of saints, becoming a pagan or a publican. And to make that the church shall not have a dead and ineffectual hand in her animadversions, Jesus promises to all the apostles, what before He promised to Peter, a power of "bmdng and loosmg on earth," and that it shodd be ratified in heaven, what they shall so dspose on earth with an un erring key. 17. But John interrupted Him, teMng Him of a stranger that " cast out devils in the name of Jesus," but because he M'as not of the family he had " forbidden him." To tMs Jesus replied that he should " in no wise have forbidden him," for in att reason he wodd do veneration to that Person whose name he saw to be energetical and triumphant over devils, and in whose name it is almost necessary that man shodd believe who used it as an instrument of ejection of impure spirits. Then Jesus proceeded in His excellent sermon and union of dscourses, addng holy precepts concerning " offences" which a man might do to hrinself ; in wMch case he is to be severe, though most gentle to others : for in Ms own case he must shew no mercy, but abscission : for it is better to ' cut off the offending hand or foot/ or ' extingdsh the offending eye,' rather than upon the support of a troublesome foot, and by the light of an offendmg eye, walk into rdn and a sad eterdty, 'where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.' And so Jesus ended tMs chain of ex cellent discourses. 18. About tMs time was the Jews' feast of tabernacles, wMther Jesus went up as it were in secret. And passing through Samaria, He found the Mhabitants of a little village so inhospitable as to refuse to give Him entertaMment ; which so provoked the intem perate zed of James and John, that they would fain have " called " De pcenis debitorum qui solvendo non pervenirent : dissectum esse antiquitus sunt, vide Liv. [ii. 23 ; vi. 11, 14; viii. 28.] neminem neque legi, neque audivi. Du- lib.i. etvi.;etDionys.Halicarn. Hist. Rom. ravit tamen ad asvum Constantini Magni, lib.vi. [cap. 82, etpass. al.];etA. Gellium, ut plumbatis caederentur debitores; qui lib. xx. cap. 1. [p. 864.] qui ait, licuisse tandem Christianam mansuetudinem in secare, si vellent, atque partiri corpus leges introduxit, et plumbatorum im- debitoris. Eo tamen consilio (sic harba- manitatem sustulit. — Cod. Theod., [lib. riem excusat Gellius) tanta immanitas xi. tit. 7. cap. 3. torn. iv. p. 71.] ocens denunciata est, ne ad earn unquam SECT. XIV.] OF THE PREACHING OF JESUS. 565 for fire to consume them, even as Elias did:" but Jesus rebuked the furies of their anger, teaching them to distinguish the spirit of cMistiamty from the ungentleness of the decretory zed of Elias ; for since "the Son of man came" M'ith a purpose " to seek and save what was lost," it M'as but an indiscreet temerity, suddedy upon the hghtest umbrages of displeasure to destroy a man, whose redemption cost the effusion of the dearest blood from the heart of Jesus. But contra riwise Jesus does a miracle upon the ten leprous persons, which came to Him from the neighbourhood crying out with sad exclamations for help ; but Jesus sent them to the priest, to offer for their cleansing : thither they went, and but one only returned to give thanks, and he a stranger, M'ho " with a loud voice glorified God," and with humble adoration worshipped and gave thanks to Jesus. 19. When Jesus had finished His journey and was now come to Jerusalem, for the first days He was undscerned in public conven tions, but heard of the various opinions of men concerning Him, "some saying He was a good man, others that He deceived the people." And the pharisees sought for Him, to do Him a miscMef; but when they despaired of findng Him in the midst of the feast and the people, He made sermons openly, in the midst of the temple. Whom when He had convinced by the variety and divinity of His miracles and dscourses, they gave the greatest testimony in the world of human weakness, and how prevalent a prejudice is above the confidence and conviction of a demonstration : for a proverb, a mistake, an error in matter of circumstance, did in their understand Mgs outweigh nmltitudes of miracles and arguments ; and because "CMist was of GaMee," because they "knew whence He was," because of the proverb that " out of Gdriee comes no prophet," be cause "the rders dd not believe in Him," these outweighed the demonstrations of His mercy, and His power, and dvidty. But yet "very many believed on Him; and no man durst lay hands to take Him, for as yet His time was not come" in which He meant to give Hrinself up to the poM'er of the Jews ; and therefore when the pharisees sent officers to seize Him, they also became His disciples, being themselves surprised by the excellency of His doctrine. 20. After this " Jesus went to the mount of Olivet," on the east of Jerusalem ; and " the next day returned again Mto the temple," where "the scribes and pharisees brought Him a woman taken in the act of addtery," tempting Him to give sentence, that they might accuse Him of severity or intermeddling if He condemned her, or of remissness and popdarity if He dd acqdt her : but Jesus found out an expedent for their diffiedty, and changed the scene, by bidding " the innocent person among them cast the first stone" at the adul teress ; and then " stoopmg down," to give them fair occasion to withdraw, " He wrote upon the ground with His finger," whilst they left the woman and her crime to a more private censure : " Jesus was left done, and the woman in the midst;" whom Jesus dsmissed, 566 HISTORY OF THE THIRD YEAR [PART III. charging her to " sin no more." And a wlrile after Jesus begins again to discourse to them, " of His mission from the Father, of His crucifixion and exaltation from the earth, of the reward of believers, of the excellency of truth, of spiritual liberty and relations ; who are the sons of Abraham, and who the childen of the devil ; of His own eternal generation, of the desire of Abraham to see His day." In which sermon He continued, adding still new excellencies, and con futing their malicious and vainer calumnies, tril they, that they also might coMute Him, "took up stones to cast at Him;" but He " went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by." 21. But in His passage He met a man who had been born brind : and after He had dscoursed cursorily of the cause of that blindness, it being a misery not sent as a punishment to "Ms own or Ms parent's sin," but as an occasion to make public "the glory of God;" He, to manifest that Himself was "the right of the world" in all senses, said it now, and proved it by a miracle : for sitting down, " He made clay of spittle," and " anointing the eyes of the blind man," bade Mm "go wash in Siloam;" M'Mch was a pool of rimpid water which God sent at the prayer of Isaiah the prophet a httle before Ms death q, to satisfy the necessities of His people oppressed with tirirst and a strict siege ; and it stood at the foot of Mount Sion, and gave its water at first by returns and periods, always to the Jews, but not to the enemies : and those intermitted springings were still continued, but ody a pool was made from the frequent effluxes. The blind man "went, and washed, and returned seeing;" and was m- cessantiy vexed by the pharisees, to teU them the manner and cir cumstances of the cure : and when the man had averred the truth, and named his physician, giving Him a pious and charitable testi mony, the pharisees, because they codd not force Mm to disavow his good opinion of Jesus, " cast him out of the synagogue." But Jesus meeting hrin received him Mto the church, told him He was Christ; and the man became agam enlightened, and he " believed and wor- sMpped." But the pharisees blasphemed : for such was the dspen- sation of the dvine mysteries, that the brind should see, and they wlrich tirink they see clearly shodd become brind, because they had not the excuse of ignorance to lessen or take off the sM, but m the midst of light they shut their eyes, and doted upon darkness, and " therefore dd their sin remain." 22. But Jesus continued His sermon among the pharisees, insmu- ating reprehensions in His dogmaticd dscourses, wMch, like hght, shined, and dscovered error. For by dscoursing the properties of a " good shepherd" and the lawful way of intromission, He proved them to be " thieves and robbers," because they refused to " enter m by Jesus," who is "the door of the sheep;" and upon the same 11 Epiphan. De vit. ct inter, prophet., cap. 7. [torn. ii. p. 238.] SECT. XIV.J OF THE PREACHING OF JESUS. 567 ground reproved dl those false Christs which before Him usurped the title of Messias ; and proved His own vocation and office by an argument wMch no other shepherd would use, because He "laid down His life for His sheep :" others M'ould take the fleece and eat the flesh, but none but Himself would die for His sheep ; but He wodd first die, and then gather His 'sheep' together "into one fold" (intimating the calhng of the gentiles) ; to which purpose He M'as " enabled by His Father to lay down His life, and to take it up ;" and had dso endeared them to His Father, that they shodd be "preserved unto eternal life;" and "no power should be able to take them out of His hand or the hand of His Father," for because Jesus was "umted to the Father," the Father's care preserved the Son's flocks. 23. But the Jews, to reqdte Hrin for His so dvine sermons, be took themselves to their old argument : " they took up stones again to cast at Him," pretending He had blasphemed : but Jesus proved it to be no blasphemy to call Himself " the Son of God," because " they to whom the word of God came, are" in scripture " called gods ;" but notMng codd satisfy them,' whose temporal interest was concerned not to consent to such doctrine which wodd save their souls by ruining their temporal concernments. But when thev sought again to take Him, Jesus escaped out of their hands, and went away beyond Jordan where John at first baptized : M'hich gave the people occasion to remember that " John did no miracle," but this man does many ; and John, whom all men did revere and highly account of for his office and sanctity, gave testimony to Jesus : " and many believed on Him there." 24. After this Jesus, knowing that the harvest was great, and as yet the labourers had been few, sent out seventy-two of His dsciples, with the hke commission as formerly the twelve apostles, that they might "go before to those places M'lrither Himself meant to come :" of which number were the seven whom afterwards the apostles set over the widoM's, and Mattirias, Mark, and some1' say Luke, Justus, Barnabas, Apelles, Bdus, Niger, Cephas, (not Peter,) Thaddseus, Aristion, and John ; the rest of the names could not be recovered by the best diligence of Eusebius and Epiphanius. But when they re turned from their journey, they rejoiced greatly in the legation and power, and Jesus also " rejoiced in spirit," giving glory to God that He had "made His revelations to babes" and the more imperfect persons; hke the lowest valleys, wMch receive from heaven the greatest floods of rain and blessings, and stand tirick with corn and flowers, when the mountains are unfruitfd in their height and greatness. 25. And now a doctor of the law came to Jesus, asking Him a » Epiphan. Panar., [lib. ii. torn. i. pias apud Euseb., lib. iii. [cap. 39. p. haer. Ii. cap. 11. vol, i. p. 433.] Euseb. 135 sqq.] Hist, eccl., lib. i. cap. 12. [p. 35.] Pa- 568 HISTORY OF THE THIRD YEAR [PART III. question of the greatest consideration that a Mise man codd ask, or a prophet answer, "master, what shdl I do to inherit eternal lie?" Jesus referred Mm to the scriptures, and declared the way to heaven to be tMs only, " to love the Lord with dl our powers and facdties, and our neighbour as ourself." But when the lawyer, being cap tious, made a scruple in a smooth rush, asking what is meant by "neighbour;" Jesus told Mm, by a parable of a traveller fallen into the hands of robbers, and neglected by a priest and by a Levite, but relieved by a Samaritan, that no distance of country or religion de stroys the relation of neighbourhood ; but every person with whom M'e converse in peace and charity, is that neighbour whom we are to love as ourselves. 26. Jesus, having departed from Jerusdem upon the fore-men tioned danger, came to a village called Bethany, where Martha, making great and busy preparation for His entertainment, to express her joy and her affections to His person, desired Jesus to dsmiss her sister Mary from His feet, who sate there feasting herself with the viands and sweetnesses of His doctrine, incurious of the provisions for entertainment. But Jesus commended her choice ; and though He dd not expressly disrepute Martha's civility, yet He preferred Mary's religion and sanctity of affections. — In tMs time, because " the night dew on in which no man codd work," Jesus hastened to do His Father's business, and to pour out whole cataracts of holy lessons ; like the frdtful Nilus swelttng over the banks, and fflling all the trenches, to make a plenty of corn and fririts great as the in undation. Jesus therefore teaches His dsciples that form of prayer the second time, which we call the Lord's prayer : teaches them as- siddty and indefatigable importunity in prayer, by a parable of an importunate neighbour borrowing loaves at midnight, and a trouble some widow who forced an unjust judge to do her right by her cla morous and hourly addesses : encourages them to pray by consider ation of the divine goodness and fatherly affection, far more indulgent to His sons than natural fathers are to their dearest issue ; and adds a gracious promise of success to them that pray. He reproves phari- saical ostentation; arms His dsciples against the fear of men and the terrors of persecution, M'hich can arrive but to the incommodties of the body ; teaches the fear of God, who is Lord of the whole man, and can accurse the soul as well as pudsh the body. He refuses to divide the inheritance between two brethren, as not having competent power to become lord in temporal jurisdictions. He preaches agdnst covetousness and the placing felicities in worldy possessions, by a parable of a rich man, whose riches were too big for Ms barns, and big enough for Ms sod, and he ran over into voluptuousness and stupid complacencies in his perisMng goods ; he was snatched from their possession, and his soul taken from him, in the violence of a rapid and hasty sickness, in the space of one mght. He discourses of divine providence and care over us all, and descending even as low SECT. XIV.] OF THE PREACHING OF JESUS. 569 as grass. He exhorts to alms-deeds, to watchfulness, and preparation against the sudden and unexpected coming of our Lord to judgment, or the arrest of death : tells the offices and sedulity of the clergy, under the apologue of steM'ards and governors of their Lord's houses ; teaches them gentleness and sobriety, and not to do evil upon confidence of their Lord's absence and delay; and teaches the people even of themselves to judge what is right concerning the signs of the coming of the Son of man. And the end of all these dscourses was, that all men shodd repent, and live good lives, and be saved. 27. At tMs sermon " there were present some that told Him of the GaMeans, whose blood Pilate mMgled with their sacrifices." For the Galileans were a sort of people that taught it to be unlawful to pay tribute to strangers, or to pray for the Bomans ; and because the Jews dd both, they refused to communicate in their sacred rites, and wodd sacrifice apart: at wMch solemnity when Pilate the Boman deputy had apprehended many of them, he caused them all to be slain, makMg them to de upon the same altars. These were of the province of Judea, but of the same opinion with those who taught in Gdilee, from whence the sect had its appellative. But to the story : Jesus made reply that these external accidents, though they be sad and calamitous, yet they are no arguments of condemnation against the persons of the men, to convince them of a greater guilt than others upon whom no such visible signatures have been imprinted ; the purpose of such chances is that we should "repent, lest we perish" M the like judgment. 28. About tMs time a certain rder of a synagogue renewed the old question about the observation of the sabbath, repining at Jesus that He cured a woman that was crooked, loosing her from her in firmity with wMch she had been afflicted eighteen years ; but Jesus made the man ashamed by an argument from their own practice, who themselves "loose an ox from the stall on the sabbath, and lead hrin to watering." And by the same argument He also stopped the mouths of the scribes and pharisees, wlrich were open upon Him, for curing an hydropic person upon the sabbath. For Jesus, that He might daw off and separate cMistiadty from the yoke of ceremomes by abolishing and taking off the strictest mosaicd rites, chose to do very many of His miracles upon the sabbath, that He might do the work of abrogation and institution both at once ; not much unlike the sabbatical pool in Judea, wMch was dy six days, but gushed out in a full stream upon the sabbath3 : for though upon all days Christ was operative and miraculous, yet many reasons did concur and de termine Him to a more frequent working upon those days of public ceremony and convention. But going forth from thence, He went up and down the cities of Gdilee, re-enforcing the same doctrine He ' Joseph, de Bell. Jud., lib. vii. cap. 24. [al. cap. 5. § 1. p. 1303.] 570 HISTORY OF THE THIRD YEAR [PART III. had formerly taught them, and daily adding new precepts, and cau tions, and prudent insinuations ; advertizing of the multitudes of them that perish, and the paucity of them that shall be saved, and that we should ' strive to enter in at the straight gate ;' that 'the way to destruction is broad' and plausible, ' the way to heaven' dee and austere, 'and few there be that find it:' teaches them modesty at feasts, and entertainments of the poor : discourses of the many ex cuses and unwrihngnesses of persons who were invited to the feast of the kingdom, the refreshments of the gospel ; and tacitly insinuates the rejection of the Jews, who were the first ' invited,' and the caMng of the gentiles, who were the persons ' caUed M from the Mghways and hedges.' He reprehends Herod for his subtilty and design to kill Him ; prophesies that He shodd die at Jerusalem ; and inti mates great sadnesses future to them, for neglecting ' tMs their day' of visitation, and for ' kriling the prophets and the messengers sent from God.' 29. It now grew towards winter, and the Jews' feast of dedcation was at hand; therefore Jesus went up to Jerusalem to the feast, M'here He preached in Solomon's porch (wMch part of the temple. stood entire from the first ruins), and the end of His sermon M'as that the Jews had liked to have stoned Him. But retiring from thence, He went beyond Jordan ; where He taught the people, in a most elegant and persuasive parable, concerning the mercy of God in accepting penitents, in the parable of the ' prodigal son' returning ; dscourses of the design of the Messias coming into the world, to re cover erring persons from their sin and danger, in the apologues of the 'lost sheep,' and 'groat;' and under the representment of an unjust but prudent steward, He taught us so to employ our present opportunities and estates, by laying them out in acts of mercy and religion, that when our sods shall be dismissed from the stewardship and custody of our body we ' may be entertdned in everlasting habi tations.' He instructeth the pharisees in the question of dvorces, limiting the permissions of separations to the only cause of form cation : preferreth holy celibate before the estate of marriage, in them to whom the gift of continency is given, in order to the kingdom of heaven. He telleth a story or a parable (for which is uncertam) of a rich man (whom Euthymius out of the tradition of the Hebrews nameth Nymensis ') and Lazarus ; the first a voluptuous person, and uncharitable ; the other, pious, afflicted, sick, and a beggar ; the first died, and went to hell ; the second, to Abraham's bosom : God so ordering the dispensation of good things, that we cannot easily enjoy two heavens ; nor shall the infelicities of our hves, if we be pious, end otherwise than M a beatified condition. The epilogue of which story dscovered tMs truth also, that the ordMary means of sdvation are the express revelations of scripture, and the mimstries of God's 1 [leg, Ninevis.] SECT. XIV.] OF THE PREACHING OF JESUS. 571 appointment; and whosoever neglects these, shall not be supphed with means extraordnary, or if he were, they wodd be totally in- eflectud. 30. And still the people drew water from the fountains of our Saviour, which streamed out in a fdl and continual emanation. For adding wave to wave, "line to hne, precept upon precept," He re proved the fastidiousness of the pharisee, that came with eucharist to God, and contempt to his brother ; and commended the humility of the publican's address, who came deploring Ms sins, and with mo desty and penance, and rinportunity, begged, and obtained a mercy. Then He laid hands upon certain young cMlden, and gave them benediction, charging His apostles to admit infants to Him, because to them m person, and to such in emblem and signification, the kingdom of heaven does appertain. He instructs a young man in the M'ays and counsels of perfection, besides the observation of precepts, by heroicd renunciations, and acts of munificent charity. Which discourse because it alighted upon an indisposed and an unfortunate subject (for the young man was very rich), Jesus discourses, how hard it is for a rich man to be saved ; but He expounds Himself to mean, ' they that trust M riches ;' and however it is a matter of so great temptation that it is almost impossible to escape, yet ' M'ith God nothing is impossible.' But when the apostles heard the Master bidding the young man " sell all, and give to the poor, and follow Him," and for his reward promised him "a heavenly treasure;" Peter, in the name of the rest, began to think that this was their case, and the promise dso might concern them ; but they asked the question, What shall we have, who have forsaken all, and followed Thee ? Jesus answered that they shodd " sit upon twelve tiirones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." 31. And Jesus extended this mercy to every disciple that should forsake either house, or wife, or children, or any tiring, for His sake and the gospel's, and that they should receive a hundredold in tMs Me by way of comfort and equivalency, and in the world to come, thousands of glories and possessions in fruition and redundancy. For " they that are last shdl be first, and the first shall be last :" and the despised people of tMs world shall reign Mee kings, arid contempt itself shdl swell up into glory, and poverty into an eternd satisfaction. And these rewards shaU not be accounted according to the privileges of nations or priority of vocation, but readiness of mind and obed ence, and seduhty of operation after calling : which Jesus taught His disciples in the parable of the labourers in the vineyard, to M'hom the master gave the same reward, though the times of their working were different ; as their calling and employment had deternrined the op portudty of their labours. 572 OF SCANDAL. [PART III. DISCOUBSE XVII. Of scandal, or giving and taking ofenceu. 1. A sad curse being tMeatened in the gospel to them who "of fend any of Christ's httle ones," that is, such as are novices and babes in cMistianity, it concerns us to learn our duty, and perform it, that we may avoid the curse : for " woe to all them by whom of fences comex." And although the duty is so plaidy explicated, and represented in gloss and case by the severd commentaries of St. Pad upon this menace of our blessed Saviour7 ; yet because our Enghsh word ' offence,' which is commody used in this question of scandd, is so large and eqdvocd, that it hath made many pretences, and m- tricated this article to some inconvedence, it is not without good purpose to draw into one body those propositions wMch the masters of spiritud life have described M the managing of this question. 2. First : By whatsoever we do our duty to God, we cannot d- rectly do offence, or give scandd, to our brother ; because in such cases where God hath obliged us, He hath also obliged Himself to reconcile our duty to the designs of God, to the utility of souls, and the ends of charity. And this proposition is to be extended to our obedience to the lawfd constitutions of our competent superiors, in wlrich cases we are to look upon the commandment, and leave the accidental events to the dsposition of that providence, who reconciles dissonances in nature, and concentres att the variety of accidents mto His own glory ; and whosoever is offended at me for obeying God or God's vicegerent, is offended at me for doing my duty, and in tMs there is no more dispute but whether I shall displease God or my peevish neighbour. These are such whom the Spirit of God com plains of under other representments ; they " tiririk it strange we run not into the same excess of riot ;" their " eye is evil, because" their Master's " eye is good ;" and the abounding of God's grace dso may become to them an occasion of falling, and the long-suffering of God the encouragement to sin. In this there is no diffiedty ; for in M'hat case soever we are bound to obey God, or man, in that case, and in that conjunction of circumstances, we have nothing permitted to om choice, and have no authority to remit of the right of God, or our superior : and to comply with our neighbour in such questions, be sides that it cannot serve any purposes of piety if it dechnes from duty in any instance, it is hke giving alms out of the portion of orphans, or building hospitals with the money and sporis of sacrilege'. It is pusillanimity, or hypocrisy, or a denying to confess Christ before men, to comply with any man, and to offend God, or omit a duty : ° Ad Num. 3. * Matt, xviii. 7. ' Rom. xiv. ; 1 Cor. viii. ; Gal. ii. SECT. XIV.] OF SCANDAI i>7b whatsoever is necessary to be done, and is made so by God, no weak ness or peevishness of man can make necessary not to be done ; for the matter of scandal is a duty beneath the prime obligations of rehgion. 3. Secondy : But every thing which is used in religion is not matter of precise duty ; but there are some tilings which indeed are pious and religious, but dspensable, voluntary, and commutable ; such as are voluntary fasts, exterior acts of discipline and mortifi cation not enjoMed, great degrees of exterior worship, prostration, long prayers, vigils : and in these things, although there is not d- rectly a matter of scandal, yet there may be some prudential con siderations in order to charity and edffication. By pious actions I mean, either particdar pursuances of a general duty, which are un- commanded in the instance, such as are the minutes and expresses of alms ; or else they are commended, but in the whole kind of them unenjoined, such as divines call the " counsels of perfection." In both these cases, a man cannot be scanddous. For the man doing, in charity and the love of God, such actions which are aptly expressive of love, the man, I say, is not uncharitable in Ms purposes' : and the actions themselves, being either attempts or proceedings toward per fection, or else actions of direct duty, are as innocent in their pro ductions as in themselves, and therefore M'ithout the malice of the recipient cannot induce him into sin : and nothing else is scandal. To do any pious act proceeds from the Spirit of God, and to give scandal, from the spirit of malice, or indscretion; and therefore a pious action, whose fountain is love and wisdom, cannot end in un- charitableness or imprudence. But because when any man is offended at what I esteem piety, there is a question whether the action be pious or no : therefore it concerns him that works to take care that his action be either an act of duty, though not determined to a cer tain particdar ; or else be something counselled in scripture, or prac tised by a holy person there recorded, and no where reproved ; or a practice warranted by such precedents which modest, prudent, and religious persons account a sufficient inducement of such particdars : for he that proceeds upon such principles, derives the warrant of his actions from begimrings M'hich secure the particular, and qdts the scandal. 4. TMs, I say, is a security against the uncharitableness and the sin of scandal, because a zeal of doing pious actions is a zed accord ing to God ; but it is not always a security against the indiscretion of the scandd. He that reproves a foolish person in such circum stances that provoke him or make him rinpudent or blasphemous, does not give scandal, and brings no sin upon himself, though he occasioned it in the other : but if it was probable such effects would be consequent to the reprehension, his zed was imprudent and rash ; but so long as it was zeal for God, and in its om-u matter lawfd, it codd not be an active or guilty scandal : but if it be no zeal, and 574 OF SCANDAL. [PART in. be a design to entrap a man's unwariness, or passion, or shame, and to dsgrace the man, by that means, or any other, to make him sin, then it is directly the offending of our brother. They that " preached Christ out of envy," intended to do offence to the apostles : but be cause they were impregnable, the sin rested in their own bosom, and God wrought His own ends by it. And in tMs sense they are scan dalous persons, who " fast for strife," who pray for rebeffion, who entice simple persons into the snare by colours of religion. Those very exterior acts of piety become an offence, because they are done to evil purposes; to abuse proselytes, and to draw away dsciples after them, and make them love the sin, and march under so splendd and fair colours. They who, out of strictness and severity of per suasion, represent the condtions of the gospel alike to every person, that is, deer than Christ described them in all circumstances, and deny such liberties of exterior desires and complacency wMch may be reasonably permitted to some men, do very indscreetly, and may occasion the alienation of some men's minds from the entertainments of religion : but tMs being accidentd to the tiring itself and to the purpose of the man, is not the sin of scandal, but it is the indis cretion of scandal, if by such means he dvorces any man's nrind from the cohabitation and udons of rehgion : and yet if the purpose of the man be to affright weaker and unwise persons, it is a drect scandal, and one of those ways wMch the devil uses toward the peo pling of his kMgdom ; it is a plrin laying of a snare to entrap feeble and umnstructed sods. 5. But if the pious action have been formerly joined with any tiring that is trdy criminal, with idolatry, with superstition, with impious customs or impure rites, and by retaining the piety I give cause to my weak brother to think I approve of the old appendage, and by my reputation invite Mm to swallow the whole action without discermng ; the case is altered : I am to omit that pious action, if it be not under command, until I have acquitted it from the suspicion of evil company. But M'hen I have done what in prudence I guess sufficient to thaw the frost of jealousy, and to separate those disso nances wMch formerly seemed umted, I have done my duty of charity, by endeavouring to free my brother from the snare, and I have done what in christian prudence I was obhged, when I have protested against the appendent crime : if afterwards the same per son shall entertain the crime upon pretence of my example who have plaidy disavowed it, he lays the snare for himself, and is glad of the pretence, or will m spite enter into the net, that he might think it reasonable to rail at me. I may not with christian charity or pru dence wear the picture of our blessed Lord in rings or medals2, though with great affection and designs of doing Him dl the honour z 'Ev SaKTvXlip ®eov e'mbva p.)] irepiipe- religionis. [Diog. Laert. in vit. Pythag., peiv, dictum proverbialiter, contra leves lib. viii. cap. 17. torn. ii. p. 251.] et inanes casremonias civilis et popularis SECT. XIV.] OF SCANDAL. 575 that I can, if by such pictures I invite persons, apt more to follow me than to understand me, to give divine honour to a picture ; but when I have declared my hatred of superstitious worsMppings, and given my brother warning of the snare which his own mistake or the devil's malice was preparing for Mm, I may then without danger signify my piety and affections in any civil representments, which are not agaMst God's law or the customs of the church, or the andogy of faith. And there needs no other reason to be given for tMs rde than that there is no reason to be given against it : if the nature of the tiring be innocent, and the purpose of the man be pious, and he hath used his moral industry to secure his brother against accidental mischances and abuses, Ms duty in this particular can have no more parts and Mstances. 6. But it is too crude an assertion to aflirm indefinitely that whatsoever hath been abused to evil or superstitious purposes must presently be abjured, and never entertained, for fear of scandal ; for it is certain that the best things have been most abused. Have not some persons used certain verses of the psalter as an antidote against the tooth-ache? and carried the blessed sacrament in pendants about their necks as a charm to countermand witches ? and St. John's gospel as a spell against wild beasts and wilder untamed spirits ? Confession of sins to the mmisters of religion hath been made an instrument to serve base ends ; and so indeed hath all rehgion been abused : and some persons have been so receptive of scandd that they suspected all religion to be a mere stratagem, because they have observed very many men have used it so. For some natures are like sponges or sugar, whose utmost verge if you dip in wMe, it downs itself by the moisture it sucks up, and is drenched all over, receiving its alteration from witMn ; its own nature dd the mischief, and plucks on its own dssolution. And these men are greedy to receive a scandal ; and when it is presented but in small instances, they suck it up to the dissolution of their whole religion ; being glad of a quarrel, that their impieties may not want att excuse. But yet it is certainly very unreasonable to reject excellent things because they have been abused ; as if separable accidents had dtered natures and essences, or that they resolve never to forgive the duties for having once fdlen into the hands of unskilfd or malicious persons. Heze- kiah took away the brazen serpent, because the people abused it to idolatry ; but the serpent had long before lost its use : and yet if the people had not been a peevish and refractory and superstitious people, in whose nature it M'as to take all occasions of superstition ; and farther yet, if the taking away such occasions and opportunities of that sM M special, had not been most agreeable with the designs of God in forbiddng to the people the common use of dl images in the second commandment, wMch was given them after the erection ' of that brazen statue ; Hezekiah possibly would not, or at least had not been bound to have destroyed that monument of an old story and 576 OF SCANDAL. [PART III. a great blessing, but have sought to separate the abuse from the minds of men, and retained the image. But in christiamty, when none of these circumstances occur, where by the greatness and plenty of revelations we are more fully instructed in the ways of duty ; and when the tiring is pious, and the abuse very separable, it is infinite disparagement to us, or to our rehgion, either that our rehgion is not sufficient to cure an abuse, or that we wiU never part with it, but we must unpardonably reject a good, because it had once upon it a crust or spot of leprosy, though since it hath been washed in the waters of reformation. The primitive CMistians abstained from actions of themselves indifferent wMch the unconverted people used, if those actions were symbolical, or adopted Mto false religions, or not well understood by those they were bound to satisfy : but when they had washed off the accrescences of gentile superstition, they chose such rites which their neighbours used, and had designs not imprudent or unhandsome : and they were glad of heathen temples to celebrate the cMistian rites in them, and they made no other change but that they ejected the devri, and invited their Lord into the possession. 7. Thirdy : In tirings merely indifferent, whose practice is not limited by command, nor their nature heightened by an appendent piety, we must use our liberty so as may not offend our brother, or lead Mm Mto a sin directly or indirectly. For scandal being directly against charity, it is to be avoided in the same measure, and by the same proportions, in wMch charity is to be pursued. Now we must so use ourselves, that we must cut off a foot, or pluck out an eye, rather than the one shodd bear us, and the other lead us, to sin and death ; we must rather rescind all the natural and sensual, or dearest invitations to vice, and deny ourselves lawfd things, than that lawful tirings should betray us to udawfd actions. And tMs rule is the measure of charity : our neighbour's soul ought to be dearer unto us than any tempord privilege. It is lawfd for me to eat herbs, or fish, and to observe an ascetic det : but if by such austerities I lead others to a good opidon of Montanism, or the practices of Pythagoras, or to beheve flesh to be impure, I must rather dter my diet than teach him to sin by mistaking me. St. PaM gave an instance, of eating flesh sold in the shambles from the idol-temples : to eat it in the re lation of an idol-sacrifice, is a great sM ; but when it is sold in the shambles, the property is altered to them that understand it so : but yet even tMs Paul would not do, if by so doing he shodd en courage undscermng people to eat all meat conveyed from the tem ple and offered to devils. It is not in every man's head to distin- gdsh formalities, and to make abstractions of purpose from exterior acts ; and to alter their devotions by new relations and respects depending upon intellectual and metaphysical notions. And there fore it is not safe to do an action which is not lawful but after the making distinctions, before ignorant and weaker persons, who swallow SECT. XIV.] OF SCANDAL. 577 down the bole and the box that carries it, and never pare their apple, or take the core out. If I by the law of charity must rather qdt my own goods than suffer my brother to perish, much rather must 1 qdt my privilege, and those superstructures of favour and grace which Clirist hath given me beyond my necessities, than wound the spirit and destroy the soul of a weak man " for whom Christ ded." It is an inordnate affection to love my own ease and circumstances of pleasure before the sod of a brother ; and such a tiring are the privileges of cMistian liberty : for Christ hath taken off from us the restraints wMch God had laid upon the Jews, in meat and holydays : but these are but circumstances of grace, given ns for opportunities and cheap instances of charity. We shodd ril de for our brother, who will not lose a meal to prevent Ms sM, or change a dsh to save Ms sod : and if the thing be indifferent to us, yet it ought not to be indfferent to us whether our brother hve or de. 8. Fourthly : And yet we must not, to please peevish or froward people, betray our liberty wlrich CMist hath given us. If any man opposes the lawfdness and licence of indfferent actions, or be ds turbed at my using my privileges innocently ; in the first case, I am bound to use them still; in the second, I am not bound to quit them, to please Mm. For in the first instance, he that shall cease to use Ms liberty, to please him that says Ms liberty is udawfd, encourages him that says so M Ms false opmion, and by complying with Mm gives the scandd; and he who is angry with me for making use of it, is a person that, it may be, is " crept in to spy out" and invade " my liberty," but not apt to be reduced into sin by that act of mine which he detests, for wMch he despises me, and so makes my person unapt to be exemplar to him. To be angry with me for doing what CMist hath allowed me, and which is part of the liberty He purchased for me when He took upon Himself the form of a servant, is to judge me, and to be uncharitable to me : and he that does so is beforehand with me, and upon the active part : he does the scandal to me, and by offering to deprive me of my liberty he makes my way to heaven narrower and more encumbered than Christ left it, and so places a stumbling-stone in my way ; I put none in his. And if such peevishness and discontent of a brother engages me to a new and unimposed yoke, then it were in the power of my enemy, or any malevolent person, to make me never to keep festivd, or never to observe any private fast ; never to be prostrate at my prayers, nor to do any thing but according to Ms leave ; and his humour shall become the rde of my actions ; and then my charity to Mm shdl be the greatest uncharitableness in the world to myself, and Ms liberty shall be my bondage. Add to this, that such com plying and obeying the peevishness of discontented persons, is to no end of charity : for besides that such concessions never satisfy per sons who are unreasonably angry, because by the same reason they it. p p 578 OF SCANDAL. [PART III. may demand more, as they ask this for which they had no reason at all; it dso encourages them to be peevish, and gives fuel to the passion, and feeds the wolf ; and so encourages the sin, and prevents none. 9. Fiftiily : For he ody gives scandal, who induces Ms brother directly or coUateraUy into sM, as appears by att the discourses in scripture gddmg us M tMs duty ; aid it is called " laying a stumbhng- block in our brother's way, a woundMg the conscience of our weak brother3." Thus Balaam was said to lay a scandal before the sons of Israel, by tempting them to formcation with the daughters of Moab. Every evil example, or imprudent, sinfd, and unwary de portment, is a scandd ; because it invites others to do the like, lead ing them by the hand, taking off the strangeness and insolency of the act, which deters many men from entertaimng it ; and it gives some offers of security to others, that they shall escape as we have done ; besides that it is in the nature of all agents, naturd and mord, to assimilate, either by proper efficiency, or by counsel and mord invite- ments, others to themselves. But this is a direct scandal : and such it is to give money to an ide person, who you know will be dunk with it ; or to invite an intemperate person to an opportunity of excess, who desires it always, but without thee wants it. Indrectly and acci dentally, but very criminally, they give scandal, M'ho introduce persons into a state of life from whence probably they pass into a state of sin. So did the Israelites, who married their daughters to the idolatrous Moabites ; and so do they who intrust a pupil to a vicious guardan ; for although God can preserve childen in the midst of flames with out scorching, yet if they sMge their hair or scorch their flesh, they that put them in are guilty of the burdng. And yet farther, if per sons so exposed to danger shodd escape by miracle, yet they escape not who expose them to the danger : they who threw the chriden of the captivity into the furnace, were burnt to death though the chri den M'ere not hurt : and the very offering a person in our trust to a certain or probable danger foreseen and understood, is a likely way to pass sin upon the person so exposed, but a certain way to contract it in ourselves ; it is directly against charity, for no man loves a sod udess he loves its safety, and he cares not to have his cMld safe that throws Mm into the fire. Hither are to be reduced all fdse doctrines, aptly productive of evil life ; the doctrines are scandalous, and the men guilty, if they understand the consequence of their own propo sitions : or if they tirink it probable that persons will be led by such doctrines into evil persuasions, though themselves beheve them not to be necessary products of their opinions ; yet the very publishing such opinions, which, of themselves not being necessary, or otlieiwise very profitable, are apt to be understood, by weak persons at least, to ill ends, is against charity and the duty we owe to our brother's sod. " 1 Cor. viii, 10. 12; Rom xiv. 21; Matt. v. 29; xiii. 57 ; Mark xiv. 27 : vi. 3 ; iv. 17; Luke vii. 23; John xvi. 1. SECT. XIV.] OF SCANDAL. 579 10. Sixthly: It is not necessary for ever to abstain from things indifferent, to prevent the offending of a brother ; but ody till I have taken away that rock agdnst which some did stumble, or have done my endeavour to remove it. In questions of religion, it is lawful to use primitive and ancient words at which men have been weakened and seem to stumble, when the objection is cleared, and the ill con sequents and suspicion dsavowed : and it may be of good use, cha rity, and edification, to speak the language of the purest ages, al though that some words M'ere used dso in the impurest ages, and descended dong upon changing and dechning articles, when it is rightly explicated in what 'sense the best men dd innocently use them, and the same sense is now protested ; but in this case it con cerns prudence to see that the benefit be greater than the danger. And the same also is to be said concerning att the actions and parts of christian liberty : for if, after I have removed the unevenness and objection of the accident ; that is, if when I have explained my ds- rerish to the crime wMch might possibly be gathered up and taken into practice by my misunderstood example, still any man will stumble and fall : it is a resolution to fall, a love of danger, a peevish ness of spirit, a voluntary misunderstanding ; it is not a misery in the man, more than it is Ms own fadt : and whenever the cause of any sin becomes crimind to the man that sins, it is certain that if the other, who was made the occasion, did dsavow and protest against the crime, the man that sins is the ody gdlty person, both in the effect and cause too ; for the other coMd do no more but use a moral and prudent industry to prevent a being misinterpreted ; and if he were tied to more, he must quit his interest for ever in a perpetud scruple ; and it is hke taking away all laws to prevent disobedience, and making all even to secure the world against the effects of pride or stubbornness. I add to this, that since actions indifferent in their own natures are not productive of effects and actions criminal, it is merely by accident that men are abused into a sin ; that is, by weak ness, by misconceit, by sometiring that either dscovers mahce or in discretion ; wMch because the act itself does not of itself, if the man does not voluntarily or by intention, the sin dwells no where but with the man that entertains it : the man is no longer weak than he is mistaken, and he is not mistaken or abused into the sin by example of any man who hath rightly stated Ms own question, and dvorced the suspicion of the sin from Ms action ; whatsoever comes after this is not weakness of understandng, but strength of passion ; and he that is dways learning, and never comes to the knowledge of the truth, is something besides a silly man. Men cannot be always " babes in CMistb," without their own fadt ; they are no longer " Christ's little ones," than they are MculpaMy ignorant. For it is but a mantle cast over pride and frowardness to think ourselves able b 'AaBtve7s ttj iriarei. Rom. xiv. 1 ; 1 Cor. viii. 10. 12. pp 2 580 OF SCANDAL. [PART III. to teach others, and yet pretend offence and scandd ; to scorn to be instructed, and yet complain that we are offended and led into sin for want of knowledge of our duty. He that understands his duty, is not a person capable of scandd by tirings indifferent. And it is certain that no man can say concermng Mmself that he is scandalized at another, that is, that he is led into sin by mistake and weakness; for if himself knows it, the mistake is goneb. Well may the gddes of their souls complain concermng such persons, that their sin is procured by offending persons or actions ; but he that complains con cermng Mmself to the same purpose, pretends ignorance for other ends, and contradcts himself by his complaint and knowledge of his error. The boy was prettily peevish, M'ho, when his father bade him pronounce Thdassius, told Mm he codd not pronounce Thalassius, at the same time speakmg the word : just so impotent, weak, and undscerdng a person is that, who wodd forbid me to do an in different action, upon pretence that it makes Mm ignorantly sM ; for his saying so confutes Ms ignorance, and argues him of a worse folly : it is like askMg my neighbour whether such an action be done against my own will. 11. SeventMy : When an action is apt to be mistaken to contrary purposes, it concerns the prudence and charity of a Christian to use such comphance as best co-operates to God's glory, and hath in it the less danger. The apostles gave an instance in the matter of cir cumcision, in wMch they walked warily, and with variety of design, that they might invite the gentiles to the easy yoke of christiamty, and yet not deter the Jew by a disrespect of the law of Moses. And therefore St. Paul circumcised Timothy, because he was among the Jews, and descended from a Jewish parent ; and in the instance gave sentence in compliance with the Jewish persuasion, because Timothy might well be accounted for a Jew by birth; unto -them the rites of Moses were for a while permitted. But when Titus was brought upon the scene of a mixed assembly, and was no Jew, but a Greek, to whom Pad had taught "they ought not to be circumcised0;" although some Jews watched what he wodd do, yet he plainly refused to circumcise him, choosing rather to leave the Jews angry, than the gentiles scandalized, or led into an opinion that circumcision was necessary or that he had taught them otherwise out of collaterd ends, or that now he did so. But when a case of christian liberty happened to St. Peter, he M'as not so prudent in his choice, but at the coming of certain JeM's from Jerusalem, withdrew Mmself from the society of the gentiles ; not considering, that it was worse if the gentiles who were invited to Christianity by the sweetness of its liberty and comphance, shodd fall back when they that taught them the excellency of cMistian liberty durst not stand to it, than if those JeM's were displeased at Christianity for admitting gentiles into its communion, after they had been instructed that God had broken k [Compare vol. v. p. 538.] ° Gal. ii. 3, 4, sqq. SECT. XIV.] OF SCANDAL. 581 down the partition wall, and made them one sheepfold. It was of greater concernment to God's glory to gam the gentiles, than to retain the Jews ; and yet if it had not, the apostles were bound to bend to the inclinations of the weaker, rather than be mastered by the wilfdness of the stronger, who had been sufficiently instructed in the articles of christian liberty, and in the adopting the gentiles into the family of God. Thus if it be a question whether I should abate any thing of my externd rehgion or ceremonies to satisfy an heretic or a contentious person, who pretends scandal to himself, and is indeed of another persuasion ; and at the same time I know that good persons wodd be weakened at such forbearance, and es tranged from the good persuasion and charity of communion, M'hich is part of their duty ; it more concerns charity and the glory of God that I secure the right, than twine about the wrong, wilfd, and malicious persons. A prelate must rather fortify and encourage obedence and strengthen disciphne, than by remissness toward re fractory spirits, and a desire not to seem severe, weaken the hands of conscientious persons by taMng away the marks of dfference be tween them that obey and them that obey not : and in dl cases when the question is between a friend to be secured from apostasy, or an enemy to be gained from indifferency, St. Pad's rde is to be ob served, "do good to all, but especially to the household of faith;" when the church in a particdar dstance cannot be kind to both, she must first love her own children. 12. Eightiriy : But when the question is between pleasing and contenting the fancies of a friend, and the gariring of an enemy, the greater good of the enemy is infimtely to be preferred before the sa tisfying the unnecessary humour of the friend ; and therefore that we may gain persons of a different religion, it is lawfd to entertain them in their Mnocent customs, that we may represent ourselves charitable and just, apt to comply in what we can, and yet for no end comply ing farther than we are permitted. It was a policy of the devil to abuse CMistians to the rites of Mithra4 by imitating the christian ceremonies ; and the CMistians themselves were beforehand M'ith him in that policy ; for they facdtated the reconcilement of Judaism M'ith christiamty by common rites, and invited the gentiles to the christian churches, because they never violated the heathen temples, but loved the men, and imitated their Mnocent rites, and oMy offered to reform their errors and hariow their abused purposes : and tMs, if it had no other contradctory or unhandsome circumstance, gave no offence to other Christians, when they had learned to trust them with the go vernment of ecclesiasticd affairs, to whom God had committed them : and they att had the same purposes of religion and charity. And when there is no objection agdnst this but the furies or greater heats of a mistaken zed, the compliance with evil or unbelieving persons to gain them from their errors to the ways of truth and sincerity is great prudence and great charity; because it chooses and acts a d [Tertull. de jn-aescript. haeret. cap. xl.] 582 OF SCANDAL. [PART III. greater good, at no other charge or expense but the dscomposing of an intemperate zeal. 13. Nintiriy: We are not bound to intermit a good or a lawfd action as soon as any man tells us it is scanddous, for that may be an easy stratagem to give me laws, and destroy my liberty; but either when the action is of itself, or by reason of a pubhc known in disposition of some persons, probably introductive of a sin ; or when we know it is so in fact. The other is but affrighting a man : tMs only is prudent, that my charity be gdded by such rules which de termine wise men to actions or omissions respectively. And there fore a right fame is not strong enough to wrest my liberty from me ; but a reasonable belief, or a certain knowledge, in the takmg of wMch estimate we must neither be too credulous and easy, nor yet ungentle and stubborn, but do accordng to the actions of wise men and the charities of a Christian. Hither we may refer the rdes of abstdning from tirings wMch are of evil report. For not every thing which is of good report is to be followed ; for then a fdse opmion, when it is become popdar, must be professed for conscience sake : nor yet every thing that is of bad report is to be avoided, for notMng endured more shame and obloquy than christiamty at its first com mencement. But by ' good report7 we are to understand such tirings which are well reported of by good men and wise men, or scripture, or the consent of nations. And thus, for a woman to marry witirin the year of mourmng is scanddous ; because it is of evil report, gives suspicion of lightness, or some worse confederacy, before the death of her husband. The tiring itself is apt to mririster the suspicion, and tMs we are bound to prevent ; and unless the suspicion be malicious, or imprudent and unreasonable, we must conceal our actions from the surprises and deprehensions of suspicion. It was scanddous amongst the old Bomans not to marry ; among the CMistians, for a clergyman to marry twice, because it was agaMst an apostohcd canon : but when it became of ill report for any Christian to marry the second time, because tMs evil report was begun by the errors of Montanus, and is against a permission of holy scripture, no lay Christian was bound to abstdn from a second bed for fear of givmg scandd. 14. Tenthly : The precept of avoidng scandd concerns the gover nors of the church or state in the making and execution of laws ; for no law in things Mdifferent ought to be made to the provocation of the subject, or against that pubhc dsposition wMch is in the spirits of men, and will certaidy cause perpetud irregdarities and scMsms. Before the law be made, the superior must comply with the subject ; dter it is made, the subject must comply with the law. But M this the church hath made fair provision, accounting no laws obligatory tiU the people have accepted them, and given tacit approbation : for ecclesiastical canons have their time of probation ; and if they become a burden to the people, or occasion schisms, tumults, public disumon SECT. XIV.] OF SCANDAL. 583 of affections, and jealousies against authority, the laws give place, and either fix not when they are not first approved, or disappear by de suetude. And in the execution of laws no less care is to be taken ; for many cases occur in which the laws can be rescued from being a snare to men's consciences by no other way but by dispensation, and slacking of the dsciprine as to certain particulars. Mercy and sacri fice, the letter and the spirit, the words and the intention, the general case and the particMar exception, the present disposition and the former state of tirings, are oftentimes so repugnant and of such con tradictory interests, that there is no stumbling-block more trouble some or dangerous than a severe literal and rigorous exacting of laws in all cases. But when stubbornness, or a contentious spirit, when rebellion and pride, when secdar interest, or ease and licentiousness, set men up against the laws, the laws then are upon the defensive, and ought not to give place ; it is ill to cure particdar disobedence, by removing a constitution decreed by public wisdom for a general good. When the evil occasioned by the law is greater than the good designed, or than the good which will come by it in the present con stitution of tilings, and the evil can by no other remedy be healed, it concerns the lawgiver's charity to take off such positive constitutions, wMch in the authority are merely human, and in the matter indif ferent, and evil in the event. The sum of tMs whole duty I shall choose to represent in the words of an excellent person, St. Jerome ; " we must for the avoidng of scandal qdt every tiring which may be omitted without prejudice to the threefold truth, of life, of justice, and doctrine :" meaMng that what is not expressly commanded by God or our superiors, or what is not expressly commended as an act of piety and perfection, or what is not an obligation of justice, that is, in wMch the interest of a tirird person, or else our own christian liberty, is not totally concerned ; all that is to be given in sacrifice to mercy, and to be made matter of edification and charity, but not of scandal, that is, of danger, and sin, and fatting, to our neighbour. THE PBATEB. 0 eternd Jesus, who art made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanc tification, and redemption, give us of Thy abundant charity, that we may love the eternal benefit of our brother's soul, with a true, ddgent, and affectionate care and tenderness. Give us a fellow- feeling of one another's cdamities, a readness to bear each other's burdens, aptness to forbear, wisdom to advise, counsel to direct, and a spirit of meekness and modesty trembling at our infirmities, fearful in our brother's dangers, and joyfd m Ms restitution and securities. Lord, let all our actions be pious and prudent, our selves wise as serpents and innocent as doves, and our whole life exemplar, and just, and charitable ; that we may, like lamps sMn- 584 OF THE CAUSES AND MANNER [PART HI. ing in Thy temple, serve Thee, and enlighten others, and guide them to Thy sanctuary; and that sMning clearly and burning zealously, when the Bridegroom shall come to bind up His jewels, and beautify His spouse, and gather His saints together, we, and all Thy christian people, kmt in a holy fellowship, may enter into the joy of our Lord, and partake of the eternal refreshments of the kingdom of light and glory, where Thou, O holy and eternal Jesu, livest and reignest M the exceUencies of a kingdom, and the in finite durations of eternity. Amen. DISCOUBSE XVIII. Of the causes and manner of the divine judgments6. 1. God's judgments are hke the "writing upon the wall," which was a missive of anger from God upon Belshazzar ; it came upon an errand of revenge, and yet was writ M so dark characters" that none codd read it but a prophet. Whenever God speaks from heaven, He woMd have us to understand His meamng : and if He declares not His sense in particdar sigmfication, yet we understand His meaning well enough if every voice of God lead us to repentance. Every sad accident is directed against sM, either to prevent it, or to cure it ; to glorify God, or to humble us ; to make us go forth of ourselves, and to rest upon the centre of all felicities, that we may derive help from the same hand that smote us. Sin and punishment are so near relatives, that when God hath marked any person with a sadness or unhandsome accident, men think it warrant enough for their uncharitable censures, and condemn the man whom God hath smitten, making God the executioner of our uncertam or ungentle sentences. " Whether sinned, this man, or Ms parents, that he was born brind ?" sdd the pharisees to our blessed Lord : " neither this man nor his parents," was the answer ; meamng that God hath other ends in that accident to serve, and it was not an effect of wrath, but a design of mercy, both directly and collaterally ; God's glory must be seen clearly, by occasion of the curing the brind man. But in the present case the answer was something different. Pilate slew the Gdrieans, when they were sacrificing in their conventicles apart from the Jews ; for they first had separated from obedence and paying tribute to Csesar; and then from the church, who disavowed their mutinous and dscontented doctrines : the cause of the one and the other are hnked in mutud comphcations and endearment, and he who despises the one will qdckly dsobey the other. Presently * Ad Num. 21, et 27. e ndvrij S' dBavdraiv dipavi)s vbos dvBp&irotat. Solon. [Clem. Alex. Strom., lib. v. cap. 14. p. 727-] SECT. XIV.] OF THE DIVINE JUDGMENTS. 585 upon the report of tMs sad accident, the people ran to the judgment- seat, and every man was ready to be accuser, and witness, and judge, upon these poor destroyed people. But Jesus allays their heat : and though He wodd by no means acqdt these persons from deserving death for their denying tribute to Ceesar, yet He alters the face of the tribund, and makes those persons who were so apt to be accusers and judges, to act another part, even of guilty persons too, that since they will needs be judging, they might judge themselves : for, " Think not these were greater sinners than all the other GaMeans, because they suffered such tirings : I tell you nay; but except ye repent, ye shall dl likewise perish f :" meamng that although there was great probabihty to believe such persons, schismatics (I mean) and rebels, to be the greatest sinners of the world, yet themselves, who had designs to destroy the Son of God, had deserved as great damnation. And yet it is observable, that the holy Jesus ody com pared the sMs of them that suffered, with the estate of the other Gahleans who suffered not ; and that dso apphes it to the persons present who told the news : to consign tMs truth unto us, that when persons codederate in the same crimes are spared from a present judgment falling upon others of their own society, it is Mdeed a strong darm to all to secure themselves by repentance against the hostilities and eruptions of smg; but yet it is no exemption or se curity to them that escape to beheve themselves persons less sMful : for God sometimes decimates or tithes delinquent persons, and they de for a common crime, according as God hath cast their lot in the decrees of predestination ; and either they that remaM are sealed up to a worse cdamity, or left witMn the reserves and mercies of repent ance ; for in tMs there is some variety of determination and unds- cerned providence. 2. The purpose of our blessed Saviour is of great use to us in all the traverses and changes, and especially the sad and cdamitous accidents of the world. But in the misfortune of others, we are to make other dscourses concerdng dvme judgments, than when the case is of nearer concernment to ourselves. For first, when we see a person come to an uMortunate and untimely deathh, we must not conclude such a man perisMng and miserable to all eternity. It was ' Luke xiii. 2. e Xpbvip TOl Kvpia t* iv Tffxepa Beobs OTifioK tis PpoT&v Sdati SUrfV. — jEschyl. [Suppl. 732.] Pius scilicet Deus partem percussit exeant ab hae vita, mundati castigatione sententiae suae gladio, ut partem corri- sibi illata per mortem communem, quo- geret exemplo, probaretque omnibus niam credentes erant in Christum. [In simul et coercendo censuram, et indul- Matth., tract, viii. torn. ii. p. 73. ed. gendo pietatem. — Salvian. [De gubern. Grynaeo, fol. Basil. 1571. — Tom. iii. p. Dei, lib. i. cap. 34. p. 29.] 673. ed. Delarue.] Idem ait S. Aug. h De Anania et Sapphira dixit Ori- contr. Parmen., lib. iii. cap. 1. [§ 3. genes, Digni enim erant in hoc saeculo torn. ix. col. 57.] et Cassian. [Collat vi. recipere peccatum suum, ut mundiores cap. 11. p. 424 — See vol. iv. p 670.] 586 OF THE CAUSES AND MANNER [PART in. a sad calamity that feU upon the man of Judah that returned to eat bread into the prophet's house contrary to the word of the Lord : he was abused into the act by a prophet and a pretence of a command from God; and whether he did violence to Ms own understandng, and believed the man because he was willing, or did it in sincerity, or in what degree of sin or excuse the action might consist, no man there knew ; and yet a lion slew him, and the lying prophet that abused Mm, escaped, and went to his grave in peace. Some persons joined in society or interest with criminals1, have perished in the same judgments ; and yet it wodd be hard to call them equally guilty who M the accident were equdly miserable and Mvolved. And they who are not strangers in the affairs of the world cannot but have heard or seen some persons, who have lived well and moderately, though not like the flames of the holocaust, yet like the ashes of incense, sending up good perfumes, and keeping a constant and slow Me of piety and justice, yet have been surprised in the midst of some unusual, unaccustomed irregdarity, and ded in that sin : a sudden gaiety of fortune, a great joy, a violent change, a friend is come, or a marriage-day, hath transported some persons to indiscretions and too bold a licence ; and the indscretion hath betrayed them to ide com pany, and the company to dink, and dink to a fall, and that hath hurried them to their grave. And it were a sad sentence to think God would not repute the untimely death for a punishment great enough to that deflexion from duty, and judge the man according to the constant tenor of his former life ; unless such an act was of malice great enough to outweigh the former habits, and interrupt the whole state of acceptation and grace. Sometiring like tMs was the case of Uzzah, who espying the tottering ark, went to support it with an unhallowed hand ; God smote him, and he died immedately. It were too severe to say Ms zeal and indiscretion carried him beyond a temporal death to the ruins of eternity. Origenk, and many others, have " made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven," and dd weU after it ; but those that dd so, and died of the wound, M'ere smitten of God, and died in their fotty : and yet it is rather to be called a sad consequence of their indiscretion, than the express of a find anger from God almighty. For as God takes off our sms and punishments by parts, remitting to some persons the sentence of death, and inflicting the fine of a temporal loss, or the gentle scourge of a lesser sickness ; so dso He lays it on by parts, and accordng to the proper proportions of the man and of the crime ; and every trans- 1 Vetabo qui Cereris sacrum Vulgarit arcana?, sub iisdem Sit trabibus, fragilemque mecum Solvat phaselum : saepe Diespiter Neglectus incesto addidit integrum. — Hor. [Od. iii. 2. lin. 26.] * [Euseb. H. E. vi. 8. p. 264.— S. par. 2. col. 346.— Epiphan. haer. lxiv. Hieron. Ep. xii. De error. Orig., torn. iv. cap. 3. p. 527.] SECT. XIV.] OF THE DIVINE JUDGMENTS. 587 gression and lesser deviation from our duty does not drag the soul to death eternal, but God suffers our repentance, though imperfect, to have an imperfect effect, knocking off the fetters by degrees, and leadng us in some cases to a council, in some to judgment, and in some to hell-foe : but it is not always certaM that he who is led to the prison-doors shall there he entombed ; and a man may by a judgment be brought -to the gates of hell, and yet those gates shall not prevdl against Mm. This dscourse concerns persons, whose life is habitually fair and just, but are surprised m some unhandsome, but less crimind, action, and de, or suffer some great cdamity, as the instrument of its expiation or amendment. 3. Secondy : But if the person upon whom the judgment falls be habitually vicious, or the crime of a clamorous nature or deeper tinc ture; if the man "sin a sin unto death," and either meets it, or some other remarkable calamity not so feared as death ; provided we pass no farther than the sentence we see then executed, it is not against charity or prudence to say, this cdamity, in its own formality, and by the intention of God, is a pumshment and judgment. In the favourable cases of honest and just persons, our sentence and opinions ought dso to be favourable, and in such questions to inchne ever to the side of charitable construction, and read other ends of God in the accidents of our neighbour than revenge or express wrath. But when the impiety of a person is scanddous and notorious, when it is clamorous and violent, when it is habitual and yet corrigible, if we find a sadness and cdamity dweMng with such a sinner, especially if the punishment be spiritud, we read the sentence of God written with His own hand, and it is not sauciness of ophrion, or a pressing into the secrets of Providence, to say the same thing which God hath pubhshed to all the world in the expresses of His spirit. In such cases we are to observe the " severity of God, on them that faU se verity ;" and to use those judgments as instruments of the fear of God, and arguments to hate sin ; which we could not weU do, but that we must look on them as verifications of God's tiireatening agamst great and impenitent sinners. But then if we descend to particulars we may easily be deceived. 4. For some men are ddgent to observe the accidents and chances of Providence upon those especidly M'ho differ from them in ophrion ; and whatever ends God can have, or M'hatever sins man can have, yet we lay that in fault, which we therefore hate because it is most against our interest ; the contrary opinion is our enemy, and we also think God hates it. But such fancies do seldom serve either the ends of truth or charity. Pierre Calceon died under the barber's hand' ; there wanted not some who said it was a judgment upon Mm 1 Pendula dum tonsor secat excrementa capilli, Exspirans cadit, et gelida tellure cadaver Decubat: tutrices sic pendunt crimina poenas. Valerand. [lib. iv. ad fin.] 588 OF THE CAUSES AND MANNER [PART III. for condemning to the fire the famous Pucette of France, who pro phesied the expdsion of the English out of the kingdom. They that thought this believed her to be a prophetess ; but others, that thought her a witch, were willing to find out another conjecture for the sudden death of the gentleman. Gamier, earl of Gretz, kept the patriarch of Jerusalem from Ms right in David's tower and' the city, and died witMn three days ; and by Dabert. the patriarch it was called a judgment upon Mm for his sacrilege"1. But the uncertainty of that censure appeared to them who considered that Baldwin, who gave commission to Gamier to withstand the patriarch, dd not de ; but Godfrey of Bouillon dd de immedately after he had passed the right of the patriarch : and yet when Baldwin was beaten at Bha- mdan, some bold people pronounced that then God punished him upon the patriarch's score, and thought his sacrilege to be the secret cause of Ms overthrow ; and yet his own pride and rashness was the more visible, and the judgment was but a cloud, and passed away qMckly into a succeedmg victory. But I instance in a trifle. Cer tain it is that God removed the candestick from the Levantine churches, because He had a quarrel unto them ; for that pumshment is never sent upon pure designs of emendation, or for direct and im- medate purposes of the dvine glory, but ever makes reflection upon the past sin : but when we descend to a judgment of the particdars, God walks so in the dark to us that it is not dscerned upon what ground He smote them. Some say it was because they dishonoured the eternd Jesus, in denying the procession of the holy Ghost from the Son0. And in this some thought themselves sufficiently assured by a sign from heaven, because the Greeks lost Constantinople upon WMtsundayP, the day of the festival of the holy Spirit. The church of Borne q calls the churches of the Greek communion schismatical, and thinks God righted the Boman quarrel, when He revenged His own. Some tMnk they were cut off for being breakers of images ; others tMnk that their zeal against images was a means they were cut off no sooner : and yet he that shall observe what innumerable sects, heresies, and factions were commenced amongst them, and how they were wanton with religion, making it serve ambitious and un worthy ends, will see that, besides the ordnary conjectures of inter ested persons, they had such causes of their rdn which we dso now feel heavily incumbent upon ourselves. To see God addng eighteen years to the life of Hezekiah upon his prayer, and yet cutting off the young son of David begotten in addterous embraces ; to see Him rejecting Adodjah, and receiving Solomon to the Mngdom, begotten of the same mother whose son God in anger formerly slew ; to ob serve His mercies to Manasses in accepting Mm to favour and con- m Baron. A.D. 1100 [cap. 32. torn. xii. ° Estius. [in 1 Petr. i. torn. ii. p. 1156.] col. 14.] et 2024. v [See vo). ix. p. 101.] ° [Albert. Aquens., lib. ix. cap. 3 sqq. » [Raynald. Continual. Baron. in A.D. p. 329.] 1453.] SECT. XIV.] OF THE DIVINE JUDGMENTS. 589 tinuing the kingdom to Mm, and His severity to Zedekiah in causing his eyes to be put out ; to see Him rewarding Nebuchadnezzar with the spofls of Egypt for destroying Tyre and executing God's severe anger against it, and yet punisMng others for being executioners of His wrath upon Jerusalem, even then when He purposed to chastise it ; to see Wenceslaus rdsed from a peasant to a tiirone, and Pompey from a great prince, reduced to that condtion that a pupil and an eunuch passed sentence of death upon him; to see great fortunes fall into the hand of a fool, and honourable old persons, and learned men, descend to unequal beggary ; to see Him strike a stroke with His own hand in the conversion of Sad, and another quite contrary in the cutting off of Judas; must needs be some restraint to our judgments concermng the general state of those men who he under the rod ; but it proclaims an infimte uncertainty in the particdars, since we see contrary accidents happedng to persons gdlty of the same crime, or put in the same indispositions. God hath marked dl great sins with some signal and express judgments, and hath trans mitted the records of them, or represented them before our eyes : that is, hath done so in our age, or it hath been noted to have been done before : and that being sufficient to affright us from those crimes, God hath not thought it expedient to do the same things to all persons in the same cases, having to all persons produced in stances and examples of fear by fewer accidents, sufficient to restrdn us, but not enough to pass sentence upon the changes of divine providence. 5. But sometimes God speaks plainer, and gives us notice what crimes He pumshes in others, that we may the rather decline such rocks of offence. If the crime and the punishment be symbolical, and have proportion and correspondence of parts, the hand of God strikes the man, but holds up one finger to point at the sin. The death of the child of Bathsheba was a plain declaration that the anger of God was upon David for the adulterous mixture. That blas phemer whose tongue was presently struck with an dcerous tumour, with Ms tongue declared the glories of God and his own shame. And it was not doubted but God, when He smote the lady of Domi- nicus Silviusi, the duke of Venice, with a loathsome and unsavoury disease, dd intend to chastise a remarkable vanity of hers in various and costly perfumes, which she affected in an unreasonable manner, and to very evil purposes. And that famous person and of excellent learning, Giacchettus of Geneva', being by his wife found dead in the udawfd embraces of a stranger woman, who also ded at the same instant, left an excellent example of God's anger upon the crime, and an evidence that he was then judged for his intemperate lust. Such are all those pumshments which are natural consequents to a crime : as dopsies, redness of eyes, dissolution of nerves, apo- i [Fulgos., lib. iv. cap. 6. p. 144.] r Id., lib. ix. c. 12. [p. 363.] 590 OF THE CAUSES AND MANNER [PART III. plexies", to continual drunkenness ; to intemperate eating, short lives and sudden deaths ; to lust, a caitive slavish disposition, and a foul dseased body ; fire and sword, and depopulation of towns and vil lages, the consequents of ambition and unjust wars ; poverty to pro digality ; and all those judgments wMch happen upon cursings and horrid imprecations, when God is, under a curse, caUed to attest a lie, and to comrive at impudence ; or when the oppressed persons, in the bitterness of their souls, wish evil and pray for vengeance on their oppressors ; or that the church upon just cause inflicts spiritual censures, and "delivers unto Satan," or curses and declares the divine sentence agaMst sinners, as St. Peter agdnst Ananias and Sapphira, and St. Pad against Elymas, and of old, Moses against Pharaoh and Ms Egypt; of this nature also was the plague of a withered hand inflicted upon Jeroboam, for stretching forth his hand to strike the prophet. In these and aU such instances, the offspring is so like the parent that it cannot easily be concealed. Sometime the crime is of that nature that it cries aloud for vengeance, or is tMeatened with a special kind of punishment, which by the obser vation and experience of the world hath regdarly happened to a cer- tdn sort of persons : such as are dissolutions of estates, the pun ishment of sacrilege; a descendng curse upon posterity for four generations, specially tMeatened to the crime of idolatry ; any plague whatsoever to oppression ; untimely death to murder ; an unthriving estate to the detention of tithes, or whatsoever is God's portion al lotted for the services of rehgion : untimely and strange deaths to the persecutors of christian rehgion: Nero' killed himself; Do- mitianu was killed by his servants : Maximinusv and Deems51 were murdered, together with their clrihiren; Valerianusy imprisoned, flayed, and slain with tortures, by Sapor, king of Persia; Diocletian perished by his own handz, and Ms house was burnt1 M'ith the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah, with fire from above; Antiochusb, the president under Aurelian, while Agapetus was M his agony and suf ferance of martyrdom, cried out of a flame within Mm, and died; Flaccus0 vomited out Ms entrails presently after he had caused Gre gory, bishop of Spoleto, to be slain; and Dioscorusd, the father of St. Barbara, accused and betrayed Ms daughter to the hangman's s Poena tamen praesens, cum tu deponis amictum Turgidus, et crudum pavonem in balnea portas. Hinc subitae mortes atque intestata senectus. — Juv. [i. 142.] Chios nimis effraencs habui nunc vapulo renes. Sic luitur juvenis culpa dolore senis. • [Sueton. vi. 49.] z [Aurel. Vict. Epit., cap. 39. § 5.] » [Id. viii. 17.] " [Euseb. H. E. viii. 6. p. 382.] T [Jul. Capitol, cap. 23. — Herodian. b [Act. Sauct. Bolland. Mens. Aug., viii. 5. § 22.] torn. iii. p. 539.] 1 [Euseb. H.E. vii. 1. p. 321.] c [Vid. Adon. Martyrol. in Dec 24.] y [Trebell. Poll. cap. 3. — Agathias, '' [Menolog. Graecor. in Dec. iv.] lib. iv. p. 94.] SECT. XIV.] OF THE DIVINE JUDGMENTS. 591 cruelty for bemg a Christian, and he died by the hand of God by fire from heaven. These are God's tokens, marks upon the body of in fected persons, and declare the mdignity of the disease, and bid us dl beware of those determined crimes. 6. Thirdly : But then in these and att other accidents, we must first observe from the cause to the effect, and then judge from the effect concerning the nature and the degree of the cause. We cannot conclude, TMs family is lessened, beggared, or extinct, therefore they are guilty of sacrilege : but thus, They are sacrilegious, and God hath blotted out their name from among the posterities, therefore this judgment was an express of God's anger against sacrilege : the judgment will not conclude a sin, but when a sin infers the judgment with a legible character and a prompt signification, not to understand God's choice is next to stupidity or carelessness. Arius was known to be a seditious, hereticd, and dissembling person, and his entrails descended on the earth, when he went to cover his feete : it M'as very suspicious that tMs was the pumshment of those sins which were the worst in him : but he that shdl conclude Arius was an heretic or sedtious, upon no other ground but because Ms boM'els gushed out, begins imprudently, and proceeds uncharitably. But it is consider able that men do not arise to great crimes on the sudden, but by degrees of carelessness to lesser impieties, and then to clamorous sins : and God is therefore said to punish great crimes, or actions of highest mdigmty, because they are commody productions from the spirit of reprobation; they are the highest ascents, and suppose a body of sm. And therefore dthough the judgment may be intended to punish all our sins, yet it is hke the Syrian army, it kills all that are its enemies, but it hath a special commission " to fight against none but the king of Israel," because Ms death M'ould be the dssolution of the body. And if God humbles a man for his great sin, that is, for those acts which combine and consummate dl the rest, possibly the body of sin may separate, and be apt to be scattered and subdued by single acts and instruments of mortification : and therefore it is but reasonable, in our making use of God's judgments upon others, to think that God will rather strike at the greatest crimes ; not ody because they are in themselves of greatest malice and Miquity, but because they are the sum total of the rest, and by being great pro gressions in the state of sin, suppose all the rest included ; and we, by proportiorring and observing the judgment to the Mghest, ac- knoM'ledge the whole body of sin to lie under the curse, though the e Ruit Arius alvo Infelix plus mente cadens, lethumque peremptus Cum Juda commune tulit, qui gutture pendens Visceribus curvatus obit : nee poena sequestrat Quos par culpa ligat, qui majestatis honori Vulnus ab ore parant. Hie prodidit, ille diremit Sacrilega de voce. Poet. Christ, apud Baron., torn. iii. [p. 457.] ad ann. Christ, ccexxxvi. 592 OF THE CAUSES AND MANNER [PART III. greatest only was named, and cdled upon with the voice of thunder. And yet because it sometimes happens that, upon the violence of a great and new occasion, some persons leap into such a sin wMch, in the ordnary course of sinners, uses to be the effect of an habitual and growing state, then if a judgment happens, it is clearly appro priate to that one great crime, wMch, as of itself it is equivdent to a vicious habit, and interrupts the acceptation of all its former con traries, so it meets with a curse, such as usually God chooses for the pumshment of a whole body and state of sm. However, in malting observation upon the expresses of God's anger, we must be careful that we reflect not with any bitterness or scorn upon the person of our calamitous brother, lest we make that to be an evil to Mm wMch God intends for Ms benefit, if the judgment was medcinal ; or that we increase the load, already great enough to sink him beneath Ms grave, if the judgment was Mtended for a final abscission. 7. FourtMy : But if the judgments descend upon ourselves, we are to take another course ; not to enquire into particdars to find out the proportions, (for that can ody be a design to part with just so much as we must needs,) but to amend all that is amiss : for then ody can we be secure to remove the Achanf, when we keep nothing within us, or about us, that may provoke God to jedousy or wrath. And that is the proper product of holy fear, which God mtended shodd be the first effect of att His judgments : and of tMs God is so careful, and yet so kind and provident that fear might not be produced always at the expense of a great suffering, that God hath provided for us certain prologues of judgment, and keeps us waking with darms, that so He might reconcile His mercies with our duties. Of this nature are epidemical diseases not yet arrived at us, prod- gious tempests, thunder and loud noises from heaven ; and he that will not fear when God speaks so loud, is not yet made soft with the impresses and perpetual doppings of religion. Yenerable Bede reports of St. Chads, that if a great gust of wind suddedy arose, he presently made some holy ejaculation, to beg favour of God for all mankind who might possibly be concerned in the effects of that wind; but if a storm succeeded, he fell prostrate to the earth, and grew as violent in prayer as the storm was, either at land or sea; but if God added thunder and lightning, he went to the church, and there spent all Ms time during the tempest in reciting litanies; psalms, and other holy prayers, till it pleased God to restore His favour, and to seem to forget His anger. And the good bishop added tMs reason ; because these are the extensions and stretcMngs forth of God's hand, and yet He did not strike : but he that trem bles not when he sees God's arm held forth to strike us, understands neither God's mercies, nor his own danger ; he neither knows what those horrors were wMch the people saw from Mount Sinai, noi ' [Josh, vii.] i Hist. Gent. Anglor., [lib. iv. cap. 3. torn. iii. col. 87.] SECT. XIV.J OF THE DIVINE JUDGMENTS. 593 what the glories and amazement shall be at the great day of judg ment. And if this religious man had seen Tullus Hostiliush the Boman king, and Anastasius1 a christian emperor, but a reputed heretic, struck dead with thunder-bolts, and their own houses made their urns to keep their ashes in ; there codd have been no posture humble enough, no prayers devout enough, no place holy enough, nothing sufficiently expressive of Ms fear, and Ms humility, and his adoration, and religion, to the almighty and infinite power and glo rious mercy of God, sendng out His emissaries to denounce war with designs of peace. A great Italian generd, seeing the sudden death of Alfonsus duke of Ferrara, kneeled down instantly, saying, " And shall not tiris sight make me religious ?" TMee and twenty thousand fell in one night in the Assyriank camp, who were dl slain for fornication. And this so prodigious a judgment M'as recorded in scripture for our example and affrightment, that we should not with such freedom entertain a crime wMch destroyed so numerous a body of men in the darkness of one evening. Fear, and modesty, and universd reformation, are the purposes of God's judgments upon us, or in our neighbourhood. 8. Fiftiriy : Concerning judgments happening to a nation, or a church, the consideration is particular, because there are fewer capa cities of making sins to become national than persond ; and therefore if we understand when a sin is national, we may the rather under stand the meaning of God's hand when He strikes a people. For nationd sins grow higher and Mgher, not merely according to the degree of the sin, or the intension alone, but accordmg to the exten sion; according to its being national, so it is productive of more or less miscMef to a kingdom. Customary iniqdties amongst the people do then amount to the account of national sins, when they are of so umversd practice as to take in well near every particular1; such as was that of Sodom, not to leave " ten righteous" in all the country : and such were the sins of the old world, who left but " eight persons" to escape the angry baptism of the flood. And such was the murmur of the children of Israel refusing to march up to Canaan at the com mandment of God, they all murmured but Caleb and Joshua; and this God, in the case of the Amdekites, calls " the fulfflling of their sins," and a " filling up the measure of their hriqdties." And hither also I reckon the defection of the ten tribes from the house of Judah, and the Samaritan schism : these caused the totd extirpation of the offendng people. For dthough these sins M'ere personal and private at first, yet when they come to be universal by diffusion and dissemi- b [Liv. i. 31. J ' [Chron. Paschal, in Olymp. ccexxi.— Cedren., p. 286.] * [cf. Pref. § 21. p. 18. sup.] 1 Fcecunda culpae saecula nuptiaB Primum inquinavere, et genus, et domos. Hoc fonte derivata clades In patriam populumque fluxit. — Hor. [Od. iii. fi. lin. 17.] n Q q 594 OF THE CAUSES AND MANNER [PART III. nation, and the good people remaidng among them are but hke drops of wine in a tun of water, of no consideration with God save only to the preservation of their own persons™; then, although the persons be private, yet all private or singdar persons make the nation. But tMs hath happened but seldom M christiamty: I tMnk indeed never, except in the case of mutimes and rebellion against their lawfd prince, or the attesting violence done in unjust wars. But God only knows, and no man can say, that any sin is nationd by diffusion ; and therefore in tMs case we cannot make any certain judgment or advantage to ourselves, or very rarely, by observing the changes of Providence upon a people. 9. But the next above tMs in order to the procuring popdar judgments, is pubhc impunities, the not doing justice upon crinrinds pubhcly complained of and demanded, especially when the persons interested caU for justice and execution of good laws, and the prince's arm is at hberty and in full strength, and there is no contrary reason in the particdar instance to make compensation to the public for the omission, or no care taken to satisfy the particular. Abimelech thought he had reason to be angry with Isaac for saying Bebecca was his sister ; for " one of the people might have lain with thy wife, and thou shoddst have brought evil upon us :" meaning that the man shodd have escaped unpumshed by reason of the mistake, which very impurity he feared might be expounded to be a counte nance and encouragement to the sin. But this was no more than Ms fear. The case of the Benjamites comes home to this present article ; for they refused to do justice upon the men that had ravished and kitted the Levite's concubine : they lost twenty-five thousand in battle, their cities were destroyed, and the M'hole tribe almost extin- gdshed. For punisMng public and great acts of injustice is called in scripture, "putting away the evil from the land11;" because to tMs purpose the sword is put into the prince's hand, and he " bears the sword in vain" who ceases to protect his people : and not to pumsh the evil is a voluntary retention of it, unless a specid case intervene in wMch the prince thinks it convedent to give a parti cular pardon: provided tMs be not encouragement to others, nor without great reason, big enough to make compensation for the par ticdar omission, and with care to render some other satisfaction to the person injured : in all other cases of impunity, that sin becomes nationd by forbearing, wMch in the acting was personal ; and it is certain the impumty is a spring of universal evils, it is no thank to the public if the best man be not as bad as the worst. 10. But there is a step beyond tMs, and of a more pubhc con cernment : such are the "laws of Omri," when a nation consents to, and makes, ungody statutes; when "miscMef is established as a law," then the nation is engaged to some purpose. When I see the people despise their governors, scorn, and rob, and dsadvantage the m Ez.ek. xiv. 20. n Deut. xvii. 12 j xix. 13, 19; xxi. 9, 21, et alibi. SECT. XIV.] OF THE DIVINE JUDGMENTS. 595 ministers of religion, make rude addresses to God, to His temple, to His sacraments; I look upon it as the insolency of an untaught people, who wodd as readily do the contrary, if the fear of God and the king were upon them by good examples, and precepts, and laws, and severe executions. And farther yet, when the more public and exemplar persons are without sense of religion, without a dread of majesty, without reverence to the church, without impresses of con science and the tendernesses of a religious fear towards God ; as the persons are greater M estimation of law, and in their influences upon the people, so the score of the nation advances, and there is more to be paid for in popdar judgments. But when Miqmty or irreligion is made a sanction, and either God must be dshonoured, or the church exauthorated, or her rites invaded by a law ; then the fortune of the kingdom is at stake0. No sin engages a nation so much, or is so public, so solemn hriquity, as is a wicked law. Therefore it concerns princes and states to secure the piety and innocency of their laws : and if there be any evil laws wlrich upon just grounds may be thought productive of God's anger, because a public misdemeanour cannot be expiated but by a public act of repentance, or a public cdamity, the laws must either have their edge abated by a desuetude, or be laid asleep by a non-execution, or dismembered by contrary provisoes, or have the sting drawn forth by interpretation, or else by abrogation be quite rescinded. — But these are nationd sins witirin itself, or within its own body, by the act of the body (I mean) dif fusive or representative, and they are like the persond sins of men in or against their own bodies in the matter of sobriety : there are others in the matter of justice, as the nation relates to other people communicating in pubhc intercourse. 11. For as the intercourse between man and man in the actions of commutative and distributive justice is the proper matter of virtues ind vices personal ; so are the transactions between nation and nation against the pubhc rdes of justice, sins national directly and in their first origind, and answer to injustice between man and man. Such are commencing war upon unjust titles, Mvasion of neighbours' terri tories, coMederacies and aids upon tyrannicd interest, wars against true religion or sovereignty, violation of the laws of nations which they have consented to as the public instrument of accord and nego tiation, breach of public faith, defending pirates, and the hke. When a public judgment comes upon a nation, these tirings are to be thought upon, that we may not tMnk ourselves acqMtted by crying out against swearing, and drunkenness, and cheating in manufactures, which, unless they be of universd dssemination, and made national • Ilion, Ilion Fatalis incestusque judex, Et mulier peregrina vertit In pulverem, ex quo destituit Deos Mercede pacta Laomedon. — Hor. [Od. iii. 3. lin. 18.] Qq2 b9G OF THE CAUSES AND MANNER [PART III. by diffusion, are paid for upon a persond score ; and the private in felicities of out lives wril either expiate or pumsh them severely. But while the people mourn for those sins of which their low condtion is capable, sins that may produce a popular fever, or perhaps the plague, where the misery dweUs in cottages, and the princes often have indemnity, as it was in the case of David : yet M'e may not hope to appease a war, to master a rebellion, to cure the public distempe- ratures of a kingdom, which tiireaten not the people ody, or the governors also, but even the government itself, unless the sMs of a more public capacity be cut off by public declarations, or other acts of national justice and religion. But the duty which concerns us all in such cases is, that every man in every capacity shodd enquire into himself, and for his own portion of the cdamity put in Ms own symbol of emendation for Ms particdar, and his prayers for the public interest: in wMch it is not safe that any private persons should descend to particular censures of the crimes of princes and states, no, not towards God, unless the matter be notorious and past a question ; but it is a sufficient assoilment of this part of Ms duty if, when he hath set his own house in order, he would pray with in definite significations of his charity and care of the public, that God wodd put it into the hearts of all whom it concerns to endeavour the removal of the sin that hath brought the exterminating angel upon the nation. But yet there are sometimes great lines dawn by God in the expresses of His anger in some judgments upon a nation ; and when the judgment is of that danger as to invade the very con stitution of a kingdom, the proportions that judgments many times keep to their sins intimate that there is some nationd sin in wMch, either by diffusion, or representation, or in the direct matter of sins, as false oaths, unjust wars, wicked confederacies, or ungodly laws, the nation in the public capacity is delinquent. 12. For as the nation hath in sins a capacity distinct from the sins of all the people, inasmuch as the nation is umted in one head, guarded by a distinct and a higher angel (as Persia0 by St.Michael), transacts affairs in a pubhc right, transmits influence to all parti culars from a common fountain, and hath intercourse with other collective bodies, who dso distinguish from their own particdars: so likewise it hath pumshments dstinct from those infelicities wMch vex particulars, punishments proportionable to itself, and to its own sins ; such as are change of governments of better Mto worse, of monarchy into aristocracy, and so to the lowest ebb of democracy : death of princes, Mfant kings, foreign invasions, civil wars, a dis putable title to the crown, making a nation tributary, conquest by a foreigner, and, wMch is worst of all, removing the candestick from a people, by extinction of the church, or that which is necessary to its conservation, the several orders and ministries of religion: and the last hath also proper sins of its own andogy ; such as are fdse articles in the public confessions of a church, schism from the catho- ° [But see the places alluded to, Dan. a. IS, 21 ; xii. 1.] SECT. XIV.] OF THE DIVINE JUDGMENTS. 597 lie, public scandds, a general viciousness of the clergy, an indffer ency in religion, without warmth and holy fires of zeal, and diligent pursuance of all its just and holy interests p. Now in these and dl parallel cases, when God by punishments hath probably marked and distinguished the crime, it concerns pubhc persons to be the more forward and importunate in consideration of public irregdarities ; and for the private dso, not to neglect their own particulars, for by that means, dthough not certainly, yet probably, they may secure them selves from falling in the pubhc calamity. It is not infallibly sure that holy persons shall not be smitten by the destroying angel, for God in such deaths hath many ends of mercy, and some of provi dence, to serve; but such private and personal emendations and devotions are the greatest securities of the men against the judg ment, or the evil of it, preserving them in this life, or wafting them over to a better. Thus many of the Lord's champions did fall in battle, and the armies of the Benjamites did twice prevail upon the juster people of all Israel ; and the Greek empire hath declined and shrunk under the fortune and power of the Ottoman family ; and the Holy Land, wMch was twice possessed by christian princes, is now in the domririon of uncMistened Saracens ; and in the production of these alterations, many a gallant and pious person suffered the evils of M'ar, aud the change of an untimely death. 13. But the way for the whole nation to proceed M cases of epi demical diseases, wars, great judgments, and popdar cdamities, is to do in the public proportion the same that every man is to do for Ms private ; by pubhc acts of justice, repentance, fastings, pious laM's, and execution of just and religious edicts, making peace, qdtting of unjust interests, declaring publicly against a crime, protesting in be half of the contrary virtue or religion : and to this also every man, as he is a member of the body politic, must co-operate : that by a re pentance in diffusion help may come, as well as by a sin of universal dssemination the plague was hastened and invited the rather. But in these cases att the work of dscerning and pronouncing concerning the cause of the judgment, as it must be without asperity, and ody for designs of correction and emendation, so it must be done by kings and prophets, and the assistance of other pubhc persons to whom the public is committed. Joshua cast lots upon Achan, and dscovered the public trouble in a private instance; and of old the prophets had it in commission to reprove the popdar iniqdty of nations, and the coMederate sins of kingdoms : and in this christiamty dtered nothing. And when this is done modestly, prudently, humbly, and penitently, oftentimes the tables turn immediately, but dways in due time ; and a great dteration in a kingdom becomes the greatest P Diis te minorem quod geris, imperas. Hinc omne principium, hue refer exitum. Dii multa neglecti dederunt Hesperiae mali luctuosae. — Hor. [Od. iii. 6. Im. £.] 598 OF THE CAUSES AND MANNER L'PART IH' blessing in the world, and fastens the church, or the crown, or the public peace, m bands of great continuance and security ; and it may be, the next age shall feel the benefits of our sufferance and repent ance. And therefore as we must endeavour to secure it, so we must not be too decretory in the case of others, or dsconsolate or dffident in our own, M'hen it may so happen that all succeedMg generations shall see that God pardoned us, and loved us, even when He smote us. Let us aU learn to fear, and walk humbly. The churches of Laodicea and the Colossians suffered a great cdamity, witMn a little while after the Spirit of God had sent them two epistles by the rmnistry of St. Paul ; their cities were buried in an earthquake : and yet we have reason to think they were churches beloved of God, and congregations of holy people. THE PBAYEB. O eternal and powerful God ! thou just and righteous Governor of the world ; who callest dl orders of men by precepts, promises, and tlireatemngs, by mercies and by judgments ; teach us to ad mire and adore aU the wisdom, the effects, and Mfhrite varieties of Thy providence ; and make us to dispose ourselves so, by obe dence, by repentance, by all the manners of holy living, that we may never provoke Thee to jealousy, much less to wrath and in dignation against us. Keep far from us the sword of the destroy ing angel, and let us never perish in the public expresses of Thy wrath, in dseases epidemicd, with the furies of war, with cdami- tous, sudden, and horrid accidents, with unusud dseases ; udess that our so strange fdl be more for Thy glory and our eternal benefit, and then Thy will be done : we beg Thy grace that we may cheerfdly coMorm to Thy holy will and pleasure. Lord, open our understandngs, that we may know the meamng of Thy voice, and the sigmfication of Thy language, when Thou speakest from heaven in signs and judgments ; and let a holy fear so soften our spirits, and an intense love so inflame and sanctify our desires, that we may apprehend every mtimation of Thy pleasure at its first, and remotest, and most obscure representment; that so we may with repentance go out to meet Thee, and prevent the ex presses of TMne anger. Let Thy restraining grace, and the observation of the issues of Thy justice, so allay our spirits, that we be not severe and forward in condemnmg others, nor back ward in passing sentence upon ourselves. Make us to obey Thy voice described in holy scripture, to tremble at Thy voice ex pressed in wonders and great effects of providence, to condemn none but ourselves, nor to enter into the recesses of Thy sanc tuary, and search the forbidden records of predestination : but SECT. XIV.] OF THE DIVINE JUDGMENTS. 599 that we may read our duty in the pages of revelation, not in the labels of accidentd effects ; that Thy judgments may confirm Thy word, and Thy word teach us our duty, and we by such exceUent instruments may enter in, and grow up in the ways of godttness, tMough Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. SECTION XV. Of the accidents happening from the death of Lazarus until the death and burial of Jesus. 1. While Jesus was in Gdilee, messengers came to Him from Martha and her sister Mary, that He would hasten into Judea, to Bethany, to reheve the sickness and imminent dangers of their brother Lazarus. But He deferred His going till Lazarus Mas dead ; purposing to give a great probation of His divinity, power, and mission, by a glorious miracle ; and to give God glory, and to receive reflections of the glory upon Himself. For after He had staid two days, He called His disciples to go with Him into Judea, telling them that Lazarus was dead, but He woMd raise him out of that sleep of death. But by that time Jesus was arrived at Bethany, " He found that Lazarus had been dead four days," and now near to putrefaction. But when Martha and Mary met Him, weeping their pious tears for their dead brother, Jesus suffered the passions of piety and humanity, and wept, distilling that precious liquor into the grave of Lazarus ; watering the dead plant, that it might spring into a new life, and raise his head above the ground. 2. When Jesus had by His words of comfort and institution strengthened the faith of the two mourning sisters, and commanded "the stone to be removed" from the grave, He made an address of adoration and eucharist to His Father, coMessing His perpetual pro pensity to hear Him, and then cried out, "Lazarus, come forth! and he that was dead came forth" from Ms bed of darkness, with Ms night-clothes on him ; whom when the apostles had udoosed at the command of Jesus, he went to Bethany : and many that were present "believed on Him;" but others, wondering and malicious, went and told the pharisees the story of the miracle, who upon that advice catted their great council, whose great and solemn cognizance was of the greater causes of prophets, of kMgs, and of the holy law. At tMs great assembly it was that Caiaphas the Mgh-priest prophesied that it was "expedient one shodd die for the people." And thence they determined the death of Jesus ; but Hev knowing they had passed a decretory sentence agdnst Him, retired to the city EpMaim 600 FROM THE DEATH OF LAZARUS [PART III. in the tribe of Judah, near the desert, where He staid a few till the approximation of the feast of Easter. 3. Against which feast when Jesus with His disciples M'as going to Jerusalem, He told them the event of the journey wodd be that the Jews should "deliver Him to the gentiles;" that they shodd " scourge Him, and mock Him, and crucify Him, and the third day He shoMd rise agaM." After which dscourse the mother of Zebe- dee's childen begged of Jesus for her two sons, that " one of them might sit at His right hand, the other at the left, in His kingdom." For no discourses of His passion, or intimations of the mysterious ness of His kingdom, could yet put them Mto right understandngs of their condition. But Jesus, whose heart and thoughts were f dl of fancy and apprehensions of the neighbour passion, gave them answer in proportion to His present conceptions and their future condition. For if they desired the honours of His kingdom such as they were, they shodd have them, unless themselves dd decline them ; they shodd " drink of His cup," and dip in His lavatory, and be " washed with His baptism," and " sit in His kingdom," if the heavenly "Father had prepared" it for them; but the donation of that immediately was an issue of divine election and predestination, and was ody competent to them who by holy riving and patient suffering put themselves into a dsposition of becoming vessels of election. 4. But as Jesus in tMs journey came near Jericho, He cures a blind man, who sat begging by the way-side : and espymg Zaccheus, the chief of the publicans, upon a tree, that he being low of stature might upon that advantage of station see Jesus passing by, He invited Himself to Ms house ; who received Him with gladness, and repentance of Ms crimes, purging his conscience, and filling his heart and house with joy and sanctity; for immedately upon the arrivd of the Master at his house, he offered restitution to all persons whom he had mjured, and satisfaction ; and half of Ms remanent estate he gave to the poor, and so gave the fairest entertainment to Jesus, who brought dong with Him sdvation to his house. There it was that He spake the parable of the king, who concredited divers tdents to Ms servants, and havmg at Ms return exacted an account, rewarded them who had improved their bank, and been faitMd in their trust, with rewards proportionable to their capacity and improvement ; but the negligent servant who had not meliorated Ms stock, was pumshed with abnegation and confinement to outer darkness. And from hence sprang up that dogmatical proposition, which is mysterious and de termined in Christianity, "to him that hath shall be given, and from him that hath not shall be taken away even what he hath." After this, gomg forth of Jericho, He cured two brind men upon the way. 5. Six days before Easter, Jesus came to Bethany, where He was feasted by Martha and Mary, and accompanied by Lazarus, who " sat SECT. XV.] TILL THE BURIAL OF JESUS. 601 at the table with Jesus." But Mary brought a pound of nard pistic0, and, as formerly she had done, agaM "anoints the feet of Jesus, and fills the house with the odour," till God Mmself smelt thence a savour of a sweet-smelhng sacrifice. But Judas Iscariot, the thief and the trdtor, repined at the vanity of the expense, as he pretended, because it might have been " sold for three hundred pence, and have been given to the poor." But Jesus in His reply taught us, that there is an opportunity for actions of religion as well as of charity; "Mary dd tMs against the burid of Jesus," and her rehgion was accepted by Him, to whose honours the holocaust of love and the oblations of dms-deeds are in their proper seasons direct actions of worship and duty. But at this meeting there came many Jews to see Lazarus, who was raised from death, as well as to see Jesus ; and because by occasion of his resurrection, " many of them beheved on Jesus," therefore the pharisees deliberated about putting him to death ; but God in His glorious providence was pleased to preserve him as a trumpet of His glories, and a testimony of the miracle, thirty years after the death of Jesus r. 6. The next day, being the fifth day before the passover, Jesus came to the foot of the Mount of olives, and sent His dsciples to Bethphage, a village in the neighbourhood, commanding them to unloose an ass and a colt, and bring them to Him, and to tell the OM'ners it was done for the Master's use ; and they dd so : and when they brought the ass to Jesus, He rides on Mm to Jerusalem ; and the people, having notice of His approach, took branches of palm- trees and went out to meet Him, streM'ing branches and garments in the way, crying out, Hosanna to the Son of David ! which was a form of exclamation used to the honour of God, and in great solemnities, and signifies " adoration" to the Son of David, by the rite of carrying branches5; wMch when they used in procession about their dtars, they used to pray, "Lord, save us; Lord prosper us;" which hath occasioned the reddition of " Hoschiannah" to be amongst some that prayer which they repeated at the carrying of the " Hoschiannah'," as if itself did signify, " Lord, save us." But this honour was so great and unusual to be done even to kings, that the pharisees, knowing tMs to be an appropriate manner of address to God, said one to another by way of M'onder, " Hear ye what these men say?" For they were troubled to hear the people revere Him as a God. 7. When Jesus from the Mount of olives beheld Jerusalem, He. " wept over it," and foretold great sadnesses and infelicities futurely ' Pisticam, id est, spicatam, corrupte, ' Epiphan. cont. Manich. [Adv. haer. uti ex Latinis fere solent Graeci. — Erasm. lxvi. § 34. lib. ii. torn. ii. vol. i. p. 652.] in xiv. Marci. [torn. vi. col. 203 F.] 8 'Ttyr/Xdv apeTOLV Kal ^Teipdvaiv dutrov yXvKbv. — Olymp. [v. 1.] Pindarus vocat palmarum ramos, altissi- ' Drusius de Vocib. Heb. N. T. c. 19, marum virtutum et coronarum florem [p. 83.] Canin. de locis N. T. [cap. iv suavem. P 33.] CU:i FROM THE DEATH OF LAZARUS [PART III. contingent to it : M'hich not only happened in the sequel of the story according to the main issues and significations of this prophecy, but even to minutes and circumstances it was verified ; for in the Mount of olives where Jesus shed tears over perisMng Jerusalem, the Bomans first pitched their tents when they came to its find overthrow11. From thence descendng to the city He went into the temple, and still the acclamations followed Him, titt the pharisees were ready to burst with the noises abroad, and the tunmlts of envy and scorn within, and by observing that all their endeavours to suppress His glories were but like clapping their hands to veil the sun, and that in despite of all their stratagems the whole nation was become dsci- ple to the glorious Nazarene. And there He cured certaM persons that were " blind and lame." 8. But whilst He abode at Jerusalem, "certain Greeks who came to the feast to worship" made their address to Philip that they might be brought to Jesus. PMlip tells Andew, and they both tell Jesus ; who, having admitted them, discoursed many tirings concern ing His passion, and then prayed a petition, wMch is the end of His own sufferings, and of att human actions, and the purpose of the whole creation, "Father, glorify Thy name;" to wMch He was an swered by a voice from heaven, " I have both glorified it, and witt glorify it again." But tMs, nor the whole series of miracles that He dd, the mercies, the cures, nor the dvine discourses, codd gain the faith of all the Jews, who were determined by their human interest; for "many of the rulers who believed on Him durst not confess Him, because they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God." Then Jesus again exhorted all men to believe on Him, that so they might in the same act believe on God ; that they might approach unto the light, and not abide in darkness; that they might obey the commandments of the Father, whose express charge it was that Jesus shodd preach tMs gospel ; and that they might not be judged at the last day by the word which they have rejected, which word to all its observers is everlasting Me. After wMch sermon retiring to Bethany He abode there all Mght. 9. On the morrow returning to Jerusdem, on the way bemg hun gry He passed by a fig-tree ; where expecting fruit, He found none, and cursed trie fig-tree, which by the next day was dried up and withered ; upon occasion of wMch preternatural event Jesus ds- coursed of the power of faith, and its power to produce miracles. But upon tMs occasion others*, the dsciples of Jesus in after ages, have pleased themselves with fancies and imperfect descants, as that He cursed this tree M mystery and secret intendment ; it having been the tree in the eating whose trait Adam, prevaricating the divine law, made an inlet to sin, wMch brought in death, and the sadnesses of Jesus' passion. But Jesus having entered the city !* Joseph, de Bell. Jud. [lib. v. cap. 2. x Isidor. [Pelus.] ad Theopomp., lib. i. § 3. p. 1216.] ep. 51. [p. 15.] SECT. XV.] TILL THE BURIAL OF JESUS. G03 came into the temple and preached the gospel : and the chief priests and scribes questioned His commission, and by what authority He dd those things ; but Jesus, promising to ansM-er them if they M'odd declare their opimons concerning John's baptism, wMch they durst not for fear of "dspleasing the people" or tMowing dirt in their own faces, M'as acqdtted of His obligation by their declidng the proposition. 10. But there He reproved the pharisees and rders, by the para ble of tM'o sons ; the first whereof said to Ms father he wodd not obey, but repented and dd his command ; the second gave good words, but dd notMng; meamng that persons of the greatest im probability were more heartily converted than they whose outside seemed to have appropriated religion to the labels of their frontlets. He added a parable of the vineyard let out to husbandmen, who killed the servants sent to demand the frmts, and at last the son himself, that they might Mvade the inheritance ; but made a sad commination to all such who shodd either stumble at tMs stone, or on whom this stone should fall. After which and some other reprehensions, (wlrich He so veiled in parable, that it might not be expounded to be calumny or declamation, dthough such sharp sermons had been spoken in the people's hearing, but yet so trans parently that themselves might see their own iniqdty in those modest and just representments,) the pharisees would fain have seized Him, but they durst not for the people, but resolved if they could to entangle Him in His talk ; and therefore sent out spies, who shodd pretend sanctity and veneration of His person, who, with a goody insinuating preface, that " Jesus regarded no maris person, but spake the word of God" with much simplicity and justice, desired to know if it were "lawfd to pay tribute to Csesar, or not." A question M'hich was of great dspute, because of the numerous sect of the GaMeans, who denied it, and of the affections of the people, who loved their money, and their liberty, and the privileges of their nation. And now in all probability He should fall under the dis pleasure of the people or of Csesar, but Jesus called to "see a penny," and finding it to be superscribed with Csesar's image, with incomparable M'isdom He brake their snare, and established an evan gehed proposition for ever, saying, " Give to Csesar the tilings that are Csesar's, and to God the things that are God's." 11. Having so excellently, and so much to their wonder, ansM'ered the pharisees, the sadducees bring their great objection to Him against the resurrection, by putting case of a woman married to seven husbands, and "whose wife shodd she be in the resurrection?" thinking that to be an rinpossible state wMch engages upon such seeming incongruities that a woman shodd at once be wife to seven men. But Jesus first answered their objection, telling them that all those relations, whose foundation is in the imperfections and passions of flesh and blood, and duties here below, shall cease in that state 604 FROM THE DEATH OF LAZARUS [PART III, which is so spiritual that it is like to the condition of angels, amongst whom there is no difference of sex, no cognations, no genealogies or derivation from one another; and then by a new argument proves the resurrection, by one of God's appellatives, who dd then delight to be called "the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob :" for since " God is not the God of the dead but of the living," unto Him even these men are alive ; and if so, then either they now exercise acts of life, and therefore shall be restored to their bodes, that their actions may be complete, and they not remam in a state of imperfection to all eternity ; or if they be alive, and yet cease from operation, they shall be much rather raised up to a condtion wMch shall actuate and make perfect their present capacities and dispositions, lest a power and inchnation shodd for ever be in the root, and never rise up to frdt or herbage, and so be an eternal vanity, like an old bud or an eternal child. 12. After tMs, the pharisees being weU pleased, not that Jesus spake so excellently, but that the sadducees M'ere confuted, came to Him, asking, "wMchwas the great commandment?" and some other things, more out of curiosity than pious desires of satisfaction. But at last Jesus was pleased to ask them concerning Christ, "whose son He was?" They answered, "the Son of David :" but He re plying, "How then doth David call Him Lord?" — "the Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand," &c. — they had notMng to answer. But Jesus then gave His dsciples caution agdnst the pride, the hypocrisy, and the oppression of the scribes and pharisees ; and commended the poor widow's oblation of her two mites into the treasury, it being a great love in a little print, for it was all her riving. All tiris was spoken in the temple, the goodly stones of which when the apostles beheld with M'onder, they being wMte and firm, twentyy cubits in length, twelve in breadth, eight M depth, as Josephus reports", Jesus prophesies the destruction of the place: concerning which prediction when the apostles, being with Him at the Mount of olives, asked Him privately concerning the time and the signs of so sad event, He discoursed largely of His coming to judgment against triat city, and interweaved predctions of the uni versal judgment of all the world ; of wMch tMs, though very sad, was but a small adumbration : addng precepts of watcMdness, and standing in preparation, with hearts fitted with grace, our lamps always shining, that when the bridegroom shall come we may be ready to enter in : M'Mch M'as intended in the parable of the five wise virgins : and concluded His sermon with a narrative of His passion, foretelling that witMn tMro days He should be crucified. 13. Jesus descended from the mount, and came to Bethany: and turning into the house of Simon the leper, Mary Magdden, having been reproved by Judas for spendmg ointment upon Jesus' feet, it y [Leg. twenty-five.] 1 Antiq. [lib. xv. cap. 11. § 3. p. 701.] SECT. XV.] TILL THE BURIAL OF JESUS. 605 being so unaccustomed and large a profusion, thought now to speak her love once more, and trouble nobody, and therefore she poured ointment on His sacred head, believing that, being a pompousness of a more accustomed festivity, would be indulged to the expressions of her affection : but now all the disciples murmured, wondering at the prodgiousness of the woman's rehgion, great enough to consume a province in the overflowings of her thankfdness and duty. But Jesus now also entertained the sincerity of her miraculous love, addng tMs prophecy, that where the gospel shodd be preached, there also a record of tMs act should be kept, as a perpetual monu ment of her piety, and an attestation of His divinity who could fore tell future contingencies ; cMistiaMty receiving the greatest argument from that which St. Peter calls, "the surer word of prophecy," meaning it to be greater than the testimony of miracles, not easy to be dissembled by impure spirits, and whose efficacy shodd descend to all ages : for this prophecy shdl for ever be fulfflling, and being every day verified, does every day preach the divinity of CMist's person, and of His institution. 14. Two days before the passover, the scribes and pharisees called a council to contrive crafty ways of destroying Jesus, they not daring to do it by open violence. Of which meeting when Judas Iscariot had notice (for those assemblies M'ere public and notorious), he ran from Bethany, and offered himself to betray Ms master to them, if they wodd give him a considerable reward : they agreed for " thirty pieces of silver." Of what vdue each piece was, is uncertain; but their own nation hath given a rde, that when a piece of silver is named in the pentateuch, it signifies a side; if it be named in the prophets, it signifies a pound ; if in the other writings of the Old testament, it signifies a tdenta. TMs therefore being alleged out of the prophet Jeremy by one of the evangelists b, it is probable the price at wMch Judas sold his Lord was tirirty pound weight of silver ; " a goodly price" for the Saviour of the world to be prized at by His undscemmg and unworthy countrymen. 15. The next day was the first day of udeavened bread, on wlrich it was necessary they shodd kill the passover : therefore Jesus sent Peter and John to the city to a certain man whom they should find carrying a pitcher of water to his house; him they shodd follow, and there prepare the passover. They went, and found the man in the same circumstances, and prepared for Jesus and His family, who » Elias Levita Jud. in Tisbit. [p. 130.] torn. iii. par. 2. col. 114.] in nonnullis Arias Montanus [potius, Guido Fabri- codicibus ' Zecharias' legebatur ; atque cius] in diction. Syro-Chaldaic. [item hodie in Syriac. T. Sed fortassis ex Arias Montanus in tract. De mensuris, traditione hoc descendit a Jeremia dictum, vol. iii. p. 12 sqq.] sicut multa alia in Vet. Testam. non b Matt, xxvii. 9, ubi citatur Jeremias descripta, et in N. T. repetita : quod eo pro Zecharia, per errorem illapsum in magis est credibile, quia proverbialiter codices. Nam tempore S. Augustini dictum apud Judaaos, spiritum Jeremias [Deconsens. evang., lib. iii. cap. 7. § 29. resedisse in Zecharia. 606 FROM THE DEATH OF LAZARUS [PART III. at the even came to celebrate the passover. It was the house of John, surnamed Mark, wMch had dways been opened to this blessed family, where He was pleased to fhrish His last Supper and the mys teriousness of the vespers of His passion0. 16. When evening was come, Jesus stood with His disciples, and ate the paschd lamb ; after wMch He girt Himself with a towel, and, taking a basin, washed the feet of His dsciples, not only by the ceremony, but in His discourses, instructing them M the doctrine of humility, wMch the Master, by His so great condescension to His dsciples, had made sacred, and imprinted the lesson in lasting cha racters by makMg it symbolicd. But Peter was unwilling, to be washed by Ms Lord, until he was told he must renounce his part in Him unless he were washed ; wMch option being given to Peter, he cried out, " Not my feet only, but my hands and my head." But Jesus said the ablution of the feet was sufficient for the purification of the whole man; relating to the custom of those countries, who used to go to supper immedately from the baths, who therefore were sufficiently clean, save ody on their feet by reason of the dust con tracted in their passage from the baths to the dmng-rooms ; from wMch when by the hospitable master of the house they were caused to be cleansed, they needed no more ablution : and by it Jesus, pass ing from the letter to the spirit, meant that the body of sin Mas M'ashed in the baths of baptism ; and afterwards, if we remained in the same state of purity, it was oMy necessary to purge away the Mth contracted M our passage from the font to the altar.; and then we are clean aU over, when the baptismal state is unaltered, and the little adherencies of imperfection and passions are also washed off. 17. But, after the manducation of the paschd lamb, it M'as the custom of the nation to sit down to a second supper, in which they ate herbs and unleavened bread, the major-domo first dipping his morsel, and then the family ; after which the father brake bread into pieces, and distributed a part to every of the guests, and first drink ing himself, gave to the rest the chalice filled M'ith wine, according to the age and dgnity of the person, addng to each dstribution a form of benediction proper to the mystery, wlrich M'as eucharistical and commemorative of their deliverance from Egypt. This supper Jesus being to celebrate, changed the forms of benedction, turned the ceremony into mystery, and gave His body and blood in sacra ment and religious configuration ; so instituting the venerable sacra ment wMch from its time of institution is called the ' Lord's Supper :' wlrich rite Jesus commanded the apostles to perpetuate in comme moration of Him their Lord, until His second coming. And tliis was the first delegation of a perpetud ministry wMch Jesus made to His apostles, M which they were to be succeeded to in all generations of the church. c Alexand. Mon. apud Metaphrasten Mens. Jun., torn. ii. p. 440.] Vide Adri- die xi. Junii. [In Actt. Sanctt. Holland. chom. in descript. Jerus. n. 6. [p. 11.] SECT. XV.] TILL THE BURIAL OF JESUS. 607 18. But' Jesus being troubled in spirit, told His apostles that one of them should betray Him ; which predction He made that they might not be scandalized at the sadness of objection of the passion, but be confirmed in their belief, seeing so great demonstration of His wisdom and spirit of prophecy. The disciples were all troubled at tMs sad arrest, "looking one on another, and doubting of whom He spake ;" but they beckoned to the beloved disciple, leaning on Jesus' breast, that he might ask : for they, who knew their own in- nocency and infirmity, were desirous to satisfy their curiosity, and to be rid of their indetermination and their fear. But Jesus, being asked, gave them a sign, and a sop to Judas, commanding Mm to do what he list speedily ; for Jesus was extremely " straitened," till He had dunk the chahce off, and accomplished His mysterious and af flictive baptism. After Judas received the sop, the devil entered into him; and Judas went forth immediately, it being now Mght. 19. When he was gone out, Jesus began His farewell sermon, rarely mixed of sadness and joys, and studded with mysteries as with emerdds, discoursmg of the glorification of God in His Son, and of those glories wMch the Father had prepared for Him ; of His sudden departure, and His migration to a place wMther they codd not come yet, but afterwards they shodd ; meamng, first to death, and then to glory; commanding them to love one another; and foreteMng to Peter, who made confident protests that he wodd de with his Master, that before the cock shodd crow twice, he shoMd deny Him thrice. But lest He should afflict them with too sad representments of His present condition, He comforts them with the comforts of faith, with the intendments of His departure to prepare places in heaven for them, whither they might come by Him, who is the way, the truth, and the life ; addng a promise in order to their present support and future felicities, that if they shoMd ask of God any tiring in His name, they shodd receive it ; and upon condtion they would love Him and keep His commandments, He wodd pray for the holy Ghost to come upon them, to supply His room, to furnish them with proportionable comforts, to enable them with great gifts, to lead them Mto all truth, and to abide with them for ever. Then arming them agdnst future persecutions, giving them dvers holy precepts, discoursing of His emanation from the Father, and of the necessity of His departure, He gave them His blessing, and prayed for them ; and then having sung a hymn, wMch was part of the great Allelujah begriming at the hundred and fourteenth psalm, "When Israel came out of Egypt," and ending at the hund-ed and eighteenth inclusively, went forth with His dsciples over the brook. Cedron unto the Mount of olives, to a village catted Gethsemane, where there was a garden, into which He entered to pray together with His dsciples. 20. But taking Peter, James, and John, apart with Him about a stone's cast from the rest, He began to be exceeding sorrowful, and fad even unto death. For now He saw the mgredients of His bitter 608 FROM THE DEATH OF LAZARUS [PART III. draught pouring into the chalice, and the sight was full of horror and amazement ; He therefore " fell on His face, and prayed, 0 My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me." In this prayer He fell into so sad an agony, that the pads, Mflicted by His Father's wrath, and made active by His own apprehension, were so great, that a sweat dstilled from His sacred body as great and conglobated as drops of bloodd ; and God, who heard His prayer, but wodd not answer Him in kind, sent an angel to comfort Him in the sadness which He was pleased not to take away. But knowing that the dinking this cup was the great end of His coming into the world, He laid aside all His own interests, and devested Himself of the affec tions of flesh and blood, willing His Father's witt ; and because His Father commanded, He in defiance of sense and passion was desirous to suffer all our pains. But as, when two seas meet, the bdows contest in ungentle embraces, and make violent noises, till, having wearied themselves Mto smaUer waves and disunited drops, they run qdetly into one stream : so did the spirit and nature of Jesus assadt each other with dsagreeing interests and distinguishing disputations, tiU the earnestness of the contention was diminished by the demon strations of the Spirit and the prevairings of grace, which the sooner got the victory because they M'ere not to contest with an unsanctified or a rebellious nature, but a body of affections wlrich had no strong desires but of its own preservation : and therefore Jesus went thrice and prayed the same prayer, that if it were possible the cup might pass from Him, and tMice made an act of resignation, and in the intervals came and found His apostles asleep, gently cMding their incuriousness, and warning them to watch and pray, that they enter not into temptation ; till the time that the traitor came with a mul titude armed with swords and staves from the priests and elders of the people to apprehend Him. 21. Judas gave them the opportudty of the mght; that was all the advantage they had by Mm, because they durst not seize Him by day for fear of the people ; and he signified the person of his Master to the solders by a kiss, and an address of seeming civffity. But when they came towards Him, " Jesus said, Whom seek ye ? they said, Jesus of Nazareth. He said, I am He." But there was a di vinity upon Him, that they could not seize Him at first : but as a wave chmbing of a rock is beaten back and scattered into members, till fdling down it creeps with gentle waftings, and kisses the feet of the stony mountain, and so encircles it : so the solders, coming at first with a rude attempt, were twice repeUed by the glory of His person, till they, faMng at His feet, were at last admitted to the seizure of His body, having by those involuntary prostrations con fessed His power greater than theirs, and that the lustre and in- d Quidam ex Hegesippo notant, ex ir- passion. Dom. cone. xv. § 3. torn. i. p. roratione sanguinis Christi natam arbo- 748.] et alii. Sed hae sunt merae nugse. rem. Sic Philippus Bosquierus [De SECT. XV.] TILL THE BURIAL OF JESUS. 609 fluence of a God are greater than the violences and rudenesses of soldiers6. And still they, hke weak eyes, durst not behold the glory of this Sun, till a cloud, hke a dark veil, dd interrupt the emissions of His glories ; they codd not seize upon Him, till tiiey had tMown a veil upon His holy face : wMch, although it was a custom of the easterhngs, and of the Boman empire generdlyf, yet in tMs case was violence and necessity, because a certain impetuosity and vigorous- ness of spirit, and divimty, issdng from His holy face, made them to take sanctuary M darkness, and to throw a veil over Him in that dead time of a sad and dsmd night. But Peter, a stout GaMean^, bold and zedous, attempted a rescue, and smote a servant of the high priest, and cut off Ms ear; but Jesus rebuked the intemperance of Ms passion, and commanded Mm to put up his sword, saying, " all they that strike with the sword shall perish with the sword;" so putting a bride upon the illegal inflictions and expresses of anger or revenge from an incompetent authority : but " Jesus touched Mal- chus's ear, and cured it." 22. When Jesus had yielded Himself into their power, and was now led away by the chief priests, captains of the temple, elders of the people, and solders, who aU came in combination and covenant to surprise Him, His dsciples fled; and John the evangehst, who with grief and an overrunning fancy had forgot to lay aside his upper garment wMch in festivals they are used to put on, began to make escape, but being arrested by his linen upon Ms bare body, M'as forced to leave that behind Mm that himself might escape Ms Master's danger : for now was verified the propheticd saying, " I will smite the Shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered." But Peter followed afar off; and the greatness of John's love, when he had mastered the first inconsiderations of Ms fear, made hrin to return a while dter mto the high priest's hall. 23. Jesus was first led to Annas, who was the prince of the San hedrim, and had cognizance of prophets and public doctrines ; who therefore enquired of Jesus concermng His disciples and His dsci- phne : but He answered, that His doctrine had been public or po pdar, that He never taught in conventicles ; and therefore referred him to the testimony of all the people. For wMch free answer a servant standng by smote Him on the face ; and Jesus meekly asked Mm, What evil He had done? But Annas without the seventy as sessors codd judge nothing, and therefore sent Him bound to Caia- phas, who was Mgh priest that year, president of the rites of the temple, as the other high priest was of the great council. Thither Peter came, and had admission by the means of another dsciple, supposed to be John, who, having sold Ms possessions in Galilee to Caiaphas, came and dwelt near mount Sion, but M'as by intervention e S. Hieron. in Matt. ix. [torn. iv. par. urbis hujus.— Liv. [i. 26.] i. col. 30.] g — °^"V Qpo-ovs V"tt 2ip.av. — Noun. ' I, li'ctor, obnube caput liberatoris [in Juann. i. 45. p. 12.— Cf. ],. 350 sup j II. Ii I' 610 FROM THE DEATH OF LAZARUS [PART III. of that bargain made known to the high priest, and brought Peter into the house : where when Peter was challenged three times by the servants to be a GaMean, and of Jesus's family, he demed and for swore it ; till Jesus, looking back, reminded him of His prediction, and the foulness of the crime ; and the cock crew : for it was now the second cock-crowing after ten of the clock in the fourth watch : " and Peter went out, and wept bitterly," that he might cleanse his soul, M'ashing off the foul stains he had contracted in his shamefd perjury and denying of his Lord. And it is reported of the same holy person11, that ever after, when he heard the cock crow, he wept, remembering the old instrument of his conversion, and Ms own un- worthiness, for wMch he never ceased to do actions of sorrow and sharp repentance. 24. On the inormng the council was to assemble; and whilst Jesus was detained in expectation of it, the servants mocked Him, and did all actions of affront and ignoble despite to His sacred head : and because the question was whether He were a prophet, they covered His eyes and smote Him in derision, calring on Him to pro phesy, who smote Him. But in the morning, when the high priests and rders of the people were assembled, they sought fdse witness against Jesus, but found none to purpose; they railed boldy, and could prove notMng ; they accused vehemently, and the aUegations were of such tirings as were no crimes; and the greatest article which the united dligence of all their malice codd pretend, was that He said He would destroy the temple and in three days build it up again. But Jesus neither answered this nor any other of their vainer dlegations, for the witnesses destroyed each other's testimony by their disagreeing; till at last Caiaphas, who, to verify his prophecy, and to satisfy his ambition, and to bait Ms envy, was furiously determined Jesus shodd die, adjures Him by trie living God to say whether He M'ere the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus knew Ms design to be an inquisition of death, not of pie.ty or curiosity; yet because His hour was now come, openly affirmed it, without any expedent to elude the high priest's mahce or to decline the question. 25. When Caiaphas heard the saying, he accused Jesus of blas phemy, and pretended an apprehension so tragical, that he over-acted his M'onder and feigned detestation1; for he rent his garments (wMch was the interjection of the country, and custom of the nation, but forbidden to the Mgh priest) and called presently to sentence : and, as it M'as agreed beforehand, they all condemned Him as guilty of death, and, as far as they had power, inflicted it ; for they beat Him with their fists, smote Him with the palms of their hands, spit upon Hiin, and abused Him beyond the licence of enraged tyrants. When Judas heard that they had passed the final and decretory sentence of death upon his Lord, he, who thought not it wodd have gone so far, h Arscnius in Vitis Pp. fldem memorat xxix. — Compare vol. iv. p. 463.] Sanctorius, Acta sanctt. Bolland. iu Jun. ' [' fained-detestation' in first ed.] SECT. XV.] TILL THE BURIAL OF JESUS. 611 repented him to have been an instrument of so damnable a machi nation, and came and brought the silver wlrich they gave Mm for hire, tiirew it in amongst them, and sdd, " I have sMned in betraying the innocent blood." But they, incurious of those hell torments Judas felt witirin him, because their own fires burnt not yet, dis missed him, and upon consultation bought with the money a field to bury strangers in. And Judas went and hanged himself: and the judgment was made more notorious and eminent by an unusud acci dent at such deaths, for he so swelled, that he burst, and Ms bowels gushed out. But the Greek schohast, and some others', report out of Papias, St. John's scholar, that Judas fell from the fig-tree on wMch he hanged before he was qdte dead, and survived Ms attempt some wMle, bemg so sad a spectacle of deformity, and pdn, and a prodigious tumour, that Ms plague was deplorable, and Mghly mise rable, till at last he burst in the very substance of Ms trunk, as being extended beyond the possibilities and capacities of nature. 26. But the Mgh priests had given Jesus over to the secular power, and carried Him to Pilate to be put to death by his sentence and military power : but coming tirither, they wodd not enter into the judgment-hall because of the feast ; but Pilate met them, and witting to decrine the busmess bade them judge Him according to their own law. They rephed, it was not lawful for them to put any man to death ; meamng, during the seven days of udeavened bread, (as appears in the instance of Herod, who detained Peter in prison, intendng after Easter to bring him out to the people,) and their malice was restless till the sentence they had passed were put into ex ecution ; others thinking k, that all the right of inflicting capitd pun ishments was taken from the nation by the Bomans ; and Josephus writes1, that when Anamasm, their Mgh priest, had by a council of the Jews condemned St. James the brother of our Lord, and put him to death, without the consent of the Eoman president, he was de prived of his priesthood. But because Pilate, who, either by common right, or at that time, was the judge of capitd inflictions, was averse from Mtermeddhng M the condemnation of an innocent person, they attempted him with excellent craft; for knowing that Pilate was a great servant of the Boman greatness, and a hater of the sect of the GaMeans, the Mgh priest accused Jesus that He was of that sect, that He demed paying tribute to Csesar, that He called Himself king. Concermng which when Pilate interrogated Jesus, He answered, that His kMgdom was not of this world ; and Pilate, thinkMg he had no thing to do with the other, came forth again, and gave testimony that ' Euthym. in Matt [xxvii. 5. torn. i. torn. iii. par. 2. col. 790.] Cyrill, in Joan., p. 1084.] Cedren. in Compend. [p. 156 lib. xii. cap. 6. [torn. iv. p. 1035.] Chry- D ] (Ecumen. in c. ii. Act. [p. 7.] Ju- sost. in Joan. [Hom. lxxxiii. § 3. torn. viii. vencus, Hist Evang., lib. iv. [in Matt p. 494 B.] Ambros. Serm. de Calend. xxvii, &c. p. 120.] Beda de Loc. Sanct., Januar. § 4. [torn, ii Append, col. 400.] cap. 4. [torn. iii. col. 365.] ' Antiq., lib. xx. cap. 8. [p. 896.] k S. Aug. in Joan. Tract 114. [§ 5. » [' Ananus,' apud Josephum.] EI 2 612 FROM THE DEATH OF LAZARUS [tART III. he found nothing worthy of death in Jesus. But hearing that He was a Galilean, and of Herod's jurisdiction, Pilate sent Him to Herod, who was at Jerusdem at the feast. And Herod was glad, because he had heard much of Him, and since Ms return from Borne had de sired to see Him, but could not, by reason of his own avocations, and the ambdatory life of CMist ; and now he hoped to see a miracle done by Him, of whom he had heard so many. But the event of tMs was that Jesus dd there no miracle ; Herod's solders set Him at nought, and mocked Him : and that day Herod was reconciled to Pilate. And Jesus was sent back, arrayed in a white and splendd garment : wMch though possibly it might be intended for derision, yet was a symbol of innocence, condemned persons usuaUy being ar rayed in black". And when Pttate had again examined Him, Jesus, meek as a lamb, and as a sheep before the shearers, opened not His mouth ; Msomuch that Pilate wondered, perceivmg the greatest M- nocence of the man by not offering to excuse or lessen any tiring : for though Pilate had power to release Him or crucify Him, yet His contempt of death was in just proportion to His Mnocence : wMch also PUate concealed not, but published Jesus' innocence by Herod's and his own sentence; to the great regret of the rulers, who like ravening wolves thirsted for a draught of blood, and to devour the moming-prey. 27. But Pilate hoped to prevail upon the rulers, by making it a favour from them to Jesus, and an indulgence from him to the nation, to set Hrin free : for oftentimes even mahce itself is driven out by the devil of self-love, and so we may be acknowledged the authors of a safety, we are content to rescue a man even from our own selves. Pilate therefore offered that accordng to the custom of the nation Jesus shodd be released, for the honour of the present festivd, and as a donative to the people. But the spirit of mahce was here the more prevalent, and they desired that Barabbas, a murderer, a thief, and a sedtious person, shodd be exchanged for Him. Then Pilate, casting about dl ways to acqdt Jesus of pumshment, and Mmself of guilt, offered to scourge Him and let Him go, hoping that a lesser draught of blood might stop the furies and rabidness of their passion, without their bursting with a river of His best and vital liquor. But these leeches would not so let go ; they cry out, Crucify Him ; and to engage Mm finally, they told him, if he did let tMs man go, he was no friend to Csesar. 28. But Pilate cdled for water and washed his hands, to demon strate his own unwillingness, and to reject and transmit the guilt upon them, who took it on them as greedily as they sucked the blood ; they cried out, " His blood be on us and our chihiren." As Pilate was going to give sentence, his wife, being troubled in her dreams, sent, with the earnestness and passion of a woman, that he shodd have nothing to do with that just person : but he was en- n Joseph., lib. xvi. [cap. 8. § 6. p. 733.] Idem in Vita sua. [§ 28. p. 917.] SECT. XV.] TILL THE BURIAL OF JESUS. 613 gaged : Csesar and Jesus, God and the king, did seem to have different interests ; or at least he was tMeatened into that opinion ; and Pilate, though he was satisfied it was but calumny and malice, yet he was loath to venture upon Ms ansM'er to Borne, in case the high priest shodd have accused him. For no man knows whether the interest or the mistake of Ms judge may cast the sentence ; and whoever is accused strongly is never thought entirely innocent : and therefore, not oMy against the dvMe laws, but against the Boman too, he condemned an innocent person, upon objections notoriously mahcious; he adjudged Him to a death which was ody due to pubhc thieves and homicides (crimes with which He was not charged), upon a pretence of blasphemy, of wMch He stood accused, but not convicted, and for M'Mch by the Jewish law He should have been stoned if found guilty. And this he did put into present execution, against the Tiberian law, M'hich about twelve years before decreed in favour of condemned persons that, after sentence, execution shodd be deferred ten days0. 29. And now was the holy Lamb to bleed. First therefore Pilate's solders array Him in a Mngly robe, put a reed in His hand for a sceptre, plait a crown of thorns and put it on His head ; they bow the knee, and mock Him ; they smite Him with His fantastic sceptre, and instead of tribute pay Him with blows and spittings upon His holy head : and when they had emptied the whole stock of poisonous contempt, they devest Him of the robes of mockery, and put Him on His own ; they lead Him to a pillar, and bind Him fast, and scourge Him with whips, a punishment that slaves ody dd use to suffer? (free persons being in certain cases beaten with rods and clubs), that they might add a new scorn to His afflictions, and make His sorrows, like their own guilt, vast and mountainous : after which, Barabbas being set free, Pilate dehvered Jesus to be crucified. 30. The solders therefore, having framed a cross, sad and heavy, laid it upon Jesus' shoulders (who hke Isaac bore the wood with wMch He was to be sacrificed Himself), and they drive Him out to crucifixion, who was scarce able to stand under that load. It is generally supposed that Jesus bore the whole tree, that is, both the parts of His cross ; but to him that considers it, it witt seem im possible : and therefore it is more likely, and agreeable to the old manner of crucifying malefactors, that Jesus ody carried the cross parti ; the body of it being upon the place either already fixed, or 0 Sueton. in Tiberio. [cap. 75. torn. i. [Digest, lib. xlviii. tit. 19. § 10. torn. iii. p. 325.] Dio, Rom. Hist., lib. lvii., [p. p. 1550.] Lex ' Levia,' D. de Accus. 617.] sub Tiberio et Druso Coss. Cor- [Ibid. tit. 2. § 6. p. 1505.] ruptus autem est codex Epist. Sidonii, q Lignum transversum solum portavit [lib. i, ep. 7. p. 19.] qui ait, Nunc ex Jesus, scil. patibulum, ad locum ubi vetere S.C. Tiberiano triginta dierum crux, scil. lignum oblongum, terra de- vitam post sententiam trahit. fixum stetit Sic Plautus, P Lex ' In servorum,' D. de pcenis. Patibulum ferant per urbem, et cruci affigantur. [In Carbonar. vid. Non. Marcell., p. 221.] 614 FROM THE DEATH OF LAZARUS [PART III. prepared, for its station. Even that lesser part was grievous and intolerable to His tender, virginal, and weakened body ; and when He fainted, they compel Simon, a Cyreman, to help Him. A great and a mixed mdtitude followed Jesus to Golgotha, the chamel house of the city, and the place of execution. But the women wept with bitter exclamations, and their sadness was increased by the sad predictions Jesus then made of their future misery, saying, "Ye daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your cMldren : for the time shall come that men shall say, Blessed are the barren that never bare, and the paps that never gave suck ; for they shall call on the hiUs to cover them, and on the mountains to fall upon them," that by a sudden rdn they may escape the fingering calamities of famine and fear, and the horror of a thousand deaths. 31 . When Jesus was come to Golgotha, a place in the mount of Cdvary, (where accordng to the tradition of the ancients Adam was buried9, and where Abraham made an dtar for the sacrifice of Ms son1,) by the piety of His disciples, and, it is probable, of those good women wMch dd use to midster to Him, there was provided wine mingled with myrrh, wMch among the Levantines is an excellent and pleasant mixture, and such as the piety and Mddgence of the nations used to administer to condemned persons". But Jesus, who by voluntary susception dd choose to suffer our pads, refused that refreshment wMch the piety of the women presented to Him. The solders, having stripped Him, nailed Him to the cross with four nails x, and dvided His mantle into four parts, givmg to each solder Male ergo pictores hodierni pingunt scil. Lipsius, Tract, de supplicio Crucis. Jesum, hajulantem utrumque lignum, [p. 786.] s EltroKe x&pov %Kavt ipaTi^ofxtvoio Kpaviov, 'ASdp. irparoybvoio fptp&vvfxov Hvrvyi KbpoifS. Nonnus [in Joann. xix. 17. p. 176.] Golgotha locus est capitis, Calvaria quondam, Lingua paterna prior sic ilium nomine dixit. Hie hominem primum suscepimus esse sepul turn : Hie medium terras est. Tertull. [Carm. contr. Marcion., lib. et in Matt, xxvii. [lib. iv. torn. iv. par. 1 ii. lin. 196. p. 633.] Origen., in Matth. col. 137.] Tract. 35. [§ 126. torn. iii. p. 920 C] ' S. Aug. Serm. Ixxi. de Tempore, Basil. [In Esai. v. 1. § 141. torn. i. p. [Serm. vi. torn. v. append, col. 14.] 478.] Athan. de Pass, et Cruc. [cap. 12. u Plin. Nat. Hist., xiv. 15. [torn, i, torn. ii. p. 90.] et fere omnes Pp. unico p. 721.] Athen., lib. xi. [cap. ii. torn, ii excepto Hieronymo, in Epist ad Ephes., p. 1030. — Compare vol. iii. p. 61.] cap. 5. [lib. iii. torn. iv. par. i. col. 885.] Si calidum potas, ardenti myrrha Falerno Convenit, et melior fit sapor inde mero. — Mart, [lib. xiv. ep. 113.] 5 Ego dabo ei talentum, primus qui in crucem excucurrerit : Sed ea lege, ut affigantur bis pedes, bis brachia. Plaut Mostel. [Act. ii. sc. i. lin. 12.] SECT. XV.] TILL THE BURIAL OF JESUS. 615 a part; but for His coat, because it would be spoiled if parted, it bemg weaved without seam, they cast lots for it. 32. Now Pilate had caused a title, contrimng the cause of His death, to be superscribed on a table, in Latin, Greek and Hebrew, the Hebrew being first, the Greek next, and the Latin nearest to the holy body; but all written after the Jewish manner, from the right hand to the left; for so the title is shewn in the church of Santa Croce in Borne, the Latin letters being to be read as if it were Hebrew; the reason of wMch I codd never find sufficiently disco vered, udess it were to make it more legible to the Jews, who by conversing with the Bomans began to understand a httle Latin. The title was, JESUS OF NAZABETH, KING OF THE JEWS : but the Pharisees would have it dtered, and that He said He was king of the Jews. But Pilate, out of wilfdness, or to do despite to the nation, or in honour to Jesus whom he knew to be a "just person," or being overrded by divine providence, refused to alter ity. And there were crucified with Jesus two tirieves, Jesus being in the midst, according to the prophecy, " He was reckoned with the trans gressors." Then Jesus prayed for His persecutors, " Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." But while Jesus was full of pain and charity, and was praying and dying for His enemies, the rulers of the Jews mocked Him, upbraidng Him with the good works He dd, and the expresses of His power, saying, " He saved others, Himself He cannot save ;" others saying, " Let Him come down from the cross, if He be the king of the Jews, and we will believe in Him :" and others, according as their mahce was deter mined by fancy and occasion, added weight and scorn to His pains ; and of the two malefactors that were crucified with Him, one reviled Him, saying, " If Thou be the Christ, save Thyself and us." And thus far the devil prevailed, undoing Mmself in ridde, provoking men to do despite to CMist, and to heighten His passion out of hatred to Him ; and yet doing and promoting that which was the rdn of all Ms own kingdom and potent mischiefs : like the Jew*, who in indignation against Mercury tiirew stones at Ms image, and yet was by Ms superior judged idolatrous, that being the manner of domg honour to the idol among the gentiles. But then Christ, who had upon the cross prayed for His enemies, and was heard of God in all that He desired, felt now the beginnings of success : for the other thief, whom the present pains and circumstances of Jesus' passion had softened and made believing, reproved his fellow for not fearing God, coMessed that this death happened to them deservedly, but to Jesus causelessly ; and then prayed to Jesus, " Lord, re- ' Proconsulis tabella sententia est, torn. ii. p. 775.] quae semel lecta neque augeri litera una * R. Manasses. VideDionys. Vossium neque autem minui potest : sed utcunque in annot. ad Rah. B. Maimon. [De ido- recitata est, ita provinciae instrumento Iol. cap. iii. § 7. p. 39. — See vol. viii. p. refertur. — Apul. Flor., lib. i. [num. ix. 158.] 616 FROM TOE DEATH OF LAZARUS [PART III. member me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom :" which combina tion of pious acts and miraculous conversion Jesus entertained with a speedy promise of a very great fehcity, promising that upon that very day he shodd be with Him M paradise. 33. " Now, there were standng by the cross the mother of Jesus, and her sister, and Mary Magdden and John :" and Jesus, being upon His death-bed, although He had no tempord estate to bestow, yet He would make provision for His mother, who being a widow, and now childess, was hkely to be exposed to necessity and M'ant ; and therefore He did arrogate John, the beloved disciple, Mto Mary's kindred, making Mm to be her adopted son and her to be Ms mother, by fiction of law : "Woman, behold thy son;" and, "Man, behold thy mother;" and from that time forward John took her home to his oM'n house, wMch he had near mount Sion, dter he had sold Ms inheritance in GaMee to the high priest. 34. While these firings were doing, the whole frame of nature seemed to be dissolved and out of order, while their Lord and Creator suffered. For the sun was so darkened that the stars appeared ; and the eclipse was prodgious in the manner as well as M degree, because the moon was not then in conjunction, but full : and it was noted by Phlegon", the freed man of the emperor Hadrian, by Lucian out of the acts of the GaMs, and Dionysius, while he was yet a heathen, excellent scholars dl, great Mstorians and philosophers ; who dso noted the day of the week, and hour of the day, agreeing with the circumstances of the cross b. For the sun Md his head from behold ing such a prodgy of sM and sadness, and provided a veil for the nakedness of Jesus, that the women might be present, and Himself de, with modesty. 35. The eclipse and the passion began at the sixth hour, and endured till the ninth, about wMch time Jesus, being tormented Mith the unsufferable load of His Father's wrath due for our sins, and wearied with pains and heaviness, cried out, " My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me ?" and, as it is thought, repeated the whole two and twentieth psalm, wlrich is an admirable narrative of the passion, full of prayer and sadness, and description of His pdns at first, and of eucharist, and joy, and prophecy at the last. But these first words, wMch it is certdn and recorded that He spake, were in a language of itself, or else by reason of dstance, not under stood, for they thought He had called for Elias, to take Him down from the cross. Then Jesus, being in the agomes of a Mgh fever, said, "I tirirst;" and one ran and fitted a sponge with vMegar, 0 [Euseb. Chron., p. 77.] col. 753.] b Origen. contr. Cels., [lib. ii. cap. 33. Suidas in vita Dionys. ait eum dixisse, torn. i. p. 414.] Tertull. Apolog., [cap. Aut Deus patitur, aut patienti compa- 21. p. 20 C] Lucian. in actis sui mart. titur : et hae de causa Athenienses erex- [Hist eccl. Euseb. interpr. Ruffin., lib. isse aram dyvdiaTip 8e$ aiunt quidam. ix. cap. 6. p. 204.] August, ad Hesy- [Suid. col. 1015. e Mich. Syncell. Verba chium. [Ep. excix. cap. 10. § 34. torn. ii. sunt, dyvtuaros irdaxti Btbs.] SECT. XV.] TILL THE BURIAL OF JESUS. C>] 7 wrapping it with hyssop, and put it on a reed, that He might drink. The vinegar and the sponge were, in executions of condemned per sons, set to stop the too violent issues of blood, and to prolong the death0 ; but were exhibited to him in scorn ; mingled with gall, to make the mixture more horrid and ungentle : but Jesus tasted it ody, and refused the draught. And now, knowing that the pro phecies were fulfilled, His Father's wrath appeased, and His torments satisfactory, He said, "It is finished ;" and crying with a loud voice, " Father, Mto Thy hands I commend My spirit," He bowed His head. and yielded up His spirit into the hands of God, and ded hastening to His Father's glories. Thus did this glorious Sun set in a sad and clouded west, running speedily to sMne in the other world. 36. Then was the veil of the temple, which separated the secret Mosaic rites from the eyes of the people, rent in the midst, from the top to the bottom ; and the angels, presidents of the temple, called to each other to depart from their seats'1 ; and so great an earth quake happened, that the rocks dd rend, the mountains trembled, the graves opened, and the bodes of dead persons arose, walking from their cemeteries to the holy city, and appeared unto many ; and so great apprehensions and amazements happened to them all that stood by, that they departed, smiting their breasts with sorrow and fear ; and the centurion that ministered at the execution, sdd, " Cer- taidy this was the Son of God;" and he became a dsciple, re nouncing his mihtary employment, and ded a martyr e. 37. But because the next day was the JeM's' sabbath, and a paschd festival besides, the Jews hastened that the bodes should be taken from the cross ; and therefore sent to Pilate to hasten their death by breaking their legsf, that before sunset8 they might be taken away, according to the commandment, and be buried. The soldiers therefore came and brake the legs of the two tirieves ; but espying, and wondering that Jesus was already dead, they brake not His legs ; for the scripture foretold that a bone of Him shodd not be broken : but a soldier with Ms lance pierced His side, and imme dately there streamed out two rivdets of water and blood. But the holy Yirgin-mother (whose soM during this whole passion was pierced with a sword and sharper sorrows, though she was supported by the comforts of faith, and those holy predctions of His resurrection and future glories which Mary had lrid up in store against this great day c Veteres spongias conglutinant [al. de sanctt in Mart xv. torn. ii. p. 232.] non glutinant] vulnera. — Plin. Nat ' In hae ipsa genu utriusque commis- Hist., lib. xxxi. [cap. 47. torn, ii. p. 567.] sura quaedam buccarum inanitas est, qua Poterit et de misericordia moveri de- perfossa, ceu jugulo, spiritus _ aufugit. — fixus in morsus ursorum, et spongias Plin., lib. xi. [cap. 103. torn. i. p. 639.] retiariorum.— Tertull. [de Spect. § 25. Vide Lactant. [lib. iv. cap. 26. torn. i. p. 83 B.] P- 343.] Cic. pro Rose. [Pro R. Amer. " S. Hieron. [Ep. xliv. torn. iv. par. 2. cap. 20. torn. iv. p. 69.] col. 548.] B P'1''0 de leg. special, [p. 800 D.] e Apud Metaphr. die xvi. Octob. [Sur. Deut. xxi. 618 FROM THE DEATH OF LAZARUS &C [PART III. of expense) now that she saw her holy Son had suffered aU that our necessities, and their malice, codd require or inflict, caused certain mhristers, with whom she joined, to take her dead Son from the cross; whose body when she once got free from the nails, she kissed, and embraced with entertainments of the nearest vicfrrity that codd be expressed by a person that was holy and sad, and a mother weeping for her dead son. 38. But she was MgMy satisfied with her own medtations, that now that great mystery deternrined by dvine predestination before the begriming of all ages, was fulfilled in her Son ; and the passion, that must needs be, was accomplished11 : she therefore first bathes His cold body with her warm tears, and makes clean the surface of the wounds, and, delivering a wMdng napkM to Joseph of Arima- thea, gave to Mm in charge to enwrap the body, and embahn it, to compose it to the grave, and to do it all the rites of funerd, having first exhorted Mm to a public confession of what he was privately, till now : and he obeyed the counsel of so excellent a person, and ventured upon the dspleasure of the Jewish rulers, and went con fidently to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. And Pilate gave Mm the power of it. 39. Joseph therefore takes the body, bMds His face with a napkin, washes the body, anoints it with omtment, enwraps it M a compo sition of myrrh and aloes, and puts it into a new tomb wMch he for Mmself had hewn out of a rock (it not being lawful among the Jews to inter a condemned person in the common cemeteries), for all these circumstances were in the Jews' manner of burying. But when the sun was set, the cMef priests and pharisees went to Pilate, teMng him that Jesus wMlst He was living foretold His own resurrection upon the third day ; and lest His disciples shodd come and sted the body, and say He was risen from the dead, desired that the sepdcMe might be secured against the danger of any such imposture. Pilate gave them leave to do their pleasure, even to the satisfaction of their smallest scruples; they therefore sealed the grave, rolled a great stone' at the mouth of it, and, as an ancient tradtion saysk, bound it about with labels of iron, and set a watch of solders, as if they had intended to have made it surer than the decrees of fate, or the never- failing laws of nature. " Metaphr. August, xv. [Sur. De iii. col. 364.] Sanctt, torn. iv. p. 662.] k Niceph., lib. i. cap. 32. [torn. i. p. ' Beda de Locis Sanctis, cap. 2. [torn. 1 12.] SECT. XV.] CONSIDERATIONS OF SOME. ACCIDENTS &C 619 Ad SECTION XV. Considerations of some preparatory accidents before the entrance of Jesus into His passion. 1. He that hath observed the story of the life of Jesus, cannot but see it dl the way to be strewed with thorns and sharp-pomted stones ; and although by the kisses of His feet they became precious and salutary, yet they procured to Him sorrow and dsease : it was "meat aud drink to Him to do His Father's will," but it was "bread of af fliction, and rivers of tears to drink ;" and for these He thirsted like the earth after the cool stream. For so great was His perfection, so exact the conformity of His will, so absolute the subordination of His inferior facdties, to the infimte love of God which sat regent in the court of His will and understandng, that in tMs election of acci dents He never considered the taste but the goodness, never ds- tmgrished sweet from bitter, but duty and piety dways prepared His table. And therefore now knowing that His time, determined by the Father, was mgh, He hastened up to Jerusalem ; " He went before" His dsciples, saith St. Mark, " and they followed Him trembhng and amazed;" and yet before that, even then when His bretiiren observed He had a design of publication of Himself, He suffered them to go before Him, and went up as it were in secret." For so we are in vited to martyrdom and suffering in a cMistian cause by so great an example : the holy Jesus is gone before us ; and it were a holy con tention to strive whose zeal were forwardest in the designs of humili ation and self-denial; but it were dso well if, in doing ourselves secdar advantage and promoting our worldy interest, we shodd follow Him, who was ever more distant from receiving honours than from receivmg a pahxfd death. Those affections wMch dwell in sad ness, and are married to grief, and lie at the foot of the cross, and trace the sad steps of Jesus, have the wisdom of recollection, the tempers of sobriety, and are the best imitations of Jesus, and securi ties agaMst the levity of a dispersed and a vain spirit. TMs was intimated by many of the dsciples of Jesus, in the days of the Spirit, and when they had " tasted of the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come ;" for then we find many ambitious of martyr dom, and that have laid stratagems and designs, by unusud deaths to get a crown. The soul of St. Lawrence was so scorched with ardent desires of dymg for Ms Lord, that he- accounted the cods of his gridiron but as a julep, or the aspersion of cold water, to refresh his soul ; they were chill as the Alpine snows, M respect of the heats of Ms diviner flames. And if these lesser stars shine so brightly, and burn so warmly, what heat of love may we suppose to have been in the Sun of righteousness ? If they went fast toward the croM'n of martyrdom, yet M'e know that the holy Jesus went before them all : 620 CONSIDERATIONS OF SOME ACCIDENTS [PART III. no wonder that He " cometh forth as a bridegroom from Ms chamber, and rejoiceth as a giant to run his course." 2. When the dsciples had overtaken Jesus, He begins to them a sad homily upon the old text of suffering, M'hich He had well nigh for a year together preached upon ; but because it was an unpleasmg lesson, so contradictory to those interests upon the hopes of wMch they had entertained themselves and spent all their desires, they could by no means understand it : for an understandmg, prepos sessed with a fancy, or an unhandsome principle, construes all other notions to the sense of the first : and whatsoever contradcts it, we tirink it an objection, and that we are bound to answer it. But now that it concerned CMist to speak so plriMy, that His dsciples by what was to happen witMn five or six days might not be scandalized, or beheve it happened to Jesus without His knowledge and voluntary entertainment, He tells them of His sufferings, to be accomplished M tMs journey to Jerusalem. And here the disciples shewed them selves to be but men, full of passion and indiscreet affection; and the bold Galilean1, St. Peter, took the boldness to dehort Ms Master from so great an Mfelicity; and met with a reprehension so great, that neither the scribes, nor the pharisees, nor Herod Mmself, ever met with its parallel : Jesus called him Satan ; meamng, that no greater contradiction can be offered to the designs of God and His holy Son, than to dssuade us from suffering. And if we understood how great are the advantages of a suffering condtion, we should think aU our daggers gilt, and our pavements strewed with roses, and our hdters silken, and the rack an instrument of pleasure, and be most impatient of those temptations wMch seduce us Mto ease, and divorce us from the cross, as beMg opposite to our greatest hopes and most perfect desires. But still tMs humour of St. Peter's im perfection abides amongst us : he that breaks off the yoke of obed ence, and unties the bands of dsciprine, and preaches a cheap re ligion, and presents heaven in the midst of flowers, and strews carpets softer than the Asian luxury in the way, and sets the songs of Sion to the tunes of Persian and lighter airs, and offers great liberty of living, and bondage under affection and sins, and reconciles eternity with the present enjoyment, he shall have Ms schools filled with dis ciples ; but he that preaches the cross and the severities of christi amty, and the strictnesses of a holy life, shall have the lot of his blessed Lord ; he shall be thought ill of, and deserted. 3. Our blessed Lord, five days before His passion, sent His dis ciples to a village to borrow an ass, that He might ride in triumph to Jerusalem ; He had none of His own ; but yet He, who was so dear to God, codd not want what was to supply His needs. It may be, God hath laid up our portion in the repositories of other men, and means to furnish us from their tables, to feed us from their granaries, and that their wardrobe shall clothe us ; for it is all one to ' [Cf. p. 609, not. g sup.] SFXT. XV.] PREPARATORY TO THE PASSION. 621 Him to make a fish bring us money, or a croM' to bring us meat, or the stable of our neighbour to furnish our needs of beasts. If He brings it to thy need as thou wantest it, thou hast all the good in the use of the creature wlrich the owners can receive ; and the horse which is lent me in charity does me as much ease, and the bread which is given me in alms feeds me as well, as the other part of it, which the good man that gave me a portion reserved for his own eating, could do to him. And if we wodd give God leave to make provisions for us in the ways of His own choosing, and not estimate our wants by our manner of receiving, being contented that God, by any of His own ways, ¦will minister it to us, we should find our cares eased, and our content increased, and our thankfulness engaged, and all our moderate desires contented, by the satisfaction of our needs. For if God is pleased to feed me by my neighbour's charity, there is no other difference, but that God makes me an occasion of his ghostly good, as he is made the occasion of my temporal ; and if we think it disparagement, we may remember that God conveys more good to hrin by me, than to me by Mm ; and it is a proud impatience to refuse or to be angry with God's provisions, because He hath not observed my circumstances and ceremonies of election. 4. And now begins that great triumph, in wMch the holy Jesus was pleased to exdt His office, and to abase His person. He rode, like a poor man, upon an ass, a beast of burden, and the lowest value, and yet it was not His own ; and in that equipage He received the acclamations due to a mighty prince, to the Son of the eternal King ; telling us, that the smdlness of fortune, and the rudeness of exterior habiliments and a rough wdl, are sometimes the outsides of a great glory: and that when God means to glorify or do honour to a person, he needs no help from secdar advantages. He Mdes great riches in renunciation of the world, and makes great honour break forth from the clouds of humility, and victory to arise from yielding and the modesty of departing from our interest, and peace to be the reward of Mm that suffers dl the hostilities of men and devils. For Jesus, in this great humihty of His, gives a great probation that He was the Messias, and the King of Sion : because no other king entered into those gates riding upon an ass, and received the honour of " Hosannah" M that unlikehhood and contradiction of unequal cir cumstances. 5. The blessed Jesus had never but two days of triumph M His life ; the one was on His transfiguration upon mount Tabor ; the other, this His riding into the holy city. But that it may appear how little were His joys and present exterior complacencies, in the day of His transfiguration, Moses and Elias appeared to Him, telling Him what great tirings He M'as to suffer; and in tMs day of His riding to Jerusalem, He wet the palms with a dew sweeter than the moistures upon mount Hermon, or the drops of manna : for to allay the little warmth of a springing joy He let down a shower of tears, 622 CONSIDERATIONS OF SOME ACCIDENTS [PART III. weeping over undone Jerusdem in the day of His triumph1, leaving it dsputable whether He felt more joy or sorrow in the acts of love ; for He triumphed to consider that the redemption of the world was so near, and wept bitterly that men would not be redeemed ; His joy was great, to consider that Himself was to suffer so great sadness for our good ; and His sorrow was very great, to consider that we would not entertain that good that He brought and laid before us by His passion. He was in figure, as His servant St. Paphnutius was after wards in letter and true story, cmcified upon palmsm : which mdeed was the emblem of a victory11; but yet such as had leaves sharp, poignant, and vexatious. However, He entered Mto Jerusalem dressed in gdeties, wMch yet He placed under His feet ; but with such pomps and solemdties each family, accordng to its proportion, was accustomed to bring the paschal lamb to be slam for the pass- over : and it was not an undecent ceremony, that " the Lamb slain from the begindng of the world" shodd be brought to His slaughter with the acknowledgments of a religious solemmty ; because now that real good was to be exMbited to the world, wMch those little paschal lambs dd but signify and represent M shadow : and that was the true cause of all the little joy He had. 6. And if we consider what followed, it might seem dso to be a design to heighten the dolorousness of His passion : for to descend from the greatest of worldly honours, from the adoration of a God, and the acclamations to a king, to the death of a slave, and the tor ments of a cross, and the dshonours of a condemned crimind, M'ere so great stoopings and vast changes, that they gave height, and sense, and excellency to each other. This then seemed an excellent glory ; but indeed was but an art and instrument of grief : for such is the nature of all our fehcities, they end in sadness, and Mcrease the sting of sorrows, and add moment to them, and cause impatience and uncomfortable remembrances ; but trie griefs of a CMistian, whether they be Mstances of repentance, or parts of persecution, or exercises of patience, end in joy and endess comfort. Thus Jesus, like a rdnbow, half made of the glories of light, and half of the moisture of a cloud; half triumph and half sorrow; entered into that town where He had done much good to others, and to Himself received notMng but affronts : yet His tenderness increased upon Him ; and that very journey wMch was Christ's last solemn visit for their recovery, He doubled att the instruments of His mercy and their conversion. He rode in triumph ; the cMldren sang Hosannah to Hrin ; He cured many dseased persons ; He wept for them, and pitied them, and sighed out the intimations of a prayer, and did penance for their ingratitude, and staid all day there, looking about Him towards evening; and no man wodd invite Hrin home, but 1 [Cf. vol. iv. p. 436.] ¦» [Actt. Sanctt Bolland. in Sept xxiv. torn. vi. p. 688.1 " Palma est victorum, palmae tu affixus es j ergo La:tus obi, qnoiiiam. non nisi victor obis. SECT. XV.] PREPARATORY TO THE PASSION. 623 He was forced to go to Bethany, where He was sure of an hospitable entertainment. I think no Christian that reads this but will be full of indgnatiou at the whole city ; who, for mahce or for fear, would not or durst not receive their Saviour into their houses ; and yet we do worse : for now that He is become our Lord, with mightier demonstra tions of His eternd power, we suffer Him to look round about upon us for months and years together, and possibly never entertain Him till our house is ready to rush upon our heads, and we are going to unusual and stranger habitations. And yet in the midst of a populous and mutinous city, tMs great King had some good subjects ; persons that threw away their own garments, and laid them at the feet of our Lord ; that being devested of their own, they might be re-invested with a robe of His righteousness, wearing that till it were changed mto a stole of glory : the very ceremony of their reception of the Lord became symbohcal to them, and expressive of all our duties. 7. But I consider that the blessed Jesus had affections not less than infinite towards all mankind; and He who wept upon Jeru salem; who had done so great despite to Him, and witMn five days were to fill up the measure of their iniqdties, and do an act wMch all ages of the world codd never repeat in the same instance, did also m the number of His tears reckon our sins, as sad considerations and incentives of His sorrow. And it wodd weU become us to con sider what great evil we do, when our actions are such as for which our blessed Lord did weep. He who was seated in the bosom of fehcity, yet He moistened His fresh laurels upon the day of His triumph with tears of love and bitter aUay. His day of triumph was a day of sorrow ; and if we wodd weep for our sms, that instance of sorrow wodd be a day of triumph and jubilee. 8. From hence the holy Jesus went to Bethany, where He had another manner of reception than at the holy city. There He supped ; for His goody day of triumph had been with Him a fast ing-day. And Mary Magdalen, who had spent one box of nard pistic upon our Lord's feet, as a sacrifice of eucharist for her con version, now bestowed another, M thankfulness for the restitution of her brother Lazarus to Me, and consigned her Lord unto His burid. And here she met with an evil interpreter. Judas, an apostle, one of the Lord's own family, pretended it had been a better religion to have given it to the poor ; but it was mahce, and the spirit eitiier of envy or avarice in him that passed that sentence ; for he that sees a pious action well done, and seeks to undervalue it by teMng how it might have been better, reproves nothing but his omti spirit. For a man may do very well, and God would accept it ; though to say he might have done better, is to say oMy, that action M'as not the most perfect and absolute in its kind : but to be angry at a religious person, and without any other pretence but that he might have done better, is spiritud envy ; for a pious person would have nourished up that infant action by love and praise, till it had grown to the most 624 CONSIDERATIONS OF SOME ACCIDENTS [PART III, perfect and intelligent piety. But the event of that man gave the interpretation of his present purpose ; and at the best it could be no other than a rash judgment of the action and intention of a religious, thankful, and holy person. But she found her Lord, who was her beneficiary in tMs, become her patron and her advocate. And here after, when we shall find the devil, the great accuser of God's saints, object against the piety and rehgion of holy persons ; a cup of cold water shall be accepted unto reward, and a good intention heightened to the vdue of an exterior expression, and a piece of gum to the equality of a holocaust; and an action done with great zeal and an mtense love, be acquitted from all its adherent imperfections ; CMist receiving them Mto Himself, and being like the dtar of Mcense, hal lowing the very smoke, and raising it into a flame, and entertariring it into the embraces of the firmament and the bosom of heaven. Christ Mmself, who is the judge of our actions, is dso the entertdner and object of our charity and duty, and the advocate of our persons. 9. Judas, who declaimed against the woman, made tacit reflections upon his Lord for suffering it ; and indeed every obloquy agamst any of Christ's servants, is looked on as an arrow shot into the heart of CMist Mmself. And now, a persecution being begun agamst the Lord witirin His own family, another was rdsed against Him from without. For the cMef priests took crafty counsel agaMst Jesus, and called a consistory to contrive how they might destroy Him; and here was the greatest representment of the goodness of God and the ingratitude of man that codd be practised or understood. How often had Jesus poured forth tears for them ! how many sleepless nights had He awaked to do them advantage ! how many days had He spent in homilies, and admirable visitations of mercy and charity; in casting out devils, in curing their sick, M correcting their delin quencies, in reducing them to the ways of security and peace ; and, that we may use the greatest expression in the world, that is, His own, " in gathering them as a hen gathereth her cMckens under her wings," to give them strength, and warmth, and life, and ghostly nourishment ! And the cMef priests, together with their faction, use all arts and watch all opportuMties to get Christ; not that they might possess Him, but to destroy Him ; httle considering that they extinguish their own eyes, and destroy that spring of Me, wMch was intended to them for a blissfd immortality. 10. And here it was that the devil shewed Ms promptness to furnish every evil-intended person with apt instruments to act the very worst of Ms Mtentions. The devil knew their purposes, and the aptness and proclivity of Judas ; and by bringing these together, he served their present design, and Ms own great intendment. The devil never fails to promote every evil purpose ; and except where God's restrahring grace does Mtervene and interrupt the opportunity by interposition of different and cross accidents to serve other ends of Providence, np man easily is fond of wickedness but he shall re- SECT. XV.] PREPARATORY TO THE PASSION. 625 ceive enough to rdn him. Indeed Nero and Julian, both witty men and powerful, desired to have been magicians, and could not : and dthough possibly the devil M'ould have corresponded with them, M'ho yet were already his own in all degrees of security : yet God per mitted not that, lest they might have understood new M'ays of doing despite to martyrs and afflicted CMistians. And it concerns us not to tempt God, or invite a forward enemy; for as M'e are sure the devil is ready to promote all vicious desires, and bring them out to execution : so we are not sure that God will not permit him ; and he that desires to be undone, and cares not to be prevented by God's restraining grace, shall find Ms ruin in the folly of his own desires, and become wretched by his own election. Judas, hearing of this congregation of the priests, went and offered to betray his Lord, and made a covenant, the price of which was " thirty pieces of silver ;" and he returned. 11. It is not intimated in the Mstory of the life of Jesus that Judas had any mahce against the person of Christ ; for when after wards he saw the matter was to end in the death of his Lord, he re pented: but a base and unworthy spirit of covetousness possessed Mm ; and the relics of indignation for missing the price of the diri ment which the holy Magdalen had poured upon His feet, burnt in Ms bowels with a secret, dark, melancholic fire, and made an eruption into an act which all ages of the world codd never parallel. They appointed Mm for hire thirty pieces, and some say, that every piece dd in value equal ten ordnary current deniers ; and so Judas was satisfied, by receiving the worth of the three hundred pence at M'hich he valued the nard pistic. But heredter let no Christian be ashamed to be despised and undervalued ; for he will hardly meet so great a reproach as to have so dsproportioned a price set upon his life as was upon the holy Jesus. St. Mary Magdalen thought it not good enough to auele His sacred feet; Judas thought it a sufficient price for His head; for covetousness aims at base and low purchases, M'hilst holy love is great and comprehensive as the bosom of heaven, and aims at nothing that is less than infinite. The love of God is a holy fountain, limpid and pure, sweet and salutary, lasting and eternal : the love of money is a vertiginous pool, sucking aU into it to destroy it; it is troubled and uneven, giddy and unsafe, serving no end but its own, and that also in a restless and uneasy motion. The love of God spends itself upon Him, to receive again the reflec tions of grace and benediction : the love of money spends all its de sires upon itself, to purchase nothing but unsatisfying instruments of exchange, or supernumerary provisions, and ends in dissatisfaction, and emptiness of spirit, and a bitter curse. St. Mary Magdden was defended by her Lord against calumny, and rewarded with an honour able mention to all ages of the church : besides the " unction from above" which she shortly after received, to consign her to crowns and sceptres : but Judas m as described in the scripture, the book of n. s s 626 CONSIDERATIONS OF SOME ACCIDENTS [PART III. life, with the black character of death ; he M'as disgraced to eternal ages, and presently after acted his own tragedy with a sad and ignoble death. 12. Now, aU things being fitted, our blessed Lord sends two ds ciples to prepare the passover, that He might fdffl the law of Moses, and pass from thence to institutions evangehed, and then fulfil His sufferings. CMist gave them a sign to gdde them to the house, " a man bearing a pitcher of water;" by M'hich some that dehght in mystical sigmfications say was typified the sacrament of baptism: meaning, that although by occasion of the paschal solemnity the holy eucharist was first instituted, yet it was afterM'ards to be apphed to practice according to the sense of this accident : only baptized per sons were apt suscipients of the other more perfective rite, as the taking nutriment supposes persons born into the world, and witirin the common conditions of human nature. But, in the letter, it was an instance of the Divine omniscience, who codd pronounce concern ing accidents at distance as if they M'ere present : and yet dso, hke the provision of the colt to ride on, it M'as an instance of providence, and security of. all God's sons for their portion of tempords. Jesus had not a lamb of His own, and possibly no money in the bags to buy one : and yet providence was His gdde, and the charity of a good man was His proveditore, and He found excellent conveniences in the entertainments of a hospitable good man, as if he had dwelt in Ahab's ivory house, and had had the riches of Solomon, and the meat of Ms household. THE PBAYEB. 0 holy King of Sion, eternd Jesus, M'ho M'ith great humility and in finite love didst enter into the holy city, riding upon an ass, that Thou mightest verify the predictions of the prophets, and give ex ample of meekness, and of the gentle and paternal government which the eternd Father laid upon Thy shoulders; be pleased, dearest Lord, to enter into my sod with triumph, trampling over all Thine enemies : and give me grace to entertain Thee with joy and adoration, with abjection of my own desires, with lopping off all my superfluous branches of a temporal condition, and spendng them in the offices of charity and religion, and devesting myself of all my desires, laying them at Thy holy feet, that I may bear the yoke and burden of the Lord M'ith alacrity, with love, and the wonders of a satisfied and triumphant spirit. Lord, enter in and take possession; and Thou, to whose honour the very stones would give testimony, make my stony heart an instrument of Thy praises ; let me strew Thy M'ay with flowers of virtue, and the holy rosary of christian graces : and by Thy aid and example, let us also triumph over all our infirmities and hostilities, and then lay SECT. XV.] PREPARATORY TO THE PASSION. 627 our victories at Thy feet, and at last follow Thee into Thy heavenly Jerusalem with palms in our hands, and joy in our hearts, and eternal acclamations on our rips, rejoicing in Thee, and singing hallelujahs in a happy eternity to Thee, 0 holy King of Sion, eternd Jesus. Amen. II. 0 blessed and dear Lord, who M'ert pleased to permit Thyself to be sold to the assemblies of evil persons for a vile price by one of Thy own servants, for whom Thou hadst done so great favours, and hadst designed a crown and a throne to him, and he turned Mm self into a sooty coal, and entered into the portion of evil angels ; teach us to value Thee above dl the joys of men, to prize Thee at an estimate beyond all the M-ealth of nature, to buy wisdom, and not to sell it, to part with dl that M'e may enjoy Thee : and let no temptation abuse our understandings, no loss vex us into impa tience, no frustration of hope fill us with indignation, no pressure of cdamitous accidents make us angry at Thee, the fountain of love and blessing, no covetousness transport us into the suburbs of hell, and the regions of sin ; but make us to love Thee as well as ever any creature loved Thee, that we may never burn in any fires but of a holy love, nor sink in any inundation but M'hat proceeds from penitential shoM'ers, and suffer no violence but of implacable desires to live with Thee, and, when Thou callest us, to suffer M'ith Thee, and for Thee. III. Lord, let me never be betrayed by myself, or- any violent accident and importunate temptation ; let me never be sold for the vile price of tempord gdn, or transient pleasure, or a pleasant dream; but, since Thou hast bought me M'ith a price, even then when Thou wert sold Thyself, let me never be separated from Thy possession. I am Thine, bought with a price ; Lord, save me ; and in the day when Thou bindest up Thy jeM'els, remember, Lord, that I cost Thee as dear as any, and therefore cast me not into the portion of Judas; but let me walk, and dM'ell, and bathe in the field of Thy blood, and pass from hence, pure and sanctified, into the society of the elect apostles, receiving my part with them, and my lot in the communications of Thy inheritance, 0 gracious Lord and dearest Saviour Jesus. Amen. s s 2 628 CONSIDERATIONS UPON JESUS' [PART III. Considerations upon the washing of the disciples' feet by Jesus, and His sermon of humility". 1. The holy Jesus went now to eat His last paschd supper, and to finish the M'ork of His legation, and to fulfil that part of the law of Moses in every of its smallest and most minute particularities, in which also the actions M'ere significant of spiritual duties : which we may transfer from the letter to the spirit in our own instances, that as Jesus ate the paschal lamb with a staff in His hand, with His loMs girt, with sandals on His feet, m great haste, with udeavened bread, and with bitter herbs : so we also shodd do dl our services accord ing to the signification of these symbols, leamng upon the cross of Jesus for a staff, and bearing the rod of His government, with loms girt with angelical chastity, with shoes on our feet, that so M'e may guard and have custody over our affections, and " be shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace," eating in haste, as becomes per sons " hungering and thirsting after righteousness," doing the work of the Lord zealously and fervently, without the leaven of malice and secular interest, with bitter herbs of self-denial and mortification of our sensual and inordnate desires. The sense and mystery of the M'hole act, M'ith aU its circumstances, is, That we obey aU the sanc tions of the divme law, and that every part of our religion be pure and peaceable, chaste and obedient, confident in God and diffident in ourselves, frequent and zedous, humble and resigned, just and charitable ; and there M'iU not easily be wanting any just circum stance to hallow and consecrate the action. 2. When the holy Jesus had finished His last Mosaic rite, He de scends to give example of the first frdt of evangehed graces : He rises from' supper, lays aside His garment, like a servant, and with all the circumstances of an humble ministry M'ashes the feet of His disciples, beginning at the first, St. Peter, until He came to Judas, the traitor p ; that we might in one scheme see a rare conjunction of charity and humility, of self-denial and indifferency, represented by a person glorious and great, their Lord and Master, sad and troubled. And He chose to wash their feetq rather than their head, that He might have the opportunity of a more humble posture, and a more apt signification of His charity. Thus God lays every thing aside, that He may serve His servants; heaven stoops to earth, and one abyss cdls upon another, and the miseries of man, which M'ere next ° Ad Num. 16. p AoiaBiov €K irparrov fxeravevfxevos &XXov &t* txXGv, 'Apx^ptvos ~2,{p.a>vos, eas ISiout Qovyos. Nonn. [in. Joann. xiii. 35. p. 128.] i Idcirco pedes potius quam manus qua nos lavat sanguine suo a peccaiis aut caput ; qu:a videlicet in lavandis nostris. — Rupert. [In Joann. xii. torn. ii. pedibus et affectuosior est gestus humili- p. 284.] tatis, et propinquior significatio charitatis 3ECT. XV.] WASHING THE DISCIPLES' FEET. 629 to infinite, are excelled by a mercy equal to the immensity of God. And tMs washing of their feet, which was an accustomed civility and entertainment of honoured strangers at the beginning of their meal, Christ deferred to the end of the paschd supper, that it might be the preparatory to the second, which He intended shodd be festival to all the world. St. Peter was troubled that the hands of His Lord should wash His servants' feet, those hands which had opened the eyes of the brind, and cured lepers, and healed all diseases, and M'hen lift up to heaven were ommpotent, and codd restore life to dead and buried persons ; he counted it a great indecency for him to suffer it : but it was no more than was necessary, for they had but lately been earnest in dspute for precedency ; and it was of itself so apt to SM'ell into tumour and inconvenience, that it was not to be cured but by some prodgy of example and miracle of humility, wMch the holy Jesus offered to them in this express, cdlMg them to learn some great lesson ; a lesson wMch God descended from heaven to earth, from riches to poverty, from essential innocence to the disreputation of a sinner, from a master to a servant, to learn us, that is, that M'e shodd esteem ourselves but just as M'e are, low, sinful, miserable, needy, and unworthy. It seems it is a great thing that man should come to have just and equal thoughts of himself, that God used such powerful arts to transmit this lesson, and engrave it in the spirits of men ; and if the receipt fails, we are eternally lost in the mists of vanity, and enter into the condition of those angels, whom pride transformed and spoiled into the condition of devils : and upon con sideration of this great example, Guerricusr, a good man, cried out, " Thou hast overcome, O Lord, Thou hast overcome my pride ; this example hath mastered me; I deliver myself up into Thy hands, never to receive liberty or exaltation but in the condtion of Thy humblest servants." 3. And to this purpose St. Bernard' hath an affectionate and de vout consideration, saying, that some of the angels, as soon as they were created, had an ambition to become like God, and to aspire into the tiirone which God had appointed to the holy Jesus in eternal ages. When God created man, presently the devil rubbed his lep rosy upon him, and he M'odd needs be like God too, and Satan pro mised him that he shodd. As the evil angels would have been hke to God in power and majesty, so man would have been like Him in knowledge, and have imitated the wisdom of the eternd Father. But man had the fate of Gehazi ; he wodd needs have the tdent and garments of Lucifer, and he had dso Ms plague ; he lost paradse for his pride. And now, what might befit the Son of God to do, seeing man so lost, and God so zealous of His honour ? I see, saith He, that by occasion of Me, the Father loses His creatures, for they have all r [Serm. ii. Domin. in ram. palm. p. tam humili Deo? — S. Bernard. [Vide de 198 A.] Pass. Dom. cap. 17. ad fin. col. 1192.] * Quomodo non humiliabitur homo sub « [De advent. Dom. Serm. i. col. 3.] 630 CONSIDERATIONS UPON [PART III. aspired to be like Me, and are fallen into the greatest infelicities. Behold, I Mill go toM'ards man in such a form, that M'hosoever from henceforth would become like Me, shall be so, and be a gainer by it. And for this cause the Son of God came from heaven, and made Himself a poor humble person, and by all the actions of His Me commented upon the present discourse, ' Learn of Me, for I am meek and humble of heart".' Blessed be that mercy and bounty which moved almighty God to condescend to that so great appetite M'e had of being hke Him ; for now we may be like unto God, but it must be by humility, of wMch He hath given us an example powerfd as miracles, and great as our own pride and misery. 4. And indeed our blessed Lord, knoM'ing that examples are hke maps and perfect schemes, in which the whole continent may at once be represented to the eye to all the purposes of art and benefit, did in the latter end of Ms life daw up the dispersions and larger harvest of His precepts, binding them in the bundle of great ex amples, and casting them into actions as into sums total : for so this act of wasMng the feet of His own ministers, and then dying for them, and for all His enemies, did preach the three great sums of evangelical perfection Mith an admirable energy and abbreviature; humility, and charity, and sufferings, being to cMistianity, as the body, and the sod, and the spirit, are to the whole man. For no man brings a sad funeral into the theatre to make Ms spectators merry, nor can weU preach chastity in the impurity of the BordeM, or persuade temperance when himself is full of wine and luxury x, and enters into the baths to boil his undgested meat that he- may return to Ms second supper, and breathes forth impure belcMngs to gether with Ms homily ; a poor eremite, or a severely livMg philoso pher, into whose life Ms own precepts have descended, and his doc trine is mingled with his soul, mingles also effect and virtue with homilies, and incorporates Ms doctrine in the hearts of Ms dsciples. And this the holy Jesus did in His own person, bearing the burden first upon His own shodders, that we may Mith better alacrity undergo what our blessed Lord bears with us, and for us. But that we may the better understand what our blessed Lord designed to us in this lecture, let us consider the proper acts of humility which in tegrate the virtue. 5. The first is, Christ's humble man thinks meanly of Mmself: and there is great reason every man shodd. For his body is but rottenness and infirmity covered with a fair mantle, a dunghill over cast with snow : and if we consider sady, that from trees and plants come oil, balsam, wine, spices, and aromatic odours, and that from the sinks of our body no such sweet or salutary emanations are ob served, M'e may at least tMnk it unreasonable to boast our beauty, » Matt. xi. 29. 1 Turgidus hie epulis atque albo ventre lavatur, Gutture sulphureas lente exhalante mephites.---Pers. [Sat. iii. 98.] sect. xv.J Christ's sermon of humility. 631 which is nothing but a clear and Mell-coloured skin, M'hich every thing in the M-orld can spoil ; nor our strength, M'hich an ague tames into the infirmities of a cldd, and in M'hich M'e are excelled by a bull ; nor any tiring of our body, which is nothing but an unruly servant of the soul, marked M'ith characters of M'ant and dependence, and begging help from aU the elements, and upon a little disturbance groMing troublesome to itself by its own impurities. And yet there is no reason in respect of the soul for any man to exalt himself above his brother ; because all reasonable souls are equd ; and that one is wise, and another is foolish or less learned, is by accident and ex trinsic causes : God at first makes all alike ; but an indisposed body, or an inopportune education, or evil customs, superinduce variety and difference. And if God discerns a man from his brother by distinction of gifts, it alters not the case ; still the man hath nothing of himself that can call Mm excellent : it is as if a M'all upon M'hich the sun reflects should boast itself against another that stands in the shadoM'. Greater glory is to be paid to God for the dscerning gifts ; but to take any of it to ourselves, and rise higher than our brother, or advance our own opinion, is as if a man should be proud of being in debt, and think it the greater excellency that he is charged M'ith heavier and more severe accounts. 6. This act consists not in declamations and forms of satire y against ourselves, saying, I am a miserable, sinfd creature ; I am proud, or covetous, or ignorant ; for many men say so that are not Milling to be thought so. Neither is humility a virtue made up of M'earing old clothes, or doing servile and mean employments by voluntary undertaking, or of sdlen gestures, or demiss behaviour, and artifice of lowly expressions : for these may become snares to invite and catch at honour ; and then they are collaterd designs of pride, and direct actions of hypocrisy. But it consists in a true understanding of our OM'n condition, and a separating our OM'n nothing from the good we have received, and giving to God att the glory, and taking to ourselves all the shame and dishonour due to our sinfd condition. He that thinks himself trdy miserable and vilified by sin, hates it perfectly ; and he that knows himself to be nothing, cannot be exalted in Mmself; and whatsoever is besides these two extremes of a naturd nothing and a superadded sin, must be those good things Me have received, which, because they derive from God, must make all their returns thither. But this act is of greater dfficulty in persons pious, fdl of gifts, and eminent in graces, M'ho, being feUoM'-M'orkers together with God, sometimes grow tacitly, and M'ithout notice, given to confide in themselves, and M'ith some freer fancy ascribe too much of the good action to their omu choice and diligence, and take up their croM'ns, M'Mch lie at the foot of the throne, and set them upon their own heads. For a sinner to desire ' .Auferantur omnia figmenta verborum, cesstnt simulati gcstus ; verum humilem patientia ostendit— S. Hier. [So \ol. iii. p. 78.] 632 considerations upon [part hi to be esteemed a sinner, is no more humility, than it is for the son of a ploughman to confess his father; but indeed it is bard for a man to be cried up for a saint, to walk upon the spire of glory, and to have no adherence or impure mixtures of vanity grow upon the outside of his heart. Att men have not such heads as to M'alk in great heights without giddiness and unsettled eyes : Lucifer, and many angels, walking upon the battlements of heaven, grew top- heavy, and fell into the state of devils : and the father of the christian eremites, St. Antony2, was frequently attempted by the devil, and solicited to vanity, the devil usuaUy making fantastic noises to be heard before him, " Make room for the saint and servant of God ;" but the good man knew Christ's voice to be a low base of humility, and that it was the noise of hell that invited to compla cencies and vanity ; and therefore took the example of the apostles, who, in the midst of the greatest reputation and spiritud advance ments, were dead unto the world, and seemed to live in the state of separation. For the true stating our OM'n question, and knowing ourselves, must needs represent us set in the midst of infinite imper fections, loaden with sins, choked with the noises of a polluted con science, persons fond of trifles, neglecting objects fit for wise men, full of ingratitude, and all such things M'hich in every man else M'e look upon as scars and deformities, and which we use to single out, and take one alone as sufficient to disgrace and disrepute all the excellencies of our neighbour ; but if we would esteem them with the same severity in ourselves, and remember with how many such ob jections our little felicities are covered, it would make us charitable in our censures, compassionate and gentle to others, apt to excuse, and as ready to support their weaknesses, and in dl accidents and chances to ourselves to be content and thankful, as knowing the M'orst of poverty and inconvenience to be a mercy, and a splendid fortune, in respect of our demerits. I have read, that when the duke of Canda had voluntarily entered Mto the incommodities of a religious poverty and retirement, he was one day spied and pitied by a lord of Italy, who out of tenderness wished Mm to be more carefd and nutritive of his person. The good duke answered, "Sir, be not troubled, and think not that 1 am ill provided of conveniencies ; for I send a harbinger before, who makes my lodgings ready, and takes care that I be royally entertained." The lord asked him, who was his harbinger ? he answered, " the knowledge of myself, and the consideration of what I deserve for my sins, which is eternal tor ments ; and when with this knowledge I arrive at my lodging, how unprovided soever I find it, methinks it is ever better than I deserve." The sum of this medtation consists in beheving, and considering, and reducing to practice those thoughts, that we are notMng of ourselves, that we have nothing of our own, that we have received more than 2 S. Hier. [aL S. Athan., torn. i. par. 2. p. 825.] in vita S Anton. sect, xv.] Christ's sermon of humility. 638 ever M'e can discharge, that we have added innumerable sins, that we can call nothing our own but such tirings wlrich we are ashamed to own, and such tirings wMch are apt to rdn us. If we do nothing contrary to the purpose and hearty persuasion of such thoughts, then we tMnk meaMy of ourselves ; and in order to it, we may make use of this advice, to let no day pass without some sad recollection and memory of somewhat which may put us to confusion, and mean opinion of ourselves ; either call to mind the worst of our sins, or the undiscreetest of our actions, or the greatest of our shame, or the uncivilest of our affronts ; any thing to make us descend lower, and kiss the foot of the mountain. And this consideration, applied also to every tumour of spirit as soon as it rises, may possibly allay it. 7. Secondy, CMist's humble man bears contumelies evedy and sweetly, and desires not to be honoured by others a; he chooses to do those things that deserve honour and a fair name ; but then eats not of those frmts himself, but transmits them to the use of others and the glories of God. TMs is a certain consequence of the other ; for he that trdy dsesteems himself, is content that others should do so too; and he who with some regret and impatience hears himself scorned or undervalued, hath not acquired the grace of humility : wMch Serapion, in Cassianb, noted to a young person, who perpetu- dly accused Mmself with the greatest semblances of humility, but was rinpatient M'hen Serapion reproved himc; "Did you hope that I wodd have praised your humMty, and have reputed you for a saint ? It is a strange perverseness, to desire others to esteem MgMy of you for that in M'hich to yourself you seem most unworthy." He that enquires mto the fadts of his own actions, requiring them that saw them to tell him in what he did amiss, not to learn the fadt, but to engage them to praise it, cozens Mmself into pride, and makes hu mility the instrument. And a man would be ashamed if he were told that he used stratagems for praise ; but so glorious a thing is humi lity, that pride, to hide her own shame, puts on the other's vizor ; it being more to a proud man's purposes to seem humble, than to be so. And such was the cynic whom Luciand derided, because that one searching his scrip, in expectation to have found in it moddy bread, or old rags, he discovered a bale of dice, a box of perfumes, and the picture of his fair mistress. Carisianus walked in his gown in the feast of Saturn, and, when att Bome was let loose M wantonness, he put on the long robe of a senator, and a severe person; and yet notMng was more lascivious than hee- But the devil pride prevails a Ama nesciri et pro nihilo reputari. ut . . in.de velis haberi melior, unde tibi — Gerson. [al. Thomas a Kempis, De videris deterior. — S. Bernard. [Serm. sup. imitatione Christi, lib. i. cap. 2.] Cant. xvi. col. 604 M.] ' [Collat. xviii. cap. 11. p. 738.] Est qui nequiter humiliat se, et inte- c Appetere de humilitate laudem hu- riora ejus sunt plena dolo. — Ecclus. xii. militatis est non virtus, sed subversio. 1 1 . ftuid perversius quidve indignius, quam J [Piscator, cap. xiv. torn. iii. p. 178.] e Nil lascivius est Carisiano ; Saturnalibus ambulat togatus. — Mart [lib. vi. ep. 24.] 634 considerations upon [part hi, sometimes upon the spirit of lust. Humility neither directly, nor by consequence, seeks for praise, and suffers it not to rest upon its own- pavement, but reflects it all upon God, and receives all lessenings and instruments of affront and disgrace, that mingle not with sin or undecencies, more willingly than panegyrics. When others have their desires, thou not thine; the sayings of another are esteemed, thine slighted; others ask and obtain, thou beggest and art refused; they are cried up, thou disgraced and hissed at, and M'hile they are employed, thou art laid by as fit for nothing ; or an unM'orthy person commands thee, and rdes thee like a tyrant ; he reproves thee, sus pects thee, reviles thee : canst thou bear this sweetly, and entertain the usage as thy just portion, and as an accident most fit and proper to thy person and condtion ? dost thou not raise theatres to thyself, and take delight in the suppletories of thy own good opinion, and the flatteries of such whom thou endearest to thee, that their praising thee should lied the wounds of thine honour by an imaginary and fantastic restitution ? He that is not content and patient in affronts, hath not yet learned humMty of the holy Jesus. 8. Thirdy, As Christ's humble man is content in affronts, and not greedy of praise ; so when it is presented to Mm he takes no content ment in it ; and if it be easy to want praise when it is denied, yet it is harder not to be delighted with it when it is offered. But there is much reason that we shodd put restraints upon ourselves, lest, if Me be praised without desert, we find a greater judgment of Godf ; or, if M'e have done well, and received praise for it, we lose all our re ward, which God hath deposited for them that receive not their good tilings in this hfe. For " as silver is tried M the melter, and gold in the crucible^, so is a man tried by the mouth of him that praises him :" that is, he is either clarified from his dross, by looking upon the praise as a homily to teach, and an instrument to invite his duty ; or else, if he be already pure, he is consolidated, strengthened in the sobriety of his spirit, and retires Mmself closer into the strengths and securities of humility. Nay, this step of hunririty uses in very holy persons to be edarged to a delight in affronts and disreputation in the world. "Now I begin to be Christ's disciple," said Ignatius the martyr b, when in his journey to Borne he suffered perpetual revil- Mgs and abuse. St. Pad rejoiced in his infirmities and reproach : and dl the apostles at Jerusdem went from the tribund, rejoicing that they were esteemed worthy to suffer shame for the name of Jesus'. This is an excellent condition and degree of humility: but I choose to add one that is less, but in all persons necessary. 9. FourtMy : Christ's humble man is carefd never to speak any tiring that may redound to his own praise, unless it be with a design ' Cauta enim consideratione trepidat petens praemium perdat. — S. Greg, [in (David, [rectius, Electorum animusj)ne Job. xxxi. Moral., lib. xxii. cap. 8. § 19. aut de his in quibus laudatur, et non torn. i. col. 707.] s ['chrysoble.'lst ed.] sunt, majus Dei judicium inveniat: aut h [Ep. ad Rom., cap. v. p. 28.] de his in quibus laudatur, et sunt, com- > Acts v. 41. sect, xv.] Christ's sermon of humility. 680 of charity or duty, that either God's glory, or the profit of his neigh bour, be concerned in it : but never speaking with a design to be es teemed learned or honourable. St. Arsenius had been tutor to three Caesars, Theodosius, Arcadius, and Honorius; but afterwards when he became religious, no word escaped him that might represent and tell of his former greatness : and it is observable concerning St. Je rome, that although he was of noble extraction, yet in aU his own writings there is not the smallest intimation of it. TMs I desire to be understood only to the sense and purposes of humihty, and that we have no designs of vanity and fancy in speaking learnedly, or re counting our exterior advantages : but if either the profit of our brother, or the glory of God ; if either there be piety or charity in the design, it is lawful to publish all those excellencies with wMch God hath distinguished us from others. The young marquess of Castilion, being to do public exercise in his course of philosophy, made it a case of conscience whether he were bound to dispute his best, fearing lest vanity might transport Mm in the midst of th&se praises wlrich his collegiates might give Mm. It was an excellent consideration in the young gentleman : but in actions civil and humane', since the danger is not so immediate, and a little compla cency, becoming the Mstrument of virtue and encouragement of stndes, may with like care be referred to God as the giver, and cele brate His praises ; he might M'ith more safety have done his utmost, it being in some sense a duty to encourage others, to give account of our graces and our labours, and all the appendent vanity may quickly be suppressed. A good name may give us opportunity of persuading others to their duty, especially in an age in M'Mch men choose their doctrines by the men that preach them : and St. Pad used his liberty when he M'as zealous for his Corinthian dsciples, but re strained Mmself when it began to make reflections upon his own spirit. But although a good name be necessary, and in order to such good ends whither it may serve it is lawful to desire it ; yet a great name, and a pompous honour, and a secdar greatness, hath more danger in it to ourselves, than ordinarily it can have of benefit to others; and dthough a man may use trie greatest honours to the greatest purposes, yet ordinary persons may not safely desire them : because it will be found very hard to have such mysterious and ab stracted considerations as to separate aU our proper interests from the pubhc end. To wlrich I add this consideration, That the contempt of honour, and the instant pursuit of humility, is more effective of the ghostly benefit of others, than honours and great dignities can be, udess it be rarely and very accidentally. 10. If we need any new incentives to the practice of this grace, I can say no more, but that humility is truth, and pride is a lie : that the one glorifies God, the other dishonours Him; humility makes men like angels, pride makes angels to become devils ; that pride is folly, humility is the temper of a holy spirit and excellent wisdom ; j [See note to page 118, above.] 636 on Christ's sermon of humility. [part iii, that humility is the way to glory, pride to ruin and confusion ; hu mility makes saints on earth, pride undoes them : humility beatifies the saints in heaven, and the elders tiirow their crowns at the foot of the tMone ; pride disgraces a man among all the societies of earth : God loves one, and Satan solicits the cause of the other, and pro motes his own interest in it most of all. And there is no one grace in which CMist propounded Himself imitable so signally as in tMs of meekness and humility : for the enforcing of which He undertook the condition of a servant, and a life of poverty, and a death of dis grace ; and washed the feet of His disciples, and even of Judas him self, that His action might be turned into a sermon to preach this duty, and to make it as eternal as His own story. THE PBAYEB. 0*holy and eternal Jesus, who wert pleased to lay aside the glories and incomprehensible majesty wMch clothed Thy infinity from before the beginning of creatures, and ddst put on a cloud upon Thy brightness, and wert invested with the impure and imperfect broken robe of human nature, and didst abate those splendours wMch broke through the veil, commanding devils not to publish Thee, and men not to proclaim Thy excellencies, and the apostles not to reveal those glories of TMne which they discovered en- circling Thee upon mount Tabor in Thy transfiguration, and didst by perpetual homilies and symbolical mysterious actions, as Mith deep characters, engrave humility into the spirits of Thy dsciples and the disciphne of Christianity ; teach us to approach near to these Thy glories, wMch Thou hast so covered with a cloud that we might Mithout amazement behold Thy excellencies ; make us to imitate Thy gracious condescensions ; take from us all vanity and fantastic complacencies in our omqi persons or actions ; and when there arises a reputation consequent to the performance of any part of our duty, make us to reflect the glory upon Thee, suffering nothing to adhere to our own spirits but shame at our own imper fection, and thankfulness to Thee for aU Thy assistances : let us never seek the praise of men from unhandsome actions, from flat teries and unworthy discourses, nor entertain the praise with de light, though it proceed from better principles; but fear and tremble lest we deserve punishment, or lose a reward wMch Thou hast deposited for all them that seek Thy glory and despise their own, that they may imitate the example of their Lord. Thou, 0 Lord, didst triumph over sin and death; subdue dso my proud understandng, and my prouder affections, and bring me under Thy yoke ; that I may do Thy work, and obey my superiors, and be a servant of all my brethren in their necessities, and esteem myself inferior to all men by a deep sense of my own unworthiness, SECT. XV.] OF THE INSTITUTION OF THE SACRAMENT. 637 and in all things may obey Thy laMs, and conform to Thy pre cedents, and enter into TMne inheritance, O holy and eternal Jesus. Amen. DISCOUBSE XIX. Of the institution and reception of the holy sacrament of the Lord's supper. 1. As the sun among the stars, and man among the sublunary crea tures, is the most eminent and noble, the prince of the inferiors, and their measure, or their gdde : so is tiris action among all the instances of religion ; it is the most perfect and consummate, it is an mrion of mysteries, and a consolidation of duties ; it joMs God and man, and con federates all the societies of men in mutual complexions, and the enter tainments of an excellent charity ; it actudly performs all that could be necessary for man, and it presents to man as great a tiring as God codd give ; for it is impossible any tiring shoMd be greater than Himself. And when God gave His Son to the world, it could not be but He shodd give us dl tirings else : and therefore tMs blessed sacrament is a consigning us to all felicities, because dter a mysterious and in effable manner we receive Him who is hght and life, the fountain of grace, and the sanctifier of our secular comforts, and the author of hohness and glory. But as it was at first, so it hath been ever since ; " CMist came into the world, and the world knew Him not :" so Christ hath remdned M the world by the commumcations of tMs sacrament, and yet He is not rightly understood, and less trMy vdued. But Christ may say to us, as once to the woman of Samaria, " Woman, if thou ddst know the gift of God, and who it is that speaks to thee, thou woddst ask Him ;" so if we were so wise, or so fortunate, to know the excellency of this gift of the Lord, it would fill us full of M'onder and adoration, joy and thankfdness, great hopes and actud felicities, making us heirs of glory by the great additions and present increment of grace. 2. After supper Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and made it to be a heavenly gift : He gave them bread, and told them it was His body ; that body, which was broken for the redemption of man, for the salvation of the world. St. Paul calls it bread, even dter conse cration ; " the bread which we break, is it not the commudcation of the body of CMist' ?" so that by dvMe fdth we are taught to ex press our behef of this mystery in these words : The bread, when it is consecrated and made sacramentd, is the body of our Lord : and the fraction and distribution of it is the communication of that body 1 1 Cor. x. 16. 638 OF THE INSTITUTION AND [PART Til. M'Mch died for us upon the cross. He that doubts of either of the parts of this proposition must either tMnk Christ was not able to verify His word, and to make ' bread' by His benediction to become to us to be 'His body;' or that St. Pad did not well interpret and understand tMs mystery, when he called it 'bread.' Christ reconciles them both, calling Himself ' the bread of life :' and if M'e be offended at it, because it is 'alive,' and therefore less apt to become food, we are invited to it because it is ' bread ;' and if the sacrament to others seem less mysterious because it is ' bread,' M'e are heightened in our faith and reverence because it is ' life :' the bread of the sacrament is the hfe of our soul, and the body of our Lord is now conveyed to us by being the bread of the sacrament; And if we consider how easy it is to faith, and how impossible it seems to curiosity, we shall be taught confidence and modesty; a resigning our understanding to the voice of CMist and His apostles, and yet expressing our own articles, as Christ dd, in indefinite significations. And possibly it may not well consist M'ith our duty to be inqdsitive into the secrets of the kingdom, wMch we see by plain event hath divided the church almost as much as the sacrament hath united it, and which can only serve the puiposes of the school, and of evil men, to make questions for that, and factions for these, but promote not the ends of a holy life, obedience, or charity. 3. Some so observe the literd sense of the words that they understand them also in a natural; some so dter them by me taphors and preternaturd sigmfications that they Mill not under stand them at all in a proper. We see it, we feel it, we taste it, and we smell it to be bread; and by philosophy M'e are led into a belief of that substance whose accidents these are, as we are to believe that to be fire which burns, and flames, and slrines : but CMist also affirmed concerning it, "This is My body;" and if faith can create an assent as strong as its object is infalhble, or can be as certain in its conclusion as sense is certain in its apprehensions,' we must at no hand doubt but that it is CMist's body. Let the sense of that be what it will, so that we believe those words, and (whatsoever that sense is which Christ intended) that we no more doubt in our faith than we do in our sense ; then our fdth is not re- provable. It is hard to do so much violence to our sense as not to think it bread ; but it is more unsde to do so much violence to our frith as not to beheve it to be. CMist's body. But it would be con sidered, that no interest of rehgion, no saying of Christ, no reverence of opinion, no sacredness of the mystery, is disavowed, if we beheve both what we hear and what we see. He that believes it to be bread, and yet verily to be Christ's body, is only tied also by impli cation to believe God's omnipotence, that He who affirmed it can dso verify it. And they that are forward to believe the change of substance, can intend no more but that it be believed verily to be the body of our Lord. And if they think it impossible to reconcile SECT. XV.J RECEPTION OF THE SACRAMENT. 639 its being bread with the verity of being Christ's body, let them re member that themselves are put to more difficulties, and to admit of more miracles, and to contradict more sciences, and to refuse the testimony of sense, in affirming the special manner of transubstanti ation. And therefore it were safer to admit the words in their first sense, in M'hich we shall no more be at war M'ith reason, nor so much with sense, and not at all with frith k. And for persons of the con- tradctory persuasion, who to avoid the natural sense affirm it only to be figurative, since their design is only to make this sacrament to be k Acceptum panem et distributum discipulis corpus suum ilium fecit, Hoc est corpus meum, dicendo, id est, figura corporis mei : figura autem non fuisset, nisi veritatis esset corpus. — Tertull. contr. Marcion., lib. iv. § 40. [p. 457 D.J Quod si quicquid ingreditur in os, in ventrem abit, et in secessum ejicitur, et ille cibus qui sanctificatur per verbum Dei perque obsecrationem, juxta id quod habet materiale, in ventrem abit, et in secessum ej'citur, &c. et haec quidem de typico symbolicoque corpore.- — Origen. in cap. xv. S. Matt. [torn. xi. § 14. torn. iii. p. 499 C] [Eranistes.] To aifxPoXa tov SeatroTi- kov adifxarbs Te Kal difxaTis . . fxerd Tifv iiri- KXlfaiv ptraPdXXtrai, Kal eTepa y IveTal. [Respondet Orthod.] 'AAA' ob tt)s ol- Keias 4£laTaTai tpvaews' fxivei ydp 4irl Tr)s irpor4pas obatas, Kal tov oxtfxaros, Kal tov etSovs, Kal bpaTa eV-n, Kal airTa, ola Kal irpdrtpov fy. — Theodortt. Dial. ii. [torn. iv. p. 126.] Idem disputando contra Eutychianos [scil. loco suprad.J docentes humanam Christi naturam conversum iri in divinam, eodem scil. modo quo panis iu corpus Christi, ait, Certe eodem scil. modo, hoc est, nullo. '0 Se 2ojt'1jp o ijfxerepos, &c. Our blessed Saviour, who hath called Himself the living Bread and a Vine, hath also honoured the visible s'gns with the title and appellation of His Body and Blood, not changing their nature, but adding to nature, grace. — See the Dialogue called "the Immovable." [Immutabilis.] — Dialog, i. [torn. iv. p. 26.] Sacramenta quae sumimus corporis et sanguinis Christi, divina res est ; propter quod et per eadem divina? efficimur con- sortes naturae, et tamen esse non desinit substantia vel natura panis et vini; et certe imago et similitudo corporis et san guinis Christi in actione mysteriorum celebrantur. — P. Gelasius, libr. contr. Nestorium et Eutychetem. [p. 671 B.] Non quod proprie corpus ejus sit panis, et poculum sanguis ; sed quod in se mys- terium corporis ejus sanguinisque conti- neant. — Facundus. [lib. ix. p. 79 G.] Si enim sacramenta quandam simili- tudinem earum rerum quarum sacra menta sunt non haberent, omnino sacra menta non essent : ex hae autem simili- tudine plerumque etiam ipsarum rerum nomina accipiunt. — S. Aug. [Ep. xcviii. § 9. torn. ii. col. 267.] Quod ab omnibus appellator sacri- ficium, signum est veri sacrificii, in quo caro Christi post assumptionem per sa- eramentum memoriae celebratur. — Idem contr. Faustum Manich. [vid. lib. xx. cap. 18. torn. viii. col. 345.] Apud Gratianum de Consecrat. dist. ii. cap 48, [Deer. par. iii. col. 2109.] cita- tur Augustinus in libro Sententiarum Prusperi in haec verba, Sicut ergo ccelestis panis, qui vere Christi caro est, suo modo vocatur corpus Christi, cum revera sit sacramentum corporis Christi, illius vide licet quod visibile, palpabile, mortale iu cruce est suspensum ; vocaturque ipsa immolatio carnis, quae sacerdotis manibus fit Christi passio, mors, crucifixio, non rei veritate, sed significante mysterio : sic sacramentum fidei quod haptismus intelligitur, fides est. Si ergo haec vasa sanctificata ad pri- vatos usus transferre sic periculosum est, in quibus non est verum corpus Christi, sed mysterium corporis ejus continetur ; quanto magis vasa corporis nostri, [..non debemus locum dare diabolo agendi in eis quod vult?] S. Chrysost. Opere im- perf. in Matt. [hom. xi. torn. vi. append. p. lxiii.] Sicut enim antequam sanetificetur panis, panem nominamus, divina autem ilium sanctificante gratia, mediante sa- cerdote, liberatus est quidem ab appella- tione panis, dignus autem habitus domi- nici corporis appellatione, etiamsi natura panis in eo permansit, &c.— Idem in Epist. ad Caesarium, in Biblioth. Pp. Colon. 1618. [Chrysost. torn. iii. p. 744 B.] 640 OF THE INSTITUTION AND [PART III. CMist's body in the sense of faith and not of philosophy, they may remember that its being ready present does not hinder but that all that redity may be spiritud ; and if it be Christ's body, so it be not affirmed such in a naturd sense and manner, it is still only the object of fdth and spirit ; and if it be affirmed ody to be spiritud, there is then no danger to fdth in admitting the words of Christ's institution, " This is My body." I suppose it to be a mistake to tMnk whatsoever is red must be naturd ; and it is no less to tMnk spiritual to be ody figurative : that's too much, and tMs is too little. PMlosophy and faith may well be reconciled ; and whatsoever objection can invade tMs udon may be cured by modesty. And if we profess we under stand not the manner of tiris mystery, we say no more but that it is a mystery; and if it had been necessary we should have construed it into the most latent sense, Christ himself wodd have given a clavis, and taught the church to unlock so great a secret. Christ said, "this is My body, — this is My blood :" St. Pad said, "the bread of bless ing that we break is the communication of the body of Christ, and the chalice which we bless is the commumcation of the blood of CMist1;" and, "we are all one body, because we eat of one bread"1." One proposition, as well as the other, is the matter of fdth, and the latter of them is also of sense ; one is as literal as the other : and he that distingdshes M Ms behef, as he may place the impropriety upon which part he please, and either say it is improperly called ' bread,' or improperly cdled 'CMist's body;' so he can have nothing to se cure his proposition from error, or himself from boldness, in decree ing concerning mysteries against the testimomes of sense, or beyond the modesty and simplicity of christian faith. Let us love and adore the abyss of divine wisdom and goodness, and entertdn the sacra ment with just and holy receptions ; and then we shall receive all those fnrits of it which an earnest dsputer or a peremptory dogma - tizer, whether he happen right or M'rong, hath no warrant to expect upon the interest of his opinion. 4. In the institution of this sacrament CMist manifested, first, His dmighty power ; secondy, His Mfimte wisdom ; and thirdly, His unspeakable charity. Prist, His power is manifest, in making the ¦ symbols to be the instruments of conveymg Himself to the spirit of the receiver : He nourishes the soul with bread, and feeds the body with a sacrament ; He makes the body spiritual by His graces there ministered, and makes the spirit to be united to His body by a par ticipation of the dvine nature. In the sacrament, that body which is reigning in heaven is exposed upon the table of blessing ; and His body wlrich was broken for us, is now broken again, and yet remains 1 1 Cor. x. 16, 17. participans et res participata sicut ver- 111 Chrysost. notat Apostolum non dix- bum et Dei caro. 'O fxeTexav partem isse panem esse fxeTOxi)v, sed Koivuviav aliquam sibi vindicat, b Koivotvuv totius tov adpaTos Xpiarov, ut indicaret ita particeps est.— [In I Cor. hom. xxiv. § participari corpus Domini, ut fiant unum 2. torn. x. p. 213 C. SECT. XV.] RECEPTION OF THE SACRAMENT. 641 impassible. Every consecrated portion of bread and wine does ex hibit Christ entirely to the faithful receiver; and yet Christ remains one, while He is wholly ministered in ten thousand portions. So long as we call these mysterious, and make them intricate to exercise our faith, and to represent the wonder of the mystery, and to increase our charity, our being inqdsitive into the abyss can have no evil purposes. God hath instituted the rite in visible symbols to make the secret grace as presential and discernible as it might ; that by an instrument of sense om spirits might be accommodated as with an exterior object to produce an internal act. But it is the prodigy of a miraculous power, by instruments so easy to produce effects so glo rious : this then is the object of wonder and adoration. 5. Secondly : And tMs effect of poM'er does also remark the Di- vme wisdom, who hath ordained such symbols ; which not only, like spittle and clay toward the curing brind eyes, proclaim an dmighty power, but they are apposite and proper to signify a duty, and be come to us like the word of hfe ; and from bread they turn into a homily. Por therefore our wisest Master hath appointed bread and wme, that we may be corporally united to Him ; that as the symbols, becoming nutriment, are turned into the substance of our bodies ; so CMist, being the food of our sods, shodd assimilate us, making us partakers of the divine nature. It also tells us that from hence we derive hfe and holy motion ; " for in Him we live, and move, and have our being." He is the staff of our life, and the light of our eyes, and the strength of our spirit ; He is the viand for our journey, and the antepast of heaven. And because this holy mystery was intended to be a sacrament of union, that lesson is mordly re presented in the symbols ; that as the sdutary jdce is expressed from many clusters runmng into one chalice, and the bread is a mass made of many grains of M'heat ; so we also (as the apostle Mfers from hence, Mmself observing the analogy) shodd be " one bread and one body, because we partake of that one bread." And it were to be wished that from hence also all CMistians wodd understand a signi fication of another duty, and that they wodd often communicate ; as remembering that the sod may need a frequent ministration, as well as the body its daily proportion. This consideration of the divine wisdom is apt to produce reverence, humihty, and submission of our understanding to the immensity of God's unsearchable abysses. 6. Thirdly: But the story of the love of our dearest Lord is written in largest characters ; who not ody was at that instant busy in doing man the greatest good, even then when man was contriving His death and His dshonour ; but contrived to represent His bitter passion to us, without any circumstances of horror, in symbols of pleasure and delight ; that " we may taste and see how gracious our Lord is," who would not transmit the record of His passion to us in any thing that might trouble us. No love can be greater than that which is so beatifical as to besterw the greatest good ; and no love can TT. T t 642 OF THE INSTITUTION AND [PART III. be better expressed than that M'hich, although it is productive of the greatest blessings, yet is curious also to observe the smallest circumstances. And not only both these, but many other circum stances and arguments of love, concur in the holy sacrament. Prist, it is a tenderness of affection that ministers wholesome physic with arts and instruments of pleasure : and such was the charity of our Lord, who brings health to us in a golden chalice ; life, not in the bitter drugs of Egypt, but in spirits and quintessences ; giving us apples of paradse, at the same time yiekhrig food, and health, and pleasure. Secondy, love desires to do all good to its beloved object, and that is the greatest love wMch gives us the greatest blessings ; and the sacrament therefore is the argument of His greatest love ; for in it we receive the honey, and the honey-comb; the paschal lamb, with Ms bitter herbs ; Christ with dl His griefs, and His pas sion with all the salutary effects of it. Thirdly, love desires to be remembered, and to have his object in perpetual representment : and this sacrament Christ designed to that purpose, that He, M'ho is not present to our eyes, might dways be present to our spirits. Fourthly, love demands love again, and to desire to be beloved is of itself a great argument of love ; and as God cannot give us a greater blessing than His love, M'hich is Himself, with an excellency of relation to us superadded ; so what greater demonstration of it can He make to us, than to desire us to love HMi with as much earnestness and vehe- mency of desire, as if we were that to Him M'Mch He is essentially to us, the author of our being and our blessing ? PiftMy, and yet to consummate tiris love, and represent it to be the greatest and most excellent, the holy Jesus hath in this sacrament designed that we shodd be united in our spirits with Him, incorporated to His body, partake of His divine nature, and communicate in dl His graces ; and love hath no expression beyond this, that it desires to be united unto its object. So that what Moses sdd to the men of Israel, " what nation is so great, M'ho hath God so nigh unto them as the Lord our God is in all things for M'Mch ive call upon Him?" M'e can edarge in the medtation of this holy sacrament ; for now the Lord our God cdls upon us, not only to be nigh unto Him, but to be all one with Him ; not only as He was in the incarnation flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone, but also to communicate in spirit, in grace, in nature, in dvinity itself. 7. Upon the strength of the premises, we may sooner take an es timate of the graces wMch are conveyed to us in the- reception and celebration of this holy sacrament and sacrifice. For as it is a com memoration and representment of Christ's death, so it is a comme morative sacrifice ; as we receive the symbols and the mystery, so it is a sacrament. In both capacities, the benefit is next to infimte. First : for whatsoever Christ did at the institution, the same He commanded the church to do in remembrance and repeated rites; and Himself also does the same thing in heaven for us, makmg per- SECT. XV.] RECEPTION OF THE SACHAMENT. 643 petud intercession for His church, the body of His redeemed ones, by representing to His Father His death and sacrifice. There He sits, a high priest continually, and offers stril the same one perfect sacrifice ; that is, still represents it as having been once finished and consummate, M order to perpetual and never-failing events. And this also His mimsters do on earth; they offer up the same sacrifice to God, the sacrifice of the cross, by prayers, and a commemorating rite and representment, according to His holy institution. And as all the effects of grace and the titles of glory were purchased for us on the cross, and the actual mysteries of redemption perfected on earth, but are apphed to us, and made effected to single persons and communities of men, by Christ's intercession in heaven ; so also they are promoted by acts of duty and rehgion here on earth, that we may be "workers together with God," as St. Paul" expresses it, and in virtue of the eternd and dl-sufficient sacrifice may offer up our prayers and our duty ; and by representing that sacrifice, may send up, together with our prayers, an instrument of their graciousness and acceptation. The funerds of a deceased friend are not only per formed at Ms first interring, but in the monthly minds0 and anniver sary commemorations ; and our grief returns upon the sight of a pic ture, or upon any instance wMch our dead friend desired us to pre serve as his memorial : we celebrate and " exhibit the Lord's death" in sacrament and symbol ; and tMs is that great express, wMch when the church offers to God the Father, it obtains all those blessings which that sacrifice purchased. Themistocles snatched up the son of king Admetus0, and held him between himself and death, to mitigate the rage of the king ; and prevailed accordngly. Our very holding up the Son of God, and representing Him to His Father, is the domg an act of medation and advantage to ourselves, in the virtue and efficacy of the Medator. As Christ is a priest in heaven for ever, and yet does not sacrifice Himself afresh, nor yet without a sacrifice codd He be a priest ; but by a daily ministration and inter cession represents His sacrifice to God, and offers Himself as sacri ficed : so He does upon earth by the ministry of His servants ; He is offered to God, that is, He is by prayers and the sacrament repre sented or offered up to God, as sacrificed ; which in effect is a cele bration of His death, and the applying it to the present and future necessities of the church, as we are capable, by a ministry hke to His in heaven. It follows then that the celebration of this sacrifice be in its proportion i an Mstrument of applying the proper sacri fice to all the purposes wMch it first designed. It is, ministerially and by application, an instrument propitiatory; it is eucharistical, it is an homage and an act of adoration; and it is impetratory, and obtains for us and for the whole church all the benefits of the n 2 Cor. vi. 1. que proficit, simul medicamentum et 0 [See vol. v. p. 511, note a.] holocaustum ad sanandas infinnitates et P [Thucyd. i. 136.] purgandasiniquitatesexsistens S. Cypr. i Iste calix, benedictione solenni sa- de Ccen. Dom. [sive Arnold. Carnot. opp. cratus, ad totius hominis vitam salutem- p. 39 in Append, ad opp. S. Cypr.] T t 2 644 OP THE INSTITUTION AND [PART ill. sacrifice wMch is now celebrated and applied ; that is, as this rite is the remembrance and mimsterid celebration of Christ's sacrifice, so it is destined to do honour to God, to express the homage and duty of His servants, to acknowledge His supreme dominion, to give Him thanks and worsMp, to beg pardon, blessings, and supply of all our needs. And its profit is enlarged, not oMy to the persons celebrat ing, but to all to whom they design it, accordng to the nature of sacrifices and prayers, and dl such solemn actions of religion. 8. Secondy : If we consider tMs, not as the act and mimstry of ecclesiasticd persons, but as the duty of the whole church commuri- cating, that is, as it is a sacrament ; so it is like the springs of Eden, from whence issue many rivers ; or the trees of celestial Jerusalem, bearing various kinds of frdt. For whatsoever was offered M the sacrifice, is given in the sacrament; and whatsoever the testament bequeaths, the holy mysteries dispense. — First, " he that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood, abiueth in Me and I M Himp ;" Christ in His temple and His resting-place, and the worthy commumcant in sanctuary and a place of protection : and every holy soul having feasted at His table, may say, as St. Pad, " I hve, yet not I, but Christ liveth in mei." So that, "to live is Christr :" "CMist is our lifes," and He dwells in the body and the spirit of every one that eats CMist's flesh and drinks His blood. Happy is that man that sits at the table of angels, that puts Ms hand into the dsh with the King of all the creatures, and feeds upon the eternd Son of God ; joining things below with tirings above, heaven with earth, life with death ; " that mortality might be swdlowed up of life," and sin be destroyed by the inhabitation of its greatest conqueror. And now I need not enumerate any particulars : since the Spirit of God hath ascertained us, that CMist enters into our hearts, and takes posses sion, and abides there ; that we are made temples and celestid man sions ; that we are all one with our Judge, and with our Bedeemer , that our Creator is bound unto His creature with bonds of charity, M'hich nothing can dissolve unless our own hands break them ; that . man is united with God, and our weakness is fortified by His strength, and our miseries wrapped up in the golden leaves of glory.— Secondy, hence it follows that the sacrament is an instrument of reconcihng us to God, and taking off the remanent guilt and stain and obligations of our sins ; " this is the blood that was shed for you, for the remis sion of sins." For " there is no condemnation to them that are M Christ Jesus ;" and such are all they who worthily eat the flesh of Christ: by receiving. Him, they more and more receive remission of sins, redemption, sanctification, wisdom, and certain hopes of glory. For as the soul touching and united to the flesh of Adam contracts the stain of original misery and imperfection; so much the rather shall the sod united to the flesh of Christ, receive pardon and purity v John vi. 56 ' Phil. i. 21. " Gul. ii. 20. < Col. iii. 4. SECT. XV.] RECEPTION OF THE SACRAMENT. 645 and all those blessed emanations from our union M'ith the second Adam. But tMs is not to be understood as if the first beginnings of our pardon M'ere in the holy communion; for then a man might come with his impurities along with him, and lay them on the holy table to stdn and pollute so bright a presence. No ; first, repent ance must " prepare the ways of the Lord :" and in this holy rite those words of our Lord are verified, " he that is justified, let Mm be justified still ;" that is, here he may receive the increase of grace ; and as it grows, so sin dies, and we are reconciled by nearer unions and approximations to God. 9. Thirdy: The holy sacrament is the pledge of glory and the earnest of immortality'; for when we have received Him who hath " overcome death, and henceforth dies no more," He becomes to us hke the tree of life in paradse; and the consecrated symbols are like the seeds of an eternd duration, springing up in us to eternal life, nourisMng our spirits with grace, wMch is but the prologue and the infancy of glory, and differs from it only as a child from a man. But God first raised up His Son to life, and by giving Him to us hath also consigned us to the same state ; for " our life is hid with Christ, in Godu." When we lay down and cast aside the impurer robes of flesh, they are then but preparing for glory ; and " if by the only touch of Christ bodies were redintegrate and restored to natural perfections ; how shall not we live for ever M'ho eat His flesh and drink His blood?" it is the discourse of St. Cyrilx. Whatsoever the Spirit can convey to the body of the church, we may expect from this sacrament ; for as the Spirit is the instrument of life and action, so the blood of CMist is the conveyance of His Spirit. And let all the mysterious places of holy scripture concerning the effects of Christ commumcated in the blessed sacrament be draM'n together in one scheme, we cannot but observe that, although they are so expressed as that their meamng may seem intricate and involved, yet they can not be dawn to any meaning at aU but it is as glorious in its sense as it is mysterious in the expression : and the more intricate they are, the greater is their purpose; no words being apt and propor tionate to signify tMs spiritual secret, and excellent effects of the Spirit. A veil is drawn before all these testimonies, because the people were not able to behold the glory which they cover with their curtain ; and " CMist dweMng in us," and " giving us His flesh to eat, and His blood to drink," and " the hiding of our life M'ith God," and " the commudcation of the body of Christ," and " Christ being our hfe," are such secret glories that, as the frmtion of them is the ' 'ABavaaias [Nat. hist. xxi. 91. torn. ii. p. 259.] c Plutarch. Sympos. [i.e. Sept. sap. conviv., torn. vi. p. 559.] SECT. XV. J RECEPTION OF THE SACRAMENT. 647 that asked him why he, being a philosophical and severe person, came to a weddng trimmed and adorned hke a paranymph, " I come adorned to an adorned person;" trimmed, to a bridegroom. And we dso, if we come to the marriage of the Son with the sod (wlrich marriage is celebrated in this sacred mystery), and have not on a M'edding-garment, shall be cast into outer darkness, the portion of undressed and unprepared souls. 12. For from tMs sacrament are excluded all unbaptized persons, and such who he in a known sin of which they have not purged them selves by the apt and proper instruments of repentance. For if the paschd lamb was not to be eaten but by persons pure and clean ac cordng to the sanctifications of the law ; the Son of God can less endure the impurities of the Spirit, than God could suffer the un- cleannesses of the law. St. Paul hath given us instruction in this ; first, " let a man examine himself, and so let Mm eat : for he that eats and drinks unworthily, eats and drinks damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's bodyd." That is, although in the church of Corinth by reason of the present scMsm the pubhc dsciphne of the church was neglected, and every man permitted to himself; yet even trien no man M'as disobliged from Ms duty of private repentance, and holy preparations to the perception of so great a mystery, that " the Lord's body" may be discerned from common nutriment. Now nothing can so unhallow and desecrate the rite as the remanent af fection to a sin, or a crime unrepented of. And self-examination is prescribed, not for itself, but in order to abohtion of sin and death : for itself is a relative term and an imperfect duty, whose very nature is in order to something beyond it. And this was M the primitive church understood to so much severity, that if a man had relapsed after one public repentance into a fod crime, he was never again re admitted to the holy communion ; and the fathers of the council of Eriberis call it a mocking and jesting at the communion of our Lord e, to give it once again dter a repentance and a relapse, and a second or third postdation. And Mdeed we use to make a sport of the greatest instruments of rehgion, when we come to them dter an ha bitud vice, whose face we have, it may be, wetted with a tear, and breathed upon it with a sigh, and abstained from the worst of crimes for two or tirree days, and come to the sacrament to be purged, and to take our rise by going a little back from our sin, that afterwards we may leap Mto it with more violence, and enter into its utmost angle : tMs is dishonouring the body of our Lord, and deceiving our selves. Christ and Belid cannot cohabit ; unless we have left all our sins, and have no fondness of affection towards them, unless Me hate them, (wlrich then we shall best know when we leave them, and M'ith complacency entertain their contraries :) then Christ hath washed our feet and then He invites us to His holy supper. Hands dpped M a 1 Cor. xi. 28, 29. • Concil. Eliber. can. 3. [torn. i. col. 249.] 648 OF THE INSTITUTION AND [PART III. blood, or polluted with uMawfd gains, or stained with the spots of flesh, are most unfit to hande the holy body of our Lord, and mini ster nourishment to the soul. Christ loves not to enter into the mouth full of cursings, oaths, blasphemies, revilings, or evil speak- Mgs ; and a heart full of vain and vicious thoughts, stinks like the lake of Sodom ; He finds no rest there, and when He enters, He is vexed with the unclean conversation of the impure inhabitants, and flies from thence with the wMgs of a dove, that he may retire to pure and wMter habitations. St. Justin Martyrf, reckomng the predispo sitions required of every frititful sod for. the entertainment of his Lord, says, that "it is not lawfd for any to eat the eucharist, but to Mm that is washed M the laver of regeneration for the remission of sins, that beheves CMist's doctrine to be true, and that hves accord- mg to the dsciprine of the holy Jesus g." And therefore St. Ambrose refused to midster the holy commumon to the emperor Theodosiush, till by public repentance he had reconciled himself to God and the society of frithful people, after the furious and choleric rage and slaughter committed at Thessdomca: and as tMs act was rike to cancellating and a circumvaUation of the holy mysteries, and in that sense, and so far, was a proper duty for a prelate, to whose dispensa tion the rites are committed; so it was an act of duty to the emperor, of paternd and tender care, not of proper authority or jurisdiction, wMch he could not have over his prince, but yet had a care and the supravision of a teacher over Mm ; whose sod St. Ambrose had be trayed, udess he had represented Ms Mdsposition to commrmicate in expressions of magisterid or doctord authority and truth. Por this holy sacrament is a nourishment of spiritual life, and therefore cannot with effect be mhristered to them who are in the state of spiritud death ; it is giving a cordd to a dead man ; and dthough the out ward rite be mimstered, yet the grace of the sacrament is not com municated ; and therefore it were wett that they also abstrined from the rite itself. For a fly can boast of as much privilege, as a wicked person can receive from this holy feast', and oftentimes pays Ms Me for his access to forbidden delicacies, as certridy as they. 13. It is more generally thought by the doctors of the church that f [Apolog. i. § 66. p. 83 A.] S. Amhros.opp. torn. ii. append, col. vii.] s S. Basil, de Bapt., lib. ii. cap. 3. Si dux quispiam, si consul ipse, si [torn. ii. p. 654.] Legator totum caput qui diademate ornatur indigne adeat, co- S. Ambros. in Luc. ix. lib. vi. [§ 71. hibe et coerce. — Quod si ipse pellere non torn. i. col. 1400.] TJbique mysterii ordo audes, mihi dicas, non permittam ista servatur, ut prius per remissionem pec- fieri ; animam prius tradam meam, quam catorum vulneribus medicina tribuatur, dominicum alicui corpus indigne. — S. postea alimonia mensa? ccelestis exube- Chrysost. in Matt. [xxvi. hom. lxxxiii. ret. Aniano interpr. ed. Fr. Ducaso, torn. vii. b Paulin. in vit. S. Ambros. [§ 24. p. 705.] -Exta praegusto deum, Moror inter aras, templa perlustro omnia ; In capite regis sedeo, quum visum est mihi, Et matronarum casta delibo oscula. Phaedr. Fab. lxxx. [lib. iv. fah. 23.] SECT. XV.] RECEPTION OF THE SACRAMENT. 649 our blessed Lord administered the sacrament to Judas, although He knew he sold Him to the Jews : some others deny it, and suppose Judas departed presently after the sop given him, before he commu- mcatedk. However it was, Christ, who was Lord of the sacraments, might dspense it as He pleased : but we must minister and receive it accordmg to the rdes He hath since described : but it becomes a precedent to the church in dl succeedng ages, although it might also have in it something extraordnary, and apter to the first institution. For because the fact of Judas was secret, not yet made notorious, Christ chose rather to admit hrin into the rites of external communion than to separate Mm, with an open shame, for a fadt not yet made open ; for our blessed Lord dd not reveal the man and his crime till the very time of mimstration, if Judas dd communicate. But if Judas dd not commudcate, and that our blessed Lord gave him the sop at the paschd supper, or at the interval between it and the insti tution of His own, it is certain that Judas went out as soon as he was dscovered, and left tMs part of dsciphne upon record, That when a crime is made public and notorious, the governors of the church, accordmg to their power, are to deny to give the blessed sacrament, till by repentance such persons be restored. In private sms1, or sins not known by solemdties of law or evidence of fact, good and bad are entertained in public communion ; and it is not to be accounted a crime in them that minister it, because they cannot avoid it, or have not competent authority to separate persons whom the pubhc act of the church hath not separated : but if once a pubhc separation be made, or that the fact is notorious, and the sentence of law is in such cases already declared, they that come, and he that rejects them not, both pollute the blood of the everlasting covenant ; and here it is apphcable, what God spake by the prophet, " If thou wilt separate the precious tiring from the vile, thou shdt be as My mouth™." But tMs is wholly a matter of disciphne, arbitrary, and in the power of the church: nothing in it of divine commandment, but what belongs to the commumcants themselves ; for St. Paul reproves them that receive dsorderly, but gives no orders to the Corinthian pres byters to reject any that present themselves. Neither dd our blessed Lord leave any commandment concerning it, nor hath the holy scrip ture given rdes or measures concermng its actud reduction to prac tice : neither who are to be separated, nor for what offences, nor by v Negator a Clemente Rom. [Const, quenquam non possumus, . . nisi aut Apostol., lib. v. cap. 14. fol. 80.] ab Hi- sponte confessum, aut in aliquo sive se- lario, cap. xxx. in Matt. [§ 2. col. 740.] culari sive ecclesiastico judicio nomina- Innocentio, De myster. [lib. iv. cap. 13. turn atque convictum. — S. Aug., lib. 1. torn. i. p. 381.] a Ruperto, [in Matth. homil. hom. 1. [al. serm. cccli. § 10. torn. xxvi. et in Joan. vi. torn. ii. pp. 95, 315.] v. col. 1359 F] S. Thom. 3. p. q. 81. a. Hildehert. Cenoman. [Serm. xxxvii. col. 2. [torn. xii. p. 272.] 419.] etpaucis aliis. ' m Jer. xv. 19. ' Nos vero a communione prohibere 650 OF THE INSTITUTION AND [PART III. what authority, nor who is to be the judge. And indeed it is a judg ment that can ody belong to God, who knows the secrets of hearts, the degrees of every sin, the beginnings and portions of repentance, the sincerity of purposes, by what thoughts and designs men begin to be accepted, who are hypocrites, and who are true men. But when many and common men come to judge, they are angry upon trifling mistakes and weak dsputes ; they call that sin, that angers their party, or grieves their interest ; they turn charity into pride, and admonition into tyranny ; they set up a tribund, that themselves may sit Mgher, not that their brethren may walk more securely : and then concermng sins, M most cases, they are most Mcompetent judges; they do not know att their kinds : they miscall many ; they are ig norant of the ingredient and constituent parts and circumstances; they themselves make false measures, and give out according to them, when they please; and when they list not, they can change the balance. When the matter is pubhc, evident, and notorious, the man is to be admomshed of Ms danger by the midster : but not by him to be forced from it; for the power of the minister of holy tirings is but the power of a preacher and a counsellor, of a physician and a gdde ; it hath in it no coercion or violence, but what is in- ddged to it by human laws, and by consent, wMch may vary as its principle. Add to this, that the grace of God can begin the work of repent ance in an instant, and in what period or degree of repentance the holy communion is to be admriristered, no law of God declares ; M'hich therefore plainly dlows it to every period, and leaves no differ ence, except where the discipline of the church, and the authority of the supreme power, doth Mtervene. For sMce we do not find m scripture that the apostles dd drive from the communion of holy tirings even those whom they delivered over to Satan or other cen sures, we are left to consider, that in the nature of the tiring those who are in the state of weakness and infirmity have more need of the solemn prayers of the church, and therefore by presenting themselves to the holy sacrament approach towards that mimstry wMch is the most effectual cure ; especially since the very presenting themselves is an act of religion, and therefore supposes an act of repentance and faith, and other httle introductions to its fair reception ; and if they may be prayed for, and prayed with, why they may not dso be com municated, which is the solemrity of the greatest prayer, is not yet clearly reveded. This dscourse relates ody to private ministry : for when I affirm that there is no command from CMist to all His mriristers to refuse whom they are pleased to call ' scanddous' or ' sinners,' I intend to defend good people from the tyranny and arbitrary power of those great compames of ministers, who in so many hundred places would have a judcature supreme in spirituals, which M'odd be more intole rable than if they had in one province twenty thousand judges of life SECT. XV.] RECEPTION OF THE SACRAMENT. 651 and death. But when the power of separation and Mterdiction is only in some more eminent and authorized persons, who take pubhc cognizance of causes by solemnities of law, and exercise their power but in some rare instances, and then also for the pubhc Mterest, M which although they may be deceived, yet they are the most com petent and likely judges, much of the inconvenience which might otherwise foUow is avoided : and then it oMy remains that they con sider in what cases it can be a competent and a proper infliction upon sinners, to take from them that wMch is the means and mriristry of grace and recovery ; whether they have any warrant from Christ, or precedent in the apostles' practice, and how far. As for the forms and usages of the primitive church, they were hugely different, some times for one cause, sometimes for another. Sometimes whole churches have been excommunicated; sometimes the criminal and att Ms household for his offence, as it happened in the excommunication of Andronicus and Thoas, in Synesius, in the year ccccxi": sometimes they were absolved and restored by lay-confessors, sometimes by em perors, as it happened to Eusebius of Nicomeda, and Theogds of Nice, who were absolved by Constantine from the sentence of excom munication inflicted by the Nicene fathers ; and a monk dd ex communicate Theodosius the younger0 : so that M tMs there can be no certainty to make a measure and a rde. The surest way, most agreeable to the precedents of scripture and the analogy of the gospel, is that by the word of their proper mimstry dl sinners shodd be se parate from the holy communion, that is, threatened by the words of God with damnation and fearfd tempord dangers, if themselves, knowing an unrepented sin and a remanent affection to sM to be witMn them, shdl dare to profane that body and blood of our Lord by so impure an address. The evil is to themselves; and if the mimsters declare tMs powerfully, they are acquitted. But concerning other judgments or separations, the supreme power can forbid all as sembling, and therefore can permit them to all, and therefore can deny them, or grant them, to single persons ; and therefore when he by laws makes separations in order to pubhc benefit, they are to be obeyed : but it is not to be endured that single presbyters should upon vaM pretences erect so high a tribund and tyranny over con sciences. 14. The duty of preparation that I here discourse of, is such a preparation as is a disposition to Me ; it is not a matter of convem- ence or advantage, to repent of our sins before the commudon, but it is of absolute necessity ; we perish if we neglect it ; for we " eat damnation," and Satan enters into us, not Christ. And tMs prepar ation is not the act of a day or a week ; but it is a new state of life : no man that is an habitud sinner must come to tMs feast till he hath " Synes. ep. lxxix. [p. 224.] iii. p. 1078.] Baron. A.D. 425. sect. 16. 0 Theod. Hist., lib. v. [cap. 37. torn. torn. v. [p. 491.] 652 OF THE INSTITUTION AND [PART III. wholly changed Ms course of hfe. And then, according as the actions of infirmity have made less or greater invasion upon his peace and hedth, so are the acts of repentance to be proportioned; in wMch the greatness of the prevarications, their neighbourhood to death, or their frequent repetition, and the conduct of a spiritud man, are to give us counsel and determination. When a ravening and hungry wolf is destitute of prey, he eats the turf, and loads Ms stomach with the glebe he treads on ; but as soon as he finds better food, he vomits up Ms first load. Our secdar and sensual affections are loads of earth upon the conscience ; and when we approach to the table of the Lord, to eat the bread of the elect, and to drink the wine of angels, we must reject such impure adhesions, that holy persons, being nourished with holy symbols, may be sanctified, and receive the eternd reward of hohness. 15. But as none must come Mther but they that are in the state of grace, or charity, and the love of God and their neighbours, and that the abohtion of the state of sin is the necessary preparation, and is the action of years, and was not accepted as sufficient till the ex piration of dvers years by the primitive discipline, and in some cases not tril the approach of death : so there is another preparation wMch is of less necessity, wMch supposes the state of grace, and that oil is bunring in our lamps ; but yet it is a preparation of ornament, a trimming up the sod, a dressing the spirit with degrees and in stances of piety, and progresses of perfection : and it consists in set ting apart some portion of our time before the communion, that it be spent in prayer, in medtations, in renewing the vows of holy obedience, in examining our consciences, in mortifying our lesser irregularities, in devotions and actions of precise rehgion, in acts of faith, of hope, of charity, of zed and holy desires, in acts of eucharist or thanksgivmg, of joy at the approach of so blessed an opportunity, and all the acts of virtue whatsoever, wlrich have indefinite relation to this and to other mysteries, but yet are specially to be exercised upon tMs occasion, because tMs is the most perfect of extemd rites, and the most mysterious instrument of sanctification and perfection. There is no time or degree to be determined in this preparation ; but they " to whom much is forgiven, will love much ;" and they who understand the excellence and holiness of the mystery, the glory of the guest that comes to inhabit, and the undecency of the closet of their hearts by reason of the adherencies of impurity, the infinite benefit then designed, and the increase of degrees by the excellence of these previous acts of holiness, wril not be too inquisitive into the necessity of circumstances and measures, but do it heartily and de voutly, and reverently, and as much as they can, ever esteeming it necessary that the actions of so great solemnity shodd by some actions of piety, attending like handmaids, be dstingdshed from common employments, and remarked for the principd and most solemn of religious actions. The primitive church gave the holy SECT. XV.] RECEPTION OF THE SACRAMENT. b5S sacrament to infants immediately after baptismp, and by that act transmitted tMs proposition, That nothing was of absolute necessity but innocency and purity from sin, and a being in the state of grace i; other actions of rehgion are excellent addtion to the dignity of the person and honour of the mystery; but they were such of which infants were not capable. The sum is tMs : After the greatest consociation of religious duties for preparation, no man can be suf ficiently worthy to communicate : let us take care that we be not unworthy, by bringing a guilt with us, or the remanent affection to a sm. Est gloriosus sane convictus deiim, Sed illi qui invitatur, non qui invisus est1. 16. When the happy hour is come in wMch the Lord vouchsdes to enter into us, and dwell with us, and be umted with His servants, M'e must then do the same acts over again with greater earnestness and intension. Confess the glories of God and thy own unworthi- ness, prdse His mercy with ecstasy of thanksgiving and joy, make oblation of thyself, of all thy faculties and capacities, pray and read, and meditate, and worsMp : and that thou mayest more opportunely do all tMs, rise early to meet the Bridegroom, pray for special assist ance, enter into the assembly of fdthfd people cheerfully, attend there diligently, demean thyself reverently, and, before any other meat or drink, receive the body of thy Saviour, with pure hands, with holy intention, with a heart full of joy, and faith, and hope, and wonder, and eucharist. These tirings I therefore set down irre gularly and without method, because in these actions no rde can be given to att persons ; and ody such a love and such a rehgion in generd is to be recommended, wMch will overrun the banks, and not easily stand confined witirin the margent of rdes and artificial prescriptions. Love and rehgion are boundess, and all acts of grace relating to the present mystery are fit and proportioned enter tainments of our Lord. TMs oMy remember, that we are by the mystery of ' one bread' coMederated into one body, and the commu nion of saints, and that the sacrifice wMch we then commemorate M'as designed by our Lord for the benefit of all His church : let us be sure to draw all faitMd people into the society of the present blessing, joriring with the holy man that mimsters in prayers, and offerings of that mystery, for the benefit of all sorts of men, of Christ's catholic church. And it were also an excellent act of chris tian communion, and agreeable to the practice of the church in att ages, to make an oblation to God for the poor ; that, as we are fed P Clem. Rom. Coustit., lib. viii. [cap. ' Habentem adhuc voluntalem pcc- 13. fol. 145.] Concil.Tolet.xi. can. 11. candi gravari magis dico eucharistiae [torn. iii. r.ol. 1028.] S.Aug, ep.xxiii. ad perceptione quam purificari — Sed hoc Bonif. [Ben. ep. xcviii. § 4 sqq. torn. ii. de illo dico quern capitalia et mortalia col. 265.] et ep. cvii. [Ben. ep. ccxvii. non gravant. — Gennad., lib. De eccl. dog- § 16. torn. ii. col. 805.] et lib. iv. [iii.?] mat. cap. 53. [p. 31.] de Ti-in. cap. 10. [torn. viii. col. 80+ E.] ' [Phasdr., lib. iv. fah. 23. lin. 10.] 654 OF THE INSTITUTION AND [PART III. by CMist's body, so we also shoMd feed CMist's body, making such returns as we can, a grain of frankMcense in exchange for a pro vince, an act of duty and christian charity as eucharisticd for the present grace, that all the body may rejoice and glory M the sdva tion of the Lord. 17. After thou hast received that pledge of irmnortality and ante' past of glory, even the Lord's body in a mystery, leave not thy Saviour there done, but attend Him with holy thoughts and collo- qdes of prayer and eucharist. It was sometime counted infamous for a woman to entertain a second love, till the body of her dead husband was dssolved into ashes, and disappeared in the form of a body; and it were weU that so long as the consecrated symbols re main within us, accordng to common estimate, we shodd keep the flame bright, and the perfume of an actud devotion burning, that our comrmmion be not a transient act, but a permanent and lasting intercourse with our Lord8. But M this every man best knows Ms own opportuMties and necessities of dversion. I only commend earnestly to practice, that every receiver shodd make a recoUection of himself, and the actions of the day, that he improve it to the best advantage, that he shew unto our Lord all the defects of Ms house, all his poverty and weaknesses. And tMs let every man do by such actions and devotions wlrich he can best attend, and himself, by the advice of a spiritual man, finds of best advantage. I wodd not make the practice of religion, especially in such irregdar instances, to be an art, or a burden, or a snare to scrupdous persons ; what St. Paul said in the case of charity I say also M tiris, "he that sows plentifully shall reap plentifdly, and he that sows sparingly shall gather" at the same rate; "let every man do, as Mmself purposeth in his heart." Only it were well in this sacrament of fove we had some correspondency, and proportionable returns of charity and reli gious affections. 18. Some religious persons have moved a question, Whether it were better to communicate often or seldom ? some thinking it more reverence to those holy mysteries to come but seldom ; while others say, it is greater rehgion or charity to come frequently. But I sup pose this question does not differ much from a dispute, M'hether it is better to pray often, or to pray seldom ; for whatsoever is commonly pretended against a frequent commurion, may in its proportion object against a solemn prayer ; remanent affection to a sin, enmity with neighbours, secular avocations to the rieight of care and trouble : for these either are great undecencies, in order to a holy prayer ; or else are direct irregdarities, and unhallow the prayer. And the cele bration of the holy sacrament is, in itself and its own formality, a sacred, solemn, and ritud prayer, in which we invocate God by the s Male olim actum est, cum sacrificia mvofidaBai, oti fxerd Tb Bieiv eBos ?fv to7s compotationibus finierant. irporepov olvovaBai. — Philo. [De plant 'Airb tovtov y4 Toi (paai Tb pedveiv Noe., torn. iii. p, 158.] SECT. XV.] RECEPTION OF THE SACRAMENT. 655 merits of Christ, expressing that adjuration, not ody in words, but in actual representment and commemoration of His passion. And if the necessities of the church were well considered, we shodd find that a daily sacrifice of prayer, and a daily prayer of sacrifice, were no more but what her condtion requires : and I wodd to God the governors of churches wodd take care that the necessities of kings and kingdoms, of churches and states, were represented to God by the most solemn and efficacious intercessions ; and Christ hath taught us none greater than the praying in the virtue and celebration of His sacrifice. And this is the counsel that the church received from Ignatius', " Hasten frequently to approach the eucharist, the glory of God ; for when this is daily celebrated, we break the powers of Satan, who turns all Ms actions into hostilities and darts of Me." But tMs concerns the mriristers of religion, who, riving in communi ties and colleges, must make religion the business of their lives, and support kingdoms, and serve the interest of kmgs, by the prayer of a daily sacrifice ; and yet in tiris mimstry the clergy may serve their own necessary affairs, if the mriristration be dvided into courses, as it was, by the economy and wisdom of Solomon, for the temple. 19. But concerning the communion of secular and lay persons, the consideration is something different. St. Austin gave this answer to it, "To receive the sacrament every day, I neither praise nor re prove ; at least, let them receive it every Lord's dayu." And this he spake to husbandmen and merchants. At the first commencement of Christianity, wMle the fervors apostolical and the calentures of mfant Christendom did last, the whole assembly of faitMd people communicated every day; and tMs lasted in Borne and Spain until the time of St. Jerome*: concermng wMch diligence he gives the same censure, which I now recited from St. Austin ; for it suffered inconvenience by reason of a decMring piety, and the intervening of secdar interests. But then it came to once a week ; and yet that was not every where strictly observedy. But that it be received once every fortmght, St. Hierome1 counsels very strongly to Eustochium, a holy virgin : " Let the virgins confess their sins tM'ice every month, or oftener ; and, being fortified with the communion of the Lord's body, let them manfully fight against the devil's forces and attempts." A while after, it came to once a month, then once a year, then it fell from that too : till all the CMistians in the west were commanded to commumcate every Easter by the decree of a great council* about five Minded years sMce. But the church of England, finding that too little, bath commanded all her children to receive thrice every ' [Ad Ephes., cap. xiii. p. 14.] semper, vel semper orare, et diem domi- " Vel Gennadius, De eccles. dogmat. nicum, accepto corpore Domini, indesi- [cap 53. p. 31.] nentercelebraregaudentibus, &c. — Idem, * Epistlii. ad Lucin. [torn. iv. par.ii. z [See vol. viii. p. 191.] Dol. 579.] " Concil. Lat. [iv. can. 21. torn, vii, r Itaque sicut nobis licet vel jejunare col. 36.] 656 OF THE INSTITUTION AND [PART III. year at least, intendng that they shodd come oftener; but of this she demands an account. For it hath fared with this sacrament as with other actions of religion, which have descended from flames to still fires, from fires to sparks, from sparks to embers, from embers to smoke, from smoke to nothing. And although the public declension of piety is such, that in tMs present conjuncture of tirings it is im possible men shodd be reduced to a daily commudon ; yet that they are to communicate frequently is so a duty, that, as no excuse but impossibility can make the omission innocent, so the loss and con sequent want is infinite and invduable. 20. For the holy communion being a remembrance and sacra- mentd repetition of Christ's passion, and the application of His sacrifice to us and the whole cathohc churcha; as they who seldom commuricate delight not to remember the passion of our Lord, and sin against His very purpose, and one of the designs of institution ; so he cares not to receive the benefits of the sacrifice, who s.o neg lects their application, and reducing them to actual profit and recep tion. "Whence came the sanctimony of the primitive Christians? whence came their strict observation of the divine commandments ? whence was it that they persevered in holy actions with hope and an unweary diligence ? from whence dd their despising worldly tirings come, and living with common possession, and the distributions of an universal charity ? whence came these and many other excellen cies, but from a constant prayer, and a daily eucharist ? They who every day represented the death of Christ, every day were ready to die for Christ ;" it was the dscourse of an ancient and excellent per son. And if we consider, tMs sacrament is intended to uMte the spirits and affections of the world, and that it is dffusive and power7 ful to tMs purpose, for " we are one body," saith St. Paul, " because we partake of one bread ;" possibly we may have reason to say that the wars of kingdoms, the animosity of families, the infinite mdtitude of law suits, the persond hatreds, and the udversd want of charity, which hath made the world miserable and wicked, may M a great de gree be attributed to the neglect of tMs great symbol and instrument of 'charity. The chalice of trie sacrament is called by St. Pad, " the cup of blessing ;" and if children need every day to beg blessing of their parents, if we also thirst not dter tMs cup of blessing, blessing may be far from us. It is called " the commuMcation of the blood of Christ ;" and it is not imaginable, that man should love heaven, or felicity, or his Lord, that desires not perpetually to bathe m that salutary stream, the blood of the holy Jesus, the immacdate Lamb of God. 21. But I find that the religious fears of. men are pretended a colour to excuse this irreligion. Men are wicked, and not prepared, and busy, and full of cares and affairs of the world, and cannot come with due preparation, and therefore better not come at att; nay, men are not ashamed to say they are at enmity with certain persons, and • Thom. Aquin. in Job- [lege Joan ] vi. lect. 6. [fin.] SECT. XV.] RECEPTION OF THE SACRAMENT. 657 therefore cannot come. — Concermng those persons who are unpre pared because they are in a state of sin or uncharitableness, it is true they must not come ; but this is so far from excusing their not com ing, that they increase their sin, and secure misery "to themselves, because they do not "lay aside every weight, and the sin that doth so easily beset them," that they may come to the marriage supper. It is as if we shodd excuse ourselves from the duties of charity, by saymg we are uncharitable ; from giving alms, by saying M'e are co vetous ; from chastity, by saying we are lascivious. To such men it is just that they graze with the goats, because they refuse to wash their hands that they may come to the supper of the Lamb. Se condly, concermng those that pretend cares and incumbrances of the world; if their affairs make sin and impure affections to stick upon them, they are in the first consideration : but if their office be neces sary, just, or charitable, they imitate Martha, and choose the less perfect part, when they neglect the offices of religion for duties eco- nonricd. But thirdly, the other sort have more pretence and fairer virtue in their outside. They suppose (like the Persian princes) the seldomer such mysterious rites are seen, the more reverence we shall have, and they the more majesty : and they are fearful lest the fre quent attrectation of them should make us less to value the great earnests of our redemption and immortality. It is a pious considera tion, but not becoming them : for it cannot be that the sacrament be undervalued by frequent reception, without the great unM'ortMness of the persons so turning God's grace into lightness, and loathing manna: nay, it cannot be without an unworthy communication; for he that receives worthily increases in the love of God and religion, and the fires of the altar are apt to kinde our sparks into a flame ; aud when Christ our Lord enters into us, and we grow M'eary of Him, or less fond of His frequent entrance and perpetual cohabita tion, it is an infallible sign M'e have let His enemy in, or are prepar ing for it. For tMs is the difference between secular and spiritual objects : NotMng in this world hath any pleasure in it long beyond the hope of it, for the possession and enjoyment is found so empty that we grow weary of it ; but whatsoever is spiritual, and in order to God, is less before we have it, but in the fruition it SM'ells our de sires, and enlarges the appetite, and makes us more receptive and forM'ard in the entertainment : and therefore those acts of religion that set us forward in time, and backward in affection, do declare that we have not M'eU done our duty, but have communicated un worthily. So that the mending of our fadt will answer the objec tion: communicate M'ith more devotion, and repent with greater contrition, and walk with more caution, and pray more earnestly, and meditate diligently, and receive with reverence and godly fear ; and we shall find our affections increase together with the spiritual emo lument ; ever remembering that pious and wise advice of St. Am brose, " Beceive every day, that M'hich may profit thee every day : ir. u u 658 OF THE INSTITUTION AND [PART III. but he that is not disposed to receive it every day, is not fit to re ceive it every year a." 22. And if after aU diligence it be still feared that a man is not well prepared, I must say that it is a scruple, that is, a trouble be yond a doubt and without reason, next to superstition and the deams of rehgion ; and it is nourished by imagining that no duty is accepted if it be less than perfection, and that God is busied in hea ven, not only to destroy the wicked and to dash in pieces vessels of dishonour, but to ' break a braised reed' in pieces, and to cast the ' smoking flax' into the flames of hell. In opposition to which we must know, that notMng makes us unprepared but an evil con science b, a state of sin, or a deady act : but the lesser infirmities of our life, against wlrich we daily strive, and for wlrich we never have any kindness or affections, are not spots M these feasts of charity, but mstruments of humility, and stronger invitations to" come to those rites which are ordained for corroboratives against infirmities of the soul, and for the growth of the spirit in the strengths of God. For those other acts of preparation which precede and accompany the duty, the better and more religiously they are done, they are indeed of more advantage, and honorary to the sacrament; yet he that comes in the state of grace, though he takes the opportudty upon a sudden offer, sMs not : and in such indefidte duties M'hose degrees are not described, it is good counsel to do our best ; but it is ill to make them instruments of scruple, as if it M'ere essentially necessary to do that in the greatest height, which is only intended for advan tage, and the fairer accommodation of the mystery. But these veiy acts, if they be esteemed necessary preparations to the sacrament, are the. greatest arguments in the world that it is best to communicate often ; because the doing of that which must suppose the exercise of so many graces must needs promote the Mterest of religion, and dis pose strongly to habitual graces by our frequent and solemn repeti tion of the acts. It is necessary that every communicant be first examined concerning the state of his sod, by Mmself or his superior : and that very scrutiny is in admirable order towards the reformation of such irregularities wMch time and temptation, negligence and in- curiousness, mfirmity or mdice, have brought into the secret regions of our will and understanding. Now although this examination be therefore enjoined that no man shodd approach to the holy table in the state of rain and reprobation, and that therefore it is an act not of direct preparation, but an enquiry whether Me be prepared or no ; yet tMs very examination wiU find so many little irregdarities, and so many great imperfections, that it will appear the more necessary to repair the breaches and lesser ruins by such acts of piety and a De Sacram., lib. v. cap. 4. [§ 25. in 1 Cor. hom. xxviii. § 1. torn. a. p. torn. ii. col. 378.] 250 D. Item De b. Philogon., § 4. torn. i. ' b Tempestivum accessum ^ola consci- p. 499 1-].] entiae integritas facit. — S. Chiys. [vid. SECT. XV.] RECEPTION OF THE SACRAMENT. 659 religion ; because every commumcation is intended to be a nearer ap proach to God, a farther step in grace, a progress towards glory, and an instrument of perfection ; and therefore upon the stock of our spiritual interests, for the purchase of a greater hope, and the advan tages of a growing charity, ought to be frequently received. I end with the words of a pious and learned person0, " It is a vain fear and an imprudent reverence that procrastinates and defers going to the Lord that calls them : they deny to go to the fire, pretendMg they are cold ; and refuse physic, because they need it." THE PBAYEB. 0 blessed and eternal Jesus, who gavest Thyself a sacrifice for our sins, Thy body for our spiritual food, Thy blood to nourish our spirits and to quench the flames of hell and lust, who didst so love us who were Thine enemies, that Thou desiredst to reconcile us to Thee, and becamest all one M'ith us, that we may live the same life, think the same thoughts, love the same love, and be partakers of Thy resurrection and immortality ; open every window of my sod, that I may be full of right, and may see the excellency of Thy love, the merits of Thy sacrifice, the bitterness of Thy passion, the glories and virtues of the mysterious sacrament. Lord, let me ever hunger and tirirst after this instrument of right eousness ; let me have no gust or relish of the unsatisfying delights of tirings beloM', but let my soul dwell in Thee; let me for ever receive Thee spiritually, and very frequently communicate M'ith Thee sacramentally, and imitate Thy virtues piously and strictly, and dwell in the pleasures of Thy house eternally. " Lord, Thou hast prepared a table, for me against them that trouble me :" let that holy sacrament of the eucharist be to me a defence and shield, a nourishment and medicine, life and health, a means of sanctification and spiritud groM'th ; that I, receiving the body of my dearest Lord, may be one with His mystical body, and of the same spirit, united with indissoluble bonds of a strong faith, and a holy hope, and a never-failing charity, that from tMs veil I may pass into the visions of eternal clarity, from eating Thy body to beholdng Thy face in the glories of Thy everlasting kingdom, O blessed and eternal Jesus. Amen. Considerations upon the accidents happening on the vespers of the Passion. 1. When Jesus had supped and sung a hymn, and prayed, and exhorted and comforted His disciples M'ith a farewell sermon, in « Joan. Gerson. in Magnificat, [vid. Tract, ix.par. 5. torn. iii. col. 935.] UU 2 660 CONSIDERATIONS UPON THE ACCIDENTS [PART III. M'hich He repeated such of His former precepts wMch were now apposite to the present condtion, and reinforced them with proper and pertinent arguments, He went over the brook Cedron, and en tered into a garden, and into the prologue of His passion ; choosing that place for His agony and satisfactory pains, in wMch the first scene of human misery was represented, and where He might best attend the offices of devotion preparatory to His death. Besides this, He therefore departed from the house that He might give opportunity to His enemies' surprise, and yet not incommodate the good man by whose hospitality they had eaten the paschd lamb ; so that He went " hke a lamb to the slaughter," to the garden as to a prison d, as if by an agreement M'ith His persecutors He had expected their arrest, and staid there to prevent their farther enquiry e. For so great was His desire to pay our ransom, that Himself dd assist, by a forward patience and active opportunity, towards the per secution : teaching us, that by an active zeal and a ready spirit M;e assist the designs of God's glory, though in our own sufferings and secdar infelicities. 2. When He entered the garden, He left His disciples at the en trance of it, calling with Him ody Peter, James, and John : " He withdew Himself from the rest about a stone's cast, and began to be exceeding heavy." He was not sad till He had called them; for His sorrow began when He pleased : which sorrow He also chose to represent to those three who had seen His transfiguration, the earnest of His future glory, that they might see of how great glory for our sakes He disrobed Himself; and that they also might, by the con fronting those contradictory accidents, observe, that God uses to dis pense His comforts, the irradiations and emissions of His glory, to be preparatives to those sorrows with which our life must be allayed and seasoned ; that none shodd refuse to partake of the sufferings of Christ, if either they have already felt His comforts, or hope here after to wear His crown. And it is not ill observed, that St. Peter being the cMef of the apostles and doctor of the circumcision, St. John being a virgin, and St. James the first of the apostles that was martyred, were admitted to Christ's greatest retirements and mysterious secrecies, as being persons of so singdar and eminent dis positions, to whom, according to the pious opinion of the church, es pecial coronets' are prepared in heaven, besides the great 'crown of righteousness' which in common shall beautify the heads of dl the saints ; meaning tMs, that doctors, virgins, and martyrs, shall receive, even for their very state of hfe and accidental graces, more eminent degrees of accidental glory, like as the sun, reflecting upon a limpid fountain, receives its rays doubled, without any increment of its pro per and naturd light. d Etenim in horto tanquam in carcere. e Ut labovem minuat Judaeis se quae- — S. Chrvs. [In Joan. xviii. l.hom.lxxxiii. rentibus. — Theophyl. [In Joan, xviii. 1. £ 1. torn." viii. p. 489.] ' [Cf. vol. iii. p. 56.] SECT. XV.] ON THE VESPERS OF THE PASSION. 661 3. Jesus " began to be exceeding sorrowful," to be " sore amazed," and " sad even to death." And because He M'as now to suffer the pains of our sins, there began His passion, whence our sins spring. From an evil heart, and a prevaricating spirit, dl our sins arise ; and M the spirit of CMist began His sorrow, where He trdy felt the full value and demerit of sin, which we think not worthy of a tear or a hearty sigh : but He groaned and fell under the burden. But there fore He took upon Him tMs sadness, that our imperfect sorrow and contrition might be heightened in His example, and accepted in its union and confederacy with His. And Jesus still designed a farther mercy for us ; for He sanctified the passion of fear, and hallowed na turd sadnesses, that we might not think the Mfelicities of our nature, and the calamities of our temporal condtion, to become criminal, so long as they make us not omit a duty, or dispose us to the election of a crime, or force us to swallow a temptation, nor yet to exceed the value of their impdsive cause. He that grieves for theToss of friends, and yet had rather lose all the friends he hath than lose the love of God, hath the sorrow of our Lord for his precedent. And he that fears death, and trembles at its approximation, and yet had rather die again than sin once, hath not sinned in his fear ; CMist hath hal lowed it, and the necessitous condition of His nature is his excuse. But it M'ere highly to be wished that in the midst of our caresses and levities of society, in our festivities and triumphal merriments, when M'e laugh at folly and rejoice in sin, we would remember that for those very merriments our blessed Lord felt a bitter sorrow ; and not one vain and sinful laughter, but cost the holy Jesus a sharp pang and throe of passion. 4. Nom' that the holy Jesus began to taste the bitter cup, He be took Him to His great antidote, which Himself, the great Physician of our souls, prescribed to all the world to cure their calamities, and to make them pass from miseries into virtue, that so they may arrive at glory ; He prays to His heavedy Father, He kneels down, and not only so, but " falls flat upon the earth," and wodd in humility and fervent adoration have descended low as the centre ; He prays with an intension great as His sorrow, and yet with a dereliction so great, and a conformity to the dvine will so ready, as if it had been the most indifferent thing in the world for Him to be delivered to death, or from it : for though His nature dd decrine death, as that wlrich hath a natural horror and contradction to the present interest of its preservation ; yet when He looked upon it as His heavenly Father had put it into the order of redemption of the world, it was that " baptism" which He was " straitened till He had accomplished." And noM' there is not in the world any condtion of prayer which is essential to the duty, or any circumstances of advantage to its per formance, but were concentred in this one instance : humihty of spirit; lowliness of deportment; importunity of desire; a fervent spirit ; a lawfd matter ; resignation to the will of God,; great love, 662 CONSIDERATIONS UPON THE ACCIDENTS [PAP V III. the love of a son to his father (wlrich appellative M'as the form of His address) ; perseverance, — He M'ent thrice and prayed the same prayer; it was not long ; and it Mas so retired as to have the advantages of a sufficient solitude and opportune recollection, for He was withdaM'n from the most of His disciples, and yet not so alone as to lose the benefit of communion, for Peter and the two Boanerges were near Him : Christ in this prayer, which M'as the most fervent that He ever made on earth, intending to transmit to att the world a precedent of devotion to be transcribed and imitated ; that we should cast all our cjres, and empty them in the bosom of God, being content to receive such a portion of our trouble back again, M'hich He assigns us for our spiritual emolument. 5. The holy Jesus having in a few M'ords poured out torrents of mnocent desires, M'as pleased still to interrupt His prayer that He might visit His charge, that ' little flock' M'hich was presently after to be ' scattered :' He Mas careful of them in the midst of His agonies : they in His sufferings were fast asleep. He awakens them, gives them command to " watch and pray," that is, to be vigilant in the custody of their senses, and observant of att accidents, and to pray that they may be strengthened against dl incursions of enemies and temptations ; and then returns to prayer ; and so a third time ; His devotion still increasing M'ith His sorrow f. And M'hen His prayer was fdl, and His sorrow come to a great measure, after the third, God sent His angel to comfort Him; and by that act of grace, then only expressed, hath taught us to continue our devotions so long as our needs last. It may be God Mitt not send a comforter till the third time, that is, after a long expectation, and a patient sufferance, and a lasting hope : in the interim God supports us with a secret hand, and in His OM'n time witt refresh the spirit Mith the visitations of His angels, M'ith the emissions of comfort from the Spirit, the Comforter. And know this also, that the holy angel, and the Lord of all the angels, stands by every holy person when he prays ; and al though He draM's before His glories the curtrin of a cloud, yet in every instant He takes care we shall not perish, and in a just season dissolves the cloud, and makes it to dstil in holy dew, and drops sweet as manna, pleasant as nard, and Avholesome as the breath of heaven. And such was the consolation whicri the holy Jesus received by the mriristry of the angel, representing to CMist, the Lord of the angels, how necessary it was that He shodd de for the glory of God8; that in His passion, His justice, wisdom, goodness, power, and mercy, shodd shine ; that udess He ded, dl the world shodd perish, but His blood should obtdn their pardon ; and that it should f Kal yevifxevos ev dyuvia, iKTtviaTt- 8 Confortatus est, sed tali confortatione pov irpooifvxtTo, Luke xxii. 44. ' Exten- qua3doloremnonminuit,sedmagisauxit: sius orabat,' sic Latinus interpres reddit : confortatus enim est ex fructus magni- Alii plures reddunt per ' intensius. ' [ ' Pro- tudine,-non subtracta doloris am anludinc. lixius,' Ed. vulg. Erasm. &c. ' Intentius,' — [Vide] Bed. in Luc. xxii. [torn, v. col. Bez. &c] • 428.] SECT. XV.] ON THE VESPERS OF THE PASSION. 60.j open the gates of heaven, repair the rdn of angels, establish a holy church, be productive of innumerable adoptive children to His Father, whom Himself should make heirs of glory; and that His passion shodd soon pass aM'ay, His Father hearing and granting His prayer, that 'the cup' shodd pass speedily, though indeed it should pass through Him ; that it should be attended and followed M'ith a glori ous resurrection, with eternal rest and glory of His humanity, with the exaltation of His name, M'ith a supreme dominion over all the world, and that His Father shodd make Him King of kings, and Prince ot the cathohc church. These, or M'hatsoever other comforts the angel ministered, were such considerations M'hich. the holy Jesus knew, and the angel knew not but by communication from that God to whose assumed humanity the angel spake ; yet He was pleased to receive comfort from His servant, just as God receives glory from His crea tures'1, and as He rejoices in His own works, even because He is good and gracious, and is pleased so to do ; and because Himself had caused a voluntary sadness to be interposed between the habitual knowledge and the actud consideration of these discourses ; and M'e feel a pleasure when a friendly hand lays upon our wound the plaster wlrich ourselves have made', and apphes such instruments and con siderations of comfort, which we have in notion and an ineffective habit, but cannot reduce them to act, because no man is so apt to be his OM'n comforter : which God hath therefore permitted, that our needs should be the occasion of a mutud charity. 6. It was a great season for the angel's coming, because it was a great necessity, which was incumbent upon our Lord ; for His sad ness and His agony was so great, mingled and compounded of sorrow and zeal, fear and desire, innocent nature; and perfect grace, that He SM'eat dops as great as if the blood had started through httle undis- cerned fontinels, and outrun the streams and rivers of His cross. Euthymius3 and Theophylact" say that the evangelists use this as a tragicd expression of the greatest agony, and an unusual sweat, it being usual to call the tears of the greatest sorroM', ' tears of blood ;' but from the beginmng of the church it hath been more generally apprehended hteratty, and that some blood, mingled Mith the serous substance, issued from His veins in so great abundance, that they moistened the ground, and bedecked His garment, which stood like a new firmament studded Mith stars, portendmg an approaching storm. Now He " came from Bozrah with His garments red and bloody." And this agony verified concerning the holy Jesus those words of David, "I am poured out like M'ater, my bones are dis persed, my heart in the midst of my body is like melting wax," saith h Cum tristaris, solamen tristium, Te solatur civis coelestium. Res miranda ! solus dans gaudium Rex a cive sumit solatium. — Houdemius AngIus.[Christiad. ii. 5.] ' [Compare p. 4, above.] ' [In Malt. xxvi. 44.] l In Luc. xxii. [v. 44. p. 521.] 664 CONSIDERATIONS UPON THE ACCIDENTS [PART III.* Justin Martyr1. Venerable Bede saithm, that the descending of these drops of blood upon the earth, besides the general purpose, had dso a particular relation to the present infirmities of the apostles, that our blessed Lord obtained of His Father, by the merits of those holy drops, mercies and special support for them ; and that effusion re deemed them from the present participation of death. And St. Austin meditates that the body of our Lord, all overspread with drops of bloody sweat, did prefigure the future state of martyrs, and that His body mystical shodd be clad in a red garment, variegated with the symbols of labour and passion, sweat and blood ; by which Himself was pleased to purify His church, and present her to God holy and spotless. What collateral designs and tacit sigmfications might be designed by tMs mysterious sweat, I know not ; certainly it was a sad beginning of a most dolorous passion : and such griefs which have so violent, permanent, and sudden effects upon the body, which is not of a nature symbolical to interior and immaterial causes, are proclaimed by such marks to be high and violent. We have read of some persons, that the grief and fear of one dght hath put a cover of snow upon their heads, as if the labours of thirty years had been extracted, and the quintessence drank off, in the passion of that dght; but if nature had been capable of a greater or more prodigious im press of passion than a bloody sweat, it must needs have happened in this agony of the holy Jesus, in which He undertook a grief great enough to make up the imperfect contrition of all the saints, and to satisfy for the impenitencies of all the world. 7. By this time the traitor Judas M'as arrived at Gethsemane, and being in the vicinage of the garden, Jesus rises from His prayers, and first calls His disciples from their sleep, and by an irony, seems to give them leave to " sleep on ;" but reproves their droM'siness, when danger is so near, and bids them "henceforth take their rest;" meaning, if they could for danger, wMch now was indeed come to the garden doors. But the holy Jesus, that it might appear He undertook the passion M'ith choice and a free election, not only re fused to fly, but called His apostles to rise that they might meet His murderers, who came to Him "with swords and staves," as if they were to surprise a prince of armed outlaws, whom without force they could not reduce. So also might butchers do well to- go armed, when they are pleased to be afraid of lambs by calling them lions. Judas only discovered his Master's retirements, and betrayed Him to the opportunities of an armed band ; for he coMd not accuse Ms Master of any M'ord or private action that might render Him obnoxious to suspicion or the law. For such are the rewards of innocence and ' Justin Mart. Dial. Tryph. [§ 103. p. Dionys. Alex. [De martyr., cap. ix. p. 39.] 199.] Athanas. de Beat. Fidei, lib. vi. Aymonius [? Aimon, al. Haymo in ps. [tom.ii. p. 620.] Aug. deConsens. Evang. xxi. p. 49.] Epiphan. [Aucorat. §31. [lib. iii. cap. 4. torn. iii. par. 2. col. 106.] torn. ii. p. 36.] et alii. Hier. de Trad. Heb. — Iren. [cont. haer., m In Luc. cap. 22. lib. vi. [torn, v. lib. iii. cap. 22. p. 219.] Idem aiunt col. 429.] SECT. XY.] ON THE VESPERS OF THE PASSION. 665 prudence, that the one secures against sin, the other against suspicion and appearances. 8. The holy Jesus had accustomed to receive every of His disci ples after absence with entertainment of a kiss, wlrich M'as the endear ment of persons, and the expression of the oriental civility: and Judas was confident that Ms Lord would not reject him, whose feet He had washed at the time when He foretold this event, and there fore had agreed to signify Him by this sign" ; and did so, beginmng war with a kiss, and breaking the peace of Ms Lord by the symbol of kindness ; wlrich because Jesus entertained with much evenness and charitable expressions, calling Mm 'friend0,' He gave evidence, that if He retained civihties to His greatest enemies in the very acts of hostility, He hath banquets, and crowns, and sceptres for His friends, that adore Him with the kisses of charity, and love Him with the sincerity of an affectionate spirit. But our blessed Lord, besides His essential sweetness and serenity of spirit, understood well how great benefits Himself and all the world were to receive by occasion of that act of Judas : and our greatest enemy does by accident to holy persons the offices of their dearest friends ; telling us our faults, M'ithout a cloak to cover their deformities, but out of malice laying open the circumstances of aggravation; doing us affronts, from whence M'e have an instrument of our patience ; and restraining us from scandalous crimes, lest M'e "become a scorn and reproof to them that hate us." And it is none of God's least mercies, that He permits enmities amongst men, that animosities and peevishness may reprove more sharply, and correct with more severity and simplicity, than the gentle hand of friends, who are apter to bind our wounds up than to discover them and make them smart ; but they are to us an excellent probation, how friends may best do the offices of friends, if they M'ould take the plainness of enemies in accusing, and still mingle it M'ith the tenderness and good affections of friends. But our blessed Lord called Judas ' friend,' as being the instrument of bringing Him to glory, and all the world to pardon, if they would. 9. Jesus himself begins the enquiry, and leads them into their errand, and tells them He was Jesus of Nazareth whom they sought. But this also, wlrich was an answer so gentle, had in it a strength greater than the eastern wind or the voice of thunder ; for God was in that ' still voice,' and it struck them down to the groundP. And " O signum sacrilegum, o placitum fu- cramentum. — Aug. [Serm. cl. § 1. torn. giendum, ubi ab osculo incipitur bellum, v. append, col. 264.] et per pacis indicium pacis rumpitur sa- ° Si honoras, o dulcis Domine, Inimicum amici nomine, Quales erunt, amoris carmine Qui te canunt et modulamine. Houdemius de Passione [Christiad. ii. 10.] p ria^Tfj 4ir' d\Xr)Xciai paxr]poves ao-iriSi&Tai AvTbfxaTOi iriiTTOVTes 4ireaTbpvvVTO Kovir], Tlpr)vees, olaTp-qBivres aTevxei XalXairt (piavrjs. Nonn. [in Joann. xviii. 6. p. 168.] 666 CONSIDERATIONS UPON THE ACCIDENTS \ PART III. yet they, and so do we, still persist to persecute our Lord, and to provoke the eternal God, who can, with the breath of His mouth, with a word, or a sign, or a thought, reduce us into nothing, or Mto a worse condition, even an eternal duration of torments, and cohabit ation with a never-ending misery. And if we cannot bear a soft answer of the mercifd God, how shall we dare to provoke the wrath of the almighty Judge ? But in tMs instance there was a rare mix ture of effects, as there was in Christ of natures ; the voice of a man, and the power of God. For it is observed by the doctors of the primitive ages?, that from the nativity of our Lord to the day of His death the divinity and humanity did so commmricate in effects, that no great action passed but it was like the sun shining tMough a cloud, or a beauty with a thin veil drawn over it ; they gave illustra tion and testimony to each other. The holy Jesus was born a tender and a crying infant; but is adored by the magi as a king, by the angels as their God. He is circumcised as a man ; but a name is given Him to signify Him to be the Saviour of the world. He flies into Egypt, like a dstressed cMld, under the conduct of His helpless parents ; but as soon as He enters the country, the idols fall down ', and confess His true divinity. He is presented in the temple as the son of man ; but by Simeon and Anna He is celebrated with divine praises for the Messias, the Son of God. He is baptized in Jordan as a sinner; but the holy Ghost descendng upon Him proclaimed Hrin to be the well-beloved of God. He is hungry in the desert as a man; but sustained His body without meat and drink for forty days together by the poM'er of His divinity : there He is tempted of Satan as a weak man, and the angels of light minister unto Him as their supreme Lord. And now a little before His death, M'hen He was to take upon Him all the affronts, miseries, and exinanitions of the most miserable, He receives testimonies from above M'hich are most wonderfd ; for He was transfigured upon mount Tabor, entered triumphantly into Jerusdem, had the acclamations of the people ; when He was dying, He darkened the sun ; when He was dead, He opened the sepulchres ; when He was fast nailed to the cross, He made the earth to tremble ; now when He suffers Himself to be ap prehended by a guard of soldiers, He strikes them dl to the ground ody by replying to their answer : that the M'ords of the prophet might be verified, "Therefore My people shall know My name; therefore they shaU know in that day that I am He that doth spedc ; behold! it is I. s" 10. The soldiers and servants of the Jews having recovered from their fall, and risen by the permission of Jesus, still persisted in their 1 S. Cyril. [Hierosol. passim ; e. g. Cont. Apoll., lib. i. § 4, 5. torn. ii. pp fragm.-quod in Act. v. Concil. Lat. ex- 705, 924.] S. Leo, [e.g. De quadrag. tat, torn. iii. col. 883 E. Item S. Cyril. Serm. viii. p. 42.] &c. Alex. passim;ibid. col. 861.] S. Athanas. r [Vid. p. 148. not. z. sup.] n, e.g. Epist. iv. ad Serap. § 14. ' Isa. Iii. 6. SE^T. XV.] ON THE VESPERS OF THE PASSION. 667 enquiry after Him, who was present, ready, and desirous to be sacri ficed. He therefore permitted Himself to be taken, but not His dis ciples : for He it was that set them their bounds ; and He secured His apostles to be witnesses of His suffering and His glories; and this work was the redemption of the M'orld, in M'hich no man codd have an active share'; He alone M'as to tread the wine-press; and time enough they should be catted to a fellowship of sufferings. But Jesus went to them, and they bound Him with cords ; and so began our liberty and redemption from slavery, and sin, and cursings, and death. But He was bound faster by bands of His own ; His Father's will, and mercy, pity of the M'orld, prophecies, and mysteries11, and love, held Him fast: and these cords M'ere as "strong as death v:" and the cords wMch the soldiers' mdice put upon His holy hands were but symbols and figures, His own compassion and affection Mere the morals. But yet He undertook tMs short restraint and condition of a prisoner, that all sorts of persecution and exterior calamities might be hallowed by His susception; and these pungent sorroM's shodd, hke bees, sting Him, and leave their sting behind, that all the sweetness should remain for us. ' Some melancholic devotions have from uncertain stories added sad circumstances of the first vio lence done to our Lord ; that they bound Him with tirree cords, and that with so much violence that they caused blood to start from His tender hands ; that they spate then also upon Him, M'ith a violence and incivility like triat which their fathers had used towards Hur, the brother of Aaron, whom they choaked. with impure spittings into his tMoat because he refused to consent to the making a golden calf. These particdars are not transmitted by certain records : certain it is, they M'anted no malice, aud now no poM'er; for the Lord had given Himself into their hands. 11. St. Peter, seeing Ms Master thus ill-used, asked, "Master,, shall we strike M'ith the sword ?" and before he had his ansM-er, cut off the ear of Malchus. Tm'o swords there M'ere in Christ's family, and St. Peter bore one ; either because he M'as to kill the paschal lamb, or, according to the custom of the country, to secure them against beasts of prey, wlrich in that region were frequent, and dangerous in the night. But noM' he used it in an unlaM'ful M-ar ; he had no com petent authority ; it M'as against the ministers of his lawfd prince, and against our prince ive must not draw a sM'ord for Christ himself, Himself having forbidden us; as His "kingdom is not of this world," so neither were His defences secdar : He codd have called for many legions of angels for His guard, if He had so pleased ; and we read that one angel slew one hunded and eighty-five thousand ' Semovit a periculo discipulos, non torn. iv. p. 1015.] ignorans ad se solum cevtamen illud tf ° Dominum omnium mysteria, nor opus salutis nostras pertinere ; regnantis aritia, tenuerunt.— S. Ambros. in Luc enim, et non servientis, naturae opus est. [lib. x. § 65. torn. i. col. 1518.] — S, Cyril, [in Joann., lib. xi. cap. 12. < [Cant. viii. 6.] 668 CONSIDERATIONS UPON THE ACCIDENTS [PART III. armed men in one night* ; and therefore, it Mras a vast power wMch was at the command of our Lord ; and He needs not such low aux iliaries as an army of rebels, or a navy of pirates, to defend His cause : He first lays the foundation of our happiness in His sufferings, and hath ever since supported religion by patience and suffering, and in poverty, and all the circumstances and conjunctures of improbable causes. Fighting for rehgion is certain to destroy charity, but not certain to support faith. St. Peter therefore may use Ms keys, but he is commanded to put up his sword ; and he did so ; and presently he and all his fellows fairly ran away : and yet that course was much the more christian ; for though it had in it much infirmity, yet it had no mahce. In the mean time the Lord was pleased to touch the ear of Mdchus, and He cured it ; addng to the first instance of power, in tiirowing them to the ground, an act of miracdous mercy, curing the wounds of an enemy made by a friend. But neither did this pierce their callous and obdurate spirits ; but they led Him in uncouth ways, and through the brook Cedrony, in which it is said the ruder soldiers plunged Him, and passed upon Him all the affronts and rudenesses which an insolent and cruel multitude codd tMnk of, to signify their contempt and their rage. And such is the nature of evil men, who, when they are not softened by the instruments and arguments of grace, are much hardened by them; such bemg the purpose of God, that either grace shall cure sin, or accidentaUy m- crease it ; that it shall either pardon it, or bring it to greater pun ishment ; for so I have seen healthfd medicines, abused by the in capacities of a healtiiless body, become fuel to a fever, and increase the distemperature from indsposition to a sharp dsease, and from thence to the margent of the grave. But it was otherwise in Sad, whom Jesus tiirew to the ground with a more angry sound than these persecutors ; but Saul rose a saint, and they persisted devils ; and the grace of God dstinguished the events. THE PBATEB. 0 holy Jesus, make me by Thy example to conform to the will of that eternd God who is our Father, mercifhl and gracious ; that I may choose att those accidents which His providence hath actually disposed to me ; that I may know no desires but His commands, and His will; and that in all afflictions I may fly thither for mercy, pardon, and support : and may wait for deliverance in such times and manners which the Father hath reserved in His own poM'er, and graciously dispenses according to His infinite wisdom and compassion. Holy Jesus, give me the gift and spirit oi prayer ; and do Thou by Thy gracious intercession supply my ig norances, and passionate desires, and imperfect choices ; procuring * [2 Kings xix. 35.] ult. [Vid. Adrichom. in urb. Hierosol. y De torrente in via bibet. — Ps. ex. descript., c. 207. Cf. vol. iv. p. 437.] SECT. XV.] ON THE VESPERS OF THE PASSION. 669 and giving to me such returns of favour, which may support my needs, and serve the ends of religion, and the Spirit, which Thy wisdom chooses, and Thy passion hath purchased, and Thy grace loves to bestow upon all Thy saints and servants. Amen. II. Eternal God, sweetest Jesu, who didst receive Judas M'ith the affection of a Saviour, and sufferedst him to kiss Thy cheek, M'ith the serenity and tranquillity of God; and didst permit the soldiers to bind Thee, M'ith patience exemplary to all ages of martyrs ; and didst cure the wound of Thy enemy, with the charity of a parent, and the tenderness of an infinite pity ; 0 kiss me with the kisses of Thy mouth, embrace me with the entertainments of a gracious Lord, and let my soul dwell and feast in Thee, who art the repo sitory of eternal sweetness and refreshments. Bind me, 0 Lord, with those bands which tied Thee fast, the chains of love ; that such holy union may dissolve the cords of vanity, and confine the bold pretensions of usurping passions, and imprison all extra vagancies of an impertinent spirit, and lead sin captive to the dominion of grace and sanctified reason ; that I also may imitate all the parts of Thy holy passion ; and may, by Thy bands, get my liberty; by Thy kiss, enkinde charity; by the touch of Thy hand and the breath of Thy mouth, have all my wounds cured, and restored to the integrity of a holy penitent, and the purities of in nocence ; that I may love Thee, and please Thee, and live with Thee for ever, 0 holy and sM'eetest Jesu. Amen. Consideratimis upon the scourging, and other accidents, happening from the apprehension till the crucifixion of Jesus. 1. The house of Annas stood in the mount Sion, and in the way to the house of Caiaphas ; and thither He was led, as to the first stage of their triumph for their surprise of a person so feared and desired ; and there a naughty person smote the holy Jesus upon the face, for saying to Annas that He had made His doctrine pubhc, and that dl the people were able to give account of it : to whom the Lamb of God shewed as much meekness and patience in His answer, as in His answer to Annas He had shewed prudence and modesty. For now that they had taken Jesus, they wanted a crime to object against Him, and therefore were desirous to snatch occasion from His discourses, to which they resolved to tempt Him by questions and affronts : but His answer was generd and indefinite, safe and true, enough to acquit His doctrine from suspicions of secret designs, and yet secure against their present snares ; for now Himself, who 670 OF THE ACCIDENTS FROM THE [PART III. always had the ' innocence of doves,' was to join with it the prudence and wariness of serpents ; not to prevent death (for that He was re solved to suffer), but that they might be destitute of aU appearance of a just cause on His part. Here it was that Judas received Ms money; and here that holy face, which was designed to be that object in the beholding of which much of the celestial glory doth consist ; that face which the angels stare upon with wonder, like in fants at a bright sunbeam, was smitten extrajudciaUy by an incom petent person, with circumstances of despite, in the presence of a judge, in a full assembly, and none reproved .the Msolency and the cruelty of the affront : for they resolved to use Him as they use wolves and tigers, with all things that may be destructive, violent, and impious : and M this the injury was heightened, because the blow was said to be given by Malchus, an Idumean slave, and there fore a contemptible person z; but far more unworthy by Ms ingrati tude, for so he repaid the holy Jesus for working a miracle and hed- ing Ms ear. But so the scripture was fdfilled ; " He shall give His body to the smiters, and His cheeks to the mppers," sdth the pro phet Isaiah3; and, "they shall smite the cheek of the Judge of Israel," saith Micahb. And this very circumstance of the passion Lactantius" affirms to have been foretold by the Erytiirean sibyl. But no meekness, or indifferency, coMd engage our Lord not to pro test His innocency : and though, following His steps, we must walk in the regions of patience, and tranquillity, and admirable toleration of injuries ; yet we may represent such defences of ourselves wMch, by not resisting the sentence, may testify that our suffering is un deserved : and if our innocency will not preserve our lives, it will advance our title to a better ; and every good cause ill judged shall be brought to another tribund, to receive a just and unerring sen tence. .2. Annas, having suffered this unworthy usage towards a person so excellent, sent Him away to Caiaphas, who had formerly in a full council resolved He should die ; yet now, " palliating the design with the scheme of a tribund d," they seek out for witnesses, and the wit nesses are to seek for dlegations : and when they find them, they are to seek for proof, and those proofs were to seek for unity and con sent, and nothing was ready for their purposes; but they were forced to use the semblance of a judicial process, that, because they were to make use of Pilate's authority to put Him to death, they might persuade Pilate to accept of their examination and conviction z Malchus Idumaeis missus captivus ab oris. Vida, Episc. Cremon., lib. ii. Christiados [lin. 813.] » Isai. I. 6.. " Mic. v. I. 0 Els dvbpucv xt^P0^ Ka^ diriaTuv ijaTepov 7}£ei, A&aovaiv Te 8t$ pairlaixaTa xtpalv avdyvots. Instit, lib. iv. cap. 18. [torn i. p. 323.] " Victor in S.Marc. [xiv. 53. p. 332 C] SECT. XV.] APPREHENSION TILL THE CRUCIFIXION. 671 without farther enquiry. But such had been the excellency and ex emplar piety and prudence of the life of Jesus, that if they pretended against Him questions of their law, they were not capital in a Boman court : if they affirmed that He had moved the people to sedition and affected the kingdom, they saw that all the world wodd convince them of false testimony. At last, after many attempts, they accused Him for a figurative speech, a trope M'hich they could not understand ; wMch, if it had been spoken in a literal sense, and had been acted too, according to the letter, had been so far from a fault, that it wodd have been a prodigy of power ; and it had been easier to raise the temple of Jerusalem than to raise the temple of His body. In the mean time, the Lamb of God left His cause to defend itself, under the protection of His heavenly Father ; not only because Him self was determined to die, but because if He had not, those pre mises could never have inferred it. But this silence of the holy Jesus fulfilled a prophecy, it made His enemies full of murmur and amazement, it made them to see that He despised the accusations as certain and apparent cdumnies; but that Himself M'as fearless of the issue, and in the sense of mordity and mysteries, taught us not to be too apt to excuse ourselves when the semblance of a fault lies upon us, unless by some other duty we are obliged to our defences ; since He, who was most innocent, was most silent : and it was expedient that, as the first Adam increased his sin by a vain apology, the silence and sufferance of the second Adam shodd expiate and recon cile ite. 3. But Caiaphas had a reserve, wlrich he knew should do the business in that assembly; he adjured Him by God to tell him if He were the CMist. The holy Jesus, being adjured by so sacred a name, would not now refuse an ansM'er, lest it might not consist with that honour wMch is due to it, and which He always paid, and that He might neither despise the authority of the Mgh priest,. nov upon so solemn occasion he wanting to that great truth which He came down to earth to persuade to the world. And M'hen three such circumstances concur, it is enough to open our mouths, though M-e let in death. And so dd our Lord, confessed Himself to be the Christ, the Son of the living God. And this the high priest was pleased, as the design was laid, to call 'blasphemy;' and there they voted Him to de. Then it was the high priest rent his clothes ; the veil of the temple was rent when the passion was finished, the clothes of the priests at the beginning of it : and as that signified the de parting of the synagogue, and laying religion open ; so did the rend ing the garments of Cdaphas propheticaUy signify that the priesthood shodd be rent from him and from the nationf. And thus the per- e Taciturnitas Christi apologiam Adas suae, et mysterium manifestans, conscin- absolvit. — S. Hieron. in Marc. [cap. xiv. dendumesse sacerdotium vetus Orij^en. torn. v. col. 918] [In Matth. xxvi. 65. Tract, xxxv. § 112. ' Conscidit vestimenta sua, ostendens torn. iii. p. 911 B.] Idem ait S. Hier. [ubi turpitudinem suam, et uuditutem animae supr.] 672 OF THE ACCIDENTS FROM THE [PART III. sonated and theatrical admiration at Jesus became the type of Ms own punishment, and consigned the nation to deletion : and usually God so dispenses His judgments, that when men personate the tra- gedes of others, they really act their own. 4. Whilst these things were acting concerning the Lord, a sad accident happened to His servant Peter : for being engaged in strange and evil company, in the midst of danger, surprised with a question without time to deliberate an answer, to And subterfuges, or to for tify Mmself, he demed his Lord shamefully, with some boldness at first, and this grew to a licentious confidence, and then to impudence, and denying with perjury that he knew not Ms Lord, who yet was known to Mm as his own heart, and was dearer than Ms eyes, and for whom he professed but a little before he wodd die ; but did not do so till many years after. But thus he became to us a sad example of human infirmity8; and if the prince of the apostles fell so fontty, it is full of pity, but not to be upbraided, if we see the fdl of lesser stars. And yet that we may prevent so great a rain, we must not mingle with such company who will provoke or scorn us into sin ; and if we do, yet we must stand upon our guard, that a sudden motion do not surprise us : or if we be arrested, yet let us not enter farther into our sin, like wfld beasts intricating themselves by their impatience. For there are some who, being ashamed and impatient to have been engaged, take sanctuary in boldness and a shameless abetting it, so running into the darkness of hell to hide their naked ness. But he dso, by returning and rising instantly, became to us a rare example of penitence : and Ms not lying long in the crime did facMtate this restitution ; for the Spirit of God being extinguished by our works of darkness, is like a taper11, wlrich if, as soon as the flame is blown out, it be brought to the fire, it sucks light, and M'ith out trouble is re-enkindled ; but if it cools into death and stiffness, it requires a longer stay and trouble. The holy Jesus, m the midst of His own sufferings, forgat not His servant's danger, but Mas pleased to look upon him when the cock crew ; and the cock was the preacher, and the look of Jesus was the grace that made the sermon effectud : and because he was but newly fallen, and his habi tud love of Ms Master, though interrupted, yet had suffered no natu ral abatement, he returned with the swiftness of an eagle to the embraces and primitive affections of his Lord. 5. By this time suppose sentence given, Caiaphas prejudging att the Sanhedrim ; for he first declared Jesus to have spoken blasphemy, and the fact to be notorious, and then asked their votes; wMch whoso then shodd have denied, must have contested the judgment of ihe high priest, who by the favour of the Bomans was advanced, e °OvTp6irovaiaicialTo7saiipaaiveTrov- Dom. j p. 56.] et Euthym. in, hunc locum, Tat, ovtois dfxapriai tois tyvxais dicoXov- [torn. i. p. 1079.] Qovaiv. — Agapet. Diac. Capit. admonit. ' [So vol. iii. p. 298 ; and see another lxix. [p. 265.] — S. Leo, Serm. ix.de Pass. application of the simile, p. 732 below.] SECT. XV.] APPREHENSION TILL THE CRUCIFIXION. 673 (Valerius Gratus, who was president of Judea, havmg been his patron,) and his faction potent, and Ms mahce great, and Ms heart set upon this business; all which Mconveniences none of them durst have suffered, unless he had had the confidence greater than of an apostle at that time. But tMs sentence was but hke strong dispositions to an enraged fever ; He was only declared apt and worthy for death, they had no power at that time to inflict it; but yet they let loose all the fury of mad men, and insolency of wounded smarting soldiers : and dthough, from the time of His being in the house of Annas till the council met, they had used Him with studied indignities ; yet now they renewed and doubled the unmercifdness, and their in justice, to so great a height, that their injuries must needs have been greater than His patience, if His patience had been less than infinite. For thus man's redemption grows up, as the load swells which the holy Jesus bare for us ; for these were our portion, and we, having turned the flowers of paradse into tiristles, shodd for ever have felt their infehcity, had not Jesus paid the debt. But He bearing them upon His tender body with an even, and excellent, and ds- passionate spirit, offered up these begmmngs of sufferings to His Father to obtdn pardon even for them that injured Him, and for all the world. 6. Judas now, seeing that this matter went farther than he in tended it, repented of his fact. For dthough evil persons are in the progress of their iniqdty invited on by new arguments, and supported by confidence and a careless spirit : yet when ririqdty is come to the height, or so great a proportion that it is apt to produce despair, or an intolerable condtion, then the devil suffers the conscience to thaw and grow tender; but it is the tenderness of a bile, it is soreness rather and a new dsease ; and either it comes when the time of re pentance is past, or leads to some act which shall make the pardon to be impossible : and so it happened here. For Judas, either impatient of the shame or of the sting, was tiirust on to despair of pardon with a violence as hasty and as great as were Ms needs. And despdr is very often used like the bolts and bars of hell gates ; it seizes upon them that had entered into the suburbs of etemd death by an habitual sin, and it secures them against all retreat. And the devil is forward enough to bring a man to repentance, provided it be too late : and Esau wept bitterly, and repented Mm; and the five foolish virgins rift up their voice aloud, when the gates were shut ; and in hett men shall repent to dl eternity. But I consider the very great folly and infelicity of Judas : it was at midnight he received his money M the house of Annas, betimes in that morning he repented his bargain; he tixrew the money back again, but Ms sin stuck close, and, it is thought, to a sad eternity. Such is the purchase of treason, and the reward of covetousness ; it is cheap in its offers, momentany in its possession, unsatisfying in the frdtion, uncertrin in the stay, sudden in its departure, horrid in the remembrance, and a rdn, a certain anr! it. x x 674 OF THE ACCIDENTS FROM THE [PART III. . miserable ruin, is in the event. When Judas came in that sad con dition, and told his miserable story to them that set him on work, they let him go away unpitied ; he had served their ends M betraying Ms Lord, and those that hire such servants use to leave them in the dsaster to shame and to sorrow : and so did the priests, but took the money, and refused to put it into the treasury, because it was the price of blood ; but they made no scruple to take it from the treasury to buy that bloodh. Any thing seems lawful that serves the ends of ambitious and bloody persons, and then they are scrupdous in their cases of conscience, when notMng of interest does intervene : for evil men make rehgion the servant of interest, and sometimes weak men think that it is the fadt of the rehgion, and suspect that all of it is a design, because many great pohtics make it so. The end of the tra gedy was, that Judas ded with an ignoble death, marked with the circumstances of a horrid judgment1, and perished by the most ida- mous hands in the world, that is, by his own. Which if it be con fronted against the excellent spirit of St. Peter, who did an act as contradictory to Ms honour, and the grace of God, as could be easily imagined ; yet taking sanctuary in the arms of his Lord, he lodged in His heart for ever, and became an example to all the world of the excellency of the divine mercy, and the efficacy of a holy hope, and a hearty, timely, and an operative repentance. 7. But now all tirings were ready for the purpose, the high priest and all Ms council go along M'ith the holy Jesus to the house of Pilate, hoping he wodd verify their sentence, and bring it to exe cution, that they might once be rid of their fears, and enjoy their sin and their reputation qdetly. St. Basil" affirms that the high priest caused the holy Jesus to be led with a cord about His neck, and in memory of that the priests for many ages M'ore a stole about theirs. But the Jews did it according to the custom of the nation, to sigmfy He was condemned to death : they desired Pilate that he wodd crucify Him, they having found Him worthy. And when Pilate en- qmred into the particulars, they gave him a general and indefinite answer, "If He were not guilty, we wodd not have brought Him unto thee ;" they Mtended not to make Pilate judge of the cause, but executor of their cruelty. But Pilate had not learned to be gmded by an implicit faith of such persons M'hich he knew to be mahcious and violent, and therefore still called for instances and arguments of their accusation. And that all the world might see with how great b Inde sacerdotes, pretium quod sanguinis esset Illicitum fantes adytis jam condere templi, Quod dare turn licitum, dum sanguis distraheretur, Credebant.— Juvenc, hist, evang., lib. iv. [in Matth. xxvii. p. 120.] ' Non potuit Judas pejore manu perire, in Marc, apud S. Hieron. [torn. v. col. et quamvis sceleratum occiderit, non de- 919. — To irepiTpax'hXibv 4an Tb QaKe<&- buit tamen. — [vid.] S. Aug. De civit. Dei, Xiov p.ed' ov 4ireqj4ptro vitb tov apx.itpeais lib. i. cap. 17- [torn. vii. col. 17.] SeSepevos Kal avpifxevos iirl Tb r.pbaBev k In Mystagog. Eccles. [Extat sub hoc iirl Taj Tpaxf)Xrp 6 XpiaTbs, k.t.X.— nomine liber S. Maximi.] — Auctor. com. S. German., theor. e.-cles., p. 150. J SECT. XV.] APPREHENSION TILL THE CRUCIFIXION. 675 unwortiriness they prosecuted the Messias, they chiefly there accused Him of such crimes upon which themselves condemned Him not, and which they knew to be fdse, but yet likely to move Pilate, if he had been passionate or inconsiderate in Ms sentences ; " he offered to make himself a kmg." This dscourse happened at the entry of the prsetorium ; for the Jews, who made no conscience of kitting the King of heaven, made a conscience of the external customs and cere monies of their law, which had in them no interior sanctity, which were apt to separate them from the nations, and remark them with characters of rehgion and abstraction : it wodd defile them to go to a Eoman forum, where a capital action was to be judged; and yet the effusion of the best blood in the world was not esteemed against their rehgion : so violent and blind is the spirit of mahce, wMch turns humanity into cruelty, wisdom into craft, diligence into sub ornation, and religion into superstition. 8. Two other articles they dleged agdnst Him : but the first con cerned not Pilate, and the second was involved in the third, and therefore he chose to examine Him upon this" only, of His being 'a king.' To wMch the holy Jesus answered, that it is true He M'as a King indeed, but " not of this world ;" His tiirone is heaven, the angels are His courtiers, and the whole creation are His subjects; His regiment is spiritud, His judcatories are the courts of con science and church-tribunals, and at dooms-day the clouds : the tri bute which He demands are, conformity to His laws, faith, hope, and charity : no other gabels but the duties of a holy spirit, and the expresses of a religious worship, and obedent will, and a consenting understandmg. And in att tMs Pilate thought the interest of Csesar was not invaded; for certain it is, the dsciphne of -Jesus confirmed it much, and supported it by the strongest pillars. And here Pilate saw how impertinent and malicious their accusation was : and M'e, who decldm agamst the unjust proceedings of the Jews agdnst our dearest Lord, shodd do well to take care that we, in accusing any of our bretiiren, either with malicious purpose, or with an uncharita ble circumstance, do not commit the same fadt wMch in them we so hate and accuse. Let no man speak any thing of his neighbour but what is true : and yet if a truth be heightened by the biting rhetoric of a satiricd spirit, extended and drawn forth M circum stances and arts of aggravation, the truth becomes a load to the guilty person, is a prejudice to the sentence of the judge, and hath not so much as the excuse of zed, much less the charity of christi amty. Sufficient to every man is the plain story of his crime ; and to excuse as much of it as we can wodd better become us, who perish unless we be excused for infimte irregdarities. But if we add this dso, that we accuse our brethren before them that may amend them and reform their error, if we pity their persons, and do not hate them, if we seek nothing of their disgrace, and make not their shame public but when the public is necessarily concerned, or the state of xx 2 676 OF THE ACCIDENTS FROM THE [PART III. the man's sin requires it ; then our accusations are charitable : but if they be not, all such accusations are accepted by Christ with as much displeasure, in proportion to the degree of the malice, and the proper effect, as M'as tiris accusation of His own person. 9. But Pilate, having pronounced Jesus innocent, and perceiving He was a Galilean, sent Him to Herod, as being a more competent person to determine concerning one of his own jurisdiction. Herod was glad at the honour done to him, and the person brought Mm, being now desirous to see some miracle done before Mm. But the holy Jesus spake not one word there, nor dd any sign ; so to reprove the sottish carelessness of Herod, who, living in the place of Jesus' abode, never had seen His person, nor heard His sermons. And if we neglect the opportunities of grace, and refuse to hear the voice of CMist in the time of mercy and dvine appointment, we may arrive at that state of misery in which Christ will refuse to speak one word of comfort to us ; and the homilies of the gospel shall he dead letters, and the spirit not at all refreshed, nor the understanding instructed, nor the affections moved, nor the will determined ; but because we have during att our time stopped our ears, in His time God will stop His mouth, and shut up the springs of grace, that we shall receive no refreshment, or Mstruction, or pardon, or fehcity. Jesus suffered not Himself to be moved at the pertinacious accusations of the Jews, nor the desires of the tyrant, but persevered in silence, till Herod and his servants despised Him, and dsmissed Him. For so it became our High Priest, who was to sanctify all our sufferings, to consecrate affronts and scom, that we may learn to endure contempt, and to suffer ourselves in a religious cause to be despised; and when it happens in any other, to remember that M'e have our dearest Lord for a precedent of bearing it with admirable simphcity and equa nimity of deportment. And it is a mighty stock of self-love that dwells in our spirits, which makes us of all afflictions most impatient of this ; but Jesus endured this despite, and suffered tMs to be added, that He was exposed in scorn to the boys of the street. For Herod caused Him to be arrayed in white, sent Him out to be scorned by the people and hooted at by ide persons, and so remitted Him to Pilate. And since that accident to our Lord, the church hath not undecently chosen to clothe her priests with albs, or white garments ; and it is a symbolical intimation and representment of that part of the passion and affront which Herod passed upon the holy Jesus : and this is so far from deserving a reproof, that it were to be wished dl the children of the church wodd imitate all those graces, wMch Christ exercised when He wore that garment1, wMch she hath taken up in ceremony and thankfd memory ; that is, in dl their actions 1 ®«p Se Bvt Sid TiXovs SUatos &v, MJ) Xapnrpbs &v Tais ^Aa^o-iv, iis Trj KapSia. Menand. [apud Clem. Alex. Strom., lib. v". cap. 14. torn. ii. p. 721. Euseb. Praep. evang., lib. xiii. cap. 13. p. 683] SECT. XV.] APPREHENSION TILL THE CRUCIFIXION. 677 and sufferings be so estranged from secular arts and mixtures of the world, so intent upon rehgion, and active in all its interests, so in dfferent to all acts of providence, so equal in all chances, so patient of every accident, so charitable to enemies, and so undetermined by exterior events, that nothing may draw us forth from the severities of our religion, or entice us from the retirements of a recollected, and sober, and patient spirit, or make us to depart from the courtesies of piety, though for such adhesion and pursdt we be esteemed fools, or ignorant, or contemptible. 10. When Pilate had received the holy Jesus, and found that Herod had sent Him back uncondemned, he attempted to rescue Him from their mahce by making Him a donative and a freed man at the petition of the people. But they preferred a murderer and a rebel, Barabbas, before Him; for themselves being rebels against the King of heaven loved to acqdt persons criminal in the same kind of sin, rather than their Lord, against whom they took up all the arms which they could receive from violence and perfect malice, " desiring to have Him crucified who rdsed the dead, and to have the other released who destroyed the living"1." And when Pilate saw they were set upon it, he consented, and delivered Him first to be scourged" ; wMch the solders executed with violence and unre lenting hands, opening His virgind body to nakedness, and tearing His tender flesh till the pavement was purpled with a shower of holy blood. It is reported in the ecclesiasticd story that when St. Agnes" and St. Barbara5, holy virgins and martyrs, M'ere stripped naked to execution, God, pitying their great shame and trouble to have their nakedness discovered, made for them a veil of light, and sent them to a modest and desired death. But the holy Jesus, who chose all sorts of shame and coMusion, that by a fdness of suffering He might expiate His Father's anger, and that He might consecrate to our suf ferance all kind of affront and passion, endured even the shame of nakedness at the time of His scourging, suffering Himself to be de vested of His robes, that we might be clothed with that stole He put off : for therefore He took on Him the state of sinning. Adam, and became naked, that we might first be clothed with righteousness, and then with immortality. 11. After they had scourged Him without remorse, they clothed Hrin with purple, and crowned Him with thorns, and put a cane in " S. Aug. in Joann. [tract, cxvi. § i. torn. iii. par. 2. col. 793 F.] " Vinctus in his Dominus stetit aedibus, atque columnae Annexus tergum dedit ut servile flagellis : Perstat adhuc templumque gerit veneranda columna, Nosque docet cunctis immunes vivere flagris. * Prudent. [Dittoch. xii. 161. p. 684.] Cernitur in toto coipore sculptus amor. — Naz. in Chr. Patien. « rSerm in fest. S. Agn. S. Ambros. Jan. xxi. p. 350. col. i.] adscrintus 6 7. Opp. torn. ii. append, col. r [Metaphr. apud Sur. de Sanctt. in 457 E Item Actt. Sanctt. Bolland. in Dec. iv. torn. vi. p. 698.] 678 t)F THE ACCIDENTS FROM THE [PART III, His hand for. a sceptre, and bowed their knees before Hrin, and saluted Him with mockery, with a "Hail, Mng of the Jews !" and they beat Him, and spat upon Him ; and then Pilate brought Him forth, and shewed this sad spectacle to the people, hoping tMs might move them to compassion, who never loved to see a man prosperous, and are always troubled to see a man in misery. But the earth which was cursed for Adam's sake, and was sowed with thorns and tMstles, produced the full harvest of them, and the second Adam gathered them aU, and made garlands of them, as ensigns of His victory, which He was now in pursMt of, agaMst sin, the grave, and heU. And we also may make our thorns, wMch are M themselves pungent and dolorous, to be a crown, if we bear them patiently, and unite them to Christis passion, and offer them to His honour, and bear them in His cause, and rejoice in them for His sake. And in deed dter such a grove of thorns growing upon the head of our Lord, to see one of Christ's members soft, delicate, and effeminate, is a great indecency, next to this of seeing the Jews use the King of glory with the greatest reproach and rirfamy. 12. But notMng prevailing, nor the innocence of Jesus, nor His immumty from the sentence of Herod, nor the industry and diligence of Pilate, nor the misery, nor the sight of the afflicted Lamb of God, at last (for so God decreed to permit it and Christ to suffer it) Pilate gave sentence of death upon Him, havMg first washed Ms hands ; of wMch God served His end, to declare the innocence of His Son, of which in tMs whole process He was most curious, and suffered not the least probability to adhere to Him ; yet Pilate served no end of Ms, nor preserved any tiring of Ms innocence. He that rails upon a prince, and cries, SavMg your honour you are a tyrant ; and he that strikes a man upon the face and cries him mercy, and undoes him and says it was in jest, does just like that person that sMs against God, and thinks to be excused by saying it was agdnst Ms con science ; that is wasMng our hands when they are stained M blood, as if a ceremony of purification were enough to cleanse a sod from the stains of a spiritual impurity. So some refuse not to take any oath M times of persecution, and say it obhges not because it was forced and done agdnst their wills ; as if the domg of it were washed off by protesting against it, whereas the protesting against it declares me crimind, if I rather choose not death than that wMch I profess to be a sin. — But all the persons wMch co-operated M this death M'ere in this life consigned to a fearfd judgment after it. The Jews took the blood (wMch Pilate seemed to M'ash off) " upon themselves and their children," and the blood of tMs paschal Lamb stuck upon their forehead, and marked them, not to escape, but to fdl under the sword of the destroying angel, and they perished either by a more hasty death, or shortly dter in the extirpation and miserable rdn of their nation. And Pilate, who had a less share in the crime, yet had a black character of a secular judgment ; for not long after he was by SECT. XV.] APPREHENSION TILL THE CRUCIFIXION. 679 Vitettius, the president of Syria, sent to Borne, to answer to the crimes objected agamst him by the Jews, whom to please he had done so much violence to Ms conscience ; and by Csesar's sentence he was badshed to Vienna deprived of dl Ms honours, M'here he rived ingloriously, till by impatience of his calamity he kiUed Mmself with Ms own hand. And thus the blood of Jesus, shed for the sal vation of the world, became to them a curse ; and that which purifies the sdnts stuck to them that shed it and mingled it not with the tears of repentance, to be a leprosy loathsome and incurable. So manna turns to worms, and the wine of angels to vmegar and lees, when it is received into impure vessels, or tasted by wanton pdates ; and the sun himself produces rats and serpents, when it reflects upon the dirt of Nilus. THE PBAYEB. 0 holy and immacdate Lamb of God, who wert pleased to suffer shame and sorrow, to be brought before tribunds, to be accused maliciously, betrayed treacherously, condemned unjustly, and scourged most rudely, suffering the most severe and most unhand some afflictions which codd be procured by potent, subtle, and extremest malice, and ddst choose tMs out of love greater than the love of mothers, more affectionate than the tears of joy and pity dropped from the eyes of most passionate women, by these fontinels of blood issuing forth life, and health, and pardon upon all Thme enemies ; teach me to apprehend the baseness of sin, in proportion to the greatest of those calamities wMch my sin made it necessary for Thee to suffer, that I may hate the cause of Thy sdferings, and adore Thy mercy, and imitate Thy charity, and copy out Thy patience and humility, and love Thy person to the utter most extent and degrees of my affections. Lord, what am I, that the eternd Son of God should suffer one stripe for me ? But Thy love is infinite : and how great a misery is it to provoke by sin so great a mercy, and despise so miracMous a goodness, and to do fresh despite to the Son of God ! But our sins are innumer able, and our infirmities are mighty. Dearest Jesu, pity me, for I am accused by my own conscience, and am found guilty ; I am stripped naked of my innocence, and bound fast by lust, and tor mented with stripes and wounds of enraged appetites. But let Thy mnocence excuse me, the robes of Thy righteousness clothe me, Thy bondage set me free, and Thy stripes hed me ; that Thou being my Advocate, my Physician, my Patron, and my Lord, I may be adopted into the union of Thy merits, and partake of the efficacy of Thy sufferings, and be crowned as Thou art, having my sins changed to virtues, and my thorns to rays of glory under Thee, our Head, in the participations of eternity, 0 holy and im macdate Lamb of God. Amen. 68" OF DEATH, AND THE [PART III. DISCOUBSE XX. Of death, and the due manner of preparation to it. 1. The holy Spirit of God hath in scripture reveded to us but one way of preparing to death, and that is, by a holy life ; and there is notMng in dl the book of life concerning tMs exercise of address to death, but such advices wMch suppose the dying person in a state of grace. St. James indeed counsels5 that in sickness we shodd send for the mhristers ecclesiasticd, and that they pray over us, and that we confess our sins, and they shall be forgiven ; that is, those prayers are of great efficacy for the removing the sickness, and taking off that punishment of sin, and hearing them in a certain degree, ac cording to the efficacy of the nrinistry, arid the dspositions or capa cities of the sick person. But we must know that oftentimes univer sal effects are attributed to partid causes ; because by the analogy of scripture we are taught that all the body of holy actions and minis tries are to unite in production of the event, and that without that adunation one thing done cannot operate ; but because no one alone does the work but by an united power, therefore indefinitely the effect is ascribed sometimes to one, sometimes to another, meamng that one as much as the other, that is, all together, are to work the pardon and the grace. But the doctrine of preparation to death we are clearest taught in the parable of the ten virgins'. Those who were wise stood waiting for the coming of the bridegroom, their lamps burning ; only when the lord was at hand, at the notice of his coming published they trimmed their lamps, and they so dsposed went forth and met him, and entered with him into Ms interior and eternal joys : they whose lamps did not stand ready beforehand expecting the un certain hour, were shut forth and bound in darkness : " watch, there fore," so our Lord applies and expounds the parable, " for ye know not the day, nor the hour, of the coming of the Son of man8." Whenever the arrest of death seizes us, udess before that notice we had oil in our vessels, that is, grace in our hearts, habitud grace (for nothing else can reside or dwell there, an act cannot inhabit or be in a vessel), it is too late to make preparation. But they who have it, may, and must prepare, that is, they must stir the fire, trim the vessel, make it more actual in its exercise and productions, full of ornament, advantages, and degrees. And that is all we know from scripture concerning preparation. 2. And indeed since all our life we are dying, and this minute in wMch I now write death divides with me, and hath got the surer , James v. 14, 6ic. Matt. xxv. 'AAA' evKXe&s toi KarBave7v x Matt. xxv. 13, and xxiv. 42 ; Mark xiii. 33; 2 Pet. iii. 10. » Tecum prius ergo voluta Haec animo ante tubas : galeatum sero duelli Pcenitet. Juv. [i. 168.] 686 OP DEATH, AND THE [PART III. generd ways of entercourse M'ith him; the one to keep him from new sins, the other to make some emendations of the old ; the one to for tify Mm against specid weaknesses and proper temptations of that estate, and the other to trim Ms lamp, that by excellent actions he may adorn Ms spirit, making up the omissions of Ms Me, and sup plying the imperfections of Ms estate ; that Ms sod may return into the hands of its Creator as pure as it can, every degree of perfection being an advantage so great, as that the loss of every the least por tion of it cannot be recompensed with all the good of this world. I. Concerning the first ; the temptations proper to this estate are, either M'eakness in faith, despair, or presumption : for M'hatsoever is besides these, as it is the common infelicity of all the several states of life, so they are oftentimes arguments of an ill condition, of im- mortification of vicious habits, and that he comes not to this combat well prepared; such as are, covetousness, unwillingness to make restitution, remanent affections te his former vices, an unresigned spirit, and the like. 8. In the ecclesiastical story, we find many dying persons men tioned, who have been very much afflicted with some doubts con cerning an article of fdth. St. Gregory", in an epistle he writ to St. Austin, instances in the temptation which EusebiusP suffered upon Ms death-bed. And dthough sometimes the devil chooses an article that is not proper to that state, knovring that every such doubt is well enough for his purpose, because of the incapacity of the person to suffer long dsputes, and of the jedousy and suspicion of a dying and weak man, fearing lest every tiring sriould cozen him ; yet it is commonly instanced in the article of the resurrection, or the state of separation or reunion. And it seems to some persons incredible that from a bed of sickness, a state of misery, a cloud of ignorance, a load of passions, a man shodd enter into the condition of a perfect understanding, great joy, and an intellectud life, a conversation with angels, a fruition of God ; the change is greater than his reason ; and his faith being in conclusion tottering like the ark, and ready to fall, seems a pillar as unsde and unable to rely on as a bank of turf in an earthquake. Agdnst this a general remedy is prescribed by spiritual jiersons, that the sick man shcrald apprehend all changes of persuasion wlrich happened to him in his sickness contradictory to those assents which in his clearest use of reason he had, to be temptations and arts of the devil. And he hath reason so to tMnk when he remembers how many comforts of the Spirit of God, what joys of religion, what support, what assistances, what strengths he had m the whole course of his former life, upon the stock of faith and interest of the doctrine of christiamty. And since the disbeheving the promises evangehcal at that time can have no end of advantage, and that all wise men tell him it may have an end to make hrin lose the title to them, and do ° [Lege, Pseudo-Cyrillus, in epist. ad S. Aug.] de praaconio S. Hieron. [opp. S. Aug. torn. ii. append, epist xx. c ip. 3, col. 23.] » [Sc. Euseb. Cremon.] SHOT. W.j DUE PREPARATION TO IT. 687 him infinite dsadvantagei; upon the stock of interest and prudence he must reject such fears which cannot help Mm, but may rain him : for all the works of grace wlrich he did upon the hopes of God and the stock of the dvine revelations, if he fails in his hold upon them are all rendered unprofitable ; and it is certain, if there be no such thing as immortdity and resurrection, he shall lose nothing for believing there is ; but if there be, they are lost to him for not be lieving it. 9. But this is also to be cured by proper arguments : and there is no christian man but hath within him, and carries about him, demon strations of the possibility, and great instances of the credibility, of those great changes, which these tempted persons have no reason to dstrust, but because they think them too great, and too good, to be true. And here, not ody the consideration of the Divine power, and His eternd goodness, is a proper antidote, but dso the observation of what M'e have already received from God. To be raised from notMng to sometiring, is a mutation not less than infinite ; and from that which we were in our first conception, to pass into so perfect and curious bodes, and to become discursive, sensible, passionate, and reasonable, and next to angels, is a greater change, than from this state to pass into that excellency and perfection of it, wMch M'e expect as the melioration and improvement of the present ; for this is but a mutation of degrees, that of substance : this is more sensible, because we have perception in both states ; that is of greater dstance, because in the first term we were so far distant from what we are, that we could not perceive what then M'e were, much less desire to be what we now perceive ; and yet God did that for us, unasked, with out any obhgation on His part, or merit on ours ; much rather then may we be confident of tMs dteration of accidents and degrees, be cause God hath obhged Himself by promise.; He hath disposed us to it by qualities, actions, and habits, which are to the state of glory as infancy is to manhood, as elements are to excellent dscourses, as blossoms are to ripe fruits. And He that hath wrought miracles for us, preserved us in dangers, done strange acts of providence, sent His son to take our nature, made a Virgin to bear a son, and God to be come man, and two natures to be one indvidual person, and all in order to this end, of which we doubt, hath given us so many argu ments of credbility, that if He had done any more, it would not have been left in our choice to believe or not believe ; and then much of the excellency of our faith woMd have been lost. Add to this, * In hunc fere modum moribundus &yvoid poi oStij ob £vvSiaTtXe7, kukSv yap disseruit Socrates, apud Platonem in dv fy, aXX' bxiyov Sarepov oiroAeiToi. Phaedone suo [§91. torn. v. p. 293] : El Non abs re ergo erit ut moribundus, si fiev Tvyx&vei oAijflij ovTa & x4yu, KaX&s non de articulis fidei disserat et sentiat Sii %xti Tb ireiaBrjvdr el Se p-nSev 4aTi Te- ' de fiducia compertae veritatis,' at saltern Xevr^aavTi, dXX' oZv TOiirbv ye tSv XP°"- (quod de Socrate dixit Tertullianus [De vov abrbv Tbv irpb tov BavaTov %ttov to7s anim. § 1. p. 264 B.]) ' de industria con- itapovaiv dr\SrfS iaop-ai bSvpbfxevos. if Se sultae ffiquanimitatis.' 688 OF DEATH, AND THE [PART III. that we are not tempted to disbelieve the Boman story, or that Vir gil's Jineids were writ by him, or that we ourselves are descended of such parents ; because these things are not oMy transmitted to us by such testimony wMch we have no reason to distrust, but because the tempter cannot serve any end upon us by producmg such doubts in us : and therefore since we have greater testimony for every article of fdth, and to believe it is of so much concernment to ns, we may well suspect it to be an artifice of the devil to rob us of our reward ; tMs proceeding of Ms being of the same nature with all his other temp tations, wMch in our lifetime, like fiery darts, he tMew Mto our face, to despoil us of our glory, and blot out the image of God imprinted on us. 10. Secondy i : If the devil tempts the sick person to despair, he who is by God appointed to minister a word of comfort must fortify Ms spirit with consideration and representment of the divme good ness, mamfest in all the expresses of nature and grace, of providence and revelation ; that God never " extingmshes the smokmg flax, nor breaks the braised reed ;" that a constant and a hearty endeavour is the sacrifice wMch God delights in ; that in the firmament of heaven there are little stars, and they are most in number, and there are but few of the greatest magnitude ; that there are ' chiklren,' and ' babes in Christ,' as well as strong men ; and amongst these there are great differences; that the interruptions of the state of grace by inter vening crimes, if they were rescinded by repentance, they were great danger in the interval, but served as increment of the divine glory, and arguments of care and diligence to ns, at the restitution. These and many more are then to be urged when the sick person is in danger of being swallowed up with overmuch sorrow ; and therefore to be insisted on in all like cases (as the physician gives him cordials) that we may do charity to Mm, and midster comfort ; not because they are always necessary, even in the midst of great sadnesses and discomforts. For we are to secure Ms love to God ; that he acknoM- ledge the divine mercy; that he believe the article of remission of sins ; that he be thankfd to God for the blessings wMch already he hath received ; and that he lay dl the load of his discomfort upon himself, and his own incapacities of mercy ; and then the sadness may be very great, and his tears clamorous, and Ms heart broken all in pieces, and his humility lower than the earth, and his hope indis cernible ; and yet no danger to his final condtion. Desprir reflects upon God, and dishonours the infinity of His mercy. And if the sick person do but confess that God is not at all wanting M His promises, but ever abounding in His mercies : and that it is want of ' @uppeTv xphi iXe Barre, rdx' aSpiov eaaer' dfxeivov. 'EXirlSes 4v £u>o7aiv, dveXiriaroi Se 8av6vres. — Theocr. [Id. iv. 41.] 'Ev 4XTritrtv xph "'obs aoipobs ^x*'" 0l»y. [Eurip. Ino, apud Stob. floril. ex. 3.] "AvBpairos btuxwi' aoj^eff birb rrjs iXwiSos. — Menand. [Stob. flor. ex. 4.J SECT. XV.] DUE PREPARATION TO IT. 6S9 the condition on Ms own part, that makes the misery ; and that if he had done Ms duty, God wodd save him ; let him be assisted Mith perpetual prayers, with examples of lapsed and returning sinners, whom the church celebrates for saints, such as Mary Magdalen, Mary of Egypt, Afra, Thasis, Pelagia; let it be often incdcated to him, that as God's mercy is of itself infinite, so its demonstration to us is not deternrined to any certain period; but hath such latitudes in it, and reservations, wMch as they are apt to restrain too great boldness, so also to become sanctuaries to disconsolate persons ; let him be in vited to throw himself upon God, upon these grounds ; that He M'ho is our Judge, is dso our Advocate and Bedeemer; that He knows and pities our infirmities, and that our very hoping in Him does en dear Him; and He wril deliver us the rather for our confidence, when it is balanced with reverence and humility : and then dl these supernumerary fears are advantageous to more necessary graces, and do more secure Ms final condtion than they can disturb it. 11. When St. Arsemus was near Ms death1, he was observed to be very tremdous, sad, weepMg and dsconsolate. The standers-by asked the reason of Ms fears; wondering that he, having lived in great sanctity for many years, should not now rejoice at the going forth of his prison. The good man confessed the fear, and withal sdd it was no other than he had dways borne about with him in the days of Ms pilgrimage ; and what he then thought a duty, they had no reason now to call either a faMt or a misery. Great sorrows, fears, and dstrastings of a man's own condtion, are oftentimes but abatements of confidence, or a remission of joys and gaieties of spirit; they are but like sdutary clouds, dark and frdtfd : and if the tempted person be strengthened in a love of God, though he go not farther M his hopes than to believe a possibility of being saved, than to say, " God can save Mm, if He please," and to pray that He will save him ; Ms condtion is a state of grace ; it is hke a root in the ground, trod upon, humble and safe, not so fine as the state of flowers ; yet that wMch will spring up in as glorious a resurrection, as that wMch looks fairer, and pleases the sense, and is indeed a blessing, but not a duty. 12. But there is a state of death-bed wMch seems to have in it more question, and to rie of nicer consideration ; a sick person, after a vicious and base hfe : and if, upon whatsoever he can do, you give Mm hopes of a pardon, where is your promise to warrant it? if you do not give Mm hopes, do you not drive him to despair, and ascertain Ms ruin to verify your proposition ? To this I answer, that despair is opposed to hope, and hope rehes upon the dvine promises ; and where there is no promise, there the despair is not a sin, but a mere impossibility. The accursed spirits wMch are sealed up to the judg ment of the last day, cannot hope ; and he that repents not, cannot ' [Vit. Arsen. in Actt. Sanctt. Bolland. Jul. xix. torn. iv. p. 628.] n. Yy 690 OP DEATH, AND THE [PART III. hope for pardon : and therefore if all M'hich the state of death-bed can produce be not the duty of repentance which is reqdred of ne cessity to pardon, it is not in such a person properly to be called despair, any more than it is blindness in a stone that it cannot see. . Such a man is not witMn the capacities of pardon ; and therefore att those acts of exterior repentance, and att Ms sorrow and resolution, and tears of emendation, and other preparatives to interior repentance, are hke oil poured into mortd wounds ; they are the care of the phy sician, and these are the cautions of the church : and they are at no hand to be neglected ; for if they do not dter the state, they may lessen the judgment, or procure a temporal blessing ; and if the per son recover, they are excellent beginnings of the state of grace ; and if they be pursued in a happy opportunity, will grow up into glory. 13. But if it be demanded, whether M such cases the curate be bound to give absolution ; I can give no other answer but tMs, that if he lie under the censure of the church, the laws of the church are to determine the particular ; and I know no church in the M'orld but uses to absolve death-bed pemtents, upon the instances of those actions of wMch their present condtion is capable ; though in the primitive ages in some cases they deMed it. But if the sick person be under no positive censure, and is bound oMy by the guilt of ha bitual vice, if he desires the prayers of the church, she is bound in charity to grant them, to pray for pardon to Mm, and all other graces in order to salvation : and if she absolves the penitent, towards God it hath no other efficacy but of a solemn prayer, and therefore it were better that all the charity of the office were done, and the solemnity omitted; because in the earnest prayer she co-operates to Ms sal vation as much as she can ; and by omitting the solemmty distin guishes evil livers from holy persons ; and walks securely, whilst she refoses to declare him pardoned, whom God hath not declared to be so. And possibly that form of absolution which the churches of the west now use, bemg Mdcative and declaratory of a present pardon, is for the very form sake not to be used to death-bed peMtents after a vicious life3 ; because if any tiring more be intended in the form than a prayer, the truth of the affirmation may be questioned, and an ecclesiastical person hath no authority to say to such a man, " I ab solve thee :" but if no more be intended but a prayer, it is better to use a mere prayer and common form of address, than such words which may countenance insecure confidences, evil purposes, and worse hves. 14. Thirdly: If the devil tempts a sick person who hath rived well, to presumption, and that he seems full of confidence and with out trouble, the care that is then to be taken is, to consider the dis s Pcenitentia quae ab infirmo petitur, Serm. eclv. torn. v. append, col. 419. infirma est : pcenitentia quae a moriente Vide eund. lib. 1. homil. 41. [Ben. Serm. tantum petitur, timeo ne et ipsa moria- cccxciii. torn. v. col. 1507.] tur S. Aug. Serm. de Temp. [lvii. Ben. SECT. XV.] DUE PREPARATION TO IT. 691 ease, and to state the question right. For at some instants and pe riods, God visits the spirit of a man, and sends the emission of a bright ray into Mm ; and some good men have been so used to appre hensions of the divine mercy, that they have an habitual cheerfulness of spirit and hopes of salvation. St. Hierome reports that Hilarion, m a death-bed agony, felt some tremblings of heart ; till reflecting upon Ms course of life he found comforts springing from thence by a proper emanation, and departed cheerfuUy': and Hezekiah represented to God in prayer the integrity of his hfe, and made it the instrument of his hope. And notMng of tMs is to be cdled presumption, pro vided it be in persons of eminent sanctity and great experience, old disciples, and the more perfect CMistians : but because such persons are but seldom and rare, if the same confidence be observed in per sons of common imperfection and an ordinary life, it is to be correct ed and allayed with consideration of the divine severity and justice, and with the strict requisites of a holy life ; with the deceit of a man's OM'n heart, M'ith consideration and generd remembrances of secret sins : and that the most perfect state of life hath very great needs of mercy"; and " if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shaU the un godly and the sinner appear?" And the spirit of the man is to be promoted and helped in the increase of contrition; as being the proper deletery to cure the extravagancies of a forward and intem perate spirit. 15. But there is a presumption commenced upon opinion, relying either upon a persuasion of single predestination, or else (which is M'orse) upon imaginary securities; that heaven is to be. purchased upon conditions easier than a day's labour ; and that an .evil life may be reconciled to heaven by the intervening of little or single acts of piety or repentance. If either of them both have actually produced ill life, to M'hich they are apt, or apt to be abused, the persons are miserable in their condition, and cannot be absolutely remedied by going about to cure the presumption ; that was the cause of dl, but now it is the least thing to be considered : his whole state is cor rupted, and men will not by any discourses or spiritud arts used on their death-beds be put mto a state of grace ; because then is no time to change the state, and there is no mutation then but by single actions ; from good to better a dymg man may proceed, but not from the state of reprobation to the life of grace. And yet it is good cha rity to udoose the bonds of Satan, whereby the man is bound and led captive at his will; to take off the presumption, by destroying the cause ; and then let the work of grace be set as forward as it can, and leave the event to God ; for nothing else is left possible to be done. But if the sick man be of a good hfe, and yet have a degree « Egredere, anima, quid times ? sep- " Vae etiam laudabili vitae hominum si tuaginta prop'e annis serviisti Christo, et remota misericordia discutias earn.— S. mortem times?— S. Hier. in vita Hilar. Aug., lib. ix. Confess, [cap. 13. § S'4. [torn. iv. col. 90.] torn. i. col. 169.] L vy2 692 OF DEATH, AND THE [PART III. of confidence beyond his virtue upon the fancy of predestination, it is not then a time to rescind his opinion by a direct opposition, but let hrin be drawn off from the consideration of it by such discourses as are apt to make him humble and penitent ; for they are the most apt instruments to secure the condition of the man, and attemper his spirit. — These are the great temptations incident to the last scene of our lives ; and are therefore more particdarly suggested by the tempter, because they have in them sometiring contrary to the uni versal effect of a holy life, and are designs to interpose between the end of the journey and the reception of the crown : and therefore it concerns every man who is in a capacity of " receiving the end of his faith, the salvation of Ms soul," to lay up in the course of Ms life sometiring against tins great day of expense ; that he may be better fortified with the armour of the Spirit against these last assaults of the devil, that he may not sMpwreck in the haven. II. 16. 'Eschewing evil' is but the one half of our work ; M'e must also 'do good.' And now in the few remanent days or hours of our rife, there are certain exercises of religion wMch have a special relation to this state, and are therefore of great concernment to be done, that we may make our condtion as certain as we can, and our portion of glory greater, and our pardon surer, and our love to in crease ; and that our former omissions and breaches be repaired Mith a condition in some measure proportionable to those great hopes which we then are going to possess. And first, let the sick person in the beginning of his sickness, and in every change and great ac cident of it, make acts of resignation to God, and entirely submit himself to the divine wiU ; remembering that sickness may, to men properly disposed, do the work of God, and produce the effect of the Spirit, and promote the interest of Ms soul, as well as hedth, and oftentimes better ; as being in itself, and by the grace of God, apt to make us confess our own impotency and dependencies, and to under stand our needs of mercy, and the continual influences and supports of heaven ; to withdraw our appetites from tirings below, to correct trie vamties and insolencies of an impertinent spirit, to abate the ex travagancies of the flesh, to put our carnd lusts into fetters and ds- abMty ; to remember us of our state of pilgrimage, that this is our way, and our stage of trouble and banishment, and that heaven is our country : for so sickness is the trid of our patience, a fire to purge us, an instructor to teach us, a bride to restrdn us, and a state inferring great necessities of union and adhesions unto God. And as upon these grounds we have the same reason to accept sickness at the hands of God, as to receive physic from a physician ; so it is an ar gument of excellent grace to give God hearty thanks in our disease, and to accept it cheerfully and with spiritud joy. 17. Some persons create to themselves excuses of dscontent, and quarrel, not with the pain, but the ill consequence of sickness, — "it makes them troublesome to their friends," — and consider not that SECT. XV.] DUE PREPARATION TO IT. 693 their friends are bound to accept the trouble, as themselves to accept the sickness ; that to tend the sick is at that time allotted for the portion of their work, and that charity receives it as a duty, and makes that duty to be a pleasure. And however, if our friends ac count us a burden, let us dso accept that circumstance of affliction to ourselves, with the same resignation and indifferency as we enter tain its occasion, the sickness itself; and pray to God to enkindle a flame of charity in their breasts, and to make them compensation for the charge and trouble we put them to ; and then the care is at an end. — But others excuse their discontent with a more religious colour, and call the disease their trouble and affliction, because it impedes their other parts of duty ; they cannot preach, or study, or do exterior assistances of charity and dms, or acts of repentance and mortification. But it were weU if we could let God proportion out our work, and set our task ; let Him choose what virtues we shall specially exercise : and when the wril of God determines us, it is more excellent to endure afflictions with patience, equanimity, and thankfulness, than to do actions of the most pompous rehgion, and laborious or expensive charity ; not oMy because there is a delicious- ness in actions of religion and choice, wMch is more agreeable to our spirit than the toleration of sickness can be, which hath great reward, but no present pleasure ; but dso because our suffering and our employment is consecrated to us when God chooses it, and there is then no mixture of imperfection or secdar interest, as there may be in other actions even of an excellent rehgion, when ourselves are the choosers. And let us also remember that God hath not so much need of thy works, as thou hast of patience, humility, and resigna tion. St. Pad was far a more considerable person than thou canst be, and yet it pleased God to shut Mm in prison for two years, and in that interval God secured and promoted the work of the gospel : and although Epaphroditus was an excellent minister, yet God laid a sickness upon him, and even in Ms disease gave him work enough to do, though not of his own choosing. And therefore fear it not but the ends of religion or duty will well enough proceed without thy help ; and thy own eternal interest, when God so pleases, shall better be served by sickness, and the virtues wMch it occasions, than by the opportunities of health, and an ambulatory active charity. 18. When thou art resigned to God, use fair and appointed means for thy recovery; trust not in thy spirit upon any instrument of health ; as thou art willing to be disposed by God, so look not for any event upon the stock of any other cause or principle. Be rded by the physician and the people appomted to tend thee, that thou neither become troublesome to them, nor give any sign of impatience or a peevish spirit : but tiris advice only means that thou do not dis obey them out of any evil principle ; and yet if reason be thy guide to choose any other ayl, or follow any other counsel, use it temper ately, prudently, and charitably : it is not intended for a duty that 694 OP DEATH, AND THE [PART III. thou shoddst drink oil instead of wine if thy minister reach it to thee, as did St. Bernard ; nor that thou shoddst accept a cake tem pered with linseed oil Mstead of oil of olives, as did F. Stephen, men tioned by Buffmus : but that thou tolerate the defects of thy servants, and accept the evil accidents of thy disease, or the unsuccessfdness of thy physician's care, as descendng on thee from the hands of God. Asa was noted in scripture that "in Ms sickness he sought not to the Lord, but to the physicians*." Lods XI. of Francey was then the miserablest person in Ms kMgdom, when he made Mmself their ser vant, courting them with great pensions and rewards, attendng to their rdes as oracles, and from their mouths waited for the sentence of Me or death. We are in these great accidents especially to look upon God as the disposer of the events, wMch He very often dis poses contrary to the expectation we may have of probable causes ; and sometimes without physic we recover, and with physic and ex cellent applications we grow worse and worse, and God it is that makes the remedies unprosperous. In aU these and aU other acci dents, if we take care that the sickness of the body derive not itself into the sod, nor the pains of one procure impatience of the other, we shall alleviate the burden, and make it supportable and profitable. And certain it is, if men knew well to bear their sicknesses humbly towards God, charitably towards our ministers, and cheerfully in themselves, there were no greater advantage in the world to be re ceived than upon a sick bed ; and that done hath m it the benefits of a church, of a religious assembly, of the works of charity and labour. And since our soul's eternal well-bemg depends upon the charities, and providence, and veracity of God, and we have notMng to shew for it but His word and goodness, and that is infinitely enough ; it is but reason we be not more nice and scrupulous about the usage and accommodation of our body : if we accept at God's hands sadness and dryness of affection and spiritud desertion2, pa tiently and with Mdifferency, it is unhandsome to express ourselves less satisfied in the accidents about our body. 19. But if the sickness proceed to death, it is a new charge upon our spirits, and God calls for a find and entire resignation into His hands. And to a person who was of humble affections, and in his life-time of a mortified spirit, accustomed to bear the yoke of the Lord, this is easy, because he looks upon death not only as the cer- tdn condition of nature, but as a necessary transition to a state of blessedness", as the determination of his sickness, the period of human infelicities, the last change of condition, the beginmng of a 1 2 Chron. xvi. 12. r [Mezeray, Hist, de France, torn. ii. p. 746.] * Ndaovs 6° dvdyKrf rets BtifXirovs (pepeiv. — Soph. Phaedr. [Stob. Floril. cviii. 53.] * Nop.i£eiv fxev ydp 5j) Tbv ivBdSe piov us Peto, i ate, suspice ccelum ; non enim kv aKfx^v Kvofxevasv elvai' Tbv Se BdvaTov tibi vita eripitur, sed mutator in melius, yiveaiv els rbv bvTias piov Kal rbv ebSai- dixit mater Symphoriani apud Ambros. pova to7s fpiXoaoffrfiaaai. — Strabo, lib. xv. in vita Symphor. [Iiuinart. p. 82.] SECT. XV.] DUE PREPARATION TO IT. 695 new,_ strange, and excellent life, a security agdnst sin, a freedom from the importunities of a tempter, from the tyranny of an imperious lust, from the rebellion of concupiscence, from the disturbances and tempests of the irascible facdty, and from the fondness and cMldish- ness of the concupiscible; and St. Ambrose6 says well, "the trouble of this life and the dangers are so many, that in respect of them death is a remedy," and a fdr proper object of desires0. And we find that many saints have prayed for death, that they might not see the per secutions and great miseries mcumbent upon the church : and if the desire be not out of impatience, but of charity, and with resignation, there is no reason to reprove it. Ettas prayed that God would take Ms Med, that he might not see the evils of Ahab and Jezebel, and their vexatious intendments against the prophets of the Lord. And St. Austin e, upon the incursion of the Vandals into Africa, called his clergy together, and at their chapter told them he had prayed to God either to deliver his people from the present calamity, or grant them patience to bear it, or that He wodd take Mm out of the world, that he might not see the miseries of Ms diocese ; addng, that God had granted Mm the last: and he presently feU sick, and died in the siege of his own Hippo. And if death in many cases be desirable, and for many reasons, it is always to be submitted to when God calls. And as it is always a misery to fear death f, so it is very often a sin, or the effect of sin. If our love to the world hath fastened our af fections here, it is a direct sin : and this is by the son of Sirach noted to be the case of rich and great personages, " How bitter, 0 death, is thy remembrance to a man that is at rest in his possessions8 !" But if it be a fear to perish in the ruins of eternity, they are not to blame for fearing, but that their OM'n ill lives have procured the fear. And yet there are persons in the state of grace, but because they are in great imperfection, have such lawful fears of death, and of entering upon an uncertain sentence, which must stand eternally irreversible, be it good or bad, that they may with piety and care enough pray David's prayer, " 0 spare me a httle, that I may recover my strength, before I go hence and be no more seen." But in this and in all other cases, death must be accepted without murmur, though without fear it cannot. A man may pray to be delivered from it ; and yet if God will not grant it, he must not go as one haled to execution : but if with dl Ms imperfect fears he slinll throw himself upon God, b Serm. in cap. vii. Job. [i. «=. D. Kpe7aaovydp tladjai, Baveiv, Maxim. Taurin. Serm. ii. de divers, alias *) Tas diraaas iffiepas irdaxeiv KaK&s. S. Ambrosio adscriptus.] . jEschyl. Prom. [75'J.] c Hoc homo morte lucratur, ne malum 1 Kings xix. 4. immortaleesset.— Naz.[Greg.Naz.,oraU c Innvit-S- Aug. [lib viii. cap. 11. § 2. xxxviii. cap. 12.— torn. i. p. 671.] col. 4S9 ; ad calc. opp. S. Aug. ed. Ben.] ' Fortem posco animum mortis terrore carentem, Qui spatium vita? extremum inter munera ponat Naturae, qui ferre queat quoscunque labores, Nesciat irasci, cupiat nihil. Juv. [x. 357.] * Ecclus. xii. 1. 690 OF DEATH, AND THE [PART III. and accept His sentence as righteous whether it speak life or death, it is an act of so great excellency that it may equal the good actions of many succeeding and surviving days ; and peradventure a longer life will be yet more imperfect, and that God therefore puts a period to it, that thou mayest be taken into a condition more certdn, though less eminent. However, let not the fears of nature, or the fear of reason, or the fears of humility, become accidentally criminal, by a murmur or a pertinacious contesting against the event, wMch we cannot hinder, but ought to accept by an election secondary, ra tional, and pious, and upon supposition that God will not alter the sentence passed upon thy temporal Me ; dways remembering, that M christian philosophy death hath in it an excellency of wMch the angels are not capable. For by the necessity of our nature we are made capable of dying for the holy Jesus : and next to the privilege of that act, is our wriringness to die at His command, wMch turns necessity into virtue, and nature into grace, and grace to glory. 20. When the sick person is thus disposed, let him begin to trim his M'eddng garment, and dress his lamp with the repetition of acts of repentance, perpetually praying to God for pardon of Ms sins, re presenting to himself the horror of them, the multitude, the obhqdty, being helped by arguments apt to excite contrition, by repetition of penitential psalms and holy prayers ; and he may, by accepting and humbly receiving his sickness at God's hand, transmit it into the condition of an act or effect of repentance, acknowledging himself by sin to have deserved and procured it, and praying that the punish ment of his crimes may be here, and not reserved for the state of se paration, and for ever. 21. But above all single acts of tMs exercise, we are concerned to see that nothing of other men's goods stick to us, but let us shake it off as we would a burning coal from our flesh ; for it will destroy us, it will carry a curse with us, and leave a curse behind us. Those who by thy means or importunity have become vicious11, exhort to repentance and holy life ; those whom thou hast cozened into crimes, restore to a right understanding; those who are by violence and m- terest led captive by thee to any undecency, restore to their liberty, and encourage to the prosecution of hohness ; dscover and confess thy fraud and unlawful arts, cease thy violence, and give as many ad vantages to virtue as thou hast done to viciousness. Make recom pense for bodily MTongs, such as are wounds, dsmemberings, and other disabilities : restore every man, as much as thou canst, to that good condition from which thou hast removed him ; restore his fame, give back Ms goods, return the pawn, release forfeitures, and take off all unjust invasions or surprises of his estate, pay debts, satisfy for thy fraud and injustice as far as thou canst, and as thou canst, and " Deteriores sunt qui vitam moresque cap. ' Ex merito') in the early edi- bonorum corrumpunt, his qui substantias tions ; but concerning the true origin et piaedia diripiunt. — S. Gregor. [So of the sentence, see the notes to Gratian Giatian (decret. part ii. caus 6. qu. 1. in the edition of 1612.] SECT. XV.] DUE PREPARATION TO IT. 697 as soon ; or tMs done is weight enough, no less than a mill-stone about thy neck. But if the dymg man be of God, and in the state of grace, that is, if he have lived a holy life, repented seasonably, and have led a just, sober, and religious conversation in any acceptable degree, it is to be supposed he hath no great account to make for unpretended mjuries, and unjust detentions ; for if he had detained the goods of Ms neighbour fraudMently or violently, without amends, when it is in Ms power and opportudty to restore, he is not the man we suppose him M this present question : and dthough m dl cases he is bound to restore accordmg to Ms ability, yet the act is less ex cellent when it is compelled, and so it seems to be if he have con tinued the injustice till he is forced to qmt the purchase. However, if it be not done till then, let it be provided for then. And that I press tMs duty to pious persons at tMs time, is oMy to oblige them to a diligent scrutiny concermng the lesser omissions of tMs duty in the matter of fame, or lesser debts, or spiritud restitution ; or that those unevennesses of account wMch were but of late transaction, may now be regulated ; and that whatsoever is undone in this matter, from what principle soever it proceeds, whether of sM or ody of for- getfdness or of imperfection, may now be made as exact as we can, and are obliged ; and that those excuses wMch made it reasonable and lawfd to defer restitution, as want of opportunity, clearness of abMty, and accidentd Mconvedence, be now laid, aside, and the action be done or provided for M the midst of all objections and in- convement circumstances, rather than to omit it, and hazard to perform it. 22. Hither dso I reckon resolutions and forward purposes of emendation and greater severity, M case God return to us hopes of Me ; wMch therefore must be rerirforced, that we may serve the ends of God, and understand dl His purposes, and make use of every opportunity; every sickness ldd upon us being with a design of drawing us nearer to God ; and even holy purposes are good actions of the Spirit, and principles of rehgion : and though done they can not do the work of grace, or change the state, when they are ineffec- tud, that is, when either we will not bring them Mto act, or that God will not let us ; yet to a man already in the state of grace they are the additions of sometiring good, and are like blowing of coals, which although it can put no rife into a dead coal, yet it makes a hve coal shine brighter and bum clearer, and adds to it some acci dentd degrees of heat. 23. Having thus disposed himself to the peace of God, let him make peace with all those M whom he knows, or suspects, any mi nutes of anger, or malice, or displeasure towards Mm, submitting himself to them with hunrility, whom he unworthily hath dspleased1, i Tlpbs Tbv TtXevrfjaavB' eKaaros, kay aipbSpa &iv 4xBpbs rf tis, 7U'eTai ip'iXos t6tc. [Dionys. in Soter. apud Stob. Floril. cxxv. 8.] 698 OF DEATH, AND THE [PART III. asking pardon of them who say they are dspleased, and offering pardon to them that have displeased Mm ; and then let hrin crave the peace of holy church. For it is all this wMle to be supposed that he hath used the assistance and prayers, the counsel and the advices, of a spiritual man, and" that to tMs purpose he hath opened to hrin the state of Ms whole life, and made him to understand M'hat emen dations of his faults he hath made, what acts of repentance he hath done, how lived after his fdl and reparation, and that he hath sub mitted all that he dd, or undid, to the dscerning of a holy man, whose office it is to gdde Ms soul in this agony and last offices. All men cannot have the blessing of a wise and learned nrinister, and some die where they can have none at att : yet it were a safer course to do as much of tMs as we can, and to a competent person, if we can ; if we cannot, then to the best we have, accordng as we judge it to be of spiritual advantage to us : for in tMs conjuncture of acci dents it concerns us to be sure if we may, and not to be deceived where we can avoid it ; because we shdl never return to life to do this work again. And if after this intercourse with a spiritud gdde we be reconciled by the solemn prayer of the church, the prayer of absolution, it will be of great advantage to us ; we depart with our Father's blessing, we de in the actud commumon of the church, we hear the sentence of God applied after the manner of men, and the pro mise of pardon made circumstantiate, material, present, and operative upon our spirits, and have our portion of the promise which is recorded by St. James3, that if the elders of the church pray over a sick person fervently and effectually, (add solemnly,) his sins shaU be forgiven Mm, — that is, supposing him to be in a capacity to receive it, — be cause such prayers of such a man are very prevdent. 24. All this is in a spiritud sense 'wasMngthe hands in inno cency,' and then let him 'go to the dtar :' let him not for any ex cuse less than impossibility omit to receive the holy sacrament ; wMch the fathers assembled in the great Mcene council have taught all the christian world to call, " the most necessary provisions for our last joumeyk;" M'hich is the memory of that death by which we hope for life ; which is the seed of immortality and resurrection of our bodies ; which unites our spirit to CMist ; wMch is a great defensative agdnst the hostilities of the devil ; which is the most solemn prayer of the church, umted and made acceptable by the sacrifice of Christ, wMch is then represented and exhibited to God ; wlrich is the great instru ment of spiritual increase, and the growth of grace ; which is duty and reward, food and physic, health and pleasure, deletery and cor dial, prayer and thanksgiving, an union of mysteries, the marriage of the soul, and the perfection of all the rites of christiamty : dying with the holy sacrament in us, is a going to God with Christ M our > James v. 14, 15. S• & caP- *'• B tom- "• P- 88-] s Heb. xiii. 13. 704 CONSIDERATIONS UPON THE [PART III. 4. There they nailed Jesus with four nailsb, fixed His cross M the ground, wMch, with its fall into the place of its station, gave infinite torture, by so violent a concussion of the body of our Lord, wMch rested upon notMng but four great wounds ; where He was designed to suffer a long and lingering torment. For crucifixion, as it was an excellent pain, sharp and passionate, so it was not of qdck effect towards taking away the life : St. Andrew was two whole days upon the cross ; and some martyrs have upon the cross been rather starved and devoured with birds, than killed with the proper torment of the tree. But Jesus took all His passion with a voluntary susception, God heightemng it to great degrees of torment supernaturatty ; and He laid down His life voluntarily when His Father's wrath was totatty appeased towards mankind. 5. Some have fancied that Christ was pleased to take something from every condtion of wMch man ever was, or shall be, possessed ; taking immudty from sin from Adam's state of innocence, punish ment and misery from the state of Adam fallen, the fdness of grace from the state of renovation, and perfect contemplation of the dvi- nity and beatific joys from the state of comprehension and the bless edness of heaven ; meaning, that the humanity of our blessed Saviour dd in the sharpest agony of His passion behold the face of God, and commumcate in glory. But I consider that dthough the two natures of Christ were krit by a mysterious udon into one person, yet the natures still retain their Mcommumcable properties. CMist as God is not subject to sufferings ; as a man, He is the subject of miseries : as God, He is eternd ; as man, mortd and commensurable by time : as God, the supreme lawgiver ; as man, most humble and obedient to the law : and therefore that the human nature was united to the divine, it does not Mfer that it must in att mstances partake of the divine felicities, which in God are essential, to man commuricated without necessity and by an arbitrary dispensation. Add to tins, that some virtues and excellencies were in the soul of Christ which could not consist with the state of glorified and beatified persons ; such as are humility, poverty of spirit, hope, holy desires; all which, having their seat m the soul, suppose even in the supremest facdty a state of pilgrimage, that is, a condition which is imperfect, and in order to sometiring beyond its present. For therefore " Christ ought to suffer," saith our blessed Lord himself0, and "so enter into His glory." And St. Paul affirmsd, that " we see Jesus made a little Lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory b Kt78i ipovrjts oculam; utrumque in derisionem : sed Els Sipv TtTpdirXevpov — postea prior figura retenta est, et irrepsit Nonn. [in Joann. xix. 18. p. 176. — in vulgarem famam. — Lucas Tud., lib. ii. TtTpdirXevpov, ' quadrilaterum ;' sed vide contra Albig. [vid. cap. 11. p. 262 sqq.] p." 614 supra.] c Luke xxiv 26, secundum vulg Albigenses priini pinxerunt imaginem interp. crucifixi uno clavo simul utrumque pe- a Heb. ii. 9. dem configente, et virginem Mariam mon- SECT. XV.] CRUCIFIXION OF JESUS. 705 and honour." And again e, "Christ humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross : wherefore God dso hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name above every name." Thus His present life was a state of merit and work, and as a reward of it He was crowned with glory and immortahty, His name was ex- dted, His kingdom glorified, He was made the Lord of all the crea tures, the first-fraits of the resurrection, the exemplar of glory, and the Prince and head of the cathohc church : and because this was His recompense and the frdts of His humility and obedence, it is certain it was not a necessary consequence and a natural efflux of the persond union of the Godhead with the humanity. This I dscourse to tMs purpose, that we may not in our esteem lessen the suffering of our dearest Lord by tirinking He had the supports of actud glory in the midst of att His sufferings. For there is no one minute or ray of glory, but its fruition does outweigh and make us insensible of the greatest cdamities, and the spirit of pain which can be extracted from all the idelicities of this world, True it is that the greatest beauties in this world are receptive of an allay of sorrow, and notMng can have pleasure in all capacities. The most beauteous feathers of the birds of paradse, the estrich, or the peacock, if put into our throat, are not there so pleasant as to the eye : but the beatific joys of the least glory of heaven take away all pain, " wipe away all tears from our eyes ;" and it is not possible, that at the same instant the sod of Jesus should be ravished with glory, and yet abated with pains grievous and afflictive. On the other side, some say that the sod of Jesus upon the cross suffered the pains of hell and all the tor ments of the damned, and that without such sufferings it is not imagin able He shodd pay the price wMch God's wrath shodd demand of us. But the same that reproves the one, does dso reprehend the other ; for the hope that was the support of the sod of Jesus, as it confesses an imperfection that is not consistent with the state of glory, so it excludes the despair that is the torment proper to accursed souls. Our dearest Lord suffered the whole condition of humanity, " sin only excepted," and freed us from hell with suffering those sad pains, and merited heaven for His own humanity, as the head, and all faitlrful people as the members of His mystical body. And therefore His life here was only a state of pilgrimage, not at all trimmed with beatific glories. Much less was He ever in the state of hell, or upon the cross felt the formal misery and spirit of torment, wMch is the portion of damned spirits ; because it was impossible Christ should despair, and without despair it is impossible there shodd be a hell. But tMs is highly probable ; that in the intension of degrees and present anguish the sod of our Lord might feel a greater load of wrath than is incumbent in every instant upon perishing sods. For dl the sad ness which may be imagined to be in hell, consists in acts produced • PhiL ii. 8, 9. tt ZZ 706 CONSIDERATIONS UPON THE [PAKT IIX> from principles that cannot surpass the force of human or angelical nature ; but the pain which our blessed Lord endured for the expi ation of our sins, was an issue of a united and concentred anger, was received into the heart oi God and man, and M'as commensurate to the whole latitude of the grace, patience, and charity of the Word incarnate. 6. And now behold the Priest and the sacrifice of all the world laid upon the altar of the cross, bleeding, and tortured, and dying, to reconcile His Father to us : and He was arrayed with ornaments more glorious than the robes of Aaron. The croM'n of thorns was His mitre, the cross His pastoral staff, the nails piercmg His hands were instead of rings, the ancient ornament of priests, and His flesh rased6 and checkered with blue and blood instead of the parti-coloured robe. But as this object calls for our devotion, our love and eucha- rist to our dearest Lord; so it must needs irreconcile us to sin, wMch in the eye of att the world brought so great shame, and pad, and amazement upon the Son of God, when He only became engaged by a charitable substitution of Himself in our place ; and therefore we are assured, by the demonstration of sense and experience, it Mill bring death, and att imaginable miseries, as the just expresses of God's indgnation and hatred : for to tMs we may apply the M'ords of our Lord in the prediction of miseries to Jerusalem, " if this be done in the green tree, what shall be done in the dry?" For it is certain Christ MfiMtely pleased His Father, even by becoming the person made guilty in estimate of law ; and yet so great charity of our Lord, and the so great love and pleasure of His Father, exempted Him not from suffering pains intolerable : and much less shall those escape who provoke and dsplease God, and " despise so great sdvation," which the holy Jesus hath wrought M'ith the expense of blood and so precious a life. 7. But here we see a great representation and testimony of the Divine justice, who was so angry with sin, who had so severely threatened it, who does so essentially hate it, that He wodd not spare His ody Son, when He became a conjunct person, relative to the gdlt by undertaking the charges of our nature. For although God hath set down in holy scripture s the order of His justice and the manner of its maMfestation, that one sod shall not perish for the sins of another ; yet this is meant for justice and for mercy too, that is, He Mill not curse the son for the father's fadt, or in any relation whatsoever substitute one person for another, to make Mm involun tarily guilty : but when this shdl be desired by a person that cannot finally perish, and does a mercy to the exempt persons, and is a voluntary act of the suscipient, and shall in the event also redound to an infimte good, it is no deflection from the dvine justice to ex cuse many by the affliction of one, who also for that very suffering " ['rac'd' in first ed.] ' Deut. xxiv. 16 j Ezek. xviii. 2 — 5, &c. SECT. XV.] CRUCIFIXION OF JESUS. 707 shall have infimte compensation. We see that for the sin of Cham all his posterity were accursed : the subjects of David died with the plague, because their prince numbered the people : idolatry is pun ished in the childen of the fourth generation: Sad's seven sons were hanged for breaking the league of Gibeon; and Ahab's sin was punished in Ms posterity, he escaping, and "the evil was brought upon Ms house in his son's days." In all these cases the evil de scended upon persons in near relation to the sinner, and was a pun ishment to Mm and a misery to these, and were either chastisements dso of their own sins, or, if they were not, they served other ends of providence, and led the afflicted innocent to a condition of recom pense accidentally procured by that infliction. But if for such re lation's sake and economicd and pohtical conjunction, as between prince and people, the evil may be transmitted from one to another, much rather is it just, when by contract a competent and conjunct person undertakes to qdt Ms relative. Thus when the hand steals, the back is whipped; and an evil eye is punished M'ith a hungry belly. Treason causes the whole family to be miserable; and a sacrilegious grandfather hath sent a locust to devour the increase of the nephews8. 8. But M our case it is a voluntary contract, and therefore no in justice ; att parties are voluntary. God is the supreme Lord, and His actions are the measure of justice : we, who had deserved the punishment, had great reason to desire a redeemer : and yet Christ, who was to pay the ransom, was more desirous of it than we were, for we asked it not before it was promised and undertaken. But thus we see that sureties pay the obhgation of the principal debtor, and the pledges of contracts have been by the best and wisest nations sldn, when the articles have been broken : the Thessalians slew two hundred and fifty pledges11; the Bomans L three hunded of the Volsci, and threw the Tarentines from the Tarpeian rock. And that it may appear CMist was a person in all senses competent to do this for us, Himself testifies j that He had "power over His own Me, to take it up or lay it down." And therefore as there can be nothing against the most exact justice and reason of laws and pudshments; so it magnifies the Divine mercy, who removes the puMshment from us, who of necessity must have sunk under it, and yet makes us to adore His severity, who wodd not forgive us without punisMng His son for us ; to consign unto us His perfect hatred against sin, to con serve the sacredness of His laws, and to imprint upon us great cha racters of fear and love. The famous Locrian Zaleucus made a law, that all adulterers shodd lose both their eyes : his son was first un happily surprised in the crime ; and Ms father, to keep a temper be- * [i.e. grandsons ; cf. vol. vii. p. 504.] rum. L. ' Si a reo,' D. de fidejussoribus. h [See vol x. p. 145.] [Digest., lib. xlviii. tit. 3. 1. 4. et xlvi. ' Liv. [ii. 16. xxv. 7.] Vide 1. ' Si tit. i. 1. 70.— torn. iii. pp. 1508, 1411.] nuis reu'm,' D. de custod. et exhib. *eo- J John x. 18. 4 Z Z 2 708 CONSIDERATIONS UEON THE [PART III. between the piety and soft spirit of a parent, and the justice and severity of a judge, put out one of Ms omti eyes, and one of his son's k. So God did with us; He made some abatement, that is, as to the person with whom He was angry, but inflicted His anger upon our Bedeemer, whom He essentially loved, to secure the dignity of His sanctions, and the sacredness of obedence ; so marrying jus tice and mercy by the intervening of a commutation. Thus David escaped by the death of his son, God choosing that penalty for the expiation : and Cimon offered Mmself to prison, to purchase the liberty of his father Miltiades. It was a filial duty in Cimon, and yet the law was satisfied. And both these concurred in our great Bedeemer. For God, who was the sole arbitrator, so disposed it, and the eternal Son of God submitted to this way of expiating our crimes, and became an argument of faith and belief of the great article of " remission of sins," and other its appendent causes and effects and adjuncts ; it being wrought by a visible and notorious passion. It was made an encouragement of hope; for "He that spared not His own Son" to reconcile us, witt " with Him give dl things else" to us so reconciled ; and a great endearment of our duty and love, as it was a demonstration of His. And in dl the changes and traverses of our life He is -made to us a great example of aU ex cellent actions, and all patient sufferings. 9. In the midst of two thieves, three long hours the holy Jesus hung, clothed with pain, agony,- and dishonour, all of them so emi nent and vast, that He M'ho could not but hope, M'hose sod was enchased with divinity, and dwelt in the bosom of God, and in the cabinet of the mysterious Trinity, yet had a cloud of misery so tirick and black daM'n before Him, that He complained as if God. had for saken Him: but this was "the pillar of cloud" M'hich conducted Israel into Canaan. And as God behind the cloud supported the holy Jesus, and stood ready to receive Him into the union of His glories; so His soM in that great desertion had internal comforts proceeding from consideration of all those excellent persons M'Mch should be adopted into the felloM'ship of His sufferings, wlrich should imitate His graces, which shodd commumcate His glories. . And M'e follow this cloud to our country, having Christ for our guide : and though He trod the way, leaning upon the cross, which, like the staff of Egypt, pierced His hands ; yet it is to us a comfort and support, pleasant to our spirits as the sweetest canes, strong as the pillars of the earth, and made apt for our use by having been borne and made smooth by the hands of our elder brother. 10. In the midst of all His torments, Jesus only made one prayer of sorrow, to represent His sad condition to His Father; but no accent of murmur, no syllable of anger against His enemies ; instead * Apud Diod. Sic. [Hist, lib. xii. cap. avlaKos TvtpXuBr} TtXeas, Kal Hva /xif Sia- 21. torn. i. p. 491.] et JElian. [Var. Hist., 8apfi to om-a| r^.Kvpupivov. lib. xiii. cap. 24. p. 891.] "lva fxif b ve- SECT. XV.J CRUCIFIXION OF JESUS. 709 of that, He sent up a holy, charitable, and effective prayer for their forgiveness, and by that prayer obtained of God that witirin fifty-five days eight thousand of His enemies M'ere converted. So potent is the prayer of charity, that it prevails above the malice of men, turn ing the arts of Satan into the designs of God ; and M'hen mdice oc casions the prayer, the prayer becomes an antidote to malice. And by this instance our blessed Lord consigned that duty to us, which in His sermons He had preached, That we shodd forgive our enemies, and pray for them : and by so doing ourselves are freed from the stings of anger, and the storms of a revengefd spirit ; and M'e oftentimes procure servants to God, friends to ourselves, and heirs to the kingdom of heaven. 1 L. Of the two thieves that were crucified together with our Lord, the one blasphemed ; the other had at that time the greatest piety in the world1, except that of the blessed Virgin, and particularly had such a faith that all the ages of the church could never shew the like. For when he saw Christ "in the same condemnation" with himself, crucified by the Bomans, accused and scorned by the Jews, forsaken by His own apostles ; a dying dstressed man, doing at that time no miracles to attest His divinity or innocence ; yet then he confesses Him to be a Lord, and a King, and Ms Saviour : he con fessed his own shame and unworthiness ; he submitted to the death of the cross : and by Ms voluntary acceptation and tacit volition of it, made it eqdvalent to as great a punishment of Ms own susception ; he shewed an incomparable modesty, begging but for a remembrance only ; he knew himself so sinful, he durst ask no more ; he reproved the other thief for blasphemy ; he confessed the world to come, and owned Christ publicly; he prayed to Him, he hoped in Him, and pitied Him; shewing an excellent patience in tMs sad condtion. And in this I consider that besides the excellency of some of these acts, and the goodness of all, the like occasion for so exemplar faith never can occur; and until dl these things shdl in these circumstances meet in any one man, he must not hope for so safe an exit after an evil life, upon the confidence of tMs example. But now Christ had the key of paradse in His hand ; and God blessed the good thief with this opportunity of letting him in, M'ho at an other time might have waited longer, and been tied to harder con ditions. And indeed it is very probable that he was much ad vantaged by the intervening accident of dying at the same time M'ith CMist; there being a naturd compassion produced in us towards the partners of our miseries. For Christ M'as not void of human 1 Latro non semper praedonem aut videbat secum in ligno pendentem. — Re- grassatorem denotat, sed militem, qui colamusfidem latronis, quam non invenit fortassis ob zelum Judasorum aliquid Christus post resurrectionem in discipu- contra leges romanas fecerat : alioqui lis suis.— S. Aug. Serm. cxliv. de Tem- vir fuit non omnino malus. pore. [al. Serm. ccxxxii. cap. 6. torn. v. Titubaverunt . . qui viderunt Christum col. 982 sq.] mortuos suscitantem; credidit ille qui 710 CONSIDERATIONS UPON THE [PART III. passions, though He had in them no imperfection or irregularity, and therefore might be invited by the society of misery the rather to admit Mm to participate His joys; and St. Paul proves Him to be a "mercifd Mgh-priest," because He was "touched with a feeling of our infirmities :" the first expression of which was to tMs blessed thief; CMist and he together sat at the supper of bitter herbs, and Christ pdd Ms symbol, promismg that he shodd "that day be together with Him in paradse." 12. By the cross of Christ stood the holy Virgin-mother, upon whom old Simeon's prophecy was now verified : for now she felt a sword passing tMough her very sod : she stood without clamour and womanish noises™; sad, silent, and with a modest grief, deep as the waters of the abyss, but smooth as the face of a pool ; full of love, and patience, and sorrow, and hope. Now she was put to it to make use of all those excellent dscourses her holy Son had used to build up her spirit, and fortify it against tMs day. Now she felt the bless ings and strengths of faith ; and she passed from the griefs of the passion to the expectation of the resurrection ; and she rested in tMs death, as in a sad remedy ; for she knew it reconciled God with dl the world. But her hope drew a veil before her sorrow ; and though her grief was great enough to swallow her up, yet her love was greater, and dd swaUow up her grief. But the sun dso had a veil upon Ms face, and taught us to draw a curtain before the passion, wMch wodd be the most artificial expression of its greatness ; whilst by silence and wonder we confess it great beyond our expression, or, which is aU one, great as the burden and baseness of our sins. And with this veil dawn before the face of Jesus, let us suppose Him at the gates of paradse, calhrig with His last words in a loud voice to have them opened, that " the King of glory might come M." THE PEAYEB. 0 holy Jesus, who for our sakes ddst suffer incomparable anguish and pains, commensurate to Thy love, and our miseries, wMch were infimte ; that Thou mightest purchase for us blessMgs upon earth, and an inheritance in heaven : dspose us by love, thankful- ness, humility, and obedence, to receive all the benefit of Thy passion; granting unto us and Thy whole church remission of all our sins, integrity of mind, health of body, competent maintenance, peace in our days, a temperate air, fraitfdness of the earth, unity and integrity of _ faith, extirpation of heresies, reconcilement of schisms, destruction of dl wicked counsels intended against us; and bind the hands of rapine and sacrilege, that they may not destroy the vintage, and root up the vine itself. Multiply Thy m S. Ambros. in Luc, lib. x. [§§ 129, 32. torn. i. col. 1532.] sect, xv.] Crucifixion of jesus. 711 blessings upon us, sweetest Jesus; increase in us true religion, sincere and actud devotion in our prayers, patience in troubles, and whatsoever is necessary to our soul's health, or conducing to Thy glory. Amen. II. 0 dearest Saviour, I adore Thy mercies and Thy incomparable love expressed in Thy so voluntary susception and affectionate suffering such horrid and sad tortures, wMch cannot be remembered without a sad compassion ; the waters of bitterness entered into Thy sod, and the storms of death, and Thy Father's anger, broke Thee all in pieces : and M'hat shall I do, M'ho by my sins have so tormented my dearest Lord? what contrition can be great enough, what tears sufficiently expressive, M'hat hatred and detestation of my crimes can be equd and commensurate to those sad accidents which they have produced ? Pity me, 0 Lord ; pity me, dearest God ; turn those Thy mercifd eyes towards me, 0 most mercifd Bedeemer ; for my sins are great, like unto Thy passion ; full of sorrow and shame, and a burden too great for me to bear. Lord, who hast done so much for me, now ody speak the M'ord, and Thy servant shall be whole. Let Thy wounds heal me. Thy virtues amend me, Thy death quicken me ; that I in this Me suffering the cross of a sad and salutary repentance, in the union and merits of Thy cross and passion may die with Thee, and rest with Thee, and rise again with Thee, and live with Thee for ever, in the possession of Thy glories, 0 dearest Saviour Jesus. Amen. SECTION XVI. Of the resurrection and ascension of Jesus. 1. While it was yet " early in the morning, upon the first day of the week, Mary Magdalen, and Mary the mother of James, and Sa lome, brought sweet spices to the sepulcMe," that they might again embahn the holy body (for the rites of embalming among the He brews used to last forty days"), and their love M'as not satisfied M'ith what Joseph had done. They therefore hastened to the grave ; and after they had expended their money and bought the spices, then begin to consider "who shall remove the stone :" but yet they still go on, and their love answers the objection, not knowing how it shodd be done, but yet resolving to go tMough all the difficulties; - Gen. 1. [3.] Tacit. Annal., 1. 21. [Qu. i. 22?] 712 OF THE RESURRECTION AND [PART III. but never remember or take care to pass the guards of solders. But when they came to the sepdehre, they found the guard affrighted and removed, and the stone rolled away ; for there had a little before their arrivd been a great earthquake0; and an angel descendng from heaven, rolled away the stone, and sat upon it ; and for fear of Mm the guards about the tomb became astonished with fear, and were like dead men : and some of them ran to. the Mgh priests, and told them what happened. But they, now resolving to make their imqdty safe and unquestionable by a new crime, hire the soldiers to tell an incredible and a weak fable, that His dsciples came by night and stole Him away, against which accident the wit of man codd give no more security than themselves had made. The women entered Mto the sepdehre, and missing the body of Jesus, Mary Magdden ran to the eleven apostles, complaining that the body of our Lord was not to be found. Then Peter and John ran as fast as they could to see : for the unexpectedness of the relation, the wonder of the story, and the sadness of the person, moved some affections in them, which were kMded by the first principles and sparks of faith, but were not made actual and defhrite, because the faith was not rdsed to a flame : they looked Mto the sepulchre, and findng not the body there, they re turned. By this time Mary Magdalen was come back; and the women who staid weeping for their Lord's body, saw two angels sitting in wMte, the one at the head, and the other at the feet : at which unexpected sight they trembled, and bowed themselves : but an angel bid them not to fear, telling them that Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified, Mas also risen, and was not there : and called to mind what Jesus had told them in GaMee concerning His crucifixion, and resurrection the tirird day. 2. And Mary Magdalen turned herself back, and saw Jesus ; but supposing Him to be the gardener, she said to Him, " Sir, if thou have borne Him hence, tell me where thou hast ldd Him, and I will take Him aM'ay." But Jesus said unto her, "Mary!" Then she knew His voice, and with ecstasy of joy and wonder was ready to have crushed His feet with her embraces : but He commanded her not to touch Him, but go to His brethren, and say, " I ascend unto My Father and to your Father, to My God and your God." Mary de parted with satisfaction, beyond the joys of a victory or a fdl vmtage, 0 Aurora lucis rutilat, Ccelum laudibus intonat, Mundus exsultans jubilat, Gemens infernus ululat ; C um rex ille fortissimus, Mortis confractis viribus, Pede conculcans Tartara, Solvit a poena miseros. Ille qui clausus lapide Custoditur sub milite, Triumphans pompa nobili, Victor surgit de funere. — Hymn. Paschal. [Brev. vetust. (e. g. brev. Salisb.) in domin. in albis. — Daniel, thesaur. hymnolog., torn. i. p. 85.] SECT. XVI.J ASCENSION OF JESUS. 713 and told these tirings to the apostles ; but the narration seemed to them as talk of abused and fantastic persons. — About the same time Jesus also appeared unto Simon Peter. — Towards the declining of the day, two of His disciples going to Emmaus, sad, and discoursing of the late occurrences, Jesus puts Himself into their company, and upbraids their incredulity; and expounds the scriptures, that Christ ought to suffer, and rise again the third day ; and in the breaking of bread disappeared, and so was known to them by vamshing away, whom present they kneM' not : and instantly they hasten to Jerusa lem, and told the apostles what had happened. 3. And M'hile they M'ere there, that is, the same day at evening, when the apostles were assembled, all save Thomas, secretly, for fear of the Jews, the doors being shut, Jesus came and stood in the midst of them. They were exceedngly troubled, supposing it had been a spirit. But Jesus confuted them by the philosophy of their senses, by feeling His flesh and bones, which spirits have not. Por He gave them His benediction, shewing them His hands and His feet. At which sight they rejoiced with exceedng joy, and began to be re stored to their indefinite hopes of some future felicity by the return of their Lord to rife : and there He first breathed on them, giving them the holy Ghost, and performing the promise twice made before His death ; the promise of the keys, or of binding and loosing, say ing, " whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted to them : and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained :" and that M'as the second part of clericd power with which Jesus instructed His dis ciples, in order to their great commission of preaching and govern ment ecclesiastical. These tirings were told to Thomas, but he be lieved not, and resolved agdnst the behef of it, udess he might put his finger into His hands, and Ms hand into His side. Jesus there fore on the octaves of His resurrection appeared again to the apostles met together, and makes demonstration to Thomas; in conviction and reproof of his unbelief promising a special benediction to all suc ceeding ages of the church ; for they are such who " saw not, and yet have believed." 4. But Jesus at His early appearing had sent an order by the women, that the disciples should go into Galilee; and they did so after a few days. And Simon Peter being there, went a fishing, and six other of the apostles with him, to the sea of Tiberias ; where they laboured dl night and caught notMng. Towards the morning, Jesus appeared to them, and bade them cast the net on the right side of the ship ; which they dd, and enclosed an hundred and fifty-three great fishes : by which prodigious draught John, the beloved disciple, per ceived it was the Lord, At wMch Mstant, Peter threw Mmself into the sea, and went to Jesus ; and when the rest were come to shore, they dned with broiled fish. After dnner Jesus, taking care for those scattered sheep which Mere dspersed over the face of the earth, that He might gather them into one sheepfold under one Shepherd, 714 OF THE RESURRECTION AND [PART III. asked Peter, " Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me more than these ? Peter answered, Yea, Lord ; Thou, that knowest all tirings, knowest that I love Thee ; then Jesus said unto him, Feed My lambs." And Jesus asked Mm the same question, and gave Mm the same precept , the second time, and the third time : for it was a considerable and a weighty employment, upon wMch Jesus was witting to spend all His endearments and stock of affections that Peter owed Him, even upon the care of His httle flock. And after the intrusting of tMs charge to Mm, He told Mm that the reward he should have in this world, shodd be a sharp and an honourable martyrdom ; and withd checks at Peter's curiosity, in busying Mmself about the temporal accidents of other men, and enquiring what should become of John, the be loved dsciple. Jesus answered Ms question with some sharpness of reprehension, and no satisfaction: "If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee ?" Then they fancied that he should not die ; but they were mistaken, for the intimation was expounded and verified by St. John's survivMg the destruction of Jerusalem; for after the attempts of persecutors, and the miraculous escape of pre pared torments, he ded a natural death M a good old age. 5. After tMs Jesus, having appointed a solemn meeting for all the brethren that codd be collected from the dspersion, and named a certain mountain in Galilee, appeared to five hundred bretiiren at once ; and this was His most public and solemn manifestation ; and while some doubted, Jesus came accordng to the designation, and spake to the eleven ; sent them to preach to all the M'orld repentance, and remission of sins in His name ; promising to be with them to the end of the world. — He appeared also unto James, but at what time is uncertain, save that there is sometiring concerning it M the gospel of St. Matthew which the Nazarenes of Berosap used; and wMch it is likely themselves added out of report, for there is notMng of it in our Greek copies. The words are these : " When the Lord had given the linen in wMch He was wrapped to the servant of the high priest, He went and appeared unto James; for James had vowed after he received the Lord's supper, that he wodd eat .no bread td he saw the Lord risen from the grave : then the Lord called for bread : He blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to James the just, and said, ' My brother, eat bread, for the Son of man is risen from the sleep of death : ' " so that by this it should seem to be done upon the day of the resurrection; but the relation of it by St. Paul puts it between the appearance wlrich He made to the five hundred, and that last to the apostles when He was to ascend into heaven. — Last of all, when the apostles were at dinner, He appeared to them, upbraiding their incredulity; and then He opened their understanding that they might discern the sense of scripture, and again commanded them to preach the gospel to all the world, giving ' [S. Hieron. Catalog, scriptt. eccles, ad verb. ' Jacobus,' torn. iv. par. 2. col. 102.] SECT. XVI.] ASCENSION OF JESUS. 715 them power to do miracles, to cast out devils, to cure diseases ; and instituted the sacrament of baptism, which He commanded should, together with the sermons of the gospel, be administered to all nations, In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Ghost! Then He led them into Judea, and they came to Bethany, and from thence to the mount Olivet ; and He commanded them to stay in Jerusalem, tril the holy Ghost, the promise of the Father, should descend upon them, which sMrald be accomplished in few days ; and then they shodd know the times, and the seasons, and all tilings necessary for their mimstration and service, and propagation of the gospel. And while He discoursed many things concermng the kingdom, behold a cloud came and parted Jesus from them, and car ried Him m their sight up into heaven ; where He sits at the right hand of God, blessed for ever. Amen. 6. WMle His apostles stood gazing up to heaven, two angels ap peared to them, and told them that Jesus shodd come in hke manner as He was taken away, viz. with glory and majesty, and in the clouds, and with the ministry of angels. " Amen. Come, Lord Jesus ; come qrickly." Ad SECTION XVI. Considerations upon the accidents happening in the interval after the death of the holy Jesus, until His resurrection. 1. The holy Jesus promised to the blessed thief that he shodd that day be with Him in paradse ; wMch therefore was certainly a place or state of blessedness, because it was a promise; and in the society of Jesus, whose penal and afflictive part of His work of re demption was finished upon the cross. Our blessed Lord dd not promise he shodd that day be with Him in His kingdom, for that day it was not opened, and the everlasting doors of those mterior recesses were to be shut till after the resurrection, that Himself was to ascend thither, and make way for all His servants to enter in the same method in which He went before us. Our blessed Lord " de scended into hell," saith the creed of the apostles « from the sermon of St. Peter, as he from the words of David, that is, into the state of separation and common receptacle of spirits, according to the style of scripture ; but the name of ' hell' is nowhere in scripture an appeh lative of the kingdom of Christ, of the place of final and supreme glory. But concerning the verification of our Lord's promise to the beatified thief, and His OM'n state of separation, we must take what light M'e can from scripture, and what we can from the doctrine of i Symboluin Aquileieuse, [ Ruffin. Exposit. in Symb. Apostt. ad calc. opp. S. Cypr.] et ex eo Homr-num hod!ernum. 716 CONSIDERATIONS UPON THE ACCIDENTS [PART III. the primitive church. St. Paul had two great revelations1 ; he was rapt up into paradse, and he was rapt up into the third heaven : and these he calls ' visions and revelations,' not one, but divers : for paradise is dstingdshed from the heaven of the blessed, being itself a receptacle of holy sods, made illustrious with visitation of angels, and happy by being a repository for such spirits who at the day of {'udgment shall go forth Mto eternal glory. In the interim Christ tad trod all the paths before us, and tMs dso we must pass tMough to arrive at the courts of heaven. Justin Martyr5 said it was the doctrine of heretical persons to say that the sods of the blessed in stantly upon the separation from their bodes enter into the Mghest heaven. And Irenseus' makes heaven, and the intermedate recep tacle of sods, to be dstinct places : both blessed, but hugely dffer- ing in degrees. Tertullianu is dogmaticd in the assertion that till the voice of the great archangel be heard, and as long as Christ sits at the right hand of His Father making intercession for the church, so long blessed sods must expect the assemblmg of their bretiiren, the great congregation of the church, that they may all pass from their outer courts into the Mward tabernacle, the holy of holies, to the tiirone of God. And as it is certaM that no soul codd enter Mto glory before our Lord entered, by whom we hope to have access : so it is most agreeable to the proportion of the mysteries of our re demption that we believe the entrance Mto glory to have been made by our Lord at His glorious ascension, and that His sod went not thither before then, to come back again, to be contracted Mto the span of humamty, and dwell forty days in His body upon earth. But that He should return from paradse, that is, from the common receptacle of departed spirits who ded in the love of God, to earth again, had M it no lessemng of His condtion, since Himself in mercy called back Lazarus from thence, and some others dso re turned to live a life of grace, which in all senses is less than the least of glories. Sufficient it is to us that all holy sods, departing, go into the hands, that is, into the custody of our Lord ; that they rest from their labours'- ; that their M'orks shall follow them, and overtake them too at the day of judgment; that they are happy presently; that they are visited by angels y; that God sends, as He pleases, ex- r Ubi duas magnas revelationes lxxvi. [Just. Mart. p. 470 B.] S. Greg. sibi obtigisse dixit Paulus, bisque in sub- Naz. orat. x. [al. vii. cap. 21. torn. i. p. lime se raptum ; semel ad ccelum ter- 213 D.] S. Chrysost. in Matt. hom. xv. tium, semel ad paradisum. — Methodius [vid. § 5. torn. vii. p. 190 E.] S. Ambr. cont. Origen. apud Epiphan. [Haer. Ixiv. in Micheam, [i. e. ep. lxx. sq. col. 1062 cap. 47. p. 572.] Idem ait Moses Barce- sqq.] Cyrilli [Hierosol.] Liturg. [Catech. phas, lib. de Paradiso, [par. i. cap. 7. xxiii. § 9. p. 328.] Epiphan. ep. apud S. p. 26.] Hier. [Ep. ex. torn. iv. par. ii. col. 828.] " Dial. adv. Tryphon. [§ 80. p. 1 7 8 A.] Theodoretus, [in Heb. xi. 40. torn. iii. p. ' Lib. v. [cap. 36. § 1, 2. p. 337.] 623.] Theopbylactus, [in Luc. xxiii. 43. u De anim. [cap. 55. p. 304 A. ad fin.] p. 534 sq.] et vett. passim. De pra?scr. haer. [§ 13. p. 207 A.] Idem * Rev. xiv. 13. sentiunt scriptor Resp. ad orthod. q, » Just. Mart. lxxv. inter quaest. [ad SECT. XVI.] AFTER THE DEATH OF JESUS. 717 cellent irradiations and types of glory, to entertain them in theii mansions ; that their condition is secured : but the crown of righte ousness is laid up* against the great day of judgment, and then to be produced and given to St. PaM, and to all that love the coming of our Lord ; that is, to all who either here in duty, or M their re ceptacles with joy and certaM hope, long for the revelation of that day. At the day of judgment Christ will send the angels, and they shall gather together the elect from the four winds3; and all the re fuse of men, evil persons, they shall throw into everlasting burning : then our blessed Lord shall call to the elect to enter into the king dom, and reject the cursed into the portion of devils ; for whom the fire is but now prepared in the interval. For "we must all appear before the judgment seat of CMist," saith St. Paul, "that every man may receive in Ms body accordMg as he hath done, whether it be good or evilb :" out of the body the reception of the reward is not; and therefore St. Peter affirms that " God hath delivered the evil angels into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment0 ;" and St. Jude saith that " the angels which kept not their first fdth, but left their first habitation, He hath reserved M everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great dayd ;" and therefore the devils expostdated with our blessed Saviour, " Art Thou come to torment us before the timec ?" and the same also He does to evil men, " reserving the unjust unto the day of judgment, to be pun ished'';" for since the actions M'hich are to be judged are the actions of the whole man, so also must be the judicature. And our blessed Saviour intimated this to His apostles, " In My Father's house are many mansions : but I go to prepare a place for you ; and if I go away, I witt come again and take you unto Me, that where I am there ye may be alsos." At Christ's second coming this is to be performed11. Many outer courts, many different places or different states there may be ; and yet there is a place whither holy sods shall arrive at last, wMcli was not then ready for us, and M'as not to be entered into until the entrance of our Lord had made the ' prepar ation :' and that is certainly the highest heaven, called by St. Paul, 'the tirird heaven;' because the other receptacles M'ere ready, and full of holy sods, patriarchs, and prophets, and holy men of God ; concermng whom St. Paul affirms expressly, that "the fathers re- orthod. p. 469.] gentiles ait bonos statim e Matt. viii. 29. duci a morte ad paradisum, ubi consue- ' 2 Pet. ii. 9. Nee tamen quisquam tudo et aspectus est angelorum et visus putet animas post mortem protinus judi- Christi salvatoris. cari: nam omnes in una communique z 2 Tim. iv. 8. custodia detinentur, donee tempus adve- * Matt. xiii. 41, et xxiv. 31. niat quo maximus judex meritorum faciat b 2 Cor. v. 10. °lva KofxiarfTai eKaaros examen. — Lactant.,lib. vii. cap. 21. [torn. ri iSia toO aSfxaros- sic quidam codd. ; i. p. 574.] rd Sid tov aiifxaros' sic communiter, et * John xiv. 2, 3. rectius. h Satiabor cum apparueris. Psal. xvii. = 2 Pet. ii. 4. 15. <• Jude 6. 718 CONSIDERATIONS UPON THE ACCIDENTS [PART III. ceived not the promises ; God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us shoMd not be made perfect1 :" therefore certain it is that their condtion was a state of imperfection, and yet they were placed in paradise, 'in Abraham's bosom;' and tirither Christ went, and the blessed thief attended Him. And then it was that Christ made their condition better : for though still it be a place of relation in order to sometiring beyond it, yet the term and object of their hope is changed : they sate in the regions of darkness, ex pecting that great promise made to Adam and the patriarchs, the pro mise of the Messias; but when He that was promised came, He " preached to the spirits in prison," He commudcated to them the mysteries of the gospel, the secrets of the kingdom, the tirings hidden from eternal ages, and taught them to look up to the glories purchased by His passion, and made the term of their expectation be His second conring, and the objects of their hope the glories of the beatific vision. And although the state of separation is sometimes in scrip ture called heaven, and sometimes hell (for these words in scripture are of large sigmfications), yet it is never called ' the tirird heaven,' nor ' the hell of the damned :' for dthough concermng it notMng is clearly revealed, or what is their portion till the day of judgment ; yet it is intimated in a parable that between good and evil spirits even in the state of separation there is distance of place : certain it is there is great distance of condtion ; and as the holy sods in their regions of light are full of love, joy, hope, and longing for the coming of the great day, so the accursed do expect it with an insupportable amazement, and are presently tormented with apprehensions of the future. Happy are they that tMough paradse pass Mto the kingdom, who from their highest hope pass to the greatest charity, from the state of a blessed separation to the mercies and gentle sentence of the day of judgment : wMch St. Paul prayed to God to grant Onesi- phorusk; and more explicitly for the Thessdomans, "that their whole spirit and sod and body be preserved blameless unto the conring of our Lord Jesus1." And I pray God to grant the same to me, and all fritiifd people whatsoever. 2. As soon as the Lord had given up His spirit Mto the hands of God, the veil of the temple was rent, the angels, guardians of the place, deserted it, the rites of Moses were kid open, and the enclo sures of the tabernacle were disparked ; the earth trembled, the graves were opened, and all the old world, and the old rehgion, were so 1 Heb. xi. 40. Iren. Adv. haer. lib. v. vi. Apoc. [p. 139 H.] Ambros. De bono ad fin. [cap. 36. § 1, 2. p. 337.] Origen. mortis, capp. 10, 11. [torn. i. col. 407 in Levit. hom. vii. [§ 2. torn. ii. p. 222.] sqq.] Chrys. in 1 Cor. hom.xxxix. [§3.tom. x. k 2 Tim. i. 18. p. 367.] Theodoret. [in Heb. xi. 40. torn. ' 1 Thess. v. 23. Vide Iremeum in iii. p. 623.] Theophylact. [vid. p. 716. hunc locum, Adv. haer., lib. v. cap. 6, [p. not. u. sup.] Oecumenius in Hebr. xi. [p. 300,] ubi probat, absque unione corporis, 861.] S. Aug. lib. i. Retract, cap. 14. [§ animae, et spiritus, hominem non esse. 2. torn. i. col. 22.] Victorin. Mart, in c. SECT. XVI.] AFTER THE DEATH OF JESUS. 719 shaken towards their first chaos, that if God had not supported the one, and reserved the other for an honourable burial, the earth had left to support her children, and the synagogue had been thrown out to an inglorious exposition and contempt. But yet in these symbols they were changed from their first condition, and passed into a new dominion ; all old things passed away, and all tirings became new ; the earth and the heavens were reckoned as a new creation, they passed into another kingdom under Christ their Lord ; and as before the creatures, were servants of human necessities, they now become servants of election, and hi order to the ends of grace as before of nature ; Christ having now the power to dspose of them m order to His kingdom and by the administration of His own wisdom. And ¦at the instant of these accidents God so detemrined the persuasions of men, that they referred these prodigies to the honour- of Christ, and took them as testimonies of that truth for the affirmation of wMch the Mgh priest had condemned our dearest Lord ; and dthough the heart of the priest rent notm even trien when rocks did tear in pieces, yet the people who saw the passion " smote their breasts, and returned," and confessed CMist. 3. The graves of the dead were opened at the death, but the dead bodies of the saints that slept arose not till the resurrection of our Lord11; for He was the "first frdts," and they followed Him as in stant witnesses to publish the resurrection of their Head, which it is possible they declared to those to whom they appeared in the holy city. And amongst these, the curiosity, or pious creddity, of some have supposed Adam and Eve, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who therefore were careful to be buried in the land of promise, as having some Mtimation or hope that they might be partakers of the earliest glories of the Messias, in whose faith and dstant expectation they lived and died. And this caUing up of company from their graves did publish, to aU the world, not ody that the Lord Mmself M-as risen, according to His so frequent and repeated predictions, but that He meant to raise up all His servants, and that att who believe in Him shodd be partakers of the resurrection0. 4. When the solders observed that Jesus was dead, out of spite and impotent ineffective malice one of them pierced His holy side with a spear; and the rock being smitten, it gushed out with water and blood, streaming forth tM'o sacraments to refresh the church, and opening a gate that all His brethren might enter in, and dwell in the heart of God. And so great a love had our Lord that He suffered ra S. Ambros. in Luc, lib. x. [§ 128. torn. i. col. 1531.] ¦> Euseb. Emiss. hom. vi. de Pasch. [p. 561 G.] tumuloque inferna refringens Regna, resurgentes secum jubet ire sepultos. Prudent. Apoth. [lin. 635. p. 459.] » 'EXvrpovvro irdvrts oi SIkoioi, otis xiv. § 19. p. 214 C] Chrys. hom. Ixxxviii, Kariiritv b BdvaTOs. — S. Cyr. [Catech. in Matt- xxvii. [52. torn. vii. p. 826 E.] 720 CONSIDERATIONS UPON THE ACCIDENTS [PARTHI. His heart to be opened, to shew that as Eve was formed from the side of Adam, so was the church to be from the side of her Lord, receivMg from thence hfe and spiritud nutriment ; wMch He minis tered in so great abundance, and suffered Himself to be pierced, that all His blood did stream over us, until He made the fountrin dry, and reserved nothing of that by wMch He knew His church was to live, and move, and have her being. Thus the stream of blood issued out to become a fountam for the sacrament of the chalice, and Mater gushed out to fill the fonts of baptism and repentance. The blood, being the testimony of the divine love, calls upon us to die for His love when He requires it ; and the noise of the water caUs upon us to purify our spirits, and present our conscience to Christ holy and pure, without spot or wrinkle. The blood runmng upon us makes us to be of the cognation and family of God ; and the water quenches the flames of hell, and the fires of concupiscence. 5. The friends and disciples of the holy Jesus, having devoutly composed His body to burial, anointed it, washed it, and condited it with spices and perfumes, laid it in a sepdcMe heM'n from a rock in a garden ; M'hich, saith Euthymius ", M'as therefore done, to represent that M'e were by tiris death returned to paradse, and the gardens of pleasures and dvine favours, from whence by the prevarication of Adam man was expeUed. Here He finished the work of His passion, as He had begun it in a garden ; and the place of sepdcMe, being a rock, serves the ends of pious succeeding ages : for the place remains in dl changes of government, of wars, of earthquakes, and ruder accidents, to tMs day, as a memorid of the sepulcMe of our dearest Lord, as a sensible and proper confirmation of trie persuasions of some persons, and as an entertamment of their pious fancy and reli gious affections. 6. But now it M'as that in the dark and undiscerned mansions there was a scene of the greatest joy and the greatest horror repre sented which yet was known since the first fdling of the morning stars. Those holy souls whom the prophet Zecharyp calls "pri soners of hope," lying in the " lake where there is no water," that is, no constant stream of joy to refresh their present condtion, yet sup ported with certain showers and gracious visitations from God, and illuminations of their hope, now that they saw their Bedeemer come to change their condtion, and to improve it into the neighbourhoods of glory and clearer revelations, must needs have the joy of intelligent and beatified understandings, of redeemed captives, of men forgiven after the sentence of death, of men satisfied after a tedous expecta tion, enjoying and seeing their Lord whom for so many ages they had expected. But J;he accursed spirits, seeing the darkness of their prison shine with a new light, and their empire invaded, and their retirements of horror discovered, wondered how a man durst venture • [IS. Cyril. Alex, in Joan. xix. 41.— torn. iv. p. 1078.] P Zech. ix. 11,2. SECT. XVI.] AFTER THE DEATH OF JESUS. 721 thither, or if lie were a God, how He should come to die. But the holy Jesus was like that body of light, receiving into Himself the re flection of all the lesser rays of joy which the patriarchs felt, aud being united to His fountain of fehcity, apprehended it yet more glo rious. He now felt the effects of His bitter passion to return upon Him in comforts; every hour of wlrich M'as abundant recompense for tirree hours' passion upon the cross, and became to us a great prece dent, to invite us to a toleration of the acts of repentance, mortifica tion, and martyrdom, and that in times of suffering we live upon the stock and expense of faith, as remembering that these few moments of infehcity are infidtely paid M'ith every minute of glory, and yet that the glory which is certaidy consequent is so lasting and perpetual, that it were enough in a loM'er joy to make amends by its continua tion of eternity. And let us but call to mind what thoughts M'e shall have when we die, or are dead; how we shall then M'ithout prejudice consider, that if we had done our duty, the trouble and the affliction wodd now be past, and notMng remain but pleasures and felicities eternd q, and how infinitely happy we shall then be if we have done our duty, and how miserable, if not ; all the pleasures of sin disap pearing, and nothing surviving but a certain and everlasting torment. Let us carry alway the same thoughts M'ith us M'hich must certainly then intervene, and we shall meet the holy Jesus, and partake of His joys, wlrich overflowed His holy soul M'hen He first entered into the possession of those excellent fruits and effects of His passion. 7. When the third day was come, the soul of Jesus returned from paradise and the visitation of separate spirits, and re-entered into His holy body, which He by His divine power did redintegrate, fitting His veins with blood, healing all the wounds, excepting those five of His hands, feet, and side, which He reserved as trophies of His victory and argument of His passion. And as He had comforted the sods of the fathers with the presence of Iiis spirit; so now He saw it to be time to bring comfort to His holy mother, to re-establish the tottering fdth of His disciples, to verify His promise, to make demonstration of His divinity, to lay some superstructures of His church upon the foundation of His former sermons, to instruct them in the mysteries of His kingdom, to prepare them for the reception of the holy Ghost : and as He had in His state of separation triumphed over hell, so in His resurrection He set His foot upon death, and brought it under His dominion ; so that although it was not yet destroyed, yet it is made His subject : it hath as yet the condition of the Gibeonites, M'ho were not banished out of the land, but they M'ere made drawei-s of water and hewers of M'ood ; so is death made instrumental to CMist's kino-dom, but it abides still, and shall till the day of judgment, but 1 'Av Ti irpdiris KaXbv fxerd itbvov, b rfSb oixtrai, Tb Se aiaxpbv fx4vel. — Muso- liev n6vos olxerai, Tb Se KaXbv fxevev &v nius apud Aul. Gell., lib. xvi. cap. 1. ti iroi-haris aiaxpbv fxeB' rfiovns, rb fxev [p. 708.] 3A 722 CONSIDERATIONS UPON THE ACCIDENTS [PART III. shaU serve the ends of our Lord, and promote the Mterests of eternity, and do benefit to the church. 8. And it is considerable that our blessed Lord having told them that after three days He wodd rise again, yet He shortened the time as much as was possible, that He might verify His own prediction, and yet make His absence the less troublesome : He rises early in the morning the first day of the week : for so our dearest Lord abbreviates the days of our sorrow, and lengthens the years of our consolation; for He knows that a day of sorrow seems a year, and a year of joy passes like a day ; and therefore God lessens the one, and lengthens the other, to make tMs perceived, and that supportable. Now the temple, wMch the JeM's destroyed, God raised up m six and thirty hours : but this second temple was more glorious than the first ; for now it was clothed with robes of glory, with clarity, agility, and rin- mortality : and though, like Moses descending from the mount, He M'ore a veil, that the greatness of His splendour might not render Him unapt for conversation with His servants; yet the holy scripture affirms that He was now no more to see corruption ; meaning, that now He was separate from the passibility and affections of human bodies, and codd suffer St. Thomas to thrust Ms hand into the wound of His side, and Ms finger Mto the holes of His hands, with out any grief or smart. 9. But although the graciousness and care of the Lord had pre vented aU dhgence, and satisfied dl desires, returning to life before the most forward faith codd expect Him ; yet there were tiiree Maries went to the grave so early that tiiey prevented the rising of the sun ; and though with great obedence they staid tiU the end of the sab bath, yet as soon as that was done they had other parts of duty and affection wMch called with greatest importunity to be speedily satis fied. And if obedience had not bound the feet of love, they had gone the day before ; but they became to us admirable patterns of obedence to the divine commandments. For though love were " stronger than death'," yet obedience was stronger than love, and made a rare dis pute in the spirits of those holy women, in M'hich the flesh and the spirit were not the htigants, but the spirit and the spirit ; and they resisted each other, as the angel-guardian of the Jews resisted the tu telar angel of Persia55, each striving who shodd with most love and zed perform their charge, and God determined. And so He did here too. For the law of the sabbath M'as then a dvine commandment; and although piety to the dead, and to such a dead, was ready to force their choice to do violence to their wril, bearing them up on Mings of desire to the grave of the Lord, yet at last they reconciled love with obedence. For they had been taught that love is best ex pressed in keeping of the divine commandments ; but now they were at liberty, and sure enough they made use of its fost minute ; and going so early to seek Christ, they M'ere sure they should find Him. r [Cant. viii. 6.] s [Dan. x. 13.] SECT. XVI.] AFTER THE RESURRECTION. 1i'-> 10. The angels descended guardians of the sepulchre ; for Clod sent His guards too, and they affrighted the watch appointed by Pilate and the priests : but when the women came, they spake like comforters, full of sweetness and consolation, laying aside their affrighting glories, as knowing it is the will of their Lord that they should minister good to them that love Him. But a conversation M'ith angels could not satisfy them who came to look for the Lord of the angels, and found Him not : and when the Lord was pleased to appear to Mary Mag dalen,, she was so sM'dlowed up Mith love and sorroM' that she entered into her joy and perceived it not ; she saw the Lord and knew Him not. For so from the closets of darkness they that immedately stare upon the sun, perceive not the beauties of the light, and feel nothing but amazement. But the voice of the Lord opened her eyes, and she knew Him, and M'orshipped Hrin, but M'as denied to touch Him, and commanded to tell the apostles : for therefore God ministers to us comforts and revelations, not that we may dM'ell in the sensible frui tion of them ourselves alone, but that" we communicate the grace to others. But when the other women were returned and saw the Lord, then they were att together admitted to the embracement, and to kiss the feet of Jesus. For God hath His opportunities and periods M'hich at another time He denies ; and we must then rejoice in it M'hen He vouchsafes it, and submit to His divine will M'hen He denies it. 11. These good women had the first fruits of the apparition : for their forward love, and the passion of their religion, made greater haste to entertain a grace, and M'as a greater endearment of their persons to our Lord, than a more sober, reserved, and less active spirit. This is more safe, but that is religious ; this goes to God by the M'ay of understanding, that by the will; this is supported by dis course, that by passions ; tiris is the sobriety of the apostles, the other was the zeal of the holy M'omen ; and because a strong fancy and an earnest passion, fixed upon holy objects, are the most active and for ward instruments of devotion, as devotion is of love, therefore we find God hath made great expressions of His acceptance of such dis positions. And women, and less knowing persons, and tender dispo sitions, and pliant natures, will make up a greater number in heaven, than the severe, and M'ary, and enquiring people, M'ho sometimes love because they believe, and believe because they can demonstrate, but never believe because they love. When a great understanding and a great affection meet together, it makes a saint great like an apostle ; but they do not weU, who make abatement of their religious passions by the severity of their understanding. It is no matter by M'hich mc are brought to Christ, so M'e love Him and obey Him; but if the production admit of degrees, that instrument is the most excellent M'hich produces the greatest love : and although discourse and a sober spirit be in itself the best, yet we do not always suffer that to be a parent of as great religion as the good women make their fancy, their softness, and their passion. 3 a 2 721 CONSIDERATIONS UPON THE ACCIDENTS [PART 111 12. Our blessed Lord appeared next to Simon : and though he and John ran forth together, and St. John outran Simon, although Simon Peter had denied and forsworn his Lord, and St. John never did, and followed Him to His passion and His death ; yet Peter had the favour of seeing Jesus first. Which some spiritual persons understand as a testimony that penitent sinners have accidental eminences and pri vileges sometimes indulged to them beyond the tempord graces of the just and innocent, as being such who not ody need defensatives against the remanent and inherent evils' even of repented sins, and their aptnesses to relapse ; but also because those M'ho are true peni tents, — who understand the infimteness of the divine mercy, and that for a sinner to pass from death to life, from the state of sin into pardon and the state of grace, is a greater gift*, and a more excellent and improbable mutation, than for a just man to be taken into glory, — out of gratitude to God, and endearment for so great a change, added to a fear of returning to such danger and misery, will re-enforce all their industry, and double their study, and observe more dhgently, and M'atch more carefully, and redeem the time, and make amends for their omissions, and oppose a good to the former evils, beside the duties of the present employment ; and then com monly the life of a holy penitent is more holy, active, zealous, and impatient of vice, and more rapacious of virtue and holy actions, and arises to greater degrees of sanctity, than the even and moderate affec tions of just persons, who, as our blessed Saviour's expression is, " need no repentance," that is, no change of state, notiring but a perseverance, and an improvement of degrees. " There is more joy in heaven before the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth, than over ninety-mne just persons that need it notu :" for, " where sin hath abounded, there doth grace superabound ;" and that makes joy in heaven. 13. The holy Jesus, having received the affections of His most passionate dsciples, the women and St. Peter, puts Himself upon the way into the company of two good men goMg to Emmaus, with troubled spirits and a reeling faith, shaking all its upper buildmg, but leaving some of its foundation firm. To them the Lord dscourses of the necessity of the death and resurrection of the Messias, and taught them not to take estimate of the counsels of God by the designs and proportions of man : for God, by ways contrary to human judgment, brings to pass the purposes of His eternd providence. The glories of Christ were not made pompous by human circumstances; His kingdom was spiritual : He was to enter into felicities tMough the gates of death ; He refused to do miracles before Herod, and yet did them before the people ; He coMuted His accusers by silence, and did not descend from the cross when they offered to believe in Him if He wodd, but left them to be persuaded by greater arguments of His ' Majus est, peccatorem ex peccato in coelum.— S. August gratiam migrare, quam ex hoc mundo in " Luke xv. 7. SECT. XVI.] AFTER THE RESURRECTION. 725 power, the miraculous circumstances of His death, and the glories of His resurrection ; and, by wdking in the secret paths of divine elec tion, hath commanded us to adore His footsteps, to admire and revere His wisdom, to be satisfied with all the events of providence, and to rejoice in Him, if by afflictions He makes us holy, if by persecutions He supports and enlarges His church, if by death He brings us to hfe ; so we arrive at the communion of His felicities, we must let Him choose the way ; it being sufficient that He is our guide, and our sup port, and our exceedng great reward. For therefore CMist preached to the two dsciples going to Emmaus the way of the cross and the necessity of that passage, that the M'isdom of God might be glorified and the conjectures of man ashamed. But whilst His discourse lasted, they knew Him not; but in the breaking of bread He dscovered Himself. For He turned their meal into a sacrament, and their dark ness to light ; and having to His sermon added the sacrament, opened all their discermng faculties, the eyes of their body, and their under standing too ; to represent to us that when we are blessed with the opportunities of both those instruments, we want no exterior assist ance to guide us in the. way to the knowing and enjoying of our Lord. 14. But the apparitions wlrich Jesus made were all upon the de sign of laying the foundation of dl christian graces ; for the begetting and establishing faith and an active confidence in their persons, and building them up on the great fundamentals of the religion. And therefore He appointed a general meeting upon a mountain in Galilee, that the number of witnesses might not ody disseminate the fame, but establish the article, of the resurrection ; for upon that are bdlt all the hopes of a Christian; and "if the dead rise not, then are M'e of all men most miserable," in quitting the present possessions, and entertaining injuries and affronts without hopes of reparation. But we lay two gages in several repositories ; the body in the bosom of the earth, the soul in the bosom of God : and as we here live by faith and lay them down with hope ; so the resurrection is a restitution of* them both, and a state of re-union. And therefore, dthough the glory of our spirits, without the body, were joy great enough to make compensation for more than the troubles of all the world ; yet because one shall not be glorified without the -other, they being of themselves incomplete substances, and God having reveded notMng clearly concerning actud and complete felicities till the day of judg ment, when it is promised our bodies shall rise ; therefore it is that the resurrection is the great article upon wMch we rely, and which Christ took so much care to prove and ascertdn to so many persons, because if that shodd be disbelieved with wlrich all our felicities are to be received, we have nothing to establish our faith, or entertain our hope, or satisfy our desires, or make retribution for that state of secular inconveniences in wMch by the necessities of our nature, and the humihty and patience of our religion, we are engaged. 726 CONSIDERATIONS UTON THE ACCIDENTS [PART III. 15. But I consider that holy scripture only instructs us concern ing the life of this Morld and the life of the resurrection, the life of grace and the life of glory, both in the body ; that is, a hfe of the whole man ; and whatsoever is spoken of the sod considers it as an essential part of man relating to his whole constitution, not as it is of itself an intellectual and separate substance; for aU its actions which are separate and removed from the body are relative and in complete. Now because the soul is an incomplete substance, and created in relation to the body, and is but a part of the whole man, if the body were as eternal and incorruptible as the sod, yet the se paration of the one from the other M'odd be, as now it is, that which Mre call natural death ; and supposing that God shodd preserve the body for ever, or restore it at the day of judgment to its fdl sub stance and perfect organs, yet the man would be dead for ever if the soul for ever should continue separate from the body. So that the other hfe, that is, the state of resurrection, is a re-uniting sod and body. And although in a philosophical sense the resurrection is of the body, that is, a restitution of our flesh and blood and bones, and is called ' resurrection,' as the entrance into the state of resurrection may have the denomination of trie whole ; yet in the sense of scrip ture the resurrection is the restitution of our life, the renovation of the whole man, the state of re-union ; and until that be, the man is not, but he is dead, and only Ms essential parts are deposited and laid up in trust : and therefore whatsoever the soul does or perceives in its incomplete condition, is but to it as embdming and honourable funerals to the body, and a safe monument to preserve it in order to a living again ; and the felicities of the interval are wholly in order to the next life. And therefore if there were to be no resurrection, as these intermedial joys should not be at all; so, as they are, they are but relative and incomplete : and therefore all our hopes, all our felicities, depend upon the resurrection ; without it Mre shodd never be persons, men or women; and then the state of separation codd be nothing but a phantasm, trees ever in blossom, never bearing frdt, corn for ever in the blade, eggs dM'ays in the shell, a hope etemd never to pass into fruition, that is, for ever to be deluded, for ever to be miserable. And therefore it was an elegant expression of St. Paul*, " our life is Md M'ith Christ in God ;" that is, our life is passed Mto custody, the dust of our body is numbered, and the spirit is re freshed, visited, and preserved, in celestid mansions : but it is not properly called a life ; for all this while, the man is dead, and shall then live M'hen Christ produces tiris Mdden life at the great day of restitution. But our faith of all tMs article is well wrapped up in the words of St. John?, " Beloved, now we are the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be ; but we know that when He shall appear we shdl be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is." The midde state is not it which scripture hath propounded to our * Colons, iii. 3, y I lohn iii, 2. SECT. XVI.] AFTER THE RESURRECTION. 727 faith, or to our hope ; the reward is then when Christ shall appear : but in the mean time the soul can converse with God and with angels, just as the holy prophets did in their deams, in which they received great degrees of favour and revelation2 ; but tMs is not to be reckoned any more than an entrance or a waiting for the state of our fehcity. And since the glories of heaven is the great frdt of election, we may consider that the body is not predestinate nor the soul done, but the whole man ; and until the parts embrace again M an essential complexion, it cannot be expected either of them shodd receive the portion of the predestinate. But the article and the event of future things is rarely set in order by St. Paul3, "But ye are come into the mount Sion, and to the city of the living God, the heavedy Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the first-born which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all ;" and then follows, after tMs ' general assembly,' after ' the Judge of all' appears, " to the spirits of just men made perfect," that is, re-umted to their bodes and entering into glory. Trie begindng of the contrary ophrion brought some new practices and appendent persuasions Mto the church, or at least pro moted them much. For those doctors who, receding from the primi tive belief of tMs article, taught that the glories of heaven are fdly commudcated to the sods before the day of judgment, dd also upon that stock teach the invocation of saints, whom they believed to be received into glory, and Msensibly also brought in the ophrion of pur gatory, that the less perfect souls might be glorified in the time that they assigned them ; but the sder opinion, and more agreeable to piety, is that wMch I have now described from scripture and the purest ages of the church. 16. When Jesus appeared to the apostles, He gave them His peace for a benedction ; and when He departed, He left them peace for a legacy, and gave them, accordng to two former promises, the power of mdring peace, and reconciling souls to God by a mriristerial act; so conveying His Father's mercy, which Himself procured by His passion, and actuates by His intercession and the giving of His grace, that He might comply with our infirmities, and midster to our needs by instruments even and proportionate to ourselves ; mak ing our brethren the conduits of His grace, that the excellent effect of the Spirit might not descend upon us, as the law upon mount Smai, in expresses of greatness and terror, but in earthen vessels, and images of infirmity : so God manifesting His power in the smdlness of the instrument, and descending to our needs not ody in giving the grace of pardon, but also in the manner of its ministration. And I medtate upon the greatness of tMs mercy, by comparing this grace a "Orav 4v t$ virvovv Kaff eavrov ye- r&v aw/xaTuv Arist. apud Sextum Em- vifatTai 7j ifwX'/i Tire tV IBiav diroXa- piric. [Adv. phys., lib. ii. cap. 2. § 21. p. Povaa tphaiv, irpopavTebeTai t€ Kal irpoa- 553.] yoptvei Ta fxeXXovTa. Toiabrij S4 4ari a Heb. xii. 22, 23. k»1 iv Tip KaTd rbv BdvaTov x^P'^taBai 728 CONSIDERATIONS UPON" THE ACCIDENTS [PART 111. of God, and the blessing of the judgment and sentence M'e receive at the hand of the church, with the judgment which God makes at the hour of death upon them who have despised this mercy, and neg lected all the other parts of their duty. The one is a judgment of mercy, the other of vengeance : in the one, the devil is the accuser, and heaven and earth bear M'itness ; in the other, the penitent sinner accuses himself : in that, the sinner gets a pardon ; M the other, he finds no remedy : in that, all his good deeds are remembered and re turned, and his sins are blotted out ; in the other, dl his evil deeds are represented with horror and a sting, and remain for ever : in the first, the sinner changes his state for a state of grace, and only smarts in some tempord austerities and acts of exterior mortification ; in the second, Ms temporal estate is changed to an eternity of pain : in the first, the sinner suffers the shame of one man or one society, wMch is sweetened by consolation, and homilies of mercy and hedth ; in the latter, all his sins are laid open before all the world, and Mmself confounded in eternal amazement and confusions : in the judgment of the church, the sinner is honoured by att for returning to the bosom of his mother, and the embraces of Ms heavenly Father ; in the judgment of vengeance, he is laughed at by God, and mocked by accursed spirits, and perishes without pity : in this he is prayed for by none, helped by none, comforted by none, and he makes Mmself a companion of devils to everlasting ages ; but in the judgment of re pentance and tribunal of the church, the pemtent sinner is prayed for j by a whole army of militant saints, and causes joy to all the church triumphant. And to establish this tribund in the church, and to transmit pardon to pemtent sinners, and a salutary judgment upon the person and the crime, and to appoMt physicians and guardans of the sod, was one of the designs and mercies of the resurrection of Jesus. And let not any cMistian man, either by false ophrion, or an unbelieving spirit, or an incurious apprehension, undervalue or neg lect this mimstry wMch Christ hath so sacredly and solenmly es tablished. Happy is he that dashes his sins against the rock upon M'hich the church is built, that the church, gathering up the planks and fragments of the shipwreck, and the shivers of the broken heart, may re-udte them, pouring oil Mto the wounds made by the blows of sin, and restoring with meekness, gentleness, care, counsel, and authority, persons overtaken in a fault. For that act of ministry is not ineffectud M'hich God hath promised shall be ratified in heaven ; ' aud that authority is not contemptible which the holy Jesus conveyed by breathing upon His church the holy Ghost. But CMist intended , that those whom He had made gddes of our souls, and judges of our consciences in order to counsel and miristerid pardon, shodd also be used by us in all cases of our sods, and that we go to heaven the way He hath appointed, that is, by offices and ministries ecclesiasticd. 17. When our blessed Lord had so confirmed the faith of the church and appointed an ecclesiastical mimstry, He had but one work SECT. XVI.J AFTER THE RESURRECTION. 729 more to do upon earth, and that was the institution of the holy sacra ment of baptism, which He ordained as a solemn initiation and mys terious profession" of the faith upon which the church is built ; mak ing it a solemn publication of our profession, the rite of stipdation or entering covenant with our Lord, the solemnity of the paction evangelical, in which we undertake to be disciples to the holy Jesus ; that is, to beheve His doctrine, to fear His threatenings, to rely upon His promises, and to obey His commandments all the days of our rife ; and He for His part actually performs much, and promises moreb ; He takes off all the guilt of our precedng days, purging our souls, and making them clean as in the day of innocence ; promising withal that if we perform our undertakMg, and remain in the state in which He now puts usr He will continually assist us with His Spirit0, pre vent and attend us with His grace; He will deliver us from the power of the devil; He will keep our souls in merciful, joyfd, and safe custody, till the great day of the Lord ; He will then rdse our bodies from the grave ; He will make them to be spiritual and im mortal ; He Mill re-umte them to our sods, and beatify both bodies and souls in His own kingdom, admitting them into eternd and un speakable glories. All wlrich that He might verify and prepare re spectively, in the presence of His dsciples He ascended into the bosom of God, and the eternal comprehensions of celestid glory. THE PBAYEE. 0 holy and eternal Jesus, who hast overcome death, and triumphed over all the powers of hell, darkness, sin, and the grave ; manifest ing the truth of Thy promises, the power of Thy divinity, the ma jesty of Thy person, the rewards of Thy glory, and the mercies and excellent designs of Thy evangehcal kingdom, by Thy glorious and powerful resurrection ; preserve my soul from eternd death, and make me to rise from the death of sin, and to live the life of grace ; loving Thy perfections, adoring Thy mercy, pursuing the interest of Thy kingdom; being united to the church under Thee our Head ; conformMg to Thy holy laws ; established in faith, enter- tained'and confirmed M'ith a modest, humble, and certain hope, and sanctified by charity; that I, engraving Thee in my heart, and sub mitting to Thee in my spirit, and imitating Thee in Thy glorious example, may be partaker of Thy resurrection; M'hich is my hope and my desire, the support of my faith, the object of my joy, and the strength of my confidence. In Thee, holy Jesus, do I trust : I confess Thy faith, I believe all that Thou hast taught ; I desire to perform all Thy injunctions, and my own undertaking : my soul » Mark xvi. 16 ; Acts ii. 38 ; xxii. 16 ; 1 Pet. iii. 21. Rom vi. 3, 4 ; Eph. iv. 5, &c. ; 1 Cor. " Matt. xxvm. 20. xii. 13; Coloss. ii. 12; Gal. iii. 27; 730 CONSIDERATIONS UPON THE ACCIDENTS, &C [PART III. is in Thy hand ; do Thou support and gdde it, and pity my in firmities ; and when Thou shalt reveal Thy great day, shew to me the mercies and effects of Thy advocation, and intercession, and re demption. " Thou shalt answer for me, 0 Lord my God ;" for "in Thee have I trusted, let me never be confounded." Thou art just, Thou art merciful, Thou art gracious and compassionate; Thou hast done miracles and prodigies of favour to me and all the world. Let not those great actions and sufferings be ineffective ; but make me capable and receptive of Thy mercies, and then I am certain to receive them. I am Tlrine, 0 save me ! Thou art mine, 0 holy Jesus ! 0 dweU M'ith me for ever, and let me dwell with Thee, adoring and praising the eternal glories of God, the Father, Son, and holy Ghost. Amen. END OF THE LIFE OF CHRIST. 'AriOS 'A0ANATO2d. 1 [Sea vol. v. p. 6UC. ] ADDENDA. p. 225, note i, ["A certain man having told the holy virgin St. Lidwina that he had been guilty of many enormous sins, but felt little repentance for them, the saint told him that she would do penance for them : as for him, she only required that he should lie one night in his bed in the same posture, without moving or turning himself, looking upwards toward heaven. The man answered her gladly enough, and even laughingly : ' If my penance is no more than this, I shall soon complete it.' But scarcely had he laid himself in his bed, when he wished to turn upon his side ; finding it a great trouble that he was not to do it, and thinking that he never had felt so hard a bed. He began to say to himself: 'My bed is good and soft: I am well and hearty ; what is it that I want ? no thing but to turn from one side to the other. But this, what matters it ? be quiet, and sleep till the morning. Canst thou not? then tell me what is wanting?' Thus reflecting, he brought eternity to mind, aud went on discoursing to him self: 'How is this, that thou canst not rest one single night, and findest it a torment to be still without turning thy self? how would it be if thou wert to re main thus three or four nights ? Surely it would be death to me. Truly I could not have believed there could be such weariness in a thing so easy. Woe is me ! how little patience have I, since such a trifle can so annoy me? What would it have been, if I had been ordered not to sleep for weeks together? if I had spasms, or were pained with the stone or sciatica ? Yet far greater pains than these are prepared for thee in hell, whither thou art journeying with thy numberless sins. Think what a bed awaits thee in that abyss of woe; what feather-bed, what holland sheets ! Consider if that bed shall be for one night only. For nights and days, for months and years, for ages and eternities, thou shalt remain on that side thou fallest on, without the relief of turning to the other. That fire shall not die, as Isaiah saith; nor shalt thou die, that its torments may endure eternally. After an hundred years, and after a hun dred thousand millions of years, they shall be as lively and strong as the first day. Think then what thou art doing, by making a mock of eternity, by having no fear of eternal death, while thou set- test thy affection on this temporal life. Thou art not in the right way : change thy life, and begin to serve thy Maker.' So this man did, being convinced by this argument with himself. And let him who comes to read it do the like : let him consider, that if he were commanded not to stir from a bed of roses for twenty years, he could not suffer it ;how shall he suffer to be for an eternity upon a bed of flames ?" — Nieremberg, ' Obras Chris tianas,' book iv. chap. 1 1. § 1 j as quoted by Archd. Churton, in his letter to Joshua Watson, Esq., concerning the ' Contem plations on the state of man ;' which are shewn not to be by Jeremy Taylor, but taken from Nieremberg's work.] p. 672, note h, ["A penitent that hath newly bid adieu to all unclean conversa tion, newly gone out of Sodom, goes upon a ticklish ground, and stands not so sure but that he is easily thrown down. Lu- cerna recens extincta leviflalu accenditur; how often have you seen a candle put out by mischance, and blow the snuff pre sently while it is hot, it flames again : so carnal concupiscence being but lately corrected in a good convert by the fear of God, take heed the devil blow not pre sently upon the snuff, for an easy mat ter will make it flame again." — Hacket, Serm. ii. on Christ's temptation, p. 215] p. 682, line 10, ... " with a fish-bone." [Guido de Fonte Nayo Bituricensis, Exempla, "De morte violenta," eic. p. 1105.] p. 694, not. a, fin. j ...lib. xv. [p. 1039.] LIST OF EDITIONS BEFEBBED TO. Adrichomius, Urbis Hierosol. descriptio, 8vo. Col. Agr. 1588. JElianus, Varia historia, ed. Gronov. 4to. Lugd. Bat&c. 1731. JEschylus, in Poett. Seen. Gr. ed. Dindorf. 8vo. Lips, et Lond. 1830. Agapetus Diaconus, in Bibl. vett. patr. Galland. torn. xi. Agathias, in Corp. hist. Byzant. fol. Venet. 1729—32. Alcimus Avitus, vid. Avitus. Alcuinus, ed. Quercet. fol. Par. 1617. Ambrosius, ed. Ben. fol. Par. 1686 —90. Ammianus Marcellinus, in Hist. aug. scriptt ed. Gruter. fol. Hanov. 1611. Anacreon, opp. ed. De Pauw, 4to. Traj. ad Rhen. 1732. Anselmus, opp. fol. Col. Agr. 1612. Authologia, Brunck. ed. Jacobs, 8vo. Lips. 1794—1814. Antiphanes, in Excerpt. exTrag. et Com. Gr. ed. Hug. Grot. 4to. Par. 1626. Antoninus (M.), Comment. 8vo. Lips, ex off C. Tauchn. 1820. Antonius Abbas, Melissa, fol. Tiguri, 1546. Aquinas, opp. fol. Antuerp. 1512. Arator, ad calc. Juvenci, q. v. Aratus, Phenomena, in Poett. Gr. vet. ed. Lect. fol. Aurel. Allobr. 1606. Arias Montanus, Tubal-Cain sive De mensuris, fol. Antuerp. 1572. Aristophanes, vid. iEschylus. Aristoteles, ed. Bekker, 4to. Berol. 1831. Arrianus, Periplus, fol. Genev. 1577. Artemidorus, Oneirocritica, ed. Reiff, 8vo. Lips. 1805. Athanasius, opp. ed. Ben. fol. Par, 1698. Athenseus, ed. Dindorf. 8vo. Lips. 1827. Athenagoras, opp. ed. Dechair, 8vo. Oxon. 1706. Augustinus, opp. ed. Ben. fol. Par. 1679 —1700. Avitus (Alcimus), Poemata, in torn. m. Bibl. vett. patr. fol. Par. 1624. Aulus Gellius, ed. Gronov. 4to. Lugd. Bat 1706. Aymonius, vid. Haymo. Barbarus (Hermolaus), Castigationes Pliniante, fol. Rom. 1492. Baronius, Annal. fol. Antuerp. 1597 — 1630. Basilius, ed. Gamier, fol. Par. 1721 —30. Beda, opp. fol. Col. Agr. 1612. Bernardus, opp. fol. Antuerp. 1620. Biblia Sacra cum Glossa ordinaria, fol. Duac. 1617. Bodinus, De republica, fol. Lugd. 1586. Boethius, opp. fol. Basil. 1570. Boiemica Historia, vid. Dubravius. Bosquierus, opp. fol. Col. Agr. 1620 —8. Callimachus, ed. Losner, 8vo. Lips. 1774. Caninius, De locc. Heb. Nov. Test. 8vo. Antuerp. 1600. Canones apostolici, apud Coteler. Patr. apostol. fol. Amst. 1724. Cantipratanus (Thomas), Bonum uni versale, 8vo. Duaci, 1605. Canutus, Leges ecclesiastics, in Wilkins' Concilia, torn. i. Cassianus, opp. ed. Gaz. fol. Atrebat. 1628. Cassiodorus, opp. ed. Caret, fol. Rothom. 1679. Cedrenus, Annales, in torn. vii. sq. Corp. hist. 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