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THE WORKS

OF

JEREMY TAYLOR, D.D.

VOL. IV.

TAY.

VOL. IV.

THE WORKS

OF

JEREMY TAYLOR, D.D.

AVITH

SOME ACCOUNT OF HIS LIFE,

SUMMARY OF EACH DISCOURSE, NOTES, &c.

BY THE REV. T. S. HUGHES, B. D.

VOL. IV.

LONDON:
PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY A. J. VALPY, M.A.
AND SOID BY ALL BOOKSELLEHS.
1831.

Jzi5r mi \,4

CONTENTS

THE FOURTH VOLUME.

TEN SERMONS,
BEING A SUPPLEMENT OF THE ENIATT02.— CONTINUED.
PACE
VI. — Via Intelljgentiaj.
John vii. 17. — If any man will do his vvill, he shall
know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I
speak of myself. ........ 1
VII. — Preached at the Funeral of the Lord Primate of Ireland.
1 Corinthians xv. 2.3. — But every man in his own or
der : Christ the first fruits ; afterward they that are Christ's
at his coming  4.5
VIII. — Countess of Carbery's Funeral Sermon.
2 Samuel xiv. 14. — For we must needs die, and are as
water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up
TAY. VOL. IV. ,b

VI CONTENTS. FACE
again : neither doth God respect any person ; yet doth he
devise means, that his banished be not expelled from him. 87
IX.— The Minister's Duty in Life and Doctrine. — In Two Parts.
Titus it. 7, 8. — In all things showing thyself a pattern
of good works : in doctrine showing uncorruptness, gravity,
sincerity ; sound speech that camiot be condemned ; that
he that is of the contrary part, may be ashamed, having no
evil thing- to say of you  125

Sir George Dalston's Funeral Sermon.
1 Corinthians xv. 19. — If in this life only we have
hope in Christ, we are, of all men, most miserable. . . 185
Preached on the Anniversary of the Gunpowder Treason.
Luke ix. 54. — But when James and John saw this, they
said. Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down
from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did? . 227
Contemplations of the State of Man. ..... 289

VIA iNtelligenti^.

SERMON

PREACHED TO THl-

UNIVERSITY OF DUBLIN,
Showing by \vh.4T means the scholars shall become 9K»,sr
LEARNED AND MOST USEFUL.

TAY. VOL. IV.

TO

THE READER.

Peace is so great a blessing, and disputations and questions in re
ligion are so little friends to peace, that I have thought no man's
time can be better spent than in propositions and promotions of
peace, and consequently in finding expedients, and putting periods
to all contentious learning. I have already, in a Discourse before
the Right Honorable the Lords and Commons assembled in this
Parliament, proved that obedience is the best medium of peace and
true religion ; and laws are the only common term and certain rule
and measure of it. Vocata ad conciunem multitudine, quai coalescere
in populi unius corpus nulla re, prcBterquam legihus, poterat, said
Livy.* Obedience to man is the external instrument, and the best
in the world. To which I now add, that obedience to God is the
internal instrument ; and I have proved it in this Discourse. Peace
and holiness are twin sisters ; after which because every man is
bound to follow, and he that does not shall never see God, I con
cluded that the ofBce of a bishop is in nothing so signally to be ex
hibited, as in declaring by what means these great duties and bless
ings are to be acquired. This way I have here described, is an old
way ; for it was Christ's way, and therefore it is truth and life ; but
it hath been so little regarded, and so seldom taught, that when I
first spake my thoughts of it, in the following words, before the
little, but excellent university of Dublin, they consented fo it so
perfectly, and so piously entertained it, that they were pleased,
with some earnestness, to desire me to publish it to the world, and
to consign it to them as a perpetual memorial of their duty, and of
* Lib. i. cap. 8.

4 TO THE HEADER.
my regards to them, and care over them in my station. I was very
desirous to serve and please them in all their worthy desires, but
had found so much reason to distrust my own abilities, that I could
not resolve to do what I fain would have done, till by a second com
munication of those thoughts, though in differing words, I had pub
lished it also to my clergy, at the metropolitical visitation of the
most Reverend and Learned Lord Primate of Armagh, in my own
diocese. But when I found that they also thought it very reason
able and pious, and joined in the desire of making it public, I con
sented perfectly, and now only pray to God it may do that work
which I intended. I have often thought of those excellent words
of Mr. Hooker, in his very learned Discourse of Justification :
" Such is the untoward constitution of our nature, that we do
neither so perfectly understand the way and knowlege of the Lord,
nor so stedfastly embrace it when it is understood, nor so gra
ciously utter it when it is embraced, nor so peaceably maintain it
when it is uttered, but that the best of us are overtaken, sometimes
through blindness, sometimes through hastiness, sometimes through
impatience, sometimes through other passions of the mind, where-
unto (God knows) we are too subject." That I find by true expe
rience ; the best way of learning and peace, is that which cures all
these evils, as far as in the world they are curable, and that is the
ways of holiuess, which are, therefore, the best and only way of
truth. In disputations there is no end, and but very little advan
tage ; but the way of godliness hath in it no error and no doubtful
ness. By this, therefore, I hoped best to apply the counsel of the
wise man : ' Stand thou fast in thy sure understanding, in the way
and knowlege of the Lord, and have but one manner of word, and
follow the word of peace and righteousness.'* I have reason to be
confident that they who desired me to publish this Discourse, will
make use of it, and find benefit by it: and if any others do so loo,
both they and I shall still more and more give God all thanks, and
praise, and glory. * Ecclus. v. 10. Vulg. Edit. Lat.

SERMONS.

SUMMARY OF SERMON VI.
JOHN, CHAP. VII. — VERSE 17.
Preliminary observations, on the peaceable nature of
Christianity, and the folly or -wickedness of quarrels and dis
sensions which men raise about it. Let us then go to Christ
for the truth, and he will tell us an easy way of ending our
quarrels ; by ' doing the -will of God.' First considerations
on the ways which men have propounded to find out truth, on
the foundation of which Christian peace might be established.
1. That there is but one true way, all are agreed on ; and
therefore almost every church, that lives under a government,
proposes a collective body of articles, and calls this the true
religion, &c. ; bu^ of this there can be no end, or agreement,
&c. 2. Others recommend submission to an infallible guide ; and
this is the way of the Bomish church : reasons against such a
method urged.
3. Some wise men have undertaken to reconcile the differ
ences of Christendom by away of moderation and mutual con
cession : instances of proposers, and of synods held for this pur
pose : also causes of its failure.
4. Others endeavor to make the matter clear by plain state-

6 SUMMARY OF
ments, and intelligible definitions, &c. This would be a good
way, if all men were wise and considerate, &c.
5. As a last remedy, some good men have proposed a way
of peace, rather than of truth ; i. e. that all opinions should be
tolerated, and none persecuted. Reasonableness of this rule
stated : also the reasons which prevent the effects desired.
What then is to be done ? Must truth be for ever in the
dark, and the world for ever divided and disturbed ? The wise
Governor of the world has not here forsaken us ; he has given
us excellent directions. Observations on the question, ' What
is truth ?' and on our means of discovering it. As God is
the author, so he is the teacher of truth ; and the way to learn
it, is to follow the words of the text.
In the handling of this text, it is considered, first, that the
certain causes of our errors are nothing but direct sins, &c. :
next, that holiness is the only way of truth and understanding.
1. No man understands the word of God, as it ought to be
understood, unless he lays aside all affections to sin : for Ari
stotle himself observes, that " wickedness corrupts a man's rea
soning':" it gives him false principles and measures of things :
this topic enlarged on and illustrated.
2. He that means to understand the will of God and the
truth of religion, must lay aside all inordinate affections to the
world. Instance of the Jews, whose hearts were blinded by
their hopes, which dwelt on secular advantages : this topic
dilated on.
3. No nian, how learned soever, can understand the word of
God, or be at peace in the questions of religion, unless he be
master of his passions : this also enlarged on. Thus it appears
that our evil life is the cause of our quarrels and ignorance in
religion. The right way of knowlege is next to be described.
" Do God's will, and you shall understand his word."
1. In this inquiry, one thing must be taken for a prcBcogni-
tum, that every good man is OeobibaKTos, is " taught of God."

SERMON VI. 7
And therefore it naturally follows, that by how much nearer
we are to God, by so much better we are likely to be instructed.
This being supposed, we can easily proceed in the economy of
this Divine philosophy : for,
2. There is, in every righteous man, a new vital principle ;
the Spirit of Grace is the Spirit of wisdom, and teaches us by
secret inspirations, by proper arguments, by actual persuasions,
by personal applications, by effects and energies : and as the
soul of a man is the cause of all his vital operations, so is the
Spirit of God the life of that life, and the cause of all actions
and productions spiritual : this topic fully enlarged on and
illustrated. 3. Sometimes God gives to his choicest, his most elect and
precious servants, a knowlege even of secret things, which he
communicates not to others. Instance of Abraham, and of
Daniel : this promised to be the lot of the righteous man in the
days of the Messias.
4. A good life is the best way to understand wisdom and re
ligion ; because by the experiences and relishes of religion,
there is conveyed to us a sweetness, to which all wicked men
are strangers.
5. Lastly, there is a sort of God's dear servants, who walk
in perfectness ; who ' perfect holiness in the fear of God;' and
they have a degree of clarity and divine knowlege more than
we can discourse of, or conceive; and this is called by the
Apostle, avavyaa/xa tov 0eo5. Christ is this ' brightness of
God,' manifested in the hearts of his dearest servants, &c. But
that we may not dwell on things mysterious, how is it effected,
that a holy life is the best determination of all questions, and
the surest way of knowlege ?
1. It is effected by holiness as a proper and natural instru
ment : for as the eye sees visible objects, and the understanding
perceives intellectual objects, so does the Spirit perceive the
things of the Spirit. ' The natural man knows not the things

8 SUMMARY OF SERMON VI.
of God ; for they are spiritually discerned.' This topic en
larged on.
.2. Holiness is not only an advantage in the learning of wis
dom and righteousness, but in the discerning that which is wise
and holy from what is trifling, useless, and contentious : to one
of these heads all questions will return ; and therefore, in all,
we have from holiness the best instructions : this subject en
larged on.
3. Holine,ss of life is the best way of finding out truth and
understanding; not only as a natural medium, nor only as a
prudent medium, but as a means by way of Divine blessing.
We have a promise of this in St. John's Gospel, ch. xiv. 21. ;
and on this we may rely : this subject considered at large.
4. When this is reduced to practice and experience, we find
not only in things of practice, but even in deepest mysteries,
that every good man can best tell what is true, and best reprove
an error : this subject enlarged on.
A pplication of the doctrine of the text. It is a sure rule, if
the holy man best understands wisdom and religion, then, by
the proportions of holiness we shall best measure the doctrines
that are obtruded on us. And therefore,
1. That is no good religion, whose principles destroy any
duty of religion.
2, It is but a bad sign of holiness when a man is busy in
troubling himself and his superiors in little scruples and fan
tastic notions about things which do not concern the life of re
ligion, or the pleasure of God, &c.
3. That is no good religion that disturbs governments, or
«hakes the foundation of public peace.
Concluding exhortations, to such as are, or intend to be, of
the clerical order : that they see here the best compendium of
their studies, the truest method of wisdom, and the only infal
lible way of judging concerning the disputes or questions of the
Christian church.

PREACHED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF DUBLIN.

SERMON VI.
VIA INTELLIGENTI/E.

JOHN, CHAP. VII. — VERSE 17.
If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, wliether
it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.
The ancients, in their mythological learning, tell us, that
when Jupiter espied the men of the world striving for Truth,
and pulling her in pieces to secure her to themselves, he sent
Mercury down amongst them ; and he, with his usual arts,
dressed Error up in the imagery of Truth, and thrust her into
the crowd, and so left them to contend still : and though then,
by contention, men were sure to get but little truth, yet they
were as earnest as ever, and lost peace too, in their importune
contentions for the very image of truth. And this, indeed, is no
wonder ; but when truth and peace are brought into the world
together, and bound up in the same bundle of life; when we
are taught a religion by the Prince of peace, who is the truth it
self; to see men contending for this truth, to the breach of that
peace ; and when men fall out, to see that they should make
Christianity their theme, that is one of the greatest wonders in
the world. For Christianity is ij/jepos kqI (piXavOpunros vofxoBeala,
" a soft and gentle institution ;" hypbv cai fxeiXi'xpv 7idos : it was
brought into the world to soften the asperities of human nature,
and to cure the barbarities of evil men, and the contentions of
the passionate. The eagle, seeing her breast wounded, and
espying the arrow that hurt her, to be feathered, cried out,
Ilrfpdc /je TOV irrepiarov dWvei, "The feathered nation is de
stroyed by their own feathers;" that is, a Christian fighting

10 JEREMY TAYLOR.— SERMON VI.
and wrangling with a Christian ; and, indeed, that is very sad :
but wrangling about peace too, that peace itself should be the
argument of a war, that is unnatural: and if it were not that
there are many who are homines multce religionis, nullius pcene
pietatis, " men of much religion and little godliness,'' — it would
not be that there should be so many quarrels in and concerning
that religion, which is wholly made up of truth and peace, and
was sent amongst us to reconcile the hearts of men, when they
were tempted to uncharitableness by any other unhappy argu
ment. Disputation cures no vice, but kindles a great many,
and makes passion evaporate into sin : and though men esteem
it learning, yet it is the most useless learning in the world.
When Eudamidas, the son of Archidamus, heard old Xeno-
crates disputing about wisdom, he asked very soberly, " If the
old man be yet disputing and inquiring concerning wisdom,
what time will he have to make use of it ?" Christianity is all
for practice ; and so much time as is spent in quarrels about it,
is a diminution to its interest. Men inquire so much what it is,
that they have but little time left to be Christians. I remember
a saying of Erasmus, "that when he first read the New Testa
ment, with fear and a good mind, with a purpose to understand
it and obey it, he found it very pleasant ; but when, afterwards,
he fell on reading the vast differences of commentaries, then he
understood it less than he did before, then he began not to un
derstand it:" for, indeed, the truths of God are best dressed in
the plain culture and simplicity of the Spirit ; but the truths
that men commonly teach, are like the reflections of a multi-
plying-glass ; for one piece of good money, you shall have forty
that are fantastical ; and it is forty to one if your finger hit on
the right. Men have wearied themselves in the dark, having
been amused with false fires ; and instead of going home, have
wandered all night kv bho'is aftdrois, " in untrodden, unsafe,
uneasy ways ;" but have not found out what their soul desires.
But, therefore, since we are so miserable, and are in error,
and have wandered very far, we must do as wandering travel
lers use to do, go back just to that place from whence they
wandered, and begin on a new account. Let us go to the
truth itself, to Christ; and he will tell us an easy way of ending
all our quarrels : for we shall find Christianity to be the

PREACHED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF DUBLIN, 11
easiest and the hardest thing in the world : it is like a secret in
arithmetic, infinitely hard till it be found out by a right opera
tion ; and then it is so plain, we wonder we did not understand
it earlier. Christ's way of finding out of truth, is by ' doing the will of
God.' We will try that by and by, if possibly we may find
that easy and certain : in the mean time, let us consider what
ways men have propounded to find out truth, and on the foun
dation of that to establish peace in Christendom.
1. That there is but one true way, is agreed on ; and there
fore almost every church of one denomination that lives under
government, propounds to you a system or collective body of
articles, and tells you that is the true religion, and they are the
church, and the peculiar people of God ; like Brutus and Cas-
sius, of whom one says, Ubicurique ipsi essent, prcetexebant esse
rempublicam, " They supposed themselves were the common
wealth ;" and these are the church, and out of this church they
will hardly allow salvation: but of this there can be no end;
for divide the church into twenty parts, and in what part soever
your lot falls, you and your party are damned by the other nine-r
teen ; and men on all hands almost keep their own proselytes
by affrighting them with the fearful sermons of damnation : but,
in the mean time, here is no security to them, that are not able
to judge for themselves, and no peace for them that are.
2. Others cast about to cure this evil, and conclude that it
must be done by submission to an infallible guide ; this must do
it or nothing ; and this is the way of the church of Rome ; fol
low but the pope and his clergy, and you are safe, at least as
safe as their warrant can make you. Indeed, this were a very
good way, if it were a way at all ; but it is none ; for this can
never end our controversies : not only because the greatest con
troversies are about this infallible guide ; but also because, 1.
We cannot find that there is, on earth, any such guide at all.
2. We do not find it necessary that there should. 3. We find
that they who pretend to be this infallible guide, are themselves
infinitely deceived. 4. That they do not believe themselves to
be infallible, whatever they say to us ; because they do not put
an end to all their own questions, that trouble them. 5. Be
cause they have no peace, but what is constrained by force and

12 JEREMY TAYLOR. — SERMON VI.
government. 6. And lastly, because if there were such a
guide, we should fail of truth by many other causes : for, it
may be, that guide would not do his duty; or we are fallible
followers of this infallible leader ; or we should not upderstand
his meaning at all times, or we should be perverse at some times,
or something as bad ; because we all confess, that God is an in
fallible guide, and that some way or other he does teach us suf
ficiently, and yet it does come to pass, by our faults, that we
are as far to seek for peace and truth as ever.
3. Some very wise men, finding this to fail, have undertaken
to reconcile the differences of Christendom by a way of mode
ration. Thus they have projected to reconcile the papists and
the Lutherans, the Lutherans and the Calvinists, the remon
strants and contra-remonstrants, and project, that each side
should abate of their asperities, and pare away something of
their propositions, and join in common terms and phrases of ac
commodation, — each of them sparing something, and promising
they shall have a great deal of peace for the exchange of a little
of their opinion. This was the way of Cassander, Modrevius,
Andreas Frisius, Erasmus, Spalato, Grotius, and, indeed, of
Charles the Fifth, in part, but something more heartily of Fer
dinand the Second. This device produced the conferences at
Poissy, at Montpelier, at Ratisbon, at the Hague, at many
places more : and what was the event of these ? Their parties,
when their delegates returned, either disclaimed their modera
tion, — or their respective princes had some other ends to serve,
— or they permitted the meetings on uncertain hopes, and a
trial if any good might come ; or, it may be, they were both in
the wrong, and their mutual abatement was nothing but a mu
tual quitting of what they could not get, and the shaking hands
of false friends ; or, it may be, it was all of it nothing but hypo
crisy and arts of craftiness, and, like Lucian's man, every one
could be a man and a pestle when he pleased. And the Coun
cil of Trent, though under another cover, made use of the arti
fice, but made the secret manifest and common : for at this day
tlie Jesuits, in the questions de auxiliis Divines gratia, have
prevailed with the Dominicans to use their expressions, and yet
they think, they still keep the sentence of their own order. From
hence can succeed nothing but folly and a fantastic peace : this

PREACHED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF DUBLIN. 13
is but the skinning of an old sore ; it will break out on all occa
sions. 4. Others, who understand things beyond the common rate,
observing that many of our controversies and peevish wranglings
are kept up by the ill stating of the question, endeavor to de
clare things wisely, and make the matter intelligible, and the
words clear ; hoping, by this means, to cut off all disputes.
Indeed this is a very good way, so far as it can go ; and would
prevail very much, if all men were wise, and would consent to
those statings, and would not fall out on the main inquiry,
when it were well stated : but we find, by a sad experience,
that few questions are well stated ; and when they are, they
are not consented to ; and when they are agreed on by both
sides that they are well stated, it is nothing else but a drawing
up the armies in battalia with great skill and discipline; the
next thing they do is, they thrust their swords into one an
other's sides.
5. What remedy after all this ? Some other good men have
propounded one way yet ; but that is a way of peace, rather
than truth ; and that is, that all opinions should be tolerated,
and none persecuted, and then all the world will be at peace.
Indeed, this relies on a great reasonableness; not only because
opinions cannot be forced, but because if men receive no hurt,
it is to be hoped they will do none. But we find that this
alone will not do it ; for besides that all men are not so just as
not to do any injury, — for some men begin the evil ; besides
this, I say, there are very many men amongst us, who are not
content that you permit thena ; for they will not permit you,
but ' rule over your faith,' and say that their way is not only
true, but necessary ; and therefore the truth of God is at stake,
and all indifference and moderation is carnal wisdom, and want
of zeal for God ; nay, more than so, they preach for toleration
when themselves are under the rod, who, when they got the
rod into their own hands, thought toleration itself to be into
lerable. Thus do the papists, and thus the Calvinists; and,
for their cruelty, they pretend charity. They will, indeed,
force you to come in, but it is in true zeal for your soul ; and
if they do you violence, it is no more than if they pull your arm
out of joint, when, to save you from drowning, they draw you

14 JEREMY TAYLOR. — SERMON VI.
out of a river ; and if you complain, it is no more to be re
garded than the outcries of children against their rulers, or sick
men against physicians. But as to the thing itself, the truth is,
it is better in contemplation than practice ; for reckon all that
is got by it, when you come to handle it, and it can never
satisfy for the infinite disorders happening in the government;
the scandal to religion, the secret dangers to public societies,
the growth of heresy, the nursing up of parties to a grandeur so
considerable, as to be able, in their own time, to change the
laws and the government. So that if the question be, whether
mere opinions are to be persecuted, — it is certainly true, they
ought not. But if it be considered how, by opinions, men rifle
the aft'airs of kingdoms, it is also as certain, they ought not to
be made public and permitted. And what is now to be done 1
Must truth for ever be in the dark, and the world for ever be
divided, and societies disturbed, and governments weakened,
and our s[jirits debauched with error, and the uncertain opinions
and the pedantry of talking men ? Certainly there is no way
to cure all this evil ; and the wise Governor of all the world
hath not been wanting in so necessary a matter as to lead us
into all truth. But the way hath not yet been hit on, and yet
I have told you all the ways of man, and his imaginations, in
order to truth and peace : and you see these will not do ; we
can find no rest for the soles of our feet, amidst all the waters
of contention and disputations, and little artifices of divided
schools. ' Every man is a liar,' and his understanding is
weak, and his propositions uncertain, and his opinions trifling,
and his contrivances imperfect, ^and neither truth nor peace
does come from man. I know I am in an auditory of inquisitive
persons, whose business is to study for truth, that they may find
it for themselves, and teach it unto others. I am in a school of
prophets and prophets' sons, who all ask Pilate's question,
' What is truth V You look for it in your books, and you
tug hard for it in your disputations, and you derive it from the
cisterns of the fathers, and you inquire after the old ways, and
sometimes are taken with new appearances, and you reioice in
false lights, or are delighted with little umbrages and peep of
day. But where is there a man, or a society of men, that can
be at rest in his inquiry, and is sure he understands all the

PREACHED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF DUBLIN. 15
truths of God ? Where is there a man, but the more he studies
and inquires, still he discovers nothing so clearly as his own
ignorance ? This is a demonstration that we are not in the right
way, that we do not inquire wisely, that our method is not arti
ficial. If men did fall on the right way, it were impossible so
many learned men should be engaged in contrary parties and
opinions. We have examined all ways but one, all but God's
way. Let us, having missed in all the other, try this ; let us
go to God for truth ; for truth comes from God only, and his
ways are plain, and his sayings are true, and his promises ' Yea
and Amen ;' and if we miss the truth, it is because we will not
find it; for certain it is, that all that truth which God hath
made necessary, he hath also made legible and plain ; and if we
will open our eyes, we shall see the sun ; and if ' we will walk
in the light, we shall rejoice in the light;' only let us withdraw
the curtains, let us remove the ' impediments, and the sin that
doth so easily beset us ;' that is God's way. Every man must, in
his station, do that portion of duty which God requires of him,
and then he shall be taught of God all that is fit for him to learn.
There is no other way for him but this. ' The fear of the Lord is
the beginning of wisdom, and a good understanding have all
they that do thereafter.''* And so said David of himself, ' I have
more understanding than my teachers ; because I keep thy
commandments. 't And this is the only way which Christ hath
taught us. If you ask, ' What is truth?' you must not do as
Pilate did — ask the question, and then go away from him that
only can give you an answer ; for as God is the author of truth,
so is he the teacher of it; and the way to learn it is this of
my text : for so saith our blessed Lord, ' If any man will do
his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God or
no.' My text is simple as truth itself, but greatly comprehensive,
and contains a truth that alone will enable you to understand
all mysteries, and to expound all prophecies, and to interpret
all scriptures, and to search into all secrets; all, I mean, which
concern our happiness and our duty : and, it being an affir
mative hypothetical, is plainly to be resolved into this propo-
' Ps. cxi. 10. t Ps- cxix.

16 JEREMY TAYLOR. — SERMON VI.
sition, — " The' way to judge of religion is by doing of our duty:
and theology is rather a Divine life than a Divine knowlege."
In heaven, indeed, we shall first see, and then love; but here
on earth, we must first love, and love will open our eyes as
well as our hearts ; and we shall then see, and perceive, and
understand. In the handling of which proposition, I shall first represent
to you, that — the certain causes of our errors are nothing but
direct sins, — nothing makes us fools and ignorants but living
vicious lives ; and then I shall proceed to the direct demon
stration of the article in question, that — holiness is the only way
of truth and understanding.
1. No man understands the word of God, as it ought to be
anderstood, unless he lays aside all affections to sin : of which
because we have taken very little care, the product hath been,
that we have had very little wisdom, and very little knowlege,
in the ways of God. Ka/cia earl (pQapTiKij rijs apxTjs, said Ari
stotle ; " Wickedness does corrupt a man's reasoning ;'' it gives
him false principles and evil measures of things; the sweet
wine that Ulysses gave to the Cyclops, put his eye out; and a
man that hath contracted evil affections, and made a league
with sin, sees only by those measures. A covetous man under
stands nothing to be good that is not profitable ; and a volup
tuous man likes your reasoning well enough, if you discourse of
bonum jihcundum, the pleasures of the sense, the ravishments of
lust, the noises and inadvertencies, the mirth and sougs of
merry company ; but if you talk to him of the melancholy lec
tures of the cross, the contentof resignation, the peace of meek
ness, and the joys of the Holy Ghost, and of rest in God, after
your long discourse, and his great silence, he cries out, " What
is the matter?" He knows not what you mean. Either you
must fit his humor, or change your discourse.
I remember that Arrian tells of a gentleman that was ba
nished from Rome, and in his sorrow visited the philosopher,
and he heard him talk wisely, and believed him, and promised
him to leave all the thoughts of Rome, and splendors of the
court, and retire to the course of a severe philosophy ; but
before the good man's lectures were done, there came TnvaKlles
awo TOV Kataapos, " letters from Caesar," to recall him home

PREACHED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF DUBLIN. 17
to give him pardon, and promise him great employment. He
presently grew weary of the good man's sermon, and wished he
would make an end, thought his discourse was dull and flat ;
for his head and heart were full of another story and new prin
ciples ; and by these measures he could hear only, and he
could understand.*
Every man understands by his affections more than by his
reason : and when the wolf in the fable went to school to learn
to spell, whatever letters were told him, he could never make
any thing of them but agnus; he thought of nothing but his
belly : and if a man be very hungry, you must give him meat
before you give him counsel. A man's mind must be like your
proposition, before it can be entertained; for whatever you put
into a man, it will smell of the vessel : it is a man's mind that
gives the emphasis, and makes your argument to prevail.
And on this account it is, that there are so many false doc
trines in the only article of repentance. Men know they must
repent, but the definition of repentance they take from the con
venience of their own affairs: what they will not part with,
that is not necessary to be parted with ; and they will repent,
not restore : they will say Nollem factum, "they wish they had
never done it;" but since it is done, you must give them leave
to rejoice in their purchase : they will ask forgiveness of God ;
but they sooner forgive themselves, and suppose that God is of
their mind : if you tie them to hard terms, your doctrine is not
to be understood : or it is but one doctor's opinion, — ^and,
therefore, they will fairly take their leave, and get them an
other teacher.
What makes these evil, these dangerous and desperate doc
trines ? Not the obscurity of the thing, but the cloud on the
heart ; for say you what you will, he that hears must be the
expounder, and we can never suppose but a man will give sen
tence in behalf of what he passionately loves. And so it comes
to pass, that, as Rabbi Moses observed, God, for the greatest
sin, imposed the least oblation, as a she-goat for the sin of ido
latry ; for a woman accused of idolatry, a barley cake : so do
most men ; they think to expiate the worst of their sins with a
* Upton, vol. i. p. 60,

18 JEREMY TAYLOR. — SERMON VI.
trifling, with a pretended, little, insignificant repentance. God,
indeed, did so, that the cheapness of the oblation might teach
them to hope for pardon, not from the ceremony, but from a
severe internal repentance: but men take any argument to
lessen their repentance, that they may not lessen their plea-f
sures or their estates,^and that repentance may be nothing
but a word, — and mortification signify nothing against their
pleasures, but be a term of art only, fitted for the schools
or for the pulpit, — but nothing relative to practice, or the
extermination of their sin. So that it is no wonder we un
derstand so little of religion : it is because we are in love with
that which destroys it ; and as a man does not care to hear
what does not please him, so neither does he believe it; he can
not, he will not understand it.
And the same is the case in the matter of pride ; the church
hath extremely suffered by it in many ages. Arius missed a
bishopric, and, therefore, turned heretic ; irapaaae rnv eMXriaiav,
saith the story; " he disturbed and shaked the church;" for
he did not understand this truth, — that the peace of the church
was better than the satisfaction of his person , or the promoting
his foolish opinion. And do not we see and feel, that, at this
very day, the pride of men makes it seem impossible for many
persons to obey their superiors ? and they do not see what they
can read every day, that it is a sin ' to speak evil of dignities.'
A man would think it a very easy thing to understand the
thirteenth chapter to the Romans, ' Whosoever resisteth the
power, resisteth the ordinance of God :' and yet we know a
generation of men, to whom these words were so obscure, that
they thought it lawful to fight against their king. A man
would think it easy to believe, that those who were ' in the
gainsaying of Korah,' who rose up against the high priest, were
in a very sad condition : and yet there are too many amongst
us, who are in the gainsaying of Korah, and think they do very
well ; that they are the godly party, and the good people of
God. Why ? What is the matter ? In the world there can be
nothing plainer than these words ' Let every soul be subject to
the higher powers ;' and that you need not make a scruple whp
are these higher powers, it is as plainly said, ' There is no power
but of God ;' all that are set over you by the laws of your nation.

PREACHED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF DUBLIN. ID
these ' are over you in the Lord :' and yet men will not un
derstand these plain things ; they deny to do their notorious
duty, and yet believe they are in the right ; and if they some
times obey ' for wrath,' they oftener disobey for ' conscience
sake.' Where is the fault? The words are plain, the duty is
certain, the book lies open ; but, alas! 'it is sealed within,'
that is, ' men have eyes and will not see, ears and will not
hear.' But the wonder is the less ; for we know when God
said to Jonah, ' Doest thou well to be angry ?' he answered God
to his face, ' I do well to be angry even unto the death.' Let
God declare his mind never so plainly, if men will not lay aside
the evil principle that is within, their open love to their secret
sin, they may kill an Apostle, and yet be so ignorant as to
' think they do God good service ;' they may disturb kingdoms,
and break the peace of a well-ordered church, and rise up
against their fathers, and be cruel to their brethren, and stir up
the people to sedition ; and all this with a cold stomach and a
hot liver, with a hard heart and a tender conscience, with hum
ble carriage and a proud spirit. For thus men hate repentance,
because they scorn to confess an error; they will not return to
peace and truth, because they fear to lose the good opinion of
the people, whom themselves have cozened ; they are afraid to
be good, lest they should confess they have formerly done amiss :
and he, that observes how much evil is done, and how many
heresies are risen, and how much obstinacy and unreasonable
perseverance in folly dwells in the world on the stock of pride, — -
may easily conclude, that no learning is sufficient to make a
proud man understand the truth of God, unless he first learn to
be humble. But Obedite et intelligetis, saith the prophet ;
' Obey,' and be humble; leave the foolish affections of sin,
' and then ye shall understand.' That is the first particular :
all remaining affections to sin hinder the learning and under
standing of the things of God.
2. He that means to understand the will of God and the
truth of religion, must lay aside all inordinate affections to the
world. St. Paul complained that there was at ' that day a veil
on the hearts of the Jews, in the reading of the Old Testament;'*
they looked for a temporal prince to be their Messias, and their
* 2 Cor. iii. 14.

20 JEREMY TAYLOR. — SERMON VI.
affections and hopes dwelt in secular advantages ; and so long
as that veil was there, they could not see, and they would not
accept, the poor, despised Jesus.
For the things of the world, besides that they entangle one
another, and make much business, and spend much time, they
also take up the attentions of a man's mind, and spend his fa
culties, and make them trifling and secular with the very
handling and conversation. And therefore the Pythagoreans
taught their disciples j^wpKr/ior diro tov aoiftaTOs, els to koXUs
^iXoo-o^eij/, " a separation from the things of the body, if they
would purely find out truth and the excellencies of wisdom."
Had not he lost his labor, that would have discoursed wisely
to Apicius, and told him of the books of fate and the secrets of
the other world, the abstractions of the soul, and its brisker
immortality, that saints and angels eat not, and that the spirit
of a man lives for ever on wisdom, and holiness, and contem
plation ? The fat glutton would have stared awhile on the
preacher, and then have fallen asleep. But if you had dis
coursed well and knowingly of a lamprey, a large mullet, or a
hoar, animal propter convivia natum, and have sent him a copk
from Asia to make new sauces, he would have attended care
fully, and taken in your discourses greedily. And so it is in
the questions and secrets of Christianity ; which made St. Paul,
when he intended to convert Felix, discourse first with him
about ' temperance, righteousness, and judgment to come.'
He began in the right point; he knew it was to no purpose to
preach Jesus Christ crucified to an intemperate person, to a
usurper of other men's rights, to one whose soul dwelt in the
world, and cared not for the sentence of the last day. The
philosophers began their wisdom with the meditation of death,
and St. Paul his with the discourse of the day of judgment ; to
take the heart off from this world and the amabilities of it,
which dishonor and baffle the understanding, and made Solo
mon himself become a child, and fooled into idolatry, by the
prettiness of a talking woman. Men, now-a-days, love not a
reUgion that will cost them dear. If your doctrine calls on
men to part with any considerable part of their estates, you
must pardon them if they cannot believe you ; they understand
it not. I shall give you one great instance of it.

PREACHED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF DUBLIN. 21,
When we consider the infinite unreasonableness that is in
the popish religion, how against common sense their doctrine
of transubstantiation is, how against the common experience
of human nature is the doctrine of the pope's infallibility,
how against Scripture is the doctrine of indulgences and purga<
tory ; we may well think it a wonder, that no more men are
persuaded to leave such unlearned follies. But then, on the
other side, the wonder will cease, if we mark how many tem
poral ends are served by these doctrines. If you destroy the
doctrine of purgatory and indulgences, you take away the
priest's income, and make the see apostolic to be poor ; if you
deny the pope's infallibility, you will despise his authority, and
examine his propositions, and discover his failing, and put him
to answer hard arguments, and lessen his power : and, indeed,
when we run through all the propositions of difference between
them and us, and see that, in every one of them, they serve an
end of money or of power ; it will be very visible that the way
to confute them is not by learned disputations, — for we see
they have been too long without effect, and without prospe
rity : the men must be cured of their affections to the world,
ut 7iudi nudum sequantur crucifixum, " that with naked and
divested affections they might follow the naked crucified Jesus;"
and then they would soon learn the truths of God, which, till
then, will be impossible to be apprehended. 'Ei/ vpoairot^aet
i^rjyt'iaetas rci eavrwv Tiapeiadyovatv, " Men," as St. Basil says,
" when they expound Scripture, always bring in something
of themselves :" but till there be, as one said, avitfiaais en tov
(TirriXalnv , "a rising out" from their own seats, until they go
out " from their dark dungeons," they can never see the light of
heaven. And how many men are there amongst us, who are,
therefore, enemies to the religion, because it seems to be against
their profit ? The argument of Demetrius is unanswerable :
' ^y this craft they get their livings :' leave them in their
livings, and they will let your religion alone ; if not, they think
they have reason to speak against it. When men's souls are
possessed with the world, their souls cannot be invested with
holy truths. Xp)) airb tovtwv avrtju \pv)(riv \lru^ovadai, as St.
Isidore said : "The soul must be " informed, " ensouled," or
animated with the propositions that you put in ; or you shall

22 JEREMY TAYLOR. — SERMON VI.
never do any good, or get disciples to Christ. Now because a
man cannot serve two masters; because he cannot vigorously
attend two objects ; because there can be but one soul in any
living creature ; if the world have got possession, talk no more
of your questions, shut your bibles, and read no more of the
words of God to them, for they cannot tell of ' the doctrine,
whether it be of God, or of the world.' That is the second
particular : worldly affections hinder true understandings in
religion. 3. No man, how learned soever, can understand the word
of God, or be at peace in the questions of religion, unle-ss he
be a master over his passions :
Tu quoque si vis lumine claro
Cerncie verum, gaudia pelle,
Pelle timorem : nuljila mens est
Vinctaqne frsenis, hsec ubi regnant,
said the wise Boethius ; a man must first learn himself before
he can learn God. Tua te fallit imago : nothing deceives a
man so soon as a man's self ; when a man is (that I may use
Plato's expression) avfifreipvpnevos rfj yeveaei, " mingled with
his nature," and his congenial infirmities of anger and desire,
he can never have any thing but apvhp'ov hi'ilav, " a knowlege
partly moral and partly natural :" his whole life is but ima
gination ; his knowlege is inclination and opinion; he judges
of heavenly things by the measures of his fears and his de
sires ; and his reason is half of it sense, and determinable by
the principles of sense. E5ye on (piKuaofels ev TtaBeut, then "a
man learns well, when he is a philosopher in his passions."*
Passionate men are to be taught the first elements of religion;
and let men pretend to as much learning as they pleas^ they
must begin again at Christ's cross ; they must learn true morti
fication and crucifixion of their anger and desires, before they
can be good scholars in Christ's school, — or be admitted into
the more secret inquiries of religion, — or profit in spiritual
understanding. It was an excellent proverb of the Jews, In
passionibus Spiritus Sanctus nan habitat, " The Holy Ghost
* Nazianz. ad Philagrium.

PREACHED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF DUBLIN. 23
never dwells in the house of passion." Truth enters into the
heart of man, when it is empty, and clean, and still ; but when
the mind is shaken with passion as with a storm, you can never
hear the ' voice of the charmer, though he charm very wisely :'
and you will very hardly sheathe a sword, when it is held by a
loose and a paralytic arm. He that means to learn the secrets
of God's wisdom, must be, as Plato says, t^v XoyiKriv S.wi)v
ovaiwpivos, " his soul must be consubstantiated with reason,''
tiot invested with passion : to him that is otherwise, things are
but in the dark, his notion is obscure, and his sight troubled ;
and, therefore, though we often meet with passionate fools, yet
we seldom or never hear of a very passionate wise man.
I have now done with the first part of my undertaking, and
proved to you that our evil life is the cause of our controversies
and ignorances in religion and of the things of God. You see
what hinders us from becoming good divines. But all this
while, we are but in the preparation to the mysteries of godli
ness : when we have thrown off all affections to sin, when we
have stripped ourselves from all fond adherences to the things
of the world, and have broken the chains and dominion of our
passions; then we may say with David, Ecce paratum est cor
meum, Deus; ' My heart is ready, O God, my heart is ready:'
then we may say, ' Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth :' but
we are not yet instructed. It remains, therefore, that we in
quire what is that immediate principle or means, by which we
shall certainly and infallibly be let into all truth, and be taught
the mind of God, and understand all his secrets ; and this is
worth our knowlege. I cannot say that this will end your la
bors, and put a period to your studies, and make your learning
easy: it may possibly increase your labor, but it will make it
profitable; it will not end your studies, but it will direct them ;
it will not make human learning easy, but it will make it 'wise
unto salvation,' and conduct it into true notices and ways of
wisdom. I am now to describe to you the right way of knowlege.
Quifacit voluntatem Patris mei, saith Christ; that is the way;
do God's will, and you shall understand God's word. And it
was an excellent saying of St. Peter, ' Add to your faith

24 JEREMY TAYLOR. — SERMON VI.
virtue,'* &c. ' If these things be in you and abound, ye shall
not be unfruitful in the knowlege of our Lord Jesus Christ.'
For in this case, it is not enough that all our hinderances of
knowlege are removed ; for that is but the opening of the
covering of the book of God ; but when it is opened, it is writ
ten with a hand that every eye cannot read. Though the win
dows of the east be open, yet every eye cannot behold the glo
ries of the sun : '0^9aX/JOS firl i]\weibris yivoptevos ijXwv ov (3\e-
irei, saith Plotinus: " The eye that is not made solar, cannot
see the sun ;" — the eye must be fitted to the splendor ; and it is
not the wit of the man, but the spirit of the man ; not so much
his head as bis heart, that learns the Divine philosophy.
1. Now, in this inquiry, I must take one thing for aprcecog-
nitum, that every good man is deobibaKTos, he is " taught of
God :" and, indeed, unless he teach us, we shall make but ill
scholars ourselves, and worse guides to others. Nemo potest
Deum scire, nisi a Deo doceatur, said St. Irenseus.f If God
teaches us, then all is well ; but if we do not learn wisdom at
his feet, from whence should we have it ? it can come from no
other spring. And, therefore, it naturally follows, that by how
much nearer we are to God, by so much better we are like lo
be instructed.
But this being supposed, as being most evident, we can
easily proceed, by wonderful degrees and steps of progression,
in the economy of this Divine philosophy: For,
2. There is, in every righteous man, a new vital principle;
the Spirit of grace is the Spirit of wisdom, and teaches us by
secret inspirations, by proper arguments, by actual persuasions,
by personal applications, by effects and energies : and as the
soul of a man is the cause of all his vital operations, so is the
Spirit of God the life of that life, and the cause of all actions
and productions spiritual : and the consequence of this is what
St. John tells us of, ' Ye have received the unction from above,
and that anointing teacheth you all things :'I All tilings of
some one kind ; that is, certainly, — all things that pertain to
life and godliness ; — all that by which a man is wise and happy.
* 2 Pet. i. 5. t Lib. vi. cap. 13. J 1 John, ii. 27.

PREACHED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF DUBLIN. 25
We see this by common experience. Unless the soul have a
new life put into it, unless there be a vital principle within,
unless the Spirit of life be the informer of the spirit of man, — the
word of God will be as dead in the operation, as the body in
its powers and possibilities. Sol et homo generant hominem,
saith our philosophy : " A man alone does not beget a man,
but a man and the sun ;" for without the influence of the ce
lestial bodies, all natural actions are ineffective : and so it is
in the operations of the soul.
Which principle, divers fanatics, both among us and in the
church of Rome, misunderstanding, look for new revelations,
and expect to be conducted by ecstasy, and will not pray but
in a transfiguration, and live on raptures and extravagant ex
pectations, and separate themselves from the conversation of
men, by affectations, by new measures and singularities, and
destroy order, and despise government, and live on illiterate
phantasms and ignorant discourses. These men do d/evbeadai
To"Ayioi' Ylvevfin, ' they belie the Holy Ghost :' for the Spirit
of God makes men wise : it is an evil spirit that makes them
fools. The Spirit of God makes us ' wise unto salvation ;' it
does not spend its holy influences in disguises and convulsions
of the understanding: God's Spirit does not destroy reason,
but heightens it; he never disorders the beauties of govern
ment, but is a God of order ; it is the Spirit of humility, and
teaches no pride ; he is to be found in churches and pulpits,
on altars, and in the doctors' chairs; not in conventicles, and
mutinous corners of a house : he goes in company with his own
ordinances, and makes progressions by the measures of life ;
his infusions are just as our acquisitions, and his graces pursue
the methods of nature : that which was imperfect, he leads on
to perfection ; and that which was weak, he makes strong : he
opens the heart, not to receive murmurs, or to attend to secret
whispers, but to hear the word of God ; and then he opens the
heart, and creates a new one ; and without this new creation,
this new principle of life, we may hear the word of God, but
we can never understand it ; we hear the sound, but are never
the better ; unless there be in our hearts a secret conviction by
the Spirit of God, the gospel itself is a dead letter, and vvork-
«th not in us the light and righteousness of God.
TAY. VOL. IV. B

26 JEREMY TAYLOR. — SERMON VI.
Do not we see this by daily experience ? Even those things
which a good man and an evil man know, they do not know
them hoth alike. A wicked man does know that good is lovely,
and sin is of an evil and destructive nature ; and when he is re
proved, he is convinced ; and when he is observed, he is
ashamed ; and when he has done, he is unsatisfied ; and when
he pursues his sin, he does it in the dark : tell him he shall die,
and he sighs deeply, but he knows it as well as you : proceed,
and say, that after death comes judgment, and the poor man
believes and trembles ; he knows that God is angry with him ;
and if you tell him, that for aught he knows he may be in hell
to-morrow, he knows that it is an intolerable truth, but it is
also undeniable : and yet, after all this, he runs to commit his
sin with as certain an event and resolution as if he knew no ar
gument against it : these notices of things terrible and true pass
through his understanding, as an eagle through the air ; as long
as her flight lasted, the air was shaken, but there remains no
path behind her.
Now since, at the same time, we see other persons, not so
learned, it may be, not so much versed in Scriptures, — yet they
say a thing is good and lay hold of it ; they believe glorious
things of heaven, and they live accordingly, as men that be
lieve themselves ; half a word is enough to make them under
stand; a nod is a sufficient reproof ; the crowing of a cock, the
singing of a lark, the dawning of the day, and the washing their
hands, are to them competent memorials of religion, and warn
ings of their duty. What is the reason of this difference ? They
both read the Scriptures, they read and hear the same sermons,
they have capable understandings, they both believe what they
hear and what they read, and yet the event is vastly different.
The reason is that which I am now speaking of; the one un
derstands by one principle, the other by another ; the one un
derstands by nature, and the other by grace ; the one by human
learning, and the other by Divine ; the one reads the Scrip
tures without, and the other within ; the one understands as a
son of man, the other as a son of God ; the one perceives by
the proportions of the world, and the other by the measures of
the Spirit; the one understands by reason, and the other by
love ; and therefore he does not only understand the sermons

PREACHED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF DUBLIN. 27
of the Spirit, and perceives their meaning, but he pierces
deeper, and knows the meaning of that meaning ; that is, the
secret of the Spirit, that which is spiritually discerned, that
which gives life to the proposition, and activity to the soul.
And the reason is, because he hath a divine principle within
him, and a new understanding ; that is plainly, he hath love,
and that is more than knowlege ; as was rarely well observed
by St. Paul, ' Knowlege puffeth up, but charity edifieth ;' that
is, charity makes the best scholars. No sermons can edify you,
no Scriptures can build you up a holy building to God, unless
the love of God be in your hearts, and ' purify your souls from
all filthiness of the flesh and spirit.'
.But so it is in the regions of the stars, where a vast body of
fire is so divided by eccentric motions, that it looks as if Nature
had parted them into orbs and round shells of plain and purest
materials : but where the cause is simple, and the matter without
variety, the motions must be uniform ; and in heaven we should
either espy no motion, or no variety. But God, who designed
the heavens to be the causes of all changes and motions here
below, hath placed his angels in their houses of light, and given
to every one of his appointed officers a portion of the fiery
matter to circumnavigate and roll ; and now the wonder ceases :
for if it be inquired why this part of the fire runs eastward, and
the other to the south, they being both indifferent to either, — it
is because an angel of God sits in the centre, and makes the
same matter turn, not by the bent of its own mobility and in
clination, but in order to the needs of man and the great pur
poses of God : and so it is in the understandings of men ; when
they all receive the same notions, and are taught by the same
master, and give full consent to all the propositions, and can,
of themselves, have nothing to distinguish them in the events, it
is because God has sent his Divine Spirit, and kindles a new
fire, and creates a braver capacity, and applies the actives to
the passives, and blesses their operation ; for there is, in the
heart of man, such a dead sea, and an indisposition to holy
flames, like as in the cold rivers in the north, so as the fires
will not burn them, and the sun itself will never warm them,
till God's Holy Spirit does, from the temple of the New Jeru
salem, bring a holy flame, and make it shine and burn.

28 JEREMY TAYLOR. — SERMON VI,
' The natural man,' saith the holy Apostle,* ' cannot perceive
the things of the Spirit ; they are foolishness unto him, for they
are spiritually discerned:' for he that discourses of things by
the measures of sense, thinks nothing good but that which is de
licious to the palate, or pleases the brutish part of man ; and
therefore, while he estimates the secrets of religion by such mea
sures, they must needs seem as insipid as cork, or the uncon-
dited mushroom; for they have nothing at all of that in their
constitution. A voluptuous person is like the dogs of Sicily, so
filled with the deliciousness of plants that grow in every furrow
and hedge, that they can never keep the scent of their game.
'AbiJi'aTOV ava/it^ai vbari Trip' ovtws olfxai Tpv(priv koi Karavv^iv,
said St. Chrysostom : " The fire and wa-ter can never mingle;
,so neither can sensuality, and the watchfulness and wise dis
cerning of the spirit. "—Pifafo interroganti deveritate, Ckristns
non respondit; " When the wicked governor asked of Christ
concerning- truth, Christ gave him no answer." He was not
fit to hear it.
He, therefore, who so understands the words of God, that
he not only believes, but loves the proposition; he who con
sents with all his heart, and, being convinced of the truth,
does also apprehend the necessity, and obeys the precept,
and delights in the discovery, and lays his hand on his heart,
and reduces the notices of things to the practice of duty; he
who dares trust his proposition, and drives it on to the utmost
issue, resolving to go after it whithersoever it can invite him;
this man walks in the Spirit; at least thus far he is gone to
wards it; his understanding is brought in obsequium Christi,
' into the obedience of Christ.' This is a ' loving God with all
our mind ;' and whatever goes less than this, is but memory,
and not understanding ; or else such notice of things, by which
a man is neither the wiser nor the better.
3. Sometimes God gives to his choicest, his most elect and
precious servants, a knowlege even of secret things, which he
communicates not to others. We find it greatly remarked Id
the case of Abraham, ' And the Lord said, Shall I hide from
Abraham that thing that I do ?'t Why not from Abraham ?—
* 1 Cor. ii. 14. .f Gen. xviii. 17.

PREACHED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF DUBLIN. 29
God tells us : ' For I know him, that he will command his chil
dren and his household after him, and they shall keep the way
of the Lord, to do justice and judgment.'* And though this be
irregular and infrequent, yet it is a reward of their piety, and
the proper increase also of the spiritual man. We find this
spoften by God to Daniel, and promised to be the lot of the
righteous man in the days of the Messias :f ' Many shall be
purified, and made white, and tried ; but the wicked shall do
wickedly :' — and what then ? — ' None of the wicked shall un
derstand, but the wise shall understand.'! Where, besides that
the wise man and the wicked are opposed, plainly signifying
that the wicked man is a fool arid an ignorant ; it is plainly
said, that ' None of the wicked shall understand' the wisdom
and mysteriousness of the kingdom of the Messias.
4. A good life is the best way to understand wisdom and re
ligion, because, by the experiences and relishes of religion,
there is conveyed to us a sweetness, to which all wicked men
are strangers: there is in the things of God, to them which
practise them, a deliciousness that makes us love them, and
that love admits us into God's cabinet, and strangely clarifies
the understanding by the purification of the heart. For when
our reason is raised up by the Spirit of Christ, it is turned
quickly into experience ; when our faith relies on the prin-
diples of Christ, it is changed into vision ; and so long as we
know God only in the ways of man, by contentious learning,
by arguing and dispute, — we see nothing but the shadow of
him ; and in that shadow we meet with many dark appear
ances, little certainty, and much conjecture : but when we knovv
him \6yta cnro^avriK^ , -yaX^rjj voepq, with the eyes of holiness,
and the intuition of gracious experiences, with a quiet spirit and
the peace of enjoyment ; then we shall hear what we never
heard, and see what our eyes never saw ; then the mysteries of
godliness shall be opened unto us, and clear as the windows of
the morning : and this is rarely well expressed by the Apostle,
' If we stand up from the dead, and awake from sleep, then
Christ shall give us light.' §
* Gen. xviii. 19. f Dan. xii. 10. % Dan. xii. 10.
§ Eph. V. 14.

30 JEREMY TAYLOR.— SERMON VI.
For although the Scriptures themselves are written by the
Spirit of God, yet they are written within and without ; and,
besides the light that shines on the face of them, unless there
be a light shining within our hearts, unfolding the leaves, and
interpreting the mysterious sense of the Spirit, convincing our
consciences and preaching to our hearts, to look for Christ in
the leaves of the gospel, is to ' look for the living amongst the
dead.' There is a life in them, but that life is, according to St.
Paul's expression, ' hid with Christ in God :' and, unless the
Spirit of God be the promo-condus, we shall never draw it
forth. Human learning brings excellent ministries towards this; it
is admirably useful for the reproof of heresies, for the detection
of fallacies, for the letter of the Scripture, for collateral testi
monies, for exterior advantages ; but there is something beyond
this, that human learning, without the addition of Divine, can
never reach. Moses was learned in all the learning of the
Egyptians ; and the holy men of God contemplated the glories
of God in the admirable order, motion, and influences of the
heavens ; but besides all this, they were taught of God some
thing far beyond these prettinesses. Pythagoras read Moses's
books, and so did Plato ; and yet they became not proselytes
of the religion, though they were learned scholars of such a
master. The reason is, because that, which they drew forth
from thence, was not the life and secret of it.
Tradidit arcano quodcuuque volumiue Moses.*
There is a secret in these books, which few men, none but the
godly, did understand ; and though much of this secret is made
manifest in the gospel, yet even here, also, there is a letter, and
there is a spirit ; still there is a reserve for God's secret ones,
even all those deep mysteries which the Old Testament covered
in figures, and stories, and names, and prophecies, and which
Christ hath, and by his Spirit will yet reveal more plainly to
all that will understand them by their proper measures. For,
although the gospel is infinitely more legible and plain than the
obscurer leaves of the law, yet there is a seal on them also ;
• Juv. xiv. 102.

PREACHED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF DUBLIN. 31
' which seal no man shall open, but he that is worthy.' We
may understand something of it by the three children of the
captivity; they were all skilled in all the wisdom of the Chal-
dees, and so was Daniel : but there was something beyond that
in him ; ' the wisdom of the most High God was in him ;' and
that taught him a learning beyond his learning.
In all Scripture there is a spiritual sense, a spiritual cabala,
which, as it tends directly to holiness, so it is best and truest
understood by the sons of the Spirit, who love God, and there
fore know him. r^wo-is eKaaruiv bi' bfioiorriTa ylverai, " Every
thing is best known by its own similitudes and analogies."
But I must take some other time to speak fully of these
things ; I have but one thing more to say, and then I shall
make my applications of this doctrine, and so conclude.
5. Lastly, there is a sort of God's dear servants who walk in
perfectness, who ' perfect holiness in the fear of God ;' and
they have a degree of clarity and divine knowlege more than
we can discourse of, and more certain than the demonstrations
of geometry, brighter than the sun, and indeficient as the light
of heaven. This is called by the Apostle the arravyaafia tov
Qeoxi- Christ is this ' brightness of God,' manifested in the
hearts of his dearest servants.
'A^A' iyi) is KaBapZv iKpiimv ippeva mipirhv ivdirra
EifuiBlijs^ 
But I shall say no more of this at this time, for this is to be
felt, and not to be talked of; and they that never touched it
with their finger, may. secretly, perhaps, laugh at it in their
heart, and be never the wiser. All that I shall now say of it
is, that a good man is united unto God Kivrpov Kevrp^ avva\pas :
as a flame touches a flame, and combines into splendor and to
glory, so is the spirit of a man united unto Christ by the Spirit
of God. These are the friends of God, and they best know
God's mind ; and they only that are so, know how much such
men do know. They have a special unction from above : so
that now you are come to the top of all ; this is the highest
round of the ladder, and the angels stand on it : they dwell
in love and contemplation, they worship and obey, but dispute
not: and our quarrels and impertinent wranglings about religion

32 JEREMY TAYLOR. — SERMON VI.
are nothing else but the want of the measures of this state. Our
light is like a candle ; every wind of vain doctrine blows it out,
or spends the wax, and makes the light tremulous; but the
lights of heaven are fixed and bright, and shine for ever.
But that we may speak not only things mysterious, but
things intelligible ; how does it come to pass, by what means
and what economy is it effected, that a holy life is the best de
termination of all questions, and the surest way of knowlege?
Is it to be supposed, that a godly man is better enabled to de
termine the questions of purgatory or transubstantiation ? is the
gift of chastity the best way to reconcile Thomas and Scotus?
and is a temperate man always a better scholar than a drunk
ard ? To this I answer, that in all things in which true wisdom
consists, holiness, which is the best wisdom, is the surest way
of understanding them. And this,
1. Is effected by holiness as a proper and natural instrument:
for naturally every thing is best discerned by its proper light
and congenial instrument.
Tairj fj.ej/ yap ycuai/ OTrtI>nap,^v, ijSarL 5' vdup.
For as the eye sees visible objects, and the understanding per
ceives the intellectual ; so does the Spirit the things of the
Spirit. ' The natural man,' saith St. Paul, ' knows not the things
of God, for they are spiritually discerned :' that is, they are dis
covered by a proper light, and concerning these things an un-
sSinctified man discourses pitifully, with an imperfect idea, as a
blind man does of light and colors, which he never saw.
A good man, though unlearned in secular notices, is like the
windows of the temple, narrow without and broad within: he
sees not so much of what profits not abroad, but whatsoever is
within, and concerns religion and the glorifications of God,
that he sees with a broad inspection : but all human learning,
without God, is but blindness and ignorant folly.
But when it is bticawaijrr) ^efiafjtixkvr) eJs paQos Ttjs aXr]deias,
" righteousness dipped in the wells of truth;" it is like an eye
of gold in a rich garment, or, like the light of heaven, it shows
itself by its own splendor. What learning is it to discourse of
the philosophy of the sacrament, if you do not feel the'virtiie
of it ? and the man that can with eloquence and subtilty dis-

PREACHED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF DUBLIN. 33
course of the instrumental efficacy of baptismal waters, talks
ignorantly in respect of him who hath ' the answer of a good
conscience' within, and is cleansed by the purifications of the
Spirit. If the question concern any thing that can perfect a
man and make him happy, all that is the proper knowlege and
notice of the good man. How can a wicked man understand
the purities of the heart? and how can an evil and unworthy
communicant tell what it is to have received Christ by faith, to
dwell with him, to be united to him, to receive him in his
heart? The good man only understands th-at : the one sees
the color, and the other feels the substance ; the one discourses
of the sacrament, and the other receives Christ; the one dis
courses for or against transubstantiation, but the good man feels
himself to be changed, and so joined to Christ, that he only
understands the true sense of transubstantiation, while he be
comes to Christ bone of his bone, flesh of his flesh, and of the
same spirit with his Lord.
We talk much of reformation, and (blessed be God) once we
have felt the good of it ; but of late we have smarted under the
name and pretension : the woman that lost her groat, everrit
domum, not ever tit ; "she swept the house, she did not turn
the house out of doors." That was but an ill reformation, that
untiled the roof and broke the walls, and was digging down the
foundation. Now among all the pretensions of reformation, who can tell
better what is, and what is not, true reformation, than he that
is truly reformed himself? He knows what pleases God, and
can best tell by what instruments he is reconciled. ' The mouth
of the just bringeth forth wisdom, and the lips of the righteous
know what is acceptable,' saith Solomon.* He cannot be co
zened by names of things, and feels that reformation to be im
posture that is sacrilegious : himself is humble and obedient,
and therefore knows that is not truth that persuades to schism
and disobedience : and most of the questions of Christendom
are such which are either good for nothing, and therefore to be
laid aside; or if they be complicated with action, and are mi
nistries of practice, no man can judge them so well as the spi-
* Prov.-X. 31,32.

34 JEREMY TAYLOR. — SERMON VI,
ritual man. That which best pleases God, that which does
good to our neighbor, that which teaches sobriety, that which
combines with government, that which speaks honor of God,
and does him honor, — that only is truth. Holiness therefore,
is a proper and natural instrument of divine knowlege, and must
needs be the best way of instruction in the questions of
Christendom, because, in the most of them, a duty is compli
cated with the proposition.
No man that intends to live holily, can ever suffer any pre
tences of religion to be made to teach him to fight against his
king. And when the men of Geneva turned their bishop out
of doors, they might easily have considered, that the same per
son was their prince too ; and that must needs be a strange re
ligion, that rose up against Moses and Aaron at the same time :
but that hath been the method ever since. There was no
church till then ever governed without an Apostle or a bishop:
and since then, they who go from their bishop, have said very
often to their king too, Nolumus hunc regnare: and when we
see men pretending J-eligion, and yet refuse to own the king's
supremacy, they may, on the stock of holiness, easily reprove
their own folly, by cohsidering that such recusancy does intro
duce into our churches the very worst, the most intolerable
parts of popery : for perfect submission to kings is the glory of
the protestant cause : and really the reprovable doctrines of the
church of Rome are by nothing so much confuted, as that they
destroy good life by consequent and evident deduction ; as by
an induction of particulars were easy to make apparent, if this
were the proper season for it.
2. Holiness is not only an advantage to the learning all
wisdom and holiness, but for the discerning that which is wise
and holy from what is trifling, and useless, and contentious;
and to one of these heads all questions will return : and there
fore, in all, from holiness we have the best instructions. And
this brings me to the next particle of the general consideration.
For that which we are taught by the holy Spirit of God, this
new nature, this vital principle within us, it is that which is
worth our learning ; not vain and empty, idle and insignificant
notions, in which when you have labored till your eyes are
fixed in their orbs, and. your flesh unfixed from its bones, you

PREACHED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF DUBLIN. 35
are no better and no wiser. If the Spirit of God be your
teacher, he will teach you such truths as will make you know and
love God, and become like to him, and enjoy him for ever, by.
passing from similitude to union and eternal fruition. But what
are you the better, if any man should pretend to teach you
whether every angel makes a species ? and what is the indivi
duation of the soul in the state of separation ? what are you the
wiser, if you should study and find out what place Adam
should for ever have lived in, if he had not fallen ? and what
is any man the more learned, if he hears the disputes, whether
Adam should have multiplied children in the state of innocence,
and what would have been the event of things, if one child had
been born before his father's sin ?
Too many scholars have lived on air and empty notions for
many ages past, and troubled themselves with tying and unty
ing knots, like hypochondriacs in a fit of melancholy, thinking
of nothing, and troubling themselves with nothing, and falling
out about nothings, and being very wise and very learned in
things that are not and work not, and were never planted in
paradise by the finger of God. Men's notions are too often
like the mules, begotten by equivocal and unnatural generations ;
but they make no species: they are begotten, but they can
beget nothing ; they are the effects of long study, but they
can do no good when they are produced : they are not that
which Solomon calls viam intellig entice, ' the way of under
standing.' If the Spirit of God be our teacher, we shall learn
to avoid evil and to do good, to be wise and to be holy,
to be profitable and careful : and they that walk in this way,
..shall find more peace in their consciences, more skill in the
Scriptures, more satisfaction in their doubts, than can be
obtained by all the polemical and impertinent disputations
of the world. And if the Holy Spirit can teach us how vain
a thing it is to do foolish things, he also will teach us how
vain a thing it is to trouble the world with foolish questions,
to disturb the church for interest or pride, to resist government
in things indifferent, to spend the people's zeal in things un
profitable, to make religion to consist in outsides, and opposi
tion to circumstances, and trifling regards. No, no ; the man
that is wise, he that is conducted by the Spirit of God, —
knows better in what Christ's kingdom does consist, than to

36 JEREMY TAYLOR. — SERMON VI.
throw away his time and interest, and peace and safety tor
what? for religion? no: for the body of religion ? not so much:-
for the garment of the body of religion ? no, not for so much ;
but for the fringes of the garment of the body of religion ; for
such, and no better are the disputes that trouble our discon
tented brethren ; they are things, or rather circumstances and
manners of things, in which the soul and spirit are not at all
concerned. 3. Holiness of life is the best way of finding out truth and
understanding ; not only as a natural medium, nor only as a
prudent medium, but as a means by way of divine blessing.
' He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is
that loveth me : and he that loveth me, shall be loved of my
Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to
him.'* Here we have a promise for it; and on that we may
rely. The old man that confuted the Arian priest by a plain re
cital of his creed, found a mighty power of God effecting his
own work by a strange manner, and by a very plain instru
ment : it wrought a Divine blessing just as sacraments use to
do : and this lightening sometimes comes in a strange manner,
as a peculiar blessing to good men. For God kept the secrets
of his kingdom from the wise heathens and the learned Jews,
revealing them to babes ; not because they had less learning, but
because they had more love ; they were children and babes in
malice ; they loved Christ, and so he became to them a light
and a glory. St. Paul had more learning than they all ; and
Moses was instructed in all the learning of the Egyptians :
yet because he was the meekest man on earth, he was also the
wisest; and to his human learning, in which he was excellent,
he had a divine light and excellent wisdom superadded to him,
by way of spiritual blessings. And St. Paul, though he went
very far to the knowlege of many great and excellent truths by
the force of human learning, yet he was far short of perfective
truth and true wisdom, till he learned a new lesson in a new
school, at the feet of one greater than his Gamaliel : his learn
ing grew much greater, his notions brighter, his skill deeper, —
by the love of Christ, and his desires, his passionate desires,
after Jesus. * John, xiv. 21.

PREACHED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF DUBLIN. 37
The force and use of human learning, and of this divine learn
ing I am now speaking of, are both well expressed by the pro
phet Isaiah ; ' And the vision of all is become unto you as the
words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that
is learned, saying. Read this, I pray thee : and he saith, I
cannot, for it is sealed. And the book is delivered to him that
is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee : and he saith, I am
not learned.' * He that is no learned man, who is not bred up
in the schools of the prophets, cannot read God's book for want
of learning; for human learning is the gate and first entrance
of divine vision ; not the only one indeed, but the common
gate. ¦ But beyond this, there must be another learning ; for
he that is learned, bring the book to him, and you are not
much the better as to the secret part of it, if the book be sealed,
if his eyes be closed, if his heart be not opened, if God does
not speak to him in the secret way of discipline. Human
learning is an excellent foundation : but the top-stone is laid
by love and conformity to the will of God. For we may far
ther observe, that blindness, error, and ignorance, are the pu
nishments which God sends on wicked and ungodly men.
Etiamnum, propter nostrce intelligentice tarditatem et vitce de-
meritum, Veritas nondum se apertissime ostenderit, was St.
Austin's expression : " The truth hath not yet been manifested
fully to us, by reason of our demerits :" our sins have hindered
the brightness of the truth from shining on us. And St. Paul
observes, that when the heathens gave themselves ' over to
lusts, God gave them over to strong delusions, and to believe a
lie.'t But ' God giveth to a man that is good in his sight,
wisdom, and knowlege, and joy,' said the wise Preacher. t
But this is most expressly promised in the New Testament, and
particularly in that admirable sermon , which our blessed Sa
viour preached a little before his death : ' The Comforter,
which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my
name, he shall teach you all things. '§ Well, there is our
teacher told of plainly : but how shall we be taught? Christ
* Isa. xxix. 11, 12. t Rom- '• 25, 26. I Eccles. ii. 26.
§ John, xiv. 26.

38 JEREMY TAYLOR. — SERMON VI.
will pray for us that we may have this Spirit.* That is well :
but shall all Christians have the Spirit? Yes, all that will live
like Christians : for so said Christ, ' If ye love me, keep my
commandments ; and I will pray the Father, and he will give
you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever ;
even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, be
cause it seeth him not, neither knoweth him.' Mark these
things. The Spirit of God is our teacher : — he will abide with
us for ever to be our teacher :— he will teach us all things : —
but how ? ' If ye love Christ,' if ye keep his commandments,
but not else : if ye be of the world, that is of worldly affec
tions, ye cannot see him, ye cannot know him. And this is
the particular I am now to speak to ; the way by which the
Spirit of God teaches us in all the ways and secrets of God, is
love and holiness.
Secreta Dei Deo nostra etJUiis damns ejus, " God's secrets
are to himself and the sons of his house," saith the Jewish
proverb. Love is the great instrument of Divine knowlege,
that is the iixpufxa tUv bibaaKouevbiy, " the height of all that is
to be taught or learned." Love is obedience, and we learn his
words best when we practise them ; 'A yctp bet /lavBat'ovras
iroieii', TaiiTa itoiovvTes pavQavofiev, said Aristotle ;f "Those
things which they that learn ought to practise, — even while
they practise, they will best learn." Qiiisquis non venit, pro-
fecto nee didicit : ita enim Dominus docet per Spiritus gra-
tiam, ut quod quisque didicerit, non tantum cognoscendo videat,
sed etiam volendo appetat, et agendo perficiat ; St. Austin:]:
" Unless we come to Christ, we shall never learn : for so our
blessed Lord teaches us by the grace of his Spirit, that what
any one learns, he not only sees it by knowlege, but desires it
by choice, and perfects it by practice."
4. When this is reduced to practice and experience, we find
not only in things of practice, but even in deepest mysteries,
not only the choicest and most Eminent saints, but even every
good man, can best tell what is true, and best reprove an error.
•• John, xiv. 16, 17. t Lib. ii. Ethic, c. 1.
X De Gratia Christi, lib. i. c. 14. Nullum bonum peifecte nosci-
tur quod non perfecte amatur. — Aug. lib. Ixxxiii. Qu. de Gratia
CliMsti.

PREACHED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF DUBLIN. 30
He that goes about to speak of and to understand the myste
rious Trinity, and does it by words and names of man's inven
tion, or by such which signify contingently ; if he reckons this
mystery by the mythology of numbers, by the cabala of letters,
by the distinctions of the school, and by the weak inventions
of disputing people ; if he only talks of essences and existences,
hypostasies and personalities, distinctions without difference,
and priority in coequalities, and unity in pluralities, and of supe
rior predicates of no larger extent than the inferior subjects ;
— he may amuse himself, and find his understanding will be
like St. Peter's on the mount of Tabor at the transfiguration :
he may build three tabernacles in his head, and talk something,
but he knows not what. But the good man, that feels the
* power of the Father,' and he to whom ' the Son is become
wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption;' he
in « whose heart the love of the Spirit of God is spread ;' to
whom God hath communicated the ' Holy Ghost, the Com
forter;' — this man, though he understands nothing of that
which is unintelligible, yet he only understands the mysterious
ness of the Holy Trinity. No man can be convinced wel'. and
wisely of the article of the holy, blessed, and undivided Tri
nity, but he that feels the mightiness of ' the Father begetting
him to a new life,' the wisdom of ' the Son building him up in
a most holy faith,' and the ' love of the Spirit of God making
him to become like unto God.'
He that hath passed from his childhood in grace, under the
generation of the Father, and is gone forward to be a young
man in Christ, strong and vigorous in holy actions and holy
undertakings, and from thence is become an old disciple, and
strong and grown old in religion, and the conversation of the
Spirit ; this man best understands the secret and undiscernible
economy, he feels this unintelligible mystery, and sees with his
heart what his tongue can never express, and his metaphysics
can never prove. In these cases faith and love are the best
knowlege, and Jesus Christ is best known by the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ ; and if the kingdom of God be in us, then
we know God, and are known of him; and when we commu
nicate of the Spirit of God, when we pray for him, and have
received him, and entertained him, and dwelt with him, and

40 JEREMY TAYLOR. — SERMON VI.
warmed ourselves by his holy fires, — then we know him too :
but there is no other satisfactory knowlege of the blessed Tri
nity but this : and, therefore, whatever thing is spoken of God
metaphysically, there is no knowing of God theologically, and
as he ought to be known, but by the measures of holiness, and
the proper light of the Spirit of God.
But in this case experience is the best learning, and Christi
anity is the best institution, and the Spirit of God is the best
teacher, and holiness is the greatest wisdom ; and he that sins
most, is the most ignorant, — and the humble and obedient man
is the best scholar : ' For the Spirit of God is a loving Spirit,
and will not enter into a polluted soul : but he that keepeth
the law, getteth the understanding thereof; and the perfection
of the fear of the Lord is wisdom,' said the wise Ben-Sirach.*
And now give me leave to apply the doctrine to you, and so I
shall dismiss you from this attention.
Many ways have been attempted to reconcile the differences
of the church in matters of religion, and all the counsels of man
have yet proved ineffective : let us now try God's method, let
us betake ourselves to live holily, and then the Spirit of God
will lead us into all truth. And indeed it matters not what
religion any man is of, if he be a villain : the opinion of his
sect, as it will not save his soul, so neither will it do good to
the public : but this is a sure rule, if the holy man best under
stands wisdom and religion, then by the proportions of holiness
we shall best measure the doctrines, that are obtruded to the
disturbance of our peace, and the dishonor of the gospel. And,
therefore, 1. That is no good religion, whose principles destroy any
duty of religion. He that shall maintain it to be lawful to
make a war for the defence of his opinion, be it what it will,
his doctrine is against godliness. Anything that is proud, any
thing that is peevish and scornful, any thing that is unchari
table, is against the ijytaivovaa bibaaKaXia, that ' form of sound
doctrine,' which the Apostle speaks of. And I remember that
Ammianus Marcellinus, telling of George, a proud and fac
tious minister, that he was an informer against his brethren, he
* Ecclus. xxi. 11.

PREACHED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF DUBLIN. 41
says he did it oblitus professionis suae, quce nil nisi justum suadet
etlene; " He forgot his profession, which teaches nothing but
justice and meekness, kindnesses and charity." And however
Bellarmine and others are pleased to take but indirect and im
perfect notice of it, yet goodness is the best note of the true
church. 2. It is but an ill sign of holiness when a man is busy in
troubling himself and his superiors in little scruples and fantastic
opinions, about things not concerning the life of religion, or the
pleasure of God, or the excellences of the Spirit. A good
man knows how to please God, how to converse with him, how
to advance the kingdom of the Lord Jesus, to set forward
holiness, and the love of God and of his brother ; and he knows
also that there is no godliness in spending our time and our talk,
our heart and our spirits, about the garments and outsides of
religion : and they can ill teach others, that do not know that
religion does not consist in these things ; but obedience may,
and reductively that is religion : and he that, for that which is'
no part of religion, destroys religion directly, by neglecting
that duty that is adopted into religion, — is a man of fancy and
of the world ; but he gives but an ill account, that he is a man
of God and a son of the Spirit.
Spend not your time in that which profits not ; for your
labor and your health, your time and your studies are very
valuable ; and it is a thousand pities to see a diligent and a
hopeful person spend himself in gathering cockle-shells and
little pebbles, in telling sands on the shores, and making gar
lands of useless daisies. Study that which is profitable, that
which will make you useful to churches and commonwealths,
that which will make you desirable and wise. Only I shall
add this to you, that in learning there are variety of things, as
well as in religion : there is mint arid cummin, and there are
the weighty things of the law; so there are studies more and less
useful, and every thing that is useful will be required in its
time : and I may in this also use the words of our blessed Sa
viour, ' These things ought you to look after, and not to leave
the other unregarded.' But your great care is to be in the
things of God and of religion, in holiness and true wisdom,
remembering the saying of Origen, "That the knowlege that

42 JEREMY TAYLOR. — SERMON VI.
arises from goodness is Beiorepov rt Traujjs dirob€ii,e(i)s , some
thing that is more certain and more divine than all demonstra
tion,' than all other learnings of the world."
3. That is no good religion that disturbs governments, or
shakes the foundation of public peace. Kings and bishops are
the foundations and the great principles of unity, of peace,
and government ; like Rachel and Leah, they build up the
house of Israel : and those blind Samsons that shake these
pillars, intend to pull the house down. ' My son, fear God
and the king,' saith Solomon ; ' and meddle not with them
that are given to change.' That is not truth that loves changes;
and the new nothings of heretical and schismatical preachers
are infinitely far ftom the blessings of truth.
In the holy language, truth hath a mysterious name, HDN
" emet ;" it consists of three letters, the first and the last and
the middlemost of the Hebrew letters ; implying to tis, that
truth is first, and will be last, and it is the same all the way,
and combines and unites all extremes ; it ties all ends together.
— "Truth is lasting, and ever full of blessing:" for the
Jews observe that those letters which signify truth, are both
in the figure and the number quadrate, firm, and cubical : these
signify a foundation, and an abode for ever : whereas, on the
other side, the word which in Hebrew signifies a lie, 'inii'
" secher," is made of letters whose numbers are imperfect, and
their figure pointed and yoluble ; to signify that a lie hath no
foundation. And this very observation will give good light in our ques
tions and disputes : and I give my instance in episcopal go
vernment, which hath been of so lasting an abode, of so long
a blessing, hath its firmament by the principles of Christianity,
hath been blest by the issues of that stabiliment ; it hath for
sixteen hundred years combined with monarchy, and hath been
taught by the Spirit which hath so long dwelt in God's church,
and hath now — according to the promise of Jesus, that says,
' the gates of hell shall never prevail against the church,' —
been restored amongst us by a heap of miracles ; and as it went
away, so now it is returned again in the hand of monarchy,
and in the bosom of our fundamental laws. Now that doctrine
must needs be suspected of error, and an intolerable lie, that

PREACHED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF DUBLIN, 43
speaks against this truth, which hath had so long a testimony
from God, and from the wisdom and experience of so many
ages, of all our ancestors, and all our laws.
When the Spirit of God wrote in Greek, Christ is called
A and ft ; if he had spoken Hebrew, he had been called K
and /I, that is, DOK " emet;" he is "truth," ' the same yesterr
day, and to-day, and for ever :' and whoever opposes this holy
sanction, which Christ's Spirit hath sanctified, his word hath
warranted, his blessings have endeared, his promises have rati
fied, and his church hath always kept ; he fights against this
DON " emet," and " secher" is his portion ; his lot is a " lie ;"
his portion is there, where holiness can never dwell.
And now to conclude : to you, fathers and brethren, you
who are, or intend to be of the clergy ; you see here the best
compendium of your studies, the best abbreviature of your la
bors, the truest method of wisdom, and the infallible, the only
way of judging concerning the disputes and questions in Chris
tendom, It is not by reading multitudes of books, but by
studying the truth of God : it is not by laborious commentaries
of the doctors that you can finish your work, but by the expo
sitions of the Spirit of God : it is not by the rules of meta
physics, but by the proportions of holiness : and when all
books are read, and all arguments examined, and all autho
rities alleged, nothing can be found to be true that is unholy,
' Give yourselves to reading, to exhortation, and to doctrine,'
saith St. Paul. Read all good books you can ; but exhorta
tion unto good life is the best instrument, and the best teacher
of true doctrine, of that which is ' according to godliness.'
And let me tell you this, the great learning of the fathers
was more owing to their piety than to their skill ; more to
God than to themselves : and to this purpose is that excellent
ejaculation of St. Chrysostom,* with which I will conclude :
" O blessed and happy men, whose names are in the book of
life, from whom the devils fled, and heretics did fear them,
who (by holiness) have stopped the mouths of them that spake
perverse things ! But I, like David, will cry out, ' Where are
thy loving-kindnesses which have been ever of old ?' Where
* Lib. de Consummat. Seculi, inter opera Ephrem Syri,

44 JEREMY TAYLOR. — SERMON VI.
is the blessed quire of bishops and doctors, who shined like
lights in the worid, and contained the word of life? Dulce est
meminisse ; " their very memory is pleasant." Where is that
Evodias, the sweet savor of the church, the successor and imi
tator of the holy Apostles? Where is Ignatius, in whom God
dwelt? Where is St. Dionysius the Areopagite, that bird of
Paradise, that celestial eagle ? Where is Hippolytus, that good
man, dvi^p xPli^ros, " that gentle, sweet person ?" Where is great
St. Basil, a man almost equal to the Apostles? Where is Atha-
nasius, rich in virtue? Where is Gregory Nyssen, that great
divine? And Ephrem, the great Syrian, that stirred Up the
sluggish, and awakened the sleepers, and comforted the af
flicted, and brought the young men to discipline ; the looking-
glass of the religious, the captain of the penitents, the destruc^
tion of heresies, the receptacle of graces, the habitation of the
Holy Ghost?" These were the men that prevailed against error,
because they lived according to truth : and whoever shall op
pose you, and the truth you walk by, may better be confuted by
your lives than by your disputations. Let your adversaries
have no evil thing to say of you, and then you will best silence
them : for all heresies and false doctrines are but like Myron's
counterfeit cow, it deceived none but beasts ; and these can
cozen none but the wicked and the negligent, them that love a
lie, and live according to it. But if ye become burning and
shining lights ; if ye do not detain the truth in unrighteousness;
if ye walk in light, and live in the Spirit; your doctrines will
be true, and that truth will prevail. But if ye live wickedly
and scandalously, every little schismatic shall put you to
shame, and draw disciples after him, and abuse your flocks,
and feed them with colocynths and hemlock, and place heresy
in the chairs appointed for your religion.
I pray God give you all grace to follow this wisdom, to
study this learning, to labor for the understanding of godliness;
so your time and your studies, your persons and your labors,
will be holy and useful, sanctified and blessed, beneficial to
men and pleasing to God, through him who is the wisdom of
the Father, who is made to all that love him wisdom, and righ
teousness, and sanctification, and redemption : to whom, with
the Father, &c.

SERMON
PREACHED IN
CHRIST'S CHURCH, DUBLIN,
July 16, 1663,
AT THE FUNERAL
OF
THE MOST REVEREND FATHER IN GOD,
JOHN,
LATE LORD ARCHBISHOP OF ARMAGH, AND PRIMATE OF ALL
IRELAND.

SUMMARY OF SERMON Vll. 47

SUMMARY OF SERMON VII,
1 CORINTHIANS, CHAP, XV, — VERSE 23,
Preliminary observations, on the weak and limited state
of man in this world ; on the hope of man in the resurrection of
the soul, even in this world, from sorrow and sad pressures,
&c. ; on death as the end of all his mortal hopes, and joys, and
troubles ; and on the resurrection from death ; from the death
of the body, to the life of the soul, &c.
The great hinges of our religion are these : 1. Christ is
already risen from the dead : 2. we also shall rise in God's
time and our due order ; for Christ is the first-fruits : this topic
enlarged on.
1. Christ is the first-fruits : he is already risen from the dead,
for he alone could not be held by death. Death was Sin's
eldest daughter ; but Christ was conqueror over both, and came
to take away one, and to disarm the other. This was a glory
fit for the Head of mankind ; but it was too great and good to
be easily believed by incredulous and weak-hearted men :
doubts stated, objections answered, and proofs alleged. This
article was so clearly proved, that men became no longer
ashamed of the cross, &c. ; but it soon came to pass that the
religion of the despised Jesus infinitely prevailed : nature of
this religion described, &c. : conduct of its disciples, &c. : so
that men could no longer doubt of the resurrection of Jesus,
when they saw such forcible reasons for belief: these enu
merated. He therefore is the first-fruits ; and if we hope to
rise through him, we must confess that he is first risen from the
dead. That is the first particular.

48 summary of
2. There is an order for us also : we too shall rise again. If
it was done o.nce, it may be done again ; for since it could never
have been done but by an infinite Power, that infinite must
also be eternal and indeficient. When man was not, what
power, what cause, made him to be ? Whatsoever it was, it
did then as great a work as to raise his body to the same being
again : this topic dilated on.
Opinions, even of the heathens, were not against this mystery.
God makes it credible to us by sleep, the image of death, &c.
Nature herself is a sufficient preacher on this point : instances
of night and day, of the seasons, of generation and corruption,
&c. : the Old Testament and the New, the words of Job and
the visions of the prophets, the history of Jonas, Jews, and
Christians, the faith of believers, and the philosophy of the rea
sonable, all join in the verification of this mystery. God's in
tent declared in his translation of Enoch. But Christ, the first-
fruits, is gone before ; and himself did promise, that when he was
lifted up, he would draw all men after him. Every man in
his oion order ; first Christ, then they that are Christ's at his
coming. Concerning this order some observations are to be
made. 3. First Christ, and then we ; and we therefore, because
Christ is already risen : but it must be remembered, that the re
surrection and exaltation of Christ was the reward of his perfect
obedience and pure holiness ; and he calling us to an imitation
of the same, prepares a way for us to the same resurrection :
there are no other terms ; no other method by which God, who
brought Christ to glory, will bring us.
4. Furthermore ; Every man in his own order; first Christ,
and then they that are Christ's. But what will become of those
that are not Christ's ? There is an order for them too : first
they that are Christ's, and then they that are not his. There is
a first and a second resurrection even after this life : the deadin
Christ shall rise first. Now blessed are they that have their

sermon vii. 49
portion here ; for on these the second death shall have no poioer.
As for the recalling of the wicked from their graves, this is no
more a resurrection than the taking of a criminal from prison to
the bar is a giving of liberty : this subject enlarged on and il
lustrated. Exhortations to those who profess their belief in
this article of the resurrection. Considerations on the uncer
tainty of life, and the certainty of all men, whatever be their
station, lying down in the grave. Piety of the Christian
church in commemorating great and worthy persons. Example
of St. Paul considered. Character of the Lord Primate dilated
on. Conclusion.

TAY. vol. IV.

50 JEREMY TAYLOR. — SERMON VII.

SERMON VII.
A FUNERAL SERMON.

1 CORINTHIANS, CHAP. XV. — VERSE 23.
But every man in his own order : Christ the first fruits ; afterward
they that are Christ's at his coming.
The condition of man, in this world, is so limited and de
pressed, so relative and imperfect, that the best things he does,
he does weakly, — and the best things he hath, are imperfec
tions in their very constitution. I need not tell how little it is
that we know : the greatest indication of this is, that we can
never tell how many things we know not ; and we may soon
span our own knowlege, but our ignorance we can never fathom.
Our very will, in which mankind pretends to be most noble
and imperial, is a direct state of imperfection ; and our very
liberty of choosing good and evil is permitted to us, not to
make us proud, but to make us humble ; for it supposes weak
ness of reason and weakness of love. For if we understood all
the degrees of amability in the service of God, or if we had
such love to God as he deserves, and so perfect a conviction as
were fit for his services, we could no more deliberate : for
liberty of will is like the motion of a magnetic needle toward
the north, full of trembling and uncertainty till it were fixed in
the beloved point ; it wavers as long as it is free, and is at rest
when it can choose no more. And truly what is the hope of
man ? It is indeed the resurrection of the soul in this world
from sorrow and her saddest pressures, and like the twilight
to the day, and the harbinger of joy ; but still it is but a con-

PREACHED AT THE FUNERAL OF THE LORD PRIMATE. 51
jugation of infirmities, and proclaims our present calamity ; only
because it is uneasy here, it thrusts us forward toward the
light and glories of the resurrection.
For as a worm creeping with her belly on the ground, with
her portion and share of Adam's curse, lifts up its head to
partake a little of the blessings of the air, and opens the junc
tures of her imperfect body, and curls her little rings into knots
and combinations, drawing up her tail to a neighborhood of
the head's pleasure and motion ; but still it must return to
abide the fate of its own nature, and dwell and sleep on the
dust : so are the hopes of a mortal man ; he opens his eyes, and
looks on fine things at distance, and shuts them again with weak
ness, because they are too glorious to behold ; and the man re»
joices because he hopes fine things are staying for him ; but
his heartaches, because he knows there are a thousand ways to
fail and miss of those glories ; and though he hopes, yet he en
joys not; he longs, but he possesses not, and must be content
with his portion of dust ; and being a " a worm, and no man,''
must lie down in this portion, before he can receive the end of
his hopes, the salvation of his soul in the resurrection of the
dead. For as death is the end of our lives, so is the resurrec
tion the end of our hopes ; and as we die daily, so we daily
hope : but death, which is the end of our life, is the enlarge
ment of our spirits from hope to certainty, from uncertain fears
to certain expectations, from the death of the body to the life
of the soul ; that is, to partake of the light and life of Christ, to
rise to life as he did ; for his resurrection is the beginning of
ours: he died for us alone, not for himself; but he rose again
for himself and us too. So that if he did rise, so shall we ; the
resurrection shall be universal ; good and bad, all shall rise,
but not altogether : first Christ, then we that are Christ's ;
and yet there is a third resurrection, though not spoken of
here ; but thus it shall be. ' The dead in Christ shall rise
first,' that is, next to Christ ; and after them, the wicked
shall rise to condemnation.
So that you see here is the sum of affairs treated of in my
text : not whether it be lawful to eat a tortoise or a mushroom,
or to tread with the foot bare on the ground within the octaves
of Easter. It is not here inquired, whether angels be material

52 JEREMY TAYLOR. — SERMON VII.
or immaterial; or whether the dwellings of dead infants be
within the air or in the regions of the earth ? the inquiry here
is, whether we are to be Christians or no ? whether we are to
live good lives or no ? or whether it be permitted to us to live
with lust or covetousness, acted with all the daughters of rapine
and ambition? whether there be any such thing as sin, any
judicatory for consciences, any rewards of piety, any difference
of good and bad, any rewards after this life ? This is the de
sign of these words by proper interpretation : for if men shall
die like dogs and sheep, they will certainly live like wolves
and foxes ; but he that believes the article of the resurrection,
hath entertained the greatest demonstration in the world, that
nothing can make us happy but the knowlege of God, and
conformity to the life and death of the holy Jesus. Here,
therefore, are the great hinges of all religion : 1. Christ is al
ready risen from the dead. 2. We also shall rise in God's
time and our order. Christ is the first fruits. But there shall
be a full harvest of the resurrection, and all shall rise. My
text speaks only of the resurrection of the just, of them that
belong to Christ; explicitly, I say, of these ; and , therefore,
directly of resurrection to life eternal. But because he also
says there shall be an order for every man, and yet every man
does not belong to Christ ; therefore, indirectly also, he im
plies the more universal resurrection unto judgment : but this
shall be the last thing that shall be done ; for, according to
the proverb of the Jews, Michael flies but with one wing, and
Gabriel with two : God is quick in sending angels of peace,
and they fly apace ; but the messengers of wrath come slowly :
God is more hasty to glorify his servants than to condemn the
wicked. And, therefore, in the story of Dives and Lazarus,
we find that the beggar died first; the good man, Lazarus,
was first taken away from his misery to his comfort, and after
wards the rich man died; and as the good, many times, die
first, so all of them rise first, as if it were a matter of haste :
and as the mother's breasts swell, and shoot, and long to give
food to her babe, so God's bowels do yearn over his banished
children, and he longs to cause them to eat and drink in his
kingdom. And at last the wicked shall rise unto condem
nation, for that must be done too ; every man in his own order:

PREACHED AT THE FUNERAL OF THE LORD PRIMATE. 53
first Christ, then Christ's servants, and, at last, Christ's ene
mies. The first of these is the great ground of our faith ; the
second is the consummation of all our hopes : the first is the
foundation of God, that stands sure ; the second is that super
structure that shall never perish : by the first we believe in
God unto righteousness ; by the second we live in God unto
salvation : but the third (for that also is true and must be con
sidered) is the great aflrightment of all them that live ungodly.
But in the whole, Christ's resurrection and ours is the A and
ft of a Christian ; that as ' Jesus Christ is the same yesterday,
and to-day, and the same for ever,' so may we in Christ be
come the morrow of the resurrection, the same or better than
yesterday in our natural life ; the same body and the same
soul, tied together in the same essential union, with this only
difference, that not nature, but grace and glory, with an her
metic seal, give us a new signature, whereby we shall no more
be changed, but, like unto Christ, our Head, we shall become
the same for ever. Of these I shall discourse in order. 1. That
Christ, who is the first fruits, is the first in this order: he is
already risen from the dead. 2. We shall all take our turns,
shall die, and, as sure as death, we shall all rise again. And,
3. This very order is effective of the thing itself. That Christ
is first risen, is the demonstration and certainty of ours; for
because there is an order in this economy, the first in the kind
is the measure of the rest. If Christ be the first fruits, we
are the whole vintage ; and we shall all die in the order of
nature, and shall rise again in the order of Christ : ' They that
are Christ's,' and are found so ' at his coming,' shall partake of
his resurrection. But Christ first, then they that are Christ's :
that is the order.
1. Christ is the first fruits ; he is already risen from the
dead : for he alone could not be held by death. ' Free among
the dead.' ^pl^ev (Xe y4pQitf rSre
* Aldus d ¦ira\atyef^s,
Kai \aop6pos Kvav
'Accxtio-o-oTO 07;AoD.*
Death was Sin's eldest daughter, and the grave-clothes were
* Synes. Hym. 9. Petavii, p. 347.

-54 JEREMY TAYLOR.— SERMON VII.
her first mantle; but Christ was Conqueror over both, and
came to take that away, and to disarm this. This was a glory
fit for the Head of mankind, but it was too great and too good
to be easily believed by incredulous and weak-hearted man.
It was at first doubted by all that were concerned ; but they
that saw it, had no reason to doubt any longer. Bi't what is
that to us, who saw it not ? Yes, very much : Valde dubita-
tum est ab illis, ne duhitaretur a nobis, saith St. Austin : " They
doubted very much, that, by their confirmation, we might be
established, and doubt no more." Mary Magdalene saw him
first, and she ran with joy, and said ' she had seen the Lord,
and that he was risen from the dead, but they believed her
not ; — after that, divers women together saw him,' and they
told it, but had no thanks for their pains, and obtained no cre
dit among the disciples : the two disciples that went to Em-
maus, saw him, talked with him, ate with him, and they ran
and told it : they told true, but nobody believed them : then
St. Peter saw him, but he was not yet got into the chair of
the catholic church, they did not think him infallible, and so
they believed him not at all. Five times in one day he ap
peared ; for after all this, he appeared to the eleven : they
were indeed transported with joy and wonder ; but they would
scarce believe their own eyes, and though they saw him, they
doubted. Well, all this was not enough ; he was seen also
of James, and suffered Thomas to thrust bis hand into his side,
and appeared to St. Paul, and was seen by ' five hundred
brethren at once.' So that there is no capacity of mankind,
no time, no place, but had an ocular demonstration of his re
surrection. He appeared to men and women, to the clergy
and the laity, to sinners of both sexes ; to weak men and to
criminals, to doubters and deniers at home and abroad, in pub
lic and in private, in their houses and their journeys, unex
pected and by appointment, betimes in the morning and late
at night, to them in conjunction and to them in dispersion,
when they did look for him and when they did not ; he ap
peared on earth to many, and to St. Paul and St. Stephen
from heaven : so that we can require no greater testimony than
all these are able to give us ; and they saw for themselves and
for us too, that the faith and certainty of the resurrection of

PREACHED AT THE FUNERAL OF THE LORD PRIMATE. 55
Jesus might be conveyed to all that shall die, and follow Christ
in their own order.
Now this being matter of fact, cannot be supposed infinite,
but limited to time and place, and, therefore, to be proved by
them who, at that time, were on the place ; good men and
true, simple and yet losers by the bargain, many and united,
confident and constant, preaching it all their life, and stoutly
maintaining it at their death; men that would not deceive
others, and men that could not be deceived themselves, in a
matter so notorious, and so proved, and so seen: and if this be
not sufficient credibility in a matter of fact, as this was, then
we can have no story credibly transmitted to us, no records
kept, no acts of courts, no narratives of the days of old, no tra
ditions of our fathers, no memorials of them in the third genera
tion. Nay, if from these we have not sufficient causes and
arguments of faith, how shall we be able to know the will of
Heaven on earth ? unless God do not only tell it once, but
always, and not only always to some men, but always to all
men : for if some men must believe others, they can never do it
in any thing more reasonably than in this ; and if we may not
trust them in this, then, without a perpetual miracle, no man
could have faith : for faith could never come by hearing, by
nothing but by seeing. But if there be any use of history, any
faith in men, any honesty in manners, any truth in human in
tercourse ; if there be any use of Apostles or teachers, of am
bassadors or letters, of ears or hearing ; if there be any such
thing as the grace of faith, that is less than demonstration or
intuition ; then we may be as sure that Christ, the first fruits,
is already risen, as all these credibilities can make us. But
let us take heed ; as God hates a lie, so he hates incredulity j
an obstinate, a foolish, and pertinacious understanding. What
we do every minute of our lives, in matters of title and great
concernment, if we refuse to do it in religion, which yet is
to be conducted, as all human affairs are, by human in
struments, and arguments of persuasion proper to the nature of
the thing, it is an obstinacy as cross to human reason, as it is to
Divine faith.
But this article was so clearly proved, that presently it came
to pass that men were no longer ashamed of the cross, but

56 JEREMY TAYLOR. — SERMON VII.
it was worn on breasts, printed in the air, drawn on fore
heads, carried on banners, put on crowns imperial; pre
sently it came to pass that the religion of the despised Jesus
did infinitely prevail ; a religion that taught men to be meek
and humble, apt to receive injuries, but unapt to do any ; a re
ligion that gave countenance to the poor and pitiful, in a time
when riches were adored, and ambition and pleasure had pos
sessed the heart of all mankind ; a religion that would change
the face of things, and the hearts of men, and break vile habits
into gentleness and counsel ; that such a religion, in such a
time, by the sermons and conduct of fishermen, men of mean
breeding and illiberal arts, should so speedily triumph over the
philosophy of the world, and the arguments of the subtle, and
the sermons of the eloquent ; the power of princes and the in
terests of states, the inclinations of nature and the blindness of
zeal, the force of custom and the solicitation of passions, the
pleasures of sin and the busy arts of the devil ; that is, against
wit and power, superstition and wilfulness, fame and money,
nature and empire, which are all the causes in this world that
can make a thing impossible ; this, this is to be ascribed to the
power of God, and is the great demonstration of the resurrec
tion of Jesus. Every thing was an argument for it, and im
proved it; no objection could hinder it, no enemies destroy it;
whatsoever was for them, it made the religion to increase ;
whatsoever was against them, made it to increase; sunshine
and storms, fair weather or foul, it was all one as to the event
of things ; for they were instruments in the hands of God, who
could make what himself should choose to be the product of
any cause ; so that if the Christians had peace, they went
abroad and brought in converts; if they had no peace, but per
secution, the converts came in to them. In prosperity, they
allured and enticed the world by the beauty of holiness ; in af
fliction and trouble, they amazed all men with the splendor of
their innocence and the glories of their patience ; and quickly
it was that the world became disciple to the glorious Nazarene,
and men could no longer doubt of the resurrection of Jesus,
when it became so demonstrated by the certainty of them that
saw itj and the courage of them that died for it, and the multi
tude of them that believed it ; who, by their sermons and their

PREACHED AT THE FUNERAL OF THE LORD PRIMATE. 57
actions, by their public offices and discourses, by festivals and
eucharists, by arguments of experience and sense, by reason and
religion, by persuading rational men, and establishing believing
Christians, by their living in the obedience of Jesus, and dying
for the testimony of Jesus, have greatly advanced his kingdom,
and his power, and his glory, into which he entered after his
resurrection from the dead. For he is the first fruits ; and if
we hope to rise through him, we must confess that himself is
first risen from the dead. That is the first particular.
2. There is an order for us also : we also shall rise again :
Combustusque senex tumulo procedit adultus;
Consumens dat membra rogus : 
The ashes of old Camillus shall stand up spritely from his urn ;
and the funeral fires shall produce a new warmth to the dead
bones of all those, who died under the arms of all the enemies
of the Roman greatness. This is a less wonder than the former;
for admonetur omnis atas jam fieri posse quod aliquando factum
est. If it was done once, it maybe done again; for since it
could never have been done but by a Power that is infinite,
that infinite must also be eternal and indeficient. By the same
Almighty Power, which restored life to the dead body of our
living Lord, we may all be restored to a new life in the resur
rection of the dead.
When man was not, what power, what causes, made him to
be ? Whatsoever it was, it did then as great a work as to raise
his body to the same being again ; and because we know not
the method of Nature's secret changes, and how we can be
fashioned beneath in secreto terrce, and cannot handle and
discern the possibilities and seminal powers in the ashes of dis
solved bones, must our ignorance in philosophy be put in ba
lance against the articles of religion, the hopes of mankind, the
faith of nations, and the truth of God ? And are our opinions
of the power of God so low, that our understanding must be his
measure ; and he shall be confessed to do nothing, unless it be
made plain in our philosophy ? Certainly we have a low opi
nion of God, unless we believe he can do more things than we
can understand : but let us hear St. Paul's demonstration : if
the corn dies and lives again ; if it lays its body down, suffers

68 JEREMY TAYLOR. — SERMON VII.
alteration, dissolution, and death, but, at the spring, rises again
in the verdure of a leaf, in the fulness of the ear, in the kidneys
of wheat ; if it proceeds from little to great, from nakedness to
ornament, from emptiness to plenty, from unity to multitude,
from death to life ; be a Sadducee no more, shame not thy un
derstanding, and reproach not the weakness of thy faith, by
thinking that corn can be restored to life, and man cannot;
especially since, in every creature, the obediential capacity is
infinite, and cannot admit degrees ; for every creature can be
any thing under the power of God, which cannot be less than
infinite. But we find no obscure footsteps of this mystery even amongst
the heathens. Pliny reports that Apion, the grammarian, by
the use of the plant osiris, called Homer from his grave ; and
in Valerius Maximus we find that .Silius Tubero returned to
life, when he was seated in his funeral pile ; and in Plutarch,
thatSoleus, after three days' burial, did live; and in Valerius,
that Eris Pampbylius did so after ten days.* And it was so
commonly believed, that Glaucus, who was choked in a vessel
of honey, did rise again, that it grew to a proverb, Glaucus,
potomelle, surrexit; " Glaucus, having tasted honey, died and
lived again." I pretend not to believe these stories to be true ;
but from these instances it may be concluded, that they believed
it possible that there should be a resurrection from the dead ;
and natural reason, and their philosophy, did not wholly destroy
their hopes and expectation to have a portion in this article.
For God, knowing that the great hopes of man, that the
biggest endearment of religion, the sanction of private justice,
the band of piety and holy courage, does wholly derive from
the article of the resurrection, — was pleased not only to make
it credible, but easy and familiar to us ; and we so converse
every night with the image of death, that every morning we find
an argument of the resurrection. Sleep and death have but one
mother, and they have one name in common.
Soles occideie et redire possunt :
Nobis, cum semel occidit brevis lux,
Nox est perpetua una dormienda.-f-
* Lib. i, c. 8. Helfrecht, p. 71. f Calull. v. 4.

PREACHED AT THE FUNERAL OF THE LORD PRIMATE. 59
Charnel-houses urehut KoifjrjTypta, " cemeteries" or sleeping-
places ; and they that die are fallen asleep, and the resurrec
tion is but an awakening and standing up from sleep : but in
sleep our senses are as fast bound by Nature, as our joints are
by the grave-clothes ; and unless an angel of God waken us
every morning, we must confess ourselves as unable to converse
with men, as we now are afraid to die and to converse with
spirits. But, however, death itself is no more ; it is but dark
ness and a shadow, a rest and a forgetfulness. What is there
more in death ? What is there less in sleep ? - For do we not
see by experience that nothing of equal loudness does awaken
us sooner than a man's voice, especially if he be called by name?
and thus also it shall be in the resurrection : we shall be awa
kened by the voice of a man, and he that called Lazarus by
name from his grave, shall also call us ; for although St. Paul
affirms, ' that the trumpet shall sound, and there shall be the
voice of an archangel ;' yet this is not a word of nature, but of
office and ministry : Christ himself is that archangel, and he
shall ' descend with a mighty shout,' saith the Apostle ;* and
'all that are in the grave shall hear his voice,' saith St. John :f
so that we shall be awakened by the voice of man, because
we are only fallen asleep by the decree of God ; and when the
cock and the lark call us up to prayer and labor, the first thing
we see is an argument of our resurrection from the dead. And
when we consider what the Greek church reports, — that amongst
them the bodies of those that die excommunicate will not re
turn to dust till the censure be taken off; — we may, with a
little faith and reason, believe, that the same power that keeps
them from their natural dissolution, can recall them to life and
union. I will not now insist on the story of the rising bones
seen every year in Egypt, nor the pretences of the chemists,
that they, from the ashes of flowers, can reproduce, from, the
same materials, the same beauties in color and figure ; for he
that proves a certain truth from an uncertain argument, is like
him that wears a wooden-leg, when he hath two sound legs
already ; it hinders his going, but helps him not : the truth of
* 1 Thes. iv. 16. t Jo'i". v. 28.

60 JEREMY TAYLOR. — SERMON VII.
God stands not in need of such supporters ; nature alone is a
sufficient preacher :
Quee nunc herba fuit, lignum jacet, heiba futnra,
Aeriasnudantur aves cum penna vetusta,
Et nova subvestit reparatas pluraa volucrcs.*
Night and day ; the sun returning to the same point of east ;
every change of species in the same matter ; generation and
corruption; the eagle renewing her youth, and the snake her
skin ; the silk-worm and the swallows ; the care of posterity,
and the care of an immortal name ; winter and summer ; the
fall and spring ; the Old Testament and the New; the words of
Job, and the visions of the prophets ; the prayer of Ezekiel for
the resurrection of the men of Ephraim, and the return of Jonas
from the whale's belly ; the histories of the Jews and the narra
tives of Christians ; the fafth of believers and the philosophy of
the reasonable ; — all join in the verification of this mystery.
And amongst these heaps, it is not of the least consideration,
that there was never any good man, who having been taught this
article, but if he served God, he also relied on this. If he be
lieved God, he believed this ; and therefore St. Paul says, that
they who were eXniba firj exovres, were also &Qeoi kv Koapu,
' they who had no hope ' (meaning of the resurrection) ' were
also atheists, and without God in the world.' And it is remark
able what St. Austin observes, that when the world saw the
righteous Abel destroyed, and that the murderer outlived his
crime, and built up a numerous family, and grew mighty on
earth,— they neglected the service of God on that account^ till
God, in pity of their prejudice and foolish arguings, took Enoch
up to heaven to recover them from their impieties, by showing
them that their bodies and souls should be rewarded for ever in
an eternal union. But Christ, the first fruits, is gone before ;
and himself did promise, that when himself was lifted up, he
would draw all men after him : ' Every man in his own order ;
first Christ, then they that are Christ's at his coming.' And so
I have done with the second particular ; not Christ only, but
we also shall rise in God's time and our order.
* Dracontius de Opere Dei,

PREACHED AT THE FUNERAL OF THE LORD PRIMATE. 61
But concerning this order I must speak a word or two, not
only for the fuller handling the text, but because it will be
matter of application of what hath been already spoken of the
article of the resurrection.
3. First Christ, and then we ; and we, therefore, because
Christ is already risen : but you must remember, that the resur
rection and exaltation of Christ was the reward of his perfect
obedience and purest holiness; and he calling us to an imita
tion of the same obedience, and the same perfect holiness, pre
pares a way for us to the same resurrection. If we, by holi
ness, become the sons of God, as Christ was, we shall also, as
he was, become the sons of God in the resurrection : but on no
other terms. So said our blessed Lord himself: 'Ye which
have followed me in the regeneration, when the Son of Man
shall sit on the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit on thrones
judging the tribes of Israel.'* For as it was with Christ the
first fruits, so it shall be with all Christians in their own order :
as with the head, so it shall be with the members. He was the
Son of God by love and obedience, and then became the Son
of God by resurrection from the dead to life eternal, and so
shall we ; but we cannot be so in any other way. To them
that are Christ's, and to none else, shall this be given ; for we
must know that God hath sent Christ into the world to be a
great example and demonstration of the economy and dispensa
tion of eternal life. As God brought Christ to glory, so he will
bring us, but by no other method. He first obeyed the will
of God, and patiently suffered the will of God ; he died and
rose again, and entered into glory ; and so must we. Thus
Christ is made via, Veritas, et vita, ' the way, the truth, and
the life ;' that is, the true way to eternal life : he first trod this
wine-press, and we must insist in the same steps, or we shall
never partake of this blessed resurrection. Hewas made the
Son of God in a most glorious manner, and we by him, by his
merit, and by his grace, and by his example ; but other than
this there is no way of salvation for us ; that is the first and
great effect of this glorious order.
4. But there is one thing more in it yet : ' Every man in his
" Luke, xiv, 14.

62 JEREMY TAYLOR. — SERMON VII.
own order; first Christ, and then they that are Chri.st's:' but
what shall become of them that are not Christ's ? why there is
an order for them too : first, ' they that are Christ's; and then
they that are not his :' ' Blessed and holy is he that hath his
part in the first resurrection :'* there is a first and a second re-
surrectioa even after this life ; ' The dead in Christ shall rise
first :'t now blessed are they that have their portion here ; 'for
on these the,,second death shall have no power.' As for the
recalling the wicked from their graves, it is no otherwise in the
sense of the Spirit to be called a resurrection, than taking a cri
minal from the prison to the bar is a giving of liberty. When
poor Acilius Aviola had been seized on by an apoplexy, his
friends, supposing him dead, carried him to his funeral pile ;
but when the fire began to approach, and the heat to warm the
body, he revived, and seeing himself encircled with funeral
flames, called out aloud to his friends to rescue, not the dead,
but the living Aviola from that horrid burning : but it could
not be ; he only was restored from his sickness to fall into death,
and from his dull disease to a sharp and intolerable torment.]:
Just so shall the wicked live again ; they shall receive their
souls, that they may be a portion for devils ; they shall receive
their bodies, that they may feel the everlasting burning ; they
shall see Christ, that they may ' look on him whom they have
pierced ;' and they shall hear the voice of God passing on them
the intolerable sentence ; they shall come from their graves,
that they may go into hell ; and live again, that they may die
for ever. So have we seen a poor condemned criminal, the
weight of whose sorrows sitting heavily on his soul, hath be
numbed him into a deep sleep, till he hath forgotten his groans,
and laid aside his deep sighings ; but, on a sudden, comes the
messenger of death, and unbinds the poppy garland, scatters the
heavy cloud that encircled his miserable head, and makes him
return to acts of life, that he may quickly descend into death
and be no more. So is every sinner that lies down in shame,
and makes his grave with the wicked : he shall indeed rise
again, and be called on by the voice of the archangel; but then
he shall descend into sorrows greater than the reason and the
* Rev. xx. 6. t 1 Thess. iv. 16. J Plin. vii. 52.

PREACHED AT THE FUNERAL OF THE LORD PRIMATE. 63
patience of a man, weeping and shrieking louder than the groans
of the miserable children in the valley of Hinnom.
These, indeed, are sad stories, but true as the voice of God,
and the sermons of the holy Jesus. They are God's words, and
God's decrees ; and I wish that all who profess the belief of
these, would consider sadly what they mean. If ye believe the
article of the resurrection, then you know that, in your body,
you shall receive what you did in the body, whether it be good
or bad. It matters not now very much, whether. bUr bodies be
beauteous or deformed ; for if we glorify God»in our bodies,
God shall make our bodies glorious. It matters not much whe
ther we live in ease and pleasure, or eat nothing but bitter
herbs ; the body that lies in dust and ashes, that goes stooping
and feeble, that lodges at the foot of the cross, and dwells in
discipline, shall be feasted at the eternal supper of the Lamb.
And ever remember this, that beastly pleasures, and lying lips,
and a deceitful tongue, and a heart that sendeth forth proud
things, are no good dispositions to a blessed resurrection.
Ov Ka\'bif ap^oviriv hva\v4pL^v avQptxnroio'
"It is not good that in the body we live a life of dissolution,
for that is no good harmony with that purpose of glory which
God designs the body."
Kal Tcixa 5' e/c yatrjs i\Tri^op.ev es <pdos i\9eXv
Aet^/zay' anoixofi^ycav hiriffu 5e fleol TeXiQovrai,
said Phocylides ;* " for we hope that from our beds of dark
ness we shall rise into regions of light, and shall become like
unto God:" they shall partake of a resurrection to life; and
what this can infer is very obvious : for if it be so hard to be
lieve a resurrection from one death, let us not be dead in tres
passes and sins; for a resurrection from two deaths will be
harder to be believed, and harder to be effected. But if any of
you have lost the life of grace, and so forfeited all your title to
a life of glory, betake yourselves to an early and an intire piety,
that when, by this first resurrection, you have made this way
plain before your face, you may with confidence expect a happy
* Gaisford, p. 452.

64 JEREMY TAYLOR. — SERMON VII.
resurrection from your graves : for if it be possible that the
Spirit, when it is dead in sin, can arise to a life of righteous
ness ; much more it is easy to suppose, that the body, after'
death, is capable of being restored again : and this is a conse
quent of St. Paul's argument : ' If, when we were enemies, we
were reconciled by his death, much more, being reconciled, we
shall be saved by his life;'* plainly declaring, that it is a
harder and more wonderful thing for a wicked man to become
the friend of God, than for one that is so to be carried up to
heaven and partake of his glory. The first resurrection is cer
tainly the greater miracle ; but he that hath risen once, may rise
again ; and this is as sure as that he that dies once, may die
again, and die for ever. But he who partakes of the death
of Christ by mortification, and of his resurrection by holiness of
life and a holy faith, shall, according to the expression of the
prophet Isaiah, ' enter into his chamber of death,'t when Na
ture and God's decree ' shall shut the doors on him, and there
he shall be hidden for a little moment:' but then shall they
that dwell in dust, awake and sing ; with Christ's dead body
shall they arise ; all shall rise, but ' every man in his own
order ; Christ the first fruits, then they that are Christ's at his
coming.' Amen.
I have now done with my meditation of the resurrection ; but
we have had a new and a sadder subject to consider. It is glo
rious and brave when a Christian contemplates those glories,
which stand at the foot of the account of all God's servants ;
but when we consider, that before all, or any thing of this hap
pens, every Christian must twice exuere hominem, ' put off the
old man,' and then lie down in dust, and the dishonors of the
grave; it is vinum myrrhatum, there is " myrrh put into our
wine ;" it is wholesome, but it will allay all our pleasures of
that glorious expectation : but no man can escape it. After
that the great Cyrus had ruled long in a mighty empire, yet
there came a message from heaven, not so sad it may be, yet as
decretory as the hand-writing on the wall that arrested his suc
cessor Darius, ^voKeva^ov, d Kiipe' r]br] yap els Oeoiis H-Tret,
" Prepare thyself, O Cyrus, and then go unto the gods;"| he
* Rom, V. 10. t Isai. xxvi, 20.
J Cyrop, viii, 7. 2. Schneider.

PREACHED AT THE FUNERAL OF THE LORD PRIMATE. 65
laid aside his tire and his beauteous diadem, and covered his
face with a cloth, and in a single linen laid his honored head in
k poor humble grave : and none of us all can avoid this sen
tence : for if wit and learning, great fame and gTeat experience,
if wise notices of things and an honorable fortune, if courage
and skill, if prelacy and an honorable age, if any thing that
could give greatness and immunity to a wise and. prudent man,
could have been put in bar against a sad day, and have gone
for good plea, this sad scene of sorrows had not been the enter
tainment of this assembly. But tell me. Where are those great
masters, who, while they lived, florished in their studies? Jam
eortim preebendas alii possident, et nescia utrum de iis cogitant ;
"other men have got their prebends and their dignities, and
who knows whether ever they remember them or no ?" While
they lived, they seemed nothing ; when they are dead, every
man for a while speaks of them what they please ; and after
wards they are as if they had not been. But the piety of the
Christian church hath made some little provision towards an
artificial immortality for brave and worthy persons ; and the
friendships which our dead contracted while they were alive, re
quire us to continue a fair memory as long as we can ; but they
expire in monthly minds, or at most in a faint and declining
anniversary ;
 i^rd <pl\0Sf liffTLS eraipov

M4/xv7]Tai KTUpivoiO Kol tt,xvvTai ohr' er' eovTOS.
And we have great reason so to do in this present sad accident
of the death of our late most reverend primate, whose death the
church of Ireland hath very great reason to deplore; and we
have great obligation to remember his very many worthy deeds,
done for this poor, afflicted, and despised church. St. Paul
made an excellent funeral oration, as it were instituting a feast
of all saints, who all died 'having obtained a good report:'*
and that excellent preacher made a sermon of their commemo
ration. For since good men, while they are alive, have their
conversation in heaven ; when they are in heaven, it is also fit
that they should, in their good names, live on earth : and
* Hebrews, xi. 39.

66 JEREMY TAYLOR. — SERMON VII.
as their great examples are an excellent sermon to the living,
and the praising them, when envy and flattery can have no in
terest to interpose, as it is the best and most vigorous sermon
and incentive to great things ; so to conceal what good God
hath wrought by them, is great unthankfulness to God and to
good men.
When Dorcas died, the Apostle came to see the dead corpse,
and the friends of the deceased expressed their grief and their
love, by showing the coats that she, whilst she lived, wrought
with her own hands : she was a good needle-woman and a good
housewife, and did good to mankind in her little way, and that
itself ought not to be forgotten ; and the Apostle himself was
not displeased with their little sermons, and that eifriptirubs
which the women made on that sad interview. But if we may
have the same liberty to record the worthy things of this our
most venerable father and brother, and if there remains no more
of that envy which usually obscures the splendor of living he
roes ; if you can with your charitable, though weeping eyes,
behold the great gifts of God with which he adorned this great
prelate, and not object the failings of humanity to the partici
pation of the graces of the Spirit, or think that God's gifts are
the less because they are born in earthen vessels, Trcivres yap
kXvtci bwpa Kepaaaafievoi (fiopiovaiv , for all men bear mortality
about them, and the cabinet is not so beauteous as the dia
mond that shines within its bosom ; then we may, without in
terruption, pay this duty to piety, and friendship, and thank
fulness; and deplore our sad loss by telling a true and sad
story of this great man, whom God hath lately taken from our
eyes. He was bred in Cambridge, in Sidney College, under Mr.
Hulet, a grave and a worthy man ; and he showed himself not
only a fruitful plant by his great progress in his studies, but
made him another return of gratitude, taking care to provide
a good employment for him in Ireland, where he then began to
be greatly interested. It was spoken as an honor to Augustus
Caesar, that he gave his tutor an honorable funeral ; and Mar
cus Antoninus erected a statue unto his ; and Gratian the em
peror made his master Ausonius to be consul : and our worthy
primate, knowing the obligation which they pass on us, who

PREACHED AT THE FUNERAL OF THE LORD PRIMATE. 07
do obstetricare gravidce animce , "help the parturient soul" to
bring forth fruits according to its seminal powers, was careful
not only to reward the industry of such persons, so useful to
the church in the c\i\tiva.t\oginfantes palmarmn, "young plants,"
whose joints are to be stretched and made straight; but to
demonstrate that his scholar knew how to value learning, when
he knew so well how to reward the teacher.
Having passed the course of his studies in the university,
and done his exercise with that applause which is usually the
reward of pregnant wit and hard study, he was removed into
Yorkshire, where first, in the city of York, he was an assi
duous preacher ; but, by the disposition of the divine provi
dence, he happened to be engaged at Northallerton in dispu
tation with three pragmatical Romish priests of the Jesuits'
order, whom he so much worsted in the conference, and so
shamefully disadvantaged by the evidence of truth, represented
wisely and learnedly, that the famous primate of York, arch
bishop Matthews, a learned and an excellent prelate, and a
most worthy preacher, hearing of that triumph, sent for him,
and made him his chaplain ; in whose service he continued
till the death of the primate, but, in that time had given so
much testimony of his dexterity in the conduct of ecclesiastical
and civil aft'airs, that he grew dear to his master. In that em
ployment he was made prebendary of York, and then of Rip-
pon, the dean of which church having made him his subdean,
he managed the affairs of that church so well, that he soon ac
quired a greater fame, and entered into the possession of many
hearts, and admiration to those many more that knew him.
There and at his parsonage he continued long to do the duty
of.a learned and good preacher, and by his wisdom, eloquence,
and deportment, so gained the affections of the nobility, gentry,
and commons of that county, that at his return thither on the
blessed restoration of his most sacred majesty, he knew himself
obliged enough, and was so kind as to give them a visit; so
they, by their coming in great numbers to meet him, their joy
ful reception of him, their great caressing of him when he was
there, their forward hopes to enjoy him as their bishop, their
trouble at his departure, their unwillingness to let him go away.

68 JEREMY TAYLOR. — SERMON VII.
gave signal testimonies that they were wise and kind enough
to understand and value his great worth.
But while he lived there, he was like a diamond in the dust,
or Lucius Quinctius at the plough : his low fortune covered a
most valuable person, till he became observed by Sir Thomas
Wentworth, lord-president of York, whom we all knew for
his great excellences, and his great but glorious misfortunes.
This rare person espied the great abilities of Doctor Bramhall,
and made him his chaplain, and brought him into Ireland, as
one who, he believed, would prove the most fifinstrument to
serve in that design, which, for two years before his arrival
here, he had greatly meditated and resolved, the reformation
of religion, and the reparation of the broken fortunes of the
church. The complaints were many, the abuses great, the
causes of the church vastly numerous ; but as fast as they were
brought in, so fast they were by the lord-deputy referred back
to Dr. Bramhall, who, by his indefatigable pains, great saga
city, perpetual watchfulness, daily and hourly consultations,
reduced things to a more tolerable condition than they had
been left in by the schismatical principles of some, and the un
just prepossessions of others, for many years before : for at the
reformation, the popish bishops and priests seemed to conform,
and did so, that keeping their bishoprics they might enrich
their kindred and dilapidate the revenues of the church, which
by pretended offices, false informations, fee-farms at contempt
ible rents, and ungodly alienations, were made low as poverty
itself, and unfit to minister to the needs of them that served the
altar, or the noblest purposes of religion : for hospitality de
cayed, and the bishops were easy to be oppressed by those that
would ; and they complained, but for a long time had no
helper, till God raised up that glorious instrument the earl of
Strafford, who brought over with him as great aftections to the
church and to all public interests, and as admirable abilities,
as ever before his time did invest and adorn any of the king's
vicegerents ; and God fitted his hand with an instrument good
as his skill was great; for the first specimen of his abilities and
diligence in recovery of some lost tithes, being represented to
his late majesty, of blessed and glorious memory, it pleased his

PREACHED AT THE FUNERAL OF THE LORD PRIMATE, 69
majesty, on the death of bishop Downham, to advance the doc
tor to the bishopric of Derry, which he not only adorned with
an excellent spirit and a wise government, but did more than
double the revenue, not by taking any thing from them to
whom it was due, but by resuming something of the church's
patrimony, which by undue means was detained in unfitting
hands. But his care was beyond his diocese, and his zeal broke out
to warm all his brethren ; and, though by reason of the favor
and piety of king James, the escheated counties were well pro
vided for their tithes, yet the bishoprics were not so well, till
the primate, then bishop of Derry, by the favor of the lord-
lieutenant and his own incessant and assiduous labor and wise
conduct, brought in divers impropriations, cancelled many un
just alienations, and did restore them to a condition much more
tolerable : I say much more tolerable ; for though he raised
them above contempt, yet they were not near to envy ; but he
knew there could not in all times be wanting too many, that
envied to the church every degree of prosperity : so Judas did
to Christ the expense of ointment ; and so Dionysius told the
priest, when himself stole the golden cloak from Apollo, and
gave him one of the Arcadian home-spun, that it was warmer
for him in winter and cooler in summer. And for ever since,
the church, by God's blessing and the favor of religious kings
and princes, and pious nobility, hath been endowed with
fair revenues, inimicus homo, " the enemy," hath not been want
ing, by pretences of religion, to take away God's portion from
the church, as if his word were intended as an instrument to
rob his houses. But when the Israelites were governed by a
OeoKparla, and ' God was their king,' and Moses his lieutenant,
and things were of his management, — he was pleased, by ma
king great provisions for them that ministered in the service of
the tabernacle, to consign this truth for ever ; — that men, as
they love God, at the same rate are to make provisions for his
priests. For when himself did it, he not only gave the forty-
eight cities, with a mile of glebe round about their city every
way, and yet the whole country was but a hundred and forty
miles long, or thereabouts, from Dan to Beersheba; but beside
this, they had the tithe of all increase, the first fruits, offerings.

70 JEREMY TAYLOR. — SERMON VII.
VOWS, redemptions, and, in short, they had twenty-four sorts
of dues, as Buxtorf relates ; and all this either brought to the
barn home to them without trouble, or else, as the nature of
the thing required, brought to the temple; the first to make
it more profitable, and the second to declare that they received
it not from the people but from God, not the people's kindness
but the Lord's inheritance : insomuch that this small tribe of
Levi, which was not the fortieth part of the people, as the
Scripture computes them, had a revenue almost treble to any
of the largest of the tribes.* I will not insist on what Villal-
pandus observes:! it may easily be read in the 45th of Ezekiel,
concerning that portion which God reserves for himself and
his service ; but whatsoever it be, this shall I say, that is con
fessedly a prophecy of the gospel ; but this I add, that they
had as little to do, and much less, than a Christian pliest; and
yet in all the twenty-four courses the poorest priest among
them might be esteemed a rich man. J I speak not this to upr
braid any man, or any thing but sacrilege and murmur, nor to
any other end but to represent on what great and religious
grounds the then bishop of Derry did, with so much care and
assiduous labor, endeavour to restore the church of Ireland to
that splendor and fulness, which, as it is much conducing to
the honor of God and of religion, God himself being the judge;
so it is much more necessary for you than it is for us ; and so
this wise prelate rarely well understood it ; and having the
same advantage and blessing as we now have, a gracious king,
and a lieutenant, patron of religion and the church, he im
proved the deposita pietatis, as Origen calls them,§ " the gages
of piety," which the religion of the ancient princes and nobles
of this kingdom had bountifully given to such a comfortable
competency, that though there be place left for present and
future piety to large itself, yet no man hath reason to be dis
couraged in his duty; insomuch that as I have heard from *
most worthy hand, that at his going into England he gave ac
count to the archbishop of Canterbury of 30,000Z. a year, in
the recovery of which he was greatly and principally instru-'
* Numb. i. 46. iii. 39. t Seld. Hist, of Tithes, c. 2.
X See Philo, Hepi TOV rivh. yepa, Up4iov.
k Tract. 25. in S. Matth.

PREACHED AT THE FUNERAL OF THE LORD PRIMATE. 71
mental. But the goods of this world are called 'waters' by
Solomon : stolen waters are sweet, and they are too unstable
to be stopped : some of these waters did run back from their
proper channel, and return to another course than God and the
laws intended ; yet his labors and pious counsels were not the
less acceptable to God and good men ; and therefore by a thankful
and honorable recognition, the convocation of the church of Ire
land has transmitted in record to posterity their deep resentment
of his singular services and great abilities in this whole aft'air.
And this honor will for ever remain to that bishop of Derry :
he had a Zerubbabel who repaired the temple and restored its
beauty ; but he was the Joshua, the high-priest, who under him
ministered this blessing to the congregations of the Lord.
But his care was not determined in the exterior part only,
and accessaries of religion ; he was careful, and he was pros
perous in it, to reduce that divine and excellent service of our
church to public and constant exercise, to unity and devotion ;
and to cause the articles of the church of England to be ac
cepted as the rule of public confessions and persuasions here,
that they and we might be populus unius labii, " of one heart
and one lip," building up our hopes of heaven on a most holy
faith; and taking away that Shibboleth which made this church
lisp too undecently, or rather, in some little degree, to speak
the speech of Ashdod, and not the language of Canaan : and
the excellent and wise pains he took in this particular no man
can dehonestate or reproach, but he that is not willing to con
fess that the church of England is the best reformed church in
the world. But when the brave Roman infantry, under the
conduct of Manlius, ascended up to the capitol to defend reli
gion and the altars from the fury of the Gauls, they all prayed
to God, Ut quemadmodum ipsi ad defendendum templum ejus
concurrissent, ita ille virtutem eorum numine sua tueretur :
" that as they came to defend his temple by their arms, so he
would defend their persons and that cause with his power and
divinity." And this excellent man in the cause of religion
found the like blessing which they prayed for ; God, by the
prosperity of his labors and a blessed effect, gave testimony
not only of the piety and wisdom of his purposes, but that he
loves to bless a, wise instrument, when it is vigorously em-

72 JEREMY TAYLOR. — SERMON VII.
ployed in a wise and religious labor. He overcame the diffi
culty in defiance of all such pretences, as were made even from
religion itself, to obstruct the better procedure of real and ma
terial religion.
These were great things and matter of great envy, and like
the fiery eruptions of Vesuvius, might, with the very ashes of
consumption, have buried another man. At first indeed, as his
blessed Master, the most holy Jesus, had, so he also had his
annum acceptabilem. At first the product was nothing but
great admiration at his stupendous parts, and wonder at his
mighty diligence and observation of his unusual zeal in so good
and great things; but this quickly passed into the natural
daughters of envy, suspicion, and detraction, the spirit of oblo
quy and slander. His zeal for recovery of the church reve
nues was called oppression and rapine, covetousness and in
justice; his care of reducing religion to wise and justifiable
principles was called popery and Arminianism, and I know
not what names, which signify what the authors are pleased to
mean, and the people to construe and to hate. The interme
dial prosperity of his person and fortune, which he had as an
earnest of a greater reward to so well-meant labors, was sup
posed to be the production of illiberal arts and ways of getting ;
and the necessary refreshment of his wearied spirits, which, did
not always supply all his needs, and were sometimes less than
the permissions even of prudent charity, they called intemper
ance ; Dederunt enim malum Metelli Ncevio po'etce; their own
surmises were the bills of accusation ; and the splendor of
his great d-yaQoepyia, or " doing of good works," was the great
probation of all their calamities. But if envy be the accuser,
what can be the defences of innocence ?
Sauoior invidiae morsu ; quaerenda medela est ;
Die quibus in terris sentiet aeger opem.
Our blessed Saviour, knowing the unsatisfiable angers of men
if their money or estates were meddled with, refused to divide
an inheritance amongst brethren : it was not to be imagined
that this great person (invested, as all his brethren were, with
the infirmities of mortality, and yet employed in dividing, and
recovering, and apportioning of lands) should be able to bear

^REACHED AT THE FUNERAL OF THE LORD PRIMATE. 73
ft,ll that reproach, which jealousy and suspicion and malicious
envy could invent against him. But an-' exOpHv iroXXa fiavBa-
vovniv 01 o-o^o)-, said Sophocles : and so did he ; the affright-
ments brought to his great fame and reputation made him
to walk more warily, and do justly, and act prudently,
and conduct his affairs by the measures of laws, as far as
he understood, and indeed that was a very great way : but
there yvas apei'ta justitia, clausamianus, "justice was open,
but his hand was shut;" and, though every slanderer could
tell a story, yet none could prove that ever he received
" a bribe to blind his eyes, to the value of a pair of gloves :"
it was his own expression, when he gave glory to God
who had preserved him innocent. But, because every man's
cause is right in his own eyes, it was hard for him so to acquit
himself, that in the intrigues of law and difficult cases, some
of his enemies should not seem (when they were heard- alone)
to speak reason against him. But see the greatness of truth
and prudence, and how greatly God stood with him. When
the numerous armies of vexed people,
1'urba gravis paci, placidoeqne inimica quieti,*
heaped up catalogues of accusations, when the parliament of
Ireland, imitating the violent procedures of the then disordered
English, when his glorious patron was taken from his head, and
he was disrobed of his great defences ; when petitions were in
vited and accusations furnished, and calumny was rewarded
and managed with art and power, when there were above two
hundred petitions put in against him, and himself denied leave
to answer by word of mouth ; when he was long imprisoned,
and treated so that a guilty man would have been broken into
aftVightment and pitiful and low considerations ; yet then he
himself, standing almost alone, like Callimachus at Marathon,
invested with enemies and covered with arrows, defended him
self beyond all the powers of guiltiness, even with the defences
of truth and the bravery of innocence, and answered the peti
tions in writing, sometimes twenty in a day, with so much clear
ness, evidence of truth, reality of fact, and testimony of law,
* Mart, de Spect. 4.
TAY. VOL. IV. D

74 JEREMY TAYLOR. — SERMON VII.
that his very enemies were ashamed and convinced ; they found
they had done like .Slsop's viper, they licked the file till their
tongues bled; but himself was wholly invulnerable. They
were therefore forced to leave their muster-rolls and decline the
particulars, and fall to their ev /jeya, to accuse him for going
about to subvert the fundamental laws, the way by which great
Strafford and Canterbury fell ; which was a device, when all
reasons failed, to oppress the enemy by the bold affirmation of
a conclusion they could not prove : they did like those gladia-
tores whom the Romans called retiarii : when they could not
stab their enemy with their daggers, they threw nets over him,
and covered him with a general mischief. But the martyr king
Charles the first, of most glorious and eternal memory, seeing
so great a champion likely to be oppressed with numbers and
despair, sent what rescue he could, his royal letter for his bail,
which was hardly granted to him ; and when it was, it was on
such hard terms, that his very delivery was a persecution. So
necessary it was for them, who intended to do mischief to the
public, to take away the strongest pillars of the house. This
thing I remark to acquit this great man from the tongue of
slander, which had so boldly spoken, that it was certain some
thing would stick ; yet was so impotent and unarmed, that it
could not kill that great fame, which his greater worthiness had
procured him. It was said of Hippasus the Pythagorean, that
being asked how and what he had done, he answered, Nondum
nihil ; neque enim adhuc mihi invidetur ; " I have done nothing
yet, for no man envies me." He that does,great things, cannot
avoid the tongues and teeth of envy ; but if calumnies must
pass for evidences, the bravest heroes must always be the most
reproached persons in the world.
Nascitur jEtolicus, pravum ingeniosus ad omne;
Qui facere assuerat, patriae non degener artis,
Candida de nigris, et de candentibus atra.
Every thing can have an ill name and an ill sense put on
it ; but God, who takes care of reputations as he does of lives,
by the orders of his Providence confutes the slander, ut memo-
ria justorum sit in benedictionibus, " that the memory of the
righteous man might be embalmed with honor ;" and so it

PREACHED AT THE FUNERAL OF THE LORD PRIMATE. 75
happened to this great man ; for by a public warranty, by the
concurrent consent of both houses of parliament, the libellous
petitions against him, the false records and public monuments
of injurious shame, were cancelled, and he was restored, in in
tegrum, to that fame where his great labors and just pro
cedures had first estated him ; which, though it was but justice,
yet it was also such honor, that it is greater than the virulence
of tongues, which his worthiness and their envy had armed
against him.
But yet the great scene of the troubles, was but newly
opened. I shall not refuse to speak yet more of his troubles,
as remembering that St. Paul, when he discourses of the glories
of the saints departed, he tells more of their sufferings than of
their prosperities, as being that laboratory and crucible, in
which God makes his servants vessels of honor to his glory.
The storm quickly grew high ; et transitum est a Unguis ad
gladios ; and that was indeed abiKia ey(ov(ra ojrXa, "Iniquity
had put on arms :" when it is armata nequitia, then a man is
hard put to it. The rebellion breaking out, the bishop went to
his charge at Derry.; and because he was within the defence of
walls, the execrable traitor. Sir Phelim O'Neale, laid a snare
to bring him to a dishonorable death ; for he wrote a letter to
the bishop, pretended intelligence between them, anddesired that,
according to their former agreement, such a gate might be de
livered to him. The messenger was not advised to be cautious,
nor at all instructed in the art of secrecy ; for it was intended
that he should be searched, intercepted, and hanged for aught
they cared : but the arrow was shot against the bishop, that he
might be accused for base conspiracy, and die with shame and
sad dishonor. But here God manifested his mighty care of
his servants ; he was pleased to send into the heart of the mes
senger such an affrightment, that he directly ran away with the
letter, and never durst come near the town to deliver it. This
story was published by Sir Phelim himself, who added, that if
he could have thus ensnared the bishop, he had good assurance
the town should have been his own : Sed bonitas Dei prcevali-
tura est super omnem malitiam hominis; "The goodness of
God is gi-eater than all the malice of men ;" and nothing could
so prove how dear that sacred life was to God, as his rescue

76 JEREMY TAYLOR. — SERMON VII, ..
from the dangers. Stantia non poterant tecta probare Decs :*
" To ha;ve kept him in a warm house had been nothing, unless
the roof had fallen on his head :" that rescue was a remark of
Divine favor and providence. But it seems Sir Phelim's
treason agaiinst the life of this worthy man had a correspondent
in the town ; and it broke out speedily : for what they could
not effect by malicious stratagem, they did in part by open
force ; they turned the bishop out of the town, and, on trifling
and unjust pretences, searched his carriages, and took what
they pleased, till they were ashamed to take more : they did
worse than divorce him from his church ; for in all the Roman
divorces they said, Tuas tibi res habeto, " Take your goods and
be gone ;" but plunder was religion then. However, though
the usage was sad, yet it was recompensed to him by his taking
sanctuary in Oxford, where he was graciously received by that
most incomparable and divine prince ; but having served the
king in Yorkshire, by his pen, and by his counsels, and by his
interests, he returned back to Ireland, where, under the excel
lent conduct of his grace the now lord-lieutenant, he ran the
risk and fortune of oppressed virtue.
But God having still resolved to afflict us, the good man was
forced into the fortune of the patriarchs, to leave his country
and his charges, and seek for safety and bread in a strange
land ; for so the prophets were used to do, wandering up and
down in sheep's clothing : but poor as they were, the world wa^
not worthy of them ; and this worthy man, despising the shame,
took up his cross and followed his Master;
Exilium causa ipsa jubet sibi dulce videii,
Et desiderium dulce levat patriae.
He was not ashamed to suffer, where the cause was honorable
and glorious; but so God provided for the needs of his banished,
and sent a man who could minister comfort to the afflicted, and
courage to the persecuted, and resolutions to the tempted, and
strength to that religion for which they all suffered.
And here this great man was indeed triumphant ; this was
one of the last and best scenes of his life : j/yuepat yctp iirlXoyot
* Mart. i. 13. 12.

PREACHED AT THE FUNERAL OF THE LORD PRIMATE. 77
ft&pTvpes ffo^uraroi, " The last days are the best witnesses of a
man." But so it was, that he stood up in public and brave
defence for the doctrine and discipline of the church of Eng
land ; first, by his sufferings and great example ; for, Verbit
taiitum philosophari, non est doctoris, sed histrionis; " To talk
well, and not to do bravely, is for a comedian, not a divine :"
but this great man did both ; he suffered his own calamity with
great courage, and, by his wise discourses, strengthened the
heart of others.
For there wanted no diligent tempters in the church of
Rome, who, taking advantage of the afflictions of his sacred
majesty, in which state men commonly suspect every thing, and
like men in sickness are willing to change from side to side,
hoping for ease and finding none, flew at royal game, and
hoped to draw away the king from that religion which his
most royal father, the best man and the wisest prince in the
world, had sealed with the best blood in Christendom, and
which himself sucked in with his education, and had confirmed
by choice and reason, and confessed publicly and bravely, and
hath since restored prosperously. Millitiere was the man, witty
and bold enough to attempt a zealous and a foolish under
taking, who addressed himself with ignoble, indeed, but witty
arts, to persuade the king to leave what was dearer to him than
his eyes. It is true, it was a wave dashed against a rock, and
an arrow shot against the sun, it could not reach him ; but the
bishop of Derry turned it also, and made it fall on the shooter's
head; for he made so ingenious, so learned, and so acute reply
to that book ; he so discovered the errors of the Roman church,
retorted the arguments, stated the questions, demonstrated the
truth, and shamed their procedures, thatr nothing could be a
greater argument of the bishop's learning, great parts, deep
judgment, quickness of apprehension, and sincerity in the ca
tholic and apostolic faith ; or of the follies and prevarications
of the church of Rome. He wrote no apologies for himself,
though it were much to be wished that, m Junius wrote his
own life, or Moses his own story, so we might have understood
from himself how great things God had done for him and by
hira : but all that he permitted to God, and was silent in his
own defences ; Glorioaius enim est injwriam tacendo fugere.

78 JERE.MY TAYLOR. — SERMON VII.
quam respondendo superafe : but when the honor and con
science of his king, and the interest of a true religion was at
stake, ' the fire burned within him, and at last he spake with his
tongue ;' he cried out, like the son of Croesus, "fti/fipwTre, p^ Krelve
Kpoitrov,* " Take heed, and meddle not with the king :" his per
son is too sacred, and religion too dear to him, to be assaulted
by vulgar hands. In short, he acquitted himself in this affair
with so much truth and piety, learning and judgment, that in
those papers his memory will last until very late succeeding
generations. But this most reverend prelate found a nobler adversary, and
a braver scene for his contention : he found that the Roman
priests, being wearied and baffled by the wise discourses and
pungent arguments of the English divines, had studiously de
clined any more to dispute the particular questions against us,
but fell at last on a general charge, imputing to the church
of England the great crime of schism ; and by this they thought
they might with most probability deceive unwary and unskilful
readers ; for they saw the schism, and they saw we had left
them ; and because they considered not the causes, they resolved
to outface us in the charge ; but now it was that, dignum nac-
tus argumentum, " having an argument fit" to employ his great
abilities, Consecrat hie praesul calnmum calamique labores,
Ante aras Domino laeta tropasa suo ;
"the bishop now dedicates his labors to the service of God"
and of his church, undertakes the question, and in a full dis
course proves the church of Rome not only to be guilty of the
schism, by making it- necessary to depart from them ; but they
did actuate the schisms, and themselves made the first separa
tion in the great point of the pope's supremacy, which was the
palladium for which they principally contended. He made it
appear that the popes of Rome were usurpers of the rights of
kings and bishops ; that they brought in new doctrines in every
age, that they imposed their own devices on Christendom as
articles of faith, that they prevaricated the doctrines of the
* Herod, i, 85. Schweig.

PREACHED AT THE FUNERAL OF THE LORD PRIMATE, 79
Apostles, that the church of England only returned to her pri
mitive purity, that she joined with Christ and his Apostles, that
she agreed in all the sentiments of the primitive church. He
stated the questions sq wisely, and conducted them so prudently,
and handled them so learnedly, that I may truly say, they
never were more materially confuted by any rjan, since the
questions have so unhappily disturbed Christendom. Verum
hoc eos male ussit : and they, finding themselves smitten under
the fifth rib, set up an old champion of their own, a Goliath to
fight against the armies of Israel : the old bishop of Chalcedon,
known to many of us, replied to this excellent book ; but was
so answered by a rejoinder made by the lord bishop of Derry, in
which he so pressed the former arguments, refuted, the cavils,
brought in so many impregnable authorities and probations,
and added so many moments and weights to his discourse, that
the pleasures of reading the book would be the greatest, if the
profit to the church of God were not greater.
Flumina jam lactis, jam flumina nectaris ibant,
Flavaque de viridi stillabant ilice mella.*
For so Samson's riddle was again expounded, ' Out of the
strong came meat, and out of the eater came sweetness.' His
arguments were strong, and the eloquence was sweet and de
lectable ; and though there started up another combatant against
him, yet he had only the honor to fall by the hands of Hector :
still hceret lateri lethalis arundo ; the headed arrow went in so
far, that it could not be drawn out but the barbed steel stuck
behind : and whenever men will desire to be satisfied in those
great questions, the bishop of Derry's book shall be his oracle.
I will not insist on his other excellent writings ; but it is
known every where with what piety and acumen he wrote
against the Manichean doctrine of " fatal njecessity," which a
late witty man had pretended to adorn with a new vizor : but
this excellent person washed off the ceruse and the meretricious
paintings, rarely well asserted the economy of the Divine Pro
vidence, and having once more triumphed over his adversary,
pletms victoriarum et tropteorum, betook himself to the more
« Ovid. Met, i. 111,

80 JEREMY TAYLOR. — SERMON VII.
agreeable attendance on sacred offices ; and having usefully an^
wisely discoursed of the sacred rite of confirmation, imposed his
hands on the most illustrious princes, the dukes of York and
Gloucester, and the princess royal, and ministered to them the
promise of the Holy Spirit, and ministerially established them
in the religioa and service of the holy Jesus. And one thing
more I shall remark ; that at his leaving those parts on the
king's return, some of the remonstrant ministers of the Low
Countries coming to take their leaves of this great man., and
desiring that by his means the church of England would be kind
to them, he had reason to grant it, because they were learned
men, and in many things of a most excellent belief; yet he re
proved them, and gave them caution against it, that they ap
proached too near and gave too much countenance to the great
and dangerous errors of the Socinians.
He thus having served God and the king abroad, God was
pleased to return to the king and to us all, as in the days of
old, and we sang the song of David, In convertendo captivi-
tatcm Sion, when king David and all his servants returned to
Jerusalem. This great person having trod in the wine-press, "
was called to drink of the wine, and, as an honorary reward of
his great services and abilities, was chosen primate of this na
tional church, in which time we are to look on him, as the king
and the king's great vicegerent did, as a person concerning
whose abilities the world had too great testimony ever to make
a doubt. It is true he was in the declension of his age and
health ; but his very ruins were goodly ; and they who saw the
broken heaps of Pompey's theatre, and the crushed obelisks,
and the old face of beauteous Phileenium, could not but admire
the disordered glories of such magnificent structures, which were
venerable in their very dust.
He ever was used to overcome all difficulties, only mortality
was too hard for him ; but still his virtues and his spirit were
immortal ; he still took great care, and still had new and noble
designs, and proposed to himself admirable things. He go
verned his province with great justice and sincerity ;
TJnus ampio consulens pastor gregi,
Somnos tuetur omnium solus vigil;

PREACHED AT THE FDNERAL OP THE LORD PRIMATE. 81
and had this remark in all his government ; that as he was a
great hater of sacrilege, so he professed himself a public enemy
to non-residence, and often would declare wisely and religiously
against it, allowing it in no case but of necessity, or the greater
good of the church. There are great things spoken of his pre
decessor, St. Patrick ; that he founded seven hundred churches
and religious convents, that he ordained five thousand priests,
and, with his own hands, consecrated three hundred and fifty
bishops. How true the story is I know not ; but we were all
witnesses that the late primate, whose memory we now cele
brate, did, by an extraordinary contingency of Providence, in
one day, consecrate two archbishops and ten bishops ; and did
benefit to almost all the churches in Ireland, and was greatly
instrumental to the re-endowments of the whole clergy ; and in
the greatest abilities and incomparable industry, was- inferior to
none of his most glorious antecessors.
Since the canonisation of saints came into the charch, we
find no Irish bishop canonised, except St. Laurence of Dublin,
and St. Malachias of Down ; indeed Richard of Armagh's
canonisation was propounded, but not effected : bat the cha
racter which was given of that learned primate by Trithemius,*
does exactly fit this, our late father : Vir in divinis Scripturis
eruditus, secularis philosaphice jurisque canonici non ignarus-,
clarus ingenia, sermone scholasticus, in declamandis scrmonibus
ad populu7n excellentis industrice: " He was learned in the
Scriptures, skilled in secular philosophy, and not unknowing in
the civil and canon laws ; (in which studies' I wish the clergy
were, with some carefulness and diligence, still more conver
sant) he was of an excellent spirit, a scholar in his discourses,
an early and industrious preacher to the people." And as if
there were a more particular sympathy between their souls, our
primate had so great a veneration to his memory, that he pur
posed, if he had lived, to have restored his monument in Dun-
dalk, which time, or impiety, or unthankfulness, had either
omitted or destroyed. So great a lover he was of all true and
inherent worth, that he loved it in the very memory of the
dead, and to have such great examples transmitted to the in
tuition and imitation of posterity.
* De Scriptor, Eccles',-

82 JEREMY TAYLOR, — SERMON Vii.
At his coming to the primacy, he knew heshould at first espy
little besides the ruin of discipline, a harvest of thorns, and he
resies prevailing in the hearts of the people, the churches pos
sessed by wolves and intruders, men's hearts greatly estranged
from true religion ; and therefore he set himself to -weed the
fields of the church ; he treated the adversaries sometimes
sweetly, sometimes he confuted them learnedly, sometimes he
rebuked them sharply. He visited his charges diligently and
in his own person, not by proxies and instrumental deputations :
Queerens non nostra, sed nos, et qua sunt Jesu Christi : " He
designed nothing that we knew of but the redintegration of re
ligion," the honor of God and the king, the restoring of col
lapsed discipline, and the renovation of faith and the service
of God in the churches. And still he was indefatigable, and,
even at the last scene of his life, intended to undertake a regal
visitation. Quid enim vultis me otiosum a Domino compre-
hendi ? said one ; " He was not willing that God should take
him unemployed :" but, good man, he felt his tabernacle ready
to fall in pieces, and could go no farther, — for God would have
•¦no more work done by that hand : he, therefore, espying this,
put his house in order, and had lately visited his diocese, and
done what he then could, to put his charge in order ; for he had,
a good while since, received the sentence of death within him
self, and knew he was shortly to render an account of his
stewardship : he, therefore, on a brisk alarm of death, which
God sent him the last January, made his will ; in which, be
sides the prudence and presence of spirit manifested in making
just and wise settlement of his estate, and provisions for his de'
scendants ; at midnight, and in the trouble of his sickness and
circumstances of addressing death, still kept a special senti
ment, and made confession of God's admirable mercies, and
gave thanks that God had permitted him to live to see the
blessed restoration of his majesty and the church of England,
confessed his faith to be the same as ever, gave praises to God
that he was born and bred up in this religion, and prayed to
God, and hoped he should die in the communion of this church,
which he declared to be the most pure and apostolical church
in the whole world.
He prayed to God to pardon his frailties and infirmities.

PREACHED AT THE FUNERAL OF THE LORD PRIMATE, 83
relied pn the mercies of God and the merits of Jesus Christ,
and, with a singular sweetness, resigned up his soul into the
hands of his Redeemer,
But God, who is the great Choragus and Master of the scenes
of life and death, was not pleased then to draw the curtains ;
there was an epilogue to his life yet to be acted and spoken.
He returned to actions and life, and went on in the methods of
the same procedure as before ; was desirous still to establish the
affairs of the church, complained of some disorders which he
purposed to redress, girt himself to the work ; but though his
spirit was willing, yet his flesh was weak ; and as the Apostles
in the vespers of Christ's passion, so he, in the eye of his own
dissolution, was heavy, not to sleep, but heavy unto death;
and looked for the last warning, which seized on him in the
midst of business ; and though it was sudden, yet it could not
be unexpected or unprovided by surprise, and, therefore, could
be no other than that eiOavaaia which Augustus used to wish
unto himself, a civil and well-natured death, without the
amazement of troublesome circumstances, or the great cracks
of a faUiog house, or the convulsions of impatience. Seneca
tells that Bassus Aufidius was wont to say, Sperare se nullum,
dolorem esse in ilia extremo anhelitu ; si tamen esset, habere
aliquantum in ipsa brevitate solatii;* " He hoped that the
pains of the last dissolution were little or none ; or if they were,
it was full of comfort that they could be but short." It hap
pened so to this excellent man : his passive fortitude had been
abundantly tried before, and, therefore, there was the less need
of it now ; his active graces had been abundantly demonstrated
by the great and good things he did; and, therefore, his last
scene was not so laborious, but God called him away some
thing after the manner of Moses, which the Jews express by
oseulum oris Dei, " the kiss of God's mouth ;" that is, a death
indeed fore-signified, but gentle and serene, and without temp
tation. To sum up all : he was a wise prelate, a learned doctor, a
just man, a true friend, a great benefactor to others, a thankful
beneficiary where he was obliged himself. He was a faithful
'^ Epist. 30.

84 JEREMY TAYLOR.  SERMON VIJ.
servant to his masters, a loyal subject to the king, a zealous
assertor of his religion against popery on one side, and fana
ticism on the other. The practice of his religion was not so
much in forms and exterior ministries (though he was a great
observer of all the public rites and ministries of the church) as
it was in doing good for others. He was like Myson, whom
the Scythian Auacharsis so greatly praised, 6 Miiaoiv ^v oUov
o'lKfjiras KaXUs, " he governed his family well ;" he gave to all
their due of maintenance and duty; be did great benefit to
mankind ; he had the fate of the Apostle St. Paul, he passed
¦ through evil report and good report, a deceiver, and yet
true.' He was a man of great business and great resort : Sem
per aliquis in Cydonis domo, as the Corinthians said; " There
was always somebody in Cydon's house." He was ixeplSiav tov
fjwv epya kol fiifiXf,* " he divided his life into labor and his
book.". He took care of his churches when he was alive, and
even after his death, having left five hundred pounds for the
repair of his cathedral of Armagh and St. Peter's church in
Drogheda. He was an excellent scholar, and rarely well ac
complished ; first instructed to great excellency by natural
parts, and then consummated by study and experience. Me-
lancthon was used to say, that himself was a logician ; Pome-
ranus, a grammarian ; Justus Jonas, an orator ; but that
Luther was all these. It was greatly true of him, that the
single perfections which make many men eminent, were united
in this primate, and made hira illustrious.
Ergo Quinctilium perpetuus sopor
Urget ! cui Pudor, et Justitiae soror
Incorrupta Fides, nudaque Veritas,
Quando ullum invenient pareni?
It will be hard to find his equal in all things. Fortasse tan-
quam phoenix anno quingentesima nascitur (that I may use
the words of Seneca) : nee est mirum ex intervallo magna gene-
rari : mediocria et in turbam nascentia s^pe fortuna producit ;
eximia vero ipsa raritate cammendat. For in him were visible
the great lines of Hooker's judiciousness, of Jewel's learning,
* Synes. Ep. 57.

PREACHED AT THE FUNERAL OF THE LORD PRIM.4TE, 85
of the acuteness of bishop Andrews. He was skilled in more
great things than one ; and, as one said of Phidias, he could not
only make excellent statues of ivory, but he could work in stone
and brass. He showed his equanimity in poverty, and his
justice in riches ; he was useful in his country, and profitable
in his banishment ; for, as Parous was at Anvilla, Luther at
Wittenburg, St. Athanasius and St. Chrysostom in their banish
ment, St. Jerome in his retirement at Bethlehem, they were
oracles to them that needed it ; so was he in Holland and
France, where he was abroad ; and beside the particular en
dearments which his friends received from him, for he did do
relief to his brethren that wanted, and supplied the soldiers out
of his store in Yorkshire, when himself could but ill spare it :
but he received public thanks from the convocation of which
he was president, and public justification from the parliament
where he was speaker ; so that although, as one said, Miraculi
instar vitce iter, si longum, sine offensione percurrere ; yet
no man had greater enemies, and no man had greater justi
fications. But God hath taken our Elijah from our heads this day : I
pray God that at least his mantle may be left behind, and that
his spirit may be doubled on his successor ; and that we may
all meet together with him at the right hand of the Lamb,
where every man shall receive according to his deeds, whether
they be good or whether they be evil. I conclude with the
words of Caius Plinius:* Equidem beatos puta quibus Deo-
rum munere datum est, aut facere scribenda, aut scribere
legenda ; " he wrote many things fit to be read, and did very
many things worthy to be written ;" which, if we wisely imitate,
we may hope to meet him in the resurrection of the just, and
feast with him in the eternal supper of the Lamb, there to sing
perpetual anthems to the honor of God the Father, Son, and
Holy Ghost ; to whom be all honor, &c.
* Gierig, vi. 16. 3.

FUNERAL SERMON

PREACHED AT

THE OBSEQUIES
or THE
RIGHT HONORABLE AND MOST VIRTUOUS LADY,
THE LADY FRANCES,
COUNTESS OF CARBERY.

TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE
AND TRULY NOBLE
RICHARD LORD VAUGHAN,
EARL OF CARBERY, BARON OF EMLIN AND MOLINGER, KNIGHT
or THE HONORABLE ORDER OF THE BATH.

MY LORD, I AM not ashamed to profess that I pay this part of service to
your lordship most unwillingly ; for it is a sad oflice to be the chief
minister in a house of mourning, and to present an interested person
with a branch of cypress and a bottle of tears. And indeed, my
lord, it were more proportionable to your needs to bring something
that might alleviate or divert your sorrow, than to dress the hearse
of your dear lady, and to furnish it with such circumstances, that it
may dwell with you, and lie in your closet, and make your prayers
and your retirements more sad and full of weepings. But, because
the Divine Providence hath taken from you a person so excellent,
a woman fit to converse with angels and apostles, with saints and
martyrs, give me leave to present you with her picture, drawn in
little and in water colors, sullied, indeed, with tears and the
abrupt accents of a real and consonant sorrow, but drawn with a
faithful hand, and taken from the life ; and indeed, it were too
great a loss to be deprived of her example and of her rule, of the
original and of the copy too. The age is very evil, and deserved
her not ; but because it is so evil, it hath the more need to have
such lives preserved in memory, to instruct our piety, or upbraid
our vidckedness. For now that God hath cut this tree of Paradise
down from its seat of earth, yet so the dead trunk may support a
part of the declining temple, or, at least, serve to kindle the fire on.

90 THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY.
the altar. My lord, I pray God this heap of sorrow may swell your
piety, till it breaks into the greatest joys of God and of religion ;
and remember, when you pay a tear on the grave, or to the memory
of your lady, that dear and most excellent soul, that you pay two
more ; one of repentance for those things that may have caused this
breach, and another of joy for the mercies of God to your dear de
parted saint, that he hath taken her into a place where she can weep
no more. My lord, I think I shall, so long as I live, that is, so
long as I am Your lordship's Most humble servant,
JER. TAYLOR.

Pietati et Memories Sacrum.
MoNUMENTUM doloris singularis, paris fati et conditionis,
posuit Ricardus Comes Carberiensis sibi vivo, et mortem nee
exoptanti nee metuenti; et dilectissimae suae conjugi Fran-
ciscse Comitissje in flore aetatis easibus puerperii raptae ex
amplexibus sanctissimi amoris. Fuit ilia, (descendat lacri-
mula, amice lector !) fuit inter castissimas prima, inter conjuges
amantissima, mater optima : placidi oris, severae virtutis,
conversationis suavissima; : vultum hilarem fecit bona con-
scientia ; amabilem, forma plusquam uxoria. Claris orta
natalibus, fortunam non mediocrem habuit; erat enim cum
unica germana haeres ex asse. Annos xili. menses iv. su
pra biduum vixit in sanctissimo matrimonio cum suo, quern
effusissime dilexit, et sancte observavit ; quem novit pru-
-dentissimum, sensit amantissimum, virum optimum vidit et
la^tata est. Enixa prolem numerosam, pulchram, ingenuam,
formae et spei optimae ; quatuor masculos, Franciscum Domi-
num Vaughan, Johannem, Althamum, quartum immaturum;
foeminas sex, Dominam Franciscam, Elizabethas duas, Ma-
riam, Margaritam, et Althamiam,— post cujuspartum paucis
diebus obdormiit. Totam prolem masculam (si demas abor-
tivum ilium) et fceminas omnes, praeter Elizabetham alteram
et Mariam, superstitesreliquit. Pietatis adeoque spei plena
obiit ix. Octobr. mdcl. Lacrymis suorum omnium tota
irrigua conditur in hoc coemeterio, ubi, cum Deo Opt. Max.
visum fuerit, sperat se reponendum conjux moestissimus : in-
terea temporis luctui, sed pietati magis vacat, ut in suo tem
pore simul laetentur par tarn pium, tam nobile, tam Christia-
num, in gremio Jesu, usque dum coronae adornentur acci-
piendae in adventu Domini. Amen.
Cum ille vita defunctus fuerit, marmor loquetur, quod adhuc
tacere jubet virtus modesta ;~ interim vitam ejus observa, et
' leges quod postea hie inscriptum amabunt et colent posteri.
Ora, et abi.

SUMMARY OF SERMON VIII. 93

SUMMARY OF SERMON VIIL
2 SAMUEL, CHAP. XIV. — VERSE 14.
Previous observations on the mortality of man and his
subjection to death, as the effects of sin and disobedience. All
must die. We are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot
be gathered up again.
] . We are as water, weak and of no consistency, always de
scending, abiding in no certain place, unless where we are de
tained by violence, &c.
2. But besides the weaknesses and natural decay of our
bodies, if chances and contingencies be innumerable, then no
man can reckon our dangers, and the preternatural causes of our
deaths ; so that he is a vain person whose hopes of life are too
confidently increased by reason of his health, &e. : peculiar
dangers of infancy exhibited,
3. But in the middle way the case is altered. Nature is
strong, and art is apt to give us ease and remedy : but still
there is no security. Peculiar diseases lo which men are inci
dent, and various stages of them, described, &c. Our farther
likeness to water insisted on.
4. In all the process of our health we are running to the
grave; private vices and quarrels, public wars, &e. enlarged
on : so that we make ourselves like to water spilt on the
ground, throwing away our lives, as if they were wholly un
profitable. There is no redemption from the grave : the topic
commented on and illustrated.
This consideration intended as a severe monitor of careful-

94 summary of
ness; that we should so order our affairs as to be partakers of
the first resurrection, that is, from sin to a life of grace; for
such only can or will be called a resurrection from death to
life : the taking of the wicked from their graves to the bar of
judgment, can scarcely be called a resurrection : such are but
the solemnities of an eternal death : the wicked are spilt like
water, and shall never be gathered up again. But the godly
also come under the sense of the words : they descend into
the grave, and are no more reckoned among the living;
they have no more concern with what is done under the
sun, &c. It is true, they envy and murmur not ; they are con
signed to kingdoms where these passions disturb them not :
" yet there is a relation continued still." Opinion of Aristotle,
that the dead take thought for the good of the living: that also
of the church.
We must remember, that in this world we are something he-
sides flesh and blood : we may not, without violent necessities,
run into new relations ; but must preserve the affections which
we bore towards our dead when they were alive : we must not
so live as if they had perished, but as pressing forward to the
most intimate participation of the communion of saints : this
topic enlarged on. Though to us they are as water spilt, yet
to God they are as water fallen into the sea ; safe in his com
prehension. Farther consideration of the sentence : this descending to the
grave is the lot of all men : the rich is not protected through
favor, nor the poor for pity ; the old man is not reverenced
for his age, nor the infant regarded for his tender years ; youth
and beauty, learning and prudence, wit and strength, all lie
down equally in dishonor : this subject enlarged on.
Well, it may be said, this is a sad story. Is there no com
fort after this ? Shall we all go hence, and be no more seen, and
have no recompense ? Is there no allay to this great calamity?
Yes, there is a yet in the text ; yet doth he devise means, &c.

SERMON VIII. 95
All this sorrow and trouble is but a phantasm, and receives its
account and degrees from our present conceptions, &c. Death
is nothing but the middle point between two lives : this illus
trated from Scripture.
We must not venture to determine what are the circumstances
of the abode of blessed souls in their separate dwellings ; yet
possibly that might be easier than to tell what pr how the soul
is, and how it works when in the body, &c.
Certain it is that the body hinders many actions of the soul :
it is an imperfect body, a diseased brain, or a violent passion,
that makes fools ; for no one has an imperfect soul ; &c. That
the soul is alive after our death, St. Paul afSrms : Christ died
for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together
with him. It is a weak and unlearned proposition to say, that
the soul can do nothing of itself, without the provisions of the
body. Reasons given against such a supposition.
To which this consideration may be added ; that our souls
have the same condition that Christ's soul had in the state of
separation ; because he took on himself all our nature, and
all our condition, &e.
But if these arguments should fail, yet the felicity of God's
saints cannot fail : for suppose the body to be a necessary in
strument, &c., yet then God devises other means that his de
parted be not expelled from him. For God will restore the
sou! to the body, and raise the body to such a perfection, that
it shall he an organ fit to praise him on : it shall be made spi
ritual, to minister to the soul, when the soul shall become a
spirit: this topic enlarged on. In the mean time, whatever
may be the case with regard to the soul's separate conscious
ness, it will concern us only to secure our state by holy living,
leaving the event to God ; that whether present or absent,
whether sleeping or waking, whether perceiving or perceiving
not, we may be accepted of him. Character and conduct of
Lady Carbery displayed. Conclusion.

96 JEREMY TAYLOR.— SERMON VIIl.

SERMON VIII.
A FUNERAL SERMON, &c.

2 SAMUEL, CHAP. XIV.— VERSE 14.
For we must needs die, and are as water spilt on the ground, which
cannot be gathered up again : neither doth God respect any per
son ; yet doth he devise means, that his banished be not expelled
from him.
When our blessed Saviour and his disciples viewed the
temple, some one amongst them cried out, Magister, aspice,
quales lapides ! ' Master, behold, what fair, what great stones
are here ! ' Christ made no other reply, but foretold their dis
solution, and a world of sadness and sorrow which should bury
that whole nation, when the teeming cloud of God's displea
sure should produce a storm, which was the daughter of the
biggest anger, and the mother of the greatest calamity, which
ever crushed any of the sons of Adam ; ' The time shall come,
that thei'e shall not be left one stone on another.' The whole
temple and the religion, the ceremonies ordained by God, and
the nation beloved by God, and the fabric erected for the ser
vice of God, shall run to their own period, and lie down in
their several graves. Whatsoever had a beginning, can also
have an ending ; and it shall die, unless it be daily watered
with the purls flowing from the fountain of life, and refreshed
with the dew of heaven, and the wells of God : and, there
fore, God had provided a tree in Paradise to have supported
Adam in his artificial immortality : immortality was not in his
nature, but in the hands and arts, in the favor and superad-

A FUNERAL SERMON. 97
ditions of God. Man was always the same mixture of heat
and cold, of dryness and moisture ; ever the same weak thing,
apt to feel rebellion in the humors, and to suffer the evils of a
civil war in his body natural : and, therefore, health and life
were to descend on him from heaven, and he was to suck life
from a tree on earth ; himself being but ingrafted into a tree of
life, and adopted into the condition of an immortal nature.
But he that in the best of his days was but a scion of this tree
of life, by his sin was cut off from thence quickly, and planted
on thorns, and his portion was for ever after among the flowers,
which to-day spring and look like health and beauty, and in
the evening they are sick, and at night are dead, and the oven
is their grave : and, as before, even from our first spring from
the dust on earth, we might have died, if we had not been pre
served by the continual flux of a rare providence ; so now that
we are reduced to the laws of our own nature, ' we must needs
die.' It is natural, and, therefore, necessary: it is become a
punishment to us, and therefore it is unavoidable ; and God
hath bound the evil on us by bands of natural and inseparable
propriety, and by a supervening unalterable decree of heaven ;
and we are fallen from our privilege, and are returned to the
condition of beasts, and buildings, and common things : and
we see temples defiled unto the ground, and they die by sacri
lege ; and great empires die by their own plenty and ease, full
humors, and factious subjects ; and huge buildings fall by their
own weight, and the violence of many winters eating and con
suming the cement, which is the marrow of their bones ; and
princes die like the meanest of their servants ; and every thing
finds a grave and a tomb : and the very tomb itself dies by the
bigness of its pompousness and luxury,
 Phario nutantia pondera saxo,
Quae cineri vanns dat ruitura labor,*
and becomes as friable and uncombined dust, as the ashes of
the sinner or the saint that lay under it, and is now forgotten
in his bed of darkness. And to this catalogue of mortality
man is enrolled with a statutum est ; ' It is appointed for all
men to die once, and after death comes judgment ;' and if a
* Martial, i. 89. 3.
TAY, VOL. IV. K

98 JEREMY TAYLOR. — SERMON VIII.
man can be stronger than nature, or can wrestle with a decree
of heaven, or can escape from a divine punishment by his own
arts, so that neither the power nor the providence of God, nor
the laws of nature, nor the bands of eternal predestination can
hold him, then he may live beyond the fate and period of
fi«sh, and last longer than a flower : but if all these can hold
us and tie us to conditions, then we must lay our heads down
on a turf, and entertain creeping things in the cells and little
chambers of our eyes, and dwell with worms till time and death
shall be no more. ' We must needs die' — ^that is our sentence;
but that is not all.
' We are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot be
gathered up again.' Stay,
1. We are as water, weak, and of no consistence, alvrays
descending, abiding in no certain place, unless where we are
detained with violence ; and every little breath of wind makes
us rough and tempestuous, and troubles our faces ; every
trifling accident discomposes us; and, as the face of the waters
wafting in a storm, so wrinkles itself, that it makes on its
forehead furrows deep and hollow like a grave ; so do our great
and little cares and trifles first make the wrinkles of old age,
and then they dig a grave for us : and there is in nature nothing
so contemptible, but it may meet with us in such circum
stances, that it may be too hard for us in our wealjnesses ; and
the sting of a bee is a weapon sharp enough to pierce the finger
of a child or the lip of a man ; and those creatures which nature
hath left without weapons, yet they are armed sufficiently to
vex those parts of men which are left defenceless and ob
noxious to a sun-beam, to the roughness of a sour grape, to the
unevenness of a gravel-stone, to the dust of a wheel, or the un
wholesome breath of a star looking awry, on a sinner.
2. But besides the weaknesses and natural decayings of our
bodies, if cl^ances and contingencies be innumerable, then no
man can reckon our dangers, and the preternatural causes of
our deaths: so that he is a vain person, whose hopes of life
are too confidently increased by reason of his health ; and he
is too unreasonably timorous, who thinks his hopes at an end,
when he dwells in sickness. For men die without rule, and
with and without occasions ; and no man suspecting or fore-

A FUNERAL SERMON. 90
seeing any of death's addresses, and no man in his whole con
dition, is weaker than another. A man in a long consumption
is fallen under one of the solemnities and preparations to death ;
but at the same instant, the most healthy person is as near
death, on a more fatal and a more sudden, but a less discerned
cause. There are but few persons on whose foreheads every
man can read the sentence of death, written in the lines of a
lingering sickness, but they sometimes hear the passing-bell
ring for stronger men, even long before their own knell calls at
the house of their mother to open her womb, and make a bed
for them. No man is surer of to-morrow than the weakest of
his brethren : and when Lepidus and Aufidius stumbled at the
threshold of the senate, and fell down and died, the blow came
from heaven in a cloud ; but it struck more suddenly than on
the poor slave that made sport on the theatre with a premedi
tated and fore-described death : Quod quisque vitet, nunquam
homini satis Cautum est in horas.'* There are sicknesses that
walk in darkness ; and there are exterminating angels, that fly
wrapt up in the curtains of immateriality and an uncommuni-
cating nature ; whom we cannot see, but we feel their force,
and sink under their sword ; and from heaven the veil descends
that wraps our heads in the fatal sentence. There is no age of
man but it hath proper to itself some posterns and outlets for
death, besides those infinite and open ports out of which my
riads of men and women every day pass into the dark, and the
land of forgetfulness. Infancy hath life but in effigy, or like a
spark dwelling in a pile of wood : the candle is so newly lighted,
that every little shaking of the taper, and every ruder breath
of air, puts it out, and it dies. Childhood is so tender, and yet
so unwary ; so soft to all the impressions of chance, and yet so
forward to run into them, that God knew there could be no
security without the care and vigilance of an angel-keeper :
and the eyes of parents and the arms of nurses, the provisions
of art, and all the effects of human love and providence, are
not sufficient to keep one child from horrid mischiefs, from
strange and early calamities and deaths, unless a messenger be
§ent from heaven to stand sentinel, and watch the very play-
* Hor. Od. ii. 13. 13.

100 JEREMY TAYLOR. — SERMON VIII.
ings and sleepings, the eatings and drinkings of the children ;
and it is a long time before nature makes them capable of help ;
for there are many deaths, and very many diseases to which
poor babes are exposed ; but they have but very few capacities
of physic ; to show that infancy is as liable to death as old
age, and equally exposed to danger, and equally incapable of
a remedy; with this only difference, that old age hath diseases
incurable by nature, and the diseases of childhood are incurable
by art ; and both the states are the next heirs of death.
3. But all the middle way the case is altered : nature is
strong, and art is apt to give ease and remedy, but still there is
no security ; and there the case is not altered : 1. for there
are so many diseases in men that are not understood : 2. so
many new ones every year : 3. the old ones are so changed in
circumstance, and intermingled with so many collateral com
plications: 4. the symptoms are oftentimes so alike: 5. some
times so hidden and fallacious : 6. sometimes none at all ;
as in the most sudden and most dangerous imposthumations :
7. and then, the diseases, in the inward parts of the body,
are oftentimes such to which no application can be made :
8. they are so far oft', that the effects of all medicines can no
otherwise come to them, than the effect and juices of all meats;
that is, not till after two or three alterations and decoctions,
which change the very species of the medicament : 9. and,
after all this, very many principles in the art of physic are so
uncertain, that after they have been believed seven or eight
ages, and that on them much of the practice hath been esta
blished, they come to be considered by a witty man, and others
established in their stead ; by which men must practise, and by
which three or four generations of men more (as happeneth)
must live or die : 10. and all this while the men are sick,
and they take things that certainly make them sicker for the
present, and very uncertainly restore health for the future:
that it may appear of what a large extent is human calamity ;
when God's providence hath not only made it weak and raiser-
able on the certain stock of a various nature, and on the acci
dents of an infinite contingency ; but even from the remedies
which are appointed, our dangers and our troubles are certainly
increased: so that we may well be likened to water; our na-

A FUNERAL SERMON, 101
ture is no stronger, our abode no more certain ; if the sluices
be opened, ' it falls away and runneth apace ;' if its current
be stopped, it swells and grows troublesome, and spills over
with a greater diffusion ; if it be made to stand still, it putrifies :
and all this we do. For,
4. In all the process of our health we are running to our
grave ; we open our own sluices by viciousness and unworthy
actions; we pour in drink, and let out life; we increase dis
eases, and know not how to bear them ; we strangle purselves
with our own intemperance ; we suft'er the fevers and the in
flammations of lust, and we quench our souls with drunken
ness : we bury our understandings in loads of meat and sur
feits, and then we lie down on our beds, and roar with pain
and disquietness of our souls : nay, we kill one another's souls
and bodies with violence and folly, with the effects of pride
and uncharitableness ; we live and die like fools, and bring a
new mortality on ourselves ; wars and vexatious cares, and pri
vate duels and public disorders, and every thing that is unrea
sonable, and every thing that is violent : so that now we may
add this fourth gate to the grave : besides nature and chance,
and the mistakes of art, men die with their own sins, and then
enter into the grave in haste and passion, and pull the heavy
stone of the monument on their own heads. And thus we make
ourselves like water spilt on the ground ; we throw away our
lives as if they were unprofitable, and indeed most men make
them so; we let our years slip through our fingers like water;
and nothing is to be seen, but like a shower of tears on a spot
of ground; there is a grave digged, and a solemn mourning
and a great talk iir the neighborhood, and when the days are
finished, they shall be ; and they shall be remembered no more:
and that is like water too, — when it is spilt, ' it cannot be ga
thered up again.'
There is no redemption from the grave.
 inter se mortales miilua vivunt ;
Et, quasi curiiores, vital lanipada tradunt.*
Men live in their course and by turns ; their light burns awhile,
* Lucr. ii. 75.

102 JEREMY TAYLOR. — SERMON VIII.
and then it burns blue and faint, and men go to converse with
spirits, and then they reach the taper to another ; and as the
hours of yesterday can never return again, so neither can the
man whose hours they were, and who lived them over once;
he shall never come to live them again, and live them better.
When Lazarus, and the widow's son of Nain, and Tabitba,
and the saints that appeared in Jerusalem at the resurrection of
our blessed Lord, arose, they came into this world, some as
strangers only to make a visit, and all of them to manifest a
glory : but none came on the stock of a new life, or entered
on the stage as at first, or to perform the course of a new na
ture : and therefore it is observable, that we never read of any
wicked person that was raised from the dead : Dives would
fain have returned to his brother's house ; but neither he, nor
any one from him could be sent : but all the rest in the New
Testament (one only excepted) were expressed to have been
holy persons, or else by their age were declared innocent. La
zarus was beloved of Christ : those souls that appeared at the
resurrection, were the souls of saints : Tabitha raised^ by St.
Peter was a charitable and a holy Christian : and the maiden of
twelve years old, raised by our blessed Saviour, had not en
tered into the regions of choice and sinfulness : and the only
exception of the widow's son is indeed none at all, for in it
the Scripture is wholly silent ; and therefore it is very probable
that the same process was used, God, in all other instances,
having chosen to exemplify his miracles of nature to purposes
of the Spirit, and in spiritual capacities. So that, although
the Lord of nature did break the bands of nature in some in
stances, to manifest his glory to succeeding great and never-
failing purposes ; yet (besides that this shall be no more) it was
also instanced in such persons who were holy and innocent,
and within the verge and comprehensions of the eternal mercy.
We never read that a wicked person felt such a miracle, or
was raised from the grave to try the second time for a crown ;
but where he fell, there he lay down dead, and saw the light
no more.
This consideration I intend to you as a severe monitor and
an advice of carefulness, that you order your affairs so that
you may be partakers of the first resurrection ; that is, from sin

A FUNERAL SERMON. 103
to grace, from the death of vicious habits, to the vigor, life,
and efficacy of an habitual righteousness : for (as it happened to
those persons in the New Testament now mentioned, to them,
I say, in the literal sense) ' Blessed are they that have part in
the first resurrection ; on them the second death shall have no
power :' meaning that they who, by the power of Christ and
his Holy Spirit were raised to life again, were holy and blessed
souls, and such who were written in the book of God ; and
that this grace happened to no wicked and vicious person : so
it is most true in the spiritual and intended sense : you only
that serve God in a holy life; you who are not dead in tres
passes and sins ; you who serve God with an early diligence,
and an unwearied industry, and a holy religion ; you, and you
only shall come to life eternal, you only shall be called from
death to life ; the rest of mankind shall never live again, but
pass from death to death ; from one death to another, to k
worse ; from the death of the body, to the eternal death of
body and soul : atid therefore, in the Apostles' Creed there is
no mention made of the resurrection of wicked persons; but of
' the resurrection of the body to everlasting life.' The wicked
indeed shall be haled forth from their graves, from their ever
lasting prisons, where, in chains of darkness, they are kept unto
the judgment of the great day : but this therefore cannot be
called, in sensufavoris,a. resurrection ; but the solemnities of the
eternal death; it is nothing but a new capacity of dying again ;
such a dying as cannot signify rest, but where death means
nothing but an intolerable and never-ceasing calamity ; and
therefore these words of my text are otherwise to be under
stood of the wicked, otherwise of the godly : the wicked are
spilt like water, and shall never be gathered up again ; no, not
in the gatherings of eternity ; they shall be put into vessels of
wrath, and set on the flames of hell ; but that is not a gather
ing, but a scattering from the face and presence of God. But
the godly also come under the sense of these words : they de
scend into their graves, and shall no more be reckoned among
the living : they have no concernment in all that is done under
the sun. Agamemnon hath no more to do with the Turk's
armies invading and possessing that part of Greece where he
reigned, than had the Hippocentaur, who never had a being : and

104 JEREMY TAYLOR. — SERMON VIII.
Cicero hath no more interest in the present evils of Christen
dom, than we have to do with his boasted discovery of Ca
tiline's conspiracy. What is it to me that Rome was taken by
the Gauls ? and what is it now to Camillus, if different reli
gions be tolerated amongst us ? These things that now happen
concern the living, and they are made the scenes of our duty or
danger respectively: and when our wives are dead, and sleep
in charnel-houses, they are not troubled when we laugh loudly
at the songs sung at the next marriage-feast ; nor do they envy
when another snatches away the gleanings of their husband's
passion. It is true, they envy not, and they lie in a bosom where there
can be no murmur ; and they that are consigned to kingdoms,
and to the feast of the marriage-supper of the Lamb, the glo
rious and eternal bridegroom of holy souls, they cannot think
our marriages here, our lighter laughings and vain rejoicings,
considerable, as to them. And " yet there is a relation con
tinued still." Aristotle said, that to affirm the dead take no
thought for the good of the living, is a disparagement to the
laws of that friendship, which, in their state of separation, they
cannot be tempted to rescind. And the church hath taught in
general, that they pray for us, they recommend to God the state
of all their relatives, in the union of the intercession that our
blessed Lord makes for them and us : and St. Ambrose gave
some things in charge to his dying brother Satyrus, that he
should do for him in the other world : he gave it him, I say,
when hewas dying, not when he was dead. And certain it is,
that, though our dead friends' affection to us is not to be esti
mated according to our low conceptions, yet it is not less, but
much more than ever it was ; it is greater in degree, and of
another kind.
But then we should do well also to remember, that in this
world we are something besides flesh and blood ; that we may
not, without violent necessities, run into new relations, but
preserve the affections we bore to our dead when they were
alive : we must not so live as if they were perished, but so as
pressing forward to the most intimate participation of the com
munion of saints. And we also have some ways to express this
relation, and to bear a part in this communion, by actions of

A FUNERAL" SERMON. ' 105
intercourse with them, and yet proper to our state : such as are
strictly performing the will of the dead, providing for, and ten
derly and wisely educating their children, paying their debts,
imitating their good example, preserving their memories pri
vately, and publicly keeping their memorials, and desiring of
God, with hearty and constant prayer, that God would give
them a joyful resurrection, and a merciful judgment, — for so St.
Paul prayed in behalf of Onesiphorus ;* — that ' God would
show them mercy in that day ;' that fearful, and yet much to
be desired day, in which the most righteous person hath need
of much mercy and pity, and shall find it. Now these instances
of duty show, that the relation remains still ; and though the re
lict of a man or woman hath liberty to contract new relations,
yet I do not find that they have liberty to cast off the old, as if
there Were no such thing as immortality of souls. Remember
that we shall converse together again ; let us therefore never do
any thing of reference to them, which we shall be ashamed of
in that day when all secrets shall be discovered, and when we
shall meet again in the presence of God : in the mean time, God
watcheth concerning all their interest, and he will, in his time,
both discover and recompense. For though, as to us, they are
like water spilt; yet, to God, they are as water fallen in the
sea, safe and united in his comprehension and enclosures.
But we are not yet past the consideration of the sentence :
this descending to the grave is the lot of sill men, ' neither doth
God respect the person of any man :' the rich is not protected
for favor, nor the poor for pity ; the old man is not reverenced
for his age, nor the infant regarded for his tenderness; youth
and beauty, learning and prudence, wit and strength, lie down
equally in the dishonors of the grave. All men, and all na
tures, and all persons resist the addresses and solemnities of
death, and strive to preserve a miserable and unpleasant life ;
and yet they all sink down and die. For so have I seen the
pillars of a building, assisted with artificial props, bending under
the pressure of a roof, and pertinaciously resisting the infallible
and prepared ruin, * 2Tim.i. 18.

106 JEREMY TAYLOR. — SERMoN VXll.
Donee certa dies, omni coropage soluta,
Ipsum cum rebus subruat auxilium ;
" till the determined day comes, and then the burden sunk on
the pillars, and disordered the aids and auxiliary rafters into a
common ruin and a ruder grave :" so are the desires and weak
arts of man ; with little aids and assistances of care and physic,
we strive to support our decaying bodies,- and to put off the evil
day ; but quickly that day will come, and then neither angels
nor men can rescue us from our grave ; but the roof sinks down
on the walls, and the walls descend to the foundation ; and the
beauty of the face and the dishonors of the belly, the discerning
head and the servile feet, the thinking heart and the working
hand, the eyes and the guts together, shall be crushed into the
confusion of a heap, and dwell with creatures of an equivocal
production, with worms and serpents, the sons and daughters of
our own bones, in a house of dirt and darkness.
Let us not think to be excepted or deferred : if beauty, or
wit, or youth, or nobleness, or wealth, or virtue, could have
been a defence and an excuse from the grave, we had not met
here to-day to mourn on the hearse of an excellent lady : and
God only knows, for which of us next the mourners shall go
about the streets, or weep in houses.
Zeis Ii4v iroD T6ye oiSe, kki aSdvarot Seal iiAA.01,
'OirfoTepcfi Bavdroio TeAos ire-npwfi^vov iariv.*
We have lived so many years ; and every day, and every
minute, we make an escape from those thousands of dangers and
deaths that encompass us round about : and such escapings we
must reckon to be an extraordinary fortune ; and, therefore,
that it cannot last long. Vain are the thoughts of man, who,
when he is young or healthful, thinks he hath a long thread of
life to run over, and that it is violent and strange for young per
sons to die ; and natural and proper only for the aged. It is
as natural for a man to die by drowning as by a fever: and
what greater violence or more unnatural thing is it, that the
horse threw his rider into the river, than that a drunken meeting
* II. r. 309.

A FUNERAL SERMON. 107
cast him into a fever? and the strengths of youth are as soon
broken by the strong sicknesses of youth, and the stronger in
temperance, as the weakness of old age by a cough, or an
asthma, ora continual rheum : nay, it is more natural for young
men and women to die, than for old ; because that is more na
tural which hath more natural causes, and that is more natural
which is most common ; but to die with age is an extreme rare
thing ; and there are more persons carried forth to burial before
the five and thirtieth year of their age, than after it : and, there
fore, let no vain confidence make you hope for long life : if you
have lived but little, and are still in youth, remember that now
you are in your biggest throng of dangers, both of body and
soul ; and the proper sins of youth to which they rush infinitely
and without consideration, are also the proper and immediate
instruments of death. But if you be old, you have escaped long
and wonderfully, and the time of your escaping is out : you
must not for ever think to live on wonders, or that God will
work miracles to satisfy your longing follies, and unreasonable
desires of living longer to sin and to the world, po home
and think to die, and what you would choose to be doing when
you die, that do daily : for you will all come to that pass
to rejoice that you did so, or wish that you had : that will be
the condition of every one of us : for ' God regardeth no man's
person.' Well ! but all this you will think is but a sad story. What ?
we must die, and go to darkness and dishonor ; and we must
die quickly, and we must quit all our delights, and all our sins,
or do worse, infinitely worse ; and this is the condition of us
all, from which none can be excepted ; every man shall be spilt
and fall into the ground, and ' be gathered up no more.' Is
there no comfort after all this ? ' shall we go from hence, and
be no more seen,' and have no recompense?
" Misero miseie," aiunt, " omnia ademit
Una dies infausta tibi tot prsemia vitae."*
Shall we exchange our fair dwellings for a eofiin, our softer
beds for the moistened and weeping turf, and our pretty chil-
* Lucr. iii. 911.

108 JEREMY TAYLOR. — SERMON VIII.
dren for worms ; and is there no allay to this huge calamity ?
yes, there is ; there is a yet in the text : ' for all this, yet doth
God devise means that his banished be not expelled from him.'
All this sorrow and trouble is but a phantasm, and receives its
account and degrees from our present conceptions, and the pro
portion to our relishes and gust.
When Pompey saw the ghost of his first lady, Julia, who
vexed his rest and his conscience, for superinducing Cornelia
on her bed within the ten months of mourning, he presently
fancied it either to be an illusion, or else that death could be
no very great evil :
Aut nihil est sensus animis a morte relictum,
Aut mors ipsa nihil  :*
" Either my dead wife knows not of my unhandsome marriage,
and forgetfulness of her ; or, if she does, then the dead live."
 longae, canilis si cognita, vilse
Mors media est  :f
" Death is nothing but the middle point between two lives, be
tween this and another :" concerning which comfortable mys
tery the holy Scripture instructs our faith, and entertains our
hope in these words : God is still the ' God of Abraham, IsaSt,
and Jacob ; for all do live to him ;' and the souls of saints are
with Christ : ' I desire to be dissolved,' saith St. Paul,
' and to be with Christ, for that is much better :' and, ' Blessed
are the dead which die in the Lord ; they rest from their labors,
and their works follow them :' 'for we know that if our earthly
house of this tabernacle were dis.solved, we have a building of
God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens:'
and this state of separation St. Paul calls ' a being absent from
the body, and being present with the Lord.'l This is one of
God's means which he hath devised, that although our dead
are like persons banished from this world, yet they are not ex
pelled from God : they are ' in the hands of Christ;' they are
* Lucan, iii. 39. t Id. i. 456.
J 1 Cor. XV. 18. ] Thess. iv. 16. Rev. xiv. 13. John, v. 24.
2 Cor. V. 6. 8.

A FUNERAL SERMON. 109
'in his presence ;' they are, or shall be, • clothed with a house
of God's making;' ' they rest from all their labors ;' ' all tears
are wiped from their eyes,' and all discontents from their spirits;
and in the state of separation, before the soul be re-invested
with her new house, the spirits of all persons are with God, .so
secured, and so blessed, and so sealed up for glory, that this
state of interval and imperfection is, in respect of its certain
event and end, infinitely more desirable than all the riches,
and all the pleasures, and all the vanities, and all the king
doms of this world.
I will not venture to determine what are the circumstances
of the abode of holy souls in their separate dwellings ; and yet
possibly, that might be easier than to tell what or how the soul
is and works in this world, where it is in the43ody tanquam in
aliena domo, " as in a prison," in fetters and restraints ; for here
the soul is discomposed and hindered ; it is not as it shall be,
as it ought to be, as it was intended to be ; it is not permitted
to its own freedom and proper operation ; so that all that we can
understand of it here, is, that it is so incommodated with a
troubled and abated instrument, that the object we are to con
sider cannot be offered to us in a right line, in just and equal
propositions : or if it could, yet because we are to understand
the soul by the soul, it becomes not only a troubled and abused
object, but a crooked instrument ; and we here can consider it
just as a weak eye can behold a staff thrust into the waters of
a troubled river ; the very water makes a refraction, and the
storm doubles the refraction, and the water of the eye doubles
the species, and there is nothing right in the thing : the object
is out of its just place, and the medium is troubled, and the
organ is impotent. At cum exierit, et in liberum ccelum, quasi
in domum suam, venerit ; "when the soul is entered into her
own house, into the free regions of the rest," and the .neighbor
hood of heavenly joys, then its operations are more spiritual,
proper, and proportioned to its being ; and, though we cannot
see at such a distance, yet the object is more fitted, if we
had a capable understanding ; it is in itself in a more excel
lent and free condition.
Certain it is that the body does hinder many actions of the
soul : it is an imperfect body and a diseased brain, or a violent

110 JEREMY TAYLOR. — SERMON VIII.
passion, that makes fools: no man hath a foolish soul; and
the reasonings of men have infinite difference and degrees, by
reason of the body's constitution. Among beasts, which have
no reason, there is a greater likeness than between men, who
have ; and as by faces it is easier to know a man from a man,
than a sparrow from a sparrow, or a squirrel' from a squirrel ;
so the difference is very great in our souls ; which dift'erence,
because it is not originally in the soul, (and indeed cannot be in
simple or spiritual substances of the same species or kind,) it
must needs derive wholly from the body, from its accidents
and circumstances ; from whence it follows, that because the
body casts fetters and restraints, hinderances and impediments
on the soul , that the soul is much freer in the state of sepa
ration ; and if it hath any act of life, it is much more noble and
exppdite. That the soul is alive after our death, St. Paul affirms :
' Christ died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should
live together with him.'* Now it were strange that we should
be alive, and live with Christ, and yet do no act of life : the
body, when it is asleep, does many ; and if the soul does none,
the principle is less active than the instrument : but if it does
any act at all in separation, it must necessarily be an act or
effect of understanding; there is nothing else it can do, but
this it can ; for it is but a weak and an unlearned proposition
to say, that the soul can do nothing of itself, nothing without
the phantasms and provisions of the body : for,
1. In this life the soul hath one principle clearly separate,
abstracted, and immaterial ; I mean ' the spirit of grace,'
which is a principle of light and action, and in many instances
does not at all communicate with matter, as in the infusion,
superinduction, and creation of spiritual graces.
2. As nutrition, generation, eating and drinking, are actions
proper to the body, and its state ; so ecstasies, visions, raptures,
intuitive knowlege and consideration of itself, acts of volition,
and reflex acts of understanding, are proper to the soul.
3. And therefore it is observable that St. Paul said, that
' he knew not whether his visions and raptures were in or out
» 1 Thess. v. 10.

A FUNERAL SERMON. Ill
of the body;' for by that we see his judgment of the thing,
that one was as likely as the other, neither of them impossible
or unreasonable; and therefore, that the soul is as capable of
action alone as in conjunction.
4. If in the state of blessedness, there are some actions of
the soul which do not pass through the body, such as contem
plation of God, and conversing with spirits, and receiving those
influences and rare immissions, which coming from the holy
and mysterious Trinity, make up the crown of glory ; it follows
that the necessity of the body's ministry is but during the state
of this life, and as long as it converses with fire and water,
and lives with corn and flesh, and is fed by the satisfaction of
material appetites ; which necessity and manner of conversa
tion, when it ceases, it can be no longer necessary for the soul
to be served by phantasms and material representations,
6, And therefore, when the body shall be reunited, it shall
be so ordered that then the body shall confess it gives not any
thing, but receives all its being and operation, its manner and
abode, from the soul ; and that then it comes not to serve a ne
cessity, but to partake a glory : for as the operations of the
soul, in this life, begin in the body, and by it the object is trans
mitted to the soul ; so then they shall begin in the soul, and
pass to the body : and as the operations of the soul, by reason
of its dependence on the body, are animal, natural, and mate
rial ; so in the resurrection, the body shall be spiritual, by rea
son of the pre-eminence, influence, and prime operation of the
soul. Now between these two states stands the state of sepa
ration, in which the operations of the soul are of a middle na
ture, that is, not so spiritual as in the resurrection, and not so
animal and natural as in the state of conjunction.
To all which I add this consideration, that our souls have
the same condition that Christ's soul had in the state of sepa
ration, because he took on him all our nature, and all our con
dition; and it is certain, Christ's soul, in the three days of his
separation, did exercise acts of life, of joy, and triumph, and
did not sleep, but visited the souls of the fathers, trampled on
the pride of devils, and satisfied those longing souls which
Were prisoners of hope : and from all this we may conclude,
that the souls of all the servants of Christ are alive, and there-

112 JEREMY TAYLOR. — SERMON VIII.
fore do the actions of life, and proper to their state ; and, there
fore, it is highly probable that the soul works clearer, and
understands brighter, and discourses wiser, and rejoices louder,
and loves nobler, and desires purer, and hopes stronger, than
it can do here.
But if these arguments should fail, yet the felicity of God's
saints cannot fail : for suppose the body to be a necessary in
strument, but out of tune and discomposed by sin and anger,
by accident and chance, by defect and imperfections, yet that
it is better than none at all ; and that if the soul works im
perfectly with an imperfect body, that then she works not at
all, when she hath none ; and suppose also that the soul should
be as much without sense or perception in death, as it is in a
deep sleep, which is the image and shadow of death; yet then
God devises other means that his banished be not expelled
from hira. For,
2. God will restore the soul to the body, and raise the body
to such a perfection, that it shall be an organ fit to praise him
on ; it shall be made spiritual to minister to the soul, when the
soul is turned into a spirit : then the soul shall be brought forth
by angels from her incomparable and easy bed, from her rest in
Christ's holy bosom, and be made perfect in her being, and in
all her operations : and this shall first appear by that perfection
which the soul shall receive, as instrumental to the last judg
ment; for then she shall see clearly all the records of this world,
all the register of her own memory : for all that we did in this
life is laid up in our memories ; and though dust and forgetful
ness be drawn on them, yet when God shall lift us from our
dust, then shall appear clearly all that we have done, written
in the tables of our conscience, which is the soul's memory. We
see many times, and in many instances, that a great memory is
hindered and put out, and we, thirty years after, come to think
of something that lay so long under a curtain ; we think of it
suddenly, and without a line of deduction, or proper conse
quence : and all those famous memories of Simonides and The-
edactes, of Hortensius and Seneca, of Sceptius, Metrodorus,
and Carneades, of Cyneas the ambassador of Pyrrhus, are only
the records better kept, and less disturbed by accident and dis
ease : for even the memory of Herod's son of Athens, of Ba-

A FUNERAL SERMON. 113
thyllus, and the dullest person now alive, is so great, and by
God made so sure a record of all that ever he did, that as soon
as ever God shall but tune our instrument, and draw the cur
tains, and but light up the candle of immortality, there we shall
find it all, there we shall see all, and the whole world shall
see all ; then we shall be made fit to converse with God after
the manner of spirits, we shall be like to angels.
In the mean time, although on the persuasion of the former
discourse, it be highly probable that the souls of God's servants
do live in a state of present blessedness, and in the exceeding
joys of a certain expectation of the revelation of the day of the
Lord, and the coming of Jesus ; yet it will concern us only to
secure our state by holy living, and leave the event to God,
that, as St. Paul said, ' whether present or absent, whether
sleeping or waking,' whether perceiving or perceiving not, ' we
may be accepted of him ;' that when we are banished this world,
and from the light of the sun, we may not be expelled from
God, and from the light of his countenance; but that, from our
beds of sorrow, our souls may pass into the bosom of Christ,
and from thence to his right hand in the day of sentence : ' For
we must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ;' and
then if we have done well in the body, we shall never be ex
pelled from the beatifical presence of God, but be domestics of
his family, and heirs of his kingdom, and partakers of his glory.
Amen. 1 have now done with my text, but yet am to make you an
other sermon. I have told you the necessity and the state of
death, it may be too largely for such a sad story: I shall,
therefore, now with a better compendium teach you how to
live, by telling you a plain narrative of a life, which if you imi
tate, and write after the copy, it will make that death shall not
be an evil, but a thing to be desired, and to be reckoned among
the purchases and advantages of your fortune. When Martha
and Mary went to weep over the grave of their brother, Christ
met them there, and preached a funeral sermon, discoursing of
the resurrection, and applying to the purposes of faith, and
confession of Christ, and glorification of God. We have no
other, we can have no better precedent to follow : and now that

114 JEREMY TAYLOR.— SERMON VIII,
we are come to weep over the grave of our dear sister, this rare
personage, we cannot choose but have many virtues to learn,
many to imitate, and some to exercise.
I choose not to declare her extraction and genealogy : it was
indeed fair and honorable ; but having the blessing to be de
scended from worthy and honored ancestors, and herself to be
adopted and ingrafted into a more noble family ; yet she felt
such outward appendages to be none of her's, because not of
her choice, but the purchase of the virtues of others, which
although they did engage her to do noble things, yet they would
upbraid all degenerate and less honorable lives than were those,
which began and increased the honor of the families. She did
not love her fortune for making her noble, but thought it would
be a dishonor to her, if she did not continue a nobleness and
excellency of virtue, fit to be owned by persons relating to such
ancestors. It is fit for us all to honor the nobleness of a fa
mily; but it is also fit for them that are noble to despise it, and
to establish their honor on the foundation of doing excellent
things, and suffering in good causes, and despising dishonorable
actions, and in communicating good things to others: for this is
the rule in nature ; those creatures are most honorable, which
have the greatest power and do the greatest good : and accord
ingly myself have been a witness of it, how this excellent lady
would, by an act of humility and Christian abstraction, strip
herself of all that fair appendage and exterior honor, which
decked her person and her fortune, and desired to be owned by
nothing but what was her own, that she might only be esteemed
honorable, according to that which is the honor of a Christian,
and a wise person.
2. She had a strict and severe education, and it was one of
God's graces and favors to her; for being the heiress of a great
fortune, and living amongst the throng of persons, in the sight
of vanities and empty temptations, that is, in that part of the
kingdom where greatness is too often expressed in great follies
and great vices, God had provided a severe and angry educa
tion to chastise the forwardness of a young spirit and a fair for
tune, that she might for ever be so far distant from a vice, that
she might only see it and loath it, but never taste of it, so much
as to be put to her choice whether she wo"'-^ '^e virt«o!is or no.

A FUNERAL SERMON. 115
God intending to secure this soul to himself, would not suffer
the follies of the world to seize on her, by way of too near a
trial or busy temptation,
3. She was married young; and besides her businesses of re
ligion, seemed to be ordained in the providence of God to bring
to this honorable family a part of a fair fortune, and to leave
behind her a fairer issue, worth ten thousand times her portion :
and as if this had been all the public business of her life, when
she had so far served God's ends, God in mercy would also
serve her's, and take her to an early blessedness.
4. In passing through which line of Providence, she had the
art to secure her eternal interest, by turning her condition into
duty, and expressing her duty in the greatest eminency of a
virtuous, prudent, and rare affection, that hath been known in
any example. I will not give her so low a testimony, as to say
Only that she was chaste : she was a person of that severity,
modesty, and close religion as to that particular, that she was
not capable of uncivil temptation ; and you might as well' have
suspected the sun to smell of the poppy that he looks on, aS
that she could have been a person apt to be sullied by the
breath of a foul question.
5. But that which I shall note in her, is that which I would
have exemplar to all ladies, and to all women : she had a love
so great for her lord, so intirely given up to a dear affection,
that she thought the same things, and loved the same loves, and
hated according to the same enmities, and breathed in his soul,
and lived in his presence, and languished in his absence ; and
all that she was or did, was only for, and to, her dearest lord :
Si gaudet, si flet, si facet, hunc loquitur :
Coenat, propinat, poscit, negat, innuit, unus
Naevius est :  *
and although this was a great enamel to the beauty of her soul,
yet it might in some degrees be also a reward to the virtue of
her lord : for she would often discourse it to them that con
versed with her, that he would improve that interest which he
had in her affjction, to the advantages of God and of religion ;
* Martial, i. 69,

116 JEREMY TAYLOR. — SERMON VIII,
and she would delight to say, that he called her to her devo*
tions, he encouraged her good inclinations, he directed her
piety, he invited her with good books ; and then she loved re-,
ligion, which she saw was not only pleasing to God, and an
act or state of duty, but pleasing to her lord, and an act also
of affection and conjugal obedience; and what at first she loved
the more forwardly for his sake, in the using of religion, left
such relishes on her spirit, that she found in it amability
enough to make her love it for its own. So God usually brings
us to him by instruments of nature and affections, and then in
corporates us into his inheritance by the more immediate
relishes of heaven, and the secret things of the Spirit. He
only was, under God, the light of her eyes, and the cordial
of her spirits, and the guide of her actions, and the measure of
her affections, till her affections swelled up into a religion, and
then it could go no higher, but was confederate with those
other duties which made her dear to God: which rare combina
tion of duty and religion I choose to express in the words of
Solomon ; ' She forsook not the guide of her youth, nor brake
the covenant of her God.' *
6. As she was a rare wife, so she was an excellent mother ;
for in so tender a constitution of spirit as her's was, and in so
gi-eat a kindness towards her children, there hath seldom been
seen a stricter and more curious care of their persons, their de
portment, their nature, their disposition, their learning, and
their customs : and if ever kindness and care did contest, and
make parties in her, yet her care and her severity were ever vic
torious ; and she knew not how to do an ill turn to their severer
part, by her more tender and forward kindness. And as her
custom was, she turned this also into love to her lord : for she
was not only diligent to have them bred nobly and religiously,
but also was careful and solicitous that they should be taught
to observe all the circumstances and inclinations, the deshes
and wishes, of their father ; as thinking that virtue to have no
good circumstances, which was not dressed by his copy, and
ruled by his lines and his affections : and her prudence, in the
managing her children, was so singular and rare, that wheiievej
* Prov. ii. 17.

A FUNERAL SERMON. 117
you mean to bless this family, and pray a hearty and a profit
able prayer for it, beg of God, that the children may have those
excellent things which she designed to them, and provided for
them in her heart and wishes ; that they may live by her pur
poses, and may grow thither, whither she would fain have
brought them. All these were great parts of an excellent re
ligion, as they concerned her greatest temporal relations.
7. But if we examine how she demeaned herself towards
God, there also you will find her not of a common, but of an
exemplar piety : she was a great reader of Scripture, confining
herself to great portions every day ; which she read, not to the
purposes of vanity and impertinent curiosities, not to seem
knowing or to become talking, not to expound and rule ; but
to teach her all her duty, to instruct her in the knowlege and
love of God and of her neighbors ; to make her more humble,
and to teach her to despise the world and all its gilded vanities ;
and that she might entertain passions wholly in design and order
to heaven. I have seen a female religion that wholly dwelt on
the face and tongue ; that, like a wanton and an undressed tree,
spends all its juice in suckers and irregular branches, in leaves
and gum ; and after all such goodly outsides, you should never
eat an apple, or be delighted with the beauties or the perfumes
of a hopeful blossom. But the religion of this excellent lady
was of another constitution ; it took root downward in humi
lity, and brought forth fruit upward in the substantial graces of
a Christian, in charity and justice, in chastity and modesty, in
fair friendships and sweetness of society : she had not very
much of the forms and outsides of godliness, but she was
hugely careful for the power of it, for the moral, essential, and
useful parts; such which would make her be, not seem to be,
religious. 8. She was a very constant person at her prayers, and spent
all her time, which nature did permit to her choice, in her de
votions, and reading, and meditating, and the necessary offices
of household government; every one of which is an action of
religion, some by nature, some by adoption. To these also,
God gave her a very great love to hear the word of God
preached ; in which, because I had sometimes the honor to
minister to her, I can give this certain testimony, that she was

118 JEREMY TAYLOR. — SERMON VIII.
a diligent, watchful, and attentive hearer; and to this, had so
excellent a judgment, that if ever I saw a woman whose judg*
ment was to be revered, it was her's alone : and 1 have some
times thought that the eminency of her discerning faculties did
reward a pious discourse, and placed it in the regions of honor
and usefulness, and gathered it up from the ground, where com-
monly such homilies are spilt, or scattered in neglect and incon*
sideration. But her appetite was not soon satisfied with what
was useful to her soul : she was also a constant reader of ser
mons, and seldom missed to read one every day ; and that she
might be full of instruction and holy principles, she had lately
designed to have a large book, in which she purposed to have a
stock of religion transcribed in such assistances as she would
choose, that she might be ' readily furnished and instructed to
every good work.' But God prevented that, and hath filled
her desires, not out of cisterns and little aqueducts, but hath
carried her to the fountain, where ' she drinks of the pleasures
of the river,' and is full of God.
9. She always lived a life of much innocence, free from the
violences of great sins : her person, her breeding, her modesty,
her honor, her religion, her early marriage, the guide of her
soul, and the guide of her youth, were as so many fountains of
restraining grace to her, to keep her from the dishonors of a
crime. Bonum est portare jugum ab adolescentia : ' It is good
to bear the yoke of the Lord from our youth :' and though she
did so, being guarded, by a mighty Providence, and a great
favor and grace of God, from staining her fair soul with the
spots of hell, yet she had strange fears and early cares on her ;
but these were not only for herself, but in order to others, to
her nearest relatives : for she was so great a lover of this honor
able family, of which now she was a mother, that she desired
to become a channel of great blessings to it unto future ages,
and was extremely jealous lest any thing should be done, or lest
any thing had been done, though an age or two since, wlijch
should entail a curse on the innocent posterity ; and, therefore,
(although I do not know that ever she was tempted with an
offer of the crime) yet she did infinitely remove all sacrilege
from her thoughts, and delighted to see her estate of a clear and
disentangled interest : she would have no mingled rights with

A FUNERAL SERMON. 119
it ; she would not receive any thing from the church, but reli
gion and a blessing; and she never thought a curse and a sin
far enough off, but would desire it to be infinitely distant; and
that as to this family God had given much honor, and a wise
head to govern it, so he would also for ever give many more
blessings : and because she knew the sins of parents descend on
children, she endeavored, by justice and religion, by charity
and honor, to secure that her channel should convey nothing
but health, and a fair example, and a blessing.
10. And though her accounts of God were made up of no
thing but small parcels, little passions, and angry words, and
trifling discontents, which are the allays of the piety of the most
holy persons ; yet she was early at her repentance ; and toward
the latter end of her days, grew so fast in religion, as if she
had had a revelation of her approaching end, and, therefore,
that she must go a great way in a little time : her discourses
more full of religion, her prayers more frequent, her charity
increasing, her forgiveness more forward, her friendships more
communicative, her passion more unjier discipline ; and so she
trimmed her lamp, not thinking her night was so near, but that
it might shine also in the day-time, in the temple, and before
the altar of incense.
But in this course of hers there were some circumstances,
and some appendages of substance, which were highly remark
able. 1. In all her religion, and in all her actions of relation to
wards God, she had a strange evenness and untroubled passage,
sliding toward her ocean of God and of infinity with a certain
and silent motion. So have I seen a river, deep and smooth,
passing with a still foot and a sober face, and paying to the
fiscus, the great " exchequer " of the sea, the prince of all
the watery bodies, a tribute large and full ; and hard by it, a
little brook skipping and making a noise on its unequal and
neighbor bottom ; and after all its talking and bragged motion,
it paid to its common audit no more than the revenues of a little
cloud or a contemptible vessel : so have I sometimes compared
the issues of her religion to the solemnities and famed outsides
of another's piety. It dwelt on her spirit, and was incorporated
with the periodical work of every day : she did not believe that

120 JEREMY TAYLOR. — SERMON VIII.
religion was intended to minister to fame and reputation, but to
pardon of sins, to the pleasure of God, and the salvation of
souls. For religion is like the breath of heaven : if it goes
abroad into the open air, it scatters and dissolves like cam-
phire ; but if it enters into a secret hollowness, into a close con
veyance, it is strong and mighty, and comes forth with vigor
and great eft'ect at the other end, at the other side of this life,
in the days of death and judgment.
2. The other appendage of her religion, which also was a
great ornament to all the parts of her life, was a rare modesty
and humility of spirit, a confident despising and undervaluing of
herself. For though she had the greatest judgment, and the
greatest experience of things and persons, that [ ever yet knew
in a person of her youth, and sex, and circumstances; yet, as
if she knew nothing of it, she had the meanest opinion of her
self; and, like a fair taper, when she shined to all the room, yet
round about her own station she had cast a shadow and a
cloud, and she shined to every body but herself. But the per
fectness of her prudence and excellent parts could not be hid ;
and all her humility and arts of concealment made the virtues
more amiable and illustrious. For as pride sullies the beauty
of the fairest virtues, and makes our understanding but like the
craft and learning of a devil ; so humility is the greatest emi
nency and art of publication in the whole world : and she, in
all her arts of secrecy and hiding her worthy things, was but
' like one that hideth the wind, and covers the ointment of her
right hand.'
I know not by what instrument it happened ; but when death
drew near, before it made any show on her body, or revealed
itself by a natural signification, it was conveyed to her spirit:
she had a strange secret persuasion that the bringing this child.
should be her last scene of life : and we have known, that the
soul, when she is about to disrobe herself of .her upper garment,
sometimes speaks rarely ; Magnifica verba mors prope admota
excutit : * sometimes it is prophetical ; sometimes God, by a
superinduced persuasion wrought by instruments, or accidents
of his own, serves the ends of his own Providence, and the
* Sen. Troail. 575. Schrod. p. 4-29.

A FUNERAL SERMON. 121
salvation of the soul : but so it was, that the thought of death
dwelt long with her, and grew from the first steps of fancy and
fear, to a consent, — from thence to a strange credulity, and ex
pectation of it ; and without the violence of sickness she died,
as if she had done it voluntarily, and by design, and for fear
her expectation should have been deceived ; or that she should
seem to have had an unreasonable fear or apprehension ; or
rather, as one said of Cato, Sic abiit e vita, ut causam moriendi
uactam se esse gauderet ; " she died as if she had been glad of
the opportunity."
And in this I cannot but adore the providence and admire
the wisdom and infinite mercies of God ; for having a tender
and soft, a delicate and fine constitution and breeding, she was
tender to pain, and apprehensive of it as a child's shoulder is
of a load and burden : Grave est tenerm cervici jugum : and in
her often discourses of death, which she would renew willingly
and frequently, she would tell, that " she feared not death, but
she feared the sharp pains of death :" Emori nolo, me esse mar-
tuam non euro. The being dead, and being freed from the
troubles and dangers of this world, she hoped would be for her
advantage, and therefore, that was no part of her fear ; but
she, believing the pangs of death were great, and the use and
aids of reason little, had reason to fear lest they should do
violence to her spirit, and the decency of her resolution. But
God, that knew her fears and her jealousy concerning herself,
fitted her with a death so easy, so harmless, so painless, that
it did not put her patience to a severe trial. It was not in all
appearance of so much trouble as two fits of a common ague,
so careful was God to demonstrate to all that stood in that sad
attendance, that this soul was dear to him, — and that since she
had done so much of her duty towards it, he that began would
also finish her redemption by an act of a rare providence and
a singular mercy. Blessed be that goodness of God, who does
so careful actions of mercy for the ease and security of his ser
vants ! But this one instance was a great demonstration, that
the apprehension of death is worse than the pains of death ; and
that God loves to reprove the unreasonableness of our fears, by
the mightiness and by the arts of his mercy.
She had in her sickness, if I may so call it, — or rather in the
TAY. VOL. IV. F

122 JEREMY TAYLOR. — SERMON VIII,
solemnities and graver preparations towards death, — some cui
rious and well-becoming fears concerning the final state of her
¦soul ; but from thence she passed into a deliquium, or " a kind
of trance ;" and as soon as she came forth of it, as if it had been
a vision, or that she had conversed with an angel, and from his
hand had received a label or scroll of the book of life, and
there seen her name enrolled, she cried out aloud, " Glory be
to God on high ! now I am sure I shall be saved." Con
cerning which manner of discoursing we are wholly ignorant
what judgment can be made; but, certainly, there are strange
things in the other world, and so there are in all the immediate
preparations to it : and a little glimpse of heaven, a minute's
•conversing with an angel, any ray of God, any communication
extraordinary from the Spirit of comfort, which God gives to
his servants in strange and unknown manners, are infinitely far
from illusions, and they shall then be understood by us when we
feel them, and when our new and strange needs shall be re
freshed by such unusual visitations.
But I must be forced to use summaries and arts of abbrevia
ture in the enumerating those things, in which this rare per-
-sonage was dear to God and to all her relatives.
If we consider her person, she was in the flower of her age;
jucundum cum aetasjlorida ver ageret;* of a temperate, plain,
and natural diet, without curiosity or an intemperate palate :
she spent less time in dressing than many servants ; her recrea
tions were little and seldom, her prayers often, her reading
much : she was of a most noble and charitable soul, a great
Jover of honorable actions, and as great a despiser of base
things ; hugely loving to oblige others, and very unwilling to
be in arrear to any on the stock of courtesies and liberality :
so free in all acts of favor, that she would not stay to hear
herself thanked, as being unwilling that what good went from
her to a needful or an obliged person, should ever return to her
again. She was an excellent friend, and hugely dear to very
many, especially to the best and most discerning persons; to
all that conversed with her, and could understand her great
worth and sweetness. She was of an honorable, a nice, and
* Catul. Ixviii. 16,

A FUNERAL SERMON, 123
tender reputation ; and of the' pleasures of this world, which
were laid before her in heaps, she took a very small and incon
siderable share, as not loving to glut herself with vanity, or take
her portion of good things here below.
If we look on her as a wife, she was chaste and loving,
fruitful and discreet, humble and pleasant, witty and com
pliant, rich and fair ; and wanted nothing to the making her a
principal and precedent to the best wives of the world, but a
long life and a full age.
If we remember her as a mother, she was kind and severe,
careful and prudent, very tender, and not at all fond ; a greater
lover of her children's souls than of their bodies, and one that
would value them more by the strict rules of honor and proper
worth, than by their relation to herself.
Her servants found her prudent and fit to govern, and yet
open-handed and apt to reward ; a just exactor of their duty,
and a great rewarder of their diligence.
She was in her house a comfort to her dearest lord, a guide
to her children, a rule to her servants, an example to all.
But as she related to God in the offices of religion, she was
even and constant, silent and devout, prudent and material ;
she loved what she now enjoys, and she feared what she never
felt, and God did for her what she never did expect : her fears
went beyond all her evil ; and yet the good which .she hath re
ceived, was, and is, and ever shall be, beyond all her hopes.
She lived as we all should live, and she died as I fain would
die : Cum raihi supremos Lachesis perneverit annos,
Non aliter cineres mando jacere meos.*
I pray God I may feel those mercies on my death-bed that she
felt, and that I may feel the same effect of my repentance,
which she feels of the many degrees of her innocence. Such
was her death, that she did not die too soon ; and her life was
so useful and excellent, that she could not have lived too long :
Nemo parum diu vixit, qui virtutis perfectce perfecto functus
est munere. And as now in the grave it sh^ll not be inquired
* Mart. i. 89. 9.

124 JEREMY TAYLOR, — SERMON VIII.
concerning her, how long she lived, but how well ; so to"n»,
who live after her, to suffer a longer calamity, — it may be some
ease to our sorrows, and some guide to our lives, and some
security to our conditions, to consider that God hath brought
the piety of a young lady to the early rewards of a never-
ceasing and never-dying eternity of glory. And we also, if we
live as she did, shall partake of the same glories ; not only
having the honor of a good name and a dear and honored me
mory, but the glories of these glories, the end of all excellent
labors, and all prudent counsels, and all holy religion, even the
salvation of our souls, in that day when all the saints, and
among them this excellent woman, shall be shown to all the
world to have done more, and more excellent things than we
know of, or can describe. Mors illos consecrat, quorum exitum,
et qui timent, laudant : " death consecrates and makes sacred
that person, whose excellency was such, that they that are not
displeased at the death, cannot dispraise the life ; but they that
mourn sadly, think they can never commend sufficiently."

THE WHOLE
DUTY OF THE CLERGY
IN
LIFE, BELIEF, AND DOCTRINE,
DESCRIBED,
AND PRESSED EFFECTUALLY ON THEIR CONSCIENCES,
IS
TWO SERMONS ON TIT. ii. 7, 8.
PBEACHEI)
AT SO MANY SEVERAL VISITATIONS.

SUMMARY OF SERMON IX, 127

SUMMARY OF SERMON IX.
TITUS, CHAP, II, — VERSES 7, 8,
PART I,
Preliminary observations on the degrees and orders
which God ordained when he first created the world, and also
when he created it afresh under the gospel. All Christians
are holy unto the Lord : Christians, hovvever, must be not only
holy, but eminently so, &c. But in this affair there are many
steps and degrees of progression.
1. All God's people must be delivered from all sin. — Christ
came to present his church without spot or wrinkle. ,
2. Christians must acquire all the graces of God's Holy
Spirit. An Apostle gives the catalogue, 2 Pet, i, 5.
3. There is yet another degree to be added thereto : it is not
enough for a Christian to be free from corruption, and to have
these graces; but they must be in ms and abound: this en
larged on.
4. There are yet three more steps beyond this. God re
quires of us perseverance : it is not sufficient to dwell in holi
ness, we must still pursue it, and that unto the end.
5. Besides this extension of duration, there must be inten
sion of degree: we must aim at perfection : be ye perfect, as
your heavenly Father is perfect.
6. And after all this, we must be so for ourselves, and we
must also be so for others; we must be so to please God,
and we must be so to edify our brethren. Let your light sa
shine before men, that they may glorify your Father which' is
in. heaven : this enlarged on.

128 SUMMARY OF
These considerations premised, as including the duty of all
Christians whatsoever, and as a foundation to what is addressed
to the clergy.
Ministers of the gospel are separated beyond this separation.
God hath separated them again, and put them anew into the
crucible : by them God intends to plant holiness in the hearts
of men, &c.
To them these things are spoken properly, these powers
really conveyed; and on them God hath poured his spirit
plentifully, &c. : and if he accepts none of the people unless
they have within them the conjugation of all Christian graces,
it is scarcely possible to express by words that which God re
quires of his ministers. Here then is, 1. their duty : 2. the
degrees and excellency of it.
The duty is double : 1. holiness of life : 2. integrity of
doctrine. Both of these have their degrees.
1. The. holiness of life and conversation that is befitting a
minister of the gospel described. He must be a pattern to
others. 2. Integrity of doctrine : four qualifications necessary : it
must be incorrupt, grave and chaste, sound in speech, evi
dently demonstrated. Also it must be sincere, not polluted
with foul intentions and devices of secular interest. But it is
proposed to handle the duties and degrees of them together,
&c. It is required of every minister, that in all things he
show himself a pattern of good works. This is on all accounts
necessary: 1. in general ; 2. in particular.
I. In general. The very first words of the Psalter are an
argument of this necessity. The primitive church would not
admit a man to the superior orders of the clergy unless he could
repeat all David's Psalter by heart, so wisely and mysteriously
by God made preliminary to the whole office.
To the same purpose is the observation of St. Jerome con
cerning the vesting of the priests in the Levitical ministrations.

sermon ix. 1'29
The words of David (Ps. 1. 16, 17.) considered. The primi
tive church would admit no man to holy orders who had done
public penance. Letters of P. Hormiada to the bishops of
Spain commented on. But all this is general : there aie con
siderations yet more particular and material.
1. A minister of an evil life cannot do so much good to his
charges : he pulls down as fast or faster than he builds up : he
is contemptible to his people ; he cannot preach with fervor
and efficacy ; he cannot love to see others better than himself;
and thus like will beget like.
2. A wicked minister cannot with success and benefit pray
for the people of his charge : and this is a great matter ; for
prayer is the key of David, and God values it so highly, that
Christ is made the prince of all intercession, &c. : this topic
fully enlarged on.
3. The ecclesiastical order is by Christ appointed to minister
his Holy Spirit to the people : but can he minister it, from
whom the Spirit of God is departed ? this enlarged on.
4. Consider, that every sin committed by a minister of reli
gion, is more than one; and it is soon espied too; for more
men look on the sun in an eclipse, than when he is in his
beauty. 5. The accounts which an ungodly minister of religion shall
make, must needs be intolerable, when the sins of his neglected
flock shall be added to his own,
6, Every minister that leads an evil life, is that person whom
our blessed Saviour means under the odious appellation of a
hireling : this explained.
7. These things have been said, that you sin not : but this is
not the great thing here intended : ministers may be innocent,
and yet not zealous of good works: but if they be not this, they
are not true ministers of Jesus Christ. Concluding pious ex
hortations.

130 SUMMARY OF
PART II.
II. Rules and measures of doctrine, which ministers are to
•teach the people, next considered.
I. Let them be sure that they teach nothing but what is
'found in Scripture. This rule alone were sufficient to guide us,
-if we were not weak, wilful, ignorant, and abused, and if the
holy Scriptures had not received so many interpretations and
various meanings, &c. : this topic enlarged on. Some rules and
advice given on this head,
1, Because it is not to be expected that every minister should
have all the gifts of the Spirit, &c., they may make use of the
labors of those worthy persons, whom God has raised up as
¦lights to the world : several such recommended, &c. In the
interpretation of Scripture there are ways of doing it well and
wisely, without the too laborious methods of weary learning,
&c. : therefore,
2. In all interpretation of Scripture, the literal sense is to
lie presumed and chosen, unless there be evident cause to the
contrary : reasons for this : three corollaries mentioned, as con
sequent to this proposition.
3. We must remember that not the grammatical or prime
signification of the word only is the literal sense ; but what
soever was the prime intention of the speaker, though the word
to be taken metaphorically may signify more meanings than
one : this topic dilated on : errors of different sects enumerated.
4. We must admit in the interpretation of Scripture but one
literal sense ; that is, but one prime literal sense, agreeably to
the purity and simplicity of the Spirit of God, &c.
, 5. Yet others that are subordinate may be intended subor-
dinately, &c.
6. Lastly, sometimes the literal sense is lost by a plain
change of the words, which, when it is discovered, must be cor
rected by the fountain; and till it be, as long as it is pious and

sermon IX. 131
commonly received, it may be used without scruple : this illus
trated. II. There is another sense or interpretation of Scripture ;
and that is mystical or spiritual : this explained. Some short
rules given.
1. Though every place of Scripture hath a literal, yet every
one hath not a spiritual or mystical sense ; and, therefore,
Origen was blamed for resolving all into spirit and mystery.
2, Whoever will draw spiritual senses from any history of
the Old or New Testament, must first allow the literal sense,
or else he will soon deny an article of necessary belief.
3. In moral precepts, &c., there is no other but the literal
sense to be looked for.
4. If the letter of the story infers any indecency or contra
diction, then it is necessary to look for a mystical sense : some
other cases mentioned where it may be useful : folly of some
mystical commentators displayed : instances of very absurd
glosses given.
Some other rules for the more particular duty of ministers. ,
1. Though they are to teach the people nothing but what is
the word of God, yet by this is to be understood all that God
spake expressly, and all that by certain consequence can be
deduced from it : this enlarged on. Quest. But how shall our
reason be rightly guided in this case? To which it is answered,
2. In the making deductions, the first great measure to
direct our reason and our inquiries is the analogy of faith : this
explained, &c.,
3. It is necessary also that we be very diligent in reading,
assiduous in the studies of Scripture, &c.
4. Next to the analogy of faith, the consent of the Catholic
church shoitld be our measure, &c. : not indeed distinct from,
much less against Scripture, for that were a contradiction : this
enlarged on.
Next head of the Discourse. The doctrine of a minister

132 SUMMARY OF SERMON IX.
must be grave and reverend ; without vain notions, pitiful
contentions, &c. : the rules for which are easy.
1 . Do not trouble the people with controversies, or with what
engenders strife : this topic enlarged on.
2. Let not sermons and discourses be busy arguings about
hard places of Scripture : this also enlarged on.
Third head of the Discourse. Let your speech be salutary
and wholesome : rules given.
1. It is never out of season to preach good works : but when
any one does this, let him not indirectly disgrace them, by
telling how his adversaries spoil theip : this topic enlarged on.
2. In deciding questions and cases of conscience, never
strive to say what is pleasing, but what is profitable, &c.
Lastly, the Apostle requires of every minister of the gospel
that his speech and doctrine should be.unreprovable; not such
against which no man can cavil, but such as deserves not
blame : rules and advices given for this.
1. Be more careful to establish a truth than to reprove an
error. 2. If any man have a revelation or discovery, be not too
quick to condemn it : reasons for this given.
3. Let no man from his own head reprove the religion that is
established by law and a just supreme authority : this ex
plained. 4. Whatever Scripture you pretend for your doctrine, take
heed that it be not chargeable with foul consequences: this
explained and illustrated. If you will not have your doctrine
reprehensible, do nothing with offence. Frame your life and
preaching to the canons of the church, the doctrines of anti>-
quity, and the sense of the Holy Fathers : reasons for this given.
Concluding exhortations.

THE minister's DUTY IN LIFE AND DOCTRINE. 133

SERMON IX.
THE MINISTER'S DUTY IN LIFE AND
DOCTRINE: IN TWO SERMONS.

TlTUS, CHAP. II. — VERSES 7, 8,
In all things showing thyself a pattern of good works : in doctrine
showing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity ;
Sound speech that cannot be condemned ; that he that is of the
contrary part, may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of
you,
PART I,
As God, in the creation of the world, first produced a mass
of matter, having nothing in it but an obediential capacity
and passivity ; which God separating into classes of division,
gave to every part a congruity to their respective forms, which,
in their distinct orbs and stations, they did receive in order,
and then were made beauteous by separations and a new eco
nomy ; and out of these he appointed some for servants, and
some for government ; and some to eat, and some to be eaten ;
some above, and some below ; some to be useful to all the rest,
and all to minister to the good of man, whom he made the
prince of the creation, and a minister of the divine glory; — so
God hath also done in the new creation : all the world was
concluded under sin ; it was a corrupt mass ; all mankind ' had
corrupted themselves ;' but yet were capable of divine influ
ences, and of a nobler form, producible in the new birth : here
then God's Spirit moves on the waters of a divine birth, and
inakes a separation of part from part, of corruption from cor
ruption ; and first chose some families to whom he communi-

134 JEREMY TAYLOR, — SERMON IX.
cated the divine influences and the breath of a nobler life ; Seth
and Enoch, Noah and Abraham, Job and Bildad ; and these
were the special repositories of the divine grace, and prophets
of righteousness to glorify God in themselves, and in their ser
mons unto others. But this was like enclosing of the sun : he
that shuts him in, shuts him out; and God, who was, and is
an infinite goodness, would not be circumscribed, and limited
to a narrow circle : goodness is his nature, and infinite is his
measure, and communication of that goodness is the motion of
that Eternal Being : God, therefore, breaks forth as out of a
cloud, and picks out a whole, nation ;-the sons of Israel be
came his family, and that soon swelled into a nation, and that
nation multiplied, till it became too big for their country, and
by a necessary dispersion went, and did much good, and gained
some servants to God out of other parts of mankind. But God
was pleased to cast lots once more, and was like the sun already
risen on the earth, who spreads his rays to all the corners of the
habitable world, that all that will open their eyes and draw
their curtains, may see and rejoice in his light. Here God re
solved to call all the world ; he sent into the highways and
hedges, to the corners of the Gentiles, and the highways of the
.Jews ; all might come that would ; for ' the sound of the gospel
went out into all lands :' and God chose all that came, but all
would not ; and those that did, he gathered into a fold, marked
them with his own mark, sent his son to be ' the great Shep
herd and Bishop of their souls,' and they became ' a peculiar
people unto God,' ' a little flock,' ' a new election.'
And here is the first separation and singularity of the gospel:
all that hear the voice of Christ's first call, all that profess
themselves his disciples, all that take his signature, they and
their children are the church, an ekkXtjctiq, called out from the
rest of the world, the ' elect' and the ' chosen of God.'
Now these being thus chosen out, culled and picked from the
evil generations of the world, he separates them from others, to
gather them to himself ; he separates them and sanctifies them
to become holy ; to come out, not of the companies so much,
as from the evil manners of the world : God chooses them unto
holiness; they are Teraypevoi els iw'^v aluiviov, ' put in the right
order to eternal life.'

THE minister's DUTY IN LIFE AND DOCTRINE. 135
All Christians are holy unto the Lord, and therefore must
not be unholy in their conversation ; for nothing that is
unholy shall come near to God : that is the first great line of
our duty : but God intends it farther ; all Christians must not
be only holy, but eminently holy. For ' John indeed baptised
with water;' but that is but a dull and inactive element, and
moves by no principle, but by being ponderous ; Christ ' bap
tises with the Holy Ghost and with fire,' and God hates luke-
-vvarmness ; and when he chooses to him a peculiar people, he
adds, they must be ' zealous of good works.'
But in this affair there are many steps and great degrees of
progression. 1. All God's people must be delivered from all
sin ; for as Christ came wholly ' to destroy the works of the
devil,' so he intends also ' to present his church as a pure virgin
unto Christ;' iiaviXov, inrpoaicoTrov, elXiKpivfj, ' without scandal,
without hypocrisy,' ' without spot or wrinkle, or any such
thing:' for to be quit from sin, that is, from all affection to it,
is supposed in the Christian's life : ' denying ungodliness and
worldly lusts;' and 'being cleansed from all filthiness of flesh
and spirit,' and ' having escaped from all corruption that is in
the world through lust;' this is not so much commanded as
supposed : without this, nothing can be done, nothing can be
hoped : this is but the foundation of the Christian, who is in
tended to be 'a habitation of God,' ' a member of Christ,' ' a
temple of the holy Spirit of God:' the building follows.
2. All Christians must acquire all the graces of the holy
Spirit of God; St. Peter gives the catalogue, ' faith, and virtue,
and knowlege, and temperance, and patience, and godliness,
and brotherly kindness, and charity :'* and that you may see
what is the spirit of a Christian, what an activity and brisk
principle is required to the acquisition of these things ; the
Apostle gives this precept, that for the acquiring these things,
'we should give' wauav airovbriv, 'all diligence:' no lazy
worker is a good Christian ; he must be diligent ; and not
every diligence, nor every degree of good diligence ; but it must
be all, omnem omnino diligentiam, ' give all diligence.'
* 2 Pet. i. 5.

136 JEREMY TAYLOR,— SERMON IX.
3. There is yet another degree to be added hereto : it is not
enough for a Christian to be free from corruption, and to have
these graces ; and therefore to be diligent, very diligent to oh-
tain them ; but ' they must be in us, and abound,'* N. B. they
must be in us ; these graces and this righteousness must be in
herent ; it is not enough for us that Christ had them for us ;
for it is true, if he had not had them, we should never have re
ceived those or any thing else that is good : but he had them,
that we might have them, and follow his steps who knew no sin,
and fulfilled all righteousness. They ' must be in us,' saith St.
Peter ; and not only so, they must also abound in us : that is
the end of Christ's death; that is the fruit of his Spirit: they
must be plentiful, like a full vintage, or like Euphrates in the
time of ripe fruits ; they must swell over the banks : for when
they are but in gradu virtutis, " in the lowest step of sincerity,"
they may fall from the tree like unripe fruit, and be fit for
nothing but for prodigals and swine ; they must be in their sea
son and period, great and excellent, and eminent; they must
take up all our faculties, fill up all our time, spend all our
powers, satisfy the will, and be adequate to all the powers of
our choice ; that is, as St. Peter adds, they must be so, that
we ' make our calling and election sure ;' so as that we shall
never any more depart from God : well, thus far, you see how
severe and sacred a thing it is to be a Christian.
4. But there are yet three steps more beyond this : God re
quires of us perseverance ; a thrusting all this forward, even
unto the end : ' without peace and holiness no man shall see
God,'t saith the author to the Hebrews; but that is not all ;
biiitKETe eiprivriv Kai hyiaapov, ' follow after peace and holiness
with all men,' avev ov, ' without which ;' it is not avev ^s eipri-
vr)s, ' without which peace,' but iivev ov biwKeiv, ' without which
following of peace and holiness ;' that is, unless we endure all
contradiction of sinners and objections ; without following it
close and home to the utmost issue, to the end of all righteous
ness, tending even to comprehension, to consummation and per
fection, no man shall see God ; bioiKeiv ev hyiaap^, is good and
* 2 Pet. i, 8. t Heb. xii, 14.

THE minister's DUTY IN LIFE AND DOCTRINE. 137
great, ' to dwell in holiness ;' but that is not enough, it must
be biiiKetv too, we must still pursue it, and that unto the end :
' for he that endureth unto the end shall be saved.'
5. And what more? yes, there is something yet: for besides
this extension of duration, there must be intensio graduum : for
nondum comprehendimus, nondum perfecti sumus ; ' we have
not yet comprehended, we are not yet made perfect ;' but that
must be aimed at : 'Be ye perfect as your heavenly Father is
perfect;' — be ' ye meek as Christ is ;' — ' be ye holy as God is
holy ;' — ' pure as your Father in heaven is pure ;' — and who
can be so ? no man can be so in degree, but so in kind ; every
man must desire, and every man must contend to be, and there
fore it is possible, else it had never been required.
6. And now, after all this, one thing more is to be done : you
must be so for yourselves, and you must be so for others : you
must be so to please God, and you must be so to edify your
brethren : * Let your light so shine before men, that they may
glorify your Father which is in heaven :' let it be so eminent
and conspicuous, that all that see your conversation, and all
that come into your congregations, may be convinced, and
' falling down and worshipping, may say, of a truth, the Spirit
of the Lord is in you.' And therefore our blessed Saviour, in
his sermon on the mount, which is the summary of a Chris
tian's life ; — at the end of the eight beatitudes, tells all his fol
lowers and disciples, ' Ye are the salt of the world, ye are the
light of the world ;' and therefore ' the kingdom of heaven,' or
the gospel, is compared ' to a woman that hid, in three mea
sures of meal,' — the Jews, the Turks, the heathen idolaters, —
' her leaven, till all was leavened :' our light must .be so shining,
our conversation so exemplar, asto draw all the world after us-f
that they that will not, may be ashamed, and they that will^
may be allured by the beauty of the flame. These are the pro
portions and measures of every Christian ; for ' from the days
of John the Baptist, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence,
and the violent take it by force ;' that although ' John the
Baptist was the greatest that ever was born of woman,' yet he
th^t ' is least in the kingdom of heaven,' the meanest of the
laity, may be ' greater than he.' This is a great height : and
these things I have premised, not only to describe the duty of

138 JEREMY TAYLOR. — SERMON IX,
all that are here present, even of all Christians whatsoever, that
you may not depart without your portion of a blessing ; but
also as a foundation of the ensuing periods, which I shall ad--
dress to you, my brethren of the clergy, the fathers of the
people ; for I speak in a school of the prophets, prophets and
prophets' sons ; to you who are, or intend to be so.
For God hath made a separation of you even beyond this
separation ; he hath separated you yet again : he hath put you
anew into the crucible : he hath made you to pass through the
fire seven times more. For it is true, that the whole commu
nity of the people is the church : Ecclesia sancta est communio.
sanctorum, " the holy catholic church is the communion of
saints ;" but yet, by the voice and consent of all Christendom,i
you are the church, by way of propriety, and eminency, and
singularity; "churchmen," — that is your appellative : all are
avbpes TTvevpariKoi, " spiritual men ;" all have received the
Spirit, and all walk in the Spirit, and ye are all ' sealed by the
Spirit unto the day of redemption;' and yet there is a spiritu
ality peculiar to the clergy : ' If any man be overtaken in a
fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of
meekness:'* you who are spiritual by office and designatioii,
of a spiritual calling, and spiritual employment; you who have
the Spirit of the Lord Jesus, and minister the Spirit of God,
you are more eminently spiritual ; you have the Spirit in graces
and in powers, in sanctification and abilities, in office and in
person ; the unction from above hath descended on your
heads and on your hearts; you are, car' e^oxr)v, " by way of
eminency" and prelation, " spiritual men." All ' thepeopleof
God were holy ;' Korah and his company were in the right so
far; but yet Moses and Aaron were more holy, and stood
pearer to God. All the people are prophets : it is now more
than Moses's wish, for the Spirit of Christ hath made them so ;
' If any man prayeth or prophesieth with his head covered,' or
' if any woman prophesieth with her head uncovered,' they are
dishonored : but either man or woman may do that work in time
and place ; for ' in the latter days I will pour out of my Spirit^
and your daughters shall prophesy ;' and yet, God hath ap-
* Gal. vi. 1.

THE minister's DUTY IN LIFE AND DOCTRINE, 139
pointed in his church prophets above these, to whose Spirit all
the other prophets are subject ; and as God said to Aaron and
Miriam concerning Moses, ' To you I am known in a dream or
a vision, but to Moses I speak face to face;' so it is in the
church ; God gives of his Spirit to all men, but you he hath
made the ministers of his Spirit : nay, the people have their
portion of the keys of the kingdom of heaven, so said St. Paul ;
•¦ To whom ye forgive any thing, to him I forgive also ;' and to
the whole church of Corinth he gave a commission, ' in the
name of Christ, and by his Spirit, to deliver the incestuous per-,
son unto Satan ;' and when the primitive penitents stood in-
their penitential stations, they did Caris Dei adgeniculari, et
toti populo legationem orationis sum commendare ; and yet the
keys were not only promised, but given to the Apostles to be
used then, and transmitted to all generations of the church; and
we are ' ministers of Christ, and stewards of the manifold
mysteries of God ; and to us is committed the word of reconci
liation,' And thus, in the consecration of the mysterious sacra
ment, the people have their portion ; for the bishop or the priest
blesses, and the people, by saying Amen to the mystic prayer,
is partaker of the power, and the whole church hath a share in
the power of spiritual sacrifice ; ' Ye are a royal priesthood,
kings and priests unto God ;' that is, so ye are priests as ye are
kings; but yet kings and priests have a glory conveyed to them,,
of which the people partake but in minority, and allegory, and
improper communication : but you are, and are to be respect
ively that considerable part of mankind, by whom God intends
to plant holiness in the world ; by you God means to reign in
the hearts of men ; and therefore you are to be first in this
kind, and consequently the measure of all the rest : to you,
therefore, I intend this, and some following discourses, in order
to this purpose : I shall but now lay the first stone, but it is thei
corner-stone in this foundation.
, But to you, I. say, of the clergy, these things are spoken pro-,
perly ; to you these powers are conveyed really ; on you God
hath poured his Spirit plentifully ; you are the choicest of hi|
choice, the elect of his election, a church picked out of the
church, vessels of honor for your Master's use, appointed to

140 JEREMY TAYLOR. — SERMON IX.
teach others, authorised to bless in his name ; you are the mi"
nisters of Christ's priesthood, under-laborers in the great work
of mediation and intercession, medii inter Deum et populum;
you are for the people towards God, and convey answers and
messages from God to the people : these things I speak, not
only to magnify your office, but to enforce and heighten your
duty; you are holy by office and designation, for your very
appointment is a sanctification and a consecration ; and there
fore whatever holiness God requires of the people, who have
some little portions in the priesthood evangelical, he expects it
of you, and much greater, to whom he hath conveyed so great
honors, and admitted so near unto himself, and hath made to
be the great ministers of his kingdom and his Spirit : and now,
as Moses said to the Levitical schismatics, Korah and his com
pany, so I may say to you : ' Seemeth it but a small thing unto
you, that the God of Israel hath separated you from the con
gregation of Israel to bring you to himself, to do the service of
the tabernacle of the Lord, and to stand before the congrega
tion to minister to them ? And he hath brought thee near to
him.' * Certainly, if of every one of the Christian congrega
tion God expects a holiness that mingles with no unclean thing;
if God will not suffer of them a lukewarm and an indifferent
service, but requires zeal of his glory, and that which St. Paul
calls the novos rijs ayaTTi/s, ' the labor of love ;' if he will have
them to be ' without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing;' if he
will not endure any pollution in their flesh or spirit ; if he re
quires that their bodies, and souls, and spirits be kept blameless
unto the coming of the Lord Jesus ; if he accepts of none of
the people, unless they have within them the conjugation of all
Christian graces ; if he calls on them to abound in every gracej
and that in all the period of their progression unto the ends of
their lives, and to the consummation and perfection of grace ;
if he hath made them lights in the world, and the salt of the
earth, to enlighten others by their good example, and to teach
them, and invite them by holy discourses, and wise counsels,
and speech seasoned with salt ; what is it, think ye, or with
* Numb. xvi. 9,

THE minister's DUTY IN LIFE AND DOCTRINE, 141
what words is it possible to express what God requires of you ?
They are to be examples of good life to one another ; but you
are to be examples even of the examples themselves ; that is
your duty, that is the purpose of God, and that is the design of
my text, ' That in all things ye show yourselves a pattern of
good works ; in doctrine showing uncorruptness, gravity, sin
cerity, sound speech, that cannot be condemned : that he, that
is of the contrary part, may be ashamed, having no evil thing
to say of you.'
Here then is, 1. your duty: 2. the degrees and excellency
of your duty.
The duty is double: 1, holiness of life: 2, integrity of
doctrine. Both these have their heightenings, in several de
grees. 1. For your life and conversation, it ought not only to be
good, not only to be holy, but to be so up to the degrees of an
excellent example ; ' Ye must be a pattern.'
2. Ye must be patterns, not only of knowlege and wisdom,
not of contemplation and skill in mysteries, not of unprofitable
notions, and ineffective wit and eloquence ; but of something
that is more profitable, of something that may do good, some
thing by which mankind shall be better; of something that
shall contribute to the felicity and comfort of the world ; ' a
pattern of good works.'
3. It must not be a ri/iros, ' a type' or pattern to be hidden
or laid in tabernacles, like those images of Moloch and Rem-
phan, which the Spirit of God in the Old Testament calls
my2 lyOV ' Succoth Benoth,' little repositories or booths to
hide their images and patterns of their gods; but irapexppevos
ritrov, ' you must be exhibited ' and shown forth, brought
forth into action and visibility, and notorious observation.
4. There is also another mystery and duty in this word ; for
Moloch and Remphan, they were patterns and figures, but they
were tvttoi ovs ewoir/o-airo, ' patterns which the people made ;'
— but to Titus St. Paul commanded that he himself should be
irapexopevos rvirov, ' he should give a pattern' to the people ;
that is, the ministers of Christ must not be framed according to
the people's humor ; they must not give him rules, nor describe
his measures ; but he should be a rule to them : he is neither

142 JEREMY TAYLOR. — SERMON IX.
to live with them, so as to please their humors, or to preach
doctrines papula ut placerent, quas fecisset fabulas ;* but the
people are to require the doctrine at his mouth, and he is to
become exemplar to them, according to the pattern seen in the
mount, according to the laws of the religion and the example of
Christ. 5. It must be ev iraaiv : he must be a pattern ' in all things :'
it is not enough that the minister be a loving person, a good
neighborly man, that he be hospitable, that he be not litigious,
that he be harmless, and that he be diligent ; but in every grace
he must praferre facem, " hold a torch,'' and show himself a
light in all the commands of God. These are the measures of
-his holiness, the pattern in his life and conversation.
Secondly; integrity of doctrine. The matter of the doctrine
you are to preach, hath in it four qualifications.
1. It must be a.bia<fidopos, 'incorrupt;' that is, it must be
Kar avaXoyinv wttrrews, it must be ' according to the analogy
of faith,' no heretical mixtures, pure truths of God,
2. It must be aepvos, ' grave,' and clean, and chaste ; that
is, avev (jiXvapias, no vain and empty notions, little contentions,
and pitiful disputes ; but becoming the wisdom of the guide of
souls, and the ministers of Christ.
And, 3. It must be iiyt^s, ' sound speech;' so we read it:
the word properly signifies ' salutary' and ' wholesome;'
that is, such as is apt for edification, els oiKobopyv TriVrews mi
ayanris, ' for the building men up in a most holy faith, and a
more excellent charity ;' not feeding the people with husks and
draff, with colocynths and gourds, with gay tulips and useless
daffodils, but with the bread of life, and medicinal plants,
springing from the margin of the fountains of salvation. This
is the matter of their doctrine ; and this also hath some height
enings, and excellences, and extraordinaries : for,
4. It must be cucarayvwaTos, -so evidently demonstrated, that
' no man shall be able to reprove it ;' so certainly holy, that
no man shall be willing to condemn it.
And, 3. It must be a^Bapros,, ' sincere,' not polluted with
ioul intentions and little devices of secular interests, complying
* Terent. Andr. Prolog. 3.

THE minister's DUTY IN LIFE AND DOCTRINE. 143
with the lusts of the potent, or the humors of the time ; not
biassed by partiality, or bending in the flexures of human
policy : it must be so conducted that your very enemies, schism^
atics and heretics, and all sorts of gainsayers, may see that
you intend God's glory, and the good of souls ; and, therefore,
that as they can say nothing against the doctrine delivered, so
neither shall they find fault with him that delivers it : and he
that observes all this, will indeed be a pattern both of life and
doctrine, both of good words and good works.
But I shall not be so minute in my discourse, as in the di
vision ; the duties, and the manner or degrees of the duties, I
shall handle together, and give you the best measures I can,
both for institution of life and excellency of doctrine : — it is
required of every one of you, that in all things you show your
selves a pattern of good works.
That is the first thing required in a minister : and this is, on
infinite accounts, necessary : 1. in general : 2. in particular,
I, In general. The very first words of the whole Psalter are
an argument of this necessity : ' Blessed is the man that walk-
eth not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way
of sinners, nor sitteth in the chair of the mockers,' the seat of
the scornful. The' doctor's chair or pulpit must have nothing
to do with the irrisores, that mock God, and mock the people;
he must neither walk with them, nor stand with them, nor sit
with them ; that is, he must '. have no fellowship with the un
fruitful workers of darkness, but rather reprove them ;' for they
that do preach one thing, and do another, Eire D''sS 'mockers;'
they destroy the benefit of the people, and diminish the bless
ings of God ; and, ' binding burdens on the people's shoulders
which they will not touch with the top of their finger,' they
secretly laugh and mock at the people, as at the asses of Is-
sachar, fit to be cozened into unnecessary burdens, Thesifi
words are greatly to be regarded : the primitive church would
admit no man to the superior orders of the clergy, unless, among
other prerequired dispositions, he could say all David's Psalter
by heart; and it was very well, besides many other reasons,
that they might in the front read their own duty, so wisely and
so mysteriously, by the Spirit of God, made preliminary to the
whole office.

144 JEREMY TAYLOR. — SERMON IX,
To the same purpose is that observation of St, Jerome made
concerning the vesting of the priests in the Levitical ministra
tions : the priest put on the humeral, beset with precious stones,
before he took the Xoyiov, or the rationale, on his breast, to
signify, that first the priest must be a shining light, resplendent
with good works, before he fed them with the yaXa Xoymv,
' the rational milk' of the word : concerning which symbolical
precept, you may please to read many excellent things to this
purpose, in St. Jerome's epistle to Fabiola, It will be more
useful for us to consider those severe words of David : ' But
unto the wicked God saith. What hast thou to do to declare my
statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth ?
seeing thou hatest instruction and casteth my words behind
thee,'* The words are a sad upbraiding to all ungodly mi
nisters, and they need no commentary ; for whatever their
office and employment be to teach God's people, yet, unless
they regard the commandments of God in their heart and prac
tice themselves, they have nothing to do with the word of God,
— they sin in taking the covenant, a testament of God, into
their mouth. God said to the sinner, yni}~\ ' Raschaah,' that is,
' to him that had sinned and had not repented of his sins;' so
the Chaldee paraphrase reads it ; Impio autem, qui non agit
pcenitentiam, et arat in prcevaricatione, dixit Deus. Indeed,
if none could be admitted to this ministry but those who had
never sinned, the harvest might be very great, but the laborers
would be extremely few, or rather none at all ; but, after re
pentance, they must be admitted, and not before ; Iniquitas oppi-
labitos eorum, ' iniquity shall stop their mouths,' saith David ;t-
that ought to silence them indeed : and this was David's care,
when he had fallen into the foul crimes of murder and adul
tery ; he knew himself unfit and unable, though he were a
prophet, to teach others the laws of God ; but when he prayed
to God to restore hira to a free spirit, he adds, ' Then will I
teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall be converted
unto thee '.'X till then it was to no purpose for him to preach.
' But thou, when thou art converted,' said Christ to Peter,
' strengthen the brethren.' .The primitive church had a degree
* Psal, 1. 16, 17. t Psal. cvii. 42. J Psal. li. 13.

146 JEREMY TAYLOR, — SERMON IX.
charges ; he cannot profit them, he is not useful els okobopriv\
he pulls down as fast, or faster, than he builds up. Talmud
absque opere tion est magnum Talmud, said the Jews' proverb :
" a good sermon without a good example is no very good ser
mon." For, besides that such a man is contemptible to his
people, contemptible, not only naturally, but by divine judg
ment ; (according to that of the prophet. Propter quod dedi vos
cantemptibiles omni populo, ' for this very reason I have made
you to be scorned in the eyes of all the people,'*) but besides
this, it is very considerable what St. Chrysostom says: Si
prcsdicas et nan facts, opus proponis tanquam impossibile, "he
that preaches mortification and lives voluptuously, propounds
the duty as if it were impossible :" for certainly, if it be good^
and if it be possible, a man will ask, why is it not done ? It i.s
easy for him that is well to give a sick man counsel : Verum
tu si hie esses, certe aliter sentires ; when it comes to be his
own case, when the sickness pinches, and when the belly calls for
meat, where 's the fine oration then ? Omnia quce vindicaris in
altera, tibi ipsi vehementer fugienda sunt : etenim non modo ac-
cusator, sed ne objurgator ferendus est is, qui, quod in altera vi-
tium reprehendit, in eo ipse deprehenditur : " whatsoever you
reprove in others, must be infinitely avoided by yourself ; for
no man will endure an accuser, no nor so much as a man to
chide, for that fault in which himself was taken. "f But if your
charges see you bear your sickness patiently, and your cross
nobly, and despise money generously, and forgive your enemy
bravely, and relieve the poor charitably, then he sees your doc
trine is tangible and material ; it is more than words, and he
loves you, and considers what you say. In the East the shep
herds used to go before their sheep, to which our blessed Sa
viour alludes, ' My sheep hear my voice and follow me :' but
our shepherds are forced to drive them, and affright them with
dogs and noises : it were better if themselves did go before.
2. A minister of an evil life cannot preach with that fervor and
efficacy, with that life and spirit, as a good man does ; for be
sides that he does not himself understand the secrets of religion,
and the private inducements of the Spirit, and the sweetness of
* Mai. ii. t Cic, in Verr. Act. ii. lib. 3.

THE minister's DUTY IN LIFE AND DOCTRINE. 147
internal joy, and the inexpre.ssible advantages of a holy peace ;
besides this, he cannot heartily speak all that he knows ; he
hath a clog at his foot, and a gag in his teeth ; there is a fear,
and there is a shame, and there is a guilt, and a secret willing
ness that the thing were not true ; and some little private arts
to lessen his own consent, and to take off the asperities and
consequent troubles of a clear conviction. To which if we add,
that there is a secret envy in all wicked men against the pros
perities of goodness ; and if I should say no more, this alone
were enough to silence a Boanerges, and to make his thunder
still and easy as an oaten pipe : Nonne id flagitium est, te aliis
consilium dare, for is sapere, tibi non posse auxiliari ? " That ^s
a burning shame and an intolerable wickedness, that a minister
shall be like Marcotis, or the statue of Mercury, show the way
to others, and himself stand still like a painted block ; to be
wise abroad, and a very fool in his own concerns, and unable
to do himself good." — Dicil Reslakis, orna teipsum, postea or
nate alios : " first trim thyself, and then adorn thy brother,"
said the rabbins: buteertain it is, he that cannot love to see
others better than himself, it cannot be that he should heartily
endeavor it.
Scilicet expecfas, ut tradat mater honestos,
Atque alios mores, quam quos habet? utile porro
Filiolam turpi vetulaj producere turpem.*
It is not to be expected that a diseased father should beget
wholesome children : like will come from like, whether the
principle be good or evil.
But, secondly ; for this is but the apxv wbivwv : this is but
the least evil ; there is yet much worse behind. A wicked
minister cannot with success and benefit pray for the people
of his charges ; and this is a great matter : for prayer is the
key of David, and God values it at so high a rate, that Christ
is made the prince of all intercession, and God hath appointed
angels to convey to his throne of grace the prayers of the
saints ; and he hath made prophets and priests, even the whole
clergy, the peculiar ministers of prayer: Orabit pro eo sacerdos ;
* Juvenal, vl. 206.

148 JEREMY TAYLOR. — SERMON IX.
" the priest shall pray for him ;" ' the priest shall make an atone
ment for his sin, and it shall be forgiven him.'* And God's
anger is no where more fiercely described, than when things
come to that pass that he will not hear the priest or prophet
praying for the people : ' Pray not thou for this people, nei
ther lift up prayer nor cry for them, neither make intercession
to me ; for behold mine anger and my fury shall be poured out
on this place. 't When the prayers of the gracious and accept
able persons, the presidents of prayer are forbidden, then
things are desperate ; it is a greater excommunication ; ' the
man sins a sin unto death ; and I say not that thou pray for
him, that sins unto death.' This, I say, is the priest's office ;
and if the people lose the benefit of this, they are undone.
To bishop Timothy, St. Paul gave it in charge, 'That sup
plications, and prayers, and intercessions, be made for all
men.' And St. James advised ' the sick to send for the elders
of the church,' (the bishops and priests,) ' and let them pray
over them,' and then ' their sins shall be forgiven them.'
But how ? that is supposed, the minister prays fervently, and
be a righteous man ; for ' the effectual fervent prayer of a
righteous man availeth much ;' it is promised on no other
terms. Qualis vir, talis oratio, is an old rule : " as is the man,
such is his prayer." — ' The prayer of the wicked is an abomi
nation to the Lord,' said Solomon ; he cannot prevail for him
self, much less for others. I remember that Bias being once
in a storm, and a company of villains, in the ship, being af
frighted, called on their gods for help ; Cavete, said he, ne vos
Dii interesse sentiant : " take heed lest the gods perceive you
to be here," lest we all perish for your sakes. And on surer
grounds it was that David said, ' If I regard iniquity in my
heart, the Lord will not hear my prayer.' And what then do
you think will be the event of those assemblies, where he that
presents the prayers of all the people, is hateful to God? will
God receive the oblation that is presented to him by an impure
hand ? The Levitical priests were commanded to wash before
they sacrificed :i and every man is commanded to repent before
* Lev. iv, 35. f Jer. vii. 16. 20.
I Exod. xxx. 40.

THE minister's DUTY IN LIFE AND DOCTRINE. 149
he prays; 'Myson, hast thou sinned, do so no more;' and
then, ' ask pardon for thy former fault.'* And can we hope that
the minister, who, ' with wrath and doubting,' and covetous
ness, presents the people's prayers, that ever those intercessions
shall pierce the clouds, and ascend to the mercy-seat, and de
scend with a blessing? Believe it not: a man that is ungra
cious in his life, can never be gracious in his office, and accept
able to God. We are abundantly taught this, by those excel
lent words of God, by the prophet Micah : ' The heads of Sion
judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and
the prophets thereof divine for money ; yet will they lean on
the Lord, and say, is not the Lord among us?'t As if God
had said, nothing is so presumptuous and unreasonable as to
lean on God, and think he will be among us, when the priests
and the prophets are covetous and wicked. No, he declares
it expressly, (v. 7.) ' Then shall the seers be ashamed, and
the diviners confounded ; yea, they shall all cover their lips ;
for there is no answer of God.' God will not answer ; for
sometimes the case is. so, that, 'though Noah, Daniel, and
Job were there,' God would not hear ; that is, when the people
are incorrigibly wicked, and the decree is irrevocably gone out
for judgment. But there are other times, in which the prayers
of innocent people, being presented by an ungracious minister
and intercessor, are very much hindered in prevailing. In
such cases, God is put to extraordinaries ; and Christ and
Christ's angels are then the suppletories, and, at the best, the
people's prayers go alone ; they want the assistance of the 'angel
of the church,' and they get no help or furtherance from him,
and probably very much hinderance ; according to that of St.
Gregory, Cum is qui displicet ad intercedendum mittitur,
irati animus ad deteriora provocatur. Alexander hated to see
Zercon, and, therefore, if he had interceded for Clytus, it would
but have hastened his death : a man's suit thrives the worse
for having a hated intercessor. If, therefore, he that robs a
church of a patin or a chalice, be a sacrilegious person, what
is he that steals from the church of God, so far as lies in him,
the fruit of all their holy prayers ; that corrupts the sacrifice,
* Ecclus. t cap. iii. 11.

150 JEREMY TAYLOR. — SERMON IX.
and puts coloquintida into the cups of salvation, and mingles
death in the pottage provided for the children and disciples of
the prophets? I can say no more, but to expostulate with them
in those upbraiding words of God, in the prophet : ' Do they
provoke me to auger ? saith the Lord : do they not provoke
themselves to the confusion of their own faces?'* Confimdentur
divini, et aperient vultus suas omnes .'f ' all such diviners shall
be confounded, and shall cover their faces in the day of sad
accounts.' Divini sunt, nan theologi: 'they are diviners, not
divines,' witches rather than prophets ; they are the sons of
Bosor, and have no portion in the economy of God. In short,
if so much holiness as I formerly described, be required of him
that is appointed to preach to others, to offer spiritual sacri
fices for the people, to bless the people, to divert judgments
from them, to deprecate the wrath of God, to make an atone
ment for them, and to reconcile them to the eternal mercy; —
certain it is, that though the sermons of a wicked minister may
do some good, not so much as they ought, but some they can ;
but the prayer of a wicked minister does no good at all ; it
provokes God to anger ; it is an abomination in his righteous
eyes. Thirdly, the ecclesiastical order is by Christ appointed to
minister his Holy Spirit to the people ; the priests, in baptism,
and the holy eucharist, and prayer, and intercession ; the
bishop, in all these, and in ordination besides, and in confirma
tion, and in solemn blessing: now then consider what will be
the event of this without effect : can he minister the Spirit,
from whom the Spirit of God is departed? And, therefore,
since all wickedness does ' grieve the Spirit of God,' and great
wickedness defiles his temples, and destroys them unto the
ground, and extinguishes the Spirit that drives iniquity away ;
— these persons are no longer spiritual men ; ' they are carnal,
and sold under sin,' and walk not in the Spirit; they are spi
ritual just as Simon Magus was a Christian, or as Judas was
an Apostle ; he had the name of it ; but what says the Scrip
ture ? ' He fell from it by transgression :' only this ; as he that is
baptised, has for ever a title to the promises, and a possibility
"* Jer. vii. 19. f Mic. iii. 7.

THE minister's DUTY IN LIFE AND DOCTRINE. 151
of repentance, and a right to restitution, until he renounces all,
and never will or can repent; so there is in all our holy orders
an indelible character, and they can, by a new life, be restored
to all their powers ; but, in the mean time, while they abide
in sin and carnality, the cloud is over the face of the sun, and
the Spirit of God appears not in a fiery tongue, that is, not in
material and active demonstrations ; and how far he will be
ministered by the offices of an unworthy man, we know not;
only by all that is said in Scripture we are made to fear, that
things will not be so well with the people, till the minister be
better ; only this we are sure of, that though one man may be
much the worse for another man's sin, yet, without his own
fault, no man shall perish; and God will do his work alone ;
and the Spirit of God, though he be ordinarily conveyed by
ecclesiastical ministries, yet he also comes irregularly, and in
ways of his own, and prevents the external rites, and prepos
sesses the hearts of his servants ; and the people also have so
much portion in the evangelical ministration, that if they be
holy, they shall receive the Holy Ghost in their hearts, and
will express him in their lives, and themselves also become
kings and priests unto God, while they are zealous of good
works. And to this purpose may the proverb of the Rabbins
be rightly understood. Major est qui respondit Amen, quam qui
benedicit ; "He that says Amen, is greater than he that
blesses or prays ;" meaning, if he heartily desires what the other
perfunctorily, and with his lips only utters, not praying with
his heart, and with the acceptabilities of a good life, the
Amen shall be more than all the prayer, and the people
shall prevail for themselves, when the priest could not; accord
ing to the saying of Midrasich Tehillim : — Quicunque dicit
Amen omnibus viribus suis, ei aperiuntur porta Paradisi,
sicut dictum est, ' et ingfedietur gens justa ;' "He that says
Amen with his whole power, to him the gates of Paradise
shall be open, according to that which is said, — ' and the righ
teous nation shall enter in.' " And this is excellently discoursed
of by St, Austin, Sacramentum gratia dat etiam Deus per
malos ; ipsam vero gratiam nan nisi per seipsum, vel per sanctos
suos; and, therefore, he gives remission of sins by himself, or
by the members of the Dove ; so that good men shall be sup-

152 JEREMY TAYLOR, — SERMON IX,
plied by God, But as this is an infinite comfort to the people,
so it is an intolerable shame to all wicked ministers: the benefit
which God intended to minister by them, the people shall have
without their help, and whether they will or no ; but because
the people get nothing by their ministration, or but very little,
the ministers shall never have their portion where the good
people shall inhabit to eternal ages : and I beseech you to con
sider what an infinite confusion that will be at the day of judg
ment, when they, to whom you have preached righteousness,
shall enter into everlasting glory, and you, who have preached
it, shall have the curse of Hanameel, and the reward of Ba
laam, ' the wages of unrighteousness.' But thus it was, when
the wise men asked the doctors where Christ should be born,
they told them right ; but the wise men went to Christ, and
found him ; and the doctors sat still, and went not.
Fourthly; consider, that every sin which is committed by a
minister of religion, is more than one, and it is as soon espied
too ; for more men look on the sun in an eclipse, than when he
is in his beauty : but every spot, I say, is greater, every mote
is a beam : it is not only made so, but it is so : it hath not the
excuses of the people, is not pitiable by the measures of their
infirmity : and, therefore, 1. it is reckoned in the accounts of ma
lice, never of ignorance : for ignorance itself, in them, is always
a double sin ; and, therefore, it is very remarkable, that when
God gave command to the Levitical priests to make atonement
for the sins of ignorance in the people, there is no mention Inade
of the priests' sin of ignorance ; God supposed no such thing
in them, and Moses did not mention it, and there was no provi
sion made in that case, as you may see at large in Levit. iv^
and Numb, xv.* But, 2. because every priest is a man also,
observe how his sin is described, Levit. iv. 3. ' If the priest
that is anointed do sin according to the sin of the people;' that
is, if he be so degenerate, and descend from the glory where
God hath placed him, and do sin after the manner of the people,
then he is to proceed to remedy: intimating that it is infinitely
besides expectation ; it is a strange thir.g, it is like a monstrous
production; it is unnatural that a priest should sin, according
* Vide Origen. Homil. ii. in Levit.

THE minister's duty IN LIFE AND DOCTRINE. 153
as the people do ; however, if he does, it is not connived at with
a sentence gentle, as that finds which is a sin of ignorance, or
the sin of the people: no, it is not; for it is always malice, it
is always uncharitableness ; for it brings mischief to their con
gregations, and contracts their blessings into little circuits, and
turns their bread into a stone, and their wine to vinegar : and
then, besides this, 3. it is also scandalous, and then it is infi
nitely against charity ; such ministers make the people of God
to sin, and that is against the nature of their office, and design
of their persons : God sent them to bring the people from sin,
and not to be like so many Jeroboams, the sons of Nebat, to
set forward the devil's kingdom, to make the people to trans
gress the covenant of their God : for they who live more by
example than by precept, will more easily follow the works of
their minister than the words of God; and few men will aspire
to be more righteous than their guide ; they thinkit well if they
be as he is : and hence it is no wonder that we see iniquity so
popular. Oppida tota canem venerantur, nemo Dianam ; *
every man runs after his lusts, and after his money, because
they see too many of the clergy little looking after the ways
of godliness. But then consider, let all such persons consider,
5. That the accounts, which an ungodly and an irreligious
minister of religion shall make, must needs be intolerable ;
when, besides the damnation which shall certainly be inflicted
on them for the sins of their own lives, they shall also reckon
for all the dishonors they do to God and to religion, and for
all the sins of the people, which they did not, in all just ways,
endeavor to hinder, and all the sins which their flocks have com
mitted by their evil example and undisciplined lives.
6. I have but two words more to say in this affair : Every
minister that lives an evil life, is that person whom our blessed
Saviour means under the odious appellative of a ' hireling;' for
he is not the hireling that receives wages, or that lives of the
altar : sine farina non est lex, said the doctors of the Jews ;
'without bread-corn no man can preach the law:' and St.
Paul, though he spared the Corinthians, yet he took wages of
other churches, of all, but in the regions of Achaia; and the
* Juv. XV. 8. Rupert.

154 JEREMY TAYLOR. — SERMON IX.
law of nature and the law of the gospel have taken tare, that
' he that serves at the altar should live of the altar ;' and he
is no hireling for all that ; but he is a hireling that does not do
his duty; he that ' flies when the wolf comes,' says Christ,
he that is not present with them in dangers, that helps them
not to resist the devil, to master their temptations, to invite
them on to piety, to gain souls to Christ ; to him it may be
said, as the -Apostle did of the Gnostics, euo-c/Beia ean Troptaptos,
' Gain to them is godliness;' and theology is but artificium
oenale, a trade of life, to fill the belly, and keep the body
warm. An cuiquam licere putas, quod cuivis non licet? " Is
any thing lawful for thee, that is not lawful for every man?"
and if thou dost not mind, in thy own case, whether it be
lawful or no, then thou dost but sell sermons, and give counsel
at a price, and, like a fly in the temple, taste of every sacrifice,
but do nothing but trouble the religious rites : for certain it is,
no man takes on him this office, but he ' either seeks those
things which are his own, or those things which are Jesus
Christ's ; ' and if he does this, 'he is a minister of Jesus
Christ ;' if he does the other, he is ' the hireling,' and intends
nothing but his belly, and ' God shall destroy both it and
him.' 7. Lastly ; these things I have said unto you, that ye sin
not : but this is not the great thing here intended ; you may
be innocent, and yet not ' zealous of good works;' but if you
be not this, you are not good ministers of Jesus Christ: but,
that this is infinitely your duty, and indispensably incum
bent on you all, besides the express words of my text, and all
the precepts of Christ and his Apostles, we have the concurrent
sense of the whole church, the laws and expectations of all the
worid, requiring of the clergy a great and an exemplar sanctity;
for, therefore it is, that, on this necessity, is founded the
doctrine of all divines in their discourses of the states and
orders of religion ; of which you may largely inform yourselves
in Gerson's treatise De Perfectione Religionis, in Aquinas,*
and in all his scholars on that question ; the sum of which is
this, that all those institutions of religions, which St. Anselm
* 22 q. 184.

THE minister's DUTY IN LIFE AND DOCTRINE. 155
calls factititts religiones, that is, the schools of discipline in
which men, forsaking the world, give themselves up wholly to
a pious life, they are indeed very excellent if rightly performed ;
they are statts perfectionis acquirendcs, they are excellent in
stitutions " for the acquiring perfection ;" but the state of the
superior clergy is status pei'fectionis exercendcB, they are states
which suppose perfection to be already in great measures ac
quired, and then to be exercised, not only in their own lives,
but in the whole economy of their office : and, therefore, as
none are to be chosen but those who have given themselves up
to the strictness of a holy life, — so far as can be known ; so
none do their duty, so much as tolerably, but those who, by an
exemplar sanctity, become patterns to their flocks of all good
works. Herod's doves could never have invited so many
strangers to their dove-cotes, if they had not been besmeared
with opobalsamum : but eav pvpu xp'"'1* ''"* irepiarepus, Kal
e^<i)Bev aWas iifovaiv, said Didymus ;* "Make your pigeons
smell sweet, and they will allure whole flocks ;'' and if your life
be excellent, if your virtues be like a precious ointment, you
will soon invite your charges to run in adorem unguentorum,
" after your precious odors:" but you must be excellent, not
tanquam unus de papula, but tanquam homo Dei; you inust
be a man of God, not after the common manner of men, but
' after God's own heart;' and men will strive to be like you, if
you be like to God : but when you only stand at the door of
virtue, for nothing but to keep sin oot, you will draw into the
folds of Christ none but such as fear drives in. Ad majarem
Dei gloriam, " to do what will most glorify God," that is the
line you must walk by : for to do no more than all men needs
must, is servility, not so much as the affection of sons; much
less can you be fathers to the people, when you go not so far
as the sons of God : for a dark lantern, though there be a weak
brightness on one side, will scarce enlighten one, much less
will it conduct a multitude, or allure many followers, by the
brightness of its flame. And indeed, the duty appears in this,
that many things are lawful for the people, which are scandal
ous in the clergy : you are tied to more abstinences, to more
* Geoponic. lib. 14.

156 JEREMY TAYLOR. — SERMON IX.
severities, to more renunciations and self-denials : you may not
with that freedom receive secular contentments that others
may ; you must spend more time in prayers, your alms must
be more bountiful, your hands more open, yoUr hearts en
larged: others must relieve the poor, you must take care of
them ; others must show themselves their brethren, but you
must be their fathers ; they must pray frequently and fervently,
but you must give your ' selves up wholly to the word of God
and prayer;' they must ' watch and pray, that they fall not
into temptation,' but you must watch for yourselves and
others too; the people must mourn when they sin, but you
must mourn for your own infirmities, and for the sins of others ;
and indeed, if the life of a clergyman does not exceed even the
piety of the people, that life is, in some measure, scandalous:
and what shame was ever greater than is described in the pa
rable of the traveller going from Jerusalem to Jericho, when, to
the eternal dishonor of the Levite and the priest, it is told that
they went aside, and saw him with a wry neck and a bended
head, but let him alone, and left him to be cured by the good
Samaritan ? The primitive church in her discipline used to
thrust their delinquent clergy in laicam communianem, even
then when their faults were but small, and of less reproach
than to deserve greater censures ; yet they lessened them by
thrusting them " into the lay communion," as most fit for such
ministers who refused to live at the height of sacerdotal piety.
Remember your dignity, to which Christ hath called you :
'Shall such a man as I flee?' said the brave Eleazar : shall
the stars be darkness, shall the ambassadors of Christ neglect
to do their king honor, shall the glory of Christ do disho
norable and inglorious actions ? ' Ye are the glory of Christ,'
saith St. Paul; remember that, — lean say no greater thing ;
unless possibly this may add some moments for your care and
caution, that potentes patenter cruciabuntur, " great men shall
be greatly tormented," if they sin ; and to fall from a great
height is an intolerable ruin. Severe were the words of our
blessed Saviour, ' Ye are the salt of the earth ; if the salt have
lost his savor, it is thenceforth good for nothing, neither for
land, nor yet for the dunghill :' a greater dishonor could not
be expressed ; he that takes such a one up, will shake his

THE minister's DUTY IN LIFE AND DOCTRINE. 157
fingers. I end this with the saying of St. Austin, " Let your
religious prudence think, that, in the world, especially at this.
time, nothing is more laborious, more difficult, or more dan
gerous, than the office of a bishop, or a priest, or a deacon ;"
sed apud Deum nihil beatius, si eo modo militetiir qua noster
imperator jubet : " but nothing is more blessed, if we do oiir
duty according to the commandment of our Lord."*
I have always discoursed of the integrity of life, and what
great necessity t'nere is, and how deep obligations lie on you,
not onlv to be innocent and void of offence, but also to be
holy ; not only pure, but shining ; not only to be blameless,
but to be didactic in your lives ; that as, by your sermons,
you preach in season, so, by your lives, you may preach out
of season; that is, at all seasons, and to all men, that they,
' seeing your good works, may glorify God' on your behalf,
and on their own.

SERMON IX.

PART II,

II. Now, by the order of the words, and my own undertaking,
I am to tell you what are the rules and measures of your doe-
trine, which you are to teach the people.
I, Be sure that you teach nothing to the people but what is
certainly to be found in Scripture : Servemus eas mensuras,
quas nobis per legislatorem lex spiritualis enunciat ; ' ' The
whole spiritual law given us by our lawgiver, that must be our
measures;"! for, though by persuasion and by faith, by mis-
persuasion and by error, by false commentaries and mistaken
glosses, every man may become a law unto himself, and un
happily bind on his conscience burdens which Christ never im-
* Epist. 148. t Origen,

158 "^JEREMY TAYLOR, — SERMON IX.
posed ; yet you must bind nothing on your charges but what
God hath bound on you; you cannot become a law unto them ;
that is the only privilege of the lawgiver, who, because he was
an interpreter of the divine will, might become a law unto us;
and because he was faithful in all the house, did tell us all his
Father's will ; and, therefore, nothing can be God's law to us,
but what he hath taught us. But of this I shall need to say no
more but the words of Tertullian ; Nobis nihil licet ex nostra
arbitria indulgere, sed nee eligere aliquid, quod de suo arbitrio
aliquis induxerit : apostolos Domini habemus auciares, qui nee
ipsi quicquam de suo arbitrio quod inducerent elegerunt, sedac-
ceptam a Christo disciplinam fideliter nationibus assignarunt."
Whatsoever is not in and taken from, the Scriptures, is from a
private spirit, and that is against Scripture certainly ; ' for no
Scripture is Iblas e:TriXvae(i)s,' saith St. Peter ; it is not, it can
not be, ' of private interpretation;' that is, unless it come from
the Spirit of God, which is that Spirit that moved on the
waters of the new creation as well as of the old, and was pro
mised to all, ' to you, and to your children, and to as many as
the Lord our God shall call,' and is bestowed on all, and is the
earnest of all our inheritance, and is ' given to every man to
profit withal ;' — it cannot prove God to be the author, nor be a
light to us to walk by, or to show others the way to heaven.
This rule were alone sufficient to guide us all in the whole
economy of our calling, if we were not weak and wilful, igno
rant and abused : but the holy Scripture hath suffered so many
interpretations, and various sounds and seemings, and we are
so prepossessed and predetermined to misconstruction by false
Apostles without and prevailing passions within, that though it
be in itself sufficient, yet it is not so for us; and we may say
with the eunuch, ' IJow can I understand, unless some man
should guide me ?' And, indeed, in St. Paul's epistles, ' there
are many things hard to be understood;' and, in many other
places, we find that the well is deep ; and unless there be some
to help us to draw out the latent senses of it, our souls will not
be filled with the waters of salvation. Therefore, that I may
do you what assistances I can, and, if I cannot, in this small
* Contrahaeres.

THE minister's DUTY IN LIFE AND DOCTRINE, 130
portion of time, instruct you, yet that 1 may counsel you, and
remind you of the best assistances that are to be had ; if J
cannot give you rules sufficient to expound all hard places, yet
that I may show how you shall sufficiently teach your people,
by the rare rules and precepts, recorded in places that are,
or may be made, easy; — I shall first give you some advices
in general, and then descend to more particular rules and
measures. 1. Because it is not to be expected, that every minister of the
Word of God should have all the gifts of the Spirit, and every
one to abound in tongues, and in doctrines, and in interpreta
tions ; you may, therefore, make great use of the labors of
those worthy persons, whom God hath made to be lights in the
several generations of the world, that a hand may help a hand,
and a father may teach a brother, and we all be taught of God ;
for there are many who have, by great skill and great experi
ence, taught as many good rules for the interpretation of Scrip
ture ; amongst which those that I shall principally recommend
to you, are the books of St. Austin, De Utilitate Credendi,
and his 3d lib. De Doctrina Christiana; the Synopsis of
Athanasius ; the Proems of Isidore ; the Prologues of St.
Jerome. I might well add the Scholia of fficumenius ; the
Catenae of the Greek fathers ; and of later times, the ordi
nary and interlineary glosses ; the excellent book of Hugo de
S. Victore, De Eruditiane Didascalica; Ars interpretandi
Scripturas, by Sixtus Senensis ; Serarius's Prolegomena ;
Tena's Introduction to the Scriptures ; together with Lau-
rentius e Villa- Vincentio, Andreas Hyperius De Ratiane Studii
Philasophici, and the Hypotyposes of Martinus (jantapra-
tensis. Arias Montanus's Joseph, or De Arcana Sermane, is
of another nature, and more fit for preachers ; and so is
Sanctes Paguin's Isagoge ; but Ambrosius Catharinus's book
Duarum Clavium ad Sacram Scripturam is useful to many
good purposes : but more particularly, and I think more use
fully, are those seven rules of interpreting Scriptures, written
by Tichonius, and first made famous by St. Austin's commen
dation of them, and inserted in tom. v. of the Biblioth. SS.
PP. — Sebastian Perez wrote thirty-five rules for the interpre
tation of Scripture ; Franeiscus Ruiz drew from the ancient fa-

160 JEREMY TAYLOR. — SERMON IX.
thers two hundred and thirty-four rules : besides those many
learned persons who have written vocabularies, tropologies,
and expositions of words and phrases ; such as are Flacius II-
lyrieus, Junius, Jerome Lauretus, and many others, not infre
quent in all public libraries. But I remember, that he that
gives advice to a sick man in Ireland to cure bis sickness, must
tell him of medicaments that are facile parabilia, " easy to be
had," and cheap to be bought, or else his counsel will not profit
him ; and even of these God hath made good provision for us ;
for, although many precious things are reserved for them that
dig deep and search wisely, yet there are medicinal plants,
and corn and grass, things fit for food and physic, to be had in
every field.
And so it is in the interpretation of Scripture : there are
ways of doing it well and wisely, without the too laborious
methods of weary learning, that even the meanest laborers in
God's vineyard may have that which is fit to minister to him
that needs. Therefore,
2. In all the interpretations of Scripture, the literal sense is
to be presumed and chosen, unless there be evident cause to
the contrary. The reasons are plain ; because the literal sense
is natural, and it is first, and it is most agreeable to some
things, in their whole kind; not indeed to prophecies, nor to
the teachings of the learned, nor those cryptic ways of institution
by which the ancients did hide a light, and keep it in a dark
lantern from the temeration of ruder handlings, and popular
preachers : but the literal sense is agreeable to laws, to the
publication of commands, to the revelation of the divine will,
to the concerns of the vulgar, to the foundations of faith, and
to all the notice of things, in which the idiot is as much con
cerned as the greatest clerks. From which proposition, these
three corollaries will properly follow : 1. that God hath plainly
and literally described all his will, both in belief and practice,
in which our essential duty, the duty of all men, is concerned:
2. that in plain expressions we are to look for our duty, and
not in the more secret places and darker cornersof the Scripture :
3. that you may regularly, certainly, and easily do your duty
to the people, if you read and literally expound the plain
sayings, and easily expressed commandments, and promises,

THE minister's DUTY IN LIFE AND DOCTRINE. 161
and threatenings of the gospel, and the Psalms, and the
prophets. 3. But then remember this also ; that not only the gramma
tical or prime signification of the word is the literal sense ; but
whatsoever is the prime intention of the speaker, that is the
literal sense; though the word be to be taken metaphorically,
or by translation signify more things than one. ' The eyes of
the Lord are over the righteous ;' this is literally true ; and yet
it is as true, that God hath no eyes properly; but by 'eyes'
are meant, God's Providence ; and, though this be not the
first literal sense of the word ' eyes,' it is not that which was
at first imposed and contingently ; but it is that signification
which was secondarily imposed, and by reason and proportion.
Thus, when we say, ' God cares for the righteous,' it will
not suppose that God can have any anxiety or afflictive
thoughts ; but ' he cares' does as truly and properly signify pro
vision, as caution ; beneficence, as fear ; and therefore the lite
ral sense of it is, that ' God provides good things for the
righteous.' For in this case the rule of Abulensis is very true ;
sensus literalis semper est verus ; " the literal sense is always
true ;" that is, all that is true, which the Spirit of God intended
to signify by the words, whether he intended' the first or second
signification ; whether that of voluntary and contingent, or that
of analogical and rational institution. ' Other sheep have I,'
said Christ, ' which are not of this fold :' that he did not mean
this of the pecus lanigerum, is notorious ; but of the Gentiles to
be gathered into the privileges and fold of Israel : for in many
cases, the first literal sense is the hardest, and sometimes im
possible, and sometimes inconvenient : and when it is any of
these, although we are not to recede from the literal sense ; yet
we are to take the second signification, the tropologieal or figu
rative. ' If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out,' said Christ:
and yet no man digs his eyes out ; because the very letter or
intention of this command bids us only to throw away that,
which, if we keep, we cannot avoid sin : for sometimes the let
ter tells the intention, and sometimes the intention declares the
letter ; and that is properly the literal sense, which is the first
meaning of the command in the whole complexion : and in this,
common sense, and a vulgar reason, will be a sufficient guide,

162 JEREMY TAYLOR.—SERMON IX.
because there is always some other thing spoken by God, or
some principle naturally implanted in us, by which we are se
cured in the understanding of the divine command. ' He that
does not hate father and mother for my sake is not worthy of
me :' the literal sense of ' hating' used in Scripture is not al
ways ' malice,' but sometimes a ' less loving ;' and so Christ
also hath expounded it : ' He that loves father or mother more
than me, is not worthy of me.' — But I shall not insist longer
on this : he that understands nothing but his grammar, and hath
not conversed with men and books, and ean seeno farther than
his fingers' ends, and makes no use of his reason, but for ever
will be a child ; he may be deceived in the literal sense of
Scripture ; but then he is not fit to teach others : but he that
knows words signify rhetorically as well as grammatically,
and have various proper significations,* and which of these is
the first is not always of itself easy to be told ; and remembers
also that God hath given him reason, and observation, and ex
perience, and conversation with wise men, and the proportion
of things, and the end of the command, and parallel places of
Scripture in other words to the same purpose ; — will conclude,
that since, in plain places, all the duty of man is contained,
and that the literal sense is always true, and, unless men be
wilful or unfortunate, they may, with a small proportion of
learning, find out the literal sense of an easy moral proposition ;
— will, I say, conclude, that if we be deceived, the fault is our
own ; but the fault is so great, the man so supine, the negli
gence so inexcusable, that the very consideration of human in
firmity is not sufficient to excuse such teachers of others, who
hallucinate or prevaricate in this. The Anthropomorphites
fell foully in this matter, and supposed God to have a face, and
arms, and passions, as we have ; but they prevailed not : and
Origen was, in one instance, greatly mistaken, and thinking-
there was no literal meaning but the prime signification of the
word, understood the word eiivovxHen', " to make an eunuch,''
to his own prejudice; but that passed not into a doctrine: -but
the church of Rome hath erred greatly in pertinacious adhering,
not to the letter, but to the grammar ; nor to that, but in one
' Verba non sono, sed sensu sapiunt. — Hilar.

THE minister's DUTY IN LIFE AND DOCTRINE. 163
line or signification of it : and Hoc est corpus meum must signify
nothing but grammatically ; and though it be not, by their own
confessions, to be understood without divers figures in the whole
complexion, yet, peevishly and perversely, they will take it by
the wrong handle ; and this they have passed into a doctrine,
that is against sense, and reason, and experience, and Scripture,
and tradition, and the common interpretation of things, and
public peace and utility, and every thing by which mankind
ought to be governed and determined.
4. I am to add this one thing more : that we admit in the
interpretation of Scripture but one literal sense; I say, but one
prime literal sense ; for the simplicity and purity of the Spirit,
and the philanthropy of God, will not admit that there should,
in one single proposition, be many intricate meanings, or that
his sense should not certainly be understood, or that the people
be abused by equivocal and doubtful senses ; this was the way
of Jupiter in the sands, and Apollo Pythius, and the devil's
oracles : but be it far from the wisdom of the Spirit of God.
5. But then take in this caution to it ; that although there be
but one principal literal sense, yet others, that are subordinate,
maybe intended subordinately; and others, that are true by
proportion, or that first intention, may be true for many rea
sons, and every reason applicable to a special instance ; and
all these may be intended as they signify, that is, one only by
prime design, and the other by collateral consequence. Thus,
when it is said, ' Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten
thee;' the Psalmist means it of the eternal generation of
Christ : others seem to apply it to his birth of the blessed Vir
gin Mary ; and St. Paul expounds it of the resurrection of
Christ.* This is all true; and yet but one literal sense primely
meant : but by proportion to the first, the others have their
place, and are meant by way of similitude. Thus *e are the
sons of God, by adoption, by creation, by favor, by participa
tion of the Spirit, by the laver of regeneration ; and ^very man,
for one or other of these reasons, can say, ' Our Father, which
art in heaven ;' and these are all parts of the literal sense, not
different, but subordinate and by participation : but more than
one prime literal sense must not be admitted.
» Heb. i. 5.

164 JEREMY TAYLOR. — SERMON IX.
6. Lastly, sometimes the literal sense is lost by a plain
change of the words; which when it is discovered, it must be
corrected by the fountain ; and till it be, so long as it is pious,
and commonly received, it may be used without scruple. In
the 41st Psalm the Hebrews read, ' My soul hath longed after
the strong, the living God ;' Deum fartem, vivum : in the
vulgar Latin it is, Deum, fantem vivum, ' the living fountain ;'
and it was very well, but not the literal sense of God's Spirit :
but when they have been so often warned of it, that they were
still in love with their own letter, and leave the words of the
Spirit, I think was not justifiable at all: and this was observed
at last by Sixtus and Clement, and corrected in their editions
of the Bible, and then it came right again. The sum is this :
he that, with this moderation and these measures, construes the
plain meaning of the Spirit of God, and expounds the articles
of faith, and the precepts of life, according to the intention of
.,God, signified by his own words, in their first or second signifi
cation, cannot easily be cozened into any heretical doctrine ;
but his doctrine will be abia^Bopos, the pure word and mind
of God.
II. There is another sense or interpretation of Scripture, and
that is mystical or spiritual ; which the Jews call tfllQ ' m'd-
rash;' which Elias the Levite calls omne commentarium, quod
non estjuxta simplicem et liter alem sensum; " every gloss that
is not according to their /It^E) ' peschat,' to the literal sense ;"
and this relates principally to the Old Testament: thus the
waters of the deluge did signify the waters of baptism ; Sarah
and Agar, the law and the gospel ; the brazen serpent, the
passion of Christ; the conjunction of Adam and Eve, the com
munion of Christ and his church ; and this is called the spiritual
sense, St.Paul being our warrant; 'Our fathers ate of the
same spiritual meat, and drank of that same spiritual rock :'
now that rock was not spiritual, but of solid stone ; but it sig
nified spiritually : for ' that rock was Christ.' This sense the
doctors divide into tropologieal, allegorical, and anagogical, —
for method's sake, and either to distinguish the things, or to
amuse the persons : for these relate but to the several spiritual
things signified by divers places ; as matters of faith, precepts
of manners, and celestial joys : you may make more if you

THE minister's DUTY IN LIFE AND DOCTRINE. 165
please, and yet these are too many to trouble men's heads, and
to make theology an art and craft, to no purpose. This spi
ritual sense is that which the Greeks call vwvvotav, or " the
sense that lies under the cover of words :" concerning this I
shall give you these short rules, that your doctrine be abtacpBo-
pos, pure and without heretical mixtures, and the leaven of false
doctrines ; for, above all things, this is to be taken care of.
1. Although everyplace of Scripture hath a literal sense,
either proper or figurative, yet every one hath not a spiritual
and mystical interpretation ; and therefore Origen was blamed
by the ancients for forming all into spirit and mystery : one
place was reserved to punish that folly. Thus the followers
of the family of love, and the quakers, expound all the articles
of our faith, all the hopes of a Christian, all the stories of
Christ, into such a elaneular and retired sense, as if they had
no meaning by the letter, but were only an hieroglyphic or a
Pythagorean scheme, and not to be opened but by a private
key, which every man pretends to be borrowed from the Spirit
of God, though made in the forges here below : to which pur
poses the epistles of St. Jerome to Avitus, to Pammachius and
Oceanus, are worth your reading. In this case men do as he
said of Origen, Ingenii sui aeumina putant esse ecclesice sacra-
menta: "every body believes God meant as he intended, and
so he will obtrude his own dreams instead of sacraments."
Therefore, 2. Whoever will draw spiritual senses from any history of
the Old or New Testament, must first allow the literal sense,
or else he will soon deny an article of necessary belief. A
story is never the less true, because it is intended to profit as
well as to please ; and the narrative may well establish or insi
nuate a precept, and instruct with pleasure : but if, because
there is a jewel in the golden cabinet, you will throw away the
enclosure, and deny the story, that you may look out a mystical
sense, we shall leave it arbitrary for any man to believe or dis
believe what story he please ; and Eve shall not be made of
the rib of Adam, and the garden of Eden shall be no more
than the Hesperides, and the story of Jonas a well-dressed
fable : and I have seen all the Revelation of St. John turned
into a moral commentary, in which every person can signify

166 JEREMY TAYLOR, — SERMON IX.
any proposition, or any virtue, according as his fancy chimes.
This is too much, and, therefore, comes not from a good prin
ciple. 3. In moral precepts, in rules of polity and economy, there
is no other sense to be inquired after but what they bear on the
face ; for he that thinks it necessary to turn them into some
farther spiritual meaning, supposes that it is a disparagement
to the Spirit of God to take care of governments, or that
the duties of princes and ministers are no great concerns, or
not operative to eternal felicity, or that God does not pro
vide for temporal advantages; for if these things be worthy
concerns, and if God hath taken care of all our good, and
if 'godliness be profitable to all things, and hath the pro
mise of the life that now is, and that which is to come,'
there is no necessity to pass on to more abstruse senses, when
the literal and proper hath also in it instrumentality enough
towards very great spiritual purposes. ' God takes care'
for servants, yea, ' for oxen,' and all the beasts of the field;
and the letter of the command enjoining us to use them with
mercy, hath in it an advantage even on the spirit and whole
frame of a man's soul ; and, therefore, let no man tear those
Scriptures to other meanings beyond their own intentions and
provisions. In these eases a spiritual sense is not to be inquired
after. ,
4. If the letter of the story infers any indecency or contra
diction, then it is necessary that a spiritual or mystical sense
be thought of; but never else is it necessary. It may in other
cases be useful, when it does advantage to holiness ; and may
be safely used, if used modestly : but because this spiritual or
mystical interpretation, when it is not necessary, cannot be cer
tainly proved, but relies on fancy, or at most some light in
ducement, no such interpretation can be used as an argument
to prove an article of faith, nor relied on in matters of necessary
concern. The ' three measures of meal,' in the gospel, are
but an ill argument to prove the blessed and eternal Trinity :
and it may be, the three angels that came to Abraham, will
signify no more than the two that came to Lot, or the single
one to Manoah or St. John. This divine mystery relies on a
more sure foundation ; and he makes it unsure, that causes it

THE minister's DUTY IN LIFE AND DOCTRINE. 167
to lean on an unexpounded vision, that was sent to other pur
poses. Non esse contentiasis etinfidelibussensibusingerendum,
said St. Austin of the book of Genesis. Searching for articles
of faith in the by-paths and corners of secret places, leads not
to faith but to infidelity; and, by making the foundations unsure,
causes the articles to be questioned.
I remember that Agrieola, in his book De Animalibus Sub-
tcrraneis, tells of a certain kind of spirits that use to converse
in mines, and trouble the poor laborers: they dig metals, they
cleanse, they east, they melt, they separate, they join the ore;
but when they are gone, the men find just nothing done, not
one step of their work set forward. So it is in the books and
expositions of many men : they study, they argue, they ex
pound, they confute, they reprove, they open secrets, and make
new discoveries ; and when you turn the bottom upwards, up
starts nothing ; no man is the wiser, no man is instructed, no
truth discovered, no proposition cleared, nothing is altered,
but that much labor and much time is lost : and this is manifest
in nothing more than in books of controversy, and in mystical
expositions of Scripture : Quarunt quod nusquam est, inveniunt
tamen. Like Isidore, who, in contemplation of a pen, ob
served that the nib of it was divided into two, but yet the whole
body remained one. Credo propter mysterium:* he found a
knack in it, and thought it was a mystery. Concerning which
I shall need to say no more, but that they are safe when they
are necessary, and they are useful when they teach better, and
they are good when they do good ; but this is so seldom, and
so by chance, that oftentimes, if a man be taught truth, he is
taught it by a lying master ; it is like being cured by a good
witch, an evil spirit hath a hand in it; and if there be not
error and illusion in such interpretations, there is very seldom
any certainty,
* What shall I do to my vineyard ?' said God. Auferam
sepem ejus : ' I will take away the hedge :'t that is, custadiam
angelorum, saith the gloss, ' the custody of their angel guar
dians.' And God says, Manasseh humeras suos comedit ;
' Manasseh hath devoured his own shoulders ;'| that is, guber-
* Isid. Orig. lib. vi. c. 14. f Isaiah, v. 5. | Isaiah, ix. 20.

163 JEREMY TAYLOR. — SERMON IX.
natores dimovit, say the doctors, ' hath removed his governors,'
his princes, and his priests. It is a sad complaint 'tis true, but
what it means is the question. But although these senses are
pious, and may be used for illustration and the prettiness of
discourse, yet there is no further certainty in them than what
the one fancies, and the other is pleased to allow. But if the
spiritual sense be proved evident and certain, then it is of the
same efficacy as the literal ; for it is according to that letter by
which God's Holy Spirit was pleased to signify his meaning ;
and it matters not how he is pleased to speak, so we understand
his meaning. And, in this sense, that is true which is affirmed
by St. Gregory: Allegoriam interdum cedificare fidem : "some
times our faith is built up by the mystical words of the Spirit of
God." But because it seldom happens that they can be proved,
therefore you are not to feed your flocks with such herbs whose
virtue you know not, of whose wholesomeness or powers of
nourishing you are wholly, or for the most part, ignorant. We
have seen and felt the mischief, and sometimes derided the ab
surdity. ' God created the sun and the moon,' said Moses;
that is, said the extravagants of Pope Boniface VIII., "the
pope and the emperor." And ' Behold here are two swords,'
said St. Peter : 'It is enough,' said Christ; enough for St.
Peter ; and so he got the two swords, the temporal and spi
ritual, said the gloss on that text. Of these things there is no
beginning and no end, no certain principles and no good con
clusion. These are the two ways of expounding all Scriptures ; these
are as " the two witnesses of God ;" by the first of which he does
most commonly, and by the latter of which he does sometimes
declare his meaning : and in the discovery of these meanings,
the measures which I have now given you are the general land
marks, and are sufficient to guide us from destructive errors. It
follows, in the next place, that I give you some rules that are more
particular, according to my undertaking, that you in your duty,
and your charges in the provisions to be made for them, may be
more secure.
1. Although you are to teach your people nothing but what
is the word of God, yet by this word I understand all that God
spake expressly, and all that by certain consequence can be

THE MINISTERS DUTY IN LIFE AND DOCTRINE, 169
deduced from it. Thus Dionysius Alexandrinus argues, eyvuv
OTt vlos Kai Xoyos ov ^evos av e'iri rfis ovaias tov Trarpos' " He that
in Scripture is called the Son and the Word of the Father, I
conclude he is no stranger to the essence of the Father." And
St, Ambrose derided them that called for express Scripture for
opooiaios, since the prophets and the gospels acknowlege the
unity of substance in the Father and the Son ; and we easily
conclude the Holy Ghost to be God, because we call on him ;
and we call on him because we believe in him ; and we believe
in him because we are baptised into the faith and profession of
the Holy Ghost. This way of teaching our blessed Saviour
used, when he confuted the Sadducees, in the question of the
resurrection ; and thus he confuted the Pharisees, in the ques
tion of his being the Son of God,* The use I make of it is this ;
that right reason is so far from being an exile from the inquiries
of religion, that it is the great ensurance of many propositions
of faith ; and we have seen the faith of men strangely alter, but
the reason of man can never alter, every rational truth supposing
its principles being eternal and unchangeable. All that is to be
done here is to see that you argue well, that your deduction be
evident, that your reason be right : for Scripture is to our un
derstandings, as the grace of God to our wills ; that instructs
our reason, and this helps our wills; and we may as well choose
the things of God without our wills, and delight in them with
out love, as understand the Scriptures or make use of them
without reason.
Quest. But how shall our reason be guided that it may be
right, that it be not a blind guide, but direct us to the place
where the star appears, and point us to the very house where
the babe lieth, that we may indeed do as the wise men did ?
To this I answer :
2. In the making deductions, the first great measure to direct
our reason and our inquiries is the analogy of faith ; that is, let
the fundamentals of faith be your cynosura, your great light to
walk by ; and whatever you derive from thence, let it be agree
able to the principles from whence they come. It is the rule
of St. Paul, Ilpo(^r]Tevii>v /far' avaXoyiav iriaTems, ' Let hira that
» John, X. 37.
TAY. VOL. IV, H

170 JEREMY TAYLOR, — SERMON IX.
prophesies, do it according to the proportion of faith ;'"* that is,
let him teach nothing but what is revealed, or agreeable to the
avToniaTa, " the prime credibilities," of Christianity ; that is, by
the plain words of Scripture let him expound the less plain,
and the superstructure by the measures of the foundation, and
doctrines be answerable to faith, and speculations relating to
practice, and nothing taught, as simply necessary to be believed,
but what is evidently and plainly set down in the holy Scrip-
tures; for he that calls a proposition necessary, which the
Apostles did not declare to be so, or which they did not teach
to all Christians, learned and unlearned, he is gone beyond his
proportions ; for every thing is to be kept in that order where
God hath placed it. There is a classis of necessary articles,
and that is the Apostles' creed, which Tertullian calls regulam
fidei, " the rule of faith ;" and according to this we must teach
necessities : but what comes after this is not so necessary ; and
he that puts on his own doctrines a weight equal to this of the
Apostles' declaration, either must have an apostolical autho
rity, and an apostolical infallibility, or else he transgresses pro
portion of faith, and becomes a false Apostle.
3. To this purpose it is necessary that you be very diligent
in reading, laborious and assiduous in the studies of Scripture;
not only lest ye be blind seers and blind guides, but because,
M ithout great skill and learning, ye cannot do your duty. A
minister may as well sin by his ignorance as by his negligence;
because when light springs from so many angles that may en
lighten us, unless we look round about us and be skilled in all
the angles of reflexion, we shall but turn our backs on the
sun, and see nothing but our own shadows. ' Search the Scrip
tures,' said Christ. Non dixit legite, sed scrutamini, said St
Chrysostom ; quia oportet profundius effodere, ut quce alte de-
liiescunt, invenire possimus. " Christ did not say read, but
search the Scriptures;" turn over every page, inquire narrowly,
look diligently, converse with them perpetually, be mighty in
the Scriptures ; for that which is plain there is the best mea-
.^ure of our faith.and of our doctrines. The Jews have a saying,
Qui non ad,-ertit quod supra et infra in scriptoribus legitur,
" .Rom. xii. 6.

THE minister's DUTY IN LIFE AND DOCTRINE. 171
is pervertit verba Dei viventis. He that will understand God's
meaning, must look above and below, and round about ; for the
meaning of the Spirit of God is not like the wind blowing from
one point, but, like light issuing from the body of the sun, it is
light round about : and in every word of God there is a trea
sure, and something will be found somewhere, to answer every
doubt, and to clear every obscurity, and to teach every truth
by which God intends to perfect our understandings. But then
take this rule with you : do not pass from plainness to obscurity,
nor from simple principles draw crafty conclusions, nor from
easiness pass into difficulty, nor from wise notices draw intri
cate nothings, nor from the wisdom of God lead your hearers
into the follies of men. Your principles are easy, and your
way plain, and the words of faith are open, and what naturally
flows from thence will be as open ; but if, without violence and
distortion, it cannot be drawn forth, the proposition is not of the
family of faith. Qui nimis emungit, elicit sanguinem : " he
that wrings too hard, draws blood :" and nothing is fit to be
offered to your charges and your flocks, but what flows natu
rally, and comes easily, and descends readily and willingly,
from the fountains of salvation,
4. Next to this analogy or proportion of faith, let the eon-
sent of the Catholic church be your measure, so as by no means
to prevaricate in any doctrine, in which all Christians always
have consented. This will appear to be a necessary rule by and
by ; but in the mean time, I shall observe to you, that it will
be the safer, because it cannot go far : it can be instanced but
in three things, in the creed, in ecclesiastical government, and
in external forms of worship and liturgy. The Catholic church
hath been too much and too soon divided : it hath been used as
the man on a hill used his heap of heads in a basket ; when he
threw them down the hill, every head ran his own way, quot
capita, tot sententice ; and as soon as the spirit of truth was
opposed by the spirit of error, the spirit of peace was disordered
by the spirit of division; and the Spirit of God hath over
powered us so far, that we are only fallen out about that, of
which, if we had been ignorant, we had not been much the
worse : but in things simply necessary, God hath preserved us
still unbroken : all nations, and all ages recite the creed, and

172 JEREMY TAYLOR. — SERMON IX.
all pray the Lord's prayer, and all pretend to walk by the rule
of the commandments; and all churches have ever kept the
day of Christ's resurrection, or the Lord's-day, holy ; and all
churches have been governed by bishops, and the rites of Chris
tianity have been for ever administered by separate orders of
men, and those men have been always set apart by prayer and
the imposition of the bishop's hands ; and all Christians have
been baptised, and all baptised persons were, or ought to be,
and are taught that they should be confirmed by the bishop,
and presidents of religion ; and for ever there were public forms
of prayer, more or less in all churches ; and all Christians that
were to enter into holy wedlock, were ever joined or blessed
by the bishop or the priest : in these things all Christians ever
have consented ; and he that shall prophesy or expound Scrip
ture to the prejudice of any of these things, hath no part in that
article of his creed : he does not believe the holy Catholic church,
he hath no fellowship, no communion, with the saints and ser
vants of God.
It is not here intended, that the doctrine of the church .should
be the rule of faith distinctly from, much less against, the
Scripture; for that were a contradiction to suppose the church
of God, and yet speaking and acting against the will of God ;
but it means, that where the question is concerning an obscure
place of Scripture, the practice of the Catholic church is the
best commentary. Intellectus, qui cum praxi concurrit, est
spiritus vivificans, said Cusanus. Then we speak according to
the Spirit of God, when we understand Scripture in that sense
in which the church of God hath always practised it. Quod
pluribus, quod sapientibus, quod omnibus videtur, that is Ari
stotle's rule, and it is a rule of nature ; every thing puts on a
degree of probability as it is witnessed " by wise men, by
many wise men, by all wise men :" and it is Vincentius Liri-
nensis' great rule of truth ; Quod ubique, quod semper, quod ab
omnibus: and he that goes against " what is said always, and
everywhere, and by all " Christians, had need have a new reve
lation, or an infallible spirit ; or he hath an intolerable pride
and foolishness of presumption. Out of the communion of the
universal church no man can be saved ; they are the body of
Christ ; and the whole church cannot perish, and Christ cannot

THE minister's DUTY IN LIFE AND DOCTRINE. 173
be a head without a body, and he will for ever be our Re
deemer, and for ever intercede for his church, and be glorious
in his saints; and, therefore, he that does not sow in these fur
rows, but leaves the way of the whole church, hath no pretence
for his error, no excuse for his pride, and will find no allevia
tion of his punishment. These are the best measures which God
hath given us to lead us in the way of truth, and to preserve
us from false doctrines ; and whatsoever cannot be proved by
these measures, cannot be necessary. . There are many truths
besides these ; but if your people may be safely ignorant of
them, you may quietly let them alone, and not trouble their
heads with what they have so little to do ; things that need not
to be known at all, need not to be taught : for if they be taught,
they are not certain , or are not very useful ; and, therefore, there
may be danger in them besides the trouble ; and since God hath
not made them necessary, they may be let alone without dan
ger ; and itwill be madness to tell stories to your flocks of things
which may hinder salvation, but cannot do them profit. And
now it is time that I have done with the first great remark of
doctrine noted by the Apostle in my text : all the guides of
souls must take care that the doctrine they teach be abia<p8opos,
' pure and incorrupt,' the word of God, the truth of the Spirit.
That which remains is easier.
In the next place, it must be aepvos, ' grave,' and reve
rend ; no vaiil notions, no pitiful contentions, and disputes
about little things, but becoming your great employment in
the ministry of souls : and in this the rules are easy and ready.
1. Do not trouble your people with controversies : whatso
ever does gender strife, the Apostle commands us to avoid ;
and, therefore, much more the strife itself : a controversy is a
stone in the mouth of the hearer, who should be fed with bread,
and it is a temptation to the preacher, it is a state of tempta
tion ; it engages one side in lying, and both in uncertainty and
uncharitableness ; and after all, it is not food for souls ; it is the
food of contention, it is a spiritual lawsuit, and it can never be
ended ; every man is right, and every man is wrong in these
things, and no man can tell who is right, or who is wrong.
For as long as a word can be spoken against a word, and a
thing be opposite to a thing ; as long as places are hard, and

174 JEREMY TAYLOR. — SERMON IX.
men are ignorant, or ' knowing but in part ;' as long as there is
money and pride in the world, and for ever till men willingly
confess themselves to be fools and deceived, so long will the
saw of contention be drawn from side to side. ' That which is
not, cannot be numbered,' saith the wise man : no man can
reckon on any truth that is got by contentious learning ; and
whoever troubles his people with questions, and teaches them
to be troublesome, note that man, he loves not peace, or he
would fain be called Rabbi, Rabbi. Christian religion loves
not tricks nor artifices of wonder ; but, like the natural and
amiable simplicity of Jesus, by plain and easy propositions
leads us in wise paths to a place, where sin and strife shall
never enter. What good can come from that which fools begin,
and wise men can never end but by silence ? and that had been
the best way at first, and would have stifled them in the cradle.
What have your people to do whether Christ's body be in the
sacrament by eonsubstantiation or transubstantiation ; whether
purgatory be in the centre of the earth, or in the air, or any
where, or no where ; and who but a madman would trouble
their heads with the entangled links of the fantastic chain of
predestination ? Teach them to fear God and honor the king,
to keep the commandments of God, and the king's commands,
because of the oath of God ; learn them to be sober and tem
perate, to be just and to pay their debts, to speak well of their
neighbors and to think meanly of themselves ; teach them
charity, and learn them to be zealous of good works. Is it not
a shame, that the people should be filled with sermons against
ceremonies, and declamations against a surplice, and tedious
harangues against the poor airy sign of the cross in baptism ?
These things teach them to be ignorant ; it fills them with
wind, and they suck dry nurses; it makes them lazy and use
less, troublesome and good for nothing. Can the definition of
a Christian be, that a Christian is a man that rails against bi
shops and the common prayer-book ? and yet this is the great
labor of our neighbors that are crept in among us : this they
call the work of the Lord, and this is the great matter of the
desired reformation ; in these things they spend their long
breath, and about these things they spend earnest prayers, and
by these they judge their brother, and for these they revile their

THE minister's DUTY IN LIFE AND DOCTRINE. 175
superior, and in this doughty cause they think it fit to fight and
die. If St. Paul or St. Anthony, St. Basil or St. Ambrose ;
if any of the primitive confessors, or glorious martyrs, should
awake from within their curtains of darkness, and find men thus
striving against government for the interest of disobedience, and
laboring for nothings, and preaching all day for shadows and
moonshine ; and that not a word shall come from them to teach
the people humility, not a word of obedience or self-denial ;
they are never taught to suspect their own judgment, but
always to prefer the private minister before the public, the pres
byter before a bishop, fancy before law, the subject before his
prince, a prayer in which men consider not at all, before that
which is weighed wisely and considered ; and, in short, a pri
vate spirit before the public, and Mass John before the patri
arch of Jerusalem ; if, I say, St. Paul or St. Anthony should
see such a light, they would not know the meaning of it, nor of
what religion the country were, nor from whence they had de
rived their new nothing of an institution. ' The kingdom of
God consists in wisdom and righteousness, in peace and holi
ness, in meekness and gentleness, in chastity and purity, in abs
tinence from evil and doing good to others ;' in these things
place your labors, preach these things, and nothing else but
such as these ; things which promote the public peace and
public good ; things that ean give no offence to the wise and to
the virtuous : for these things are profitable to men, and plea
sing to God.
2. Let not your sermons and discourses to your people be
busy arguings about hard places of Scripture : if you strike a
hard against a hard, you may chance to strike fire, or break a
man's head ; but it never makes a good building : Philasophiam
ad syllabas vocare, that is to no purpose : your sermons must be
for edification, something to make the people better and wiser,
' wiser unto salvation,' not wiser to discourse ; for, if a hard
thing get into their heads, I know not what work you will make
of it, but they will make nothing of it, or something that is very
strange : dress your people unto the imagery of Christ, dress
them for their funerals, help them to make their accounts up,
against the day of judgment. I have known some persons and
some' families that would religiously educate their children, and

176 JEREMY TAYLOR. — SERMON IX.
bring them up in the Scriptures from their cradle ; and they
would teach them to tell who was the first man, and who was
the oldest, and who was the wisest, and who was the strongest;
but I never observed them to ask who was the best, and what
things were required to make a man good : * the Apostles'
creed was not the entertainment of their pretty talkings, nor the
life of Christ, the story of his bitter passion, and his incompa
rable sermon on the mount, went not into their catechisms.
What good can your flocks receive, if you discourse well and
wisely, whether Jepthah sacrificed his daughter, or put her into
the retirements of a solitary life; or how David's numbering
the people did differ from Joshua's; or whether God took away
the life of Moses by an apoplexy, or by the kisses of his mouth?
If scholars be idly busy in these things in the school, custom,
and some other little accidents may help to excuse them ; but
the time that is spent in your churches, and conversation with
your people, must not be so thrown a-way : Xoyos 'euTu aepvos,
that is your rule ; ' let your speech be grave,' and wise, and
useful, and holy, and intelligible ; something to reform their
manners, to correct their evil natures, to amend their foolish
customs ; ' to build them up in a most holy faith.' That is the
second rule and measure of your preachings that the Apostle
gives you in my text.
Thirdly, your speech must be uyt))s, 'salutary' and wholesome :
and, indeed, this is of greatest concern, next to the first, next
to the truth and purity of that doctrine ; for unless the doctrine
be made fit for the necessities of your people, and not only be
good in itself, but good for them, you lose the end of your la
bors, and they the end of your preachings : ' Your preaching
is vain, and their faith is also vain.' The particulars of this are
not many, but very useful.
1. It is never out of season to preach good works; but when
you do, be careful that you never indirectly disgrace them by
telling how your adversaries spoil them. I do not speak this
in vain ; for too many of us account good works to be popery,
and so not only dishonor our religion, and open wide the
mouths of adversaries, but disparage Christianity itself, while
* SX'OP'dTUV ll,TfX''<»V TTOTOjWis.

THE minister's DUTY IN LIFE AND DOCTRINE. 177
we hear it preached in every pulpit, that they who preach good
works think they merit heaven by it ; and so for fear of merit,
men let the work alone ; to secure a true opinion, they neglect
a good practice ; and out of hatred of popery, we lay aside
Christianity itself. Teach them how to do good works, and
yet to walk humbly with God ; for better it is to do well even
on a weak account, than to do nothing on the stock of a better
proposition : and let it never be used any more as a word of re
proach unto us all, that the faith of a protestant, and the works
of a papist, and the words of a fanatic, make up a good Chris
tian. Believe well, and speak well, and do well ; but in doing
good works a man cannot deceive any one but himself, by the
appendage of a foolish opinion ; but in our believing only, and
in talking, a man may deceive himself, and all the world ; and
God only can be safe from the cozenage. Like to this is the
case of external forms of worship, which too many refuse, be
cause they pretend that many who use them, rest in them, and
pass no farther : for besides that no sect of men teaches their
people so to do, you cannot without uncharitableness suppose
it true of very many. But if others do ill, do not you do so
too; and leave not out the external forms for fear of formality,
but join the inward power of godliness ; and then they are re
proved best, and instructed wisely, and you are secured. But
remember, that profaneness is commonly something that is ex
ternal ; and he is a profane person who neglects the exterior
part of religion : and this is so vile a crime, that hypocrisy,
while it is undiscovered, is not so much mischievous as open
profaneness, or a neglect and contempt of external religion.
Do not despise external religion, because it may be sincere ;
and do not rely on it wholly, because it may be counterfeit ;
but do you preach both, and practise both ; both what may
glorify God in public, and what may please him in private,
2. In deciding the questions and causes of conscience of
your flocks, never strive to speak what is pleasing, but what
is profitable, av Xoyovs, dXXa. Trpayparbiv ipBeyyetrBtti ovalas, as
was said of Isidore, the philosopher, " You must not give
your people words, but things and substantial food." Let not
the people be prejudiced in the matter of their souls, on any
terms whatsoever, and be not ashamed to speak boldly in the

178 JEREMY TAYLOR. — SERMON IX.
cause of God ; for he that is angry when he is reproved, is not-
to be considered, excepting only to be reproved again ; if he
will never mend, not you, but he will have the worst of it;
but if he ever mends, he will thank you for your love, and for
your wisdom, and for your care : and no man is finally dis
graced for speaking of a truth ; only here, pray for the grace
of prudence, that you may speak opportunely and wisely, lest
you profit not, but destroy an incapable subject.
Lastly : The Apostle requires of every minister of the gospel
that his speech and doctrine should be aKaray vwittos, ' unre-
provable :' not such against which no man can cavil ; for the
Pharisees found fault with the wise discourses of the eternal
Son of God ; and heretics and schismatics prated against the
holy Apostles and their excellent sermons ; but dKarayviaiTTOs
is ' such as deserves no blame,' and needs no pardon, and flat
ters not for praise, and begs no excuses, and makes no apo
logies ; a discourse that will be justified by all the sons of
wisdom : now, that yours may be so, the preceding rules are
the best means that are imaginable. For, so long as you speak
the pure truths of God, the plain meaning of the Spirit, the
necessary things of faith, the useful things of charity, and the
excellences of holiness, who can reprove your doctrine ? But
there is something more in this word, which the Apostle means,
else it had been a useless repetition : and a man may speak
the truths of God, and yet may be blame-worthy by an impor
tune, unseasonable, and imprudent way of delivering them, or
for want of such conduct which will place him and his doc
trine in reputation and advantages. To this purpose these ad
vices may be useful.
1. Be more careful to establish a truth, than to reprove an
error. For besides that a truth will, when it is established, of
itself reprove the error sufficiently ; men will be less apt to
reprove the truth, when they are not engaged to defend their
own propositions against you. Men stand on their guard,
when you proclaim war against their doctrine. Teach your
doctrine purely and wisely, and without any angry reflections;
for you shall very hardly persuade him, whom you go about
publicly to confute.
2. If any man have a revelation or a discovery, of which,

THE minister's DUTY IN LIFE AND DOCTRINE. 170
thou knowest nothing but by his preaching, be not too quick
to condemn it; not only lest thou discourage his labor and
stricter inquiries in the search oftruth, but lest thou also be a
fool on record ; for so is every man that hastily judges what
he slowly understands. Is it not a monument of a lasting re
proach, that one of the popes of Rome condemned the bishop
of Sulzbaeh, for saying that there were antipodes? And is not
Pope Nicholas deserted by his own party, for correcting the
sermons of Berengarius, and making him recant into a worse
error? and posterity will certainly make themselves very merry
with the wise sentences made lately at Rome, against Galileo,
and the Jansenists. To condemn one truth is more shameful
than to broach two errors : for he that, in an honest and dili
gent inquiry, misses something of the mark, will have the apo
logies of human infirmity, and the praise of doing his best ; but
he that condemns a truth, when it is told him, is an envious
fool, and is a murderer of his brother's fame, and his brother's
reason. 3. Let no man, on his own head, reprove the religion that is
established by law, and a just supreme authority; for no re
proofs are so severe as the reproofs of law ; and a man will
very hardly defend his opinion, that is already condemned by
the wisdom of all his judges. A man's doctrine possibly may
be true, though against law ; but it cannot be aKarayviixTTos,
' unreprovable ;' and a schismatic can, in no ease, observe
this rule of the Apostle. If something may be amiss when it
is declared by laws, much easier may he be in an error, who
goes on his own account, and declares alone : and, therefore,
it is better to let things alone, than to be troublesome to our
superiors by an impertinent wrangling for reformation. We find
that some kings of Judah were greatly praised, and yet they
did not destroy all the temples of the false gods, which Solo
mon had built: and if such public persons might let some
things alone that were amiss, and yet be innocent, trouble not
yourself that all the world is not amended according to your
pattern : see that you be perfect at home, that all be rightly
reformed there ; as for reformation of the church, God will
never call you to an account. Some things cannot be reformed,

180 JEREMY TAYLOR.—SERMON IX.
and very many need not, for all thy peevish dreams; and
after all, it is twenty to one but thou art mistaken, and thy
superior is in the right; and if thou wert not proud, thou wouldst
think so too. Certain it is, he that sows in the furrows of au
thority, his doctrine cannot so easily be reproved as he that
ploughs and sows alone. When Theophilus, bishop of Alex
andria, fell into the hands of the Egyptian monks, who were
ignorant and confident, they handled him with great rudeness,
because he had spoken of the immateriality of the divine na
ture : the good man, to escape their fury, was forced to give
them crafty and soft words, saying, Vidi faciem vestram ut
faciem Dei, which, because they understood in the sense of the
anthropomorphites, and thought he did so too, they let him
depart in peace. When private persons are rude against the
doctrines of authority, they are seldom in the right ; but
therefore are the more fierce, as wanting the natural supports
of truth, which are reason and authority, gentleness and plain
conviction ; and, therefore, they fall to declamation and rail
ing, zeal and cruelty, trifling and arrogant confidences. They
seldom go asunder : it is the same word in Greek that signifies
" disobedience" and "cruelty :" dirriviis is both ; " He that will
endure no bridle, that man hath no mercy." AvBabeia, dirii-
veia opiXias ev Xoyois. Confidence is that which will endure
no bridle, no curb, no superior. It is worse in the Hebrew:
' The sons of Belial' signify ' people that will endure no
yoke, no government, no imposition ;' and we have found
them so ; they are sons of Belial indeed. This is that avBabeia,
that kind of boldness and refractory confidence, that St. Paul
forbids to be in a minister of religion ; prj avdabti,* ' not confi
dent;' that is, let him be humble and modest, distrusting his
own judgment, believing wiser men than himself; never bold
against authority, never relying on his own wit. AvBabris iarlv
aurodSijs, said Aristotle ; " that man is bold and presumptuous,
who pleases himself," and sings his own songs, all voluntary,
nothing by his book.
Ou5' iunhv ^veu, '6<ms avBdSijs yeyccs,
UiKphs Tohirais iarlv ifiaSlas iho, said the tragedy.t
* Tit. i. 7. t Burip. Med. Person, 225,

THE MINISTER'S DUTY IN LIFE AND DOCTRINE. 181
Every confident man is ignorant, and, by his ignorance, trou
blesome to his country ; but will never do it honor.
4. Whatever Scriptures you pretend for your doctrine, take
heed that it be not chargeable with foul consequences ; that it
lay no burden on God, that it do not tempt to vanity, that it
be not manifestly serving a temporal end, and nothing else ;
that it be not vehemently to be suspected to be a design of
state, like the sermon at Paul's Cross, by Dr. Shaw, in Rich
ard the Third's time ; that it do not give countenance and
confidence to a wicked life ; for then your doctrine is repro
vable for the appendage, and the intrinsic truth or falsehood
will not so much be inquired after, as the visible and external
objection : if men can reprove it in the outside, they will in
quire no farther. But, above all things, nothing so much will
reproach your doctrine, as if you preach it in a railing dialect ;
we have had too much of that within these last thirty years.
Qptatus observes it was the trick of the Donatists, Nullus ves-
trum est, qui non convicia nostra suis tractatibus misceat:
" There is none of you but with his own writings mingles our re
proaches ;"* you begin to read chapters, and you expound them
to our injuries ; you comment on the gospel, and revile your
brethren that are absent; you imprint hatred and enmity in
your people's hearts, and you teach them war when you pre
tend to make them saints. They that do so, their doctrine is
not dKaTayvioarm : that is the least which can be said. If you
will not have your doctrine reprehensible, do nothing with
offence; and, above all offences, avoid the doing or saying those
things that give offence to the king and to the laws, to the
voice of Christendom, and the public customs of the church of
God. Frame your life and preachings to the canons of the
church, to the doctrines of antiquity, to the sense of the ancient
and holy fathers. For it is otherwise in theology, than it is in
other learnings. The experiments of philosophy are rude at
first, and the observations weak, and the principles unproved ;
and he that made the first lock, was not so good a workman
as we have novi'adays : but in Christian religion, they that
• Lib, iv. adv, Parmen,

182 JEREMY TAYLOR.—SERMON IX.
were first were best, because God, and not man, was the
teacher; and ever since that, we have been unlearning the wise
notices of pure religion, and mingling them with human notices
and human interest. Quod primum, hoc verum : and although
concerning antiquity, I may say, as he in the tragedy,*
^v^ffutppovelv ffoi ^oijKopL , a^^* ov arwvofxeiv,
I would have you be wise with them, and under them, and fol
low their faith, but not their errors ; yet this can never be of
use to us, till antiquity be convicted of an error, by an autho
rity great as her own, or a reason greater, and declared by an
authorised master of sentences. But, however, be very tender
in reproving a doctrine for which good men and holy have
suffered martyrdom, and of which they have made public con
fession ; for nothing reproves a doctrine so much as to venture
it abroad with so much scandal and objection : and what rea
son can any schismatic have against the common prayer-book,
able to weigh against that argument of blood, which for the
testimony of it was shed by the Queen Mary martyrs ? I in
stance the advice in this particular, but it is true in all things
else of the like nature. It was no ill advice, whoever gave it,
to the favorite of a prince ; " Never make yourself a professed
enemy to the church ; for their interest is so complicated with
the public, and their calling is so dear to God, that one way
or other, one time or other, God and man will be their de
fender." The same I say concerning authority and antiquity ;
never do any thing, never say or profess any thing, against it r
for besides that if you follow their measures, you will be se
cured in your faith, and in your main duty ; even in smaller
things, they will be sure to carry the cause against you, and
no man is able to bear the reproach of singularity. It was
in honor spoken of St. Malachias, my predecessor in the see
of Down, in his life written by St. Bernard, Apostolicas sanc-
tiones et decreta SS. PP. in cunctis ecclesiis statuebaf. I hope
to do something of this for your help and service, if God gives
me life, and health, and opportunity ; but for the present, I
'' Iph. Aul. 407. vol. iv. Priestley's ed.

THE MINISTER'S DUTY IN LIFE AND DOCTlllNE. 183
have done. These rules if you observe, your doctrine will be
aKarayvoxTTOs , ' it will need no pardon ;' and aveyKXriTos,
' never to be reproved in judgment.' I conclude all with the
wise saying of Bensirach : ' Extol not thyself in the counsel
of thine own heart, that thy soul be not torn in pieces as a bull
straying alone.'* * Ecclus. vi. '2.

SERMON
PREACHED AT THE
FUNER.IL OF THAT -WORTHY KNIGHT
SIR GEORGE DALSTON,
OF DALSTON IN CUMBERLAND,
Sept. 28, 1657,

SUMMARY OF A FUNERAL SERMON. 187

SUMMARY OF
A FUNERAL SERMON,
&c. &c,
1 CORINTHIANS, CHAP, XV. — VERSE 19,
When God, in his infinite wisdom, had decreed to man a
life of labor and a body of mortality, &c., he was pleased to do
two great things which might confirm the faith and entertain
the hopes of his servants, who were ill used by the accidents of
this world.
1. First, he sent his Son to take on him our nature, that no
man might think it hard to suffer, when God thus spared not his
own Son, &c.
2. Next, he taught, not only by revelation and his prophets
to the church, but by competent methods to all mankind,
that the soul of man does not die. Right deductions of the
ancient philosophers and others on this point related and com
mented on. When they descended to particulars, they fell into
error : instance of the doctrine of the transmigration of souls ;
this notion prevailed amongst the uninstructed of the Jews.
Though God was pleased at all times to communicate notices
of the other world sufficient to encourage virtue, yet he was
ever sparing in telling the secrets of it : subject enlarged on.
In this life, then, we see plainly that our portion is not, &c.
Three propositions to be considered,
1. The servants of God in this world would be very miser
able, were it not for their hopes of what is to come hereafter.

188 SUMMARY OF
2. Though this be a place of hopes, yet we have not our hopes
only here, &c.
3, The consummation and perfection of the felicity of the
godly, when all their miseries shall be changed into glories, is
in the world to come ; which is the main thing here intended
by St, Paul,
I. The servants of God in this life are troubled and afflicted:
they must live under the cross. This shown in extraordinary
sufferings, also in the ordinary occurrences of life.
Hence it was, that the very heathens fetched a strong argu
ment for a day of recompense hereafter : hence, also, our Lord
convicted the Sadducees. Hence St. Paul observes, he that
Cometh to God, must believe that he is, and that he is a
rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Hence, also, the
argument of our blessed Saviour, God is the God of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob : that is, the rewarder of them, who are not
dead, but fallen asleep, and shall be restored at the resurrection,
to receive their rewards, &c. : this topic enlarged on. Neither
is this so to be understood, as if the servants of God were so
wholly forsaken by him in this world, so left to the malice of
evil men, that they have not many refreshments, and great
comforts, &c. But God, who intends vast portions of felicity
for his children, does not reckon these little joys to the account
of his elect. But as for the evil which they have, it is such as
their Saviour had ; and, bad as it is, it is to be chosen rather
than a better ; because it is the highway of the cross ; a sharp,
but a short step to bliss : parable of Dives and Lazarus com
mented on.
II. Second head. Not in this life only have the godly
hopes ; therefore hereafter. As soon as they die, as soon as
the soul goes out of the body, it is blessed : blessed, though not
perfect: an objection here removed. The proposition itself
taken up : in the state of separation, departed souls perceive

A FUNERAL SERMON. 180
the blessing and comfort of their labors ; they live after death,
&c. This was the undoubted opinion of the Jews before Christ,
and after ; and therefore our Saviour's words to the converted
thief, wherein he undoubtedly spake so as to be understood :
this topic farther enlarged on. But this we learn more per
fectly from the raptures of St. Paul : instances also from the
book of Revelation given and commented on. But to make
this proposition useful and clear, some things are to be added
by way of supplement.
1. Reasons given why this place of separation was called
paradise, &c.
2. As the spirits of good men were said in the Old Testa
ment to be with Abraham, so the being with Christ is the spe
cification of their intermediate state in the New Testament :
this enlarged on.
3. It is to be noted, that although our blessed Saviour is, in
the Creed, said to descend into hell, yet this does not preju
dice his other words, this day thou shalt be with me in paradise :
this explained.
4. It is observable, that in the mention of paradise by St.
John, he twice speaks of the tree of life, but never of the tree
of knowlege of good and evil: this explained, &c.
III. Third head. The great reward of the godly shall be
at the day of judgment, after the resurrection of the dead.
At his coming, at his glorious appearing, we also shall ap
pear glorious : this shown from 1 John, ii, 28. and iii. 4. We
shall then see him as he is ; but this beatific vision shall not be
till then : this topic enlarged on, proved, and illustrated from
Scripture. This doctrine shown to have been that of the primitive
church. It is that of the Greek church unto this day, &c.
This doctrine shown to overthrow the arguments for a state
of purgatory.

100 SUM-MARY OF A FUNERAL SERMON.
The proposition being established, let us consider that God
is our God when we die, if we be his servants while we live :
this topic enlarged on. Some men, by reading or hearing
strange opinions, have fallen into a desperate melancholy ; and
others have so totally despaired of the divine mercy, as to lay
violent hands on themselves : and yet they only thought this or
feared it ; and might have altered it if they would have hoped
and prayed : reflections on this subject.
Now it is well with us, and we may secure our welfare for
ever ; but within an hour it may be otherwise with any of us :
reflections on this topic. The exposition of the text is finished ;
but another text, and another sermon, as it were, still remains.
Exhortations to caution and amendment of life, and the securing
of God's favor. Example of Sir George Dalston proposed ;
his character delineated. Conclusion.

A FUNERAL SERMON. 101

A
FUNERAL SERMON,
&c. &c.

1 CORINTHIANS, CHAP. XV. — VERSE 10.
If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are, of all men,
most miserable.
When God, in his infinite and eternal wisdom, had decreed
to give to man a life of labor, and a body of mortality; a
state of contingency, and a composition of fighting elements ;
and having designed to be glorified by a free obedience, would
also permit sin in the world, and suffer evil men to go on in
their wickedness, to prevail in their impious machinations, to
vex the souls, and grieve the bodies of the righteous ; he knew
that this would not only be very hard to be suffered by his ser
vants, but also be very difficult to be understood by them who
know God to be a ' Lawgiver' as well as a ' Lord ;' a • Judge'
as well as a ' Kingf' a ' Father' as well as a ' Ruler ;' and
that, in order to his own glory, and for the manifestation of his
goodness, he had promised to reward his servants, to give good
to them that did good : therefore, to take off all prejudices, and
evil resentments, and temptations, which might trouble those
good men who suffered evil things, — he was pleased to do two
great things, which might confirm the faith, and endear the
.services, and entertain the hopes of them who are indeed his
servants, but yet were very ill used in the accidents of this
world. 1. The one was, that he sent his Son into the world to take
on him our nature; and him, being the ' Captain of our salva-

192 JEREMY TAYLOR.
tion, he would perfect through sufferings;' that no man might
think it much to suffer, when God spared not his own Son;
and every man might submit to the necessity, when the Christ
of God was not exempt ; and yet that no man should fear the
event which -was to follow such sad beginnings, when ' it be
hoved even Christ to suffer, and so to enter into glory.'
2. The other great thing was, that God did not only by
revelation, and the sermons of the prophets to his church, hut
even to all mankind, competently teach, and effectively per
suade, that the soul of man does not die ; but that although
things were ill here, yet they should be well hereafter ; that
the evils of this life were short and tolerable, and that to the
good, who usually feel most of them, they should end in honor
and advantages. And, therefore, Cicero had reason on his side
to conclude, that there is to be a time and place after this life,
wherein the wicked shall be punished, and the virtuous well
rewarded , when he considered that Orpheus and Socrates, Pa-
lamedes andThraseas, Lucretia and Papinian, were either slain
or oppressed to death by evil men. But to us Christians, ei
pij ejraxBes etTTiv eiiTe7v, wavv JKaviSs a7roic8ei^6a(, as Plato's*
expression is; we have a necessity to declare, and a demon
stration to prove it : when we read that Abel died by the hands
of Cain, who was so ignorant, that though he had malice and
strength, yet he had scarce art enough to kill him; when we
read that John the Baptist, Christ himself, and his Apostles,
and his whole army of martyrs, died under the violence of evil
men ; when virtue made good men poor, and free speaking of
brave truths made the wise to lose their liberty ; when an ex
cellent life hastened an opprobrious death, and the obeying God
destroyed ourselves ; it was but time to look about for another
state of things, where justice should rule, and virtue find her
own portion ; where the men that were like to God in mercy
and justice should also partake of his felicity : and, therefore,
men cast out every line, and turned every stone, and tried
every argument, and sometimes proved it well ; and when
they did not, yet they believed strongly ; and they were sure
of the thing, even when they were not sure of the argument.
* Phaed. c. 37. Fischer, p, 368.

A FUNERAL SERMON. 193
Thus, therefore, would the old priests of the capitol, and the
ministers of Apollo, and the mystic persons at their oracles be
lieve, when they made apotheoses of virtuous and braver per
sons, ascribing every braver man into the number of their gods:
Hercules and Romulus, Castor and Pollux, Liber Pater,* him
that taught the use of vines, and her that taught them the use
of corn. For they knew that it must needs be, that they who
like to God do excellent things, must like to God have an ex
cellent portion.
This learning they also had from Pherecydes the Syrian,
from Pythagoras of Samos, and from Zamolxis the Gete, from
the neighbors of Euphrates, and the inhabitants by Ister, who
were called aBavarlSovTes, " Immortal ists ;" because, in the
midst of all their dark notices of things, they saw this clearly,
OTt ayaBi irowvvTes ouk airoBavovvrat, aWa ii^ovai es j^dpoj' tovtov,
tva exoxii TO. iravra ayaBa: " that virtuous and good men do
not die, but their souls do go into blessed regions, where they
shall enjoy all good things;" and it was never known that ever
any good man was of another opinion. Hercules and Themisto-
eles, Epaminondas and Cicero, Socrates and Cimon, Ennius and
Phidias, all the flower of mankind have preached this truth.
Kvpwrepa TO. Ttov Beiuiv avipSiv pavrevpara, rj to. tSiv pff ol be
eirietKeararoi iravra votovatv, Sirws av es tov etreiTa xpovov ev
aKovoiaiv : " the discoursings and prophesyings of divine men
are much more proper and excellent than of others, because
they do equal and good things, until the time comes that they
shall hear well for them :" reKpripiov be voiovpai, on earl tis a'i-
adrjdis TeBveitai Ttov evBdbe' at H (leXriarai v^wj^al pavrevovrai
ravTa ovruts ex^tv at be poxBipoTarai ov ^aalv " and this is the
sign, that when we die we have life and discerning ; because
though the wicked care not for believing it, yet all the pro
phets and the poets, the wise and the brave heroes say so ;"
they are the words of Plato. For though that which is com
pounded of elenients, returns to its material and corruptible
principles, yet the soul, which is a particle of the divine breath,
returns to its own divine original, where there is no death or
dissolution : and because the understanding is neither hot nor
* Hor. Ep. ii. 1. 5.
TAY. VOL. IV. I

194 JEREMY TAYLOR.
cold, it hath no moisture in it, and no dryness, it follows that
it hath nothing of those substances, concerning which alone we
know that they are corruptible. There is nothing corruptible
that we know of, but the four elements, and their sons and
daughters : nothing dies that can discourse, that can reflect in
perfect circles on their own imperfect actions ; nothing can die
that can see God, and converse with spirits, that can govern by
laws and wise propositions. For fire and water can be tyran
nical, but not govern ; they can bear every thing down that
stands before them, and rush like the people ; but not rule like
judges, and therefore they perish as tumults are dissolved.
AeiVerat be tov voiiv povov BvpaBev enetaievat, Ka\ Beiov elvat
povov ovbe yap avrov rij evepyeiq Kotvwvel atopaTiKri evepyeia,
says Aristotle :* " But the soul only comes from abroad, from
a divine principle (for so saith the Scripture, — ' God breathed
into Adam the spirit of life ') : and that which in operation
does not communicate with the body," shall have no part in
its corruption.
Thus far they were right ; but when they descended to par
ticulars, they fell into error. That the rewards of virtue were
to be hereafter, that they were sure of ; that the soul was to
survive the calamities of this world, and the death of the body,
that they were sure of; and on this account they did bravely
and virtuously : and yet they that thought best amongst them,
believed that the souls departed should be re-invested with
other bodies, according to the dispositions and capacities of
this life.
Thus Orpheus, who sang well, should transmigrate into a
swan ; and the soul of Thamyris, who had as good a voice as
he, should wander till it were confined to the body of a nightin
gale ; Ajax to a lion, Agamemnon to an eagle, tyrant princes
into wolves and hawks, the lascivious into asses and goats, the
drunkards into swine, the crafty statesmen into bees and pis
mires, and Thersites to an ape. This fancy of theirs prevailed
much amongst the common people, and the uninstructed
amongst the Jews; for when Christ appeared so glorious
in miracle, Herod presently fancied hira to be the soul of John
* De Gen, An. lib. 2.

A FUNERAL SERMON. 195
the Baptist in another body ; and the common people said he
was Elias, or Jeremias, or one of the old prophets. And true
it is, that although God was pleased, in all times, to communi
cate to mankind notices of the other world, sufficient to encou
rage virtues, and to contest against the rencounters of the world,
yet he was ever sparing in telling the secrets of it ; and when
St, Paul had his rapture into heaven, he saw fine things, and
heard strange words, but they were UppriTa p-fipara, ' words
that he could not speak,' and secrets that he could not
understand, and secrets that he could not communicate.
For as a man staring on the broad eye of the sun at his noon
of solstice, feels his heat, and dwells in light, and loses
the sight of his eyes, and perceives nothing distinctly ; but the
organ is confounded, and the faculty amazed with too big a
beauty ; — so was St. Paul in his ecstasy ; he saw that he could
see nothing to be told below, and he perceived the glories were
too big for flesh and blood, and that the beauties of separate
souls were not to be understood by the soul in conjunction;
and, therefore, after all the fine things that he saw, we only
know what we knew before, namely, that the soul can live when
the body is dead; that it can subsist without the body; that
there are very great glories reserved for them that serve God ;
that they who die in Christ, shall live with him ; that the body
is a prison, and the soul is in fetters, while we are alive ; and
that when the body dies, the soul springs and leaps from her
prison, and enters into the first liberty of the sons of God.
Now much of this did rely on the same argument, on which
the wise Gentiles of old -concluded the immortality of the soul ;
even because we are here very miserable and very poor : we
are sick, and we are afilieted ; we do well, and we are dis-
. graced ; we speak well, and we are derided ; we tell truths,
and few believe us ; but the proud are exalted, and the wicked
are delivered, and evil men reign over us, and the covetous
snatch our little bundles of money from us, and the fiscus
gathers our rents, and every where the wisest and the best men
are oppressed ; but, therefore, because it is thus, and thus it is
not well, we hope for some great good thing hereafter. ' For
if. in this life only we had hope,' — then we Christians, all we
to whom persecution is allotted for our portion, we who must

196 JEREMY TAYLOR.
be patient under the cross, and receive injuries, and say no
thing but prayers, — ' we certainly were of all men the most
miserable.' Well then : in this life we see plainly that our portion is not ;
here we have hopes ; but not here only, we shall go into an
other place, where we shall have more hopes : our faith shall
have more evidence, it shall be of things seen afar off; and
our hopes shall be of more certainty and perspicuity, and next
to possession ; we shall have very much good, and be very
sure of much more. Here then are three propositions to be con
sidered. 1. The servants of God in this world are very miserable, were
it not for their hopes of what is to come hereafter.
2. Though this be a place of hopes, yet we have not our
hopes only here. ' If in this life only we had hopes,' saith the
Apostle ; meaning, that in another life also we have hopes, not
only metonymically, taking hopes for the thing we hope for ;
but properly, and for the acts, objects, and causes of hope. In
this state of separation the godly shall have the vast joys of a
certain intuitive hope, according to their several proportions and
capacities, 3. The consummation and perfection of their felicity, when all
their miseries shall be changed into glories, is in the world to
come, after the resurrection of the dead ; which is the main thing
which St. Paul here intends.
I. The servants of God in this life are calamitous and af
flicted ; they must live under the cross. ' He that will be my
disciple, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow
me,' said our glorious Lord and Master. And we see this pro
phetic precept (for it is both a prophecy and a commandment,
and, therefore, shall be obeyed whether we will or no), but I ,
say, we see it verified by the experience of every day : for
here the violent oppress the meek ; and they that are charitable
shall receive injuries. The Apostles who preached Christ cru
cified, were themselves persecuted, and put to violent deaths;
and Christianity itself, for three hundred years, was the public
hatred ; and yet then it was that men loved God best, and suf
fered more for him ; then they did most good, and least evil.
In this world, men thrive by villany ; and lying and deceiving

A FUNERAL SERMON, 197
are accounted just ; and to be rich is to be wise ; and tyranny is
honorable ; and though little thefts, and petty mischiefs, are
interrupted by the laws; yet if a mischief become public and
great, acted by princes, and effected by armies, and robberies
be done by whole fleets, it is virtue, and it is glory ; it fills the
mouths of fools that wonder, and employs the pens of witty men,
that eat the bread of flattery. How many thousand bottles of
tears, and how many millions of sighs, does God every day re
cord, while the oppressed and the poor pray unto him, worship
him, speak great things of his holy name, study to please him,
beg for helps that they may become gracious in his eyes, and
are so, and yet never sing in all their life, but when they sing
God's praises out of duty, with a sad heart and a hopeful spirit,
living only on the future, weary of to-day, and sustained only
by the hope of to-morrow's event ? and after all, their eyes
are dim with weeping and looking on distances, as knowing they
shall never be happy till the ' new heavens and the new earth'
appear. But I need not instance in the miserabili, in them that dwell
in dungeons, and lay their head in places of trouble and dis
ease : take those servants of God who have greatest plenty,
who are encircled with blessings, whom this world calls pros
perous, and see if they have not fightings within and crosses
without, contradiction of accidents, and perpetuity of tempta
tions, the devil assaulting them, and their own weakness be
traying them : fears encompassing them round about, lest they
lose the favor of God ; and shame sitting heavily on them, when
they remember how often they talk foolishly, and lose their
duty, and dishonor their greatest relations, and walk unworthy
of those glories which they would fain obtain; and all this is
besides the unavoidable accidents of mortality, sickly bodies,
troublesome times, changes of government, loss of interests, un
quiet and peevish accidents round about them : so that when
they consider to what they are primarily obliged ; that they
must in some instances deny their appetite, in others they must
quit their relations, in all they must deny themselves, when their
natural or secular danger tempts to sin or danger ; and that for
the support of their wills, and the strengthening their resolu-
itions, against the arguments and solicitation of passions, they

198 JEREMY TAYLOR,
have nothing but the promises of another world ; they will
easily see that all the splendor of their condition, which fools
admire, and wise men use temperately, and handle with caution,
as they try the edge of a razor, is so far from making them re
compense for the sufferings of this world, that the reserves and
expectations of the next is, that conjugation of aids, by which
only they can well and wisely bear the calamities of their pre
sent plenty.
But if we look round about us, and see how many righteous
causes are oppressed, how many good men are reproached, how
religion is persecuted, on what strange principles the greatest
princes of the world transact their greatest affairs, how easily
they make wars, and how suddenly they break leagues ; and at
what expense, and vast pensions, they corrupt each other's offi
cers; and how the greatest part of mankind watches to devour
one another : and they that are devoured are commonly the
best, the poor and the harmless, the gentle and uncrafty, the
simple and religious ; and then how many ways all good men
are exposed to danger ; and that our scene of duty lies as much
in passive graces as in active ; — it must be confessed that this is
a place of wasps and insects, of vipers and dragons, of tigers
and bears ; but the sheep are eaten by men, or devoured by
wolves and foxes, or die of the rot ; and when they do not, yet
every year they redeem their lives by giving their fleece and
their milk, and must die, when their death will pay the charges
of the knife.
Now, from this, I say, it was that the very heathen, Plutarch
and Cicero, Pythagoras and Hierocles, Plato and many others,
did argue and conclude, that there must be a day of recom
penses to come hereafter, which would set all right again : and
from hence also our blessed Saviour himself did convince the
Sadducees in their fond and pertinacious denying of the resur
rection : for that is the meaning of that argument, which our
hlessed Lord did choose, as being clearly and infallibly the
aptest of any in the Old Testament, to prove the resurrection ;
and though the deduction is not at first so plain and evident,
yet, on nearer intuition, the interpretation is easy, and the argu
ment excellent and proper.
For it is observed by the learned among the Jews, that when

A FUNERAL SERMON. 199
God is, by way of particular relation and especial benediction,
appropriated to any one, it is intended that God is to him ' it
rewarder and benefactor,' 0eos evepyetrjs, Geos piaBairobdrris :
for that is the first thing and the last, that every man believes
and feels of God ; and, therefore, St. Paul sums up the Gen
tiles' creed in this compendium : ' He that cometh to God,
must believe that God is ; and that he is a rewarder of them
that diligently seek him.'* And as it is in the indefinite ex
pression, so it is in the limited ; as it is in the absolute, so also
in the relative. God is the rewarder ; and to be their God,
is to be their rewarder, to be their benefactor, and their gra
cious Lord. Ego era Deus vester, — ' I will be your God ;' that
is, ' I will do you good,' says Aben Esra : and Philo, to bk
Qeos alwvws 'iaov enri t<^, b x'^P'^opevos, ohrore pev, tots be oi,
del be, Kal avvexO's : " the everlasting God, that is, as if he
had said, one that will do you good : not sometimes some, and
sometimes none at all ; but frequently, arid for ever :" and this
we find also observed by St. Paul : ' Wherefore God is not
ashamed to be called their God;'t and that by which the
relative appellative is verified, is the consequent benefit : he is
' called their God ; for he hath provided for them a city.'
On this account, the argument of our blessed Saviour is this :
' God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob ;' that is, the
gracious God, the benefactor, the rewarder ; and, therefore,
Abraham is not dead, but is fallen asleep, and he shall be re
stored in the resurrection to receive those blessings and rewards,
by the title of which God was called the 'God of Abraham.'
For in this world Abraham had not that harvest of blessings,
which is consigned by that glorious appellative ; he was an
exile from his country ; he stood far off from the possession of
his hopes; he lived in ambulatory life; he spent most of his
dayswithout an heir ; he had a constant piety ; and, at the latter
end of his life, one great blessing was given him ; and because
that was allayed by the anger of his wife, and the expulsion of
his handmaid, and the ejection of Ishmael, and the danger of the
lad ; and his great calamity about the matter of Isaac's sacri
fice ; and all his faith, and patience, and piety, was rewarded
* Heb, xi, 6, f Heb, xi, 16.

200 JEREMY TAYLOR.
with nothing but promises of things a great way off ; and before
the possession of them, he went out of this world ; — it is unde
niably certain that God, who, after the departure of the pa
triarchs, did still love to be called ' their God,' did intend to
signify that they should be restored to a state of life, and a ca
pacity of those greatest blessings, which were the foundation of
that title and that relation. ' God is not the God of the dead,
but of the living;' but God is the God of Abraham, and the
other patriarchs ; therefore they are not dead ; dead to this
world, but alive to God ; that is, though this life be lost, yet
they shall have another and a better ; a life in which God shall
manifest himself to be their God, to all the purposes of benefit
and eternal blessings.
This argument was summed up by St. Peter, and the sense
of it is thus rendered by St. Clement, the bishop of Rome, as
himself testifies : Si Deus est Justus, animus est immortalis ;
which is perfectly rendered by the words of my text : ' If in
this life only we have hope, then are we of all men the most
miserable;' because this cannot be, that God, who is just and
good, should suffer them that heartily serve him to be really
and finally miserable ; and yet in this world they are so, very
frequently ; therefore, in another world, they shall live to re
ceive a full recompense of reward.
Neither is this so to be understood, as if the servants of God
were so wholly forsaken of him in this world, and so permitted
to the malice of evil men, or the asperities of fortune, that they
have not many refreshments, and great comforts, and the per
petual festivities of a holy conscience ; for, ' God my Maker is
he that giveth songs in the night,' said Elihu ;* that is, God, as
a rew^Td, giveth a cheerful spirit, and makes a man to sing with
joy, when other men are sad with the solemn darkness, and
with the affrights of conscience, and with the illusions of the
night. But God, who intends vast portions of felicity to his
children, does not reckon these little joys into the account of
the portion of his elect. The good things which they have in
this world, are not little, if we account the joys of religion, and
the peace of conscience, amongst things valuable ; yet whatso-
' Job, XXXV. 10.

A FUNERAL SERMON. 201
ever it is, all of it, all the blessings of themselves, ahd of their
posterity, and of their relatives, for their sakes, are east in for
intermedial entertainments ; but ' their good,' and their pre
pared portion, shall be hereafter. But for the evil itself, which
they must suffer and overcome, it is such a portion of this life,
as our blessed Saviour had ; injuries and temptations, care and
persecutions, poverty and labor, humility and patience : it is
well; it is very well ; and who can long for, or expect better
here, when his Lord and Saviour had a state of things so very
much worse than the worst of our calamities ? but bad as it is, it
is to be chosen rather than a better ; because it is the highway
of the cross ; it is Jacob's ladder, on which the saints and the
King of Saints did descend, and at last ascend to heaven itself;
and bad as it is, it is the method and inlet to the best ; it is a
sharp, but it is a short step to bliss : for it is remarkable, in the
parable Of Dives and Lazarus, that the poor man, the afflicted
saint, died first. Dives being permitted to his purple and fine
linen, to his delicious fare, and (which he most of all needed)
to a space of repentance : but, in the mean time, the poor man
was rescued from his sad portion of this life, and carried into
Abraham's bosom ; where he who was denied, in this world, to
be feasted even with the portion pf dogs, was placed in the bo
som of the patriarch, that is, in the highest room ; for so it was
in their discubitus, or lying down to meat, the chief guest, the
most beloved person, did lean on the bosom of the master of the
feast ; so St. John did lean on the breast of Jesus, and so did
Lazarus on the breast of Abraham : or else koXttos 'Afipahp,
sinus Abrahami, may be rendered ' the bay of Abraham,'
alluding to the place of rest where ships put in after a tempes
tuous and dangerous navigation : the storm was quickly over
with the poor man, and the angel of God brought the good
man's soul to a safe port, where he should be disturbed no more :
and so saith the Spirit, ' Blessed are the dead which die in
the Lord, for they'rest from their labors.'
But this brings me to the second great inquiry ; if here we
live on hopes, and that this is a place of hopes, but not this
only ; what other place is there, where we shall be blessed in
our hope, where we shall rest from our labor and our fear, and

202 JEREMY TAYLOR.
have our hopes in perfection, — that is, all the pleasures which
can come from the greatest and the most excellent hope ?
' Not in this life only :' — so my text. Therefore hereafter;
as soon as we die ; as soon as ever the soul goes from the body,
it is blessed. Blessed, I say, but not perfect; it rejoices in
peace and a holy hope : here we have hopes mingled with fear,
there our hope is heightened with joy and confidence ; it is all
the comfort that ean be, in the expectation of unmeasurahle
joys : it is only, not fruition, not the joys of a perfect posses
sion : but less than that, it is every good thing else.
But that I may make my way plain, I must first remove an
objection, which seems to overthrow this whole affair. St.
Paul intends these words of my text as an argument to prove
the resurrection ; we shall rise again with our bodies ; for ' if
in this life only we had hope, then we were of all men most
miserable;' meaning, that unless there be a resurrection, there
is no good for us any where else ; but if ' they who die in the
Lord ' were happy before the resurrection, then we were not
of all men most miserable, though there were to be no resur
rection ; for the godly are presently happy. So that one must
fail ; either the resurrection, or the intermedial happiness ; the
proof of one relies on the destruction of the other ; and because
we can no other ways be happy, therefore there shall be a resur
rection. To this I answer, that if the godly, instantly on their disso
lution, had the vision beatifical, it is very true that they were
not most miserable, though there be no resurrection of the dead,
though the body were turned into its original nothing ; for the
joys of the sight of God would, in the soul alone, make them
infinite recompense for all the sufferings of this world. But that
which the saints have after their dissolution, being only the
comforts of a holy hope, the argument remains good : for these
intermedial hopes being nothing at all, but in relation to the
resurrection, these hopes do not destroy, but confirm it rather;
and if the resurrection were not to be, we should neither have
any hopes here, nor hopes hereafter, and therefore the Apostle's
word is, ' If here only we had hopes;' that is, if our hopes only
related to this life ; but because our hopes only relate to the life

A FUNERAL SERMON. 203
to come, and even after this life, we are still but in the regions
of an enlarged hope, this life and that interval are both but the
same argument to infer a resurrection : for they are the hopes
of that state, and the joys of those hopes, and it is the comfort
of that joy, which makes them blessed who die in the love of
God, and the faith and obedience of the Lord Jesus.
And now to the proposition itself.
In the state of separation, the souls departed perceive the
blessing and comfort of their labors ; they are alive after
death ; and after death, immediately they find great refresh-
nients. Justorum animce in mann Dei sunt, et non tanget illos
tormentum mortis : ' The torments of death shall not touch the
souls of the righteous, because they are in the hands of God :"'
and fifteen hundred years after the death of Moses, we find
him talking with our blessed Saviour in his transfiguration on
mount Tabor: and as Moses was then, so are all the saints im
mediately after death, prcesentes apud Dominum, ' they are
present with the Lord ;' and to be so is not a state of death ;
and yet of this it is that St. Paul affirms it to be much better
than to be alive.
And this was the undoubted sentence of the Jews before
Christ, and since ; and therefore our blessed Saviour told the
converted thief, that he should ' that day be with him in para
dise.' Now without peradventure, he spake so as he was to
be understood : meaning by ' paradise,' that which the schools
and pulpits of the Rabbins did usually speak of it. By para
dise, till the time of Esdras, it is certain the Jews only meant
the blessed garden, in which God only placed Adam and Eve:
but in the time of Esdras, and so downward, when they spake
distinctly of things to happen after this life, and began to sig
nify their new discoveries, and modern philosophy by names,
they called the state of souls, expecting the resurrection of their
bodies, by the name of ^"^J;? P, 'the garden of Eden.' Hence came
that form of comprecation, and blessing to the soul of an
Israelite, Sit anima ejus in horto Eden, " Let his soul be in
the garden of Eden ;'' and in their solemn prayers at the time
of their death, they were wont to say, " Let his soul rest; and
* Wisd. iii. 1,

204 JEREMY TAYLOR.
let his sleep be in peace, until the Comforter shall come, and
open the gates of paradise unto him ;" expressly distinguishing
paradise from the state of the resurrection : and so it is evident,
in the intercourse on the cross between Christ and the con
verted thief. " That day both were to be in paradise;" but
Christ himself was not then ascended into heaven, and there
fore paradise was no part of that region, where Christ now, and
hereafter the saints shall reign in glory. For Trapabetaos did,
by use and custom, signify " any place of beauty and pleasure."
So the LXX read Eccles. ii. 5. ' I made me gardens and
orchards,' ' I made me a paradise,' so it is in the Greek ; and
Cicero* having found this strange word in Xenophon, renders
it by conseptum agrum ac diligenter consitum : " a field well
hedged and set with flowers and fruit : " — vivarium, Gellius
renders it, " a place to keep birds and beasts alive for plea
sure." Pollux says this word was Persian by its original ; yet
because by traduction it became a Hebrew, we may best learn
the meaning of it from the Jews, who used it most often, and
whose sense we better understand. Their meaning, therefore,
was this ; that as paradise, or the garden of Eden, was a place
of great beauty, pleasure, and tranquillity ; so the state of
separate souls was a state of peace and excellent delights.
So Philo allegorically does expound paradise : Aeyovat yap
ev T<o wapabeiiTb) ipvra elvai prjbev eoiKora to7s trap' ijplv, dWa
£o)rJ5, aBavaaias, eibfjaews : " For the trees that grow in para
dise are not like ours ; but they bring forth knowlege, and life,
and immortality." It is, therefore, more than probable, that
when the converted thief heard our blessed Saviour speak of
' paradise,' or ' Gan Eden,' he, 'who was a Jew, and heard that
on that day he should be there, understood the meaning to be,
that he should be there, where all the good Jews did believe
the souls of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to be placed. As if
Christ had said ; Though you only ask to be remembered when
I come into my kingdom, not only that shall be performed in
time, but even to-day thou shalt have great refreshment; and
this the Hellenish Jews called avairavaiv tov irapabelaov , "the
rest of paradise : " and irapdKXijojv, " the comfort " of paradise ;
* De Sen, xvii.

A FUNERAL SERMON. 205
the word being also warranted from that concerning Lazarus ;
TapaKaXe'trat, ' he is comforted.'
But this we learn more perfectly from the raptures of St.
Paul: ' I knew a man' (meaning himself) ' rapt up into the
third heaven : and I knew such a man, how that he was caught
up into paradise.'* The raptures and visions were distinct;
for St. Paul, being a Jew, and speaking after the manner of his
nation, makes ' paradise' a distinct thing from ' the third hea
ven:' for the Jews deny any 'orbes' to be in heaven; but
they make three regions only, the one of clouds, the second of
stars, and the third of angels. To this third or supreme heaven
was St. Paul rapt ; but he was also borne to paradise, to another
place distinct and separate by time and station; for by paradise
his countrymen never understood the third heaven. But there
also it was that he heard ra appijra pripara, ' unspeakable
words,' great glorifications of God, huge excellences, such
which he might not, or could not utter below. The effect of
these considerations is this ; that although the saints are not
yet admitted to the blessings consequent to a happy resurrec
tion, yet they have the intermedial entertainments of a present
and a great j oy.
To this purpose are those words to be understood, ' To him
that overcomes, will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is
in the midst of the paradise of God :'f that is, if I may have
leave to expound these words to mean what the Jews did about
that time understand by such words, bivbpov rijs Sin^s, ' the
tree of life,' does signify the principle of peace and holiness, of
wisdom and comforts for ever. Philo, expounding it, calls it
rijv peyiiTTTiv tUv aperSiv Oeoaefieiav, bi' ^s aBavaTiSerai fi ¦^'vxv '¦
" the worship of God, the greatest of all virtues, by which the
soul is made to live for ever :" as if by eating of this tree of life
in the paradise of God, they did mean, that they who die well
shall immediately be feasted with the deliciousness of a holy
conscience, which the Spirit of God expresses by saying,
' They shall walk up and down in white garmetits, and their
works shall follow them;' their tree of life shall germinate;
they shall then feel the comforts of having done good works ; a
» 2 Cor. xii. 2. t Rev. ii, 7.

206 JEREMY TAYLOR,
sweet remembrance and a holy peace shall, caress and feast
them, and there they shall 'walk up and down in white;'*
that is, as candidates of the resurrection to immortality.
And this allegory of the garden of Eden and paradise was so
heartily pursued by the Jews, to represent the state of separa
tion, that the Essenes describe that state by the circumstances
and ornaments of a blessed garden : Xapov ovre opfipois, owe
vtiperols, ovre Kvpaai (Sapvvopevov : " a region that is not troubled
with clouds, or showers, or storms, or blasts :" aXX' ov e^ ijKeavov
vpavs dei ie<pvpos eiriirveiuv avaxpyxei : " but a place which is
perpetually refreshed with delicious breaths." This was it
which the heathens did dream concerning the Elysian fields ;
for all the notices Trepl'Aibov, concerning the regions of separate
souls, came into Greece from the barbarians, says Diodorus
Sieulus ; and Tertullian observes, although we call that para
dise, which is a place appointed to receive the souls of the
saints, and that this is separated from the notices of the world
by a wall of fire, a portion of the torrid zone (which he sup
poses to be meant by the flaming sword of the angel placed at
the gates of paradise) ; yet, says he, the Elysian fields have
already possessed the faith and opinions of men. All comes
from the same fountain, the doctrine of the old synagogue, con
firmed by the words of Christ, and the commentaries of the
Apostles ; namely, that after death, before the day of judgment,
there is a paradise for God's servants, a region of rest, of com
fort, and holy expectations. And, therefore, it is remarkable
that these words of the Psalmist, Ne rapias me in medio dierum
meorum;\ ' snatch me not away in the midst of my days;' in
the Hebrew it is, Ne facias me ascendere; ' make me not to
ascend,' or to go upwards; meaning, to the supernatural re
gions of separate souls, who, after death, are in their beginnings
of exultation. For to them that die in the Lord, death is a
preferment, it is a part of their great good fortune ; for death
hath not only lost the sting, but it brings a coronet in his hand,
which will invest and adorn the heads of saints, till that day
come in which the crown of righteousness shall be brought forth,
to give them the investiture of an everlasting kingdom.
* Rev. iii. 4, 5. and xiv. 13. f Psal. cii. 26.

A FUNERAL SERMON. 207
But that I may take up this proposition useful and clear, I
am to add some things by way of supplement.
1. This place of separation was called ' paradise' by the
Jews, and by Christ, and after Christ's ascension, by St. John,
because it signifies a place of pleasure and rest ; and therefore,
by the same analogy, the word may be still used in all the
periods of the world, though the circumstances, or though the
state of things, be changed. It is generally supposed that this
had a proper name, and in the Old Testament was called ' Abra
ham's bosom ;' that is, the region where Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob did dwell, till the coming of Christ. But I suppose
myself to have great reason to dissent from this common
opinion; for this word of ' Abraham's bosom,' being but once
used in both the Testaments, and then particularly applied to
the person of Lazarus, must needs signify the eminence and pri
vilege of joy that Lazarus had: for all that were in the blessed
state of separation, were not in ' Abraham's bosom,' but only the
best and most excellent persons ; but they were juerd toU 'Afipaap,
' with Abraham ;' and the analogy of the phrase to the manner of
the Jewish feasting, where the best guest did lie in the bosom of
the master, that is, had the best place, makes it most reasonable
to believe that ' Abraham's bosom' does not signify the general
state of separation, even of the blessed, but the choicest place in
that state, a greater degree of blessedness. But because he is the
father of the faithful, therefore, to be with Abraham, or to sit
down with Abraham, in the time of the Old Testament, did sig
nify the same thing as to be in paradise ; but to be in ' Abra
ham's bosom' signifies a great eminence of place and comfort,
which is indulged to the most excellent and the most afflicted.
2. Although the state of separation may now also, and is by
St. John called paradise, because the allegory still holds per
fectly, as signifying comfort and holy pleasures ; yet the spirits
of good men are not to be said ' to be with Abraham,' but ' to
be with Christ ;' and as being with Abraham was the specifica
tion of the more general word of paradise in the Old Testament,
so ' being with Christ ' is the specification of it in the New. So
St. Stephen prayed, ' Lord Jesus, receive my spirit;' and St.
Paul said, ' I desire to be dissolved, and to be with Christ ;'
which expression St. Polycarp also used in his epistle to the

208 JEREMY TAYLOR,
Philippians, on els rbv oijieiXopevov avrols tottov, eial Trap'a Kwpiu:
"they are in the place that is due to them, they are with the
Lord ;" that is, in the hands, in the custody, of the Lord Jesus;
as appears in the words of St. Stephen and St. Paul. So St.
Jerome : Scimus Nepotianum nostrum esse cum Christo, et
sanctorum mixtum charts : " We know that our Nepotian is
with Christ, mingled in the choirs of saints." On this ac
count (and it is not at all unreasonable) the church hath conjec
tured, that the state of separate souls, since the glorification of
our Lord, is much bettered and advanced, and their comforts
greater ; because, as before Christ's coming, the expectation of
the saints that slept was fixed on the revelation of the Messias
in his first coming, so now it is on the second coming unto
judgment, and in his glory. This improvement of their condi
tion is well intimated by their being said to be under the altar;
that is, under the protection of Christ ; under the powers and
benefits of his priesthood, by which he makes continual inter
cession both for them and us. This place some of the old doc
tors understood too literally, and from hence they believed that
the souls of departed saints were under their material altars ;
which fancy produced that fond decree of the council of Eli-
beris,* that wax lights should not by day be burnt in ceme
teries, inquietandi enim spiritus sanctorum nan sunt : " lest the
spirits of saints should, by the light of the diurnal tapers, be
disquieted." This reason, though it be trifling and impertinent,
yet it declares their opinion, that they supposed their souls to
be near their relics, which were placed under the altars. But
better than this their state is described by St. John, in these
words : ' Therefore they are before the throne of God, and
serve him night and day in his temple, and he that sits on the
throne shall dwell among them.' With which general words,
as being modest bounds to our inquiries, enough to tell us it is
rarely well, but enough also to chastise all curious questions,
let us remain content; and labor with faith and patience, with
hope and charity, to be made worthy to partake of those com
forts, after which when we have long inquired, when at last we
come to try what they are, we shall find them much better, and
much otherwise than we imagine. * Can. iii. 4,

A FUNERAL SERMON. 209
3. I am to admonish this also ; that although our blessed
Saviour is, in the creed, said to descend els "Aibov, ' into hell '
(so we render it); yet this does not at all prejudice his other
words, ' This day thou shalt be with me in paradise :' for the
word eWAibov signifies indefinitely the state of separation, whe
ther blessed or accursed ; it means only the invisible place, or
the region of darkness, whither whoso descends shall be no
more seen. For as among the heathens the Elysian fields and
Tartaraaie both ev'Aibov, so, amongst the Jews and Christians,
paradisus and gehenna are the distinct states of Hades. Of the
first we have a plain testimony in Diphilus :
Kctl yap Kofl' "AiStjc Silo rpi^ovs yo/iffu^ey,
MlttK SiKalav, KaTspav affefiav 6S6v
" In Hades there are two ways, one for just men, and another
for the impious." Of the second we have the testimony of Jo-
sephus, who, speaking of the Sadducees, says, rds KaB"'Aibov n-
pii/plas Kal npas avaipovni, " they take away or deny the re
wards and punishments respectively which are in Hades," or in
the state of separation ; so that if Christ's soul was in paradise,
he was in Hades. In vain, therefore, does St. Austin torment
himself to tell how Christ could be in both places at once, when
it is no harder than to tell how a man may be in England and
London at the same time.
4. It is observable, that in the mentions of paradise by St.
John, he twice speaks of ' the tree of life,' but never of ' the
tree of knowlege of good and evil ;' because this was the
symbol of secular knowlege, of prudence and skill of doing
things of this world, which we can naturally use ; we may smell
and taste them, but not feed on them ; that is, these are no part
of our enjoyment ; and if we be given up to the study of such
notices, and be immerged in the things of this world, -vye can
not attend to the studies of religion and of the divine service.
But these cares and secular divertisements shall cease, when
our Souls are placed in paradise ; there shall be no care taken
for raising portions for our children, nor to provide bread for
our tables ; no cunning contrivances to be safe from the crafty
snare of an enemy; no amazement at losses, no fear of slander-
ings, or of the gripes of publicans : but we shall feed on the

210 JEREMY TAYLOR.
tree of life, love of God, and longings for the coming of Christ:
we are then all spirit, and our employment shall be symbolical,
that is, spiritual, holy, and pleasant.
I have now made it as evident as questions of this nature will
bear, that, in the state of separation, the spirits of good men
shall be blessed and happy souls,— they have an antepast or
taste of their reward : but their great reward itself, their crown
of righteousness, shall not be yet ; that shall not be until the
day of judgment; and this was the third proposition I under
took to prove ; the consummation and perfection of the saints'
felicity shall be at the resurrection of the dead.
'Ev TTapovaiq. avTov, ' at his coming ;' so St. John expresses
the time, ' that we may not then be ashamed : for now we are
the sons of God, but it does not yet appear what we shall be :
but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like unto
him, and see hira as he is.' * At his glorious appearing, we
shall also appear glorious ; we shall see him as he is; but till
then, this beatific vision shall not be at all; but for the interval,
the case is otherwise. Tertullian affirms, Puniri etfoveri animam
interim in inferis, sub expectationeutriusquejudicii: " the souls
are punished or refreshed in their regions, expecting the day of
their judgment and several sentences."t Habitacula ilia anima-
rum pramptuaria nominavit Scriptura, saith St. Ambrose :
" the Scripture calls these habitations, the promptuaries, or repo
sitories of souls."! There is comfort, but not the full reward :
a certain expectation, supported with excellent intervals of joy :
refrigerium, so 'the lia.t\ns call it, "a refreshment." Donee
consummatio rerum resurrectianem omnium plenitudine merce-
dis expungat, tunc apparitura coelesti promissione, saith Tertul
lian : " until the consummation of all things points out the re
surrection, by the fulness of reward, and the appearing of the
heavenly promise." So the author of the questions ad ortho-
doxas:\ " Immediately after death, presently there is a separa
tion of the just from the unjust ;" for they are borne by angels
iis a^iovs avrwv tottovs, "into the places they have deserved;'
* 1 John, ii. 28. iii. 2.
+ Lib. de Anima, et lib. adv. Marcion.
J De Bono Mortis, cap, 10, § QuEest. 75,

A FUNERAL SERMON, 211
and they are in those places (^uXarrd/iei'at iu)s ttjs fipepas rrjs
avaaraffem Kai avTairoboaeais, " kept unto the day of resurrection
and retribution." But what do they in the mean time ? how is
it with them ? Qavpaalav Tiva iibovi)v ijbeTai, Kai ayaXXerai,
says Naziarizen :* " they rejoice and are delighted in a won
derful joy." — " They see angels and archangels, they converse
with them, and see our blessed Saviour Jesus in his glorified
humanity :" so Justin Martyr.f But in these great joys they
look for greater. They are now in paradiso, but they long that
the body and soul may be in heaven together ; but this is the
glory of the day of judgment, the fruit of the resurrection. And
this whole affair is agreeable to reason and the analogy of the
whole dispensation, as it is generally and particularly described
in Scripture,
For when the greatest effect of the Divine power, the mighti
est promise, that hardest thing to Christian faith, that impos
sible thing to gentile philosophy, the expectation of the whole
world, the new creation, when that shall come to pass, viz,
that the souls shall be reinvested with their bodies, when the
ashes of dissolved bones shall stand up a new and living frame ;
to suppose that then there shall be nothing done in order to
eternity, but to publish the salvation of saints, of which they
were possessed before, is to make a great solemnity for nothing,
to do great things for no great end, and, therefore, it is not
reasonable to suppose it.
For if it were a good argument of the Apostle, that the pa
triarchs and saints of the Old Testament received not the pro
mises signified by Canaan and the land of promise, because
' God hath provided some better thing for us, that without us
they should not be made perfect,' it must also conclude of all .
alike ; that they who died since Christ, must stay till the last
day, that they and we and all may be made perfect together.
And this very thing was told to the spirits of the martyrs, who
under the altar cried, ' How long, O Lord, 'I &c. that they
should ' rest yet for a little season,' until their fellow-servants
also shall be fulfilled.
* Orat. Funebr. Caesar. Fratris. •)¦ Ubi supra.
I Rev, vi. 10,

212 JEREMY TAYLOR,
On this account it is that the day of judgment is a day of
recompense. So said our blessed Lord himself : ' Thou shalt
be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.'* And this is
the day in which all things shall be restored ; for ' the heavens
must receive Jesus till the time of resritution of all things :'t
and till then, the reward is said to be ' laid up.' So St. Paul;
' Henceforth is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which
the righteous Judge shall give me in that day.' And that you
may know he means the resurrection and the day of judgment,
he adds, ' and not to me only, but to all them that love his
coming;'! of whom it is certain many shall be alive at that day,
and therefore cannot, before that day, receive the crown of
righteousness : and then also, and not till then, shall be his ap
pearing ; but till then, it is a, dejiositum. The sum is this: in
the world, we walk and live by faith ; in the state of separation,
we live by hope ; and in the resurrection, we shall live by an
eternal charity. Here we see God as ' in a glass, darkly;' in
the separation we shall behold him, but it is afar off; and after
the resurrection we shall see him ' face to face,' in the ever
lasting comprehensions of an intuitive beatitude. In this life
we are warriors ; in the separation we are conquerors; but we
shall not triumph till after the resurrection.
And in proportion to this is also the state of devils and
damned spirits. ' Art thou come to torment us before the time?'
said the devils to our blessed Saviour. There is for them also
an appointed time, and when that is we learn from St. Jude :
' They are reserved in chains under darkness, unto the judg
ment of the great day.'§ Well, therefore, did St. James affirm,
' that the devils believe and tremble ;' and so do the damned
souls, with an insupportable amazement, fearing the revelation
of that day. They know that day will come, and they know
they shall find an intolerable sentence on that day ; and they
fear infinitely, and are in amazement and confusion, feeling the
worm of conscience, and are in the state of devils, who fear
God and hate him ; they tremble, but they love him not ; and
yet they die because they would not love him, because they
^ Luke, xiv. 14. f Acts, iii, 7. J 2 Tim. iv, 8.
^ ver. vi.

A FUNERAL SERMON. 213
would not with their powers and strengths keep his command
ments. This doctrine, though of late it hath been laid aside, on the
interest of the church of Rome, and for compliance with some
other schools, yet was it universally the doctrine of the primitive
church ; as appears out of Justin Martyr, who, in his dialogues
with Tryphon, reckons this amongst the erepobo^lat, " errors,"
of some men, who say there shall be no resurrection of the
dead; but that, as soon as good men are dead, ras v^wx^s avTCiv
avaXapfiaveaBai els tov ovpavbv, " their souls are taken up im
mediately into heaven." And the writer of the questions ad
orthodoxos, asks,* whether, before the resurrection, there shall
be a reward of works ? because to the thief paradise was pro
mised that day. He answers; " It was fit the thief should go
to paradise, and there perceive what things should be given to
the works of faith ; but there he is kept, eius rijs -iipepas rfjs ava-
OTaaem Kal avTaitoboaeios, ' until the day of resurrection and
reward,' " But in paradise the soul hath an intellectual percep
tion, both of herself, and of those things which are under her.
Concerning which I shall not need to heap up testimonies.
This only : it is the doctrine of the Greek church unto this day;
and was the opinion of the greatest part of the ancient church,
both Latin and Greek ; and by degrees was, in the west, eaten
out by the doctrine of purgatory and invocation of saints ; and
rejected a little above two hundred years ago, in the council of
Florence ; and since that time it hath been more generally
taught, that the souls of good men enjoy the beatific vision be
fore the resurrection, even presently on the dissolution. Ac
cording to which new opinion it will be impossible to understand
the meaning of my text, and of divers other places of Scrip
ture, which I have now alleged and explicated ; or at all to
perceive the economy and dispensation of the day of judgment;
or how it can be a day of discerning ; or how the reapers (the
angels) shall bind up the wicked into bundles, and throw them
into the unquenchable fire ; or yet how it can be useful, or ne
cessary, or prudent, for Christ to give a solemn sentence on all
the world ; and how it can be, that that day should be so for-
* Quasst, 60. 75, 76.

214 JEREMY TAYLOR,
midable and full of terrors, when nothing ean affright those that
have long enjoyed the beatific presence of God ; and no thun
ders or earthquakes can affright them, who have on them the
biggest evil in the world, I mean the damned, who, according to
this opinion, have been in hell for many ages : and it can mean
nothing but to them that are alive ; and then it is but a parti'
cular, not a universal judgment ; and after all it can pretend
to no piety, to no Scripture, to no reason, and only can serve
the ends of the church of Rome, who can no way better be
confuted in their invocations of saints than by this truth, th^t
the saints do not yet enjoy the beatific vision ; and though they
are in a state of ease and comfort, yet are not in a state of
power and glory and kingdom, till the day of judgment.
This also perfectly does overthrow the doctrine of purgatory:
for as the saints departed are not perfect, and therefore certainly
not to be invocated, not to be made our patrons and advocates;
so neither are they in such a condition as to be in torment ; and
it is impossible that any wise man should believe that the souls
of good men after death should endure the sharp pains of hell,
and yet at the same time believe those words of Scripture,
' Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord, from henceforth ;
yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors, and
their works do follow them.'* If they can rest in beds of fire,
and sing hymns of glory in the torments of the damned, if their
labors are done when their pains are almost infinite, then these
words of the Spirit of God, and that doctrine of purgatory, can
be reconciled ; else never to eternal ages. But it is certain
they are words that cannot deceive us : Non tanget eos tormen
tum mortis: " torment in death shall never touch them."
But having established the proposition, and the intended
sense of the text, let us awhile consider,
1, That God is our God when we die, if we be his servants
while we live ; and to be our God signifies very much good to
us. He will rescue us from the powers of hell ; the devil shall
have no part or portion in us ; we shall be kept in safe custody ;
we shall be in the hands of Christ, out of which all the powers
of hell shall never snatch us ; and therefore we may die with
* Rev, xiv. 13,

A FUNERAL SERMON, 215
confidence, if we die with a good conscience ; we have no cause
of fear, if we have just grounds to hope for pardon. The Turks
have a saying, that the Christians do not believe themselves,
when they talk such glorious things of heaven and the state of
separation ; for if they did, they would not be so afraid to die :
but they do not so well consider that Christians believe all this
well enough, but they believe better than they live ; and there
fore they believe and tremble, because they do not live after
the rate of going to heaven : they know that for good men glo
rious things are prepared ; but ' Tophet is prepared for evil
kings' and unjust rulers, for vicious men and degenerate
Christians ; there is a hell for accursed souls ; and men live
without fear of it so long, till their fear, as soon as it begins, in
an instant passes into despair, and the fearful groans of the
damned. It is no wonder to see men so unwilling to die, to
be impatient of the thought of death, to be afraid to make their
will, to converse with the solemn scarecrow. He that is fit to
die, must have long dwelt with it, must handle it on all sides,
must feel whether the sting be taken out : he must examine
• whether he be in Christ ;' that is, whether ' he be a new
creature.' And indeed I do not so much wonder that any
man fears to die, as when I see a careless and a wicked person
descend to his grave with as much indifference as he goes to
sleep ; that is, with no other trouble than that he leaves the
world, but he does not fear to die ; and yet, on the instant of
his dissolution, he goes into the common receptacle of souls,
where nothing can be addressed to hira but the consequence of
what he brings along with hira, and he shall presently know
whether he shall be saved or damned.
We have read of some men, who by reading or hearing
strange opinions, have entered into desperate melancholy,- and
divers who have perfectly despaired of the Divine mercy ; who
feeling such horrid convulsions in their souls, such fearful ex
pectations of an eternal curse, that not finding themselves able
to bear so intolerable a fear, have hanged or drowned them
selves ; and yet they only thought so, or feared it ; and might
have altered it if they would have hoped and prayed : but
then let it be considered, when the soul is stripped of the cloud,
her body, — when she is entered into strange regions, and con.

216 JEREMY TAYLOR.
verses only with spirits, and sees plainly all that is within her,
— when all her sins appear in their own natural ugliness, and
set out by their aggravating circumstances ; then she remem
bers her filthy pleasures, and hates them infinitely, as being
such things to which she then can have no appetite : then she
perceives she shall perish for that which is not, for that whose
remembrance is intolerable ; when she sees many new secrets
which she understood not before, and hath stranger apprehen
sions of the wrath of God, than ever could be represented in
tliis life : when she hath the notices of a spirit, and an under
standing pure enough to see essences, and rightly to weigh all
the degi'ees of things ; when, possibly, she is often affrighted
with the alarms and conjectures of the day of judgment; or if
she be not, yet certainly knows not only by faith and fear, but
by a clear light and proper knowlege, that it shall certainly
come, and its effects shall remain for ever ; then she hath time
enough to bewail her own folly and remediless infelicity. If we
could now think seriously, that things must come to that pass,
and place ourselves, by holy meditation, in the circumstances
of that condition, and consider what we should then think, —
how miserably deplore our folly, how comfortless remember
our ill-gotten wealth ; with how much asperity and deep sighing
we should call to mind our foolish pride, our trifling swearing,
our beastly drinkings, our unreasonable and brutish lusts; it
could not be but we must grow wiser on a sudden, despise the
world, betake ourselves to a strict religion, reject all vanities
of spirit, and be sober and watch unto prayer. If any of us
had but a strange dream, and should, in the fears of the night,
but suppose ourselves in hell, and be affrighted with those cir
cumstances of damnation which we can tell of, and use in our
imperfect notices of things, it would effect strange changes on
a ductile and malleable spirit. A frequent, severe meditation
can do more than a seldom and a fantastic dream ; but an active
faith can do more than all the arts and contingencies of fancy
or discourse.
Now it is well with us, and we may yet secure it shall be
well with us for ever ; but within an hour it may be otherwise
with any of us all, who do not instantly take courses of secu
rity. But he that does not, would, in such a change, soon

A FUNERAL SERMON, 217
come to wish that he might exchange his state with the mean
est, with the miserablest of all mankind ; with galley-slaves and
miners, with men condemned to tortures for a good conscience.
Sed cum pulchra minax succidet membra securis,
Quam velles spinas tunc habuisse meas ! *
In the day of felling timber, the shrub and the bramble are
better than the tallest fir or the goodliest cedar ; and a poor
saint, whose soul is in the hand of Jesus, placed under the altar,
over which our high priest, like the cherubim over the propi
tiatory, intercedes perpetually for the hastening of his glory, is
better than the greatest tyrant, who, if he dies, is undone for
ever. For, in the interval, there shall be rest and comfort to
the one, and torment, and amazement, and hellish confusion to
the other ; and the day of judgment will come, and it shall ap
pear to all the world, that they whose joys were not in this
world, were not, ' of all men, most miserable,' because their
joys and their life were hid with Christ in God, and, at the
resurrection of the just, shall be brought forth, and be illus
trious, beyond all the beauties of the world,
I have now done with my text, and been the expounder of
this part of the divine oracle ; but here is another text, and
another sermon yet. Ye have heard Moses and the prophets ;
now hear one from the dead, whose life and death would each
of them make an excellent sermon, if this dead man had a good
interpreter : for he being dead, yet speaketh, and ealleth on us
to live well, and to live quickly, to watch perpetually, and to
work assiduously ; for we shall descend into the same shadows
of death, Linquenda tellus, et domus, et placcns
Uxor; neque harum, quas colis, arborum
Te, praeter invisas cupressos,
Ulla brevera dominam sequetunf
" Thou must leave thy rich land, and thy well-built house,
and thy pleasing wife ; and of all the trees of thy orchard or
thy wood, nothing shall attend thee to the grave, but oak for
' Avien. fab, 19, 13, t Hor. Od, ii. 14. 21.
TAY. VOL. IV. K

218 JEREMY TAYLOR.
thy coffin, and cypress for thy funeral." It shall not then be
inquired how long thou hast lived, but how well. None below
will be concerned, whether thou wert rich or poor, but all the
spirits of light and darkness shall be busy in the scrutiny of thy
life ; for the good angels would fain carry thy soul to Christ;
and if they do, the devils will follow, and accuse thee there ;
and when thou appearest before the righteous Judge, what will
become of thee, unless Christ be thy advocate, and God be
merciful and appeased, and the angels be thy guards, and a
holy conscience be thy comfort ? There will to every one of
us come a time, when we shall, with great passion and great
interest, inquire, how have I spent my days, how have I laid
out my money, how have I employed my time, how have I
served God, and how repented me of my sins? and, on our
answer to these questions, depends a happy or an unhappy eter
nity : and blessed is he, who, concerning these things, takes
care in time ; and of this care I may with much confidence and
comfort propound to you the example of this good man, whose
relies lie before you : Sir George Dalston, of Dalston in
Cumberland, a worthy man, beloved of his country, useful to
his friends, friendly to all men, careful of his religion, and a
true servant of God.
He was descended of an ancient and worthy house in Cum
berland ; and he adorned his family and extraction with a
more worthy comportment ; for to be of a worthy family, and
to bring to it no stock of our proper virtue, is to be upbraided
by our family ; and a worthy father can be no honor to his son,
when it shall be said, " Behold the difference : this crab de
scended from a goodly apple-tree;" but he who beau.tifies the
escutcheon of his ancestors by worthy achievements, by learn
ing, or by wisdom, by valor and by great employments, by a
holy life and a useful conversation, that man is the parent of
his own fame, and a new beginner of an ancient family ; for,
as conversation is a perpetual creation, so is the progression of
a family in a line of worthy descendants, a daily beginning of
its honor, and a new stabiliment.
H.e was bred in learning, in which Cambridge was, his tiring
room, and the court of queen Elizabeth was his stage, in which
he first represented the part of a hopeful young man ; but there

A FUNERAL SERMON. 219
he stayed not : his friends, not being desirous that the levities
of youth should be fermented by the liberties of a rich and
splendid court, caused him to lie in the restraints, and to grow
ripe in the sobrieties of a country life, and a married state ; in
which, as I am informed, he behaved himself with so great
worthiness, and gave such probation of his love of justice,
popular regards of his country's good, and abilities to serve
them, that, for almost forty years together, his county chose
him for their knight, to serve in all the intervening parliaments.
Magistratus, indicatorium ; " employment shows the man :"
he was a leading man in parliaments, prevailing there by the
great reputation of his justice and integrity; and yet he was
not unpleasant and hated at court : for he had well understood,
that the true interests of courts and parliaments were one, and
that they are like the humors of the body ; if you increase one
beyond its limit, that destroys all the rest, and itself at last ;
and when they look on themselves as enemies, and that hot
and cold must fight, the prevailing part is abated in the con
flict, and the vanquished part is destroyed : but when they look
on themselves as varieties serving the differing aspects and ne
cessities of the same body, they are for the allay of each other's
exorbitances and excesses, and, by keeping their own measures,
they preserve the man : this the good man well understood ;
for so he comported himself, that he was loud in parliaments,
and valued at court ; he was respected in very many parlia
ments, and was worthily regarded by the worthy kings ; which,
without an orator, commends a man : Gravissimi principis ju
dicium in minaribus etiam rebus consequi pulchrum est, said
Pliny; " to be approved, though but in lesser terms, by the
judgment of a wise prince, is a great ornament to a man." For
as king Theodoric, in Cassiodore, said, Neque dignus est a quo-
piam redargui, qui nostra judicio mei'etur absolvi: " No man
to reprove him, whom the king aught comraends."
But I need no artifices to represent him worthy : his argu
ments of probation were within, in the magazines of a good
heart, and represented themselves by worthy actions. For God
was pleased to invest -him with a marvellous sweet nature;
which is certainly to be reckoned as one half of the grace of
God : because a good nature, being the relics and remains of

220 JEREMY TAYLOR.
that shipwreck which Adam made, is the proper and immediate
disposition to holiness, as the corruption of Adam was to dis
obedience and peevish counsels. A good nature will not up
braid the more imperfect persons, will not deride the ignorant,
will not reproach the erring man, will not smite sinners on the
face, will not despise the penitent. A good nature is apt to
forgive injuries, to pity the miserable, to rescue the oppressed,
to. make every one's condition as tolerable as he ean; and so
would he. For, as when good nature is heightened by the
grace of God, that which was natural becomes now spiritual ;
so these actions which proceeded from an excellent nature, and
were pleasing and useful to men, — when they derive from a
new principle of grace, they become pleasant in the eyes of
God : then obedience to laws is duty to God; justice is
righteousness, bounty becomes graciousness, and alms is
charity. And, indeed, this is a grace in which this good man was very
remarkable, being very frequent and much in alms, tender
hearted to the poor, open-handed to relieve their needs; the
bellies of the poor did bless hira, he filled them with food and
gladness ; and I have heard that he was so regular, so constant,
so free in this duty, that in these late unhappy wars, being in a
garrison, and near the suffering some rude accidents, the beg
gars made themselves guard, and rescued him from that trouble,
who had so often rescued them from hunger.
He was of a meek and gentle spirit, but not too soft ; he
knew how to do good, and how to put by an injury; but I
have heard it told by them that knew his life, that being, by
the unavoidable trouble of a great estate, engaged in great
suits at law, he was never plaintiff, but always on the defensive
part; and that he had reason on his side, and justice for him, I
need allege no other testimony, but that the sentence of his
judges so declared it.
But that in which I propound this good man most imitable,
was in his religion ; for he was a great lover of the church, a
constant attender to the sermons of the church, a diligent hearer
of the prayers of the church, and an obedient son to perform
the commands of the church. He was diligent in his times
and circumstances of devotion ; he would often be at church so

A FUNERAL SERMON. 221
early, that he was seen to walk long in the church-yard before
prayers, being as ready to confess his sins at the beginning, as
to receive the blessing at the end of prayers. Indeed he was
so great a lover of sermons, that though he knew how to value
that which was the best, yet he was patient of that which was
not so ; and if he could not learn any thing to improve his
faith, yet he would find something to exercise his patience, and
something for charity : yet this his great love of sermons could
not tempt him to a willingness of neglecting the prayers of the
church, of which he was a great lover to his dying day. Oves
mea exaudiunt vocem meam, says Christ; 'my sheep hear my
voice;' and so the church says, " my sheep hear my voice,
they love my words, they pray in my forms, they observe my
orders, they delight in my offices, they revere ray ministers,
and obey my constitutions :" and so did he ; loving to have his
soul recommended to God, and his needs represented, and his
sins confessed, and his pardon implored, in the words of his
mother, in the voice and accent of her that nursed him up to a
spiritual life, to be a man in Christ Jesus.
He was indeed a great lover, and held a great regard for
God's ministers, ever remembering the words of God, 'keep
my rest, and reverence my priests :' he honored the calling in
all, but he loved and revered the persons of such who were con
scientious keepers of their depositum, " that trust," which was
committed to them : such which did not for interest quit their
conscience, and did not, to preserve some parts of their revenue,
quit some portions of their religion. He knew that what was
true in 1639, was also true in 1644, and so to 57, and shall
continue true to eternal ages ; and they that change their per
suasions by force or interest, did neither believe well nor ill,
on competent and just grounds; they are not just, though they
happen on the right side. Hope of gain did by chance teach
them well, and fear of loss abuses them directly. He pitied
the persecuted, and never would take part with persecutors:
he prayed for his prince, and served him in what he could : he
loved God, and loved the church: he was a lover of his
country's liberties, and yet an observer of the laws of his
king. Thus he behaved himself to all his superior relatives ; to his

222 JEREMY TAYLOR.
equals and dependents he was also just, and kind, and loving.
He was an excellent friend, laying out his own interest to serve
theirs; sparing not himself, that he might serve them; as
knowing society to be the advantage of man's nature, and
friendship the ornament of society, and usefulness the ornament
of friendship ; and in this he was well known to be very worthy.
He was tender and careful of his children, and so provident
and so wise, so loving and obliging to his whole family, that
he justly had that love and regard, that duty and observance
from them, which his kindness and his care had merited. He
was a provident and careful conductor of his estate ; but far
from covetousness, as appeared toward the evening of his life,
in which that vice does usually prevail amongst old men, who
are more greedy when they have least need, and load their surap-
ters so much the more, by how much nearer they are to their
journey's end : but he made a demonstration of the contrary ; for
he washed his hands and heart of the world, gave up his estate,
long before his death or sickness, to be managed by his only
son, whom he left since, but then first made and saw him his
heir ; he emptied his hands of secular employment ; meddled
not with money, but for the uses of the poor, for piety, justice,
and religion.
And now having divested himself of all objections and his
conversation with the -world, quitting his affections to it, he
wholly gave himself to religion and devotion : he awakened
early, and would presently be entertained with reading; when
he rose, still he would be read to, and hear some of the
Psalms of David ; and excepting only what time he took for
the necessities of his life and health, all the rest he gave to
prayer, reading, and meditation, save only that he did not neg
lect, nor rudely entertain the visits and kind offices of his
neighbors. But in this great vacation from the world he espied his ad
vantages : he knew well, according to the saying of the empe
ror Charles V., Opartet inter vita negatia et diem mortis
spatium aliquod intercedere ; there ought to be a valley be
tween two such mountains, the business of our life, and the
troubles of our death ; and he stayed not till the noise of the
Bridegroom's coming did awaken and affright him ; but by

A FUNERAL SERMON. 223
daily prayers twice a day, constantly with his family, besides
the piety and devotion of his own retirements, by a monthly
communion, by weekly sermons, and by the religion of every
day, he stood in precincts, ready with oil in his lamp, watching
till his Lord should call.
And, indeed, when he was hearing what God did speak to
him of duty, he also received his summons to give his account :
for he was so pertinacious and attendant to God's holy word,
and the services of the church, that though he found himself
sick, he would not off, but stay till the solemnity was done ; but
it pleased God at church to give him his first arrest ; and since
that time I have often visited hira, and found him always doing
his work, with the greatest evenness and indifferency of spirit^
as to the event of life and death, that I have observed in any.
He was not unwilling to live ; but if he should, he resolved to
spend his life wholly in the service of God : but yet neither
was he unwilling to die, because he then knew he should weep
no more, and he should sin no more. He was very confident,
but yet with great humility and great modesty, of the pardon
of his sins ; he had indeed lived without scandal, but he knew
he had not lived without error ; but as God had assisted him
to avoid the reproach of great crimes, so he doubted not but
he should find pardon for the less ; and, indeed, I could not
but observe, that he had, in all the time of his sickness, a very
quiet conscience ; which is to me an excellent demonstration
of the state of his life, and the state of his grace and pardon :
for though he seemed to have a conscience tender and nice,
if any evil thing had touched it ; yet I could not but appre
hend that his peace was a just peace, the mercy of God, and
the price and the effect of the blood of Jesus.
He was so joyful, so thankful, so pleased in the ministries
of the church, that it gave in evidence where his soul was most
delighted, what it did apprehend the quickest, where it did use
to dwell, and what it did most passionately love. He dis
coursed much of the mercies of God to him, repeated the bless
ings of his life, the accidents and instruments of his trouble ;
he loved the cause of his trouble, and pardoned them that
neither loved it nor him.
When he had spent great portions of his time of sickness in

224 JEREMY TAYLOR.
the service of God, and in expectation of the sentence of his
life or death, at last he understood the still voice of God, and
that he was to go where his soul loved to be : he still increased
his devotion, and being admonished, as his strength failed him,
to supply his usual forms, and his want of strength and words,
by short exercise of virtues, of faith and patience, and the love
of God ; he did it so willingly, so well, so readily, making
his eyes, his hands, and his tongue, as long as he could, the
interpreters of his mind, that as long as he was alive, he would
see what his soul was doing. He doubted not of the truth of
the promises, nor of the goodness of God, nor the satisfaction
of Christ, and the merits of his death, nor the fruit of his re
surrection, nor the prevalency of his intercession, nor yet
doubted of his own part in them ; but expected his portions in
the regions of blessedness, with those who loved God, and
served hira heartily and faithfully in their generations.
He had so great a patience in his .sickness, and was so afraid
lest he should sin at last, that his piety outdid his nature ; and
though the body cannot feel but by the soul, yet his soul seemed
so little concerned in the passions of the body, that I neither
observed, nor heard of him, that he in all his sickness so much
as complained with any semblance of impatience.
He so continued to pray, so delighted in hearing psalms
sung, which I wish were made as fit to sing by their numbers
as they are by their weight, that so very much of his time was
spent in them, that it was very likely when his Lord came he
would find him so doing ; and he did so : for in the midst of
prayers he went away, and got to heaven as soon as they ; and
saw them (as we hope) presented to the throne of grace ; he
went along with them himself, and was his own messenger to
heaven ; where although he possibly might prevent his last
prayers, yet he would not prevent God's early mercy, which,
as we humbly hope, gave hira pardon for his sins, ease of his
pain, joy after his sorrow, certainty for his fears, heaven for
earth, innocence and impeccability instead of his infirmity.
Ergo Quinctilium perpetuus sopor
Urget ! cui Pudor, et Justitiae soror
Incorrupta Fides, nudaque Veritas
Quando ullum inveniet parem?

A FUNERAL SERMON. 225
Faith and justice, modesty and pure righteousness, made
him equal to the worthiest examples : he was xpi^^os avrjp, " a
good man :" loving and humble, meek and patient, he would be
sure to be the last in contention, and the first at a peace ; he
would injure no man, but yet if any man was displeased with
him, he would speak first, and offer words of kindness; if any
did dispute concerning priority, he knew how to get it, even by
yielding and compliance ; walking profitably with his neigh
bors, and humbly with his God ; and having lived a life of
piety, he died in a full age, an honorable old age, in the midst
of his friends, and in the midst of prayer : and although the
events of the other world are hidden to us below, that we might
live in faith, and walk in hope, and die in charity; yet we have
great reason to bless God for his mercies to this our brother,
and endeavor to comport ourselves with a strict religion, and
a severe repentance ; with an exemplar patience, and an exem
plar piety ; with the structures of a holy life, and the solemni
ties of a religious death ; that we also may, as our confident and
humble hope is this our brother doth, by the conduct of angels,
pass into the hands and bosom of Jesus, there to expect the
most merciful sentence of the right hand, ' Come, ye blessed
children of my Father, receive the kingdom prepared for you
from the beginning of the world.' Amen, Lord Jesus, Amen.
Grant this, eternal God, for Jesus Christ's sake ; to whom,
with thee, O Father, and the Holy Spirit, be all glory and
honor, service and dominion, love and obedience be confessed
due, and ever paid by all angels, and all men, and all the crea
tures, this day, henceforth, and for evermore. Amen.

SERMON

PREACHED IN

ST. MARY'S CHURCH, OXFORD,

ANNIVERSARY OF THE GUNPOWDER TREASON.

TO THE
SIOST REVEREND FATHER IN GOD,
WILLIAM,
BY DIVINE PROVIDENCE,
LORD ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY,
HIS GRACE,
PRIMATE OF ill. ENGLAND, AND METBOPOHTAN CHANCELLOIl OF THE U.NI-
YERSITY OF OXFORD, AND ONE OF HIS MAJESTy's MOST
HONORABLE PRIVY COUNCIL.

MY MOST HONORABLE GOOD LORD !
MAY IT PLEASE YOUR GRACE,
It was obedience to my superior, that engaged me on this last an
niversary commemoration of the great goodness of God Almighty
to our king and country, in the discovery of the most damnable
powder treason. It was a blessing which no tongue could express,
much less mine, which had scarce learned fo speak,- — at least, was
most unfit to speak in the schools of the prophets. Delicata autem
(St ilia ohedientia, qua causas quceril. It had been no good argument
of my obedience to have disputed the inconvenience of my person,
and the unaptness of my parts, for such an employment. I knew
God, out of the mouth of infants, could acquire his praise ; and if
my heart were actually as votive as my tongue should have been,
it might be one of God's magnalia to perfect his own praise out of
the weakness and imperfection of the organ. So as I was able, I
endeavoured to perform it, having my obedience ever ready for my
excuse to men, and my willingness to perform my duty, for the as-
soilment of myself before God ; part of which I hope was accepted,
and I have no reason to think that the other was not pardoned.

230 THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY.
When I first thought of the barbarism of this treason, I wondered
not so much at the thing itself, as by what means it was possible for
the devil to gain so strong a party in men's resolutions, as to move
them to undertake a business so abhorring from Christianity, so
evidently full of extreme danger to their lives, and so certainly to
incur the highest wrath of God Almighty, My thoughts were thus
rude at first ; but, after a strict inquisition, I found it was appre
hended as a business, perhaps, full of danger to their bodies, but
advantageous to their souls, consonant to the obligation of all
Christians, and meritorious of an exceeding weight of glory ; for
now it was come to pass, which our dear Master foretold, ' Men
should kill us, and think they did God good service in it.' I could
not think this to be a part of any man's religion, nor do I yet be
lieve it : for it is so apparently destructive of our dear Master's
royal laws of charity and obedience, that I must not be so uncha
ritable as to think they speak their own mind truly, when they pro
fess their belief of the lawfulness and necessity, in some cases, of
rebelling against their lawful prince, and using all means to throw
him from his kingdom, though it be by taking of his life. But it is
but just that they who break the bonds of duty to their prince;
should likevrise forfeit the laws of charity to themselves, and if they
say not true, yet to be more uncharitable to their own persons, than
I durst be, though I had their own warrant. Briefly, Most Re
verend Father, I found amongst them of the Roman party such pre
vailing opinions, as could not consist with loyalty to their prince,
in case he were not the pope's subject ; and these so generally be
lieved, and somewhere obtruded under peril of their souls, that I
could not but point at these dangerous rocks, at which, I doubt not,
but the loyalty of many hath suffered shipwreck, and of thousands
more might, if a higher star had not guided them better than their
own pilots,
1 could not, therefore, but think it very likely, that this treason
might spring from the same fountain ; and I had concluded so in
my first meditations, but that I was willing to consider, whether or
no it might not be, that these men were rather exasperated than
persuaded, — and whether it were not that the severity of our laws
against them might rather provoke their intemperate zeal, than re
ligion thus move their settled conscience. It was a material consi-

THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 231
deration, because they ever did, and still do fill the world with out
cries against our laws, for making a rape on their consciences ;
have printed catalogues of their English martyrs ; drawn schemes
of most strange tortures imposed on their priests, such as were un
imaginable by Nero, or Dioclesian, or any of the worst and crudest
enemies of Christianity, endeavoring thus to make us partly guilty
of our own ruin ; and so washing their hands, in token of their own
innocence, even then when they were dipping them in the blood-
royal, and would have emptied the best veins in the whole kingdom
to fill their lavatory. But I found all these to be but calumnies,
strong accusations on weak presumptions, and that the cause did
rest where I had begun ; I mean on the pretence of the Catholic
cause; and that the imagined iniquity of the laws of England could
not be made a veil to cover the deformity of their intentions, for
our laws were just, honorable, and religious.
Concerning these and some other appendices to the business of
the day, I expressed some part of my thoughts, which because hap
pily they were but a just truth, and this truth not unseasonable for
these last times, in which, as St. Paul prophesied, ' Men would be
fierce traitors, heady and high-minded, creeping into houses, lead
ing silly women captive ;' it pleased some who had power to com
mand me, to wish me to a publication of these my short and sudden
meditations, that, if it were possible, even this way, I might express
my duty to God and the king.
Being thus far encouraged, I resolved to go something farther,
even to the boldness of a dedication to your grace ; that since I had
no merit of my own, to move me to the confidence of a public view,
yet I might dare to venture under the protection of your grace's
favor. But since my boldness dOth as much need a defence as my
sermon a patronage, I humbly crave leave to say, that, though it
be boldness, even to presumption, yet my address to your grace is
not altogether unreasonable.
For since all know that your grace thinks not your life your own,
but when it spends itself in the service of your king, opposing your
great endeavors against the zealots of both sides, who labor the
disturbance of the church and state ; I could not think it &TrpoiTSi6vv-
ffoK to present to your grace this short discovery of the king's ene
mies, lis imKovpiav Pa<ri\iKriv <pt\oPa(rL\ei, and proper to your grace, who

232 THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY.
is so true, so zealous a lover of your prince and country. It was
likewise appointed to be the public voice of thanksgiving for your
university, though she never spake weaker than by so mean an in-
strilment ; and, therefore, is accountable to your grace, to whom,
under God and the king, we owe the blessing and prosperity of all
our studies. Nor yet can I choose but hope, that my great obliga
tions to your grace's favor may plead my pardon, since it is better
that my gratitude should be bold, than my diffidence ungrateful ;
hut that this is so far from expressing the least part of them,
that it lays a greater bond on me, either for a debt of delinquency
in presenting it, or of thankfulness, if your grace may please fo
pardon it.
I humbly crave your grace's benediction, pardon, and acceptance
of the humblest duty and observance of
Your Grace's
Most observant and obliged chaplain,
JER. TAYLOR,

SUMMARY OF A SERMON, &C. 233

SUMMARY OF A SERMON,
&c, &c,
LUKE, CHAP. IX. — VERSE 50.
Parallel of fire in the text. Difference of character be
tween the persons in the text, and those of the day.
The words of the text in their own order point out, 1. the
persons that asked the question : 2. the cause that moved
them : 3. the person to whom they addressed it : 4. the
question itself : 5, the precedent they urged, from a fallible
topic, in a special and different case.
I, The persons were disciples of Christ, and Apostles. They
were angry, and therefore it is not surprising that they sinned :
not the privilege of an apostolical spirit, &e., can guard from
sin those who are overruled by passion : this topic enlarged on.
The spirits of these ' sons of thunder ' had been inflamed under
the law, and therefore their blessed Lord reproves them for
ignorance, not of the law, but of his spirit.
But we need not look far for persons, professing, at least, to
be disciples of Christ's school, yet as great strangers to his mer
ciful spirit, as if they had lived under the law, or had been
foster-brothers to Romulus, suckled by a wolf: and they are
Romanists too, presented to us by this day's solemnity, who
call themselves Christians and Jesuits.
One would have thought that such men, set forth with such
merciful appellatives, would have endeavored to support the
ruinous fabric of the world's charity, and not have pulled it

234 SUMMARY OF A SERMON
over our ears. Inquiry made into this antichristian depra
vity, and the sermons of those who blast royalty, and breathe
forth treason and slaughter, contrary to the spirit of our
Lord. Bloody doctrine of Sanders, our countryman, quoted and
commented on, also that of Emmanuel Sk, who, in his Apho
risms, affirms it to be lawful to kill a king, if the pope hath
sentenced him to death. Many other instances brought for
ward. Such doctrines were not denied by the Romanists to
Arnald, the French king's advocate : horrid acts of French
regicides, commended by papistical writers of eminence. Simi
lar language used by Baronius. Apologists for the Jesuits
Guignard and Garnet noticed : enumeration of the above-
mentioned writers, who would fain make such doctrine catho
lic : if it prove to be but apostolic too, then is found out an
exact parallel for James and John, the Apostles : and whether
the See Apostolic may not be sometimes of a fiery and con
suming spirit, we have such examples at home, that we need
seek no farther for a resolution of the question. Instance of
the bull of excommunication put forth by Pius V. against
Queen Elizabeth, in which is a command for men to turn
rebels, and a necessity for their being traitors : history, nature,
and consequences of this bull exposed and commented on.
Instance of Sixtus Quintus, who pronounced a speech in full
consistory, comparing the assassination of Jacques Clement on
Hen. III., to the exploits of Eleazar and Judith. Thus much
for the persons that asked the question.
II. Next inquiry ; the cause of their angry question. This
is learned from the foregoing story : particulars of it cited : re
flections on the subject of indiscreet and uncharitable zeal :
danger of allowing religion, which ought to be the greatest
antidote to malice, to become its greatest incentive, &c. Case
of the persons alluded to by the day, compared with that of the
disciples.

ON THE GUNPOWDER TREASON. 235
Endeavors to make a just discovery of the cause which
moved such traitors to so accursed a conspiracy.
It is shown that there was no cause at all given to them by
us; none were put to death for being Roman Catholics, or
punished on account of their religion.
Act of the 13th of Elizabeth against the papal bulls com
mented on : comments on the farther laws against recusancy,
against seditious and traitorous books, and against the residence
of popish priests in England ; making the first finable with a
pecuniary mulct, the two latter capital, as being of a treason
able nature. Concerning seditious and traitorous publications,
little need be said. The banishment of the priests was the
highest acme of the severity of this state against them : allevi
ations of this severity enumerated. It is next shown that this
proscription was for just cause, as the ease then stood, and de
served on their part. It is also shown that it was but reason
able, in case they obeyed not the proscription, that their dis
obedience should be punished capitally.
It is shown that the traitors were encouraged and primarily
moved to this treason, by the prevailing opinion on that side,
that it is lawful to depose heretical princes ; and not only
this, but that it is also necessary, and that Roman Catholics
are taught to do it sub mortali. Nay, more, the killing such,
in case of necessity, or of greater convenience, is not ex
cluded. If these things be put together, and we should prove to be
heretics in their opinion, we are in a fair way, both prince and
people, and need look no farther why fire was called for to con
sume iis, nor why we may fear it another time : farther obser
vations on this subject, and the great danger of the assumed
power of the pope. So much for the cause of this query of the
disciples, when their Lord, for his difference in religion, was
turned out.
III. Which when they saw, they said, Lard. It was well

236 SUMMARY OF A SERMON
they asked at all, and would not too hastily act what they too
suddenly intended : it would have been their best warrant.
Could they have gained his permission. But that was not likely:
nothing could be more strange to his disposition : this shown.
Difference between Mahometanism and Christianity in this
case- pointed out., Practice of the primitive church falsely ac
counted for by papistical writers. Christ's conduct on the night
when he was betrayed considered. Conduct of martyrs.
Doctrine of the council of Toledo.
Hence may be drawn a strong antithesis between the spirit
of our blessed Saviour, who answered the question of the text,
and that of the fathers confessors, of whom was asked the
question of the day.
The conduct of these men next considered, as not only mis
informing their penitents, but as concealing their intended pur
pose : for even in this way the persons to whom the question
was propounded made themselves guilty of the intended ma
chination : this point argued in two ways.
1. The treason was not revealed to these fathers confessors
informal confession, but only propounded to them in way of
question or consultation ; not subject to their penitential judi
cature, &c.
2. If it had been, tliis did not bind them to secrecy. Ge
neral reasons why confessions in some cases may be revealed.
Doctrine of the church of England, on this head, is in the affir
mative : also that of the Roman church. Four eases enu
merated, in which it allows the seal of formal confession to be
broken ; the last of these being that of treason. Examples of
such publication both in France and in Rome. Instances
given from Sozomen and Origen of the lawfp.'ness of such pub
lication ; so that it is vain to contend that the seal of confession
is founded on Catholic tradition. So much for the persons to
whom the question was propounded : they were the fathers
confessors in the day ; but it was Christ our Lord in the text.

ON THE GUNPOWDER TREASON. 237
IV. The question itself follows, Shall we command fire to
come dawn from heaven and consume them ?
The question was concerning the fate of a whole town of Sa
maria : in our case it was more ; the fate of a whole kingdom.
It had been well if such a question had been silenced by a
direct negative, or put off indefinitely, &c. : for it was such,
that a Christian could not doubt about it, though he had been
fearfully scrupulous in his resolutions : this explained.
But to the question. It was fire they called for ; the most
merciless of the elements, — the fittest instrument for merciless
men. It was fire they called for ; but not like that in the
text, — not fire from heaven. They might have called for that,
as loud and as long as those priests did, who contended with
Elijah : none would have descended to consume such a sacri
fice, &c.
V. Lastly; it was a fire so strange, that it had no example.
The Apostles, indeed, pleaded a mistaken precedent ; they
desired leave to do but even as Elias did. The Greek and
Roman churches retain only this clause : and really these
Romano-barbari could never pretend to any precedent for an
act so barbarous. Instances of cruel persecution given from
sacred and profane history ; by which it is shown that nothing
was ever so bad as this accursed treason. Concluding exhor
tation to thankfulness and praise to God for our escape.

238 JEREMY TAYLOR.

A
SERMON, &c. &c.
LUKE, CHAP. IX. — VERSE 50.
But when James and John saw this, they said. Lord, wilt thou that
we command fire to come from heaven, and consume them, even
as Elias did 1
I SHALL not need to strain much to bring my text and the
day together. Here is ' fire ' in the text, ' consuming fire,' hke
that whose Antevarta we do this day commemorate. This fire
was called for by the disciples of Christ ; so was ours too, by
Christ's disciples at least, and some of them entitled to our
great Master by the eompellation of his holy name of Jesus.
I would say the parallel holds thus far, but that the persons
of my text, however ' Boanerges, sons of thunder,' and of a
reprovable spirit, yet are no way considerable in the proportion
of malice with the persons of the day. For if I consider the
cause that moved James and John to so inconsiderate a wrath,
it bears a fair excuse :* the men of Samaria turned their Lord
and Master out of doors, denying to give a night's lodging to
the Lord of heaven and earth. It would have disturbed an ex
cellent patience to see him, whom but just before they beheld
transfigured, and in a glorious epiphany on the mount, to be so
neglected by a company of hated Samaritans, as to be forced to
keep his vigils where nothing but the welkin should have been
* verse 53.

ON THE GUNPOWDER TREASON. 239

his roof, not any thing to shelter his precious head from the
descending dew of heaven.
 Quis talia fando
Temperet 2*
It had been the greater wonder if they had not been angry.
But now if we should level our progress by the same line, and
guess that in the present affair there was an equal cause, be
cause a greater fire was intended, — we shall too much betray
the ingenuity of apparent truth, and the blessing of this anniver
sary. They had not half such a case for an excuse to a far
greater malice : it will prove they had none at all ; and, there
fore, their malice was so much the more malicious, because
causeless and totally inexcusable.
However, I shall endeavor to join their consideration in as
near a parallel as I can ; which, if it be not exact, — as cer
tainly it cannot, where we have already discovered so much
difference in degrees of malice ; — yet, by laying them together,
we may better take their estimate, though it be only by seeing
their disproportion.
The words, as they lie in their own order, point out, 1. the
persons that asked the question : 2. the cause that moved
them : 3. the person to whom they propounded it : 4. the
question itself : 5. and the precedent they urged to move a
grant, drawn from a very fallible topic, a singular example, in
a special and different case. 1. The persons here were Christ's
disciples, and so they are in our case, designed to us by that
glorious surname of Christianity : they will be called catholics ;
but if our discovery perhaps rise higher, and that the see apo
stolic prove sometimes guilty of so reprovable a spirit, then we
are very near to a parallel of the persons, for they were disci
ples of Christ, and Apostles, 2. The cause was the denying of
toleration of abode on the grudge of an old schism ; religion
was made the instrument. That which should have taught the
Apostles to be charitable, and the Samaritans hospitable, was
made a pretence to justify the unhospitableness of the one, and
the uncharitableness of the other. Thus far we are right ; for
* Mn. ii. 6.

240 JEREMY TAYl6r,
the malice of this present treason stood on the same base, 3,
Although neither side much doubted of the lawfulness of their
proceedings, yet St, James and St. John were so discreet as not
to think themselves infallible, therefore they asked their Lord :
so did the persons of the day ask the question too, but not of
Christ, for he was not in all their thoughts ; but yet they asked
of Christ's delegates, who, therefore, should have given their
answer ex eodem tripode, from the same spirit. They were the
fathers confessors who were asked. 4, The question is of both
sides concerning a consumptive sacrifice, the destruction of a
town there, of a whole kingdom here, but differing in the cir
cumstance of place whence they would fetch their fire. The
Apostles would have had it from heaven, but these men's con
versation was not there, Td KarioBev, ' things from beneath,'
from an artificial hell, but breathed from the natural and
proper, were in all their thoughts. 5. The example, which is
the last particular, I fear I must leave quite out ; and when
you have considered all, perhaps you will look for no example.
First, of the persons; they were disciples of Christ, and Apo
stles : ' But when James and John saw this.' When first I
considered they were Apostles, I wondered they should be so
intemperately angry ; but when I perceived they were so angry,
I Wondered not that they sinned. Not the privilege of an
apostolical spirit, not the nature of angels, not the condition of
immortality, can guard from the danger of sin ; but if we be
overruled by passion, we almost subject ourselves to its neces
sity. It was not, therefore, without reason altogether, that the
Stoics affirmed wise men to be void of passions ; for sure I am,
the inordination of any passion is the first step to folly. And
although of them, as of waters of a muddy residence, we may
make good use, and quench our thirst, if we do not trouble
them ; yet on any ungentle disturbance we drink down mud
instead of a clear stream, and the issues of sin and sorrow, cer
tain consequences of temerarious or inordinate anger. And,
therefore, when the Apostle had given us leave to • be angry,'
as knowing the condition of human nature, he quickly enters el
caveat that ' we sin not ;' he knew sin was very likely to be
handmaid where anger did domineer, and this was the reason
why St. James and St. John are the men here pointed at ; for

ON THE GUNPOWDER TREASON. 241
the Scripture notes them for ' Boanerges, sons of thunder,'
men of an angry temper; et quid mirum est filios tonitru ful-
gurasse vohdsse? said St. Ambrose. But there was more in
it than thus. Their spirits, of themselves hot enough, yet met
with their education under the law, whose first tradition was in
fire and thunder, whose precepts were just, but not so merciful ;•
and this inflamed their distemper to the height of a revenge.
It is the doctrine of St. Jerome* and Titus Bostrensis,t — the
law had been their schoolmaster, and taught them the rules of
justice, both punitive and vindictive ; but Christ was the first
that taught it to be a sin to retaliate evil with evil ; it was a
doctrine they could not read in the killing letter of the law.
There they might meet with precedents of revenge and anger of
a high severity, ' an eye for an eye,' and ' a tooth for a tooth,'
and ' let him be cut off from his people :' but forgiving inju
ries, praying for our persecutors, loving our enemies, and re
lieving them, were doctrines of such high and absolute inte
grity, as were to be reserved for the best and most perfect law
giver, the bringer of the best promises, to which the most
perfect actions have the best proportion, and this was to be
when Shiloh came. Now then the spirit of Elias is out of
date, -Jam feiiea primum

Desinit, ac toto suigit gens aurea mundo,
and, therefore, our blessed Master reproveth them of igno
rance, not of the law, but of his spirit, which had they but
known or could but have guessed at the end of his coming, they
had not been such abecedarii in the school of mercy.
And now we shall not need to look far for persons, disciples
professing at least in Christ's school, yet as great strangers to
the merciful spirit of our Saviour, as if they had been sons of
the law, or foster-brothers to Romulus, and sucked a wolf;
and they are Romanists too : this day's solemnity presents them
to us, irqXos a'lpari vecpvppevos ;l and yet were that washed off,
underneath they write Christian and Jesuit.
One would have expected that such men, set forth to the
* Epist. ad Algas. f In Lucam.
t Sueton, Tib. 67, B. Cms. t. i. p, 454.
TAY. VOL. IV, L

-42 JEREMY TAYLOR,
world's acceptance with so merciful a cagnomentum, should have
put a hand to support the ruinous fabric of the world's charity,
and not have pulled the frame of heaven and earth about our
ears. But yet — ^iVe credite, Teucri ! Give me leave first to
make an inquisition after this antichristian pravity, and try
who is of our side, and who loves the king, by pointing at those
whose sermons do blast loyalty, breathing forth treason, slaugh
ters, and cruelty, the greatest imaginable, contrary to the spirit
and doctrine of our dear Master, So we shall quickly find out
more than a pareil for St. James and St. John, the Boanerges
of my text.
" It is an act of faith, by faith to conquer the enemies of
God and holy church," saith Sanders, our countryman,*
Hitherto nothing but well : if James and John had offered to
do no more than what they could have done with the ' sword of
the Spirit, and the shield of faith,' they might have been incul
pable, and so had he if he had said no mOre ; but the blood
boils higher, the manner spoils all. " For it is not well done,
unless a warlike captain be appointed by Christ's vicar to bear
a crusade in a field of blood." And if the other Apostles did
not proceed such an angry way as James and John, it was only
discretion that detained them, not religion. " For so they might,
and it were no way unlawful for them to bear arms to propagate
religion, had they not wanted an opportunity," if you believe
the same author : "for fighting is proper for St. Peter and his
successors, therefore, because Christ gave hira commission to
feed his lambs. "f A strange reason !
I had thought Christ would have his lambs fed with the sin
cere milk of his word, not like to cannibals,
-solitisque cruentum

Lac potare Getis, et pocula tingeie venis,
to mingle blood in their sacrifices (as Herod to the Galileans),
and quaff it off for an auspicium to the propagation of the
Christian faith. Methinks here is already too much clashing
of armor, and effusion of blood, for a Christian cause ; but this
were not altogether so unchristian-like, if the sheep, though
with blood, yet were not to be fed with the blood of their shep-
* Sanderus de Clave David, lib. ii. c, 15. -f- Ibid. c. 14,

ON THE GUNPOWDER TREASON, 243
herd Cyrus, I mean their princes. But I find many such nutritii
in the nurseries of Rorae, driving their lambs from their folds,
unless they will be taught to worry the lion,
Emmanuel Sii, in his Aphorisms, affirms it lawful to kill a
king; indeed not every king, but such a one as rules with
tyranny ; and not then, unless the pope hath sentenced him to
death; but then he may, though he be his lawful prince,* Not
the necessitude which the law of nations hath put between prince
and people, not the obligation of the oath of allegiance, not the
sanctions of God Almighty himself, must reverse the sentence
against the king when once passed ; but any one of his subjects,
of his own sworn subjects, may kill him.
This perfidious treasonable position of Sk is not a single tes-
niony : for, 1. it slipped not from his pen by inadvertency; it
was not made public until after forty years' deliberation, as
himself testifies in his preface. f 2, After such an avisamente,
it is now the ordinary received manual for the fathers confessors
of the Jesuits' order.
This doctrine, although titulo res digna sepulcri, yet is
nothing if compared with Mariana.]: For 1. he affirms the
same doctrine in substance. 2. Then he descends to the very
manner of it, ordering how it may be done with the best con
venience : he thinks poison to be the best way, but yet that,
for the more secrecy, it be cast on the chairs, saddles, and gar
ments of his prince. It was the old laudable custom of the
Moors of Spain. § 3. He adds examples of the business, tell
ing us that this was the device, to wit, by poisoned boots, that
qld Henry of Castile was cured of his sickness. 4. Lastly,
this may be done, not only if the pope judge the king a tyrant
(which was the utmost Emmanuel Sa affirmed), but it is sufficient
* Tyrannioe gubernans juste acquisitum dominium non potest
spQJiari sine publico judicio; lata vero sentenlia, quisque potest
fieri executor. Potest autem a populo etiam qui juravit ei obedi-
entiam, si, monitus, non vult corrigi. — Verb. Tyrannus.
t Proesertim cum in hoc opus per annos fere quadraginta diligcn-
tissime incubuerim.
I De Rcge et R. Institut. lib. i. c. 6.
h Qui est I'arlifice dont je trouve que les rois Mores ont souvent
wk, c. 7.

244 JEREMY TAYLOR.
proof of his being a tyrant if learned men, though but few, and
those seditious too, do but murmur it, or begin to call him so.*
I hope this doctrine was long since disclaimed by the whole
society, and condemned ad umbras Acherunticas. Perhaps
so; but yet these men who use to object to us an infinity of
divisions among ourselves, who boast so much of their own
union and consonancy in judgment, with whom nothing is more
ordinary than to maintain some opinions quite throughout
their order, (as if they were inforraed by some common intellectus
agens) should not be divided in a matter of so great moment,
so much concerning the monarchy of the see apostolic, to which
they are vowed liegemen. But I have greater reason to believe
them united in this doctrine, than is the greatness of this pro
bability. For 1. There was an apology printed in Italy, per-
missu superiorum, in the year 1610, that says, " They were all
enemies of that holy name of Jesus, that condemned Mariana
for any such doctrine." I understand not why, but sure I am
that the Jesuits do, or did think his doctrine innocent: for in
their apology put forth in the name of the whole society against
the accusations of Anticoton, they deny that the assassin of
Henry IV., I mean Ravaillac, was moved to kill the king by
reason of Mariana, and are not ashamed to wish that he had
read him.f Perhaps they mean it might have wrought the
same effect on him, which the sight of a drunkard did on the
youth of Laeedaemon ; else I am sure it is not very likely he
should have been dissuaded from his purpose by reading in
Mariana, that it was lawful to do what he intended. 2. I add,
they not only thought it innocent, and without positive hurt,
but good and commendable ; so that it is apparent that it was
not the opinion of Mariana alone, but that the Moors of Spain
had more disciples than Mariana, 1. He says it himself ; for,
commending the young monk that killed Henry III., he says
that he did it, " having been informed by several divines, that
a tyrant might lawfully be killed,"! 2, The thing itself speaks
* Postquam a paucis seditiosis, sed doclis, coeperit tyrannus ap-
pellari. f Quodammodo optandum esse ut ille Ala.stor Marianam legisset.
X Cum cognovit a theologis quos erat sciscitatus, tyrannum jure
interimi posse. Cap. 6,

ON THE GUNPOWDER TREASON. 245
it, for his book was highly commended by Gretser* and Bonar-
,scius,t both for style and matter; — higher yet by Petrus de
Onna, provincial of Toledo, who was so highly pleased with it,
he was sorry he wanted leisure I to read it the second and third
time over, and, with this censure prefixed, was licensed to the
press. Farther yet; for Stephen Hoyeda, visitor of the Jesuits
for the same province, approved it not only from his own judg
ment, but as being before approved by grave and learned men
of the Jesuits' order ;§ and so with a special commission from
Claudius Aquaviva, their general, with these approbations,
and other solemn privileges, it was printed at Toledo || and
Mentz.H and, lastly, inserted into the catalogues of the books
of their order by Petrus Ribadineira,
What negligence is sufficient that such a doctrine as this
should pass so great supervisors, if in their hearts they disavow
it? The children of this world are not such fools in their gene
rations. The fathers of the society cannot but know, how apt
these things of themselves are to public mischief, how invidious
to the Christian world, how scandalous to their order ; and yet
they rather excuse, than condemn, Mariana: speaking of him,
at the hardest, but very gently, as if his only fault had been
his speaking a truth in tempore non opportuno, " something out
of season;" or as if they were forced to yield to the current of
the times, and durst not profess openly of what, in their hearts,
. they were persuaded, I speak of some of them, for others,
you see, are of the same opinion. But I would fain learn why
they are so sedulous and careful to procure the decrees of the
rector and deputies of Paris, rescripts of the bishop, revocation
of arrest of the parliament which had been against them, and
all to acquit the fathers of the society frora these scandalous
opinions; as if these laborious devices could make what they
have said and done, to be unspoken and undone, or could
ge their opinions from what indeed they are ; whereas they

* Chauvesouris, Poht. f Amphith. Honoris, lib. 1. c. 12.
X Iterum et tertio facturus, si per otium et tempus licuisset.
§ Ut approbates prius a viris doctis et gravibus ex eodem nostro
ordine. II By Petrus Rhodriques, 1599. IF By Balth. Lippius, 1605.

246 JEREMY TAYLOR,
never went ex animo to refuse these theorems, never spake
against them in the real and serious dialect of an adversary,
never condemned them as heretical : but what they have done
they have been ashamed to, or forced on, as Pere Coton by the
king of France, and Servin to a confutarion of Mariana, from
which he desired to be excused, and, after the king's death,
wrote his declaratory letter to no purpose ; the apologists of
Paris, by the outcries of Christendom against them ; and when
it is done, done so coldly in their reprehensions with a greater
readiness to excuse all, than condemn any. I say, these things,
to a considering man, do increase the suspicion, if at least that
may be called suspicion, for which we have had so plain tes
timonies of their own.
I add this more, to put the business past all question ; that
when some things of this nature were objected to them by
Arnald, the French king's advocate, they were so far from
denying them, or excusing them, that they maintained them in
spite of opposition, putting forth a book, entitled, Veritas de-
fensa contra actionem Antonii Arnaldi. What the things were,
for which they stood up patrons, hear themselves speaking:*
Tum enim id non solum potest papa, sed etiam debet, se osteti-
dere superiarem illis principibus. Exceptio hcec stomaehum
tibi commavet, facit ut ringaris, sed oportet haurias, et de
catero fatearis tibi nee rationem esse nee conscientiam. Hard
words these I The advocate is affirmed to be void both of rea
son and honesty, for denying the pope's dominion over kings.
The reason follows, " The pope could not keep them to their
duties, unless he kept them in awe with threatening them
the loss of their kingdoms." But this is but the least part of
it. They add, " If the subjects had been but disposed as they
should have been, there was no time but it might have been
profitable to have exercised the sword on the persons of kings. "t
Let them construe their meaning, those are their words. But
see further.
The damned act of Jacques Clement, the monk, on the
life of Henry III. of France, of Jean Chastel and Ravaillac
* Page 7, 1st edit. f Page 67, 1st edit.

ON THE GUNPOWDER TREASON. 247
on Henry IV,, are notorious in the Christian world ; and yet
the first of these was commended by F. Guignard,* in a dis
course of purpose, and by Mariana, as I before cited him. The
second had two apologies made for him, the one by Constantius
Veruna,t the other,]: without a name indeed, but with the mark
and cognisance of the Jesuits' order; and the last was publicly
commended in a sermon, by a monk of Cologne, as it is re
ported by the excellent Thuanus,
Not much less than this is that of Baronius, just, I am sure,
of the same spirit with James and John ; for he calls for a ruin
on the Venetians, for opposing of his holiness. " Arise, Peter,
not to feed these wandering sheep, but to destroy them ; throw
away the pastoral staff", and take thy sword," I confess here is
some more ingenuity to oppose murdering to feeding, than to
make them all one, as Sanders ^ doth ; but yet the same fiery
spirit inflames them both, as if all Rome were on fire, and
would put the world in combustion.
Farther yet, Guignard, a Jesuit of Clerimont college in
Paris, was executed, by the comraand of the parliament, || for
some conclusions he had written, which were of a high nature
treasonable ; and yet, as if either there were an infallibility in
every person of the society, or as if the parliament had done in
justice in condemning Guignard, or, lastly, as if they approved
his doctrine, he was apologised for by Lewes Richeome,1I and
Bonarscius.* * I know they will not say, that every Jesuit is
infallible, they are not corae to that yet; it is plain, then, they
are of the same mind with Guignard, or else (which I think
they dare not say) the parliament was unjust in the condemna
tion of him ; but if they do, they thus proclaim their approba
tion of these doctrines he was hanged for ; for that he had
such, was under his own hand, by his own confession, and of
* Voyez le Proces du Parlem. de Paris centre le p6re Guignard,
pr&tre J^suite.
t Vid.cap.3. J Lugduni,de justaabdicationeHen.III. 1610.
§ De clave David, c. 14. Vid. pag. 7.
II Arret de Parliam. 7 de Janv, 1595.
IT Expostul. Apologet. pro Societ, Jes.
•** Amphith. Honor, lib. i.

248 JEREMY TAYLOR,
itself evident, as is to be seen in the arrest of the parliament
Bgainst him.
Lastly, more pertinent to the day is the fact of Garnet,—
who, because a Jesuit, could have done nothing for which he
should not have found an apologist; for even for this his last
act of high treason he was apologised for by Bellarmine,*
'Gretser,f and Eudeemon Johannes. |
Thus far we have found out persons fit enough to match any
malice ; Boanerges all, and more than a pareil for James and
John : but I shall anon discover the disease to be more epi
demical, and the pest of a more catholic infection ; and yet, if
we sum up our accounts, we shall already find the doctrine to
be too catholic. For we have already met with Emmanuel S^,
a Portuguese ; Mariana and Ribadineira, Spaniards ; Bonar
scius, a bas Almain ; Gretser, a German; Eudaemon Johannes,
•a false Greek; Guignard, Richeome, and the apologists for
Chastel, Frenchmen ; Bellarmine and Baronius, Italians ;
Garnet and Sanders, English.
The doctrine, you see^, they would fain make catholic ; now,
if it prove to be but apostolic too, then we have found out an
exact parallel for James and John, great disciples and Apostles ;
and whether or no the see apostolic may not sometime be of a
fiery and consuming spirit, we have so strange examples, even
in our own home, that we need seek no farther for resolution of
the quare. In the bull of excommunication put forth by Pius
Quintus, against queen Elizabeth, of blessed memory, there is
more than a naked encouragement : as much as comes to a
Volumus etjubemus ut adversus Elizabetham, Anglia reginam,
subditi arma capessant. — Bane Jesu! in qua nos reservasti
tempora ? Here is a command to turn rebels, a necessity of
being traitors. Quid eo infelicius, cui jam esse malum necesse
est? The business is put something farther home by Catena and
Gabutius, who wrote the life of Pius Quintus, were resident a!t
Rome, one of them an advocate in the Roman court; their
books both printed at Rome, con licenza and con privilegio.\
-* Apol. adv. R, Angliae. f Stigm. Miseric.
t Apol. pro Garnetto. § 1588, et 1605.

ON THE GUNPOWDER TREASON. 249
And now hear their testimonies of the whole business between
the queen and his holiness.
" Pius Quintus published a bull against queen Elizabeth,
declared her a heretic, and deprived her of her kingdom, ab
solved her subjects from their oaths of allegiance, excommuni
cated her, and gave power to any one to rebel against her,"*
&c. This was but the first step ; he, therefore, thus proceeds :
"He procures a gentleman of Florence, to move her subjects
to a rebellion against her for her destruction."! Farther yet ;
he thought that this would be such a real benefit to Christen
dom to have her " destroyed, that the pope was ready to aid in
person, to spend the whole revenue of the see apostolic, all the
chalices and crosses of the church, and even his very clothes, to
promote so pious a business as was the destruction of queen
Elizabeth,"! The witnesses of truth usually agree in one. The same story
is told by Antonius Gabutius,§ and some more circumstances
added. First, he names the end of the pope's design ; it was,
" to take her life away, in ease she would not turn Roman ca
tholic." — " To achieve this, because no legate could come into
England, nor any public messenger from the see apostolic, he
employed a Florentine merchant to stir her subjects to a rebel
lion for her perdition." || Nothing but sollevamento, "rebel
lion,'' perdition, and destruction to the queen could be thought
on by his holiness.
More yet; for when the duke of Alva had seized on the
English merchants' goods which were at Antwerp, the pope
took the occasion, instigated the king of Spain to aid " the
pious attempts of those who conspired against the queen ;" they
* Pio public5 una boUa e sentezza contra Elisabetta, dichiaran-
dola heretica, e priva del regno, . . in tal forma concedendo, che
ciascuno andar contra le potesse, &c. Girolamo Catena, p. 114.
t 11 quale . , , . muovesse gli animi al sollevamento per di-
strutlione d'Elisabetta, p. 113,
X L'andare in persona, impegna e tulte le sostanze della sede
apostolica, e calici, e i proprj vestimenfi, p. 117.
§ De Vita et Gestis Pii V., lib. iii. c. 9.
II Qui incolarura animos ad Elizabethse perditionem, rebeliione
facta, commoveret.

250 JEREMY TAYLOR,
are the words of Cabutius.* This rebellion was intended to be
under the conduct of the duke of Norfolk, vira catholico, " a
Roman catholic;" Gabutius notes it, for fear some heretic
might be suspected of the design, and so the catholics lose the
glory of the action. However, Pius Quintus " intended to use
the utmost and most extrerae remedies to cure her heresy, and
all means to increase and strengthen the rebellion," I durst
not have thought so much of his holiness, if his own had not
said it ; but if this be not worse than the fiery spirit which our
blessed Saviour reproved in James and John, I know not
what is.
I have nothing to do to specify the spirit of Paulus Quintus
in the Venetian cause ; this only, Baronius propounded the
example of Gregory Vll.f to him, of which how far short he
came, the world is witness. Our own business calls to mind
the bulls of pope Clement VIII., in which the catholics in
England were commanded to see, that however the right of suc
cession did entitle any man to the crown of England, yet, if he
were not a catholic, they should have none of him, but with all
their power they should hinder his coming in. This bull Bel
larmine X doth extremely magnify ; and, indeed, it was for his
purpose, for it was, if not author, yet the main encourager of
Catesby to the powder treason : for, when Garnet would will
ingly have known the pope's mind in the business, Catesby
eased him of the trouble of sending to Rome, since the pope's
mind was clear. " I doubt not," said Catesby, " at all of the
pope's mind, but that he, who commanded our endeavors to
hinder his coming in, is willing enough we should throw him
out." § It was but a reasonable collection.
I shall not need to instance in the effects which this boll
produced : the treason of Watson and Cleark, two English
seminaries, is sufficiently known ; it was as a praludium or
warning-piece to the great fougade, the discharge of the
powder treason. Briefly, the case was so, that after the pub-
* Efflagitabat ab rege, ut Anglorum in Elizabetham pie conspi-
rantiura studia foveret.
-f Hildebrand. J Apol. adv. R, Angl.
§ Proced. agt. Traytors.

ON THE GUNPOWDER TREASON. 251
lication of the bull of Pius Quintus, these catholics in England
durst not be good subjects till F. Parsons and Campian got a
dispensation that they might for awhile do it, and, rebus sic
stantibus, with a safe conscience profess a general obedience in
causes temporal : and, after the bull of Clement, a great many
of them were not good subjects ; and, if the rest had not taken
to themselves the privilege which the pope* sometimes gave
to the archbishop of Ravenna, " either to do as the pope bid
them, or to pretend a reason why they would not;" we may
say, as Creswell, in defence of cardinal Allen, " Certainly we
might have had more bloody tragedies in England, if the mo
deration of some more discreetly tempered had not been inter
posed."! However, it is no thank to his holiness ; his spirit
blew high enough.
But I will open this secret no farther, if I may have but
leave to instance once more. If I mistake not, it was Sixtus
Quintus who sometimes pronounced a speech in full consist
ory,! in which he compares the assassinat of Jacques Clement
on Henry III. to the exploits of Eleazar and Judith ; where,
after having aggravated the faults of the murdered king, con
cluded him to have died impenitent, denied hira the solemnities
of mass, dirge, and requiem for his soul, at last, he ends with a
prayer, " that God would finish, what in this (bloody) manner
had been begun." I will not aggravate the foulness of the
thing by any circumstances, though I cannot but wonder that
his holiness should say a prayer of so much abomination ; it
is of itself too bad.
If his holiness be wronged in the business, I have no hand in
it: the speech was printed at Paris,§ three months after the
murder of the king, and avouched for authentic by the appro
bation of three doctors, Boucher, Decreil, and Ancelein ; let
them answer it : I wash my hands of the ac(5usation, and only
consider the danger of such doctrines, if set forth with so great
authority, and practised by so uncontrollable persons.
If the disciples of Christ, if Apostles, if the see apostolic, if
* Innoc. Decretal, de Rescript, cap. Si quando.
t Philop. p. 212, n. 306. J Sep. 11, 1589.
§ By Nichol. Nivelle, and Rollin Thierry,

252 JEREMY TAYLOR,
the fathers confessors, prove boutefeus and incendiaries, 1 11
no more wonder if the people call for fire to consume us, but
rather wonder if they do not. And indeed, although it be no
rare or unusual thing for a papist to be de facto loyal and dute
ous to his prince, yet it is a wonder that he is so, since such
doctrines have been taught by so great masters ; and at the
best he depends but on the pope's pleasure for his loyalty,
which on what security it rests, you may easily guess from the
antecedents. Thus much for consideration of the persons who asked the
question ; they were Christ's disciples, they were James and
John, II. But when James and John ' saw this.' Our next inquiry
shall be of the cause of this their angry question. This we
must learn from the foregoing story. Christ was going to the
feast at Jerusalem, and, passing through a village of Samaria,
asked lodging for a night ;* but they, perceiving that he was a
Jew, would by no means entertain him, as being of a different
religion : for although God appointed that all of the seed of
Jacob should go up to Jerusalem to worship, avjjpefli; yap ev evi
ToTtu 7rpoaKvvr]ais,-f yet the tribes of the separation, first under
Jeroboam, worshipped in groves and high places ; and after
the captivity, being a mixed people, half Jew, half Gentile,
procured a temple to be built them by Sanballat, their presi
dent,! near the city Sichem, on the mountain Gerizim, styling
themselves pertinentes ad montem benedictum,\ by allusion to
the words of God by Moses, ' they shall stand on the mount
Gerizim to bless the people, and these on mount Ebal to curse.'
And in case arguments should fail to make this schism plau
sible, they will make it good by turning their adversaries out of
doors : they shall not corae near their blessed raount of Geri
zim, but fastening an anathema on them, let them go to Ebal,
and curse there. And now I wonder not that these disciples
were very angry at them, who had lost the true religion, and
neglected the offices of humanity to them that kept it. They
might go near new to make it a cause of religion ; crepvorepov
* ver. 50. t Chrysost. in hunc locum.
X Joseph! Antiq. lib. xi. c. 6.
§ Postellus de Linguis, Deut. xii. 27.

ON THE GUNPOWDER TREASON, 263
ovopa rijs evaejieias, as Nazianzen speaks,* might seem to apo
logise for them ; and so it might, if it had not led them to in
discreet and uncharitable zeal. But men care not how far
they go, if they do but once think they can make God a party
of their quarrel. For when religion, which ought to be the
antidote of our malice, proves its greatest incentive, our un
charitableness must needs run faster to a mischief, by how much
that which stopped its course before, drives it on with the
greater violence. And, therefore, as it is ordinary for charity
to be called coldness in religion, so it is as ordinary for a pre
tence of religion to make cold charity.
The present case of the disciples, and the same spirit, which,
for the same pretended cause, is taken up by the persons of the
day, proves all this true ; with whora fire and fagot is esteemed
the best argument to convince the understanding ; and the in
quisitors of heretical pravity, the best doctors and subtlest dis
putants, determining all with a viris ignem,fossam mulieribus.f
For thus we had like to have suffered : it was mistaken reli
gion that moved these traitors to so damnable a conspiracy ;
not for any defence of their own cause, but for extirpation of
ours. For else what grievances did they groan under ? In
quos eorum populum exastuantem sollicitavimus ? quibus vita
periculum attulimus ? it was Nazianzen's question to the apo-
state,! Give me leave to consider it as applicable to our pre
sent case, and try if I can make a just discovery of the cause
that moved these traitors to so accursed a conspiracy.
1, Then there was no cause at all given them by us ; none
put to death for being a Roman catholic, nor any of thera pu
nished for his religion.
This hath been the constant attestation of our princes and
state, since the first laws raade against recusants ; and the thing
itself will bear them record .§
From prima of Elizabeth to undecimo, the papists made
* Orat. 12. t Decret. Carol. Quinti, pro Flandris.
X Orat. 2. in Julian.
§ Vid. L. Burleigh's book called " Execution for Treason, not
Religion ;" King James's Declaration to all Christian Kings and
Princes; and the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury's Speech in Star-
chamber in Burton's case.

254 JEREMY TAYLOR.
no scruple of coming to our churches : recusancy was not then
so much as a chrisom, not an embryo : but when Pius Quintus
sent forth his briefs of excommunication and deposition of the
queen, then first they forbore to pray with us, or to have any
religious coraraunion. This, although every where known, yet
being a matter of fact, and so as likely to be denied by others
as affirmed by us, without good evidence, see it therefore af
firmed expressly by an act of parliament in decima-teriio of
Elizabeth, which specifies this as one inconvenience and ill
consequence of the bull ; " whereby hath grown great dis
obedience and boldness in many, not only to withdraw and
absent themselves from divine service, now most godly set
forth, and used within this realm, but also have thought them
selves discharged of all obedience," &c. Not only recusancy,
but likewise disobedience ; therefore both recusancy and dis
obedience. Two years, therefore, after this bull, this statute was made,
if it was possible, to nullify the effects of it, to hinder its exe
cution, and, if it might be, by this means to keep them, as they
had been before, in communion with the church of England,
and obedience to her majesty. This was the first statute that
concerned them in special, but yet their religion was not med
dled with ; for this statute against execution of the pope's
bulls was no more than what had been established by act of
parliament in the sixteenth year of Richard II., by which it
was made praemunire to purchase bulls from Rome ; and the
delinquents in this kind, with all their " abettors, fautors, pro
curators, and maintainers, to be referred to the king's council
for farther punishraent." There was indeed this severity ex
pressed in the act in decima-tertio of the queen, that the put
ting thera in execution should be capital ; and yet this severity
was no more than what was inflicted on the bishop of Ely, in
Edward III.'s time, for publishing of a bull against the earl of
Chester, without the king's leave ; and on the bishop of Car/
lisle, in the time of Henry IV., for the like offence. Thus far
our laws are innocent.
But when this statute did not take the good effect for which
it was intended, neither keeping them in their ancient commu
nion nor obedience, but for all this, Mayne, Campian, and many

ON THE GUNPOWDER TREASON, 255
others, .came as the pope's emissaries for execution of the bull,
the state proceeded to a farther severity, making laws against
recusancy, against seditious and traitorous books, and against
the residence of Romish priests in England; making the first
finable with a pecuniary mulct, the two latter capital, as being
made of a treasonable nature. Of these in order :
1. The mulct which was imposed for recusancy, was not
soul money, or paid for religion ; and that for these reasons :
1. because it is plain, religion did not make them absent them
selves from our churches, unle.ss they had changed their religion
since the bull came over: for if religion could consist with their
communion with us before the bull, as it is plain it did, then
why not after the bull ? unless it be part of their religion to
obey the pope, rather than to obey God commanding us to obey
our prince. 2. Their recusancy was an apparent mischief to
our kingdom, and it was the prevention or diversion of this that
was the only or special end of these laws.
The mischief is apparent these two ways: 1. because by
their recusancy they gave attestation that they held the bull to
be valid ; for else why should they, after the bull, deny their
communion, which, before, they did not? Either they must
think the queen, for a just cause, and by a just power, excom
municate ; or why did they separate from her communion ?
Now if the queen, by virtue of the bull, was excommunicate,
why should they stop here ? She was by the same deposed,
they absolved from all allegiance to her, and commanded to
take arms against her. I confess it is no good argument of
itself to say, the pope might excommunicate the queen, there
fore depose her from her kingdom : but this concludes with
thera sufficiently, with whom excommunication not only drives
from spirituals, but deprives of temporals ; and is not to mend
our lives, but to take them away. I speak how it is in the
case of princes, and I shall anon prove it ; for they, being
. public persons from whose deposition much may be gotten, are
like to suffer more. Ut extunc ipse (pontifex) vassallas ab
ejus fidelitate denuntiet absolutes, et terrain exponat catholicis
occupandam ; as they are taught by pope Innocent III., in
the eighth Lateran council. Such is their excommunication

236 JEREMY TAYLOR,
for matter of heresy, as was this pretended in the queen's case ;
so that, in respect of them, the danger was apparent.
2. It is plain that recusancy and disobedience came actually
hand in hand ; I say not that one was the issue of the other,
but that they were coetaneous; for the same persons that moved
them to recusancy by virtue of the bull, moved them to the
execution of it^er omnia. Now see whither this would tend.
They by recusancy were better able to judge of their forces in
England, and what party they were able to make for execution
of the bull ; whilst by that, as by a discriminative cognisance,
they were pointed at as abettors of the catholic cause.
^ Thus far they suffered not for their religion or conscience,
unless it were against their conscience to be good subjects ; and
then it was not religion, at least not Christian, that was in
consistent with their loyalty ; and so hitherto, in respect of us,
their machination was altogether causeless,
2. For the second, — I mean the writing and publishing of
seditious and traitorous books ; I shall not need to say any
thing in defence of its being made capital, though sometimes
they accuse our laws for it; for they were ever so, and of a
high nature treasonable ; and the publishers of them, by the
canons of the church, were ipso facto excommunicate.* This
I noted, because the same censure involves more, by virtue of
the same canon : I mean not only the seditious libellers, but
impugners of the king's regalities ; as also the bringers, pub
lishers, and executioners of the bull ; as is to be seen in the
constitution of archbishop Stephen, in a council held at Ox
ford. But, secondly, whether they were or were not, it matters
nothing : this I suppose was no part of their religion ; therefore
this might be made treason, and yet their religion and peace of
conscience undisturbed.
3. But the next is the main outcry of all, the very concla-
matum est of the catholic cause, if suffered : it was made trea
son to be a priest ; or at least, if any of their priests should be
* Apud Linwood de Senten. Excommunicat. — Item omnes illos
excommunicationis innodamus sententia, qui pacem et tranquillita-
tem domini regis et regni injuriose perturbare praesumunt, et qiii
jura domini regis injuste detinere contendunt.

ON THE GUNPOWDER TREASON, 257
found in England, he should be adjudged a traitor ; and these
laws were not yet repealed, but then in execution.
When certain sycophants told Philip of Macedon, that some
of his discontented subjects called hira tyrant, his answer was,
Rudes sunt Macedones, et scapham vacant scapham. I wish
these men who object this, had the same ingenuity, and would
acknowlege that the rudeness of a Macedonian tell-truth is no
apparent calumny : and truly, as the case then stood, it was no
worse. For consider that the statute against priests was not
made till sixteen years after the bull of Pius V,, and after
much evidence, both by the confession of some priests them
selves, and divers lay persons, that at least many of them came
into England with this errand, that they might instigate the
queen's liege people to the execution of it. This is very plain
in the case of Mayne the Jesuit, and M. Tregion, who were
executed at Launceston for the same business.*
The state could not certainly know what would be the issue,
but yet could not but think it likely to produce raore and worse
consequences for the future. Idea leges in facta constitui, quia
futura in incerto sint.^ The queen then, providing for her
safety, banished these priests out of her dominions. This was
all; and this done with so much lenity and moderation, as if of
purpose to render good for their evil, such was her innocence ;
— and yet to provide for her safety, such was her prudence.
She gave them forty days' time of preparation for their journey ;
imposed no penalty for their longer stay, in case that any of
thera were less healthful, or that the winds were cross, or that
the weather served not, provided that, during their stay, they
gave security for their due obedience to her laws, and that they
should attempt nothing against her person or government, for this
was all she aimed at; but if they obeyed not the proscription-,
having no just cause to the contrary, such as were expressed in
the act, then it should be adjudged their errand was not right, and
therefore, not their religion, but their disobedience, treasonable.
This was the highest a/c^uij of the severity of this state against
them. Now, first, I shall briefly show, that this proscription,
which was the highest penalty, was for just cause, as the ease
* 1577, t Tacitus, Annal. lib. iii. c. 69. Rnpert, p. 172,

258 JEREMY TAYLOR,
then stood, and deserved on their part. 2. It was but reason
able, in case they obeyed not the proscription, their stay should
be made treason :— 1. because the priests did generally preach
the pope's power, either directly over temporals, or else in
order to spirituals, — of which the pope being judge, it would
come to the sarae issue ; and this was dangerous to the peace of
the kingdora, and entrenched too much on the regalty. In par
ticular, the case of bringing frora the see of Rome, and pub
lishing of bulls, was, by the lords of the parliament, in the six
teenth year of Richard the Second, judged to be " clearly in
derogation of the king's crown and of his regalty, as it is well
known, and hath been of a long time known ;" and, therefore,
they protested " together and every one severally by himself,
that they would be with the same crown and regalty, in these
cases specially, and in all other cases which shall be attempted
against the same crown and regalty, in all points, with all their
power." I hope then if the state,; in the time of queen Eliza
beth, having far greater reason than ever, shall judge that these
bulls, the publishing of them, the preaching of their validity,
and reconciling, by virtue of them, her subjects to the see of
Rome, be derogatory to her crown and regalty, — I see no rea
son she should be frighted from her just defence with the bug
bear of pretended religion ; for if it was not against religion
then, why is it now ? I confess there is a reason for it, to wit,
because now the pope's power is an article of faith, as I shall
show anon, but then it was not with them, any more than now
it is with us : but whether this will convince any man of reason,
I leave it to himself to consider.
But one thing is observable in that act of parliament of
Richard the Second; I mean this clause, " As it is well known,
and hath been of a long time known." The pope's encroach
ments on the state of England had been an old sore, and by its
eld, almost habituate ; but yet it grieved them nevertheless,
nor was the less a fever for being hectical: but so it is, that I
am confident on very good grounds, it may be made as appa
rent as the noon sun, for these six hundred years and upwards,
that the bishops of Rome have exercised so extreme and conti
nual tyranny and exactions in this kingdora, that our condition
was under him worse than the state of the Athenians under their

ON THE GUNPOWDER TREASON, 259
thirty tyrants, or than our neighbors are now under their Belgic
tributes. So many grievances of the people, expilations of the
church, abuses to the state, entrenchments on the royalties of
the crown, were continued, that it was a great blessing of Al
mighty God, our kingdom was delivered from them on so easy
terms, which Grosthead, bishop of Lincoln, thought would
never be done, but in ore gladii cruentandi : and now to have
all these mischiefs return with more strength on us, by the
attempts of these priests, had been the highest point of indis
cretion and sleepiness. I said, with more strength, — because
what anciently at the highest was thought but a privilege of
the church, began now to be an article of faith ; and, therefore,
if admitted, would have bound stronger and without all possi
bility of redress.
And now, if, after all this, any man should doubt of the jus
tice of these laws against the priests obtruding on the state the
pope's power, I only refer him to the parliament of Paris,
where let him hold his plea against those great sages of the
law, for their just censures on Florentinus Jacobus, Thomas
Blanzius,* and John Tanquerell, who were all condemned to
a solemn honorary penance and satisfaction to the state, and
not without extreme difficulty escaped death, for the same cause :
but this is not all. I add,
Secondly; the pope had his agent in England, to stir up the
subjects to rebel against the queen, as I proved before by the
testimonies of Catena and Gabutius. It is not then imaginable
that he should so poorly intend his own designs, to employ one
on purpose, and he but a merchant; and that the priests, who
were the men, if any, most likely to do the business, should be
unemployed. I speak not of the argument frora matter of fact,
for it is apparent that they were employed, as I showed but
now ; but it is plain also that they must have been employed,
if we had had no other argument but a presumption of the
pope's ordinary discretion. Things then reraaining in this con
dition, what security could the queen or state have, without the
absence of those men who must be the instruments of their mis
chief ? » 1561.

260 JEREMY TAYLOR.
Thirdly, there was great reason those men might be banished,
who might from their own principles plead immunity from all
laws, and subordination to the prince. But that so these priests
might, I only bring two witnesses, leading men of their own
side. Thus Bellarmine :* " The pope hath exempted all clerks
from subjection to princes." The same is taught by Emmanuel
Sk in his Aphorisms, verba Clericus. I must not dissemble
that this aphorism, however it passed the press at first, yet in
•the edition of Paris it was left out. The cause is known to
every man : for that it was merely to serve their ends is appa
rent; for their French freedom was there taken from them;
they durst not parler tout so near the parliament; but the
aphorism is to this day retained in the editions of Antwerp and
Cologne. If this be their doctrine, as it is plain it is taught by these
leading authors, I mean S^and Bellarmine, — I know no reason
but it may be very just, and most convenient, to deny those men
the country from whose laws they plead exemption.
Secondly, it was but reasonable, in case they obeyed not
the proscription, their disobedience should be made capital.
For if they did not obey, then either they sinned against their
conscience, in disobeying their lawful prince, and so are airo-
KaraKpiToi, and inexcusable from the law's penalty, which may
be extended at the pleasure of the lawgiver, where there is no
positive injustice in the disproportion ; or if they did not sin
against their conscience, then of necessity must they think her
to be no lawful prince, or not their lawful prince, nor they her
subjects, and so ipsa facto are guilty of high treason, and their
execution was for " treason, not religion;" and so the principle
is evicted -v^hich I shall beg leave to express in St. Cyprian's
language, Non erat ilia fidei corona, sed poena perfidia ; nee
religiosa virtutis exitus gloriosus, sed desperatianis interiius.\
For if Valentius banish Eusebius frora Saraosata, and Euse-
bius obey not the edict, if Valentius puts him to death, it is not
for his being a Christian that he suffers death, but for staying
at Samosata, against the command of Valentius. J Such was
* Lib. i. c. 28. De Clericis. t De Simplic. Praelat.
t Theodoret, lib. iv. o, 14.

ON THE GUNPOWDER TREASON, 261
the case of the priests, whom, for just cause, as I have proved,
and too apparent proof of seditious practices, the queen ba
nished. Now if the queen was their lawful sovereign, then
were they bound to obey her decree of exile, though it had been
unjust as was the case of Eusebius ; or if they did not obey,
not to think the laws unjust for punishing their disobedience.
I say again, their disobedience, not their religion : for that it
was not their religion that was struck at by the justice of these
laws, but the security of the queen and state only aimed at, —
besides what I have already said, is apparent to the evidence of
sense. For when Hart and Bosgrave, Jesuits both, came into
England against the law, they were apprehended and impri
soned ; for the laws without just execution were of no force for
the queen's safety: but when these men had acknowleged the
queen's legitimate power, and put in their security for their due
obedience, they obtained their pardon and their liberty. The
same proceedings were in the case of Horton and Rishton, all
which I hope were not apostates from their order of religion ;
hut so they must have been, or not have escaped death, in ease
that their religion had been made capital. Lastly, this statute
extended only to such priests who were made priests since
prima of Elizabeth, and were born in England. It was
not treason for a French priest to be in England ; but yet so it
must have been, if religion had been the thing they aimed at.
But it is so foul a calumny, I am ashamed to stand longer to
refute it. The proceedings of the church and state of England
were just, honorable, and religious, full of mercy and discre
tion ; and unless it were that as C, Fimbria complained of Q.
Scaevola, we did not open our breasts wide enough to receive
the danger, there is no cause imaginable, I mean on our parts,
to move them to so damned a conspiracy, or indeed to any just
complaint. Secondly, if these were not the causes (as they would fain
abuse the world into a persuasion that they were), what was?
I shall tell you , if you will give me leave avtoBev t^v wriy^v
biopiTTsiv, " to derive it from its very head ;" and then I will
leave it to you to j udge, whether or no my augury fails me.
First, I guess that the traitors were encouraged and primarily
moved to this treason, from the prevailing opinion which is most

263 JEREMY TAYLOR,
generally received, on that side, of the lawfulness of deposing
princes that are heretical : I say, generally received, and I
shall make my words good, or else the blame shall lay on them
selves for deceiving me, when they declare their own minds, I
instance, first, in the fathers of the society, Bellarmine
leacheth that kings " have no wrong done them, if they be de
prived of their kingdoms, when they prove heretics."* Cres
well, in his Philopater, goes farther, saying, " that if his he
resy be manifest, he is deposed without any explicit judicial
sentence of the pope : the law itself hath passed the sentence of
deposition.''! And, therefore,
Bonarscius is very angry at Arnald,! the French king's ad
vocate, for affirming that religion could be no just cause to de
pose a lawful prince ; if he had been brought up in their schools,
he might have learned another lesson : papa potest mutare regna,
et uni auferre atque alteri conferre, tanquam summus princeps
spiritualis, si id necessarium sit ad animarum salutem, saith
Bellarmine. § He gives his reason too. Quia alioqui possent
mali principes impune f avere hareticos ;\\ which is a thing not
to be suffered by his holiness.
This doctrine is not the private opinion of these doctors, but
est certa, definita, atque indubitata virorum clarissimorum sen
tentia, saith F. Creswell, II I suppose he means in his own order ;
and yet I must take heed what I say, for Eudaemon Johannes**
is very angry with Sir Edward Cooke, for saying it iS the doc
trine of the Jesuits. Do they then deny it? No surely, but
Non est Jesuitarum propria, it is not theirs alone ; sed, ut Gar
nettus respondit, totius ecclesia, et quidem ab antiquissimis
temporibus consensione recepta doctrina nostra est ; and there
he reckons up seven and twenty famous authors of the same
* Ncc nlla eis injuria fiet, si deponantur. Lib. v. de Rom. Pon-
tif. c. 7.
! Ex ipsa vi juris, et ante omnem sententiam supremi pastoris ac
judicis contra ipsum prolatam. Lugduni, imprcs. 1593. p. 106. n.
157. Amphith. Honor, p. 117.
X Sed heus, Arnalde, a cujus instilutione haiisisti nullam posse
jntercidere causam, quEe regcm cogat abire regno? Non religipnis.
§ Bellar. de. Pont. R. lib, v. c. 6. || Cap. 7.
% Ubi supra, p. 107. ** Apol. pro Garnet, c. 3.

ON THE GUNPOWDER TREASON, 263
opinion, Creswell, in his Philopater,* says as much, if not
more : Hinc etiam infert universa theologorum et jurisconsulto-
rum ecclesiasticorum schola, et est certum, et defide, quemcun-
que principem Christianum, si a religione catholica manifeste
defexerit, et alios avocare voluerit, excidcre statim omni pates-
tate ac dignitate, ex ipsa vi juris, turn humani, tum divini.
You see how easily they swallow this great camel. Add to
this, that Bellarmine! himself proves, that the pope's temporal
power, or of disposing of princes' kingdoms, is a catholic doc
trine ; for he reckons up of this opinion, one and twenty Ita
lians, fourteen French, nine Germans, seven English and
Scotch, nineteen Spaniards ; and these not e face plebis, but
e primoribus, all very famous and very leading authors.
You see it is good divinity amongst them, and I have
made it good, that it is a general opinion, received by all their
side, if you will believe themselves ; and now let us see if it
will pass for good law, as well as good divinity.
It is not for nothing that the church of France protests
against some of their received canons ; if they did not, I know
not what would become of their princes. Their lilies may
be to-day, and to-morrow be cast into the oven, if the pope
either call their prince " Huguenot," as he did Henry IV. ; or
"Tyrant," as Henry III, ; or " unprofitable for the church or
kingdom," as he did king Childerie, whom pope Zachary, de
facto, did depose for the same cause, and inserted his act into the
body of the law as a precedent for the future. Quod etiam ex
auctoi'itate frequenti agit sancta ecclesia ; it is impaled in a
parenthesis in the body of the canon,]: lest deposition of prin
ces should be taken for news. The law is clear for matter of
fact ; the lawfulness follows.
Hcereticis licitum est auferri qua habent; § and this not only
from a private man, but even from princes : Nam qui in majore
dignitate est, plus punitur ; or take it, if you please, in more
proper terms, Dominus papa principem secularem deponere
potest propter haresim ;\\ and so another maybe chosen, like
the Palatines and Castellans in Poland, just as if the king
* Num. 157, ! Contra Barclaium in princip. fere.
X Can, Al. Cans. 15. q. 6. § CI. 1. in Summa 23. q. 7.
|| Gl. cap. Excommunicamus, tit, de haereticis, lib, v.

264 JEREMY TAYLOR.
were dead : Nam per haresim plusquam civiliter mortuus cense-
tur, saith Simanclia,* and that, by virtue of a eonstiturion of
Gregory IX., by which every man is freed from all duty,
homage, allegiance, or subordination whatsoever due to a here
tic, whether due by a natural, civil, or political right ; aliquo.
pacta, aut quacunque firmitate vallatum. Et sic nata, saith
the gloss, quod papa potest absolvere laicum de juramentofi-
delitatis. I end those things with the attestation of Bellarmine,! Est
res certa et explorata, posse pontificem maximum justis de causis
temporalibus judicare, atque ipsas temporales principes ali
quando deponere. And again, that we may be sure to know
of what nature this doctrine is, he repeats it ; Sic igitur de po-
testate in temporalibus, quod ea sit in papa, non opinio, sed cer
titude apud catholices est. And now let any man say, if this
be not a catholic doctrine, and a likely antecedent to have trea
son to be its consequent.
But I fix not here, only this, it is plain that this proposition
is no friend to loyalty ; but that which follows is absolutely
inconsistent with it, in ease our prince be of a different persua
sion in matters of religion. For,
2. It is not only lawful to depose princes that are here
tical, but it is necessary, and the catholics are bound to do it
sub mortali. I know not whether it be so generally : I am
sure it is as confidently taught as the former, and by as great
doctors. Ecclesia nimis graviter erraret, si admitteref aliquem regem,
qui vellet impune f avere quamlibet sectam, et defendere hareti
cos: so Bellarmine. t And again,§ Nan licet Christianis tale-
rare regem hcereticum, si conetur pertrahere subditos ad suam
haresim. But F. Creswell || puts the business home to pur
pose, Certe non tantum licet, sed summa etiam juris divini ne
cessitate ac prcBcepto, ima conscientia vinculo arctissimo, et
extremo animarum suarum periculo ac discrimine, Christianis
omnibus hoc ipsum incumbit, si prastare rem possint. Under
peril of their souls they must not suffer an heretical prince to
* Cap. 45. de Poenit. ! Contra Barclaium, cap, 3.
X Lib. v, de Rom. Pont, c. 7. § Ibid.
II Philopat. p. 110. n. 162.

-ON THE GUNPOWDER TREASON. 265
reign over thera. Possunt, et debent eum arcere ex hominum
Christianorum dominatu, ne alios inficiat," &c.
3. He that saith subjects " may, and are bound to depose
their princes, and to drive them from all rule over Christians,
if they be able," means something more : for what if the prince
resist ? still he is bound to depose him if he be able. How if
the prince make a war ? the catholic subject must do his duty
nevertheless, and war too, if he be able. He that says he raay
wage a war with his prince, I doubt not but thinks he may kill
him ; and if the fortune of the war lights so on him, the subject
cannot be blamed for doing of his duty.
It is plain that killing a prince is a certain consequent of
deposing him, unless the prince be bound in conscience to think
himself a heretic when the pope declares him so, and be like
wise bound not to resist ; and besides all this, will perform
these his obligations, and as certainly think himself heretical,
and as really give over his kingdom quietly, as he is bound.
For in case any of these should fail, there can be but very slen
der assurance of his life. I would be loath to obtrude on men
the odious consequences of their opinions, or to make any thing
worse which is capable of a fairer construction ; but I crave
pardon in this particular ; the life of princes is sacred, and is
not to be violated so much as in thought, or by the most reraote
consequence of a public doctrine : but here indeed it is so ira-
mediate and natural a consequent of the former, that it must
not be dissembled. But what shall we think, if even this blas
phemy be taught in terminis ? See this too.
In the year 1407, when the duke of Orleans had been slain
by John of Burgundy, and the fact notorious beyond a possibi
lity of concealment, he thought it his best way to employ his
chaplain to justify the act, pretending that Orleans was a ty
rant. This stood him in small stead, for by the procurement
of Gerson, it was decreed in the council of Constance, that ty
ranny was no sufficient cause for a man to kill a prince. But
yet, I find, that even this decree will not stand princes in much-
stead : first, because the decree runs ut nemo privata auctori-
tate, &c. ; but if the pope commands it, then it is judicium
• Pag. 106, n, 157,
TAY. VOL. IV. M

266 JEREMY TAYLOR.
publicum, and so they are never the more secure for all this.
Secondly, because Mariana * tells us, that this decree is no
thing. Namque id decretum {Cancilii Constantiensis) Romano
Pontifici Martina quinta probatum non invenia, non Eugenia,
aut successoribus, quorum consensu conciliorum ecclesiasticorum
sanctitas stat. Thirdly, because though the council had for
bidden killing of tyrannical princes even by public authority,
though this decree had been confirmed by the pope, which yet it
was not, yet princes are never the more secure, if they be con
victed of heresy; and, therefore, let them but add heresy to
their tyranny, and, this council non obstante, they may be
killed by any man ; for so it is determined ! in an apology
made for Chastel, Licitum esse privatis et singulis reges et
principes hareseos et tyrannidis condemnatos occidere, non ob
stante decreto cancilii Constantiensis ; — and the author of the
book De justa Abdicatiane Ilenrici III. affirms it not only
lawful, but meritorious.
How much less than this is that of Bellarmine ?t Si tem-
poralia absintfini spirituali, spiritualis potestas potest et debet
co'ercere temparalem omni ratiane ac via. If omni rationed
then this of killing him in ease of necessity, or greater conve
nience, must not be excluded. But to confess the business
openly and freely, it is known that either the consent of the
people, or the sentence of the pope, or consent of learned men,
is with them held to be a publicum judicium, and sufficient to
sentence a prince, and convict him of heresy or tyranny. That
opinion which makes the people judge, is very rare amongst
thcTi, but almost generally exploded ;§ that opinion which
makes the learned to be their judge, is, I think, proper to Ma
riana, or to a few more with him ; but that the sentence of the
pope is a sufficient conviction of hira, and a complete judicial
act, is the most catholic opinion on that side, as I shall show
anon. Now whether the pope, or learned men, or the people,
be to pass this sentence on the prince, it is plain that it is a
universal doctrine amongst them, that after this sentence, whose
soever it be, it is then without question lawful to kill hira ; and
* De Reg. et R. Instit. lib. i. c. 6.
! Franc. Verum. Const, p. 2. c. 2. X De Pont. R. lib. v. c. 6.
§ Vide P. D. M, Image of both Churches.

ON THE GUNPOWDER TREASON, 207
the most that ever they say is, that it is indeed not lawful to
kill a king, not lawful for a private man, of his own head, with-'
out the public sentence of his judge ; but when this judge
(whom they affirm to be the pope) hath passed his sentence,-
then they doubt not of its being lawful. That I say true, I ap
peal to Gregory de Valentia," Tolet,'' Bellarmine,' Suarez,**
Salmeron," Serarius.^ Molina,^ Eraraanuel Sa,*" Azorius,' Mar
tinus Delrius,'' Lessius,' Gretser," Becanus," Sebastian Heisi-
us,° Richeorae,P Eudaemon Johannes,i Salianus,"- Filliucius,^
Adam Tanner,' and their great Thomas Aquinas."
All these, and many more that I have seen, teach the law
fulness of killing kings after public sentence; and then, to
beautify the matter, profess that they deny the lawfulness of
regicidium by a private authority. For if the pope senterice
him, then he is no longer a king, and so the killing of him is
not regicidium ; and if any man doth kill him after such sen
tence, then he kills him not privata auctoritate, or sine judicio
publico ; which is all they affirra to be unlawful.
And thus they hope to stop the clamor of the world against
them, yet to have their opinions stand intire, the way to their
own ends fair, but the prince no jot the raore secure of his
life. I do them no wrong, I appeal to the authors themselves ;
there I will be tried. For that either the people, or that a com
pany of learned men, or to be sure the pope raay license a man
to kill the king, they speak it with one voice and tongue. And
» Tom. iii. disp. 5. q. 8. punct. 3. >> In Sum. lib. v. c. 6.
' Apolog. ad R. Angl. c. 13. •> Defens. Fidei, lib. vi. c. 4.
' In 13 cap. ad Rom. disp. 5, ' Quaest, p. in c. 3, Jud,
e De Just, et Jure, tom. iv. tr. 3. d; 6.
'¦ Aphoris. verb. Tyrannus. '
' Instit. Moral. 2 p, lib. xi. c. 5. q. 10.
' In Hercul. Fure.nt. , ' De Instit. et Jure, c. 9. dub. 4.
" Chauvesouris, Polit. " In Resp. ad Aphoris, Calvinistarum.
° Contr. Calvinist. Aphorism, c. 3, ad Aphor. 1.
P In Expostul. ad Henric. Reg. pro Societate.
1 In Apolog. pro Henrico Garnetto.
' Ad annum mundi 2669, n. 7.
¦ Tract. 29. p. 2. de quinto precepto Decal. n. 12.
' Tom. iii, disp, 4. q. 8. dub. 3. n. 32.
" Opusc. 20. ct lib. i. de Regim. Praecip, c, 6.

268 JTEREMY TAYLOR,
now after all this we raay better guess what manner of counsel
or threatening (for I know not which to call it) that was which
Bellarmine* gave sometimes to king James of blessed raeraory :
Si securus regnare velit rex, si vitcB sua et suorum consulere
cupiat, sinat catholicos frui religione sua. If this be good
counsel, then, in case the catholics were hindered from the free
profession of their religion, at the best it was full of danger, if
not certain ruin. But I will no more rake this Augean
stable ; in my first part I showed it was too catholic a doc
trine, and too much practised by the great Cisalpine prelate.
I add no raore, lest truth itself should blush, fearing to become
incredible. Now, if we put all these things together, and then we should
prove to be heretics in their account, we are in a fair case, both
prince and people : if we can but guess rightly at this, we shall
need, I think, to look no farther why fire was called for to con
sume both our king and country, nor why we may fear it an
other time.
The author of the " Epistle of Comfort to the Catholics in
Prison," printed by authority, in the year of the powder trea
son, is very earnest to persuade his catholics not to corae to our
churches, or communicate with us in any part of our divine
service ; affrighting them with the strange terriculamenta of
half Christians, hypocrites, deniers of Christ, in case they joined
with us in our Liturgy.! Strange affrightments these, yet not
much more than what is true, if they esteem us heretics. For
if they think us so, we are so to thera ; and they, coramunica-
ting with us, do as much sin as if we were so indeed.
But if we be not heretics, what need all this stir, permissu
superiorum? the counsel of recusancy was unreasonable, dan
gerous, schisraatical, and, as the case then stood, very impru
dent. In charity to their discretion, we cannot but think them
uncharitable in their opinion of us.
But there is no need we should dispute ourselves into a con
jecture : themselves speak out and plain enough. Hear Bellar-
* In lib. sub nomine Torti, edit. Colon. Agrip. 1610. p. 21.
t EiTij K\7ipiKhs ^ \aiKhs eUr4\6ri ds t?> a-vvayaiyiiv 'lovSaiav fj alpermSiv
auviv^auBai, KaBaipiiaeu, koL i>4opi^iae<».—ZQ Can. Apost. "Oti ov Sil aipe-
TtKoTs trvveixfirSai. — 33 Laodic.

ON THE GUNPOWDER TREASON. 269
mine,* under the visor of Tortus, affirming that the king's edict
commanded the catholics to go to heretics' churches, speaking
of ours. But raore plain is that of Charap, the Sorbonist, iA
his treatise of Vocation of Bishops : — " Therefore, as Arian-
ism is a condemned heresy, and the professors thereof be
heretics ; so likewise is protestantism a condemned heresy, and
those that profess it be also heretics."!
By this time we see too plainly that the state of protestant
princes is full of danger, where these men have to do. They
may be deposed and expelled from the governraent of theit
kingdoms, they must be deposed by the catholics under peril
of their souls, it may be done any way that is most convenient ;
they may be rebelled against, fought with, slain. For all this,
it were some ease, if here we might fix a nan ultra : for, per
haps, these princes might put in a plea for themselves, and go
near to prove themselves to be no heretics. All is one ; for
though they do, yet unless they can persuade his holiness not
to judge them so, or declare them heretics, all is to no purpose,
for to him they must stand or fall. Nam judicare an rex per-
trahat ad haresim necne, pertinet ad pontificem : so Bellar
mine. They need not stay till his heresy be of itself manifest :
he is then to be used like a heretic, " when by the pope of
Rome he shall be judged heretical."
But what matter is it if the pope be judge ? for if they may
be deposed, as good he as any else. What grievance then ean
this be to the state of princes more than the former ? Yes, very
much. 1. Because the pope, by his order to spirituals, may
take away kingdoms on more pretences than actual heresy.
It is a large title, and may do any thing, Bellarmine X ex
presses it handsomely, and it is the doctrine of their great
Aquinas. § " The pope," saith he, " by his spiritual power,
may dispose of the temporalities of all the Christians in the
world, when it is requisite to the end of the spiritual power,"
The words are plain that he may do it for his own ends (for his
is the spiritual power), that is, for the advancement of the see
apostolic ; and thus, to be sure, he did actually with Frederick
* Apol. ad R. Angl. ! Cap. 11. p. 149, Douay, 1616.
t Ubi supra. § De Regim. Princip,

270 JEREMY TAYLOR.
Barbarossa, John of Navarre, the earl of Toulouse, and our
own king John, 2. The pope pretends to a power, that, to avoid
the probable danger of the increase of heresy, he may take
away a territory from the right owner, as is reported by the
cardinal D'Ossat ; and this is soon pretended ; for who is there
that cannot make probabilities, especially when a kingdom is
at stake ? 3. We find examples, that the pope hath excommu
nicated princes, and declared them heretics, when all the heresy
hath been a not laying their crowns at the feet of St. Peter.
The case of Louis IV, is every where known, whom John
XXIII. excommunicated, Platina* tells the reason. He
ealled himself emperor without the pope's leave, and aided the
Italian deputies to recover Milan. Doubtless a most damnable
and fundamental heresy ! 4. How, if it proves in the pope's
account to be a heresy to defend the immediate right of princes
to their kingdoms, dependent only on God, not on the see apo
stolic ? If this be no heresy, nor like heresy, to say it, I would
fain learn the meaning of Baronius ! concerning the book of
Johannes de Roa, who some time had been a Jesuit, but then
changed his order, and became Augustan, saying, " it was sen
tenced to the fire before it had escaped the press." And good
reason. Nihil enim tale a patribus sacietatis didicit. Good
men, they never taught hira any such doctrine as is contained in
that pestilent book, dejuribus principalibus defendendis et mo-
derandis juste. Now, if this be heresy, or like it, to preach such
a doctrine, then likely it will be judged heresy in princes to do
so, that is, to hold their crowns without acknowledgment of
subordination to St. Peter's chair. And if it be not heresy to
do so, it is in their account as bad ; for so the Jesuits, in their
Veritas defensa against the action of Arnald the advocate,
affirra, in terminis, that the actions of sorae kings of France
against the pope, in defence of their regalities, were but " ex
amples of rebellion, and spots to disgrace the purity of the
French lilies." 5. But in case the pope should chance to mis
take in his sentence against a prince, for the cause of heresy,
yet, for all this mistake, he can secure any man to take away
* In Clement. Quinto.
! Baron, tom. vi. Annal. An. Dom. 447, n. 8.

ON THE GUNPOWDER TRE.ASON. 271
the prince's life or kingdom. His lawyers will be his security
for this point. For although, in this case, the deposition of the
prince should be, and be acknowleged to be, against God's
law, the prince being neither tyrant nor heretic, yet his holiness
commanding it, takes away the unlawfulness of it, by his dis
pensation. So D. Marta;* and for this doctrine. he quotes
Hostiensis, Felinus, Gratus the abbot, the archbishop of Flo
rence, Ancharanus, Johannes Andreas, Laurentius de Pinu, and
some others. Indeed his divines deny this ; sed contrarium ta
men observatur, as it is very well observed by the same doctor;!
for he brings the practice and example of pope Martin V., Ju
lius II., Celestine III., Alexander III., and Sixtus Quintus,
all which dispensed in cases acknowleged to be expressly
against God's law, 6. Lastly, how if the pope should lay a
claim to all the kingdoms of the world, as belonging to St.
Peter's patrimony, by right of spiritual pre-eminence ? I know
no great security we have to the contrary. For, first, it is
known he hath claimed the kingdora of England, as feudatory
to the see apostolic. J Which when I considered, I wondered
not at that new and insolent title which Mosconius gives his
holiness oi Defensor Fidei: he might have added the title of
Rex Catholicus, and Christianissimus. For Dr. Marta, in bis
treatise of " Jurisdiction, "§ which he dedicated to Paulus
Quintus, hath that for an argument why he dedicated his book
to him, because, forsooth, the pope is the only monarch of the
world. But of greater authority is that of Thomas Aquinas, ||
affirming the pope to be the vertical top of all power, ecclesi
astical and civil. So that now it may be true which the bishop
of Patara told the emperor, in behalf of pope Sylverius ;
* De Jurisd. oas. Ixiv. v. 14. ! Num. 17.
X Rex Anglorum est subditus Romano pontifici, ratione direct!
doniinii, quod in regnum Angliae et Hiberniie Komana habet eccle
sia — Bellurm. Apol. adv. R. Aug!, c. 3.
§ De Majest. Milit. Eccle.s. c. 1. p. 25. Epist. Dedicat. " Tibi, a
quo enianat omnis jurisdictio, unicus in orbe pontifex, imperator et
rex, omnium principum superior, rerumque etpersonarum supremus
et dominus."
II 2 Sent. Dist. 44. et lib. iii. de Regim. Piinc,

272 JEREMY TAYLOR,
Multos esse reges, sed nullum talem, qualis ille, qui est papa
super ecclesiam mundi totius.* ¦
For these reasons, I think, it is true enough, that the consti
tuting the pope the judge of princes in the matter of deposition,
is of more danger than the thing itself. The sum is this. How
ever schism or heresy may be pretended, yet it is but during
the pope's pleasure, that kings or subjects shall remain firm in
their mutual necessitude : for if our prince be but excommu
nicate or declared heretic, then to be a good subject will be
accounted no better than irreligion and anti-catholieisra. If the
conclusion be too hard and intolerable, then so are the pre
mises ; and yet they pass for good catholic doctrine among
themselves. But if truly, and ex anima, they are otherwise affected, they
should do well to unsay what hath been said, and declare them
selves, by public authority, against such doctrines ; and say,
whether or no their determinations shall be de fide. If they
be, then all those famous catholic doctors, Thomas Aquinas,
Bellarmine, Creswell, Mariana, Emmanuel S^, &c., are heretics,
and their canons teach heresy, and many of their popes are to be
condemned as heretical, for practising and teaching deposition
of princes, by an authority usurped against, and in prejudice
of, the Christian faith. But if their answers be not de fide,
then they had as good say nothing, for the danger is not at all
decreased ; because if there be doctors on both sides, by their
own assertion ! they raay without sin follow either, but yet
more safely, if they follow the most received and the most au
thorised ; and whither this rule will lead them, I will be judged
by any man that hath considered the premises. Briefly, either
this thing must remain in the same state it is, and our princes
still exposed to so extrerae hazards, or else let his holiness seat
himself in his chair, condemn these doctrines, vow against their
future practice, limit his ordo ad spiritualia, contain himself
within the limits of causes directly and merely ecclesiastical,
disclaim all power, so much as indirect, over princes' temporals,
* Lib. in Breviar. de Causa Nesforian. c. 21.
! Charity maintained by Cath. c. 7.

ON THE GUNPOWDER TREASON. 273
knd all this with an intent to oblige all Christendom. Which
when I see done, I shall be most ready to believe that nothing
in popery doth, either directly or by a necessary consequence,
destroy loyalty to our lawful prince ; but not till then, having
so much evidence to the contrary.
III. Thus much was occasioned by consideration of the cause
of the disciples' query, which was when they saw this, that their
Lord and Master, for his difference in religion, was turned forth
of doors; which when they saw, 'They said. Lord:' it was well
they asked at all, and would not too hastily act what they too
suddenly had intended ; but it was better that they asked
Christ ; it had been the best warrant they could have had,
could they have obtained but a magister dixit. But this was
not likely ; it was too strange a question to ask of such a
Master, a Magistro mansuetudinis licentiam crudelitatis. No
thing could have come more cross to his disposition. His
spirit never was addicted to blood, unless it were to shed his
own. He was a Prince of peace, and set forth to us by all the
symbols of peace and gentleness, as of a sheep, a lamb, a hen,
a gentle twining vine, the healing olive : and is it likely, that
such a one should give his placet to the utter ruin of a company
of poor villagers, for denying him a night's lodging, moved
thereto by the foregoing scandal of a schism ? he knew better
what it cost to redeem a man, and to save his life from destruc
tion, than to be so hasty for his ruin. And if the fathers con
fessors, who were to answer the question of the day, had but
reflected on this gospel, they might have informed their peni
tents better, than to have engaged them on such antichristian
and treasonable practices, as to destroy an assembly of Chris
tians, as to depose or kill a king.
It is the proper cognisance of Mahometanism, by fire and
sword to maintain their cause, and to propagate their religion,
by ruin of princes, and conquering their kingdoms; but it
is the excellency of Christianity, that by humility and obe
dience it made princes tributary to our dear Master, and ho
magers to his kingdoms. When Valentinian sent Calligonus,
his chamberlain, to St. Ambrose, to threaten him frora his faith,
his answer was, Deus permittit tibi, ut impleas quod minaris.
Ego paiiar, quod est episcopi ; tu fades, quod est spadonis. He

274 JEREMY TAYLOR.
did not stir up the numerous people of his diocese to rebel
against the eraperor, or depose him ; employed no agent in his
court to undermine his security, or assassin to take his life. He
and the rest of those good fathers would not have lost their
possibility of being martyrs for the world, unless it were by
persuading the emperors to the Christian faith. " We pray for
all our governors, that they might have long life, a secure go
vernment, a safe house, strong armies, good subjects, quiet
world." So Tertullian.*
I had thought that the doctrine and example of our blessed
Saviour, the practice apostolical and primitive, had been ties
enough to keep us in our obedience to God and the king, and
in Christian charity to all ; but I find that all these precepts
come to nothing; for the Apostles and primitive Christians did
not actually depose kings, nor alter states, nor call for fire to
consume their enemies ; not because it was simply unlawful so
to do, or any way adverse to the precepts of Christ, but because
they wanted power. So Bellarmine :! " The church gave
leave that the faithful should obey Julian, because then they
wanted forces." — And F. Creswell X is very confident of the
business, "They might without all question have appointed to
themselves other kings and princes, if the Christians had been
strong enough to bring their intendments to pass." But be
cause they could not, therefore itwas not lawful for them to go
about it, nor is it for us in the same case, " especially if the
prince hath quiet possession, and a strong guard about him, then
by no means is it lawful for a single man, by his own authority,
to assault his prince that rules tyrannically." So Salmeron.§
But who sees not that this way murder may be lawful? For
true it is God commanded us, saying, ' Thou shalt not kill,'
that is, if thou art not able to lift up thy hand, or strike a
stroke ; thou shalt not blaspheme, that is, if thou beest speech
less ; thou must be obedient to thy prince, that is, if thou canst
not tell how to help it. Good doctrine this ! And indeed it
might possibly be something if God had commanded our sub
ordination to princes only ' for wrath,' for then si vires adsint,
¦* Apologet, ! De Pontif. R. lib. v, c. 7.
X Philopater, p, 107, n, 158, § Disp, 5, in c. 13, ad Roman.

ON THE GUNPOWDER TREASON. 275
if we can defend ourselves, we are secure, we need not fear his
wrath : but when he adds, ' also for conscience' sake,' I cannot
sufiiciently wonder that any man should obtrude so senseless,
so illiterate, and so impious an interpretation on the Christian
world, under the title of catholic doctrine.
Chri.st, when he was betrayed, and seized on by his mur
derers, could have commanded twelve legions of angels for his
guard, Non defuerunt vires; and, in all human likelihood, such
a satellitium as that would have moved them to a belief in him,
or else, I am sure, might have destroyed the unbelievers. Shall
I say more against this rude glossema ? Then thus. It is false
that the primitive Christians had not power to defend them
selves against their persecutors. Hear St, Cyprian : Nemo
nostrum, quando apprehenditur, reluctatur, nee se adversus vn-
justitiam et violentiam vestram, quamvis nimius et copiosus
noster sit populus, ulciscitur. They could have resisted and
that to blood, but they had not so learned Christ, Prayers and
tears were the arms of Christians, and then they had a defence
beyond all this, when they were hard put to it; mori potue-
runt : a submission of their bodies to martyrdom was their last
refuge. Thus St. Agnes, Lucia, Agatha, Christina, Domitilla saved
hoth their faith and chastity, nan armis, sed ignibus, et carnificis
manu; the tormentor's last cruelty defended them from all suc
ceeding danger,
I will not yet conclude, that that which these men obtrude
for catholic doctrine is flat and direct heresy ; I will instance
but once raore, and then I shall. In the fourth council of To
ledo, which was assembled when the usurping and tyrannising
Goths did domineer in Europe, the most whereof were tyrants,
usurpers, or Arians ; the council decreed that if any man did
violate the life or person of his king, aut potestate regni exuerit,
kill him or depose him. Anathema sit, &c., he should be ac
cursed in the sight of God and his holy angels, and, together
with all the companions of his iniquity, he should ^e separated
from the catholic church. And now, I hope I may say that
these men who either practise or advise such practices as killing
or deposing kings, are as formally condemned for heresy, and
anathematised, as ever was Manichee or Cataphrygiaa. I

276 JEREMY TAYLOR,
know not, but, perhaps, this might be thought of when the Je
suits were inscribed heretics on the public pillar before the
Louvre, at Paris, on their banishraent : however, let them an
swer it as they may, it concerns them as much as their being
catholics coraes to, Et considerent, quia qua prcedicant tanto-
pere verba, aut ipsorum summorum pontificum sunt suas fim-
brias extendentium,aut illarum qui eis adulantur, as said .SIneas
Sylvius ;* but at no hand can it be Christian doctrine,
I instanced in these things to show the antithesis between
the spirit of our blessed Saviour, who answered the question of
the text ; and the fathers confessors, of whom was asked the
question of the day.
But give me leave to consider them not only as misinforming
their penitents, but as concealing their intended purpose ; for
even this way, the persons to whom the question was propounded
made themselves guilty of the intended machination.! For by
all law, ecclesiastical and civil, he that conceals an intended
murder or treason, makes himself as much a party for conceal
ing, as is the principal for contriving,
Ob. But these fathers confessors could not be accused by
these general laws, as being exerapt by virtue of special case ;
for they received notice of these things only in confession, the
seal of which is so sacred and inviolable, that he is sacrilegious
who in any ease doth break it open, though it be to avoid the
greatest evil that can happen, so Bellarmine ;| to save the lives
of all the kings in Christendom, so Binet;| though to save a
whole commonwealth from damage, temporal or spiritual, of
body or soul, so Suarez. ||
A considerable matter ! On the one side we are threatened
by saicrilege, on the other by danger of princes and common
wealths ; for the case may happen, that either the prince and
whole state may be suffered to perish bodily and ghostly, or else
* De Gestis Concil. Basil, lib. i.
! Cap.quantee de senten. excom. et c. delicto ibid, in 6. 13. q.3.
lib. i. Occisorum ad Syllanian, et lib, sec. 1, ad L, Cornel, de Fat-
sis, 1. quisquis ad 1. Jul. Majest,
X Apol. adv, R, Angl.
§ Casaub. ad Front, Due, In 3 part. D. Thom, disp.
li 33. sect, i, n. 2,

ON THE GUNPOWDER TREASON, 277
the priest must certainly damn himself by the sacrilegious
breach of the holy seal of confession. Give me leave briefly to
consider it, and, both for the acquittance of our state in its pro
ceedings against these traitors, and for the regulating of the case
itself, to say these two things.
1. This present treason was not revealed to these fathers con
fessors in formal confession. 2. If it had, it did not bind to
secrecy in the present ease. Of the first, only a word.
1. It was only propounded to them in way of question or
consultation* (like this in the text), as appeared by their own
confessions, and the attestation of then Sir Henry Mountague,
recorder of London, to Garnet himself : it could not, there
fore, be a formal confession ; and, therefore, not bind to the
seal. It is the common opinion of their own doctors : Nan
enim inducitur obligatio sigilli in canfessione, quam quis facit
sine ulla animo accipiendi absolutianem, sed solum, cansilii pe-
tendi causa, f
2. It was propounded to these fathers confessors as a thing
not subjectable to their penitential judicature, because it was a
fact not repented of, but then in agitation, and resolved on for
the future. How then could this be a confession, whose in
stitution must certainly be in order to absolution ; and how could
this be in any such order, when it was a business of which they
could not expect to be absolved, unless they hoped to sin with
a pardon about their necks; and on condition God would be
merciful to thera in its remission, would come and profess that
they were resolved to anger him ? In reason, this could be no
act of repentance, neither could it, by confession of their own
side. It is the doctrine of Hostiensis : and Navarre | and Car
dinal Alban§ confess it to be most commonly received.
3. It was not only not repented of, but by thera reputed to
be a good action, and so could not be a matter of confession. I
* Vide Casaub. Ep. ad Front. D. p. 133.
! De Soto, in lib. iv. Sent, d. 18. q. 4. art. 5, concl. 5, Navar. c,
8. D, 18, Suarez, disp, 33, sec, 2. Coninck, de sigil, conf, dub. 1,
11.7. t Cap. Sacerdos, 3, q. n, 116.
§ In Lucubrat. ad Bartolum, in L. ut vim, n. 22. S. de Justitia
et Jure.

278 JEREMY TAYLOR.
appeal to any of their own manuals and penitentiary books. It
is culpable, say they. I am sure it is ridiculous in any man to
confess, and shrive himself of a good action ; and that this was
such in their opinion, it is plain, by that impious answer of
Garnet, affirming it a business greatly meritorious, if any good
might thence accrue to the catholic cause."
4. By this their pretended confession they endeavored to
acquire new complices, as is evident in the "Proceedings against
the Traitors." They were therefore bound to reveal it, for it
neither was, nor could be, a proper and formal confession. That
this is the common opinion of their own schools, see it affirmed
by JEgidius Coninck.!
The first particular then is plain. Here neither was the form
of confession, nor yet could this thing be a matter of con
fession ; therefore supposing the seal of confession to be sacredly
inviolable, in all cases, yet they were highly blamable for their
concealment in the present.
2. But the truth of the second particular is more to be in
quired of: that is, that though these things had been only
revealed in confession, and this confession had been formal and
direct, yet they were bound, in the present case, to reveal it,
because the seal of confession is not so inviolable, as that in no
ease it is to be broken up; and if in any, especially it may be
opened in the case of treason.
I never knew any thing cried up with so general a voice, on
so little ground, as is the over-hallowed seal of confession.
True it is, that an ordinary secret, committed to a friend in
civil commerce, is not to be revealed on every cause, nor on
many; but on some it may, as they all confess. If thus, then
much rather is this to be observed in the revelation of the secrets
of our consciences, not only from the ordinary tie to secrecy,
but likewise, lest sins should grow more frequent, if so great a
remedy of thera be raade so odious, as to expose us to a public
infaray or danger of the law. The council, therefore, that first
introduced this obligation, was very prudent and reasonable,
pleads a thousand years' prescription, and relies on good con
veniences. This is all that ever could be proved of it, as may
* See Proceedings against late Traitors. ! ubi supra.

ON THE GUNPOWDER TREASON, 279
appear anon ; but these are too weak a base, to build so great a
structure on it, as to make it sacrilege, or any sin at all, to re
veal confessions, in sorae cases.
1, For first, if because it is delivered as a secret, and such a
secret, it is the more closely and religiously to be kept ; it is
true, — but concludes no raore, but that it must be a greater
cause that must authorise a publication of this, than of the
secrets of ordinary commerce between friend and friend.
2. If the licensing of publication of confession be a way to
make confession odious, and therefore that it may not be piib-
lished, — I say, if this concludes, then, on the contrary, it con
cludes far more strongly, that therefore, in some cases, it may
be published ; because nothing can make a thing more odious
and intolerable, than if it be made a cover for grand impieties,
so as to engage a true subject, quietly and knowingly, to see
his prince murdered.
3. If it be discouragement to the practice of confession, that
some sins revealed in it must be published, though with peril to
the delinquent's fame and life ; then it will be a far greater dis
couragement to the sin, when that it shall, by a universal judg
ment, be so detested, that its concealment may not be per
mitted, though it be with the hazard of discouraging the holy
duty of confession ; and when the being guilty of such a sin
shall reduce men into such straits, that either they shall want
the benefit of absolution, or submit themselves to a public satis
faction : and so, even in this particular, the benefit is far greater
than the imaginary inconvenience.
The conveniences of the seal force no more, than that it is
convenient to be observed ; not simply and absolutely, in all
cases, necessary. And perhaps Suarez, the great patron of it,
peceived it; however, he lays the burden super communi con
sensu ecclesia, ejusque perpetua traditione.* If then I can show,
that there is no such catholic consent of the present church, nor
any universal tradition of the ancient church, for the inviolable
seal, but plainly the contrary ; then our church, in her permission
of the priests to reveal some confessions, is as inculpable as those
of the present church, who (besides herself) teach and practise
• In 3 part, D, Thom, disp. 33. sec. 1. n. 2.

280 JEREMY TAYLOR.
it, and as the primitive church, whose example in this, as in
other things, she strictly follows.
Of the first, the church of England, which observes the seal
of confession as sacredly as reason or religion itself can possibly
permit, yet forbids not disclosure, in case of murder or treason ;
but, in these particulars, leaves us intire in our obedience to
the common laws of England ; and these comraand it.*
That the church of England gives leave, in some cases, to
reveal confessions, is argument enough to prove, that the seal is
not founded on the consent of the present catholic church : for
it is no raore a begging of the question (nor apparently so rauch)
to say, the church of England is a part of the catholic church,
and therefore her consent is required to make a thing universal,
than to say, the church of Rorae is the whole catholic church,
therefore her consent is sufficient to make a thing catholic. But
I shall not need to proceed this way. For,
It is apparent, that, of their own side, Altisidiorensis
largely and professedly proves the lawfulness of publication in
sorae cases, as is to be seen, lib. 4. Sumraae Tract. 6. cap. 3.
q, 7. : and Garnet himself, — the man who, if any, had most need
to stand in defence of the seal, that the pretence of it might
have defended him, — yet confessed, of his own accord. Leges,
quae celare hac prohibent, apprime esse justas et salutares.\
He adds his reason, and that is more than his authority ; for,
saith he, it is not fitting that the life and safety of a prince
should depend on the private niceties of any man's conscience.
If two, nay, if one dissent, it is enough to destroy a consent.
But see farther.
There are many cases, generally, confessed amongst them
selves, in which the seal of formal, and, as they love to speak,
sacramental confession, may be broken open, I instance but in
two or three.
First, confession may be revealed to clear a doubtful case
of marriage. It is the opinion of many great canonists,! as
you raay see thera quoted by Suarez de Paz, and Covaruvias :§
and the case of the Venetian, who married a virgin that was
« Can. 113. A.D. 1604. ! Actio in Prodit. Lat. p. 99.
X Practic, Crini. Ecclesiast. c. 109. § Resol, de Matrimon,

ON THE GUNPOWDER TREASON, 281
both his sister and daughter ; — and that at Rorae, under pope
Paul III, almost to like purpose ; — were long disputed on both
sides, whether they were to be revealed or not ; so that at most,
it is but a doubtful matter in such eases, whether the tie of
secrecy doth oblige. Now if for the proof of marriage, the
seal may be broken up, that man and wife might live con
tentedly, and as they ought, strange it should be unlawful to
reveal confessions, in case of treason, for the safety of a prince
or state !
In case of heresy, the seal binds not, by their own general
confession. It is a rule amongst them,
Haeresis est crimen, quod non confessio celat.
Now I would fain learn why treason is not as revealable as
heresy ? Is heresy dangerous to souls ? Then surely so is trea
son, unless it be none, or a very small crime. May heresy
infect others ? So may treason, as it did in the present. It
may then as well be revealed as heresy. Now that it may
something rather, I have these reasons: 1. because it is not
so certain that such an opinion is heresy, as that such a fact is
treason : 2. because, although both treason and real heresy
he damnable and dangerous to souls, yet heresy kills no kings
as treason doth. I confess that heresy raay, and doth teach it,
but then it degenerates into treason. Now, if some heresy may
be treason, then that treason is heresy ; and so a case of trea
son may occur, in which, from their own confession, treason is
revealable. 3. By the most general voice of their own side, any man may
license his confessor to reveal his confession : it is the doctrine
of Scotus, Durandus, Almain, Navarre, Medina, and generally
of all the Thomists. I infer, if a private man may license his
confessor to reveal his confession, then the seal of confession
is not founded on any divine commandment ; for if it were,
the penitent could not give the priest license to break it. But,
if the penitent may give his confessor leave, because the tie of
secrecy is a bond in which the priest stands bound to the penitent,
and, he giving him leave, remits of his own right, then much
rather may a whole state authorise this publication;* for, what-
* L. quod Major ff. ad Municipalem.

282 JEREMY TAYLOR.
ever personal right a private man hath, that the whole state
hath much rather, for he is included in it as a part of the whole;
and in such cases as concern the whole commonwealth, as this
of treason doth most especially, the rule of the law holds with
out exception. Refertur ad universos, quod publice fit per
majarem partem :* the delinquent gives leave to the publication
of confession, therefore, because the whole state doth, whereof
he is one member. I add, that in the case of treason this is
much rather true, for here the delinquent loseth all his right
whatsoever, praedial, personal, and of privilege; and, therefore,
the commonwealth ean the better license the publication, and
the breach of the bond of secrecy, in which the confessor stood
tied to the penitent by virtue of implicit stipulation.
4. Lastly, even in special, in the very case of treason con
fessed, many of their own do actually practise a publication,
when either they are loyal of themselves, or dare not be other
wise. I instance first in the church of France. For this, see Bo-
dinus,! who reports of a Norman gentleman, whom his con
fessor discovered for having confessed a treasonable purpose he
sometimes had, of killing Francis I., of which he was penitent,
did his penance, craved absolution, obtained it, but yet was
sentenced to the axe by express commission from the king to
the parliament of Paris.| The like confession was made by the
lord of Haulterville, when he was in danger of death ; which
-when he had escaped, he incurred it with the disadvantage of
public infamy on the scaffold. I instance not in the case of
Barriere : it is every where known, as it is reported by Thuanus,
but more fully by the author of Histoire de la Paix. Nor yet
is France singular in the practice of publication of confessed
treason : for at Rome there have been examples of the like ; I
mean of those who confessed their purpose of killing the pope,
who were revealed by their confessors, and accordingly
punished.^ Thus then the first pretence proves a nullity ; and either our
* If. de Regul. Jur. ad sec. refertur. Lib. vii. sec. ult. ff. de
Pact, ! De Republ. lib. ii. c. 5. | Histoire de Lapaiz.
§ Dominic, e Soto, memb. 3. q. 4. concl. 2. de rat. regcndi secret.

ON THE GUNPOWDER TREASON. 283
laws are just in commanding publication of confession in case
of treason, or themselves very culpable in teaching and prac
tising it in the same, and in eases of less moment. The second
is like the first, for it is extremely vain to pretend that the
seal of confession is founded on catholic tradition. Judge by
the sequel.
The first word I hear of concealing confessions, is in Sozo
men,* relating how the Greek church, about the time of Decius
the emperor, set over the penitents a public penitentiary priest,
who was bound to be vir bona conversationis, servansque secre-
tum, "a good man, and a keeper of secrets;" for, indeed, he
was bound to conceal sorae crimes ; in particular, those which
an adulteress had confessed, I mean, concerning her adultery, as
appears in the canons of St. Basil.! But yet this priest who
was so tied to a religious secrecy, did " publish many of them
in the congregation before the people," that they might re
prove the delinquent and discountenance the sin. The same
story is reported by Cassiodore and Nicephorus from the same
author. The lawfulness and practice of publication, in some cases,
is as clear in Origen. | " If (saith he) the physician of thy
soul perceives thy sins to be such as to need so harsh a remedy
as to have them published before the assemblies of the people,
that others may be admonished, and thou the better cured, he
need be very deliberate, and skilful in the application of it."
Hitherto, no such thing as a universal tradition for the pre
tended inviolable sacramental seal; for Origen plainly, and by
them, confessedly speaks of such sins as first were privately
confessed to the priest ; how else should he deliberate of their
publication ? but yet he did so ; and, for all the seal of confes
sion, sometimes opened many of them to no fewer witnesses
than a whole assembly. Thus it was, in the Greek church, both
law and custom. But now, if we look into the Latin church,
we shall find that it was taken up from example of the Greeks
and some while practised, that sorae particular sins should be
* Hist. lib. vii. c. 16.
t TAs px>ix^veei<ras ywcuKas Kctl i^ayopeiffas Si' ihXdfitiav ii\poaiivii.v OVK
iKeXevtrav ot irarepes rip,uv. Epist, ad Ampllil.
X Homil. 2. in Psal. xxxvii.

284 JEREMY TAYLOR,
published in the church before the congregation, as it is con
fessed in the council of Me.ntz, and inserted by Burchard into
his decree,*
But when the lay piety began to cool, and the zeal of some
clergymen wax too hot, they would needs heighten this custom
of publication of sorae sins, to a law of the publishing of all
sins. This being judged to be inconvenient, expressed the
first decree for the seal of confession in the Latin church. Now
see how it is uttered, and it will sufficiently inforra us both of
the practice, and the opinion which antiquity had of the obli
gation to the seal,
Ulam centra apostolicam regulam prasumptionem, &c,, that
is, " it was against the apostolical ordinance, that a law should
enjoin that the priest should reveal all those sins which had
been told hira in confession."! It raight be done, so it were
not required and exacted ; and yet might be so required, so it
were not a publication of all, Non enim omnium hujusmodi
suntpeccata; saith St. Leo: "some sins are inconvenient to
be published :" it is not fit the world should know all ; there
fore some they might, or else he had said nothing. The reason
which he gives makes the business somewhat clearer ; for he
derives it, not frora any simple necessity of the thing, or a
divine right ; but lest men, out of inordinate love to theraselves,
" should rather refuse to be washed than buy their purity with
so much shame." The whole epistle hath many things excel
lently to the sarae purpose.
I say no more ; the doctrine and practice of antiquity is suffi
ciently evident, and that there is nothing less than a universal
tradition for the seal of confession to be observed in all cases,
even of sins of the highest raalignity.
Thus these fathers confessors are made totally inexcusable by
concealing a treason, which was not revealed to them in a for
mal confession ; and had been likewise culpable though it had ;
there being, as I have shown, no such saeredness of the seal as
to be inviolable in all eases whatsoever,
I have now done with the several considerations of the per-
* cap. 10, et 21. lib. xix. c. 37.
! Decret. S. Leonis, P. M. Epist. 80, ad episc, Campan.

ON THE GUNPOWDER TREASON, 285
sons to whora the question was propounded : they were the
fathers confessors in the day, but it was Christ the Lord in
my text. The question itself follows, ' Shall we command fire
to come from heaven and consume them ?'
IV. The question was concerning the fate of a whole town of
Samaria; in our case it was more, of the fate of a whole king
dom. It had been well if such a question had been silenced by a
direct negative, or, as the judges of the Areopagus used to do,
put oft' ad diem longissimum, that they might have expected the
answer three ages after.
De morte hominis nulla est cunctatio longa ; no demur had
been too long in a case of so rauch and so royal blood, the
blood of a king, of a king's children, of a king's kingdom.
Uplapos Upiapoio re iraXbes, king and kingdom, should have been
made a solemn sacrifice to appease their solemn deliberate
malice. I said " deliberate," for they were loath to be malicious
without good advice, and therefore they asked their question,
worthy of an oracle even no less than Delphic, where an evil
spirit was the numen, and a witch the prophet. For the question
was such ofwhich a Christian could not doubt, though he had been
fearfully scrupulous in his resolutions. For who ever questioned
the unlawfulness of murder, of murdering innocents, of murder
ing them who were confessed righteous ? For such was their
proposal ; being rather willing that catholics should perish with
those whora they thought heretics, than that there should be
no blood spilt.
But to the question. It was fire they called for, the most
merciless of all the elements, no possibility of relenting when
once kindled, and had its object. It was the fittest instrument
for merciless men, men of no bowels, whose malice, like their
instrument, did agere ad extremum suarum virium, " work to
the highest of its possibility." Secondly, it was fire indeed
they called for, but not like that in my text, not fire from
heaven. They might have called as long and as loud as those
priests did, who contested with Elijah ; no fire would have
come from heaven to have consumed what they had intended
for a sacrifice. God's anathemas post not so fast as ours do :
Dm,s non est sicut homer. Ma,B curseth often whom God bless.

286 JEREMY TAYLOR.
eth ; men condemn whom God acquits ; and, therefore, they
were loath to trust God with their cause; they therefore take it
into their own hands. And certainly, if to their anathemas
they add some fagots of their own, and gunpowder, it is odds
but then we may be consumed indeed ; and so did they : their
fire was not from heaven.
Lastly, it was a fire so strange, that it had no example. The
Apostles, indeed, pleaded a mistaken precedent for the reason
ableness of their demand ; they desired leave to do but ' even as
Elias did.' The Greeks only retain this clause, it is not in the
bibles of the church of Rome, and really these Romano-barbari
could never pretend to any precedent for an act so barbarous
as theirs. Adramelech, indeed, killed a king, but he spared
the people ; Haman would have killed the people, but spared
the king : but that both king and people, princes and judges,
branch, and rush, and root, should die at once, as if Caligulas
were actuated and all England on one head, was never known
till now, that all the malice in the world met in this, as in a
centre. The Sicilian even-song, the matins of St. Bartholomew,
known for the pitiless and damned massacres, were but Kairvov
uKias ovap, " the dream of the shadow of smoke," if compared
with this great fire. In tam occupata saculo fabulas vulgaris
nequitia nan invenit. This was a busy age : Erostratus must
have invented a more sublimed malice than the burning of one
temple, or not have been so much as spoke of since the disco
very of the powder treason. But I must make more haste, I
shall not else climb the sublimity of this impiety. Nero was
sometimes the populare odium, was " popularly hated ;" and
deserved it too ; for he slew his master, and his wife, and all
his family, once or twice over, opened his mother's womb,
fired the city, laughed at it, slandered the Christians for it; but
yet all these were hut principia malorum, " the very first rudi
ments of evil." Add then to these, Herod's master-piece at
Ramah, as it was deciphered by the tears and sad thrones of
the matrons in a universal mourning for the loss of their
pretty infants ; yet this of Herod will prove but an infant
wickedness, and that of Nero the evil but of one city, I
would willingly have found out an example, but I see I cannot,-

ON THE GUNPOWDER TREASON, 287
should I pu-t into the scale the extract of all the old tyrants
famous in antique stories,
Bistonii stabulum regis, Busiridis aras,
Antiphatte mensas, et Taurica regna Thoantis.
Should I take for true story the highest cruelty as it was fan
cied by the most hieroglyphical Egyptian, this alone would
weigh them down, as if the Alps were put in scale against the
dust of a balance. For had this accursed treason prospered ,
we should have had the whole kingdom mourn for the inesti
mable loss of its chiefest glory, its life, its present joy^ and all
its very hopes for the future. For such was their destined
malice, that they would not only have inflicted so cruel a blow,
but have raade it incurable, by cutting oft' our supplies of joy,
the whole succession of the line royal. Not only the vine
itself, but all the gemmulce, and the tender olive branches, should
either have been bent to their intentions, and made to grow
crooked, or else been broken.
And now, after such a sublimity of malice, I will not instance
in the sacrilegious ruin of the neighboring temples, which
needs must have perished in the flame, nor in the disturbing
the ashes of our entombed kings, devouring their dead ruins,
like sepulchral dogs : these are but minutes, in respect of the
ruin prepared for the living temples.
Stragem sed istam non tulit
Christus cadentura principum
Impune, ne forsan sui
Patris periret fabrica.
Ergo quae poterit lingua retexere
Laudes, Christe, tuas, qui domituin struis
Infidum populum cum duce perfido?*
Let us then return to God the cup of thanksgiving, he having
poured forth so largely to us of the cup of salvation. We
cannot want wherewithal to fill it : here is matter enough for an
eternal thankfulness, for the expression of which a short life is
• Prudent. Hymn.

288 JEREMY TAYLOR,
too little: but let us here begin our hallelujahs, hoping to
finish them hereafter, where the many choirs of angels will fill
the concert,
' Praise the Lord, ye house of Levi ; ye that fear the Lord,
praise the Lord. Praise the Lord out of Sion, which dwelleth
at Jerusalem,'* *Psal, cxxxv. 20,21.

CONTEMPLATIONS
OF
THE STATE OF MAN
IN THIS LIFE,
AND IN
THAT WHICH IS TO COME.

TAY. VOL. IV.

TO THE READER.

Courteous Reader,
I HAVE soberly considered these holy and devout " Contempla
tions of the State of Man in this Life, and in that which is to come."
I never read any thing with more comfort, or which made a greater
impression on my soul. Therefore, hoping they may have the like
effect on others, I commend them to all persons who desire happi
ness in this life, or blessedness in the future. Here thou mayest
see the instability of human greatness ; the fate of kingdoms ; tha
period of empires ; the world's funeral ; time laid in the dust ; and
the dread and horror of the last judgment. Here thou mayest
have a prospect of the grandeur of heaven, the glory of the blessed,
and the miseries and infelicities of the damned ; the due considera
tion whereof will beget in thee holiness of life, than which nothing
can he of more consequence, in these worst of times, to promote thy
future happiness and glory. True piety sows the seeds of the
most solid greatness. Men endowed with moral virtues are like
diamonds, rich but unpolished. It is the fear of God that adds the
true lustre, and sets them fair. In the service of God, all the items
of happiness and blessedness are summed up. Dost thou desire
riches? Serve God, and thou canst never be poor. Dost thou de
sire preferment? Live a holy and devout life, (as these Contempla
tions are the best introduction to it) and thou shalt go avh 5<i|))s els
Si^ay, from grace to glory, Grace is Aurora GloricB ; glory nothing
but a bright constellation of graces ; and happiness nothing but the

292 TO THE READER,
quintessence of holiness. I shall not detain thee longer, but beg
of God that these holy Contemplations may so influence thy soul,
that thou mayest be made partaker of that eternal weight of glory
which is laid up for all those that love and serve him.
I am thy friend and servant in Christ Jesus,
B. Hale, D.D.

CONTEMPLATIONS OF THE STATE OF MAN, 203

SUMMARY OF
CONTEMPLATIONS OF THE STATE OF MAN.

BOOK I.
Chap, I. — Contemplations on time, and the state of man in
this life.
On the succession of the parts of time, &c. This life niay
with reason be called the shadow of death. Miserable condi
tion of human nature. Vanity of honors, riches, pleasures, &c.
Illustrations and reflections. A prayer.
Chap. II. — All things on this side heaven are inconstant and
transitory.
All things partake of that perpetual succession and mutation
which is the character of time itself. All human things, by
their own internal nature, or by external violences, are liable to
perish : this illustrated by the ruin of celebrated cities and
kingdoms. One day often makes an end of great riches: this
illustrated. No confidence to be placed in human prosperity.
Examples of the fall of mighty potentates, &e. Farther obser
vations on the shadowy and deceitful nature of the things of this
world. A prayer.
Chap. III. — All sublunary things are contemptible and of no
value.
The vanity of honor, fame, and renown exposed and illus-

294 SUMMARY OF
trated by examples. A man is really no greater than what he
is in the eyes of God. Considerarions on the vanity of riches
and luxuries. Narrowness of the sphere of all our pleasures:
pain and grief with which they are mingled. Considerations
on royalty and external grandeur. Exhortation to admire and
desire what is truly valuable.
Chap. IV. — The vanity of man.
Considerations on the nature of man : wherein he ends :
the perpetual successions or changes which he undergoes. His
vileness when dead. Evils of man's nature. Manner in which
his passions contribute to make him wretched. He troubles
himself in vain, to enjoy a life that is only lent him for a short
time. With good reason then it is to be valued as nothing,
David's reflections on this subject. If we could but form a
true conception of the shortness of this life, we should despise
its pleasures. Reflections of those who have lived longest on
this subject, &c.
Chap. V. — The miseries of temporal life.
If man, before he was born, knew what he was to suffer in
this life, he would not wish to be born at all : this subject en
larged on. All the days of man are full of grief and misery.
Instance of pestilential disorders, of famine, of the ravages of
war, of passions not subordinate to reason, &c. So many are
the miseries of life that they cannot be numbered. Wonderful
ways by which death finds us out ; but Christians, in all the
miseries and dangers of human life, have great comforts on
which they may lay hold : this enlarged on.
Chap. VI. — The endof temporal life.
The consideration that life, with all things temporal, is to
end, were enough to make us despise it. Instances of the end
of mighty men ; as of Antiochus, Caesar, Cyrus, Alexander.

CONTEMPLATIONS OF THE STATE OF MAN. 295
Comparison calculated to withdraw us from a love of this life.
Let no man be deceived in beholding the prosperity of a rich
man, or measure his felicity by what is seen at the present
time : this topic enlarged on. Considerations on death, and the
relinquishment of all temporal things. Reflections on the
loathsome sight of a dead body. Exhortation.
Chap. VII. — Of death, and the certainty of it.
Three other considerations of the end of our life : 1. con
cerning the certainty of death, of which it imports us much to
persuade ourselves. 2. As it is most certain that we shall
die, so it is most uncertain when, or in what manner we shall
die : this topic enlarged on. 3. To this uncertainty of death
is to be added that it is only once to be undergone ; so that
the error of dying ill cannot be amended, &c. A prayer.
Chap. VIII. — Of that inoment wherein we are to die, and life
is to end.
Necessity of our seriously considering all which is to pass
in that moment of death, for which the time of this life was
bestowed on us. It will be in vain then to make any addresses
er applications. Miserable state of a sinner, when abandoned,
hot only by men, but by God. How can men be careless when
the salvation of their souls depends on an instant ? Let no man
be secure in his past virtues, but continue them unto the end.
Three things greatly calculated to make a sinner tremble. Ter
rible moment when all these three things are to pass. Reflec
tions and exhortations. A prayer.
Chap, IX, — The end of temporal life is terrible.
Death was said by the philosopher to be terrible, because
it is the end of life. What would he have said, had he known
it to be the beginning of eternity ? Death is terrible for many
weighty reasons ; whereof not the least is the sight of our of-

296 SUMMARY OF
fended Judge. Circumstances of this enumerated, with reflec
tions and cautions. Another reason is, the multitude and de-
forraity of our sins, which shall then be laid open : circum
stances dilated on. Another cause of confusion to sinners shall
be the clear knowlege of what God has done for them, and how
they have strove, on the contrary, to draw on themselves dam-:
nation. Full consideration of the great mercies and benefits
offered to us by God. Exhortation. Prayer.
Chap. X. — The end of all time.
After we have finished the time of this life, the end of all
time is to succeed. Reflections on this topic. The amaze
ment and terror which this is calculated to produce. The
dreadful manner in which all things shall end described and
illustrated. Horrible fate of sinners, when that general fire,
so often foretold, shall arrive. Vanity of all things that are
prized on this earth, and their inefficiency to save or assist us,
dilated on. Reflections.
Chap. XI. — Of the last day of time, and of the judgment which
is to pass on all things in the world.
The awful appendages of Christ's coming to judgment de
scribed. Circumstances of the just, who shall first meet their
Redeemer in the air, enlarged on ; as well as those of the re
probates in the valley of Jehoshaphat. The Saviour seated on
his throne of glory, &c. : thrones also for the Apostles and
saints, &c. Books of all men's consciences opened. Araaze-
ment of those who shall see men, who have been guilty of far
greater sins than their own, saved on account of repentance.
Sentence of the just Judge in favor of the good, and against
the bad. Dreadful end of these latter described. Terrible cir
cumstances of the destruction of this world. Exhortations,,

contemplations of the STATE OF MAN. 207
BOOK II.
Chap. I. — Of the greatness of things eternal.
Although all temporal things are in themselves little and
base, yet how much less and more contemptible are they unto
him who considers the greatness and majesty of things eternal i
Excellency of eternal glory, and joy of those who inherit the
same, enlarged on. Greatness of it, in respect of its purity,
and in respect of its perfection. Immense distance of earth
from heaven descanted on : yet one moment brings thither the
souls of the just ! Proportionable also unto this distance is the
glory which heaven possesses over earth. Folly of those who
lose the former for a small speck of the latter, A prayer.
Chap. II. — Greatness of the eternal honor of the just.
The goods of the other life are honors, riches, pleasures,
and all the blessings both of body and soul ; each of which will
be treated of in order; and, first, of honor. The nature of
honor is to be a reward of virtue ; and by how much greater
the reward is, by so much greater is the honor conferred.
Highest honors of mortals described. These compared with
the glory of a just soul in the presence of angels, on the same
throne with Christ. This topic dilated on and illustrated.
Chap. III. — Of the riches of the eternal kingdom of heaven.
The riches of heaven are no less than its honors, though
these have been shown to be inestimable. There can be no
greater riches than to want nothing that is good, nor to need any
thing that ean be desired. God gives himself as a possession
to the saints. Besides this, the just shall reign with Christ eter
nally ill the kingdom of heaven. Heaven called a kingdom for
its immense greatness; and a city, for its great beauty and popu
lation : this topic enlarged on. This kingdom of God not like
other kingdoms : its beauty, magnitude, and riches dilated on :

298 SUMMARY OF
ofthose incomparable riches the blessed are to be not only lords,
but kings, &c. Nor will their great riches be drawn, like those
of earthly kings, from tributary vassals, &c. : this enlarged on.
Exhortations to lift up our souls from the frail felicity of tem
poral goods, to these inestimable blessings in the heavens.
Chap. IV. — Of the greatness of eternal pleasures.
Honor, profit, and pleasures are distinct goods on earth,
and are rarely found together. Difference of the case in the
next life. The multitude of joys in heaven is joined with their
greatness : this enlarged on. The principal joy of the blessed
will be the possession of God, whom they will behold clearly,
as he is. The delight of dwelling on God's infinite perfections
enlarged on. This inestimable joy of the vision of God will
be multiplied into innumerable other joys : these described.
Exhortations to Christian hope, and anticipation of such vast
delights, &c, A prayer.
Chap, V, — Excellency and happiness of the souls and bodies of
the just in the life eternal.
Manner in which the Hebrews expressed a blessed person.
Blessings of heaven will have respect to the understanding, the
will, the memory, the senses. All that is man, shall live in a
perpetual state of beatitude. To begin with the life and joy of
the understanding. The blessed, besides a suprerae and clear
knowlege of the Creator, shall know the divine mysteries, the
secrets of Providence, the framing of the world, the whole ar
tifice of nature, &c. What joy were it to behold all the wise
men of the world, and the principal inventors of arts and sciences,
together ! and what journeys would a person make for this pur
pose ! What then shall be the joy of the blessed, when each
person shall see his own understanding furnished with that true
and perfect wisdom, of which theirs was but a shadow? This
topic enlarged on. In heaven we shall not onlyjoy in the me-

CONTEMPLATIONS OF THE STATE OF MAN. 299
mory of those things wherein we have pleased God, but in that
of the troubles and dangers we have passed. There, also, shall
live the will, rejoicing to see all its desires accomplished, &c, :
this topic enlarged on. Besides the powers of the soul, the
senses also shall live, nourished with the food of most propor
tionate and delightful objects : this enlarged on. The humanity
of Christ, our Redeeraer, is to be the principal joy of all the
senses : this explained. Blessed souls shall be crowned with
some particular joys, ofwhich the very angels are not capable :
this explained. State of glory, in which the bodies of the
blessed shall exist, dilated on. Finally, the servants of Christ
shall then be so replenished with all goods, both of soul and
body, that there shall be nothing more for them to desire. Re
flections and exhortations, A prayer.
Chap. VI. — Considerations of eternal evils, and of the miser
able state of the damned.
The evils of hell are truly evils, and so purely such, that
they have no mixture of good. Poverty of the damned, or
their want of all good, dilated on. This accompanied by a most
opprobrious infaray and dishonor. This illustrated strongly by
an example. Still more ignominious is the state of a Christian
condemned to hell : this shown. Place of punishment allotted
to the wicked described. Places of human torture compared
with it, and shown to be tolerable by the comparison. No
liberty of locomotion to be allowed to the tormented spirits.
Reflections. A prayer.
Chap, VII, — Of the slavery and pains eternal.
The slavery of the damned in hell is such, that all their
senses, all their powers of soul and body, are subject to eternal
pains and torments : this dilated on. As slaves on earth are
whipped and punished by their masters, so the slaves of hell
are tormented by the devils. Pains, as they affect the differ-

300 SUMMARY OP
ent senses, enlarged on. Pain of fire. Strange and horrible
confusion which shall possess and convulse the appetites of
those wretched beings. Reflections and exhortations.
Chap, VIII, — The pains of the powers of an immortal soul.
The imaginadon shall afldict those miserable offenders, in
creasing the pains of the senses by the liveliness of its appre
hension. If in this life it operates so powerfully, what shall be
its effects in the next? this topic enlarged on. Manner in which
the will shall be tormented, described. Exhortations. Manner
in which the memory shall torment sinners. How the under
standing shall be a torment. Horrors of the worm of conscience,
engendered in the soul, described. Hell a living death : this en
larged on. Reflections and exhortations, A prayer.
Chap. IX. — The fruit which may be drawn from the consider
ation of eternal evils.
All that has been said on the pains in hell, is far short of
what they really are. Great difference between the knowlege
we have by relation, and that which we learn by experience.
The principal fruits which may be drawn from a consideration
of what has been said respecting the eternal pains of hell, are,
first, an ardent love and gratitude to our Creator, that, although
we have so often deserved them, he has not suffered us to fall
into them. Secondly, we are taught patience in the troubles
and afflictions of this life; that by enduring them thankfully,
we may escape those of the other. Lastly, we may draw from
the consideration of hell, a perfect hatred of all mortal sin ;
since from the evil of sin proceeds that evil of pain.
Chap. X. — The infinite guilt of mortal sin, by which we lose
the felicity of heaven, and fall into eternal evils.
Foulness and malignity of mortal sin detailed. Irreve
rence towards God in it, apparent from what St, Paul calls it,

contemplations of the state of man, 301
kicking or spuming the Son of God; this topic enlarged on.
And as sin is grievous in its own nature, so is it much in
creased by the circumstances which attend it : this shown. If
we look where, or in what place, a sinner presumes to sin, and
become a traitor to his God, it is even in his own world, in his
own house, where it is known that God sees him, &c. The
heinous malice of sin is shown to be much augmented by the
helps which a sinner uses to effect it ; also by the reason why
a sinner tlius offends his God, as well as by the manner of his
sinning. What ean be greater scorn and contempt of God,
who is worthy of all honor and love, than to adhere to Satan,
our professed enemy ? this topic enlarged on. Considerations
about what we commit sin and offend God, Lastly, considera
tions about whom we offend. Concluding reflections.

302 JEREMY TAYLOR,

CONTEMPLATIONS OF
THE STATE OF MAN.

BOOK I.
Chap. I. — Contemplations on time, and of the state of man
in this life.
All philosophers, who have thought of the nature of time, and
who, with much subtlety, have disputed what it was, at length
come to conclude that they know not what it is. The most
they can reach unto is, that no time is long ; and that only can
be called time which is present, the which is but a moment.
And how ean that be said to be, since the only cause why it is,
is because it shall not be, but is to pass into the preterite, so as
we cannot affirm it to have a being ? The being of time con
sists only of a succession of instants, or transitory beings, sub
sisting only by a flux of moments, and changes as many faces
as it contains instants. It slides out of his hands that strives to
hold it. In naming of it, we lose it ; so subtle it is by nature,
that it were to weigh the fire, and measure the wind, to strive
to stay this Proteus, In an instant he vanisheth ; and while
you think to show him with your finger, he is gone. We have
only a moment in our power, and a moment which is lost in the
very instant in which we think to grasp it. See, then, what it
is to trust unto human life, since it is a member of that which is
so inconstant and rapid as time, which runs and passes away
according to the course of the sun, and revolutions of the stars in
the firmament. Know, then, that death follows thee not with

contemplations op the state OF MAN. 303
leaden feet ; it runs after thee with a motion equal to that of
the stars, whose swiftness is so prodigious, that, according to
the more moderate account of Clavius, they run in one day
more than a thousand seventeen millions and a half of leagues,
and in one hour more than forty-two millions. After this rate
doth Death pursue thee. How is it that thou tremblest not ?
How comes it that thou fearest not? Even life itself is given
to us but by pieces, and mingles as many parts of death as
there are of life. The age of infancy dies when we enter into
that of childhood ; and that of childhood when we become
youths ; that of youth when we come to age of manhood ;
that, when we are old ; and even old age itself expires when
we become decrepit. So that, during the same life, we find
many deaths, and yet can hardly persuade ourselves that we
shall die once. Let us cast our eyes on our life past ; let us
consider what is become of our infancy, childhood, and youth ;
they are now dead in us. In the same manner shall those
ages of our life, which are to corae, die also. Neither do we
only die in the principal tiraes of life ; but every hour, every
moment, includes a kind of death in the succession and change
of things. What content is there in life, which dies not by
some succeeding sorrow ? What affliction of pain, which is not
followed by some equal or greater grief than itself ? Why are
we grieved for what is absent, since it offends us being present ?
What we desire with impatience, being possessed, brings care
and solicitude, grief and affliction.
The short time which any pleasure stays with us, it is not to
be enjoyed wholly, and all at once, but tasted by parts ; so as,
when the second part comes, we feel not the pleasures of the
first, lessening itself every moment, and we ourselves still dying
with it ; there being no instant of life wherein death gains not
ground of us. The motion of the heavens is but the swift turn
of the spindle, which rolls up the thread of our lives ; and a
most fleet horse, on which death runs post after us. There is
no moment of life, wherein death hath not equal jurisdiction;
and there is no point of life which we divide not with death ;
so as, if well considered, we live but only one point, and have
not life but for the present instant. Our years past are now

304 JERE.MY TAYLOR,
vanished, and we enjoy no more of them than if we were al
ready dead : the years to come we live not, and possess no
more of them than if we were not yet born. Yesterday is gone;
to-morrow we know not what shall be ; of to-day many hours
are past, and we live them not; others are to come, and whe
ther we shall live them or no, is uncertain ; so that, all counts
cast up, we live but this present moment, and in this also we
are dying ; so that we cannot say that life is any thing but the
half of an instant, an indivisible point, divided betwixt it and
death. With reason may this life be called the shadow of death,
since, under the shadow of life, death steals on us; and as,
at every step the body takes, the shadow takes another, so, at
every pace our lives move forward, death equally advances with
it. And as eternity is ever in beginning, and is therefore a per
petual beginning, so life is ever ending and concluding, and
may therefore be called a perpetual end, and a continual death.
There is no pleasure in life, which, although it should last
twenty continued years, can be present with us longer than an
instant ; and with such counterpoise, that in it death no less
appeareth than life is enjoyed.
If a man were lord of infinite worlds, and possessed infinite
riches, if they were at last to end, and he to leave them, they
were to be valued as nothing ; and if all things temporal have
this evil property, to fade and perish, they ought to have no
more esteem than if they were not,
O miserable condition of human nature I Vain is all we live
without Christ, ' All flesh is grass, and all the glory of it as
the flower of the field.' Where is now that comely visage ?
Where is now the dignity of the whole body, with which, as
with a fair garment, the beauty of the soul was once clothed?
Ah, pity ! the lily is withered, the purple of the violet turned
into paleness. Therefore let us consider what in time must be
come of us, and what, will we or will we not, cannot be far off.
For should our lives exceed the term of nine hundred years, and
that the days of Methuselah were bestowed on us; yet all
the length of life once past (and pass it must) were nothing ;
and betwixt hira who lives but ten years, and him who lives a

contemplations of the state of MAN. 305
thousand, the end of life, and the unavoidable necessity of
death once corae, all is the sarae, save only, he who lives longer
departs heavier laden with sins.
Vaih are all honors, vain are the applauses, the riches, and
pleasures of life, which, being itself so short and so frail, raakes
all things vain which depend on it, and so becomes itself aj
vanity of vanities, and a universal vanity. What account
wouldst thou make of a tower founded on a quicksand ? Or
what safety wouldst thou hope for in a ship bored with holes ?
Certainly thou oughtest to give no raore esteem unto the things
of this world, since they are founded on a thing so unstable as
this life. What can all human things be, since life, which sus
tains it, hath, according to David, no raore consistence than
smoke ; or, according to Aquinas, than a little vapor, which in
a moment vanisheth ? Although it should endure a thousand
years, yet, coming to an end, it were equal to that which last-
eth but a day ; for as well the felicity of a long as a short life
is but smoke and vanity, since they both pass away, and con-
dude in death,
Guerricus, a most famous divine, hearing the Sth chapter of
Genesis read, wherein are recounted the sons and descendants
of Adam, in these terms : ' The whole life of Adam was nine
hundred and thirty years, and he died ; the life of his son Seth
was nine hundred and twelve years, and he died,' and so of the
rest, — began to think with himself, that if such and so great
men, after so long a time, ended in death, it was not safe to
lose more time in this world, but so to secure his life, that,
losing it here, he might find it hereafter. What can the de
lights of man be, since his life is but a dream, a shadow, and
as the twinkling of an eye ? If the most long life be short,
what can be the pleasures of that moment by which is lost eter
nal happiness? O how vain are men, who, seeing life so short,
endeavor to live long, and not to live well ! since it is a thing
most certain, that every man may live well ; but no man, what
age soever he attains unto, can live long. Every day we die,
and every day we lo.se some part of life ; and in our growth,
our life decreases and grows less ; and this very day wherein
we live, we divide with death. Our life, in the Book of Wis
dom, is compared unto the passing of a shadow, which, as it

306 JEREMY TAYLOR.
may be said to be a kind of night, so life may be said to be a
kind of death ; for as the shadow hath some part of light, some
of darkness, so our life hath sorae part of death, and sorae of
life, until it comes to end in a pure death ; and since it is to
end in a not being, it is very little to be regarded, especially
compared with eternity, which hath a being constant and for
ever. The shadow, wheresoever it passes, leaves no track be
hind it ; and of the greatest personages in the world, when they
are once dead, then there remains no more than if they had
never lived. How many preceding emperors in the Assyrian
monarchy were lords of the world as well as Alexander ! and
now we remain not only ignorant of their monuraent, but know
not so much as their names. And of the same great Alexander,
what have we at this day, except the vain noise of his fame ?
There is nothing constant in this life. The moon hath every
month her changes ; but the life of man hath them every day,
every hour. Now he is sick, now in health ; now sorrowful,
HOW merry, now fearful. With what imaginations is he afflict
ed ! With how many labors and toils does he daily wrestle !
With what thoughts and apprehensions doth he torment him
self ! What dangers of soul and body doth he run into ! What
vanity is he forced to behold ! What injuries to suffer ! What
necessities and afflictions I Nay, such is our whole life, that
it seems unto me little less evil than that of hell, but only
for the hope we have of heaven. Our infancy is full of igno
rance and fears, our youth of sin, our age of sorrow, and our
whole life of dangers. There is none content with his condi
tion, but he who will die whilst he lives ; insomuch as life can
not be good, unless it must resemble death. Since, therefore,
the whole time of this life is so short, and we know not how
long it will last, let us resolve not to lose the opportunity of
gaining eternity. Although we were certain to live yet a hun
dred years longer, we ought not to spare one minute from the
gaining of eternity ; but being uncertain how long we are to
live, and perhaps shall die to-morrow, how can we be so care
less as to let the securing of our glory pass, which hereafter will
never be offered ? Consider what an eternal repentance will
follow thee, if thou makest not use of the occasion of time for
the purchasing of the kingdom of heaven ; especially when thou

CONTEMPLATIONS OF THE STATE OF MAN, 307
shalt see, that with so little ado thou mightest have gained that
everlasting glory, which, to satisfy a short pleasure, thou hast
lost for ever.
0 eternal God, who dwellest in eternity, whose power is
eternal, and whose kingdom is the kingdom of all ages ! Take
me by thy right hand; O Lord, conduct rae to thy eternal
glory. Let me esteem all things as nothing in respect of eter
nity. Grant, O Lord, that I may so pass through things tem
poral, that I do not finally lose the eternal. Amen,
Chap. II, — All things on this side heaven are inconstant and
transitory.
As time itself is in a perpetual succession, and mutation being
the companion of motion; so it fixes this ill condition unto
most ofthose things which pass along in it, the which not only
have an end, and that a short one ; but even during the short
ness of time which they last, have a thousand changes ; and
before their ends, many ends ; and before their deaths, many
deaths ; each particular change which our life suffers, being the
death of some estate, or part of it. For as death is the total
phange of life, every change is the death of some part. Sick
ness is the death of health, sleeping of waking, sorrow of joy,
impatience of quiet, youth of infancy, age of youth. The same
condition hath the universal world, and all things in it ; so that
all things which follow time, and even time itself, at last must
die. All human things, as well intrinsically, and of their own
nature, as by external violences which they suffer, are subject
to perish. The fairest flower withers of itself, yet is oftentimes
before borne away by the wind, or perishes by sorae storm of
hail. The most exact beauties lose their lustre by age, but
are often before blasted by some violent fever. The strongest
and most sumptuous palaces decay with continuance, if before
not ruined by fire or earthquake. Cast your eyes on those
things which men judge most worthy to endure, and made them
to the end they should be eternal ; how many changes and
deaths have they suffered !
Gregory of Nazianzen* placed the city of Thebes in Egypt
* Nazian, in.Monod. Plin, lib, xxxvi, c. 8.

308 JEREMY TAYLOR,
as the chiefest of those wonders which the old worid admired;
Most of the houses were of alabaster marble, spotted with drops
of gold, which made them appear most splendid and magnifi
cent. On the walls were many pleasant gardens ; the gates no
fewer than a hundred, out ofwhich the prince could draw forth
numerous armies without noise. Pomponius Mela* writes, that
out of every port there issued ten thousand armed men, which,
in the whole, came to be an army of a million ; yet all this huge
multitude could not secure it from a small army conducted by
a youth, who took and destroyed it,
Marcus Polusf writes, that he passed by the city of Quinsay,
which contained fourscore millions of souls; and Nicholas de
Conti, passing, not many years after, by the same way, found
the city wholly destroyed, and begun to be newly built after
another form. But yet greater than this was the city of Ni
neveh, which was of three days journey ; and it is now many
ages since that we know not where it stood. No less stately,
but perhaps better fortified, was the city of Babylon ; and that
which was the imperial city of the world became a desert, an
habitation of harpies, satyrs, and monsters ; and the walls,
which were two hundred feet in height, and fifty in breadth;
could not defend it from time.
It is not much that cities have suffered so many changes,
since monarchies and empires have done the same; and so often
hath the world changed her face, as she hath changed her
monarch and master. He who had seen the world as it was in
the time of the Assyrians, would not have known it as it was in
the time of the Persians; and he who knew it in the time of
the Persians, would not have judged it for the same when the
Greeks were masters. After, in the time of the Romans, it
appeared with a face not known before ; and he who knew it
then, would not know it now ; and some years hence it will put
on another form, being in nothing more like itself than in its
perpetual changes. Therefore nothing doth more deserve our
scorn and contempt, and more now than ever, since it becomes
every day worse, and grows old, and decays with age. Neither
* Pomp. Mel. lib. i. c 9. Evag. lib. ii, c, 1,
t Polus, lib, ii, Rrrum Indie, c. 68.

CONTEMPLATIONS OF THE STATE OF MAN. 309
is the world only grown worse in the natural frame of it, but is
also much defaced in the moral. The manners of men have
altered it more than the violences and encounters of the ele
ments. How many kingdoms were overthrown by the covetousness
of Cyrus! The ambition of Alexander did not only destroy
a great part of the world, but made it put on a clear other face
than it had before. That which time spares, is often snatched
away by the covetousness of the thief: and how many lives are
cut off by revenge, before they arrive unto old age !
There is no stability in any thing, and least in man, who is
not only changeable in himself, but changes all things besides.
One day often makes an end of great riches. Many person
ages of great honor and esteem, changing their fortune, become
infamous. Dionysius was thrust frora his throne, from a king
of Sicily, to be a schoolmaster in Corinth, and taught boys.
Who could think that from a king he should be necessitated to
become a schoolmaster? Who would not wonder at the CO',^
zenage of the world, that should see him in his royal palace,
with a sceptre in his hand, compassed about with his servants
and the great ones of his kingdom, and should after behold him
in his school, managing a rod in the midst of a number of boys ?
Croesus, the most rich king of Lydia, being in hope to over
throw the Persians, not only lost his own kingdom, but fell
into the power of his enemies, and failed but little of being
burnt alive. Particular persons are not only witnesses that all
human things are dreams, but cities, nations, and kingdoms ;
nothing remains like itself. All things present are more frail
and weak than the webs of spiders, and more deceitful than
dreams. From this inconstancy of human things we may ex
tract a constancy for ourselves ; first, by despising things so
transitory; secondly, by a resolute hope of an end or change
in our adversity and afflictions, since nothing here below is con
stant, but all mutable ; and as things sometimes change frora
good to evil, so they raay also from evil unto good.
There is no confidence to be placed in human prosperity ;
for neither kingdom, empire, nor any greatness whatsoever can
secure their owners from ruin and misfortunes. Behold An-
dronicus clothed in purple, adored by nations, commanding the

310 JEREMY TAYLOR.
East, his temples enriched with a royal diadem, the imperial
sceptre in his hands, and his very shoes studded with oriental
gems. Presently after he is insulted over by the basest of his
people, buffeted by women, and pelted with dirt and stones in
his imperial city; and, lastly, they hung him up by the heels
betwixt two pillars, and there left him to die. This is enough
to make us contemn all temporal goods and human felicity,
which not only pass away with time, but often change into
greater misfortunes. What esteem can that merit, which stands
exposed to so much misery, which is by so much the more
sensible to the sufferer by how much it was less expected ?
The emperor Vitellius, whom the East and West acknow
leged to be the great monarch of the world, was in Rome sa
luted with so glorious titles, that he seemed to be all he could
desire less than a god ; but wherein ended all his majesty, but
in the greatest infelicity and misery that can be imagined ? The
people, having violently seized on him, tied a rope about his
neck and his hands behind him, tore his garments from his back,
and stuck a dagger under his chin ; they hauled him ignomi
niously up and down the streets of Rome, cast filth in his face,
and reviled hira with a thousand injurious speeches, and at last
killed him in the market-place, and threw hira down the Gemo-
nies, where they used to fling the corpses of malefactors. Folly
is all human greatness, since at last it must end, and perhaps in
a disastrous and unhappy conclusion.
Who would have imagined that Valerianus the eraperor,
who was mounted on his brave courser, trapped with gold, clad
in purple, crowned with the imperial diadem, adored by na
tions, and commanding over kingdoms, should be taken prisoner
by the king of Persia, be kept enclosed in a cage like some
wild beast, used as a footstool for the king to get on horse
back ? But such contrary fortunes happen in human life. Let
us not therefore trust in it. Crowns or sceptres do not secure
us from the inconstancy of changes ; and we may better trust
unto the wind, or to letters written on water, than unto human
felicity. The changes of fortune are but exchanges of one condition
for another. No man can fall when he is at lowest ; and
the lowest and basest of all things is human felicity, which

CONTEMPLATIONS OF THE STATE OF MAN. 311
when it (juits us, we fall not, but change it, and perhaps for
the better. The life of man is a lamentable tragedy, wherein
we observe such contrary extremes. I know all human great
ness is vanity ; therefore I will never grieve for the loss of that
which was nothing. That is not worthy of grief, which de
serves not love. Things below, as they merit not my affec
tions when I enjoy them, so they ought not to vex and afflict
me when I lose them.
What are imperial diadems ? What are thrones and majesty?
What are ornaments of gold and silver ? All are vanity, and
vanity of vanities. What were then the spectacles of the am<-
phitheatre, the games of the circus, and the seignory of the
world, but vanity of vanities, universal vanity ? The same
would Croesus have preached from the flames, Bajazet from his
cage, and Dionysius from his school. If we had the opinion
ofthose persons who are now damned, what would they think
of majesty which they enjoyed in this life ? Vanity ! they
will say it is a sraoke, a dream, a shadow. Where is now
the splendor of the consulate ? Where the lictors and their
fasces ? Where the crowns and tapestry ? Where the ban
quets and revels ? All those things are perished ; a boisterous
wind hath blown away the leaves, and left the naked trees tot
tering, and almost plucked up by the roots. Where are the
seven wonders of the world ? Where is Nero's golden palace ?
Where are Dioclesian's hot baths ? Where is Julius's Colos
sus, or Pompey's amphitheatre ? They are all gone ; there is
no print of them remaining. And if we consider the greatness
of this world, we shall perceive, that by how much it is more
glorious, by so much it is more vain. What greater majesty
than that of the Roman emperor ? Yet scarce was the election
of a Roman emperor known, before he was murdered. Amongst
nineteen or twenty emperors who passed betwixt Antoninus the
philosopher and Claudius the second, not one escaped a vio
lent death. So, as the greatest felicity of the world was tied
to the greatest inishap, therefoi-e Dionysius, to express the mi
series and infelicities of the lives of kings, said, " It was like
that of condemned persons who every hour expect death." — " O
crown!" said kingiVntigonus, more noble than happy, "if men
knew how full thou art of cares and dangers, no man would take

312 JEREMY TAYLOR,
thee up, though he should find thee in the streets!" And Con-
stantine the Great, who was arrived at the height of human feli
city, said, "his life was something raore honorable than that of
shepherds, but much more troublesome." There is no felicity
on earth which carries not its counterpoise of misfortunes ; no
happiness which mounts so high, that is not depressed by sorae
calamity. The felicity of this life is but a shadow of true happiness;
for the shadow is not a body, but a resemblance of a body;
and seeming to be something, is nothing. The inconstancy and
speedy change of human things deserves this name, because the
-shadow is always altering, and ends on a sudden : and as the
shadow, when it is at length, and can increase no farther, is
nearest to the end ; so temporal goods and human fortunes,
when they are mounted up as high as the stars, are then nearest
to vanish and disappear suddenly. Those who work in pro
spective will so paint a room, that the light entering only
through sorae little hole, you shall perceive beautiful and per
fect figures and shapes ; but if you open the windows, and let
-in a full light, at most you shall see but some imperfect lines
and shadows. So things of this world seem great and beauti
ful unto those who are in darkness, and have but little light of
heaven ; but those who enjoy the perfect light of truth and faith,
iind nothing in them of substance.
The things of this world are not only a shadow, but are very de
ceitful. They promise us goods, and give us evils; promise us ease,
and give us cares ; promise us security, and give us danger ; pro
mise us great contents, and give us great vexations. There is no fe
licity on earth, no happiness which mounts so high, which is not
depressed by some low calamity. It is not needful to attend
the end of life to see the imposture of it ; it is enough to see
the alterations whilst it lasts. Be assured that vain is all the
greatness of the earth, if that of heaven be not gained by it.
Since that all kingdoms, empires, honors, and greatness what-
-soever are but a shadow, and will presently vanish, and we
are here in this world but as in an inn, frora whence we are
suddenly to depart, let us take care for our journey, and furnish
ourselves with provision and a viaticum for eternity; let us
clothe ourselves with such garments as we may carry along with

CONTEMPLATIONS OF THE STATE OF MAN. 313
us. This may be our comfort, that our wealth, whether we will
or no, may be taken from us ; but eternal happiness, unless by
our fault, cannot. We may be deprived of honors against our
wills, but not of our virtue, except we consent. Temporal
goods may perish, be stolen, and lost many ways ; but spiritual
goods can only be forsaken, and are then only lost when we
leave them by our sins. The roses of glory in heaven do never
fade, nor doth custom dull the lively taste of those celestial
delights. Let us therefore convey our riches here through the
hands of the poor, in bills of exchange, into the eternity of
glory, where such money is current ; for our good works will
follow us. I will therefore preserve myself in humility ; I will
not confide in prosperity, nor presume on my virtues, though
never so great, since every man is subject to fall into those misfor
tunes he little thinks of. I will not trust in life, because it may
fail whilst the goods of it remain ; and will as little trust in
them, because they may likewise fail whilst it continues.
Blessed Lord! thou art my salvation, thou art my glory,
my aid, and all my hope is in thee. At thy right hand there
are riches, greatness, and power, for ever without end.
Chap. III. — Allsublunary things are contemptible, and of
no value.
The things of this world, though their vanity, which swells
and blows them up, seems to extend and engreaten them, yet
they are in themselves contemptible and little. Those things
which seem to make the greatest noise, are honor, fame, and
renown. We shall see how narrow they are. And hear one
who was placed in the highest degree of glory and dignity in
the whole world, since he was lord of it, the emperor Marcus
Antoninus, who speaks in this manner : — " Perhaps thou art soli
citous of honor ; behold how quickly oblivion blots out all
things; behold a chaos of eternity both before and after,"
How vain is the noise of fame ! How great the inconstancy
and uncertainty of human judgments and opinions! In how
narrow a compass are all things enclosed ! The world is but a
point, and of it how small a corner is inhabited ! And who,
and how many, are those in it who are to praise thee ? He who
jdesires fame and honor after death, thinks not that he who is
TAY. VOL. IV. o

314 JEREMY TAYLOR.
to remember him shall shortly die also ; and in the same man
ner he who is to succeed after hira, until that all memory, which
is to be propagated by mortal men, be blotted out. But sup
pose that those who are to remember thee were immortal, what
could it import thee, being dead ? Nay, being alive, what could
it profit thee to be praised ? All that is fair is fair of itself, and
is perfected within itself; and to be praised is no part of the
beauty. Consider the vanity of those titles which many have assumed,
only to make themselves known in the world. Let us judge
how it will fare with us of Europe, by those who have taken
titles on them in Asia ; for if the fame of those in Asia arrive
not to the knowlege of us in Europe, no more shall ours in Eu
rope to theirs in Asia.
The name of Echebar* was thought by his subjects to be
eternal, and that all the world did not only know but fear him.
But ask here, in Europe, who he was, and no man hath heard
of him. Demand of the most learned, and few shall resolve
you that he reigned in Mogor.
How few have heard of the name of VencatapadinoRagium!
He imagined that there was no man in the world who knew
him not. How many can tell me that he was the king of Nar-
singa? If, then, these warlike and potent princes are not known
in Europe, no more shall Charles the Fifth, and many other
excellent men in arms and literature, who have florished in
these parts, be known in Asia and Africa.
If we reflect on the truth of those titles which many arrogate
unto themselves, we shall perceive them all to be vain. How
many are called "highness," and " excellence," who are of abase
and abject spirit, and continue in mortal sin, which is the mean
est and lowest thing in the world ! How many are called sere-
nissimi, who have their understanding darkened, and their will
perverted! Others call theraselves " most magnificent," with as
much reason as Nero might be called " most clement." The
things wherein we have placed honor, make it most ridiculous.
Sorae think they should be valued and esteemed because they
are strong; not remembering that a bear, a bull, or a sumpter
•¦ Jarrie, in Thesaur. Indlc.

CONTEMPLATIONS OF THE STATE OF MAN. 315
mule, is stronger than they. Some, because they are richly
clad, become mighty proud and puffed up ; not being ashamed
to be more esteemed for the work of a mechanic tailor, than for
their virtuous actions. Others think to be honored for their
dishonors, bragging of their vices. Others boast of the nobility
of their blood without looking on virtue, and so make that a
vice which was to oblige them to noble actions ; converting
that which was to be their honor, into infamy; valuing them
selves more for being noble, than being virtuous and just, '
A man is no greater than what he is in the eyes of God ; and
the estimation which God hath of us, is not for being born in a
palace, but for being righteous and just. What an error is it,
then, to value ourselves more for our human birth, by which
we are made sinners, than for our divine birth, by which we are
made just ! How foolish were he, who, being the son of a king
and bond-woman, should esteem himself more for being the
son of a slave than of a monarch ! More fool is he who values
more the nobility of his blood in being a gentleman, than the
iiohility of his soul in being a Christian. All honors of the
earth are but splendid vanities, and those who seek after them
are like boys who hunt after butterflies. Yet many souls have
perished by them. If David cursed the mountains of Gilboa,
because Saul and Jonathan died on them, with rauch more
reason may we curse the high mountains of honor, on which so
many souls have been sure to perish.
Let us consider what riches are, unto which Gregory Nazian
zen did much honor when he called them a precious dung.
Truly in themselves they are not much better. Gold and silver,
said Antoninus the philosopher, are nothing else than excre
ments and dregs of the earth. What are precious stones
but shining pebbles, some red, some green, &c. ; silk, but the
slaverings of worms ; and the finest Hollands, and the purest
linen, but threads of certain plants ? Other webs of esteem are
made of hair of beasts ; whereof if we should meet one in our
meat, would make us loathe it ; and many in their clothes are
proud of them. Furs, what are they but the skins of contemptible
vermin ? Civet, but the sweat of a cat near its most noisome
parts? Amber, but the uncleanness of a whale, or something
which the sea purges from it, as not worthy to be preserved !

316 JEREMY TAYLOR.
What are possessions, palaces, cities, provinces, and spacious
kingdoms? They are only toys of men, who, though old, are
but children in esteeming so rauch of them. Lucian, beholding
thera, not from the imperial heaven, but from the sphere of the
moon, said, " all Greece possessed not above four fingers ; and
that Peloponnesus was no bigger than a lentil-seed." To
Seneca the whole compass of the earth seemed but a point, and
all the greatness thereof only matter of sport. Riches were
invented for the ease and commodity of life ; but as man hath
made them, they serve for the greatest trouble and vexation.
He who hath wealth hath most want, because he not only needs
for himself, but for all which he possesseth : so that he who
hath a great house, hath the same necessities that his house
hath, which are many : for a great house requires much furni
ture and a large family, and so charges the master with mul
titudes of servants, great quantities of plate, hangings, and
other ornaments superfluous to use and human commodity :
insomuch as none are more poor than the rich ; because they
want, not only for themselves, but for all that is theirs. At least,
riches want not this incomraodity, that although they were
invented for human use and ease, yet he that hath them in the
greatest abundance, hath the greatest cares, troubles, dangers,
and ever the greatest losses. Let us, therefore, while we have
time, make over our riches ; let us send them before us into
another world. Heaven stands open to receive them ; we need
not doubt of safe carriage ; the carriers are very faithful and
trusty ; they are the poor and needy of this world. We make
over unto them here, by way of exchange, a few things of little
value ; being to receive in heaven, for them, an exceeding
eternal weight of glory.
¦ How narrow is the sphere of all our pleasures, which, besides
the short time they endure, are mingled with wormwood of many
pains and griefs ! The adulterer, how many troubles and dan
gers does he usually pass before he compass his desire ! in the
enjoying, what fears and suspicions assault him ! and when it
is past, if he thinks seriously of his sin, what remorse and re
pentance afflict him ! And, oftentimes, how many long diseases
and sharp pains succeed that which lasted but a moment ! The
several sorts of gusts, whereof the touch is capable, exceed not

CONTEMPLATIONS OF THE STATE OF MAN. 317
two or three ; but the distinct sorts of pains which afflict it are
without number. The greatest pleasure of the sense holds no
comparison with the grief endured by the separation of a mem
ber, or the pain suffered by hira who hath the stone, sciatica,
or sorae violent disease in extremity.
What shall we say of the royal and imperial dignity, which
seems, in human judgment, to embrace all the happiness of the
world ? Honors, riches, pleasures — all are contained in it. But
how small is a kingdom, since the whole earth, in respect of the
heavens, is no bigger than a point !
Look not on the crown, but on the tempest of cares which
accompany it. Fix not thy eyes on the purple, but on the mind
of the king, more sad and dark than the purple itself. The
diadem doth not more encompass his head, than cares and sus
picions his soul. Look not at the squadrons of his guards, but
at the armies of his molestations, which attend him : for nothing
can be so full of cares as the palaces of kings. But it is far
otherwise in heaven, the palace and house of God, where the
just, without mixture or counterpoise of misery, are to enjoy
those eternally.
If you look on the so-much-esteemed greatness of this
world, the brave palaces, renowned cities, large kingdoms, you
may compare them to those little houses of sand or dirt made
by children for their entertainment, which men stand by and
laugh at ; and oftentimes, if their parents or masters find that
it hinders them from learning their lessons, they strike them
down with their feet, and destroy that in a moment which hath
cost the boys much time and labor. So God useth to deal with
those, who, neglecting his service, employ themselves in scraping
together riches, enlarging their possessions, building of palaces,
which he destroys with that ease as if they were those little
houses of sand made by children. And, certainly, raore children
are they who set their hearts on the greatness of this short life,
than those who busy themselves in walls of dirt.
Esteem none for his exterior lustre and bravery : he must die
as well as the most poor and unknown beggar ; he must be
buried, and at last appear before the just judgment. Where
fore dost thou, then, value and admire those things which have
no consistence, as if they were to last for ever ?

818 JEREMY TAYLOR.
If you look on a table, where you behold painted a rich and
powerful man and a poor contemptible beggar, you neither envy
the one, nor despise the other ; because you know thera to be
shadows, and no truths. The same judgment we ought to make
of the things themselves ; for all are but shadows, and little
more than nothing. And as, in a comedy or farce, it imports
little who plays Alexander, and who the beggar, since all are
equal when the play is done; so are all after death.
I will therefore from hence learn not to admire the grandeur
of this world, nor to desire any thing in it. I have an inhe
ritance in heaven which none can take from rae ; there I have
a mansion not made by the hands of men. I will look after
those eternal goods which by my faith and hope I do now enjoy:
they can never be taken from me, for they are the eternal in'
heritance of the just.
Chap. IV. — The vanity of man.
If we consider the greatest thing in nature, which is man, we
Shall see how vain and little he is, being temporal. What is
man ? saith Seneca. A frail ves.sel, broken with the least
motion ; a most weak body, naked by nature, and unarmed ;
subject to the injuries of fortune; composed of things infirm
and fluid : and those very things, without which man cannot
live, as smell, taste, meat and drink, are mortal unto him. The
wise Solon did not answer more favorably, when they demanded
of him what was man. " He is," saith he, " a corruption in his
birth, a beast in his life, and food for worms when he is dead."
He does things evil, which are not lawful ; things filthy, which
are not decent ; things vain, which are not expedient. Behold"
the plants and trees, they produce flowers, haws, and fruits;
man nothing but vermin and worms : they furnish us with oil,
wine, and balsam ; man affords nothing but phlegm and ordure :
those send forth a fragrant odor, and man abominable stink.
And such is man even in his youth and best time ; but if he
reach old age, which is esteemed as a felicity, his heart is
afflicted, his head shakes, his spirits languish, his breath smells,
his face wrinkles, his stature bends, his eyes wax dim, his hands
tremble, his hair falls, and his ears grow deaf. Neither is he
more changed in body than in mind. An old man is easily dis-

CONTEMPLATIONS OF THE STATE OF MAN. 319
pleased, hardly pacified, believes quickly, 'covetous, froward,
still complaining, admires what is past, contemns what is pre
sent; sighs, grieves, languishes, and is always infirm.
Consider also wherein man ends. What thing more noisome
than a human carcass ? What more horrible than a dead man ?
He, whose embraces were most acceptable when he was alive,
even his sight is troublesome when he is dead. What do riches
and honor profit him ? They shall not free him from death,
they shall not defend hira frora the worms, they shall not take
away his stink and ill savour. He, who even now was seated
in a glorious throne, is now flung into an obscure tomb ; he,
who lately feasted in a sumptuous sata, is now feasted on by
worms in a dark sepulchre. Wherefore dost thou wax
proud, dust and ashes ! whose conception was in sin, whose birth
in misery, whose life in pain, and whose death necessity?
Wherefore dost thou swell and adorn thy flesh with precious
things, which in few days is to be devoured by worms ; and
dost not rather adorn thy soul with good works, which is to be
presented in heaven before God and his angels ?
Besides that, man is a thing poor and mean, and composed
of base and vile materials. This vileness and meanness hath no
firmness nor consistence, but is a river of changes, a perpetual
corruption, and a phantasm of time. His nature, from his
birth until his death, is unstable, mutable, and transitory. The
more you consider it, the more it flies from you. The embyron
which is formed from seed, quickly becomes an infant, from
thence a boy, from thence a young man, from thence an old,
and then decrepit ; and so, the first age being past, and cor
rupted by new ones which succeed it, it coraes at last to die.
Hqw ridiculous, then, are men to fear one death, who have
already died so many, and yet are to die more ! He never
remains the sarae, but in every moment he changes, as it were,
with various phantasms in one comraon matter. If he be still
the same, how comes he to delight in things he did not before ?
He now loves and abhors after another manner than formerly ;
he now praises and dispraises other things than he did before ;
he uses other words, and is moved with other affections ; he
doth not hold the same form, nor pass the same judgment he
did ; and how is it possible that, without change in himself, he

320 JEREMY TAYLOR,
should thus change in his motions and affections ? Certaiiily;
he who still changes is not the same ; and he who is not the
same, cannot be said to be, but in a continual mutation slides
away' like water. Where shall we then find true being, but in
that only which is eternal, and knows no beginning; which' is
incorruptible, which is not changed with time ?
Man is not only thus vile and base whilst he lives, and much
more being dead ; but even his soul, whilst it remains in his
body, is not of much greater esteem ; for although the soul be
of itself a most noble substance, yet his vices do so much vilify
it, that he makes it more abominable than the body; and with
out doubt, the §oul, when it is dead in mortal sin, is more cor
rupt and stinking in the sight of the angels than a body dead
eight days ago ; for if that body be full of worras, this is full
of sins and vices ; and if a man knew hiraself well, he would
be raore affrighted at the raisery of his soul than at that of his
flesh, Araongst all evils, man is the worst evil : every beast hath
an evil which is peculiar unto it, but man is all evils. The devil
dares not approach a just raan, but raan dares despise him. Man
is compared to the beasts of the field. It is worse to be compared
to a beast than to be one : for it is no fault to be born an un
reasonable creature ; but to be endowed with reason, and to be
compared to a beast, is a fault of the will, so as this untamed
passion makes him worse than beasts.
What sorts of deaths and torments hath not human cruelty
found out! What sorts of poison hath not the passion of man
invented ! Orpheus, Orus, Medisius, Hesiodotus, and other
authors, have found out five hundred several ways of giving
poison covertly, which have since been, to the calamity of man,
wonderfully increased. Nothing is now secure from the malice
of man, since poison hath been given even in the shaking of
hands, when men were to be reconciled and made friends. Only
in the sense of hearing it hath not yet found a door to enter ;
all the rest of the senses it hath mastered. With the smell of
a rose, with the sight of a letter, with the touch of a thread,
with the taste of a grape, death hath found an entrance.
And as though man were not miserable enough by nature,
his very passions must contribute to make him wretched and'

CONTEMPLATIONS OF THE STATE OP MAN. 321
ui)happy. The proud man grieves and consumes for the felicity
of another ; the envious dies to see a happy raan live ; the co
vetous raan loses his sleep for what he hath no need of ; the
choleric man ruins himself for what no way concerns him.
With reason did the prophet say, ' In vain doth raan trouble
himself, and, before he attains rest, is overwhelmed; he mounts
un high like a tempest, and like dust is scattered and disap
pears ; he is kindled like a flame, and vanishes like smoke; he
spreads himself as a cloud, and is contracted as a drop.' He
is troubled to gain the filth of riches, and a little dirt : his are
the troubles, others the joys; his are the cares, others the con
tents; his are the curses, others the respect and reverence.
The life of man is full of vain labors, of vexatious thoughts,
thinking how to obtain what he desires, and then how to keep
it; after, how to increase it, then how to defend it, and, lastly,
how to enjoy it; and yet, in conclusion, all falls to pieces in
the handling, and becomes nothing. What labor doth it cost
the poor spider to weave his web, passing incessantly from one
part to another, and often returning to the same place where he
began,— consuming himself with the threads drawn from his
proper entrails for the forming of his pavilion, which with many
journeys having placed on high, and at last finished this goodly
artifice, one touch of a broom defaces, and brings to the ground
all his labor ! Just such are the employments of man, — of much
toil, and of little profit ; spending the most part of his time in
useless projects, which of themselves fall to nothing, and in the
end vanish without effect.
In vain doth man trouble himself, for he enjoys a life but
lent him, and that but for a short time. Man is but a debt of
death, which is to be paid without delay. I have considered
with tears what man was made of, what he is, and what he
shall be. He was made of earth, conceived in sin, and born
for punishment. O unhappy condition of human nature ! O
the vanity and delusions of man ! Thou who gloriest in thy
strength of body, thou who embracest the gifts of fortune, and
thinkest not thyself her servant, but her darling; see how
thou mightest have perished, even before thou wert, with so
little a thing as the snuff of a candle ; and mayest yet with a
smaller matter, pricked with a little tooth of an adder ; or,

822 JEREMY TAYLOR,
like Anaereon the poet, choked with the stone of a grape ; or,
like Fabius the Roman senator, suffocated with a hair in
a draught of milk. The life of man, compared to the continu
ance of the world, isbut a moment, and the world's continuance
is but a raoraent in respect of eternity.
With good reason, then, is the life of man to be valued as
nothing, since nothing is more frail, nothing more perishing,
and, in conclusion, is little more than if it had no being at all.
Glass, without violence, may last long, but the life of man
ends of itself; glass may with care be preserved for many ages,
but nothing can preserve the life of man.
All this king David well understood, who was the most
powerful and happy prince the Hebrews ever had ; yet when
he considered that his greatness was to have an end, he valued
it as nothing; and not only esteemed his kingdoms and trea
sures as vanity, but even his life itself; wherefore he says,
(Psalra xxxvii.) ' Thou hast put. Lord, a measure unto my
days, and my substance is as nothing.' All my kingdoms, all
my trophies, all my treasures, all that I possess, all is nothing ;
and presently adds, ' Doubtless all is vanity.' All which living
man is, his whole life is vanity, and nothing that belongs to
him so frail as hiraself.
O, if we could but frame a true conception of the short
ness of this life, how should we despise the pleasures of it !
This is a matter of such iraportance, that God commanded the
principal of his prophets, that he should go into the streets and
market-places, and proclaim aloud that all flesh is grass, and
all the glory of it as the flower of the field : for as the grass
which is cut in the morning withers before night, and as the
flower is quickly faded, so is the life of all flesh, the beauty
and splendor of it withering in a day. He who shall look on
the frailty of our flesh, and that every moment of an hour we
increase and decrease without ever reraaining in the sarae state,
and that even what we now speak, dictate, or write, flies away
with sorae part of our life, will not doubt to say his flesh is
grass, and the glory of it as the flower of the field. He that
was yesterday an infant is now a boy, and will suddenly be a
youth ; and, even unto old age, runs changing through uncer
tain couditions of life, and perceives himself first to be an old

CONTEMPLATIONS OF THE STATE OF MAN. 323
man, before he begins to admire that he is not still a boy.
Nay, seeing death seizeth on others, yet he will not believe
that it shall happen to hira ; and although he hear of it
hourly, yet it appears unto him as a hidden mystery, which he
cannot understand. God therefore commanded his prophet
Isaiah, that he should proclaim it with a loud voice, as a thing
of great importance, and that it might sink into the heart of
man. Receive, therefore, this truth from God himself-^-' All
flesh is grass,' all age is short, all time flies, all life vanishes,
and a great multitude of years are but a great nothing.
Let us hear how true this is frora those who lived the longest,
and have had the experience of what it is to live. Perhaps
thou mayest promise thyself to live an hundredyears, as though
this were a long life. Hearken then unto holy Job, who lived
two hundred and forty years, who knew best what it was to
live ; what says he of all his years? ' My days,' saith he, ' are
nothing.' Nothing he calls thera, although they lasted almost
three ages. In other places he says, the life of man is like the
flower which springs up to-day, and to-morrow is trodden under
foot; and that it flies like a shadow, without ever reraaining in
the same state. How poor a thing, then, is life, since holy
Job calls it but a shadow, though then three or four times
longer than at present ! Those who lived more than eight hun
dred years esteeraed their life but as a shadow ; and, in the
instant when they died, judged they were scarcely born. How
can we think to live long in a time wherein it is much to make
the age of sixty years ! A life then of eight hundred years
being no more than the flirting up and down of a little sparrow,
the flight of an arrow, or, to say better, the passage of a sha
dow; what are fifty years, unto which perhaps thou mayest
attain ? Certainly the longest term whereunto human life ex
tends, was compared by Homer but unto the leaves of the
tree, which at most endure but a summer's season. Euripides
judged that too much, and said that human felicity was to be
valued but at the length of a day ; and Demetrius Phalerius
allowed it but a moment's space. Consider, then, how vile
are all things temporal, and how frail is all the glory of the
world, being, grounded on so feeble a foundation. The goods
of the earth can be no greater than life, which gives them their

324 JEREMY TAYLOR.
value; and if that be so poor and short, what shall they be?
What good can be of value, which is sustained by a life so
contemptible and full of raisery ? A figure of this was the statue
of Nebuchadnezzar, which, although made of rich metal, as
gold and silver, yet was founded on feet of clay, so that a little
stone falling on it overthrew it unto the earth. All the great
ness and riches of the world have for foundation the life of him
who enjoys them, which is so frail and slippery, that not a
little stone, but even the grain of a grape, hath been able to
ruin and overthrow it.
I shall not therefore be ambitious of a rich mausoleum, after
my death, for the repose of my body ; nor do I desire a stately
sepulchre, or beautiful urn, or that my name or actions should
be engraven in marble. I know this ; that if I shall be mise
rable and unhappy hereafter, they will be but for my greater
shame and reproach. Out of this life I can carry nothing but
my good works : I will not add unto my evil ones that of vain
glory. I will take heed whereon I set ray heart, since the ac
complishing of what I wish may be a punishment of ray desires.
If those things of the earth which I most love and desire, should
continue, if they be taken frora me, it is a chastisement of my
earthly affection ; and if I be permitted to enjoy them, I
am fearful that they raay be the teraporal reward of some
good work, which may either diminish or deprive me of the
eternal. Chap. V. — The miseries of temporal life.
If man, before he was born, knew what he was to suffer in
his life, he would not be born at all. Therefore Silenus, being
demanded what was the greatest happiness man was capable of,
said. Not to be born, or die quickly. With reason did De-
mocritus say that the life of man was most miserable, since
those who seek for good hardly find it, and evil comes of itself,
and enters our gates unsought-for : insomuch as our life is
always exposed unto innumerable dangers, injuries, losses, and
to so many infirmities, that, according to Pliny, and many phy
sicians, Greeks and Arabians, there were more than thirty
several sorts of new diseases discovered in the space of a few
years ; and now every day finds out others, and some so cruel,

CONTEMPLATIONS OF THE STATE OF MAN. 325
that they are not to be named without horror ; and the malice
of the disease is greater than many times the remedy is strange.
Some have been cured by cauterising with fire, by sawing off a
member, by trepanning the scull, or drawing bones frora it ;
others have been cured with the opening of the belly, and
drawing forth the guts. Above all, the cure of Palaeologus
the second, emperor of Constantinople, was most cruel, whose
infirmity, after a year's continuance, found no other remedy
but to be continually vexed and displeased ; his wife and
servants, who most desired his health, having no way to restore
it, but by disobedience, still crossing and opposing him in what
he most desired. A harsh cure for a prince ! If remedies be so
great evils, what are the infirmities ? The sickness of Maecenas
was so strange, that he slept not, nor closed his eyes, in three
whole years. That of king Antiochus was so pestilential, that
his loathsome smell infected his whole array, and his body
flowed with lice and vermin. Consider here the end of ma
jesty, when the greatest power on earth cannot defend itself
against so noisome and contemptible an enemy. In the same
manner Feretrina, queen of the Barcaeans ; all the flesh of her
body turned into maggots and grubs, which, swarming every
where, at last consumed her. Sorae have had serpents bred in
their arms and thighs, which have devoured their flesh even
whilst they lived. With reason, then, does man enter into
the world with tears, as divining the many miseries which he
shall have time enough to suffer, but not to laraent, and there
fore begins to weep so early. All the days of man are full of
grief and raisery.
What shall I say of those strange pestilential disterapers
which have destroyed whole cities and provinces ? In raany
places it hath raged with such fury as if it meant to extirpate
all mankind. So raany thousands of people have died, that
whole towns and countries have remained desert. The evil
hath been many times so great, that fathers forsook their chil
dren, and women their husbands. Riches did not preserve
them frora dying of hunger. If they found by chance what to
eat, the fury of the disteraper was such, that they often died
with the morsel in their mouths. To all this is human life

326 JEREMY TAYLOR.
subject. Let those, therefore, who are in health and jollity,
fear what may befall them.
Famine is no less a raisery of man's life than pestilence,
which not only particular persons, but whole provinces have
often suffered. Many tiraes people, when they had nothing
left them to eat, have fed on horses, dogs, cats, rats, dormice,
and other vermin, when they could lay hold of them ; and,
when those failed, ate one another. Nay, fathers spared not
their sons, nor women those whom they brought forth ; and
many would willingly have pawned their bowels, to have had
wherewith to feed them. What a horrid prospect is it to see a
company of people appearing in the streets more like unto
ghosts and phantoms than living men ! Others stretched on the
ground half dead, and ready to draw the last gasp ! What pity
is it to behold thousands of women, feeble, pale, and hunger-
starved, charged with a great number of their poor languishing
infants, who, dried up with hunger, could not so much as weep
or demand succour frora their sorrowful and afflicted raothers,
who could only help thera with their compassionate looks, of
which rivers of tears, which ran from their eyes, were a suffi
cient witness ! This is a lamentable scene of a most miserable
tragedy. All those miseries which fall not under imagination,
are found in the life of man.
Greater than all these calamities is that of war, which, of
the three scourges of God, wherewith he uses to chastise king
doms, is the most terrible, as well because it is commonly fol
lowed by the other two, as for that it brings along with it
greater punishments; and, which is worse, greater sins, whereof
plagues are free, in which all endeavour to be reconciled with
God, and even those who are in health dispose theraselves for
death. Famine also, though it brings with it some sins, yet it
lessens others ; though it be accompanied with many thefts,
yet it suits not so much with pride and vanity ; neither doth it
permit so raany sorts of vices as are occasioned by war.
Above all, the greatest calamities of man's life are not pesti
lence, famine, or war ; but human passions not subordinate to
reason. What did David suffer frora the envy of Saul ? Exile,
hunger, dangers, and war. Naboth sooner lost his life by

CONTEMPLATIONS OF THE STATE OF MAN. 327
the covetousness of Ahab, than he could have done by a plague.
Elias was raore afflicted with the desire of revenge in Jezebel,
than if he had had the pestilence ; for that made him weary of
his life, and this would but have made him weary of his dis
ease. What plagues or wars were like the ambition of Herod,
who destroyed so many thousand children ? What contagion
was more mortal than the cruelty of Nero and other tyrants,
who took away the lives of so many innocent people to satisfy
their fears or fancies ?
Who is so happy to content all, and be envied of none ?
Who is so esteemed, that some do not despise him ? Who is
so general a well-doer, that nobody complains of hira ? The
Athenians found fault with their Simonides, because he talked
too loud. The Thebans accused Panniculus, because he spit
too much. The Carthaginians spoke ill of Hannibal, because
he went open-breasted, with his stomach bare. Others laughed
at Julius Ca2sar, because he was ill girt. There is none so up
right, in whom envy will not find something to reprehend.
So many are the miseries of life, that they cannot all be num
bered. Death, which is thought by some the greatest of evils,
is by many esteemed a lesser evil than life ; the many evils in
this surpassing the greatness of the evil in that : and therefore
some have conceived it better to suffer the greatest, which is
death, than to suffer so raany, though lesser, which are in life.
For this reason, one calls death the last and greatest physician;
because, though in itself it be the greatest evil, yet it cures all
others ; and therefore prescribes the hope of it as an efficacious
remedy and comfort in the afflictions of life.
What security can there be in life, when the earth, which is
the mother of the living, is unfaithful to them, and sprouts out
miseries and deaths even of whole cities ? What can be secure
in the world, if the world itself be not, and the most solid parts
-of it shake? If that which is only iramovable, and fixed to
¦sustain the living, tremble with earthquakes ; if what is proper
to the earth, which is to be firm, be unstable, and betray us ;
where shall our fears find a refuge ? When the roof of the
house shakes, we may fly into the fields ; but when the earth
shakes, whither shall we go ?
In time of the plague we may change places ; but from the

328 JEREMY TAYLOR.
whole earth who can fly ? And so from dangers ; and therefore
not to have a remedy, may secure us a comfort in our evils ;
for fear is foolish without hope.' Reason banishes fear in those
who are wise ; and in those who are not, despair of remedy
gives a kind of security, at least takes away fear. He that
will fear nothing, let him think all things are to be feared. See
what slight things endanger us ! Even those which sustain life,
lay ambushes for us. Meat and drink, without which we
cannot live, take away our lives. It is no wisdom, therefore,
to fear swallowing by an earthquake, and not to fear the falling
of a tile. In death, all sorts of dying are equal. What im
ports it whether one single stone kills thee, or a whole mountain
oppress thee? Death consists in the soul's leaving the body,
which often happens by slight accidents.
Wonderful are the ways which death finds out, and most
poor and contemptible those things on which life depends. It
hangs not on a thread, but sometimes on so small a thing as a
hair. No door is shut to death ; it enters where the air cannot
enter, and encounters us in the very action of life. Small things
are able to deprive us of so great a good, ' A little grain of a
grape took away the life of Anaereon. The affections of the
soul, and the pleasures of the body, become the highway unto
death. Homer died of grief, and Sophocles of an excess of
joy. Dionysius was killed with the good news of a victory
which he had obtained. Aurelianus died dancing. Cornelius
Gall us and Titus Etherius died in the act of lust.
Let no man assure himself of that life which hath so many
entrances for death. Let no man say, I shall not die to-day;
for raany have thought so, and yet suddenly died that very
hour. By so inconsiderable things, as we have said, many have
died, and thou mayest die without any of them. For sudden
death, there is no need of a hair, or excess of grief, or sudden
joy to surprise thee ; it may happen without any of those exte
rior causes. A corrupt humor in the entrails, which flies unto
the heart without any body perceiving it, is sufficient to make
an end of thee ; and it is to be admired that no raore die sud
denly, considering the disorders of our life, and the frailties of
our bodies. We are not of iron or brass, but of soft and delir
cate flesh, A clock, though of hard metal, in time wears out.

CONTEMPLATIONS OF THE STATE OF MAN, 329
and every hour needs mending, and breaking of one wheel
stops the motions of all the rest. There is more artifice in a
human body than in a clock, and it is much more delicate.
The nerves are not of steel, nor the veins of brass, nor the
entrails of iron. How many have had their livers or spleens
corrupted or displaced, and have died suddenly ! No man
sees what he hath within his body ; and such raay his infirmity
he, although he think and feel himself well, that he may die
within an hour. Let us all tremble at what may happen !
But Christians, in all the miseries and dangers of human life,
have great eoraforts to lay hold on ; which are, a good con
science, hope of glory, conforraity unto the divine will, and the
imitation and exaraple of Jesus Christ, From these four he
shall in life have happiness, in death security, in both comfort,.
and in eternity a reward.
We may draw frora what hath been said, how unjust was
the complaint of Theophrastus, that nature hath given a longer
life unto many birds and beasts than unto man. If our life
were less troublesome, he had sorae reason ; but it being so
fraught with miseries, he might rather think that life the hap
piest which was shortest. Wherefore it is better to die young,
and die well, than to die old, and die ill. This voyage being
of necessity, the felicity of it consists not in being long, but
being prosperous, and that at the last we arrive in the desired
port. Therefore, supposing so raany miseries, we cannot com
plain of God for having given us a short life, but of ourselves
for having made it a bad one. Our life being compassed with
so many miseries, as that death seems rather a shelter for evils
than a punishment, God was pleased that it should be short,
that the vexations and misfortunes of it, which cannot be coun
terpoised with any joys of the earth, raight be more support
able. At least, if this life, with so raany miseries, do not dis
please us, yet let the eternal, with all its felicities, content us
better ; and let us not endeavor less for the immortal life in
heaven, than we do for this mortal on earth. Let us keep al
ways in mind the years of eternity ; so that whatsoever adver
sity or affliction happen, we shall more easily bear it, ' For
our light affliction, which isbut for a moment, worketh for us a
far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory,' 2 Cor, iv, 17,

330 JEREMY TAYLOR,
Therefore, if the world frown on me ; if I meet with many
troubles and afflictions ; if misfortunes befall me ; if they rush
on me like waves, one on the neck of another ; if I be tossed
up and down ; then these be my daily thoughts : — Well, let
the world have its course ; I am content to bear it ; God's will
be done. Let the sea be troubled ; let the waves thereof roar ;
let the winds of affliction blow ; let the waters of sorrow rush
on me ; let the darkness of grief and heaviness compass me
about ; — yet will I not be afraid. These storms will blow over ;
these winds will be laid ; these waves will fall ; this tempest
cannot last long ; and these clouds shall be dispelled. Whatso
ever I suft'er here shall shortly have an end ; I shall not suft'er
eternally. Come the worst that can come, death will put an
end to all my sorrows and miseries. Domine, da mihi modO
patientiam, et postea indulgentiam ; " Lord, grant rae patience
here, and ease hereafter." I will suffer patiently whatever can
happen, and shall endeavor to do nothing against my conscience,
and displeasing unto thee ; for all is safe and sure with hira
who is certain and stire of blessed eternity.
Chap. VI. — The end of temporal life.
If the end of life should fall under our election, and that it
were in the power of raan to make choice how many years he
would continue in life, and after what manner he would have
it, and that it raight conclude sorae other way than by death;
yet the consideration that it and all things temporal were to
perish, and at last to have an end, were sufficient to raake us
despise it; and that very thought would drown all the pleasure
and content which it could afford us. For as all things are of
greater and lesser esteem, according to the length and shortness
of their duration, so life being to end, be it in what manner so
ever, is rauch to be undervalued. A fair vessel of crystal, if it
were as consistent and durable as gold, were more precious than
gold itself; but being frail, and subject to break, it loses its
estimation ; and although of itself it might last long, yet being
capable, by some careless mischance, of being broken, it be^
comes of much less value. In the same manner our life, which
is much raore frail than glass, being subject to perish by a
thousand accidents ; and as, though none of them should hap-

CONTEMPLATIONS OF THE STATE OF MAN. 331
pen, it could not long continue, since it consumes itself; it must
needs, together with those temporal goods which attend it, be
most contemptible. But considering that the ending of it is by
the way of death ; infirmities, and misfortunes, which are the
harbingers, and prepare the way for death ; it is to be admired
that man, who knows he is to die, makes any account of tem
poral felicity, seeing the misery in which the prosperity of
this world, and the majesty of the greatest raonarchs, are at last
to finish.
Let us consider king Antiochus, lord of so raany provinces,
in all his pomp and glory, glittering in gold, and dazzling the
eyes of the beholders with the splendor of his diamonds and
precious jewels, mounted on a stately courser, commanding
over numerous armies, and making the very earth tremble under
him. Let us then behold him in his bed pale and wan, his
strength and spirit spent, his loathsome body flowing with
worms and corruption, forsaken by his own people by reason
of his poisonous stink, which infected his whole camp, and
finally dying mad and in rage. Who, seeing such a death,
would wish the felicity of his life ? Who, with the condition
of his misery, would desire his fortune ? See, then, wherein the
goods of this life conclude !
Who could have known Caesar, who had first seen hira tri
umph over the conquered world, and then behold hira gasping
for a little breath, and weltering in his own blood, which ffowed
from twenty-three wounds, opened by so many stabs?
Who could believe it was the sarae Cyrus, he who subdued
the Medes, conquered the Assyrian and Chaldean empire, — he
who amazed the world with thirty years' success of continued
victories, — now taken prisoner, and put to an ignominious death
by the command of a woman ?
Who could think it were the same Alexander, who in so
short a time subjugated the Persians, Indians, and the best part
of the known world, and should afterwards behold hira con
quered by a calenture, feeble, exhausted in body, dejected in
spirit, dried up, and parched with thirst, without taste in his
mouth, or content in his life ; his eyes sunk, his nose sharp, his
tongue cleaving to his palate, not being able to pronounce one
word ? What amazement is it, that the heat of a poor fever

332 JEREMY TAYLOR.
should consurae the raightiest power and fortune of the world ;
and that the greatest of teraporal and huraan prosperities should
be drowned by the overflowing of one irregular and inordinate
humor ! How great a monster is human life, since it consists
of so disproportionable parts; the uncertain felicity of our whole
life ending in a most certain misery !
Who would marry a woman, though of a comely and well-
proportioned body, who had the head of an ugly dragon ? Cer
tainly, although she had a great dowry, none would covet such
a bedfellow. Wherefore do we wed ourselves unto this life ?
which, although it seems to carry along with it much content
and happiness, yet is in effect no less a monster, since, though
the body appear unto us beautiful and pleasant, the end of it is
horrible, and full of misery.
Let no raan flatter hiraself with the vigor of his health, with
the abundance of his riches, with the splendor of his authority,
with the greatness of his fortune ; for by how much he is more
fortunate, by so much shall he be more miserable, since his
whole life is to end in raisery.
Let no man be deceived in beholding the prosperity of a rich-
man ; let him not measure his felicity by what he sees at pre
sent, but by the end wherein he shall conclude; not by the
sumptuousness of his palaces, not by the multitude of his ser
vants, nor by the bravery of his apparel, nor by the lustre of his
dignity ; but let hira expect the end of that which he so much
admires, and he shall then perceive hira at best to die in his
bed, dejected, dismayed, and struggling with the pangs and
anxieties of death. If he comes so off, it is well ; otherwise the
daggers of his enemy, the teeth of some wild beast, or a tile
thrown down on his head by sorae violent wind, may serve to
make an end of him when he least thinks of it. O how great
a madness is it to glory in any thing on this side heaven ! The
estate of the most powerful is subject to most irapetuous storras,
whose end is to be sunk and overthrown. O how wavering
and uncertain is the height of the greatest honor ! False is
the hope of man, and vain is all his glory ! 0 uncertain life,
due unto perpetual toil and labor ! What doth it now profit
thee to have raised so many costly palaces of marble, when
thou now must die ? O how many things dost thou now think

CONTEMPLATIONS OF THE STATE OF MAN. 333
of doing, not knowing the bitterness of their end ! Thou be-
holdest thy friend now dying, and know that thou also shalt
quickly follow him.
Let us forbear to look on those several kinds of death which
are incident to human nature. Let us consider that which is
esteemed the most happy ; when we die not suddenly, or by
violence, but by some infirmity which leisurely makes an end of
us; or by a pure resolution, which naturally brings death along
with it. What greater raisery of man's life than this, that
death should be accounted happy; not that it is so, but because
it is less miserable than others ? For what grief and sorrow
doth not he pass, who dies in this manner ! How do the acci
dents of his infirmities afflict hira ! The heat of his fever, which
scorches his entrails ; the thirst of his raouth, which suffers hira
not to speak ; the pain of his head, which hinders his attention ;
the sadness of his heart, proceeding frora the apprehension that
he is to die ; besides other grievous accidents, which are usually
more in number than the human body hath members to suffer ;
together with remedies which are no less painful than the evils
themselves. To this add the uncertainty whither he is to go, to
heaven or hell. What news can be more terrible unto a sinner,
than that he is to die, and to leave all his pleasure in death,
and to give an account unto God for his life past? If lots were
to be cast, whether one should have his ffesh plucked off' with
burning pincers, or be made a king, with what fear and anxiety
of mind would that man expect the issue ! How, then, shall
he look, who, in the agony of his death, wrestles with eternity,
and within two hours' space looks for glory or torments without
end? What life can be counted happy, if that be happy which
ends with so rauch misery ? If we will not believe this, let us
ask him who is now passing the terrors of death, what his opi
nion of life is. Let us now inquire of him, when he lies with
his breast sticking forth, his eyes sunk, his feet dead, his knees
cold, his visage pale, his pulse without raotion, what will this
man say his life was, but by how much the more prosperous, by
so much the more vain ; and that all his felicity was false, and
deceitful, since it came to conclude in such a period ? What
would he now take for all the honors of this world ? Certainly
I believe that he would part with them at an easy rate. Nay,

334 JEREMY TAYLOR.
if they have been offensive to God Almighty, he would give all
in his power he never had enjoyed them.
He who, unto the hour of his death, hath enjoyed all the
delights the worid ean give him, at that hour what remains
with hira ? Nothing ; or, if any thing, a greater grief. Con
sider of how little substance all temporal things will appear,
when thou shalt be in the light eternal. The honors which they
have given thee shall be no more thine ; the pleasures wherein
thou hast delighted can be no more thine ; thy riches are to be
another's. See, then, whether the happiness of this life, which
is not so long as life itself, be of that value, that for it we should
part with eternal felicity.
I beseech thee, ponder what is life, and what is death. Life
is the passing of a shadow, short, troublesome, and dangerous;
a place vvhich God hath given us in time for the desiring of
eternity. Consider why God leads us about in the circuit of this life,
when he might at the first instant have placed us in heaven.
Was it that we should spend our time idly, and daily invent
new chimeras of vain and frivolous honors ? No, certainly it
was not ; but that, by virtuous actions, we might gain heaven,
show what we owe unto our Creator, and, in the midst of the
troubles and afflictions of this life, discover how loyal and
faithful we are unto our God. For this he placed us in the
lists, that we should take his part, and defend his honor ; for
this he entered us into this militia and warfare, (for the life of
man is a warfare on earth) that here we might fight for him,
and, in the midst of his and our enemies, show how true and
faithful we are to him. Were it fit that a soldier, in the time of
battle, should stand disarmed, passing away his time at dice on
a drum-head ? Thus doth he who seeks his ease in this life, and
sets his affections on things of the earth, not endeavoring those
of heaven, nor thinking on death, where he is to end,
A peregrination is this life ; and what passenger is so be
sotted with the pleasures of the way, that he forgets the place
whither he is to go? How comest thou, then, to forget death,
whither thou travellest with speed, and canst not, though thou
desirest, rest one small minute by the way ? For time, although
against thy will, will draw thee along with it. The way of this

CONTEMPLATIONS OF THE STATE OF MAN, 335
life is not voluntary, like that of travellers ; but necessary, like
that of condemned persons frora the prison unto the place of
execution. To death thou standest condemned, whither thou
art now going. How canst thou laugh ?
A malefactor, after sentence past, is so surprised with the
apprehension of death, that he thinks of nothing but dying.
We are all condemned to die. How come we, then, to rejoice
in those things which we are to leave so suddenly ?
Death is compared unto a thief, who not only robs us of our
treasure and substance, but bereaves us of our lives. Since,
therefore, thou art to leave all, why dost thou load thyself in
vain? What merchant, knowing that so soon as he arrived
unto the port, his ship and goods should be sunk, would charge
his vessel with much merchandise? Arriving at death, thou and
all thou hast are to sink and perish. Why dost thou then burden
thyself with that which is not needful, but rather an hinderance
to thy salvation ?
This is the salary which the goods of the earth bestow on those
who serve thera ; that if they do not leave or ruin thera before
their death, they are then certain at least to leave thera, and
often hazard the salvation of those that dote on thera. O vain
man ! this short life is bestowed on thee for gaining the goods
of heaven, which are to last eternally; and you spend it in
seeking those of the earth, which are to perish instantly.
Besides all this, though one should die the raost happy death
that can be imagined, yet behold the dead body, how ugly and
noisome doth the miserable carcass remain, that even friends fly
from it, and scarce dare stay one night alone with it ! The
nearest and raost obliged kindred procure it in all haste to be car
ried forth a-doors ; and having wrapped it in some coarse sheet,
throw it into the grave, and within two days forget it ; and he
who in life could not be contained in great and sumptuous
palaces, is now content with the narrow lodging of seven feet
of earth. He who used to lodge in rich and dainty beds, hath
for his couch the hard ground ; for his mattress, moths ; and
for his covering, worms ; his pillows, at best, the bones of other
dead persons : then, heaping on him a little earth, and perhaps
a gTave-stone, they leave his flesh to be feasted on by worms,
whilst his heirs triumph in his riches.

336 JEREMY TAYLOR.
He who gloried in the exercise of arms, and was used to revel
at balls, is now stiff and cold, his hands and feet without mo
tion, and all his senses without life. He who, with his power
and pride, trampled on all, is now trod under foot by all. Con
sider him eight days dead, drawn from his grave, how ghastly
and horrible a spectacle he will appear ! Behold, then, what
thou pamperest; a body, which, perhaps, within four days may
be eaten by loathsome vermin ! Whereon dost thou found thy
vain pretensions ? which are but castles in the air, founded on a
little earth, which turning into dust, the whole fabric falls to
the ground. See where all huraan greatness concludes, and
that the end of man is no less loathsome and miserable than his
beginning. The raeraory of the loathsoraeness of a dead body may serve
to make us despise the beauty of that which is living. There
fore, if at any time thou shalt be surprised with the temptation
of the frail beauty of the flesh, send thy thoughts presently unto
the sepulchre of the dead, and let them there see what they can
find agreeable to the touch, or pleasing to the sight. Consider
that dust and dry ashes were once soft and lively flesh, and in
its youth was subject to the like passions as thou art. Consider
those rigid nerves, those naked teeth, the disjointed disposition
of the bones and arteries, and that horrible dissipation of the
whole body. By this means thou mayest take from thy heart
those vain deceits and illusions.
All this is certainly to happen unto thyself. Wherefore dost
thou not amend thy evil condition ? This is to be thy end ; unto
this, therefore, direct thy life and actions. With reason had
the Brahrains their sepulchres still placed open before their
doors, that by the memory of death they might learn to Hve.
Wisdom is the meditation of death ; therefore ever have in thy
thoughts that meditation, " Remember thou art to die."
Therefore, whatsoever misery or affliction shall fall on thee,
say, — " By the divine assistance I will bear it patiently. Lord
Jesus, stand by me and comfort me : Lord Jesus, be present with
thy servant, that putteth his trust in thee ; receive ray spirit, and
lead me through the valley and shadow of death ; lead rae, and
,forsake me not, until thou hast brought my soul into the land of
the living, O thou, who art my light, life, and salvation."

CONTEMPLATIONS OF THE STATE OF MAN. 337
Chap, VII. — Of death, and the certainty of it.
Besides the misery wherein all the felicity of this world is to
determine, there are other considerations of the* end of our life,
by which we may perceive how vain and contemptible are all
the goods of it. We will principally speak of three.
1. That death is most certain, and no ways to be avoided.
. 2. That the time is most uncertain, because we know not
neither when nor how it will happen.
3. That it is but only one, and but once to be experienced ;
so that we cannot by a second death correct the errors of the
first. 1. Concerning the certainty of death, it imports us rauch to
persuade ourselves of it ; for as it is infallible that the other
life shall be without end, so it is as certain that this shall have
it. God hath not made a law more inviolable than that of
death. Thou art to die ; assure thyself of that. An irrevoca
ble law is this ; and without remedy thou must die. I pray tell
me where is Adam now ? Where is Cain ? Where is long-lived
Methuselah ? Where is Noah ? Where is Shera ? Where is
Abraham ? Where is Jacob ? They are dead and gone ; their
time is past ; we may say of them, vixeruut, fuerunt Troes ;
once they were, now they are not ; and be assured that mortuus
est shall be every man's epitaph ; for ' we must needs die, and
are as water spilt on the ground,' 2 Sam. xiv. 14.
The time will come when those eyes, with which thoureadest
this, shall be burst, and lose their sight ; those hands, which thou
now employest, be without sense or raotion ; this mouth, which
now discourses, shall be mute, without bre'ath or spirit ; and
this flesh, which thou now pamperest, shall be consumed and
eaten by worms and vermin. The time will come when thou
shalt be covered with earth, thy body stink and rot ; the time
will come when thou shalt be forgotten, as if thou never hadst
been ; and those that pass shall walk over thee, without re
membering that such a man was born. Consider this, and per
suade thyself that thou must die as well as others ; that which
hath happened to so many, must happen also to thee. Think
on this seriously, and reflect with thyself soberly, how thou
TAY. VOL. IV, p

838 JEREMY TAYLOR.
shalt look when thou art dead : and this consideration will give
thee a great knowlege what thy life is, and make thee despise
the pleasures of it.
If death were only contingent, and not certain, yet, because
it might happen, it ought to raake us very careful and solici
tous. If God should say that only one of all those in the world
should die, but did not declare who that one were, yetall would
fear. Why, then, dost thou not now fear, when all raen must
infallibly die, and perhaps thou the first ?
Now is the bow drawn ; now the arrow let loose, and al
ready in the way to hit thee ; why dost thou strive to shun it,
and dost not rather humble and prepare thyself to receive it ?
If one should tell thee that a whole train of artillery were im
mediately to be discharged at thee, and no way left to avoid
the strokes, how wouldst thou be amazed ! But if thou per-
ceivedst that fire were already given, the very noise perhaps
would kill thee. Know, then, that the artillery of death, with
much more fury, is already shot, and there is no quarter of an
hour wherein it flies not more than ten millions of leagues to
overtake thee ; and yet from whence it parted, and where it is
now, thou knowest not, Wert thou certain it were far off, yet
it runs with so precipitate a course, that it will not fail in a short
tirae to reach thee. Therefore, thou being ignorant at what dis
tance it is, thou oughtest every raoraent to expect it, since
every moment it may be with thee.
Let every man, therefore, say within himself, It is I who am
to die, and resolve into dust ; I have nothing to do with this
world ; the other was made for me, and I am only to care for
that; in this I am only a passenger, and am therefore to look
on the eternal, whither I am going, and am there to raake my
abode for ever. Certain it is that death will corae, and hurry
me along with him ; all the business, therefore, 1 have now, is to
dispose myself for so hard an encounter ; and since it is not in the
power of man to free me frora it, I will only serve the Lord,
who is able to save me in so certain and imminent a danger,
2, As it is most certain that we are to die, so it is most un
certain when or in what manner we shall die. Who knows whe
ther he is to die in his old age, or in his youth ; if by sickness.

CONTEMPLATIONS OF THE STATE OF MAN. 339
or struck by a thunderbolt ; if a year hence, or a day ? The
doors of death are ever open, and the enemy continually lies in
ambush ; and, when we least think of him, will assault us.
He who suspected that thieves were to enter his house, would
walk all night, because they should find him at no hour unpro
vided. It being, then, not a suspicion, but an apparent cer
tainty, that death will come, and we know not when, why do
we not always watch ? We are in continual danger, and there
fore ought to be continually prepared. It is good ever to have
our accounts made with God, since we know not but he may
call us in such haste as we shall have no time to perfect them :
it is good to play a sure game, and be ever in the grace of
God. Who would not tremble to hang over some vast precipice,
wherein if he fell, he were certain to be dashed in a thousand
pieces, and that by so weak a supporter as a thread ? This, or
in truth much greater, is the danger of him who is in mortal
sin, who hangs over hell by the thread of life; a twist so deli
cate, that not a knife, but the wind, and the least fit of sick
ness, breaks it. Wonderful is the danger where he stands, who
continues but one minute in mortal sin. Death hath time
enough to shoot his arrow ; the speaking of a word, the twin
kling of an eye, suffices. Who can be pleased whilst he stands
naked and disarmed in the midst of his enemies ? Amongst as
many enemies is raan, as there are ways to death, which are in
numerable. It is not, then, safe for man to be disarmed and
naked of the grace of God in the midst of so many adversaries
and dangers of death which hourly threaten him. What per
son, being led to execution, would entertain himself by the
way with vain conceits ? We are condemned persons, who are
going to execution, though by different ways, which we our
selves know not ; some the straight way, and some by by-paths,
but are all sure to meet in death. We ought, therefore, still to
be prepared, and free from the distracting pleasures of this life,
for fear we fall suddenly. This danger of sudden death is suffi
cient to make us distaste all the delights of the earth.
Death is therefore so uncertain, that thou shouldst be ever
certain to despise this life, and dispose thyself for the other.
Thou art every hour in danger of de^th, to the end that thou

340 JEREMY TAYLOR.
shouldst be every hour prepared to leave life. What is deaffi
but the way unto eternity ? A great journey thou hast to make;
wherefore dost thou not provide in time ? and the rather, be
cause thou knowest not how soon thou mayest be forced to
depart. Who is there who does not desire to have served God
faithfully two years before death should take him ? If, then,
thou art not sure of one, why dost thou not begin ? Trust not in
thy health or youth, for death steals treacherously on us when we
least look for it. Promise not thyself to-morrow, for thou
knowest not whether death will corae to-night.
Since, then, thou knowest not when thou art to die, think
thou must die to-day, and be ever prepared for that which raay
ever happen. Trust in the mercies of God, and implore them
incessantly ; but presume not to defer thy conversion for a mo
ment; for who knows whether thou shalt ever from hencefor
ward have time to call on him ; and having called on him, whe
ther thou shalt be heard? To what purpose defer we that until
to-morrow, which imports so much to be done to-day, and per
haps will not be to-morrow, if not to-day ? It v.as a very good
answer that Messodamus gave one inviting hira to a feast tho
next day : " My friend," saith he, " why dost thou invite me
against to-morrow ? I durst not, for these many years, secure
myself that I should live one day; for I have expected death
every hour." No man is suf&eiently armed against death,
unless he be always prepared to entertain it.
3. To this uncertainty of death is to be added that of beint;
oiily one, and only once to be tried, so as the error of dying ill
cannot be amended by dying well another time. God gave
unto man his senses and other parts of his body double ; he
gave him two eyes, that if one failed, he might serve himself
with the other; he gave hira two hands, that if one were lost,
yet he might not wholly be disabled ; but of deaths he gave
but one, and if that one miscarry, all is mined. A terrible
ease, that the thing which most imports us, which is to die,
-hath neither trial, experience, nor remedy ! It is but only once
to be acted, and that in an instant, and on that instant all
eternity depends; in which if we fail, the error is never to be
amended. If an ignorant peasant, who bad never drawn a bow, should

CONTE.VIPLATIONS OF THE STATE OF MAN, 341
be commanded to shoot at a mark far distant, on condition that
if he hit it, he should be highly rewarded with raany rich gifts;
but if he missed it, and that at the first shot, he should be burnt
alive; — in what straits would this poor man find himself! How
perplexed, that he should be forced on a thing of that difficulty,
wherein he had no skill, and that the failing should cost him
so dear as his life ; but especially that it was to be only once
essayed, without possibility of repairing the first fault by a se
cond trial ! This is our case, I know not how we are so plea
sant. We have never died; we have no experience or skill
in a thing of so great difficulty ; we -are only once to die,
and in that all is at stake; either eternity of torments in hell,
or of happiness in heaven. How live we, then, so careless of
dying well, since for it we were born, and are but once to try
it? This action is the raost important of all our life; on it
depends eternity, and, if missed, without repair or amendraent.
These human actions which raay be repaired, if one miss, the
other may hit ; and that which is lost in one way, may be re
gained in another. If a rich merchant had this year a ship
sunk in the ocean, another may arrive loaded with such riches
as may recompense the loss of the former ; but if we once fail
in death, the loss is never to he repaired.
That which is but only one, is worthy of more care and es
teem, because the loss of it is irreparable. Let us, then, value
the time of this life, since there is no other given wherein to
gain eternity.
A certain soldier being called in question by Lamachus, a
centurion, for some misdemeanor or other comraitted in the
camp, earnestly desired pardon for that once, and proraised
never to offend in the like again. But the centurion made him
this answer : In bello, bane vir, non licebit bis peccare : " O,
sir ! know you thus much, there is no offending in war twice."
But in death, alas! there is no oft'ending once: there is no
hope of pardon. Once d^ad, and always dead. He that dies
once ill, is daraned for ever. There is no returning again fo
rise to amend what is done amiss. As death leaves a man, so
judgment finds him ; and as judgment leaves him, so eternity
findeth hira.
If a man were obliged to leap some great and desperate le,ap,„

342 JEREMY TAYLOR.
on condition, that if he performed it well, he should be made
master of a wealthy kingdom ; but if ill, he should be chained to
an oar, and made a perpetual galley-slave ; — without doubt this
man would use much diligence in preparing himself for so ha
zardous an undertaking, and would often practise before an
action of so great consequence, from which he expected for
tunes so different. How far more different are tho.se which we
expect from so great a leap as is from life to death, since the
kingdoms of the earth, compared with that of heaven, are trash,
rubbish ; and the tugging at an oar in the galleys, corapared
with hell, a glory ! When the leap is great and dangerous, he
who is to leap it uses to fetch his career backwards, that he
may leap farther, and with greater force. We therefore, know
ing the danger of the leap frora life to death, that we may per
form it better, ought to fetch our career far back, even from
the beginning of our short life, and frora our first use of reason,
frora which we shall know that the life we live is mortal ; that
at the end of it we have a great debt to pay ; and that we are
to discharge both use and principal when we least think of it.
It was the saying of Iphierates, that it is a shame for an em
peror at any tirae to say with the fool, Non putabam, " I did
not think it;" but it is a greater shame for a Christian man to
say, Non putabam ; I did not think there had been such a dif
ference between a godly and a wicked life ; I did not think
eternity was to follow after this life ; I did not think I should
have died so suddenly.
Let us therefore husband time, in which we may gain eter
nity, which being once lost, we shall lose both the time of this
life and the eternity of the other. How many millions are now
in hell, who, whilst they were in this world, despised time, and
would now be content to suffer thousands of years all the tor
ments of the damned, for the redemption of one instant, in which
they might, by repentance, recover the eternal life of glory,
which is now lost without remedy ! And yet thou castest away
not only instants, but hours, days, and years. Consider what a
damned person would give for some part of that time which
thou losest ; and take heed that thou hereafter, when there
shall be no repair of that time which thou so vainly mispendest,
be not thyself in the same grief and bitterness.

CONTEMPLATIONS OF THE STATE OF MAN. 313
We are now on the stage ; therefore we raay act on our part.
We have to deal with potent enemies ; therefore we must be
always prepared to fight. We are still in our race ; therefore
we must hold out to the last. Let us, then, so act our parts,
that the angels may rejoice to be spectators. Let us so
fight, that we raay win the crown ; let us so run, that we may
obtain. Consider, how by time thou mayest gain eternity. Look not,
then, on the loss of it as ou the loss of tirae, but of eternity.
Endeavor, then, whilst it lasts, to get a good bargain ; for,
this life once past, there is no more occasion for traffic. The
time appointed for storing up is but short, but the gain and
profit is eternal. Therefore leave the cares of this world, and
elevate your whole heart and aft'ections unto heaven, and there
place your thoughts, which are to be upright and settled in God
Almighty. I know, O Lord ! I am here but as a sojourner in a strange
land, and not as a citizen in my own country. I am here but a
tenant at will, and must shortly depart ; for here I have no con
tinuing city; but I must seek one to come,* eternal in the hea
vens, where I shall bear a part in the heavenly choir with
angels, evermore praising thy holy name. There I shall behold
light incomprehensible, where I shall be in no fear of death.
Farewell, then, all the world, and all the things in it. ' Thy
kingdom corae, thy will be done ;' and welcome to me, thou
art welcorae eternally, O beloved ! eternally thou art welcome.
Now I am blessed, O Lord ! for I shall dwell in thy house,
and shall still be praising thee.f
Chap. VIII. — Of that moment wherein we are to die, and life
to end.
We ought seriously to consider all which is to pass in that mo
ment of death for which only the tirae of this life was bestowed
onus, and on which depends the eternity of the other. O most
dreadful point, which art the end of time, and the beginning of
eternity ! O most fearful instant, which shuttest up the prefixed
term of life, and determinest the business of our salvation ! How
* Heb. xiii. 14. t Psal, Ixxxiv, 4,

344 JEREMY TAYLOR,
many things are to pass in thee! In the same instant life is to
finish, all our works to be examined, and thatsentence given which
is to be executed for all eternity, O last moment of life ! 0
first of eternity ! How terrible is the thought of thee, since in
thee not only life is to be lost, but to be accounted for, and we
then to enter into a region which we know not ! In that mo
ment I shall cease to live ; in that moment I shall behold ray
Judge, who shall lay all my sins open before me, with all their
weight, number, and enormity. In it I shall receive a strict
charge of all the divine benefits bestowed on me, and in it a
judgment shall pass on me, either for my salvation or dam
nation eternal ! How wonderful is it, that for so many matters,
and of so great iraportance, there is no more time allotted than
the space of an instant ; no place left for reply, intercession of
friends, or appeal ! O fearful moment, on which so much de
pends ! Admirable is the high wisdom of God, which hath
placed a point in the midst betwixt time and eternity, unto
which all the time of this life is to relate, and on which the
whole eternity of the other is to depend ! O moment, which
art neither time nor eternity, but art the horizon of both, and
dividest things temporal frora eternal ! O narrow moment \
O jnost dilated point ! wherein so raany things are to be con
cluded, and so strict an account is to be given, and where so
rigorous a sentence is to be pronounced, — is ever to stand in
force ! A strange case, that a business of eternitv is to be re
solved in a raoraent, and no place allowed for the intercession
of friends or our own diligence !
It will be then in vain to make any addresses or application;
there is none will intercede for thee, nor can give thee absolu
tion. The rigor of the Judge, in that instant wherein thou ex-
pirest, will allow no farther mercy. St. John says, that heaven
and earth shall fly frora the presence of the Judge, Whither
wilt thou go ? To what place canst thou repair, being the per
son against whom the process is commenced ? It is therefore
said that heaven and earth shall fly, because neither the saints of
heaven shall there favor thee, nor the powers of earth assist
thee. There shall be place for nothing that may help thee.
What, then, would a sinner give for leave to offer up one poor
prayer to God when it is too late ? That which would now

CONTEMPLATIONS OF- THE STATE OF MAN. 345
serve thy turn, and thou despisest, thou wouldst then have done,
and canst not. Provide thyself therefore in time, whilst it raay.
avail thee, and defer it not until that instant wherein nothing
can do thee good. Now thou raayest help thyself; now thou,
mayest find favor. Expect not that raoraent wherein thy own,
endeavors will be useless, and there will be none to help or.
assist thee.
0 what a laraentable thing will it be for a sinner to see him
self not only abandoned by men, but also by angels, and even
by God himself; and to be delivered over into the power of the
infernal dragon, without all hopes of escaping from him, who
will seize on his soul, and carry it to the abyss of hell, there to
be tormented for ever !
How can men be careless, seeing so important a business as
the salvation of their souls depends on an instant, wherein no,
new diligence nor preparation will avail them? Since, then,
we know not when that moment will be, let us not be any
moment unprovided. This is a business not to be one point of
time neglected, since that point may be our damnation. What
will a hundred years spent with great austerity in the service of
God profit -us, if, at the end of all those years, we shall commit
some grievous sin, and death shall seize on us before repent
ance? Let no raan secure himself in his past virtues, but continue
them unto the end, since, if he die not in grace, all is lost ; and
if he doth, what matters it to have lived a thousand years in
the greatest troubles and afflictions, this world could lay onhim ?
0 moment, in which the just shall forget all his labors, and
shall rest assured of all his virtues ! O moment, which art
certain to be, uncertain when to be, and most certain never to
be again ! I will therefore now fix thee in my memory, that I
may not hereafter meet thee to my eternal''ruin and perdition.
There are three things which would make a sinner tremble :
the first, when his soul is to be plucked out of his body ; the
second, when it is to appear before God to receive judgment;
and the third, when sentence is to be pronounced. How ter
rible, then, is that moment wherein all these .three things so
terrible are to pass ! , Let a Christian <often, whilst he lives,
place himself in that instant, from whence, let him :behold, on

846 JEREMY TAYLOS.
one patt, the time of his life which he is to live, and, on the
other, the eternity whereunto he enters ; and let him consider
what remains unto him of that, and what he hopes for in this.
In that instant a thousand years of life shall appear unto the
sinner no more than one hour ; and one hour of torments shall
appear a thousand years. Behold thy life from this watch-
tower, from this horizon, and measure it with the eternal, and
thdti shalt find it of no extension.
O dreadful moment, which cuts off the thread of time, and
begins the web of eternity ! I will therefore provide for this
moment, that I may not lose eternity. This is that precious
pearl for which I will give all that I have or am : it shall ever
be in my raeraory ; I shall ever be solicitous of it, since it may
every day come on me. For eternity depends on death, death
on life, and life on a thread, which may either be broken or
cut, and that even when I most hope and most endeavor to
prolong it. My life is never secure ; I will therefore ever
fear that instant, which gives an end to time, and beginning to
eternity. Benediction and praise be to him who is seated on the
throne, and to the Lamb who hath redeemed us in his blood,
and hath placed us in his eternal kingdom. Amen.
Chap. IX. — The end of temporal life is terrible.
Death, because it is the end of life, is by the philosopher said
to be the most terrible of all things terrible. What would he
have said, if he had known it to be the beginning of eternity,
and the gate into which we enter into that vast abyss, no man
knowing on what side he shall fall into that profound and bot
tomless depth ? If death be terrible for ending the business of
life, what is it for ushering in the instant wherein we are to
give an account of life before that terrible and most just Judge,
who therefore died that we might use it well ?
It is not the raost terrible part of death to leave the life of
this world, but to give an account of it to the Creator of the
world, especially in such a tirae wherein he is to use no raerey.
This is a thing so terrible, that it made holy Job tremble, not
withstanding he had so good an account to make ; who was so
just, that God himself gloried in having such a servant.

CONTEMPLATIONS OF THE STATE OF MAN. 347
Death is terrible for many weighty reasons, whereof not the
least is the sight of the offended Judge, who is not only judge,
but party, and a most irrefragable witness ; in whose visage
shall then appear such a severity against the wicked, that it is
better to suft'er all manner of torments than to behold the face
of this angry Jiidge.
How will it then amaze us, when we shall behold Jesus
Christ himself alive ; not a dead image, -not in the humanity
of the cross ; but on a throne of majesty, the seat of justice ;
not in a time of mercy, but in the hour of vengeance ; not
naked, with pierced hands, but armed against sinners with the
sword of justice, when he shall come to judge and revenge the
injuries which they have done him ! God is as righteous in
his justice as in his mercy ; and, as he hath allotted a time for
mercy, so he will for justice.
As in this life the rigor of his justice is, as it were, repressed
and suspended, so in that point of death when the sinner shall
receive judgment, it shall be let loose, and overwhelm him,
A great and rapid river, which should, for thirty or forty years
together, have its current violently stopped, — vvhat a mass of
waters would it collect in so long a space ! and if it should
then be let loose, with what fury would it overrun and beat
down all before it ! and what resistance could withstand it ?
Since, then, the divine justice, which the prophet Daniel com
pares, not to an ordinary river, but to a river of fire, for the
greatness and fury of the rigor, shall be repressed for thirty or
forty years during the life of man ; what an infinity of wrath will
it amass together, and with what fury will it burst out on the
miserable sinner in the face of the offended Judge ! And there
fore the prophet Daniel saith, that a river of fire issued from his
countenance, that his throne was of flames, and the wheels of it
burning fire ; because all shall then be fire, rigor, and justice.
He sets forth unto us his tribunal throne with wheels, to signify
thereby the force and violence of his omnipotency in executing
the severity of his justice ; all which shall appear in that mo
ment when sinners shall be brought into judgment ; when
the Lord shall speak unto them in his wrath, and confound
them in his fury.
0 raan ! who hast now tirae, consider in what condition thou

348 JEREMY TAYLOR,
shalt see thyself in that instant. Then, neither the blood of
Christ shed for thee, nor the Son of God crucified, nor the in
tercession or prayers of the blessed saints, nor the divine mercy
itself,shall avail thee ; but thou shalt only behold an incensed and
revenging God, whose mercies shall then only serve to augment
his justice. Thou shalt perceive that none will take thy part,
but all will be against thee ; thou art to expect no patron, no
protector, but thy virtuous actions ; they only shall accompany
thee ; when all shall leave thee, they only shall not forsake
thee. The rich man shall not then have multitudes of servants
to set forth his greatness, nor well-feed lawyers to defend his
process; only his good works shall bestead him, and they only
shall defend hira.
There, when their treasures which have been heaped up in
this world, and guarded with so much care, shall fail their mas
ters, their alms bestowed on the poor shall not fail them.
There, when their children, kindred, friends, and servants shall
all fail them, the strangers whom they have lodged, the sick
whom they have vi.sited, and the needy whora they have suc
cored, shall not fail thera. Let us therefore provide for that
day, and take care that our works be good ones.
It is to be admired how raany dare do ill in the presence of
that Judge with whom nothing can prevail but doing well ; and
the wonder is much the greater, that we dare with our evil
works offend him who is to judge them. The thief is not so
impudent as to rob his neighbor, if the raagistrate looks on ; but
would be held a fool, if he should rob or offend the magistrate
hiraself in his own house. How dares, then, this poor thing,
man, injure the very person of his most upright and just Judge,
before whom it is most certain he shall appear, to his face, in
his own house, in so high a manner as to prefer the devil, his
and our great enemy, before him ? Every one who sins, makes
as it were a judgment, and passes a sentence, in favor of Satan
against Jesus Christ. Of this unjust judgment of man, the Son
of God, who is unjustly sentenced by a sinner, will at the last
day take a most strict and severe account. Let him expect,
from his own injustice, how great is to be the divine justice
against him. Let him take heed how he work, since all his
actions are to be viewed and reviewed by his Redeemer. An

CONTEMPLATIONS OF THE STATE OF MAN. 349,
artist, who knew his work was to appear before some king, or
to be exarained by some great master in the same art, would,
strive to give it the greatest perfection of his skill. Since,
therefore, all our works are to appear before the King of hea
ven, and the chief master of virtues, Jesus Christ, let us en
deavor that they raay be perfect and complete ; the rather, be
cause he is not to examine them for curiosity, but to pass on us
a sentence either of condemnation or eternal happiness. Let us
then call to mind that we are to give an account unto God Al
mighty, and therefore let us take heed what we do : let us weep
for what is amiss ; let us forsake our sins, and strive to do vir
tuous actions ; let us look on ourselves as guilty offenders,
and let us stand in perpetual fear of the Judge ; still reprehend
ing ourselves, and saying, " Ah me ! wretch that I am, how
shall I appear before the tribunal of God ! How shall I be
able to give an account of all my actions!" If thou shalt
always have these thoughts, thou mayest obtain salvation ; and
be assured, he that seriously thinks on death will never have
the boldness to sin.
Another cause of the terribleness of death is, the innumerable
multitude of our sins, and their monstrous deformity, shall then
be laid open. This is signified by the prophet Daniel, where
he says that the throne of the tribunal of God was of flaming
fire, whose nature is not only to burn, but to enlighten-; and
therefore in that divine judgment shall not only be executed
the rigor of his justice, but the ugliness likewise of human na
ture shall be discovered. The Judge himself shall not only
appear severe, but our sins shall all be discovered and laid open
to us ; and the sight of them shall make us tremble with fear
and astonishment, especially when we shall perceive them to be
manifest unto hini who is both judge and party. Our sins now
seera unto us but light and trivial, and we see not half of them;
but in our leaving of this life we shall find them heavy and in
supportable. How shall we remain amazed, when we shall see a number of
our actions to be sins, which we never thought to be such ; and,
which is raore, we shall find that to be a fault which we thought
to be a laudable work ! For many actions, which in the eyes of
men seera virtuous, will then.be found vices in the sight of

350 JEREMY TAYLOR,
God : then shall be Tirought to light the works which we have
done, and those which we have left undone ; the evil of that
action which we have coraraitted, and the good of that which
we have omitted. Neither is there account to be taken only of
the evils which we do, but of the good also which we do not
well : all will be strictly searched and narrowly looked into,
and must pass by many eyes.
The devil, as our accuser, shall frame the process of our whole
life, and shall accuse us of all he knows ; and if any thing shall
escape his knowlege, it shall not therefore be concealed, for our
own Conscience shall cry out and accuse us of it ; and lest our
conscience might flatter us, or be ignorant of some faults, our
guardian angel shall then be fiscal and accuser, calling for di
vine justice against us, and shall discover what our own souls
are ignorant of. And if the devil, our conscience, and guardian
angel, shall fail in any thing, as not knowing all, the Judge
hiraself, who is both party and witness, and whose divine know
lege penetrates into the bottom of our wills, shall there declare
many things for vices which were here esteemed for virtues, O
strange way of judgment, where none denies, and all accuse ;
even the offender accuses himself ; and where all are witnesses;
even the judge and party ! O dreadful judgment, where there
is no advocate, and four accusers, the devil, thy conscience, thy
guardian angel, and thy very judge, who will accuse thee of
many things which thou thoughtest to have alleged for thy de
fence! Then all shall be laid open, and confusion shall cover
the sinner with the multitude of his offences. How shall he
blush to see himself in the presence of the King of heaven in so
foul and squalid garments !
If a man, when he is to speak with some great prince, desire
to be decently and well clad, how will he be out of counte
nance to appear before him dirty and half naked ! How shall
then a sinner be ashamed to see himself before the Lord of all,
naked of good works, bedirted and defiled with abominable
and horrid crimes !
Besides the multitude of sins whereof the whole life shall be
full, the heinousness of thera shall be also laid open before him,
and he shall tremble at the sight of that which he now thinks
but a trivial fault ; for then he shall clearly see the ugliness of

CONTEMPLATIONS OF THE STATE OF MAN. 351
sin, the dissoBancy of it unto reason, the deformity it causes
in the soul, the injury it doth to the Lord of the world, his in
gratitude to Christ his Redeemer, the prejudice it brings unto
himself ; hell into which he falls, and eternal glory which he
loses. The least of these were sufficient to cover his heart with
sadness and grief; but, all together, what amazement and con
fusion will they cause, especially when he shall perceive that
sins produce an ugliness in the soul beyond all the corporeal
deformities which can be imagined ! Let us therefore avoid
them now, for all are to come to light, and we must account
for all, even to the last farthing. Neither is this account to be
made in gross only, for the greatest and most apparent sins ;
but even for the least and smallest. In huraan tribunals, the
judge takes no notice of sraall raatters; but in the courts of di
vine judicature nothing passes ; the least things are as diligently
looked into as the greater. There is also in the end of life an
other cause of rauch terror unto sinners ; which is the lively
knowlege which they shall have of the divine benefits received,
and the charge which shall be laid against thera for their great
ingratitude and abuse of them. In that instant, sinners are not
only to stand in fear of their own bad works, but of the grace
and benefits of God Almighty conferred on them.
Another confusion shall cever them, when they shall see
what God hath done to oblige and assist them towards their
salvation ; and what they to the contrary have done, to draw
on them their own damnation : they shall tremble to see what
God did for their good ; and that he did so much that he could
do no raore, all which hath been misemployed and abused by
themselves. We will consider every one of these benefits by themselves.
The first which occurs, is that of thy creation ; and what could
God do more, since, in this one benefit of thy creation, he gave
thee all that thou art, both in soul and body ? If wanting an
arm, thou wouldst esteem thyself much obliged, and be very
thankful, unto him who should bestow one on thee, which
were sound, strong, and useful ; — why art thou not so to God,
who hath given thee arms, heart, soul, body, and all ?
Consider what thou wert before he gave thee a being— no-
; ; and now thou enjoyest not only a being, but the best

35-2 JEREMY TAYLOR.
being of the. elemental world. Betwixt being and not being,,
there is an infinite distance. See, then, what thou owest unto
thy Creator, and thou shalt find thy debt to, be no less than
infinite, since he hath not only given thee a being, but a noble
being ; and that not by necessity, but out of an infinite love,
and by election, making choice of thee amongst an infinity
of men, possibly, whora he might have created. If lots were
to be cast among an hundred persons for some honorable charge,
how fortunate would he be esteemed, who should draw the lot
from so many competitors ! Behold then thy own happi
ness, who from an absolute nothing- hath lighted on a being
amongst an infinity of creatures possible. And whence pro
ceeds this singular favor, but from God, who, out of those
numberless millions, hath picked out thee, he having many
others, who, if he had created them, would have served him
better than thyself? Besides this, he not only created thee by
election, and gave thee a noble being ; but supernatural hap-,
piness being no way due unto thy nature, he created thee for
it, and gave thee for thy end the most high and eminent
that could be imagined, to wit, the eternal possession of thy
Creator. It being, then, so great a benefit to have created thee, it is
yet a greater to have preserved and suffered thee until this in
stant, without casting thee into a thousand hells for thy sins
and oft'ences. How raany, for one only fault committed, hath
he withdrawn his preservation from, and suffered them to die
in that sin for which they are now in hell ! and some of them,
if they had been pardoned, would have proved more grateful
than thou. Behold, how many angels, for their first offence, he
threw headlong down from heaven, and expected thera no
longer, and yet still expects thee !
Consider, thou owest him for preserving thee as much as for
creating thee ; preservation being a continued creation ; and
more for preserving thee, although his enemy. Inthy creation,,
although thou didst not deserve a being, yet thou demeritedst
it not; but in thy preservation thou hast deserved the contrary,
which is to be forsaken and abandoned.
Consider the benefit thou receivest by the incarnation of the
Son of God, by which thou art delivered from sin and hell^

CONTEMPLATIONS OF THE STATE OF MAN. 333
and at such a tirae when thy raiserable condition was desperate
of all other reraedy, and hath exalted thee to his grace, and
the inheritance of the kingdom of heaven ; and this he did
with such singular love, even to the annihilating as it were
himself, that he raight exalt thee, taking on hiraself thy nature,
that he raight only confer an honor on thee, which he would
not to the angels. All is great, all is transcendent, in this
unspeakable goodness. See what God could do more for
thee ; and see that thou mayest do much more for him, and dost
not! Consider the benefit of our redemption by the death and
passion of Christ. What could the Son of God do more for
thee than die and shed his blood for thee ; and, that not with an
.ordinary death, but so ignominious, as it seems he could not
suffer more ? Set before thy eyes Christ crucified on mount
Calvary ; if a man rnore infamous be imaginable, executed pub
licly between two thieves as a traitor and an heretic, broach
ing false doctrine, and making himself king, as a traitor unto Cae
sar; — two crimes so infamous, as they not only defame the per
son who comraits them, but stain and infect his stock and lineage.
Behold in what poverty he died, if greater can be thought on ;
to the end thou mayest see if it were possible he should do
more for thee than what he did ! Whilst he lived, he had not
whereon to repose his head, neither found he one drop of water
to refresh his sacred lips; even the earth refused hira, wanting
whereon to rest his feet ! Behold with wJiat grief and pains he
expired, since from head to foot he was but one continued
wound, his feet and hands were pierced with nails, and his
head with thorns !
Who would not be amazed at the goodneSfe and piety of a
great eraperor, who, having a desire to pardon a notorious trai
tor, should, rather than abate one jot of his justice, take on
him the habit and shape of that traitor, and suffer publicly in
the market-place, that the off'ender might be spared ? Thus did
God, taking on him the form of a servant, and dying on the
cross, to free condemned raan from eternal death.
Consider, then, how dreadful it shall be unto a sinner, when
he shall receive a charge, not only of his own being and his
own life, but also of the being and life of God ; of the incar-

354 JEREMY TAYLOR,
nation, passion, life, and death of Christ our Redeemer, who
hath so often given hiraself in the sacrament of his body and
blood !
The murderer who stands charge4 with the life of a man, al
though it be of some wicked person, yet fears to be apprehended
and brought to judgment. How is it, then, that he who is
charged with the life of God, trembles not? Oh, how fearful
a thing is it, when a vile creature shall enter into judgment
with his Creator, and shall be demanded an account of the
blood of Christ, whose value is infinite ! What account can
he give of such a benefit, and of all the rest which he
hath received, even firom the greatest unto the least ? when
Christ shall say unto him, " I, when thou hadst no being,
gave thee one, inspired thee with a soul, and placed thee-
above all things that are on the earth, I for thee created
heaven, air, sea, earth, and all things, and yet am dishonored
by thee, and held most vile and base ; and yet for all this have
not ceased to do thee good, and bestowed on thee innumerable
benefits. For thy sake, being God, I was content to make
myself a servant; was buffeted, spit on, and condemned to a
punishment of slaves ; and, to redeem thee from death, suffered
the death of the cross. It is heaven I intended for thee, and
from thence sent thee the Holy Ghost. I invited thee unto
the kingdom of heaven, offered myself to be thy head, thy
spouse, thy food, thy drink, thy shepherd. I chose thee for
the heir of heaven, and drew thee out of darkness into light."
To such excess of love what have we to answer, but to stand
astonished and confounded that we have been so ungrateful, and
given occasion to the devil for one of the greatest scorns and
injuries which could be put on our Redeemer? when he shall
say unto him, " Thoucreatedst man ; for him wast born in po
verty, lived in labor, and died in pain and torment, I have
done nothing for him, but sought to damn him into a thousand
hells ; and yet, for all this, it is I whom he strives to please,
and not thee. Thou dost preparb for him a crown of eternal
glory ; I desire to torment him in hell; and yet he had rather
serve me without interest, than thee for thy promise of so great
a reward, I should have been ashamed to have created and
redeemed a wretch so ungrateful unto him from whom he hath

CONTEMPLATIONS OF THE STATE OF MAN. 355
received so great benefits. But since he loves me better than
thee, let him be mine, unto whom he hath so often given him
self up."
We are not only to give an account of these general benefits,
but of those which are more particular ; of the good examples
which we have seen ; of the instructions we have heard ; of the
inspiration which hath been sent us. Let us tremble that we are
50 careless of that for which all the care in the world is not
sufficient. Now is the time for benefiting ourselves ; if we
shall now despise it, in what case shall we be ? Let us not
mispend the tirae of this life, since so severe an account will
be demanded of all the benefits which we have received. Let
us take heed what use we make of this temporal life ; let us
not lose it, since' we are to answer for every part of it. This
time is bestowed on us, wherein to gain heaven ; and a most
strict account will be demanded of us, if we despise it. It is
not ours, for which we are to answer ; we are not the lords of
time : let us not therefore dispose of it for our own pleasure, but
for the service of God, whose it is,
O God, every way most perfect and good ! who art so
scrupulous in thy justice, and so indulgent in thy mercy ; rigor
ous with thyself, that thou mightest be merciful unto us : O
God, infinitely good, infinitely holy, infinitely just and per
fect ! we magnify thee, we praise thee, we glorify thee, we
give thanks unto thee, heavenly Father, for all the blessings
thou hast bestowed on us.
Chap. X. — The endof all time.
After we have finished the tirae of this life, the end of all
time is to succeed, which is to give a period unto all which we
leave behind us. Let man therefore know that those things
Which he leaves behind for his memory after death, are as vain
as those he enjoyed in his life. Let him raise proud mausoleums,
let him erect statues of marble, let hira build populous cities,
let him leave -a numerous kindred, let him stamp his name in
brass, and fix his memory with a thousand nails, all must have
an end. His cities shall sink, his statues fall, his family perish,
his memory be defaced, and all shall end, because all time must
end. Not only our pleasures and delights are to end in death,

S-56 JEREMY TAYLOR,
but our memories, at the farthest, are to end with time ; and
since all are to conclude, all are to be despised as vain and
perishing. If the death of a monarch or prince of some corner of the
world, prognosticated by an eclipse or comet, cause a fear and
amazement in the beholders, what shall the death of the whole
world, and with it all things teraporal, and of time itself, fore-'
told by angels with prodigious apparitions and dreadful noise,
produce in us ? Time shall end, and the world shall die, and
that, if we may so say, a most horrible and disastrous death.
How much the whole world, and the whole race of mankind,
exceeds one particular person, by so much shall the universal
end surpass in terror the particular end of this life.
Let us look on the strange manner of the end of the world,
which, being so terrible, gives us to understand the vanity and
deceit of all^things in it. As it is usual in wars to skirmish
and to make inroads before the day of battle, so before that
dreadful day, wherein the army of vengeance and of all punish
ments is to encounter with the array of sin, the Lord shall from
divers parts send forth several calamities, as plagues, famine,
earthquakes, war, inundations, and droughts, which shall be:
forerunners of that great day of battle, which shall, like light
horsemen, scour the country. And if those miseries do now so
much afflict us, what shall they then do when God shall add unto
them his utmost force and power ? when all creatures shall arm
against sinners, and the zeal of the divine justice shall be their
captain-general, which the wise man declares in these words :
' His zeal shall take up arms, and shall arm the creatures to
revenge hira of his eneraies. He shall put on justice- as a
breastplate, and righteous judgment as a helmet ; and he shall
take ecjuity as a buckler, and shall sharpen his wrath as a lance,
and the circuit of the earth shall fight for him. Thunderbolts
shall be sent from the clouds as a well-shooting bow, and shall
not fail to hit the mark ; and hail shall be sent full of stormy
wrath. The waters of the sea shall threaten them, the rivers.
shall combat furiously ; a most stormy wind shall rise against
them, and shall divide them as a whirlwind.'*
* Rook of Wisdom, chap. 5,

CONTEMPLATIONS OF THE STATE OF MAN, 357
Very dreadful are these words, althgugh they contain but the
war which three of the elements are to make against sinners;
but not Only fire, air, and water, but earth also and heaven
shall fall on them and confound them : for all the creatures
shall express their fury in that day, and shall rise against man.
And if the clouds shall discharge thunderbolts and stones on
their heads, the heavens shall shoot no less balls than stars,
which shall fall from thence ; if hail, no bigger than little stones,
falling but from the clouds, destroy the fields, and sometimes
kill the lesser sort of cattle ; what shall pieces of stars do, fall
ing frora the firmament or upper region ?
. As in man, who is called the lesser world, when he is to die,
the humors, which are as the elements, are troubled and out of
order; his eyes, which are as the sun and moon, are darkened;
his other senses, which are as the lesser stars, fall away; his
reason, which is as the celestial virtues, is off the hinges ; — so,
in the death of the greater world, before it dissolve and expire,
the sun shall be turned into darkness, the moon into blood, the
stars shall fall, and the whole world shall tremble with a horrid
noise. If the sun, moon, and other celestial bodies, which
are held incorruptible, shall suffer such changes, what shall be
done with those frail and corruptible elements of earth, air, and
water? If this inferior world doth depend on the heavens,
vi'hose celestial bodies shall be altered and broken in pieces; in
what estate must the lower elements remain, when the virtues
of heaven, shall , falter," and the wandering stars shall lose their
way, and fail to observe their order ?
How shall the air be troubled with violent and sudden whirl
winds, dark tempests, horrible thunders, and furious flashes of
lightning! How shall the earth tremble with dreadful earth
quakes, opening herself with a thousand mouths, and casting
forth, as it were, whole volcanos of fire and sulphur; and, not
content to overthrow the loftiest towers, shall swallow up high
mountains, and bury cities in her entrails ! How shall the sea
then rage, mounting her proud waves above the clouds, as if
they meant to overwhelm the whole earth ! The roaring
of the ocean shall astonish those who are far distant frona
the sea, and inhabit in the midst of the firm land. There"

858 JEREMY TAYLOR.
fore it is said, that there shall be in the earth afflictions of
nations for the confusion of the. noise of the sea.
Wliat shall men do in this general perturbation of nature ?
They shall remain amazed and pale as death. What comfort
shall they have ? They shall stand gazing one on another, and
every one shall conceive a new fear, by beholding in his neigh-
hor's face the image of his own death. What fear and horror
shall then possess them, when they shall hourly expect the suc
cess and dire effects portended by those monstrous prodigies !
All coraraerce shall then cease; the market-places shall be
unpeopled, and the tribunals remain solitary and silent: none
shall then be ambitious of honors ; none shall seek after pas-
times and new-invented pleasures; nor shall the covetous
wretch then busy himself with the care of his treasures. None
shall frequent the palaces of kings and princes, but through
fear shall forget even to eat and drink. All their care shall be
employed how to escape those deluges, earthquakes, and
lightnings, seeking for places of security, which they shall not
meet with. Who will remember the sumptuous buildings he
hath reared ; the beauty he hath once doted on ?
If we shall forget what we ourselves most valued and gloried
in, how shall we remeraber that of others? What remembrance
shall there then be of the acts of the great Alexander, of the
learning of Aristotle, of the wisdom of Solomon, and of the
endowment of the most renowned men of the world ? Their
fame shall remain from thenceforward for ever buried, and shall
die with the world for a whole eternity.
The mariners, when, in some furious tempest, they are on the
point of sinking, how are they amazed at the rage of the
watery element ! - how grieved and afflicted with the ruin
which threatens them I What prayers and vows do they send
up to Heaven ! How disinterested are they of all worldly mat
ters ! since they ff ing their wealth and riches into the sea, for
which they have run such hazard. In what condition, then,
shall be the inhabitants of the earth, when not only the
sea with his raging, but heaven and earth with a thousand pro
digies, shall afl'right them ? When the sun shall put on a robe
of mourning, and amaze them with the horror of his darkness ;

CONTEMPLATIONS OF THE ST.ATE OF MAN. 859
when the moon shall look like blood, the stars fall, and the
earth shall shake them with its unquiet trembling; when the
whirlwinds shall throw them off their legs, and frequent and
thick flashes of lightning dazzle their sight, and confound their
understanding ; — what shall sinners then do, for whose sake all
these fearful wonders shall happen ?
Let us, by the particular changes which have happened,
judge how dreadful the conjunction of so many and so great
calamities in the end of the world altogether will be. But if all
the alterations past of the elements were no more than skir
mishes, what shall then be the battle which they are to give
unto sinners, when the heavens shall shoot their arrows, and
give the alarm with prodigious thunders, and .shall declare their
wrath with horrible apparitions ?
In the last days the sun shall hide his beams under a mourn
ing garment ; and the moon shall clothe herself with blood, to
signify the war which all the creatures are to make with fire
and blood against those who have despised their Creator ; when
on one side the earth shall rouse itself up against them, and
shall shake them off her back, as unwilling to endure their bur
dens any longer ; when the sea shall pursue and assault them
within their own houses ;• and the air shall not permit thera to
be safe in the fields. Certainly, it shall then be no wonder if
they shall desire the mountains to cover them, and the hills to
hide them within their caverns. What shall it be, then, when
the Lord of all shall arm all the elements against man, and
shall give the alarm to all creatures, to revenge himself on him,
so ungrateful for his infinite benefits ?
The creatures now groan to see themselves abused by raan,
iij conterapt of his and their Creator; but they shall then shake
off their yokes, and shall revenge themselves of the grievances
which they suffer under hira, and the injuries he hath done
unto the Creator of all. All the elenients, all creatures, the
whole world, shall be up in arms against man. The sumraer
shall be changed into winter, and winter into the suramer. No
creature shall observe the prefixed law with hira who hath not
observed the law of his Creator, that so they may revenge both
God and themselves. But more terrible then is that which fol
lows, that, after so many calamities, the bottomless pit, which

860 JEREMY TAYLOR.
is hell, shall burst open, and out of his profound throat belch
forth so thick a sraoke as shall wholly darken the sun and air,
from which smoke shall sally forth a multitude of deformed
locusts, which in great swarms shall disperse themselves over
the face of the whole earth, and, leaving the fields, herbs, and
what is sown, fall on such men as have been unfaithful unto
God, and shall for five months torment them with greater rage
than scorpions.*
Some doctors understand those locusts according to the letter,
that they shall be a certain kind of true locusts, butof a strange
figure and fierceness ; others, that they shall be devils in hell
in the shape of locusts : and it is no marvel, that, in the de
struction of the world, devils shall appear in visible form, since
in the destruction of Babylon they appeared in divers figures of
beasts, as was prophesied by Isaiah.
But how shall it then fare with sinners, when after all shall
corae that general fire, so often foretold, which shall either fall
from heaven, or ascend out of hell, or (according to Albertus
Magnus) proceed from both, and shall devour and consume all
it meej;s with ? Whither shall the miserable fly, when that river
of flames, or, to say better, that inundation and deluge of fire,
shall so encompass them, that no place of surety shall be left ;
where nothing can avail but a holy life ; when all besides shall
perish in the universal ruin of the whole world ?
What lamentations were in Rome, when it burned for seven
days together ! What shrieks were heard in Troy, when it was
wholly consumed with flames ! What howling and astonish
ment in Pentapolis, when those cities were destroyed with fire
from heaven ! What weeping was there in Jerusalem, when
they beheld the house of God, the glory of their kingdom, the
wonder of the world, involved in fire and smoke ! Imagine
what these people felt : they saw their houses and goods on
fire, and no possibility of saving them ; when the husband heard
the shrieks and cries of his dying wife, the father of his little
children, and unawares perceived himself so encorapassed
with fiames, that he could neither relieve them, nor free him-
.self! * Revelation, chap, ix.

CONTEMPLATIONS OF THE STATE OF MAN. .361
What, then, shall be the straits and exigences of that ge
neral burning, when those who shall escape earthquakes, inun
dations of the sea, the fury of whirlwinds, and lightning from
heaven, shall fall into that universal fire, that deluge of flame,
which shall consume all, and raake an end of raen and their
memories ? Of those who lived before the ffood, and were mas
ters of the world for so long a tirae, except it be of some few,
we know nothing. Those heroical actions, which certainly
some of them performed, and gained by them incomparable
fame, lie buried in the waters, and there remains no raore me
mory of those who did thera, than if they had never been born.
No more permanent shall be the fame of those which now re
sounds in the ears of the whole world ; Cyrus, Alexander, Han
nibal, Scipio, Caesar, Augustus, Plato, Aristotle, Hippocrates,
Euclid, and the rest ; no raore world, no more fame ; this fire
shall end all the sraoke.
And indeed the world may be said to be like a house full of
smoke, which in such manner blinds the eyes, that it suffers not
those within it to see things as they are : and so the world and
its deceits so disguise the nature of huraan things, that we per
ceive not what they are. Ambition and huraan honor (which
the world so much dotes after) are no more than smoke without
substance, which so blinds our understandings, that we know
not the truth of what we so rauch covet. It is no marvel that
so much smoke coraes at last to end in flames.
What shall it then profit the worldlings to have rich vessels
of gold and silver, curious embroideries, precious tapestries,
pleasant gardens, suraptuous palaces, and all that the world
now esteems, when they shall with their own eyes behold their
costly palaces burnt, their rich and curious pieces of gold
melted, and their florishing and pleasant orchards consuraed,
without power to preserve them or theraselves ? All shall burn,
and with it the world, and all the raeraory and farae of it shall
die ; and that which mortals thought to be immortal, shall then
end and perish.
No raore shall Aristotle be cited in the schools, nor Ulpian
adduced in the tribunals. No more shall Plato be read amongst
the learned, nor Cicero imitated by the orators. No more shall
Seneca be admired by the understanding, nor Alexander ex-
TAY. VOL. IV, Q

362 JEREMY TAYLOR,
tolled among captains. All fame shall then die, and all memory
be forgotten. O vanity of raen, whose memorials are as vain
as theraselves, which in few years perish, and that which lasts
longest can endure no longer than the world ! What becarae
of that statue of raassy gold which Gorgias the Leontine placed
in Delphos to eternise his name ; and that of Gordian in Rome,
and that of Berosus with the golden tongue in Athens, and in
numerable others erected to great captains in brass or hardest
marble ? Certainly, many years since they are perished ; if not,
they shall perish in this great and general conflagration. Only
virtue no fire can burn.
Three hundred and sixty statues were erected by the Athenians
unto Demetrius Phalerius, for having governed their common
wealth ten years with great virtue and prudence ; but of so little
continuance were those trophies, that those very emblems which
were raised by gratitude, were soon after destroyed by envy ;
and he himself, who saw his statues set up in so great a num
ber, saw them also pulled down ; but he still retained this
comfort which Christians raay learn from him, that, beholding
how they threw his images unto the ground, he could say at
last. They cannot overthrow those virtues for which they
were erected. If they were true virtues, he said well ; for
these neither envy can demolish nor human power destroy.
And, which is more, the divine power will not in this gene
ral destruction of the world consume thera, but will preserve
in his eternal raeraory as many as shall persevere in goodness,
and die in his holy grace : for only charity, holiness, and Chris
tian virtues shall not end when the world ends.
The rich raan shall not be preserved by his wealth, nor the
mighty by his power, nor the crafty by his wiles; only the just
shall be freed by his virtues. None shall escape the terror of
that day by fast-sailing ships or speed of horses ; the sea itself
shall burn, and the fire shall overtake the swiftest post. Only
holiness and charity shall defend the servants of God.
How then shall I, miserable sinner, in this universal confla
gration behave myself? What counsel shall I take in that ex
tremity, when my own conscience shall be ray accuser, and
when I shall behold the world on fire about me ? Whither
shall I flee for safety, when no place will afford it ? Shall I

CONTEMPLATIONS OF THE STATE OF MAN. 363
chmb Unto the mountains ? Thither the flames will follow rae.
Shall I descend into the valleys? Thither the fire will pursue
me. Shall I shut up myself in sorae strong castle or tower ?
But there the wrath of God will assault me, and the fire will
pass the fosses, consurae the bulwarks, and make an end of
them and me. What shall I, poor wretch, do ? Let thy power,
O Lord, triumph over my misery, and glorify thyself in my
greatest extremities ; and thy will, O Lord, be done, if it be
thy divine pleasure, in my confusion.
Chap. XI. — Of the last day of time, and of the judgment
which is to pass on all things in the world.
We raust suppose that the coraing of Christ to judgment is
to be with greater terror and majesty than have yet been raani-
fested by any of the divine persons, either in himself or any of
his creatures. If an angel who represented God, and was only
to promulgate the law, carae with that terror and majesty unto
mount Sinai, as made the Hebrew people, though purified and
prepared for his coming, to quake and tremble ; what shall the
Lord of the law do, when he hiraself comes to take an account
of the law, to revenge the breach of it ? With what terror and
majesty shall he appear unto sinners, and to those who are un
prepared for his reception, who are then to be all present, and
judged in that last day of tirae ! For after those prodigious
thunders, lightnings, earthquakes, and prodigies ; after burning,
in that deluge of fire, the sinners of the world, the saints re
maining still alive, that article, of our faith maybe literally ful
filled, "From thence- he shall come to judge both the quick
arid the dead." The heavens shall open, and over the valleys
of Jehoshaphat the Redeemer of the world, attended by all the
angels of heaven in visible forms of admirable splendor, shall
with a divine majesty descend to judge it.
Before the Judge shall be borne his standard, which Chry
sostom* and divers other doctors affirra shall be the very cross
on which he suffered. Then shall the just meet (as the Apostle
says) their Redeemer in the air, who, at his issuing forth of the
* Chrysost. torn. iii. de Cruce,

364 JEREMY T.AYLOR.
heavens, shall, with a voice that may be heard by all the world,
pronounce this his commandment, ' Arise, ye dead, and come
unto judgment;' which shall be proclaimed by four angels in
the four quarters of the world with such vehemence, that the
sound shall pierce unto the infernal region, from whence the
souls of the damned shall issue forth, and re-enter their bodies,
which shall from thenceforward suffer the terrible torments of
hell. The souls of the blessed, filling their bodies with the
four gifts of glory, shall make thera more resplendent than the
sun, and with the gift of agility shall join themselves with
those just who remain Oslive in the air in their passable bodies,
which, being yet mortal, and therefore not able to endure those
veheraent affections of the heart, of joy, desire, reverence, love,
and adrairation of Christ, shall then die, and in that instant
behold the divine essence ; after which their souls shall be
again immediately united to their bodies before they can be
corrupted, or so much as fall unto the ground, and thencefor
ward continue glorious : for, in the moment wherein they die,
they shall be purified from those noxious humors and qualities
wherewith our bodies are now infected.
And therefore it was convenient they should first die, that
being so cleansed frora all filth, they might, by the restitution
of their blessed souls, receive gifts of glory. Who can express
the joy of those happy souls, when they shall take possession
of their new, glorious, and beautiful bodies, which were long
since eaten' by worras or wild beasts, some four, some five thou
sand years ago, turned into dust and ashes ! What thanks shall
they give unto God, who, after so long a separation, hath re
stored them to their ancient companions ! But the souls of the
damned, how shall they rage and curse their own flesh, since, to
please and pamper it hath been the occasion of their torments
and eternal unhappiness !
The reprobates being then in the valley of Jehoshaphat, and
the predestinate in the air, the Judge shall appear above mount
Olivet, unto whom the clouds shall serve as a chariot, and his
most glorious body shall cast forth rays of such incomparable
splendor, as the sun shall appear but as a coal ; for even the
predestinate shall shine as the sun, but the light and brightness

CONTEMPLATIONS OF THE STATE OF MAN. 305
of Christ shall as far exceed them as the sun doth the least
star. The which most admirable sigbt shall be yet more glo
rious by those thousand millions of excellent and heavenly
spirits which shall attend him, who, having formed themselves
aerial bodies of more or less splendor, according to their hier
archy and order, shall fill the whole space betwixt heaven and
earth with unspeakable beauty and variety.
The Saviour of the world shall sit on a throne of great ma
jesty : his countenance shall be most mild and peaceable to
wards the good, and (though the same) most terrible unto the
bad. Out of his sacred wounds shall issue beams of light
towards the just, full of love and sweetness ; but unto sinners
full of fire and wrath, who shall weep bitterly for the evils which
issue from thera. So great shall be the majesty of Christ,
that the raiserable, daraned, and the devils themselves, notwith
standing all the hate they bear him, shall yet prostrate themselves
and adore him, and to their greater confusion acknowlege hira
for Lord and God : and those who have most blasphemed hira
shall then bow before him, fulfilling the promises of the eternal
Father, that all things shouldbe subject unto hira, that he would
raake his eneraies his footstool, and that all knees should bend
before hira.* Here also shall the sinners behold him in glory,
whom they have despised for vain trifles of the earth.
What an amazement will it be to see him king of so great
majesty, who suffered so much ignominy on the cross, and
even from those whom he redeemed with his most precious
blood ! What will they then say, who in scorn crowned the
sacred temples of the Lord with thorns, put a reed in his hand
for a sceptre, clothed hira in some old and broken garment of
purple, buffeted and spit on his blessed face? I know not
how the memory of this doth not burst our hearts with com
punction. There shall be thrones for the Apostles, and those saints, who,
poor in spirit, have left all for Christ ; who, sitting now as
judges with the Redeemer, and condemning by their good ex
ample the scandalous lives of sinners, shall approve the sen
tence of the suprerae Judge, and declare his great justice before
* Psalm cix. 1 Cor. xv. Phil, ii.

366 JEREMY TAYLOR,
the worid, with which the wicked shall remain confounded and
amazed. The tyrants who have afflicted and put to death the
Jioly martyrs, what will they now say when they shall see them
in this glory ? Those who trampled under foot the justice and
right of the poor of Christ, what will they do when they shall
behold their judges? How confounded shall be the kings of
the earth, when they shall behold their vassals in glory ; and
lords, when they shall see their slaves amongst the angels, and
themselves in equal rank with devils ! The good he shall place
on his right hand, elevated in the air, that all the world may
honor them as holy; and the wicked shall stand far at his
left, remaining on the earth, to their own confusion, and scorn
of all.
Immediately the books of all men's consciences shall be
opened, and their sins published to the whole world. The most
secret sins of their hearts, and those filthy acts which were com
mitted in private, shall all, to their great shame and confusion,
be then discovered. The virtuous actions of the just, how
secretly soever performed, their holy thoughts, their pious
desires, their pure intentions, their good works, which the world
now disesteems as madness, shall then be manifested, and they
for them be honored by the whole world.
Nothing shall be of greater confusion unto sinners, than to
behold those who have committed equal and greater sins than
theraselves, to be there in glory, because they raade use of the
time of repentance, which they despised and neglected. This
confusion shall be augmented by that inward charge which
God shall lay against them of his divine benefits, unto which
their angel guardians shall assist, by giving testimony how often
they have dissuaded them from their evil courses, and how re
bellious and refractory they have still been to their holy inspi
rations. The saints shall accuse them that they have laughed
at their good counsels, and shall set forth the dangers where
unto they themselves have been subject by their ill example.
The just Judge shall then immediately pronounce sentence
in favor of the good, in these words of love and mercy : ' Come,
ye blessed of my Father ! possess the kingdom which was pre
pared for you from the creation of the world.' O what joy
shall fill the saints ! and what spite and envy shall burst the

CONTEMPLATIONS OF THE STATE OF MAN, 367
hearts of sinners ! But more, when those miserable wretches
shall hear the severe Judge say, ' Depart from me, ye cursed,
into eternal fire, prepared for Satan and his angels.' With this
sentence they shall reraain for ever overthrowJi, and covered
with eternal sorrow and confusion. ' Depart from me :' Alas,
dread Sovereign ! whither shall they go to avoid thy displea
sure? Art thou not in heaven, in hell, and every where?
Dost not thou fill heaven and earth ? Dost not thou hold
the universe in thy hands ? And doth not thy power com
prehend all things ? To whom shall they betake themselves ?
Art not thou he who hast the words of eternal life, who art
even thyself life everlasting? Whither wilt thou have these
¦miserable creatures to retire theraselves ? Do what they can,
they cannot go out of thee, since in thee all things have raotion,
being, and life. Begone, barren trees, twice dead, rooted out
of the blessed earth : you are only fit to be cast into the fire ;
you are not worthy to take up place in the paradise of heaven,
where no trees are planted, but such as bear good fruit.
At that instant the fire of that general burning shall invest
those miserable creatures; the earth shall open, and hell shall
enlarge its throat to swallow them for all eternity, accomplishing
that malediction, ' Let death corae on thera, and let thera sink
alive into hell.'* Snares, fire, and sulphur shall rain on sin
ners. But the just shall then rejoice, singing that song of the
Larab related by St. John, ' Great and marvellous are thy
works, O Lord God Omnipotent ! just and righteous are thy
ways, king of all eternity! Who will not fear thee, O Lord,
and magnify thy name ? ' f With thousand other anthems of
joy and jubilee they shall ascend above the stars in a raost glo
rious triuraph, until they arrive in the imperial heaven, where
they shall be placed in thrones of glory, which they shall enjoy
for an eternity of eternities.
In the mean time, the earth, which was polluted for having
sustained the bodies of the damned, shall be purified in that
general burning ; and then shall be renewed the earth, the hea
vens, the stars, and the sun, which shall shine seven times
more than before. And the creatures which have been here
* Psalra Iv. 15. f Revelation, xv. 3.

368 JEREMY TAYLOR.
violated and oppressed by the abuse of man, shall then rejoice
to see theraselves freed from the tyranny of sin and sinners,
and, joyful in the triuraph of Christ, shall put on mirth and
gladness. This is the end wherein all time is to determine ; and this the
catastrophe, so fearful unto the wicked, where all things tem
poral are to conclude. Let us therefore take heed how we use
them ; and that we may use them well, let us be mindful of this
last day, this day of justice and calamity, this day of terror and
amazement ; the memory whereof will serve much for the re
formation of our lives. Let us think of it, and let us fear it ; for
it is the most terrible of all things terrible, and the consideration
most profitable and acceptable to cause in us a holy fear of
God, and to convert us unto him. While I live, I will there
fore ever preserve in my memory this day of terror, that I may
hereafter enjoy security for the whole eternity of God. Above
all things, I will keep before my eyes the last of all days ; and
all the moments of my life I will think, and for ever think, of
eternity.

BOOK II.

Chap. I. — Of the greatness of things eternal.
Although all temporal things are in themselves little and
base, yet unto him who shall consider the greatness and majesty
of the eternal, they will appear much less and contemptible.
The greatness of the glory eternal consists not only iu the
eternity of its duration, but in its intention also, as being su
preme, and without limits in its excellency ; and therefore we
ought not think rauch of the suffering of a thousand years' tor
ments, or to remain in hell itself for some long tirae, so we
might behold Christ in his glory, and enjoy the company of
saints, and be partakers of so great a happiness, but for one day.
Such is the beauty of righteousness, such the joy of that
eternal light, of that immutable truth and wisdom, that although
we were not to continue in it above one day, yet for so short a

CONTEMPLATIONS OF THE STATE OF MAN. 369
time, a thousand years in this life, replenished with delight, and
abundance of all goods temporal, were justly to be despised.
' One day in thy courts is better than a thousand.' And if those
joys of heaven were short, and those of earth eternal, yet we
ought to forsake these for those. What shall it be to possess
them for an eternity, when the joy of each day shall be equiva
lent to many years ? If the beauties of all creatures, heavens,
earth, flowers, pearls, and all other things that could give any
light, were all comprised in one thing ; if every one of the stars
yielded as rauch light as the sun, and the sun shone as bright as
all they together ; all this so united would be, in respect of the
beauty of God Alraighty, as a dark night in respect of the
clearest day. As Ahasuerus, who reigned from India to Ethi
opia over one hundred and seventy princes, made a great feast
for all his princeSj which lasted one hundred and eighty-one
days ; so shall this King of heaven and earth raake his great
supper of glory, which shall last for all eternity, for the setting
forth of his majesty, and for the honor and entertainment of his
.servants; where the joys shall be such as neither the eye hath
seen, nor the ear hath heard, nor hath entered into the heart of
man to conceive. " Come, eat and drink, and be filled, ray
beloved," shall the King of heaven say ; " this feast of mine
shall never be ended : there shall corae no sorrow after it." O
life of lives, surpassing all life ! O everlasting life ! O life
blessed for evermore, where there is joy without sorrow ! O the
inanity and emptiness of temporal goods ! What proportion do
they hold with this greatness, since they are so poor, that even
time, from whence they have their being, makes them tedious,
and not to be endured ? Who could continue a whole month,
without any diversion, in hearing the choicest music ? Nay,
who could pass a day free from weariness, without some
thoughts of pleasure ? But such is the greatness of those joys
which God hath prepared for them who love and fear him, that
we shall still desire them afresh, and they will not cloy us in a
whole eternity.
Eternal glory is great, both in respect of its purity, being
free frora all ill, and in respect of its perfection, being highly
and excellently good. It doth as far exceed all the grandeur
of this world, as the heavens are distant from the earth ; and

370 JEREMY TAYLOR.
how far that is, we shall form some conception of it, as much as
our weakness is able to express.
That most famous mathematician, Christopher Clavius, says,
that from the sphere of the moon, which is the lowest heaven,
unto the earth, are one hundred and twenty thousand six hun
dred and thirty railes ; frora the heaven of the sun, four millions
thirty thousand nine hundred and twenty-three miles ; and from
the firmament, or eighth heaven, one hundred and sixty-one
millions eight hundred fourscore and four thousand nine hundred
and forty-three miles. Here Plato wills the mathematicians to
cease their inquiries, for from hence there is no rule of mea
suring farther ; but, without all doubt, it is much farther from
thence to the imperial heaven : for the only thickness of the
starry sphere is said to contain as much as the whole space be
twixt that and the earth ; insomuch that if a millstone were
thrown from the highest of the firmament, and should every
hour fall two hundred miles, it would be ninety years before it
arrived at the earth. The mathematicians also, and some
learned interpreters of the Holy Scripture, affirm that the dis
tance from the earth unto the highest of the firmament is less
than that frora thence to the lowest of the iraperial heaven ; and
therefore conclude, if one should live two thousand years, and
every day should travel a hundred railes, he should not in all
that tirae reach the lowest of the firmament : and if, after that,
he should also travel other two thousand years, he should not
reach the highest of it ; and frora thence, four thousand years
before he arrived at the lowest of the imperial heaven. O
blessed Jesus ! who makest us in a moment despatch so great a
journey, and in one little instant bringest the souls of the just
thither ! So short is the way which brings us to heaven, that in
an instant the righteous shall mount above the sun and moon,
tread the stars under their feet, and enter into the heaven of the
blessed. Proportionable unto this distance of place is the advantage
which the greatness of heaven hath above that of earth, and the
same holds in their blessings. Let us mount, then, with this
consideration thither, and from that height let us despise all the
vanities of this world. All the kingdoms of the earth are but
.i^ a point, yea, but as a point of a point. He is higher than

CONTEMPLATIONS OF THE STATE OF MAN. 371
the world, who cares not for the world. But of heaven Ba-
ruch could say, ' How great is the house of God ! how large is
the place of his possession !* It is great, and hath no end ;
high and immeasurable. If one who had ever been bred in an
obscure dungeon, were told that above the earth there was a
sun which enlightened the whole world, and cast his beams far
above a hundred thousand leagues in circumference, all the
discourses which could be made unto such a one would hardly
make him conceive the brightness and beauty of the sun. Much
less can the glory of those things of the other world be made to
appear unto us, though set forth with the greatest beauty the
world affords.
O what fools, then, are tliey, who, for one point of earth, lose
so many leagues of heaven ! who, for one short pleasure, lose
things so iraraense and durable ! O the greatness of the omni
potency and goodness of God, who hath prepared such celestial
mansions and glorious things for the humble and little ones who
serve him ! My soul, O Lord my God, thirsteth after thee,
I will behold thy face in righteousness, for in thy presence is
fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for ever-
more.f Whatsoever I can wish for, is present with thee ;
whatsoever can be desired, is in thee in abundance. Thou shalt
make me drink of the river of thy pleasures ; for with thee is
the fountain of life, and in thy light I shall see light.]: How
happy shall I be, when I shall see thee in thyself, and thee in
me, and myself in thee, living in everlasting felicity, and enjoy
ing the beatifical vision of thee for evermore ! I will therefore
trust in thee, my Lord God, for ever ; for in the Lord Jehovah
there is everlasting happiness, and joy without end.§
Chap, II. — The greatness of the eternal honor of the just.
The greatness of those goods of the other Hfe are honors,
riches, pleasures, and all the blessings both of body and soul ;
of each whereof we shall say something apart, and will begin
with that of honor.
The nature of honor is to be a reward of virtue ; and by how
* Baruch, chap. v. t Psalm xvii. 15. Psalm xvi. 11.
X Psalm xxxvi. 8, 9. § Isaiah, xxvi. 4.

372 JEREMY TAYLOR.
much greater the reward is, by so much the greater is the honor
which is conferred. What honor shall it then be, when God
shall give unto those who served him, not only to tread on the
stars, to inhabit the palaces of heaven , to be lords of the world ;
but, transcending all that is created, and finding nothing
amongst his riches sufficient to reward them, shall give them his
own infinite essence to enjoy, as a recompense of their holiness,
not for a day, but to all eternity !
The highest honor which the Romans bestowed on their
greatest captains, was to grant them a day of triumph, and in
that, permission to wear a crown of grass or leaves, which
withered the day following. But the triumph of the just shall
be eternal, and their never-fading crown is God hiraself. O
most happy diadem ! O most precious garland of the saints,
which is of as great worth and value as God himself ! Sapor
king of the Persians was most ambitious of honor, and would
therefore be called the brother of the sun and moon, and friend
to the planets. This vain prince erected a most glorious throne,
which he placed on high, and thereon sat in great majesty, ha
ving under his feet a globe of glass, whereon were artificially
represented the motions of the sun, the moon, and stars ; and
to sit crowned above this fantastical heaven he esteemed as a
great honor. What, then, shall be the honor of the just, who
shall truly and really sit above the sun, the moon, and firma
ment, crowned by the hand of God himself; and that with a
crown of gold, graven with the seal of holiness and the glory of
honor ? And this honor arrives at the height that Christ him
self tells us, ' He who shall overcome, I will give him to sit
with rae in my throne, even as I have overcome, and have sit-
ten with the Father in his throne.'* O happy labor of the vic
torious, and glorious combat of the just, against the vices and
temptations of the world, whose victory deserves so inestimable
a crown !
How great shall be that glory, when a just soul shall, in the
presence of an infinite number of angels, sit in the same throne
with Christ, and shall, by the just sentence of God, be praised
for a conqueror over the world, and the invisible powers of
* Revelation, iii. 5.

CONTEMPLATIONS OF THE STATE OF MAN. 373
hell ! What can it desire more than to be partaker of all those
divine goods, and even to accompany Christ in the same throne?
0 how cheerfully do they bear all afflictions for Christ, who,
with a lively faith and certain hope, apprehend such sublime
honors !
If the applause of raen, and the good opinion which they
have frora others, be esteeraed an honor, what shall be the ap
plause of heaven, and the good opinion, not only of saints and
angels, but of God himself, whose judgment cannot err? David
took it for a great honor, that the daughter of his king was
judged a reward of his valor. God surpasses this, and honors
so much the service of his elect, that he pays their merits with
no less a reward than himself.
Besides this, he who is most known, and is praised and cele
brated for good and virtuous by the greatest multitude, is es
teeraed the raost glorious and honorable person. But all this
world is a solitude in respect of the citizens of heaven, where
innumerable angels approve and praise the virtuous actions of
the just; and they likewise are nothing, and all creatures, men
and angels, but as a solitary wilderness in respect of the Cre
ator. What man so glorious on earth, whose worth and valor
have been known to all ? Those who were born before him
could not know him; but the just in heaven shall be known by
all, past and to come, and by all the angels, and by the King
of men and angels. Human farae is founded on the applause of
mortal men, who, besides being less than angels, may be de
ceived, raay speak untruth, and are most part of them sinners
and wicked. How far must that honor exceed it, which is
conferred on the just by the holy angels, and by those blessed
and pure souls who cannot be deceived themselves, nor will de
ceive others ! If we esteem it more to be honored by the kings
of the earth, by the great men of the world, than by some igno
rant peasants of some poor village ; how ought we, then, to
value the honor which shall be bestowed on us by the saints in
heaven, who are the kings and grandees of the court of God,
and are all replenished with most perfect and divine wisdom !
All the honor of man is ridiculous, and his ambition no wiser
who seeks it, than if one worm should desire to be honored by
another. All the earth is but as a village, or rather some small

374 JEREMY TAYLOR.
cottage, in respect of heaven. Let us not, therefore, strive for
a name on earth, but that our names may be written in
heaven. If Saul thought the honor too much which was given to Da
vid by the damsels when they celebrated his victory in their
songs, what shall it be to be celebrated by all the angels and
saints in celestial responses ? When a servant of God enters
heaven, he shall be received with such divine music, all the
blessed in heaven often repeating those words in the gospel,
' Well done, good servant and true ! because thou hast been
faithful in a few things, thou shalt be placed over rauch ; enter
into thy Master's joy.' Which words they shall repeat in
choirs. This shall be a song of victory and honor above all
the honors of the earth, being conferred by so great, so wise, so
holy, and so authentic persons. Although the honor and ap
plause which the just receive in heaven from the citizens of that
holy city be incomparable, yet that honor and respect with
which God himself shall treat them is far above it. It is ex
pressed in no meaner similitude than that of the honor done by
the servant unto his Lord ; and therefore it is said, that God
himself shall, as it were, serve the blessed in heaven at their
table. It is much araongst men to be seated at the table of a
prince ; but for a king to serve his vassal, as if he hiraself were
his servant, who ever heard it ?
David, when he caused Mephibosheth (although the grand
child of a king, and the son of an excellent prince, unto whom
David owed his life) to sit at his table,* he thought he did him a
singular honor ; but this favor never extended to wait on him.
The honor which God bestows on the just, exceeds all human
imagination ; who, not satisfied with crowning all the blessed
with his own divinity, giving hiraself to be possessed and en
joyed by them for all eternity, does also honor their victories
and heroic actions with new crowns.
The just shall shine like the stars in the firraaraent; and if
the least saint in heaven shall shine seven times more than the
sun, what shall that light be, which shall outshine so many
suns? * 2 Samuel, ix. 10.

CONTEMPLATIONS OF THE STATE OF MAN. 376
The honor of the just in heaven depends not, like that of the
earth, on accidents and reports, nor is exposed to dangers, or
measured by the discourse of others, but in itself contains its
own glory and dignity. The Romans erected statues unto
those whora they intended to honor, because, being mortal,
there should something remain after death to make their per
sons and services, which they had done to the comraon weal,
known to posterity. But in heaven there is no need of this
artifice, because those who are there honored are iraraortal, and
shall have in theraselves sorae character engraved, as an evident
and clear token of their noble victories and achieveraents.
What greater honor than to be friends of God — sons, heirs,
and kings in the realm of heaven !
St. John, in bis Revelation,* sets forth this honor of the
blessed in the twenty-four elders who were placed about the
throne of God, and in that honor and majesty as every one was
seated in his presence, and that on a throne, clothed in white
garments, in sign of their perpetual joy ; and crowned with a
crown of gold, in respect of their dignities. To be covered, in
the presence of kings, is the greatest honor they confer on the
chiefest grandees : but God causes his servants to be crowned,
and seated on thrones before him ; and our Saviour, in the day
of judgment, makes his disciples his fellow-judges. Certainly,
greater honor cannot be imagined than that which the just re
ceive in heaven : for if we look on hira who honors, it is God ;
if with what, with no less joy than his own divinity, and other
most sublime gifts; if before whom, before the whole theatre
of heaven ; if the continuance, for all eternity. Therefore let
us so dispose of our lives here, and live so righteously and
holily, that we may be thought worthy of that crown of glory
which he hath prepared for all those who love and serve hira.
Chap. III. — Of the riches of the eternal kingdom of heaven.
The riches in heaven are no less than the honors, though
those are, as hath been said, inestiraable. There can be no
greater riches than to want nothing which is good, nor to need
any thing which can be desired. And in that blessed life no
• chap. iv. 4.

376 JEREMY TAYLOR.
good shall fail, nor no desire be unsatisfied ; if, as the philoso
phers say, he is not rich who possesseth much, but he who de
sires nothing. There being in heaven no desire unaccomplished,
there must needs be gTeat riches. It was a position of the
stoics, that he was not poor who wanted, but he who was ne
cessitated. Since, then, in the celestial kingdom there is ne
cessity of nothing, most rich is he who enters into it. By rea
son of these divine riches, Christ our Saviour, when he speaks
in his parables of the kingdom of heaven, doth sometimes call
it ' the hidden treasure,' ' the precious pearls.' For if divine
happiness consists in the eternal possession of God, what riches
may be compared with his who enjoys hira ; and wh-at inhe
ritance to that of the kingdom of heaven ; and what possession
more precious than the Divinity ; and what more to be desired
than the Creator of all things precious, who gives himself for a
possession and riches unto the saints, to the end they should
abhor those riches which are temporal, if by them the eternal
are endangered ?
Besides the possession of God, the just shall reign with Christ
eternally in the kingdom of heaven, whose riches must needs
be iraraense, since they are to be kings of so gxeat and ample a
kingdom. If the earth, compared with heaven, be but a point,
and yet contains so many kingdoms ; what shall that be which
is but one kingdom, and yet extended over the whole heavens?
Some famous mathematicians say of the iraperial heaven, that
it is so great, that if God should allow unto every one of the
blessed a greater space than the whole earth, yet there would
remain as much more to give unto others ; and that the capa
ciousness of this heaven is so great, that it contains more than
ten thousand and fourteen millions of miles. What wonder
will it be to see a city so great, of such precious matter ! Di
vines confess the capaciousness of this heaven to be immense,
but are more willing to admire it than bold to measure it. It
is all composed of matter far raore beautiful and precious than
gold, pearls, and diamonds. The heavens which we discover
with the sun and all the other stars, are but the pavement of
the eternal firmament ; the inhabitants thereof tread under their
feet the front of the brightest stars. The sun and moon were
made to give light to this low elementary world ; the heavenly

CONTEMPLATIONS OF THE STATE OF MAN. 377
Lamb is the lamp which doth lighten the eternal Sion, the man
sion of glory. What shall that place be, where the saints in
the light of glory see the uncreate and inaccessible light of the
Deity? It is called a kingdora for its immense greatness, and a city
for its great beauty and population. It is full of inhabitants
of all nations and conditions; where are many thousands of
angels, an infinite number of the just, even as raany as have
died since Abel ; and thither also shall repair all who are to
die unto the eiid of the world, and after judgment shall there
remain for ever invested in their glorious bodies. Neither shall
this populous city be inhabited with mean and base people, but
with citizens so noble, rich, and just, that all of them shall be
most holy and wise kings. How happy shall it be to live with
such persons ! The queen of Sheba, only to see Solomon,
came from the end of the earth. To behold a king issue out
of his palace, all the people flock together. What shall it
then be, not only to see, but to live and reign with many
angels, and converse with so many eminent and holy men ! If
there should now descend from heaven one of the prophets or
Apostles, with what earnestness and adrairation would every one
strive to see and hear him ! In the other world we shall hear
and see them all. How admirable will it be to see thousands
of thousands in all their beauty and greatness, and so raany
glorious bodies of saints in all their lustre ! If one sun be
sufficient to clear up the whole world here below, what joy
shall it be to behold those innuraerable suns in that region of
light !
This kingdom of God is not like other kingdoms, which con
tain huge deserts, inaccessible mountains, and thick woods, nor
is it divided into raany cities and villages distant one from an
other; but this kingdora, although a most spacious region, is all
one beautiful city. Who would not wonder if all England
were but one city, and that as beautiful as Rorae in the tirae
of Augustus Caesar, who found it of brick, and left it of mar
ble ! What a sight were that of Syria, if all a Jerusalem !
What shall then be the celestial city of saints, whose greatness
possesses the whole heavens, and is, as the holy Scriptures de-

378 JEREMY TAYLOR.
scribe, (to exaggerate the riches of the saints) all of gold and
precious stones ! The gates of this city were, as St. John says,
one entii-e pearl, and the foundation of the walls jasper, sap'
phire, chalcedon, emerald, topaz, jacinth, amethyst, and other
most precious stones; the streets of fine gold, so pure that it
seemed crystal, joining in one substance the firmness of gold
and transparency of crystal, and the beauty both of one and the
other. If all England were of sapphire, how would it amaze
the worid ! How marvellous, then, will the holy city be,
which, though extended over so many millions of leagues, is all
of gold, pearl, and precious stones ; or, to say better, of a mat
ter of far more value, and peopled with such a multitude of
beautiful citizens, who are as far above any imaginable num
ber, as the capacity of this city is above any iraaginable mea
sure !
Of those incoraparable riches, the blessed are not only to be
lords, but kings. Neither is the celestial measure, nor this
kingdora of heaven, less or poorer by having so many lords
and kings. It is not like the kingdoms on earth, which permit
but one king at once, and, if divided, become of less power and
majesty; but is of such condition, that it is wholly possessed
by all in general, and by each one in particular ; like the sun,
which warras all and every one, and not one less because it
warms raany. The effects of riches are much greater and more
noble in heaven than they can be on earth. Wealth may serve
us here to maintain our power, honors, and delights ; but all
the gold in the world cannot free us frora weakness, infaray, or
pain ; it cannot make a calenture not to afflict us, or that the
pains of the head or gout do not molest us, or that cares and
fears shall not break our sleep. This only is to be had in hea
ven, where their power is so free from weakness, that one angel
only, without array, guns, swords, or lance, could destroy at
once one hundred and eighty thousand.
Besides, it is to be considered, that the great riches of the
saints are not, like those of the kings of the earth, drawn from
the tributes iraposed on their vassals, which, though just, yet
are not free frora this ill condition, that what enriches the prince
impoverishes the subject. The riches in heaven have no such

CONTEMPLATIONS OF THE STATE OF MAN. 379
blemish ; they are burdensome to none ; and that which is given
unto the servants of Christ, who reigns in heaven, is not taken
from any.
If all the earth were of gold, and all the rivers of balsam,
and all the rocks precious stones, wouldst thou not say that this
is a great treasure ? Know, that a treasure which exceeds gold
as far as gold doth dirt, balsam water, or precious stones peb
bles, remains as a reward for the just.
Wherefore we ought to lift up our souls, and alienate our af
fections frora the frail felicity of these temporal goods of the
earth, and say with David, ' Glorious things are said of thee,
thou city of God !' Whatsoever pains and poverty we suft'er
here, we shall receive in glory so much the greater riches.
How poor and narrow a heart must that Christian have, who
confines his love to things present, sweating and toiling for a
small part of the goods of tiiis world, which itself is so little !
Why doth he content himself with some patch of the earth,
when he may be lord of the whole heavens ? Let us not, there
fore, who are to die to-raorrow, afflict ourselves for that which
may perish sooner than we. Let us not toil to enjoy that
which we are shortly to leave ; but let us lay up our treasures
in heaven, that kingdom of the blessed, where the riches, joys,
and comforts are eternal, and can never be taken from us. I
will therefore study to use this world with indifferency, and
shall not be puffed up when things succeed happily, nor de
jected when they fall out crossly ; but shall bless God in all
conditions. Whether I abound or want, whether rich or poor,
I will bless the Lord at all times. His praises shall be ever in
my mouth ; I shall never complain of the necessities of this
life, since, though all things fail rae, the means of my salva
tion will not fail rae ; for even that want may be a means to
obtain it.
Chap. IV, — Of the greatness of eternal pleasures.
Honor, profit, and pleasures are distinct goods on earth, and
are rarely found together. Honor is seldom a companion of
profit, or profit of pleasure ; and so the sick raan drinks his
purge, because it is profitable, how bitter soever. The plea
sures of the world are for the most part mixed with sorae shame,
and oftentimes with infamy : they are costly and expensive.

300 JEREMY TAYLOR.
We cannot entertain our pleasures without diminishing our
wealth. It is not so in eternal goods, in which to be honest is
to be profitable ; and to be profitable, delectable. Eternal
honors are accompanied with immense riches, and they are both
attended by pleasures without end. All this is signified by the
Lord, when he received the faithful servant into glory ; when
he said, ' Well done, good servant and true ! because thou
hast been faithful in few things, I will place thee over many:
enter into the joy of thy Lord.' First he honors hira, coraraend-
ing him for a good and faithful servant ; then enriches him,
delivering many things into his hands ; and so admits him into
the joy and pleasure of his Lord ; thereby signifying the great
ness of this joy, not saying that this joy should enter into him,
but that he should enter into joy, and into no other but that of
his Lord. So great is the joy of that celestial paradise, that
it wholly fills and embraces the blessed souls which enter into
heaven, as into an immense sea of pleasure and delight. The
joys of the earth enter into the hearts of those who possess
them, but fill them not; because the capacity of man's heart
is greater than they can satisfy : but the joys of heaven, in
the blessed, enter into theraselves, and fill and overflow them
in all parts.
The multitude of joys in heaven is joined with their great
ness ; and so great they are, that the very least of thera is suffi
cient to raake us forget the greatest contents of the earth ; and
so raany they are, that though a thousand tiraes shorter, yet
they would exceed all temporal pleasures, though a thousand
times longer ; but joining the abundance of those eternal joys
with their immense greatness, that eternal bliss becomes inef
fable. So great are the joys of heaven,* that all the arithme
ticians of the earth cannot number them. The geometricians
cannot measure them, nor the most learned in the world ex
plicate them. The just shall rejoice in what is above them,
which is the vision of God; in what is below them, which
is the beauty of heaven and the blessed souls ; in what
is within them, which is the glorification of their bodies ;
in what is with them, which is the company of angels,
and men made perfect, God shall feast all their senses
* 1 Cor. ii. 9. Isaiah, Ixiv. 4.

CONTEMPLATIONS OF THE STATE OF MAN. 381
with unspeakable delight ; for he shall be their object, and
shall be a mirror to the sight, music to the ear, sweetness to the
taste, balsara to the sraell, flowers to the touch. There shall
be the clear light of summer, the pleasantness of the spring, the
abundance of autumn, and the repose of winter.
The principal joy of the blessed is in the possession of God,
whom they behold clearly, as he is in himself; for as honor
able, profitable, and delectable are not divided in heaven, so
the blessed souls have three gifts, essential and inseparable
from that happy state, which correspond to those three kinds of
blessings which the learned call vision, comprehension, and
fruition. The first consists in the clear and distinct sight of
God, which is given to the just, by which he receives an incom
parable honor, since his works and virtues are rewarded, in the
presence of the angels, with no less a crown and recompense
than God himself. The second is the possession which the
soul hath of God, as of his riches and inheritance. The third
is the ineffable joy which accompanies this sight and posses
sion ; which is so great, that neither the blessed theraselves,
who have experience of it, nor the angels in heaven, are able
to declare it. This joy hath two singular qualities, by which
we may in some sort conceive the immensity of it. The first,
that it is so powerful that it excludes all evil, pain, and grief.
This only is so great a good, that many of the philosophers
held it for the chief felicity of man ; but herein was their error,
that they judged that to be the good itself, which was but an
effect or consequence of it : for so powerful is that love and
joy which springs from the clear vision of God, that it is suffi
cient to convert hell into glory ; insomuch as if, to the most
tormented soul in hell, were added all the torments of the rest
of the damned, both men and devils, and that God should
vouchsafe him but one glimpse of his knowlege ; that only clear
vision, though in the lowest degree, were sufficient to free him
from all those evils, both of sin and pain. There is no joy in
this world so intense, which can suspend the grief we suffer
from a finger that is cutting off. Griefs do more easily bereave
us of the sense of pleasure, than pleasures do of pain. Yet
such is the greatness of that sovereign joy in heaven, that it
alone is sufficient to drown all the grief and torments both in

S82 JEREMY TAYLOR,
earth and hell ; and there is no pain in the world able to di
minish the least part of it.
All those joys of the blessed, both in soul and body, which
are innumerable, have their source and origin frora that un
speakable joy of the clear vision of God.
And how can the joy be less which proceeds from such a
cause, who gives himself to be possessed by men ? — that joy
being the very sarae which God enjoys, and which suffices to
raake God hiraself blessed with a blessedness equal to hiraself.
Therefore, not without great mystery, it is said, ' Enter into the
joy of thy Lord.' It is not said simply into joy, but, to deter
mine the greatness of it, it was his own joy — that joy by
which he himself becomes happy.
We are to consider that there is nothing in this world which
hath not for its end some manner of perfection ; and that those
things which are capable of reason and knowlege, have in that
perfection a particular joy and complacency; which joy is
greater or lesser, according as that end is more or less perfect.
Since, therefore, the divine perfection is infinitely greater than
that of all the creatures, the joy of God, which is in himself,
(for he hath no end or perfection distinct from himself) is infi
nitely greater than that of all things besides. This joy, out of
his infinite goodness, he hath been pleased to make the holy
angels and blessed souls partakers of, communicating unto the
just his own felicity. Therefore the joy of saints, which is that
of the beatifical vision, wherein consist the joy and happiness
of God, must needs be infinite and ineffable ; and all the hap
piness and content of this world, in respect of it, are bitter as
aloes or wormwood. By how much a delectable object is more
nearly and straitly united to the faculty, by so much greater
is the joy and delight which it produces. Therefore God, who
is the most excellent and delightful object, being in the bea
tifical vision united to the soul with the raost intimate union
that can be in a pure' creature, must necessarily cause a most
inexplicable joy, incomparably greater than all the joys, real
or imaginable, which can be produced by creatures now ex
istent or possible. For as the divine perfection encloseth within
itself all the perfections of things created, possible, and imagi
nable ; so the joy which it causeth in the souls of the blessed

CONTEMPLATIONS OF THE STATE OF MAN. 383
must be infinitely greater than all other joys which either have
or can be caused by the creature. If there were in the world
a man as wise as an angel, we would all desire to see hira, as the
queen of Sheba did Soloraon. But if to this wisdora were
joined the strength of Sarason, the victories of Maccabeus, the
affability of David, the friendliness of Jonathan, the liberality
of the emperor Titus, and tp all this the beauty and comeliness
of Absalom; who would not love, and desire to live and con
verse with this admirable person ? Why, then, do we not love
the sight of God, in whom all these perfections and graces are
infinitely unitedi|Jp,nd which we ourselves, if we serve him, are
to enjoy as if they were our own ?
Oh how great and delightful a theatre shall it be to see God
as he is, with all his infinite perfections, and the perfections of
all creatures, which are eminently contained in the Deity ! How
admirable were that spectacle, where were represented all that
are or have been pleasant or admirable in the world ! If one
were placed where he might behold the seven wonders of the
world, the sumptuous banquets of Ahasuerus, the rare shows ex
hibited by the Romans, the wealth of Croesus, the Assyrian and
Roman raonarchs, and all these jointly together, who would
not be transported with joy and wonder at so admirable a sight !
But more happy were he on whora all these were bestowed,
together with a thousand years of life wherein to enjoy thera.
Yet all these were nothing in respect of the beatifical vision of
God, in whom those, and all the perfections, that either are,
or have been, or possibly can be, are contained. Whatever
else is great and delightful in the world, together with all the
pleasure and perfections that all the raen of the world have
obtained, or shall obtain to the world's end ; — ^all the wisdom
of Soloraon, all the science of Plato and Aristotle, all the
strength of Aristoraenes and Milo, all the beauty of Paris and
Adonis; — if they should give all these to one person, it would
Ijave no coraparison, and would seera a loathsome thing, being
compared only to the delight which will be enjoyed in seeing
God for all eternity ; because in him will be seen a theatre of
bliss and greatness, wherein are comprised, as in one, the great
ness of all creatures. In him will be found all the riches of
gold, the delightfulness of the meadows, the brightness of the

384 JEREMY TAYLOR,
sun, the pleasantness of music, the beauty of the heavens, the
comfortable smell of amber, the contentedness of all the senses,
and all that can be either admired or enjoyed.
To this may be added, that this inestiraable joy of the vision
of God is to be multiplied into innumerable other joys; into as
many as there are blessed spirits and souls who shall enjoy the
sight of God. In regard every one is to have a particular con
tentment of the bliss of every one, and because the blessed spi
rits and souls are innumerable, the joys likewise of every one
will be innumerable. For as every saint shall love another
equally as hiraself, so he shall receive equal |goy from his hap
piness to that of his own ; and if he shall rejoice in the happi
ness of those equal unto hiraself, how much shall he rejoice in
the happiness of God, whom he loves better than himself !
Let us therefore rejoice, who are Christians, unto whom so
great blessings are proraised. Let us rejoice that heaven was
raade for us, and let this hope banish all sadness frora our
hearts. Let those grieve, and be melancholy, who have no
hope of heaven, and not we, unto whom Christ hath promised
the blessedness of his glory. Let this hope comfort us, this joy
refresh us, and let us now begin to enjoy that here which we are
ever hereafter to possess ; for hope is an anticipation of joy. On
this we ought to place all our thoughts, turning our eyes from
all the goods and delights of the earth. From hence I will shut
up the windows of ray senses, the things of the earth seeraing
unto rae unworthy to be looked on, after the conteraplation of
the heavenly, in the hope thereof I will only rejoice, O Fa
ther of light ! grant me the light of thy glory, that one day I
may clearly see that which I now believe by the light of faith.
O eternal Word ! bestow thyself on me, that I may possess in
heaven, that which I see by hope on earth, O Holy Ghost!
make rae partaker of thine infinite beauty, to the end I may one
day enjoy that which I now embrace by charity. Lord, I am
wholly thine ; be thou wholly mine : thou art my eternity, thou
art my salvation and hope ; grant. Lord, that I may praise thee
everlastingly. I desire nothing in heaven or earth but thyself;
for thou art the God of my heart, and the only part which I
pretend unto in the eternity of eternities.

CONTEMPLATIONS OF THE STATE OF MAN, 385
Chap, V, — The excellency and happiness of the souls and
bodies of the just in the life eternal.
When the tiebrews would express a blessed person, they did
not call him blessed, in the singular, but blessings, in the abs
tract and plural. And so in the first Psalm, in place of beatus,
the Hebrews say " beatitudes ;" and certainly with rauch reason,
since the blessed enjoy as many blessings as they have powers
oriSenses ; blessings in their understanding, will, aud memory;
blessings in their sight, hearing, sraell, taste, and touch. The
understanding shall live there vvith a clear and supreme wisdora ;
the will with an inflamed love ; the memory with an eternal re
presentation of the good which is past ; the senses with a con
tinual delectation in their objects : finally, all that is man shall
live in perpetual joy, comfort, and blessedness.
And to begin with the life and joy of the understanding. The
blessed, besides that supreme and clear knowlege of the Cre
ator, shall know the divine mysteries, the secrets of providence,
the frame and making of the world, the whole artifice of nature,
the motions of the stars, the properties of the planets, and of all
created entities; all which they shall not only know jointly and
in mass, but clearly and distinctly without confusion. This shall
be the life of the understanding, which shall feast itself with
such high and certain truths. The knowlege of the greatest
wise men and philosophers of the world, even in things natural,
is full of ignorance and deceit, because they know not the sub
stance of things, but through the sl^ell of accidents : so that the
most simple peasant arriving at the height of glory, shall be re
plenished with a knowlege, in respect of which the wisdom of
Soloraon and Aristotle were but ignorance and barbarism.
What content were it to behold all the wise men of the
world, and the principal inventors and masters of sciences and
faculties, met together in one room : — Adara, Abrahara, Moses,
Solomon, Zoroaster, Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, Pythagoras,
Homer, Trisraegistus, Solon, Lycurgus, Hippocrates, Euclides,
Archimedes, and all the doctors of the church ! How vene
rable were this junto ! how admirable this asserably ! and what
journeys would men make to behold them ! If, then, tq see
such imperfect scraps of knowlege divided araongst so many
TAY. VOL. IV. R

886 JEREMY TAYLOR.
men would cause so great admiration, what shall be the joy of
the blessed, when each particular person shall see his own un
derstanding furnished with that true and perfect wisdom whereof
all theirs is but a shadow? Who can express the joy they shall
receive by the knowlege of so many truths? What contentment
would it be to one, if at once they should show unto him what
ever there is, and what is done in the whole earth ! — the fair
building, the fruit trees of so great diversity, all living creatures
of so great variety, all the birds and fishes, the metals so rich,
all people and nations farthest remote. Certainly it would be
a sight of wonderful satisfaction. But what will it be to see all
this, whatsoever there is in the earth, together with all that
there is in heaven, and above heaven ? Some philosophers, in
the discovery of a natural truth, or the invention of some rare
curiosity, have been transported with a greater joy and content
than their senses were capable of. For this, Aristotle spent so
many sleepless nights ; for this, Pythagoras travelled into raany
strange nations; for this. Cartes deprived himself of all his wealth;
and Archimedes never removed his thoughts, night nor day, from
the inquisition of some mathematical demonstration. He spent
many days in finding out, by his mathematical science, how
much gold would serve to gild a crown of silver ; and having
found it, he fetched divers skips, and cried out, " I have found
it, I have found it." If, then, the finding out of so mean a
truth could so transport this great artist, what joy shall the
saints receive, when God shall discover unto them those high
secrets, and, above all, that sublime mystery of the Trinity of
Persons in the unity of essence ? The blessed shall receive
more knowlege in one instant than the wise of the world have
obtained with all their watchings, travels, and experiences.
Aristotle, for the great love he bore to knowlege, held that the
chief felicity of man consisted in contemplation. If he found
so much joy in natural speculation, what shall we find in divine,
and in the clear vision of God ? As the understanding shall be
applied to the prime truth, which is God himself; so shall the
beatified will be inseparably joined to the essence of the divine
goodness. There shall the memory also livO, representing unto
us the divine benefits, and rendering eternal thanks unto the
Author of all. The soul, rejoicing in its own happiness to have

CONTEMPLATIONS OF THE STATE OF MAN. 387
received so great mercies for so small merits, and remembering
the dangers from which it hath been freed by divine favor, shall
sing that verse in the Psalm, ' The snare is broken, and we are
delivered.' The remembrance of acts of virtue and good works
shall be a particular joy unto the blessed, both in respect they
were a means of our happiness, and of pleasing so gracious and
good a Lord.
In heaven we shall not only joy in the memory of those
things wherein we have pleased God in complying with his holy
will, and in ordering and disposing our life in his .service, but
also in the troubles and dangers we have past. The memory
of death is bitter to those who are to die; but unto the just,
who have already passed it, aud are secure in heaven, nothing
can be more pleasant; for they now, to their unspeakable
joy, know themselves to be free from death, infirmity, and
danger. There also shall live the will, rejoicing to see all its desires
accomplished with the abundance and sweet society of so many
felicities, being necessitated to love so admirable a beauty as
the soul enjoys and possesses in God Almighty. Love makes
all things sweet ; and as it is a torment to be separated from
what one loves, so it is a great joy and felicity to remain with
the beloved : and therefore the blessed loving God more than
themselves, how unspeakable a comfort must it be to enjoy
God, and the society of those whom they so rauch affect ! The
love of the raother makes her delight more in the sight of her
own son, though foul, and of worse condition than that of his
neighbors. The love, then, of the saints, one towards another,
being greater than that of mothers to their children, and every
one of them being so perfect and worthy to be beloved, and
every one enjoying the sight of the sarae God, how corafortable
must be their conversation ! Seneca said, that the possession
of what good soever vras not pleasing without a partner. The
possession, then, of the chief good must be much more delight
ful with the society of such excellent companions. If a raan
were to remain alone for many years in some beautiful palace,
it would not please him so well as a desert with company; but
the city of God is full of most noble citizens, who are all
sharers of the same blessedness. This conversation also being

388 JEREMY TAYLOR,
with wise and holy personages, shall rauch increase their joy ;
for if one of the greatest troubles of human life be to suffer the
ill condition, follies, and impertinences of rude and ill-bred
people, and the greatest content to converse with sweet, pious,
and learned friends; what shall that divine conversation be in
heaven, where there is none ill-conditioned, none impious, none
froward, but all peace, piety, love, and sweetness ? Every one
shall then rejoice as much in the felicity of another, as in his
own ineffable joy, and shall possess as many joys as he shall
find companions. There are all things whioh are necessary or
delightful — all riches, ease, and comfort. Where God is, no
thing is wanting. All there know God without error, behold
him without end, praise him without weariness," love him with
out tediousness, and in this love repose themselves in God.
Besides all this, the security which the will shall have in the
eternal possession of this felicity, is an unspeakable joy. The
fear that the good things which we enjoy are to end, or at least
may end, mingle wormwood with our joys ; and pleasures do
not relish where there is danger. But this celestial happiness,
being eternal, neither shall nor can end, diminish, or be en
dangered ; but, with this security, adds a new joy unto those
others of the saints.
Besides the powers of the soul, the senses also shall live, nou
rished with the food of most proportionable and delightful ob
jects. The eyes shall ever be recreated with the light of the
most glorious and beautiful bodies of the saints. One sun suf
fices to cheer up the whole world ; what joy, then, shall one
of the blessed conceive in beholding as many suns as there are
saints, and in seeing himself one of them !
But, above all, with what content and admiration shall we
behold the glorious body of Christ our Redeemer, in corapari
son of whose splendor that of all the saints shall be as darkness,
and from whose wounds shall issue forth rays of a particular
brightness ! Besides all this, the glory and greatness of the
empyreal heaven, and the lustre of that celestial city, shall
infinitely delight the blessed citizens; the ears shall be filled
with most harmonious music, as may be gathered from many
passages in Scripture. If the harp of David delighted Saul
so much as to assuage the fury of his passions, cast forth devils,

CONTEMPLATIONS OF THE STATE OF MAN. 389
and free him of that melancholy whereof the wicked spirit made
use ; and the lyre of Orpheus wrought such wonders both with
men and beasts ; what shall the harmony of heaven do ? What
delight, then, will it be, not only to hear the voice of one in
strument played on by an angel, but the voices of thousands of
angels, together with the admirable melody of musical instru
ments ! What sweetness will it be to hear so raany heavenly
musicians, those millions of angels, who will be sounding forth
their hallelujahs unto the great God of heaven and earth ! O
how I desire to be freed frora this body, that I raight hear and
enjoy it ! Happy were I, and for ever happy, if after death I
might hear the melody of those hymns and hallelujahs, which
the citizens of that celestial habitation, and the squadrons of
tliose blessed spirits, sing in praise of the eternal King. This
is that sweet music which St. John heard in, the Revelation,
when the inhabitants of heaven sang, ' Let all the world bless
thee, 0 Lord ! To thee be given all honor and dominion for
a world of worlds.' Amen.
The smell shall be feasted with the odor which issues from
those beautiful bodies, more sweet than musk or amber ; and
frora the whole heaven, more fragrant than jessamines or
roses. The taste also in that blessed country shall not want the
delight of its proper object : for although the saints shall not
there feed, which were to necessitate that happy state unto
something besides itself; yet they shall have the delight of
meat, without the trouble of eating, by reason of the great de
licacy of this celestial taste. The glory of the saints is often
signified in holy Scripture under the name of supper, banquet,
manna. It cannot be expressed how great shall be the delight
and sweetness of taste, which eternally shall be found in hea
ven. If Esau sold his birthright for a dish of lentil pottage,
well may we mortify our taste here on earth, that we may enjoy
that perfect and incomparable one in heaven.
The touch also shall there receive a most delightful enter
tainment: all they tread on shall seem unto the just to be
flowers, and the whole dispositions of their bodies shall be
ordered with a most exquisite temperature. For as the tor
ments of the damned in hell are most expressed in that sense.

390 JEREMY TAYLOR.
so the bodies of the blessed in heaven shall, in that sense, re
ceive a special joy and refreshment. And as the heat of that
infernal fire, without light, is to penetrate even to the entrails
of those miserable persons ; so the brightness of the celestial
lightis to penetrate the bodies of the blessed, and fill them with
such an incomparable delight and sweetness, that all and every
part of the body, in general and particular, shall be sensible of
a most admirable pleasure and content.
The humanity of Christ our Redeemer is to be the chief and
principal joy of all the senses ; and therefore as the intellectual
knowlege of the divinity of Christ is the joy and essential re
ward of the soul, so the sensitive knowlege of the humanity of
Christ is the chief and essential joy of the senses, and the ut
most end and felicity whereunto they can aspire. This, it
seems, was meant by our Saviour in St. John, where, speaking
unto the Father, he said, ' This is life eternal,' — that is, essen
tial blessedness, — ' thattheyknow thee the only true God,' (in
which is included the essential glory of the soul,) ' and him
whom thou hast sent, Jesus Christ,' in which is included the
essential blessedness of the senses.
It is also rauch to be observed, that the blessed souls shall be
crowned with sorae particular joys, which the very angels are
not capable of; for they only shall receive the crown of mar
tyrdom, since no angel can have the glory to have shed his
blood and died for Christ, neither to have overcome the flesh,
and by combat and wrestlings subjected it unto reason. Men
shall have the glory of their bodies, and joy of their senses,
which the angels cannot have ; for as they want the one joy of
the spirit, which is the flesh, so they must want the glory of
the victory. Neither shall they have this great joy of mankind,
in being redeemed by Christ from sin, and from as many damn
ations into hell as they have committed sins ; and to see thera
selves now freed and secure frora that horrid evil, and so many
eneraies of the soul, which they had, which must needs produce
a most unspeakable joy.
The souls of the blessed shall not only be glorious, but their
very bodies shall be filled with glory, and invested with a light
seven times brighter than that of the sun ; for although it be
said in the gospel, 'that the just shall shine as the sun ;' yet

CONTEMPLATIONS OF THE STATE OF MAN, 391
Isaiah the prophet says, that the sun in those days shall shine
seven times more than it now doth. This light, being the most
beautiful and excellent of corporeal qualities, shall clothe the
just as with a garment of most exceeding lustre and glory.
What emperor was ever clad in such a purple ? what human
majesty ever cast forth beams of such splendor ?
Herod, on the day of his greatest magnificence, could only
clothe himself in a robe of silver admirably wrought, which did
not shine of itself, but by reflection of the sun-beams, which
then in his rising cast his rays on it ; and yet this little glittering
was sufficient to make the people salute him as a god. What
admiration shall it then cause to behold the glorious body of a
saint, not clothed in gold and purple, not adorned with dia
monds orrubies, but more resplendent than the sun itself? Put
all the brightest diamonds together, all the fairest rubies, all
the most beautiful carbuncles ; let an imperial robe be embroi
dered with them all ; all this will be no more than as coals in
respect of a glorious body, which shall be all transparent,
bright, and resplendent, far more than if it were set with dia
monds. The garments which we wear here, how rich soever,
are rather an affront and disgrace unto us than an ornament,
since they argue an imperfection and a necessity of our bodies,
which we are forced to supply with something of another nature.
Besides, our clothes were given as a mark of Adam's fall in
Paradise, and we wear thera as a penance enjoined for his sin.
What fool is so sottish as to bestow precious trimming on a pe
nitential garment ?
I But such are not the ornaments of the saints in heaven ; their
lustre" is their own, not borrowed from their garments, but
within themselves ; each part of them being more transparent
than crystal, and brighter than the sun. It is related in
the Revelation as a great wonder, ' that a woman was seen
clothed with the sun, and crowned with twelve stars,' This,
indeed, was far more glorious than any ornament on earth ; yet
this is short of the ornament of the saints, whose histre is pro
per to themselves — intrinsically their own — not taken and bor
rowed from something without them, as was that of the
woman's. The state and majesty with which this gift of splen
dor shall adorn the saints, shall be incomparably greater than

392 JEREMY TAYLOR,
thit of the raightiest kings. It were a great majesty in a prince,
when he issues forth of his palace by night, to be attended by
a thousand pages, each having a lighted torch ; but were those
torches stars, it were nothing to the state and glory of a saint
in heaven, who carries with him a light equal to that of the sun
seven times doubled ; and what greater glory than not to need
the sun, which the whole world needs ? Where the just is, there
shall be no night ; for wheresoever he goes, he carries the day
along with him. St. Paul, beholding the gift of clarity in the
humanity of Christ, remained for sorae days without sense or
motion. St. John, only beholding it in the face of our Saviour;
fell down as if dead, his mortal eyes not being able to endure
the lustre of so great a majesty. St. Peter, because he saw
something of it in the transfiguration of Christ, was so trans
ported with the glory of the place, that he had a desire to have
continued there for ever. What sight raore glorious than to be
hold so many saints, like so many suns, shine with such incom
parable lustre and beauty ?
What light, then, will that of heaven be, proceeding from
so raany lights, or, to speak more properly, from so many suns?
HoVv great, then, shall the brightness of that holy city be,
where many suns do inhabit ? And if, by the sight of every one
in particular, their joy shall be more augmented by the sight of a
number without number, what measure can that joy have which
results from so beautiful a spectacle ?
The bodies of the saints, endowed with this light, which they
receive from the gift of clarity, are impassible, and cannot
suffer frora any thing ; they have an agility to move from place
to place with speed and subtlety like light ; to have their way
free and pervious through all places, and to penetrate where
soever they please.
By this gift of impassibility their bodies are freed from all
miseries which our bodies now suffer, the cold of winter, the
heat of sumraer, infirmities, griefs, tears, and the necessity of
eating, which one necessity includes many others. Let us but
consider what cares and troubles men undergo, only to sustain
their lives. The laborer spends his days in ploughing, sowing,
and reaping ; the shepherd suffers cold and heat in watching
of his flock. What dangers are passed in all estates, only to be

CONTEMPLATIONS OF THE STATE OF MAN. 393
sure to eat ! *From all these the gift of impassibility exempts
the just. The care of clothing troubles us also little less than
that of feeding, and that of preserving the health much more :
for as our necessities are doubly increased by sickness, so are
our cares ; from all which he who is impassible is free, and not
only from the grief and pain of this life, but if he should enter
into hell, it would not burn one hair of him. The gift of agility
is most great, which easily appears by the troubles and incon
veniences of a long journey, which (howsoever we are accom
modated) is not performed without much weariness, and often
times with danger both of health and life. A king, though he
pass in a coach or litter, after the most easy and commodious
way of travelling, must pass over rocks, hills, and rivers, and
spend much time ; but, with the gift of agility, the glorious bodies
of the saints, in the twinkling of an eye, can traverse all the hea
vens, visit the earth, return unto the sun and firraaraent, and
observe what is above the stars in the empyreal heaven. To
this noble gift of agility shall be annexed that of subtlety, by
which their glorious bodies shall have their way free and per
vious through all places; no impediment shall obstruct their
motion ; there shall be no enclosure or prison to them. They
shall with greater ease pass through the middle Of a rock, than
an arrow through the air. Christ showed the subtlety of his
glorious body while he issued out of his tomb, not opening it,
and entered into the hall where the Apostles were, the gates
being shut.
Finally, the servants of Christ shall be there so replenished
with all goods, both of soul and body, that there shall be no
thing more for them to desire. What wouldst thou then, my
body? what is it thou desirest, my soul ? In heaven you shall
find all you desire. If you are pleased with beauty, there the
just shine as the sun ; if you are pleased with any delight, there
is not only one, but a sea of pleasure, which God keeps in store
for the blessed, wherewith it shall quench their thirst. I will
then frora henceforth raise ray desires unto that place where
only they can be accomplished. I will not be ambitious after
things of the earth, which cannot satisfy me ; but will look after
those in heaven, which are only great, only eternal, and can
only fill the capacity of my heart.

394 JEREMY TAYLOR,
What an advantageous bargain would it be, if one could buy
a kingdom for a straw ! Yet so it is ; for that which is no more
than a straw, we may purchase -the kingdom of heaven. Cer
tainly felicity, riches, and earthly delights are no raore than a
straw, corapared with the glory of heaven. How foolish would
he be, who, having a basket full of chips, would not give one
of thera for a hundred weight of gold ! This is the vanity of
man, who for earthly goods will not receive those of heaven.
If men undergo and suffer such hazards for a kingdom which
is momentary, and that not for theraselves, but for another,
what ought we to do for those eternal riches which are to be our
own, and for the kingdom of heaven, wherein we expect such
immense honors, riches, and pleasures? Let us take courage;
it is the kingdom of heaven we hope for ; joys, riches, and
honors eternal are those which are promised us. What pity is
it, that for some short pleasure we should lose joys so great and
eternal! because we will not bear some slight injury here,
should be deprived of celestial honor there ! for not restoring
what we have unjustly taken, should forfeit the divine riches of
heaven ! That which the world offers in her best pleasures, is
but shells, offals, and parings; but that whereunto God invites
is a full table ; for which reason it is called in Scripture the great
supper ; — not a dinner, because after dinner we use to rise and
go about other occasions and employments; — but after supper
there are no raore labors — all is rest and repose. The principal
dish which is served in at this great supper, is the clear vision
of God, and all his divine perfections ; after that, a thousand
joys of the soul in all its powers and faculties ; then a thousand
pleasures of the senses, with all the endowments of a glorified
body. Those latter are, as it were, the dessert of this divine
banquet ; and if the dessert be such, vvliat shall be the sub
stance of the feast ?
My Lord, my God, when shall I see the day, the happy
day, in which I shall corae and appear in thy heavenly mansion
to eat and drink with thee in thy kingdom, and to sit at thy
table, there to behold the majesty of thy glory, which is the
only object of my eternal bliss ? O thou resplendent Star of the
east, let thy eternal light shine in the horizon of my soul ; then
all these thick vapors of terrene affections will bo dispersed.

CONTEMPLATIONS OF THE STATE OF MAN. 395
Lord, I have placed all my hopes in eternity; I find no more
rest here in these short moments, than the dove of the deluge
did on the waters. O God, thou art ray eternal felicity. To
thee be glory, honor, and thanksgiving, for ever, evermore.
Amen,Chap, VI, — Considerations of eternal evils, and of the miser
able state of the damned.
The evils of hell are truly evils, and so purely such, that
they have no mixture of good. In that place of unhappiness,
all is eternal sorrow and complaint. There is no room for
comfort ; there shall not be the least good which may give
ease; nor shall there want a concourse of all evils which raay
add affliction. No good is to be found there, where all goods
are wanting ; neither can there be want of any evil, where all
evils whatsoever are to be found ; and by the want of all good,
and the collection of all evils, every evil is augraented. In
the creation of the world, God gave a praise to every nature,
saying, ' It was good ;' but when all were created and joined
together, he said, ' They were very good ;' because the con
junction of many goods advances the good of each particular;
and in the sarae manner the conjunction of many evils makes
them all worse. What shall heaven then be, where there is a
concourse of all goods, and no evils ? And what hell, where
there are all evils, and no good ? Certainly the one must be
exceeding good, and the other exceeding evil. In hell there is
the pain of loss, and that so rigorous, that in depriving the
damned soul of one only thing, they take from him all good
things; for they deprive him of God, in whom they are all
comprised. He who is condemned by human laws to the loss
of his, goods, may, if he live, gain others, at least in another
kingdom, if he fly thither ; but he who is deprived of God,
where shall he find another God ? And who can fly from hell?
God is the greatest good, and it is therefore the greatest evil to
be deprived of him, because evil is the privation of good ; and
that is to be esteemed the greatest evil, which is a privation of
the greatest good, which is God, and must certainly, therefore,
cause raore grief and resentment in the damned, than all
the punishraent and torraent of hell besides. And in regard

396 JEREMY TAYLOR,
there is in hell an eternal privation of God, who is the chief
good, the pains of loss, whereby one is deprived for ever of the
greatest of all goods — this privation will cause the greatest pain
and torraent. If the burning of a hand cause an insufferable
pain ; if a bone displaced or out of joint causeth intolerable
grief; how shall he be tormented, and what pain shall he suffer,
who is eternally separated from God, who is the chief end for
which raan was created ? I dare confidently say, the loss of
heaven, and the omission of glory, are far more bitter than all
those pains which are to be suffered in hell. And this is such
a loss, that the sinner shall be deprived even of the hope of
what is good, and shall be left for ever in that profound po
verty and necessity, without expectation of remedy or relief.
And what greater want can any one have, than to want all
things, and even hope of obtaining any thing? We are amazed
at the poverty of holy Job, who, frora a prince and a rich raan,
came to lie on a dunghill, having nothing left but a piece of a
broken pot to scrape away the putrefaction from his sores. But
even this shall fail the damned, who would take it for a great
regale to have a dunghill for their bed, instead of the burning
coals of that eternal fire. The rich glutton in the gospel, ac
customed to drink in cups of crystal, to eat in silver, and to be
clothed in silks and curious linen, can tell us how far this in
fernal poverty extends, when he demanded not wines of Cadiz,
but a little cold water, and that not in cups of gold or crystal,
but on the finger's end of a leper. This rich glutton came to
such" an extremity, that he would esteem it a great felicity if
they would give him one drop of water, although it were from
the filthy and loathsome finger of a leper ; and yet this was
also wanting to hira. Let the rich of the world see to what
poverty they are like to come, if they trust in their riches. Let
them know they shall be condemned to the loss of all which is
good. Let them reflect on hira who was accustomed to be
clothed in precious garments, to tread on carpets, to sleep on
down, to dwell in spacious palaces, now naked, thrown on
burning coals, and packed up in some narrow corner of that
infernal dungeon.
And this poverty, or want of all good of the damned, is ac
companied with a most opprobrious infamy and dishonor, when

CONTEMPLATIONS OF THE STATE OF MAN. 397
by public sentence they shall be deprived, for their enormous
offences, of eternal glory, and reprehended in the presence of
saints and angels by the Lord of heaven and earth. A most
intolerable thing is hell, and raost horrible are the torments;
yet if one should place a thousand hells before me, nothing
could be so horrible unto me, as to be excluded from the honor
of glory, to be hated of Christ, and to hear from him these
words, ' I know you not,'
This infamy we may in some sort declare under the example
of a mighty king, who, having no heir to succeed him in his
kingdom, took up a beautiful boy at the church-door, and nou
rished hira as his son, and in his testament comraanded that if,
at ripe years, his conditions were virtuous, and suitable to his
caUing, he should be received as lawful king, and seated in his
royal throne ; but if he should prove vicious and unfit for go
vernment, they should punish him with infamy, and send him
to the galleys. The kingdora obeyed his command, and pro
vided him excellent tutors ; but he became so untoward and ill
inclined, that he would learn nothing, flung away his books,
and spent his time amongst other boys in making houses of dirt
and other fooleries; for which his governors chastised him, and
advised hira of what was fitting and most imported him. But
all did no good ; only, when they reprehended him, he would
weep, not because he repented, but because they hindered his
sport ; and the next day did the sarae. The more he grew in
age, the worse he became ; and although they informed him
of the king's testament, and of what behoved him, all was to
uo purpose, until at last, all, being weary of his ill conditions,
declared him unworthy to reign, despoiled him of his royal
ornaments, and condemned him with infamy to the galleys.
What greater ignominy can there be than this, to lose a king
dom, and to be raade a galley-slave?
A more ignominious and a more lamentable tragedy is that
of a Christian condemned to hell, who was snatched by God
from the gates of death, adopted his son with condition, that if
he kept his commandment, he should reign in heaven, and if
not, he should be condemned to hell ; yet he forgetting these
obligations, without respect to his tutors or masters, who ex
horted him, both by their doctrine and example, what was fit-

398 JEREMY TAYLOR.
ting for a child of God. But he, neither moved by their advice
nor the chastisement of Heaven, by which God overthrew his
vain intentions, and thwarted his unlawful pleasures, only
lamented his teraporal losses, and not his oft'ences ; and at the
time of his death was sentenced to be deprived of the kingdom
of heaven, and precipitated into hell. What infamy can be
greater than that of the daraned soul ?
If it be a great infamy to suffer death by human justice for
some crimes committed, how great an infamy will it be to be
condemned by divine justice as a traitor and perfidious rebel to
God ? Besides this bitterness of pains, the damned persons
shall be eternally branded with the infamy of their oft'ences, so
that they shall be scorned and scoffed at by the devils them
selves. Men and angels shall detest them as infamous and
wicked traitors to their King, God, and Redeemer. And as
fugitive slaves are marked and cauterised with burning irons,
so this infaray, by some mark of ugliness and deformity, shall
be stamped on their faces and bodies. (Isaiah, chap, xiii.) So
ignominious shall be the body of a sinner, that when his soul
returns to enter it, it shall be amazed to behold it so terrible,
and shall wish it were rather in the same state as when it was
half eaten up with worms.
And that which adds raisery to their calamity, they shall be
banished from heaven, and raade prisoners , in the profound
bowels of the earth ; a place most remote frora heaven, and
the most calamitous of all others, where they shall neither see
the sun by day, nor the stars by night ; where all shall be
honor and darkness, a land covered with the obscurity of
death, a land of sulphur and burning pitch, a land of pestilence
and corruption. Into this land of punishment and torments
shall be banished the enemies of God.
What a grief will it be to see themselves deprived of the
palaces of heaven, the society of saints, and that happy country
of the living, where all is peace, charity, and joy ; where all
shines, all pleases, and all parts resound with hallelujahs ! If
the damned had no other punishment than to see themselves
banished amongstdevils into a place not far distant frora heaven,
sad as night, without the sight or comfort of sun or moon, for
all eternity, it were a torment insufferable.

CONTEMPLATIONS OF THE STATE OF MAN, 399
It was a great tyranny in Alexander, after he had cut off the
nose, ears, and lips of Callisthenes, to cast so worthy a person
into a dungeon, only accompanied with a dog :* a spectacle
indeed lamentable, to see so discreet a man used like a brute,
and not have the company of one who raight comfort him. But
the damned would take it for a favor to have the company of
dogs or lions, rather than that of their own parents.
The tyrants of Japonia invented a strange torment for those
who confessed Christ, They hung them with their heads down
wards, half their bodies into a hole digged in the earth, which
they filled with snakes, lizards, and other poisonous vermin. But
even these were better companions than -those infernal dragons of
the pit of hell, whereunto not half, but the whole body of the
miserable sinner shall be plunged. The Romans, when they
punished any as a parricide, to express the heinousness of the act,
shut him up in a sack with a serpent, an ape, and a cock. What
a horror shall it be in hell, when a daraned person shall be
shut up with so many millions of devils ! Here none will live
near a pest-house or ill neighbor. Think on what neighbors
there are in hell. Cato counselled those who were to take a
farm, to have a special care what neighbors it had. Themi-
stocles, being to sell a certain manor, caused the crier to pro
claim that he had good neighbors. How comes one, then, to
purchase hell at so dear a rate as the price of his soul, having
such cursed neighbors, where all will abhor hira ? Their dis
quietness and ranting will be insuff'erable ; and the very sight
and ugliness of them will affright and astonish him.
How grievous is the banishment into that place where none
wishes well unto another ; where the fathers hate their sons, and
the sons abhor their fathers ; where the son shall say unto the
father, " Cursed be thou, father ! to all eternity, because, by an
unjust inheritance, thou hast been the cause of my damnation;"
and the father shall answer him, "Cursed be thou, son ! for, to
the end I might leave thee a rich inheritance, I stuck not to
gain it by unjust means!"
In other banishments, when parents or friends meet in a
country far from home, they endeavor to comfort one another ;
* Senec. Suidas.

400 JEREMY TAYLOR,
and even enemies are then reconciled. But, in this banishment
of hell, friends abhor friends, and parents hate and are hated
by their children.
To this may be added, ti. it in this banishment of the damned,
the exiles are not allowed the liberty of other banished persons,
who, within the isle or region of relegation, may go or move
whither they please. But not so the damned in hell ; because
the place of their exile is also a prison, a horrid and stinking
prison, wherein many millions of souls shall for ever lie fettered
in chains; for chains, or something answerable unto them,
shall not there be wanting. Whereon it is observed by the
learned, that the wicked spirits shall be fastened to fire, or cer
tain fiery bodies, from which the pains they shall receive shall
be incredible; being thereby deprived of their natural liberty,
as it were, — fettered with manacles and bolts, so that they are
not able to remove from that place of misery.* It were a great
torraent to have burning irons cast on our hands and feet. But
this, and much more, shall be in hell, where those fiery bodies,
which are to serve instead of shackles and fetters, are to be of
terrible forms, proportionable unto their offences, and shall
with their very sight affright them.
Besides, the bodies of the damned, after the final judgment
passed,- shall be so straitened and crowded together in that in
fernal dungeon, that the holy Scripture compares them to grapes
in the wine-press, which press one another till they burst.
Most barbarous was that torment inflicted on some unfortunate
persons. They put certain rings of iron, stuck full of sharp
points of needles, about their arms and feet, in such manner, as
they could not move without pricking and wounding thera
selves ; then they compassed thera about with fire, to the end
that, standing still, they raight be burnt alive; and if they
stirred, the sharp points pierced the flesh with raore intolerable
pains than the fire. What shall then be the torment of the
damned, where they shall burn eternally without dying, and
without possibility of removing from the place assigned them !
where whatsoever they touch shall be fire and sulphur, into
* Aug. de Civitat. lib, i. cap. 10. Less, de Perfect. Divin. lib.
xiii. cap, 30.

CONTEMPLATIONS OF THE STATE OF MAN, 401
which their bodies at the latter days shall be plunged ! Neither
shall unsavory smells, so proper unto prisons, be wanting in
that infernal dungeon. For, first, that fire of sulphur, being
pent in without vent or respiration, shall send forth a poison
ous scent ; and if a match of brimstone be oft'ensive here,
what shall such a mass of that stuff be in hell ? Secondly, the
bodies of the daraned shall cast forth a most horrible stink of
themselves, and that more or less, according to the quality of
their sins.
Actiolinus the tyrant, as Paulus Jovius writes, had many
prisons full of torments, miseries, and ill smells, insomuch that
men took it for a happiness to die rather than to be imprisoned;
because, being loaded with irons, afflicted with hunger, and
poisoned with the pestilential smell of those who died in pri
son, and were not suffered to be removed, they came to end in
a slow but most cruel death. But what were those prisons to
that of hell, in respect of which they may be esteemed as a pa
radise full of jessamine and lilies?
Whatsoever raisery was to be suffered in Actiolinus's pri
son, was in this regard tolerable, because it was of no long
continuance, being to last no longer than a short life, and quite
vanishing away at the hour of death. But this prison of the
damned is void of all comfort : the torments thereof are intole
rable, because they are eternal. Death cannot enter in there,
neither can those that are entered get out again; but they shall
be tormented for evermore. What a fearful thing is this ! —
they shall be tormented for evermore.
If one were cast into some deep dungeon, without clothes,
exposed to the inclemency of the cold and moisture of the
placCj where he should not see the light of heaven — should have
nothing to feed on but once a day some little piece of hard bar-'
ley-bread ; and that he were to continue there six years with
out speaking to or seeing any body, and not to sleep on any
other bed but the cold ground ; what a misery were this! One
week of that habitation would appear longer than a hundred
years. Yet compare this with what shall be the banishment
and prison of hell, and you shall find the miserable life of that
man to be a happiness. There, in all his troubles, he should
not meet with any to scoff at his misfortune, none to torment

402 JEREMY TAYLOR.
and whip him; but in hell he shall find both ; the devils shall
not cease to deride, whip, and cruelly torment hini. There
should be no horrid sights, no fearful noises of bowlings,
groanings, and lamentations; in hell the eyes and ears of the
damned shall never be free from such aff'rights : there should
be no flames of fire to scorch him ; in hell tliey shall burn into
his bowels : there he might move and walk ; in hell not stir a
foot : there he may breathe the air without stink ; in hell he
shall suck in nothing but flames, stink, and sulphur : there he
might hope for coming forth ; in hell there is no redemption:
there that little piece of hard bread would seem every day a
dainty ; but in hell, in millions of years, his eyes shall not be
hold a crumb of bread nor a drop of water, but shall eternally
rage with hunger and a burning thirst. This is to be the cala
mity of that land of darkness.
O divine Eternity ! O eternal Divinity ! who hast in thy
hands the extremities of the earth, and who keepest the keys
of eternal life and death, I am in thy hands as clay in the
hands of the potter. Dispose of me as thou pleasest, I love thee
entirely ; I cannot love thee more, if I had the whole universe
to boot; for all that which is out of thee, my God, and is not
God, is as nothing to me. I love not paradise itself, but be
cause thou, my God, art there beloved, I know not how to
love the paradise of God, but only the God of paradise : and
I put no less rate on the Calvary where my Saviour was cruci
fied, than the heaven where he is glorified, O my God, thou
art he whom I seek for ; to thee only it is that I aspire. Yet
henceforth I will not so much love the eternity of God as the
God of eternity, though it be the same eternity, and that same
eternity be God himself; to whom be glory and honor for ever
and ever. Amen,
Chap. VII, — Of the slavery and pains eternal.
The slavery of the daraned in hell is such, that all their senses
and powers of soul and body are subject unto eternal pains and
torments. With their touch they are to serve that burning and
never-consuming fire ; with their taste, hunger and thirst; with
their smell, stink; with their sight, those horrid and monstrous
shapes which the devils shall assume; with their hearing, scorns

CONTEMPLATIONS OF THE STATE OF MAN, 403
and affronts; with their imagination, horror; with their will,
loathsoraeness and detestation ; with their memory, despair ;
with their understanding, confusion ; with such a multitude of
other punishments, as they shall want eyes to weep for them,
.Sllian writes of Trizus the tyrant, that he commanded his
subjects not to speak together ; and when they used signs instead
of words, he also forbade those : whereon the afflic(;ed people
met in the market-place, at least to weep for their misfortunes ;
but neither was that permitted. Greater shall be the rigor in
hell, where they shall neither be suffered to speak a word of
comfort, nor move hand or foot, nor ease their hearts with
weeping, Jeremiah the prophet lamented, with floods of tears,
that Jerusalem, which was the queen of nations, should be
made a slave and tributary. What tears are sufficient to lament
the damnation of a poor soul, who, from a heir and prince of
the kingdom of heaven, hath made himself a slave to the devil,
and those eternal punishments in hell, unto which he is to pay
as many tributes as he hath senses, powers, and members ?
As the slaves of the earth are whipped and punished by their
masters, so the slaves of hell are tormented by the devils, who
have power and dominion over them. Children, as slaves, are
whipped and chastised by their masters ; so the tormentors,
making the damned as their slaves, lay on thera a thousand
afflictions, griefs, and miseries. .Every member of their body
shall suffer greater pain and torraent than if it were torn frora the
body. If one cannot tell how to suffer a toothache, headache,
or the pain of the colic, what will it be when there shall not be
any joint, or the least part of the body, which shall not cause
hira an intolerable pain ? not only the head or teeth, but also
the breast, sides, shoulders, the back, the heart, and all the
parts of the body, even to the very bones and marrow. Who
can express the nuraber and greatness of their torments, since
all their powers and senses, soul and body, are to suffer in a
most violent manner ? Besides this, every sense, from its par
ticular object, shall receive a particular punishraent.
The eyes shall not only be grieved with a scorching heat, but
shall be torraented with monstrous and horrible figures. Many
are affrighted very much passing through a church-yard, only
for fear of seeing a phantasm. In what a fright will be a raise-

404 JEREMY TAYLOR,
rable damned soul, who shall see so raany, and of so horrid
shapes ? Their sight also shall be tormented with beholding
the punishment of their friends and kindred. Hegesippus writes,
that Alexander, the son of Hyrcanus, resolving to punish cer
tain persons with exemplary rigor, caused eight hundred to be
crucified, and, whilst they were yet alive, caused their wives
and children to be murdered before their eyes, so that they
might die not one, but many deaths. This rigor shall not be
wanting in hell, where fathers shall see their sons, and brothers
their brothers, torraented. The torment of the eyes shall be
also very great, in regard that those who have given others
scandal, and made others fall into sin, shall see theraselves, and
those others, in that abyss of torments. To the sight of those
dreadful apparitions shall be added the horror and fearful dark
ness of the place. The darkness of Egypt was said to be hor
rible, because there the Egyptians beheld fearful figures and
phantasras, which terrified them. In the like manner, in that
infernal darkness, the eyes shall be tormented with the mon
strous figures of the wicked spirits, which shall appear rauch
more dreadful by reason of the obscurity and sadness of that
eternal night.
The hearing shall not only be afflicted by an intolerable pain,
caused by that ever-burning and penetrating fire, but also with
the fearful and amazing noises of thunders, bowlings, clamors,
groans, curses, and blasphemies. Sylla, being dictator, caused
six thousand persons to be enclosed in the Circus, and then ap
pointed the senate to meet in a temple close by, where he in
tended to speak unto them about his own affairs. To strike
the greater terror into them, and make them know he was their
master, be gave orders, that so soon as he began his oration,
the soldiers should kill this multitude of people ; which was
effected : on which were heard such lamentations, outcries,
groans, clashing of armor, and blows of those merciless homi
cides, that the senators could not hear a word, but stood amazed
with terror of so horrid a fact. What shall be the harmony of
hell, where the ears shall bejieafened with the cries and com
plaints of the damned? What confusion and horror shall it
breed, to hear all lament, all complain, all curse and blaspheme,
through the bitterness of the torments which they suffer ]

CONTEMPLATIONS OF THE STATE OF MAN, 405
But the damned shall principally be affrighted, and shall
quake to hear the thunder-clap of the wrath of God, which shall
continually resound in their ears ; ' whereas the just,' saith the
royal prophet, ' shall be in the eternal memory of God, and
shall not fear the dreadful crack of his wrath.'
The sraell shall also be tormented with a most pestilential
stink. Horrible was that torment used by Mezentius, to tie a
living body to a dead, and there to leave thera, until the infec
tion and putrified exhalations of the dead had killed the living.
What can be raore abominable than for a living raan to have
his mouth laid close to that of a dead one, full of grubs and
worms, where the living must receive all those pestilential vapors
breathed forth frora a corrupt carcass, and suffer such loath
someness and' aborainable stink ? But what is this in respect of
hell, where each body of the daraned is raore loathsorae and
unsavory than a million of dead dogs, and all those pressed
and crowded together in so strait a compass ? Bonaventure
goes so far as tO say, that if one only of the damned were
brought into this world, it were sufficient to infect the whole
earth. Neither shall the devils send forth a better sraell ; for
although they are spirits, yet those fiery bodies unto which
they are fastened and confined shall be of a more pestilential
savor. Hell is the world's sink, and the receptacle of all the filth
in this great frame, and withal a deep dungeon, where the air
hath no access. How great must the stink and infection needs
be of so raany corruptions heaped one on another ! and how
insufferable the smell of that infernal brimstone, mixed with so
many corrupted matters ! O gulf of horror ! O infernal grave,
without vent or breathing-place ! Eternargrave of such as die
cohtinually, and cannot die ; with what aborainable filth art
'thou not filled !
What shall I then say of the tongue, which is the instruraent
of so many ways of sinning, flattery, lying, murmuring and ca
lumniating, gluttony and drunkenness ? Who can express that
bitterness which the damned shall suffer, greater than that of
aloes or wormwood ? The Scripture tells us, the gall of dragons
shall be their wine ; and they shall taste the poison of asps for
all eternity, unto which shall be joined an intolerable thirst

406 JEREMY TAYLOR.
and dog-like hunger. Conformably to which David said, ' They
shall suffer hunger as dogs.' Famine is the most pressing of all
necessities, and most deformed of all evils : plagues and wars
are happiness in respect of it. If, then, a famine of eight days
be the worst of temporal evils, what shall that famine be which
is eternal ? Let our epicures hear what the Son of God pro
phesies, ' Woe unto you who are full,'* for you shall be an hun
gered, and with such a hunger as shall be eternal. Hunger in
this life doth bring men to such extremity, that not only they
come to desire to eat dogs, cats, rats, and mice, but also mo
thers come to eat their own children, and men the flesh of their
own arms, as it fell out to Zenon the emperor. If hunger be
so terrible a mischief in this life, how will it afflict the damned
in the other ? Without all doubt, the damned would rather tear
themselves in pieces than suffer it. All the most horrible fa
mine that the Scripture historians propose unto us, are but
weak pictures to that which the- damned suffer in this unfortu
nate residence of eternal miseries. Neither shall thirst torment
them less.
The sense of touching, as it is the most extended sense of
all the rest, so shall it be the most tormented in that burning
fire. All the torments which the Scripture doth exhibit to us
as prepared for the reprobate, seem to fall on this only sense.
' They shall pass,' saith Job, ' from extremity of cold to intole
rable heats,' — whole floods of fire and brimstone, which showeir
down on those unfortunate wretches. All this belongs unto
the sense of touching. We are amazed to think of the inhu
manity of Phalaris, who roasted men alive in his brazen bull.
This was a joy in respect of that fire of hell, which penetrates
the very entrails of the body without consuming them. The
burning of a finger only does cause so great a torment, that
it is insufferable; but far greater were it to burn the whole
arm ; and far greater were it, besides the arms, to burn the
legs ; and far more violent torraent would it be to burn the
whole body. This torment is so great, that it cannot be ex
pressed, since it comprises as many torments as the body of
man hath joints, sinews, arteries, <S.'c., and especially being
* Luke vi. 25.

CONTEMPLATIONS OF THE STATE OF MAN, 407
caused by that penetrating and real fire, ofwhich this temporal
fire is but a painted fire in respect of that in hell.
Amongst all the torments which human justice hath invented
for the punishment of crimes, there is none held more rigorous
than that of fire, by reason of the great activity of that element.
What shall the heat of that fire be, which shall be the exe
cutioner of the justice of the God of vengeance, whose zeal
shall be inflamed against the wicked, and shall kindle the fire
which shall eternally burn in the extremities of hell ? Such are
the torments and miseries of hell, that if all the trees in the
world were put in one heap, and set on fire, I would rather
burn there till the day of judgment, than suffer, only for the
space of one hour, that fire of hell. What a miserable unhap
piness will it be to burn in those flames of hell, not only for an
hour, but till the day of judgment; yea, even to all eternity,
and world without end ? Who would not esteera it a hideous
torment, if he were to be burned alive a hundred times, and
his torment was to last every tirae for the space of an hour ?
With what compassionate eyes would all the world look on
such a miserable wretch ! Nevertheless, without all do^bt, any
of the daraned in hell would receive this as a great happiness,
to end his torments with those hundred times burning : for
what comparison is there betwixt a hundred hours burning,
with some space of time betwixt every hour, and to burn a
hundred years of continual torment ? And what comparison
will there be betwixt burning for a hundred years space, and
to be burning without interruption, as long as God is God?
Who can express the strange and horrible confusion which
shall inhabit the appetite of these wretched creatures ? If all
the disorders of man's life spring from his passions, what dis
order raust these miserable souls needs feel in that part — what
convulsions, what rage, what fury ! Alas! that noble passion,
love, the queen of all the rest, the sun of life — that passion
might have made them happy for ever, if they had turned it
towards God, That amiable object being razed out of them,
the perpetual aversion they have to love shall eternally afflict
them ; the passion of hatred shall be outrageous in the damned,
whence shall proceed their continual bksphemies against God,
and the perpetual curses and imprecations which they shall
make against the creatures. And if they have any desires, they

408 JEREMY TAYLOR,
shall be desirous to see all the world partaker of their pains.
Their aversion frora all good shall be as much tormenting, as
in itself it is execrable. Of joy there must no mention be made
in that place of dolor; but, contrariwise, of incredible sadness,,
which shall oppress thera without any consolaftion. The heat of
anger shall redouble the heat of their flames. Hope banished
from their hearts shall leave the place void to despair, which
shall be one of their fiercest torments ; and though their bodies
be within hell's bosom, yet shall they bear about them another
hell in their own bosoms.
Consider, now, my soul, whether thou art able to live in
this devouring fire-7-whether thou wilt make choice of thy ha
bitation in eternal flames ! This fire is prepared for the devil
and his angels. Consider whether thou wilt enter into this
cursed crew, and take part of the dregs of their chalice. There
is no medium : either thou must forsake thy sins, or else thou
must be given up a prey to this eternal torment. I doubt not
thou wilt make a happy choice, and, to escape so dangerous a
gulf, cast thyself into the arms of Divine mercy, which only
admits the penitent, and say thus : " O great God, who art a
consuming fire, and makest the fire of thy divine justice issue
from amongst the thorns to burn the tallest cedars in Lebanon ;
let the fire, which walks before thee as executioner of thy jus
tice, never depart from our memory ; may it be unto us a pil
lar of light in the darkness of our errors, a lamp unto our feet,
and a lantern to our ways, whereby we may discover this infer
nal gulf, which is ready to swallow us up. Thou, O Lord,
who didst deliver the three children out of the Babylonian fur
nace, preserve us from those eternal flames, and exempt us
from the burning ones of thy wrath : place us in the light and
bright one of thy love, where, like pyratides and sacred sala
manders, we shall live happy without pain or torment, singing
honor, praise, and benediction unto thee, our God, for ever and
ever." Amen,
Chap. VIII. — Thepains of the powers of a damnedsoul.
The imagination shall afflict those miserable offenders, in
creasing the pains of the senses by the liveliness of its appre
hension. If in this life the imagination is sometimes so vehe
ment that it hurts more than real evils, in the other the torment
which it causes will be excessive. Baptista Fulgosus recounts.

CONTEMPLATIONS OF THE STATE OF MAN. 409
as an eye-witness, that being a judge in a duel, one of the com
petitors raade the other fly, but instantly fell down dead him
self, without any other cause than an imagination that he was
hurt to death ; for he neither received wound or blow, neither
was the sign of any found on his dead body. If in this life the
imagination be so powerful in men who are in health, as to
cause a sense of pain where none hurts ; grief, where none mo
lests ; and death, where none kills ; what shall it be in hell,
where so many devils punish aud afflict with torments, preser
ving only life, that the pain of death may live eternally ? And
if we see some timorous people, with an imaginary fear, tremble
and remain half-dead, there is no doubt but the imagination of
those miserable persons, joined with the horror of the place
where they are, will cause a thousand pains and torments.
Frame a judgment of it by that which happens to such as in
this life, finding themselves guilty of grievous crimes, fear t,6
fall into temporal justice. They may, indeed, sometimes be
in a secure place, but never in security ; they raay be hid
frora the eyes of men, and be placed out of their reach; but
never shall they be able to hide themselves from themselves;
or escape the assault of their own consciences. While they
wake, they are tortured with fears and suspicions; their sleep
is interrupted with wicked dreams ; dread doth still follow
them ; at each one's approach they quake with fear, and the
furies, having seized on thera, grant them neither peace nor
truce ; their troubled thoughts put their hearts on the rack'.
Now, if the apprehension of huraan justice, which hath power
only over the body, gives so dreadful alarms to the imagina
tion ; what will the sense of the darts of the divine justice do,
which are so many instruments of death, and burning arrows
shot at the damned souls ?
The will shall be tormented with an eternal abhorring and
rage against itself, against all creatures, and against God, the
Creator of all; and shall, with an intolerable sadness, anger,
grief, and disorder of all the affections, violently desire things
impossible, and despair of all that is good. If joy consists in
the possession of what one loves, and pain in the want of that
which is desired, and being necessitated to what is abhorred ;
what greater pain and torment, than to be ever desiring what
TAY. VOL, IV. S

410 JEREMY TAYLOR.
shall never be enjoyed, and ever abhorring that which we can
never be quit of? That which he desires, he shall never ob
tain ; and what he desires not, eternally suffer. And from hence
shall spring that raging fury which David speaks of, ' The sin
ner shall see, and be raging; he shall gnash his teeth, and be
consumed.' This rage and madness shall be increased by the
despair which shall be joined unto it, which must needs
be most terrible unto the damned : for as the greatest
evil is eased by hope, so the least is made grievous by de
spair. Hope in affliction is supported by two things ; one is
the fruit which may result from suffering ; the other is, the end
and conclusion of the evil suffered. But in regard the despair
of the damned is of such great evils, the despair itself will be a
most horrible one.
If one suffers and reaps fruit by it, it is a comfort unto him,
and the grief is recompensed by the joy of the benefit thereof;
but when the suffering is without fruit or profits, then it comes
to be heavy indeed. The hope of a good harvest makes the
laborer with cheerfulness endure the toil of ploughing and
sowing ; but if he were certain to reap no profit, every pace he
moved would be grievous and irksome unto him. Though in
teraporal afflictions this hope of recorapense should fail, yet the
hope that they should sometimes cease and have an end, would
afford sorae comfort and ease unto the sufferers. But in hell
both these are wanting : the damned shall never receive reward
for their sufferings, nor shall their torments ever have an end.
Oh ! let us consider how great a recorapense attends the
least of our sufferings here in God's service ; and how vain and
unprofitable shall all our sufferings be hereafter. Here some
few penitent ejaculations may gain eternal glories ; there the
most intense pains and torments, both in soul and body, cannot
deserve a drop of cold water, nor so much ease as to turn from
one side to the other. In this raging despair, and the vain
hopes of sinners, hell is full of those who hoped they should
never enter into it, and full of those who despair of getting out
of it. They off'ciided with a presumptuous hope they should not
die in sin, and that proving false, are fallen into eternal despe
ration. There is no hope can excuse the falling into so great
a danger. Let us therefore secure heaven, and not sin.

CONTEMPLATIONS OF THE STATE OF MAN, 411
The raeraory shall be another cruel torraent of those miser
able sinners, converting all they have done, good or bad, into
torments ; the good, because they have lost their reward ;—
the bad, because they have deserved their punishraent. The
delights, also, which they have enjoyed, and all the happiness
of this life, in which they have triuraphed, (seeing that for them
they fell into this raisery) shall be a sharp sword which shall
pierce their hearts. They shall be full of affliction when they
shall corapare the shortness of their past pleasures with the
eternity of their present torment. What groans, what sighs,
will they pour out, when they see that those delights hardly
lasted an instant, and that the pains they suffer for them shall
last for ages and eternities — all that is past appearing but as a
dream ! Let us tremble at the pleasures and felicities of this
life, since they may turn into arsenic or wormwood. The mi
serable wretch shall with great grief remember how often he
raight have gained heaven, and did not, but is now tumbled
into hell ; and shall say unto himself, How many tiraes might I
have prayed, but spent that time in play, and now I pay for it!
How raany tiraes ought I to have fasted, and left it to satisfy
ray greedy appetite ! How many times might I have given
alms, and spent it in sin ! How many times might 1 ha> e
pardoned my enemies, and chose rather to be revenged !
How many times might I have frequented the sacra
ments, and forbore them, because I would not quit the
occasion of sinning ! There never wanted means of serving
God, but I never made use of them, and am therefore
justly paid for all. Behold, wretched soul, that, in entertain
ing thyself in pleasures, thou hast for toys and fooleries lost
heaven ! If thou wouldst, thou mightest have been a companion
for angels; if thou wouldst, thou mightest have been in eternal
joy; and thou hast left all for the pleasure of a moment. " O
accursed and miserable creature ! thy Redeeraer courted thee
with heaven, and thou despisedst hira for a base trifle. This
was thy fault, and now thou sufferest for it ; and since thou
wouldst not be happy with God, thou shalt now be eternally
cursed by him and bis angels."
The understanding shall torment itself with discourses of
great bitterness, discoursing of nothing but what may grieve it.
Aristotle shall not then take delight in bis wisdora, nor Seneca

412 JEREMY TAYLOR.
comfort himself with his philosophy ; Galen shall find nc
remedy in his physic, nor the profoundest scholar in his di
vinity. Besides these miseries and calamities, in this power of the
soul is engendered the worm of conscience, which is so often
proposed unto us in holy Scripture as a most terrible torment,
and greater than that of fire. Only in one sermon Christ our
Redeemer three times menaces us with 'that worm,' which
gnaws the consciences, and tears in pieces the hearts of the
damned ; admonishing us often ' that their worm shall never
die, nor their fire be quenched.' For as the worm which breeds
in dead flesh, or that which breeds in woods, eats and gnaws
that substance of which they are engendered ; so the worm
which is bred from sin, is in perpetual enmity with it, gnawing
and devouring the heart of the sinner with raging and desperate
grief, still putting him in mind, that by his own fault he lost
that eternal glory which he raight so easily have obtained, and
is now fallen into eternal torments, from which there is no re
demption. And certainly this resentment of the loss of heaven
shall more torment him than the fire of hell. It is a hell in
hell, worse than a thousand hells.
Certainly it were a great rigor if a father should be forced
to be present at the execution of his son, but more if he should
be compelled to be the hangman ; and yet greater if the gal
lows should be placed before his own door, so that he could nei
ther go in nor out without beholding the affront; but far greater
cruelty, if they should make the guilty person to execute him
self, and that by cutting his body in pieces, member after mem
ber, or tearing off his flesh with his own teeth. This is the
cruelty and torment of an evil conscience, with which a sinner
is racked and tortured araongst those eternal flaraes, not being
able to banish his faults from his memory, nor their punishment
from his thoughts. The envy also which they shall bear towards
those who have gained heaven by as small matters as they have
lost it, shall much add to their grief. Those who are hungry,
if they see others, meaner than they, feed at sorae splendid and
plentiful table, and cannot be admitted themselves, become
more hungiy. So shall it be with the damned, who shall be
more afflicted by beholding others, soraetiraes less than them
selves, enjoy that eternal happiness, which they, through want

CONTEMPL.ATIONS OF THE STATE OF MAN. 413
of care, are deprived of. What lamentations shall the damned
send forth, when they shall see that the just have gained the
benediction of God, and that they lost it through their own
neglect !
After all this, there shall not want in hell the pains of death,
which araongst human punishments is the greatest. That of
hell is a living death. The death which men give, together with
death, takes away the pain and sense of dying ; but the eternal
death of sinners is with sense, and by so much greater, as it
hath raore of life, recollecting within itself the worst of dying,
which is to perish ; and the most intolerable of life, which is to
sufl'er pain. In hell there shall be unto the miserable a death
without death, and an end without end ; for their death shall
ever live, and their end shall never begin.
See how the rack compels them at length to confess the
truth. What hath pride profited us ? What advantage have
we gotten by the vanity of riches? All that is past as a sha
dow. As a ship sailing on the sea under full sails, leaving be
hind her no marks of her passage ; as a bird flying in the air,
whose trace is not found ; so have our days run by, without
having any mark of virtue. We have spent in malice all the
time which was liberally bestowed on us to ' work out our sal
vation with fear and trembling;' we have passed the course of
our age in appearances, and in the vanities and follies of the
world, and in an instant we are fallen into hell. In this sort
do those wretches, gnawn with a continual sorrow, unprofitably
repent themselves, and groan under that pressure and affliction
of heart, which is the hell of their hell.
Even here among us, if there should be a condition in which
we might be sensible but of some part of that which death
brings along with it, it would be esteemed a greater evil than
death itself. Who doubts, but if one, after burial, should find
raself alive and sensible under the earth, where he could speak
with nobody, see nothing but darkness, hear nothing but those
who walk above him, sraell nothing but the rotten stink of their
bodies, eat nothing but his own flesh, nor feel any thing but the
earth which oppresses hira, or the cold pavement of the vault
where he lay ; — who doubts not, I say, but that this estate were
worse than to be wholly dead, since life only served to feel the

414 JEREMY TAYLOR,
pain of death? What sepulchre is more terrible than that of
hell, which is eternally shut on those who are in it ; where the
miserable damned remain, not only under the earth, but under
fire, having sense for nothing but to feel death, darkness, and
pain ? This death of hell may be called a double death, in
respect it contains both the death of sin and the death of pain ;
those unfortunate wretches standing condemned, never to be
freed frora the death of sin , and for ever to be torraented with
death of pain. There is no greater death than that of the soul,
which is sin, in which the miserable are to continue whilst God
is God, with that infinite evil and that ugly deforraity which sin
draws along with it, which is worse than to suffer that eternal
fire, which is but the punishraent of it. After sin, what pain
should there be greater than that of sin itself ? Who trembles
not with the only memory that he is to die, remerabering that
he is to cease to be ; — that the feet whereon he walks are no
more to bear hira, — that his hands are no more to serve him, nor
his eyes to see ? Why, then, do we not tremble at the thought
of hell, in respect of which the first death is no punishment,
but a reward and happiness, there being no daraned in hell but
would take that death, which we here inflict for oft'ences, as an
case of his pains ? They shall desire death, and death shall fly
frora them ; for unto all their evils and miseries, this, as the
greatest, is joined, that neither they nor it shall ever die. This
circumstance of being eternal doth much augment the torments
of hell. Let us suppose that one had but a gnat that should
sting his right band, and a wasp at the left, and that one foot
should be pricked with a thorn, and the other with a pin ; if
this only were to last for ever, it would be an intolerable pain.
What will it then be, when hands, feet, arms, head, and all the
members, are to burn for all eternity ? They shall always burn,
but never be consuraed; they shall seek for death in the flames,
but shall not find it. Therefore justly doth one cry out, O
wo eternal, that never shall have end ! O end without end !
O death more grievous than all death ; always to die, and never
to be quite dead !
The torments in hell are so raany in number, that they cannot
be numbered; so long in continuance, that they cannot be mea
sured ; so grievous in quality, that they cannot be endured, but

CONTEMPLATIONS OF THE STATE OF MAN. 415
with such infinite pain, that every minute of an hour shall seem'
a whole year. ' O Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger, neither
chastise me in thy displeasure. Unless thou wilt have mercy,
0 God, I mustneeds perish,' In this life we have hope of our
comforter in all distresses, which hath a sovereign virtue to
mitigate all pains and sorrows; and God, of his great mercy,
for the most part, in all adversities, still leaveth a man some
hope of help and succor. The sick man, as long as he lives,
still lives in hope. As long as there is life, there is hope.
But, after this life ended, there remaineth to the daraned no
more hope of any comfort, Hope, the last comforter of all,
takethher flight, and eternal desperation seizeth on men.
If an angel should promise thee to be made an emperor, so
you would lie in your bed one night in the same posture, looking
upwards towards heaven, without moving or turning yourself
all night ; if you have a mind to turn on one side, it will be a
trouble to you not to do it, and you will persuade yourself that
you never lay so uneasy in your whole life before; and will
say unto yourself, " My bed is good and soft ; I am well : what
is wanting to me? Nothing is wanting, but only to turn me
from one side to the other. How comes this to pass, that thou
canst not rest one single night ?" It being such a torture to be
still without turning thyself, what would it be, if thou wert to
reraain in one posture three or four nights .'' Thou hast little
patience, since a thing so sraall doth grieve thee. What would
it be if thou hadst the cholic, or wert tormented with the stone
or sciatica ? Far greater evils than these are prepared for thee
in hell, whither thou postest by running into so many sins.
Consider what a cOuch is prepared for thee in that abyss of
misery, what feather bed, what Holland sheets ! Thou shalt
be cast on burning coals ; flames and sulphur shall be thy co
verlets, Mark well whether this bed be for one night only;
yea, nights, days, months, and years, for ages and eternities,
thou art to remain on that side thou fallest on, without having
the least relief to turn thyself unto the other. That fire shall
never die; neither shalt thou ever die, to the end its torments
may last eternally. After a hundred years, and after a hun
dred thousand millions of years, they shall be as lively and as
vigorous as at the first day. See what thou doest by not fearing

416 JEREMY TAYLOR.
eternal death, by making no account of eternity. By setting so
much of thy affection. on a temporal life, thou dost not walk
the right way. Change thy life, and begin to serve thy
Creator. , Blessed Lord, eternal God, my heart is naked and open
before thee. I send up my sighs as humble orators before thee,
I know not what to ask, nor how ; only this one thing I beg at
thy hands, that thou wilt not suffer me to die an eternal death.
Correct me here as thy child, that I may be saved hereafter.
jjord, thou knowest that I love thee, and that I desire to be
with thee, that I may sing eternal praises unto thee. Lord,
have mercy upon me, and grant me my request, for thy great
mercy's sake.
Chap, IX. — The fruit which may be drawn from the con
sideration of eternal evils.
All that hath been said of the pains in hell is far short of
that which they really are. There is a great difference betwixt
the knowlege we have by relation, and that which we learn by
experience. The Maccabees knew that the temple of the Lord
was already profaned and destroyed ; they had heard of it, and
lamented it ; but when they saw with their eyes the sanctuary
lie desolate, the altar profaned, and the gates burned, there
was then no measure of their tears : they tore their garments,
cast ashes on their heads, threw theraselves on the ground,
and their complaints ascended as high as heaven. If, then, the
relation and discourse of the pains of hell make us tremble,
what shall be the sight and experience ? The consideration of
what has been said may help us to form sorae conception of the
terror and horror of that place of eternal sorrow. Let us descend
into hell whilst we live, that we raay not descend there when
we are dead : let us draw sorae fruit from thence during our
lives, seeing that nothing but torment is to be had after death.
The principal fruits which may be drawn from that con
sideration, are these : — In the first place, an ardent love and
sincere gratitude towards our Creator, that, having so often de
served hell, he hath not yet suffered us to fall into it. How many
be there now in hell, who, for their first mortal sin, and only
for that one, have been sent thither ! and we, notwithstanding

CONTEMPLATIONS OF THE STATE OF MAN. 417
the innumerable sins which we have comraitted, are yet spared.
What did God find in us, that he should use a raerey towards
us for so many sins, which he did not afford to others for so
few? Why are we not, then, raore grateful for so raany bene
fits, which we have no ways deserved ? How grateful would a
damned person be, if God should free him from those flames
wherein he is tormented, and place him in the sarae condition
we now are ! What a life would that raan lead, and how
grateful would he be unto so merciful a Benefactor ! He hath
done no less for us, but much more ; for if he hath not drawn
us out of hell, he hath not thrown us into it, as we deserved,
which is the greater favor. Tell rae, if a creditor should cast
that debtor into prison who owed him a thousand ducats, and,
after the enduring of much affliction, at last release him ; or
should suft'er another who owed him fifty thousand ducats to go
up and down free, without touching a thread of his garment ;
which of the debtors received the greater benefit ? I believe
thou wilt say the latter. More, then, are we indebted to God
Almighty, and therefore ought to serve him better. Consider
how a raan would live, who should be restored to life after he
had been in hell. Thou shouldst live better, since thou art raore
indebted to Alraighty God.
Secondly, we are taught to exercise our patience in suffering
the afflictions and troubles of this life, that, by enduring these
thankfully, we may escape those of the other. He who shall
consider the eternity of those torments which he deserves, will
not be troubled at the pains of this life, how bitter soever.
There is no state or condition on earth, how miserable soever,
which the damned would not endure, and think it an infinite
happiness if they might exchange for it ; neither is there any
course of life so unhappy, which he, who had once experienced
those burning flames, if he raight live again, would not will
ingly undergo. He who hath once deserved eternal torments,
let hira never murmur against the crosses and petty injuries
offered him in this Ufe. If thou goest into a bath, and shalt
find it excessive hot, think on hell. If thou art tormented with
tjie heat ,of some violent fever, pass unto the consideration of
those, eternal flaraes which burn without end; and think, if a
l?ath or calenture so afflict, how shalt thou endure that river of

418 JEREMY TAYLOR.
fire. When thou shalt see any thing great in this present life,
think presently of the kingdom of heaven, and so thou shalt not
value it much; and when thou shalt see any thing terrible,
think on hell, and thou wilt not be much moved. When the
desire of any temporal thing shall afflict thee, think that the
pleasure of it is of no estimation. If the fear of laws which are
enacted here on earth, be of such force that they are able to
deter us from evil actions, much raore ought the thoughts of
eternal pain affright us. If we often think of hell, wo shall
never fall into it.
We ought often to call to mind the evils of the next life,
that we may the more despise the pleasures of this ; because
teraporal felicity uses often to end in eternal raisery. All that
is precious in this world, honor, wealth, fame, pleasure — all
the splendor of the earth, is but a shadow, if we compare the
sraall duration of them with the eternity of those torments in
the other world.
Put all the silver in the world together in one heap, all the
gold, all the precious stones, diamonds, emeralds, with all
other the richest jewels, all the triumphs of the~ Romans, all
the rarities and dainties of the Assyrians, &c., all would deserve
to be of no other value than dirt, if to be possessed with hazard
of falling at last into the pit of hell. Let us call to mind that
sentence of our blessed Saviour, ' What will it avail a man to
gain the world, if he lose his soul ?' If they should make us
lords and masters, I say, not of great wealth, but of the whole
world, we should not admit of it with the least hazard of being
damned for ever. Let one enjoy all the contents and regales
imaginable; let hira be raised to the highest pitch of honor;
let hira triuraph with all the greatness in the world ; — all
this is but a dream, if, after this mortal life, he finds himself at
length plunged into hell-fire.
You may look on a wheel of squibs and fire-works, which,
whilst it moves, casts forth a thousand lights and splendors,
with which the beholders are much taken, but at last all ends
in a little smoke and burnt paper. So it is whilst the wheel
of felicities was in motion, according to the style of St, James ;
that is to say, whilst our life lasts, its fortune and prosperity
appears most glorious; but ceasing, all coraes to end in smoke;

CONTEMPLATIONS OF THE STATE OF MAN, 4l9
and he that fares best in it, at last finds himself plunged into
hell. When a fever, or some great unexpected change in a man's
estate, happens to hira, it raakes him forget all his former con
tents in b-Salth and wealth, his sickness and adversity so taking
up the whole raan, that he hath no leisure to employ his thoughts
on any thing else ; and if, perhaps, any passage of his former
condition chance to come to his mind, it gives hira no satisfac
tion, but rather augments his pain. Wherefore, if teraporal
evils, though very short, are sufficient to make former felicities
of many years vanish ; what impression will teraporal goods
make on us, if we employ our thoughts on eternal evils? Be
sides, those torments which are to be suft'ered hereafter without
profit, may move us to husband the short time of this life most
to our advantage. How many miserable souls now suffer those
eternal pains, for not employing one day in the service of God i
What would a damned soul give for one quarter of an hour out
of so many days and years which are lost, and shall not have
one instant allowed hira ! Thou, who now livest and hast time,
lose not that which imports thee so much, and once lost can
never be recovered, O miserable creatures, who, for having
lost a short space of time, lose an eternity of felicity ! They
corae to know, too late, the importance of that which they have
lost, and shall never come to regain it. Let us now make use
of that time, whilst we may gain eternity ; and let us not lose
that with pleasure, which cannot be recovered with grief.
Lastly, let us draw, frora the consideration of hell, a perfect
hatred to all mortal sin, since from the evil of sin proceeds the
evil of pain. Terrible is the evil of sin, since it cannot be
satisfied even with eternal flames.
Chap, X, — The infinite guilt of mortal sin, by which we lose
the felicity of heaven, and fall into eternal evils.
So foul and horrid is a mortal sin in its own nature, that
though it passed only in thought, and none knew it but God
and he who committed it, and which endured no longer than
an instant, yet it deserves the torments of hell to all eternity :
for by how much greater is the majesty of God, which is de
spised, by so much greater is the injury offered him ; and,

420 JEREMY TAYLOR.
therefore, as the majesty of God, which is despised by sin, is in
finite, so the despite of it raust contain in itself a certain kind
of infinity. By how much greater is the reverence due to a
person, by so much greater is the disrespect and affront offered
hira : and as to God there is due an infinite reverence, so the
injury done him is of an inexplicable malice, which, by no good
works of a mere creature, how raany and great soever, can be
expiated. So great is the raalignity of a mortal sin, that,
being put into the balance of divine justice, it would outweigh
the good works of all the saints, although they were a thousand
tiraes more and greater than they are; because the good works
with which God is honored by his saints, although in themselves
great in value; yet, in respect of God, unto whom they add
nothing, and who is nothing bettered by them, they are not
valuable ; unto whose divine goodness, not only they, but infi
nitely more and greater, are but a debt. But for Go'd to be
despised by his creature, who by infinite titles is obliged to
serve hira, and ought to reverence him with an infinite honor,
is a thing so highly repugnant to his majesty, that if God were
capable of grief, it would more afflict him, than all the pious
actions of the saints content hira. Certainly, amongst men,
the honor which is given to one who deserves it, takes not so
much as a contempt done unto him who merits it not. A king
values not rauch the honor which is given him by his vassals,
because he takes it not for a courtesy, but a duty ; but to be
affronted and scorned, especially by one whora he had favored
with his benefits, sticks near his heart : for not only kings,
but all men, think honor due unto them, and disrespect an in
jury. There is no resentment among men so quick as that of
dishonor, nor any thing which causes more grief and vexation.
If some person of quality should have his hat plucked off from
his head in scorn, and receive a dozen of bastinados from some
base fellow, that affront would not be recompensed, although
a thousand should put oft' their caps to him, and kiss his hand.
By this may appear the irreverence and great incivility to
wards God in a mortal sin ; insomuch that St. Paul calls it
' kicking or spurning the Son of God.' This is the reason why
it was necessary that God should become man, seeing that
divine justice could not be appeased with less than the satis-

CONTEMPLATIONS OF THE STATE OF MAN. 421
faction of a divine person. Let those, therefore, cease to mar
vel that a momentary sin should be punished with eternal tor
ments, who see that for sin God was raade man, and died for
man ; and certainly it is a far greater wonder that God should
die for the sin of another, than that man should for his own
sin suffer an eternal punishment. If the malice of sin be so ex
orbitant that nothing could satisfy for it less than God, it is no
thing strange that that which hath no limit or bound in evil,
should have no limit in punishraent, but should exceed all
time, and be eternal. And if a treason coraraitted against
a temporal prince be chastised with loss of life and goods
of the traitor, and with the punishraent also of his poste
rity, which, inasmuch as concerns the prince, is eternal ;
why should not the offence of a vile worm against his Creator
be tormented with eternal pains ? The greatness of honor de
creases and grows less, according to the height and dignity of
the person honored ; so as that honor which, done to an ordi
nary person, would seem excessive, given unto a prince is no
thing ; and, on the contrary, the greatness of an injury rises
and grows higher according to the worth of him who is injured.
So that God, who is infinite, being the person offended, re
quires that the injury done unto him should be chastised with a
punishment equal to the duration of his being, and needs that
he who satisfies for it should be a person of infinite worth and
perfection, voluntarily undertaking to put himself into the sin
ner's place, and to suffer in his stead,
As sin is grievous in its own nature, so it is much aggravated
by the circumstances which attend it. Let us consider who it
is that sins. It is a most vile and wretched man, who pre
sumes to lift up his hands against his Creator. And what is
man, but a vessel of dung, a stink of corruption, and by birth
a slave of the devil ? and yet he dares offend his Maker, An
offence against God were raost grievous, though from another
god (if it were possilSle) infinite and equal to itself; but that
the creature should be so insolent against his omnipotent Lord,
is beyond amazement. But what is that which a sinner does
when be offends ? It is, according to St, Anselm, an endeavor
to pluck the crown from the head of God, and place it on his
own. It is, according to the Apostle, to ' crucify again the

422 JEREMY TAYLOR,
Lord of life.' If any of these things were attempted against a
majesty on earth, it were enough to make the offender's flesh
to be plucked oft' with pincers — to have him torn in pieces with
wild horses— to pull down his house, and sow the place with
salt, and make his whole lineage infamous. If such an offence
were committed by one man against another, betwixt whom
the difference is not great, being both equal in nature, it were
very heinous. What shall it deserve, being committed against
God, the Lord and Creator of all, whose immense greatness is
infinitely distant from the nature of his creature ? O good
(lod ! who is able to express what a sinner doth against thee
and himself? He despises thy majesty, razes out thy law from
his heart, contemns thy justice, scorns thy threats, despises thy
promises, makes a solemn renunciation of the glory thou hast
promised him; and all to bind himself an eternal slave to Satan,
desiring rather to please thine enemy than thee, who art his
Father, his Friend, and all his good ; desiring rather to die
eternally by displeasing thee, than to enjoy heaven for ever by
serving thee.
Let us now see where, and in what place, a sinner presumes
to sin, and be a traitor unto God, It is even in his own world,
in his own house, and knowing that his Creator looks on him,
he offends him. If a sin were committed where God could
not see it, it were yet an enormous fault; but to do an injury
to his Creator before his face, what an unspeakable impudence
is it ! If he who sins could go into another world, where God
did not inhabit, and there, in secret under the earth, should sin
after such a manner as only himself should know it, yet it were
a great boldness ; but to sin in his own house, which is this
world, what hell doth it not deserve ? For a man only to lay
his" hand on his sword in the palace of a king is capital, and de
serves death. For a sinner, then, by his sins to spurn and cru
cify the Son of God in the house of his Father, and before his
face, what understanding can conceive the greatness of such a
malice ? And therefore David with reason dissolved himself
into tears, because he had sinned in the presence of God, and,
with a grief which pierced his heart, cried out, ' I have done
evil before thee,' Besides this, we not only sin against God
in his own house, but even in his arms, whilst we are upheld

CONTEMPLATIONS OF THE STATE OF MAN, 423
by his omnipotency. If there were a son so wicked, who,
whilst he was cherished in his mother's bosom, should strike
her, and endeavor to kill her, every one would think that a
most impious child. How, then, dares man offend God, who
sustains, preserves, and hath redeemed him ?
The heinousness of this malice in sin is much augmented by
the helps which a sinner uses to effect it ; for he turns those very
divine benefits which he hath received from God, against him
who gave them. The sense which men usually have of ingra
titude is raost apprehensive. If to forget a benefit be ingrati
tude, to despise it is an injury ; but to use it against the bene
factor, I know not what to call it. This does he who sins,
making use of those creatures which God created for his service,
to oft'end him ; and converts his divine benefits into arms against
God himself. What would we say, if a king, to honor bis
soldier, should make hira a knight, arm hira with his own arras,
should gild his sword about him with his own hands ; and that
the soldier, so soon as he was possessed of the sword, should
draw it against the king, and murder him ? This wickedne.ss,
which seems impossible araongst men, is ordinary in man to
wards God, who, being honored so raany ways by his Creator,
and enriched with so raany benefits, as rauch as in him lies be
reaves God of his honor, and desires to bereave him of his life.
His understanding, which he received from God, he uses in
finding out a way to execute his sin; with his hands he performs
it ; and with all his power offends him who gave them.
But if we consider why man does this, it is a circumstance
which will amaze us at the malice of it. Why doth a sinner
thus offend against his God ? Wherefore is he a traitor unto
the Lord of the world ? Wherefore doth he abhor his Re
deemer? What reason bath he for so monstrous a wickedness?
It is only for a base and filthy pleasure, for a foolish fancy of
raan, because be will, and no more, O horrid insolence ! O
mad fury of men, who, without a cause, so grievously oft'end their
Creator, and by their sins provoke so good and gracious a God !
The manner also of our sinning would astonish any who
should seriously consider it. It is with so much impudence,
pride, and contempt of God ; after having heard so many ex
amples of his chastisements executed on sinners; after ha-

424 JEREMY TAYLOR.
ving seen that the most beautiful and glorious of all the angels,
and with him innumerable others, were thrown from heaven,
and made firebrands in hell for one sin, and that only in
thought; after having seen the first man, for one sin, banished
from the paradise of pleasure into this valley of tears, despoiled
of so many supernatural endowments, and condemned to die ;
after having known that so many have been damned for their
offences ; after the Son of God had suffered on the cross for our
sins ; — ^after all this, to sin, is an impudence never heard of, and
an intolerable conterapt of the divine justice.
Besides, what greater scorn and contempt of God than this !
that God, who is worthy of all honor and love, and the devil,
who is our professed enemy, pretending both to our souls, the one
to save thera, the other to torment them in eternal flames ; —
yet we adhere to Satan, and prefer him before Christ our Sa
viour and Redeemer, and that so much to our prejudice as by
the loss of eternal glory, and precipitating ourselves into eternal
torments and slavery ? The manner also of sinning aggravates
the sin, as the sinner doth, by losing thereby eternal happiness.
Though he who sins much lost nothing, yet the offences against
God were great. But well knowing the great damages and punish
ments likewise that attend sin, and the evident hazard he runs,
and yet to sin, is strange impudence. If we shall consider when
it is that we sin, we shall find this circumstance no less to ag<
gravate our offences than the former ; because we now sin,
when we know that the Son of God was nailed unto the cross,
that we should not sin ; when we know that God was incarnate
for us, humbled hiraself to be made man, and subjected himself
unto death, even the death of the cross, for our redemption. To
sin after we had seen God so good and obliging unto us, with
those not to be imagined favors, is a circumstance which ought
much to be pondered in our hearts, and might make us forbear
the offending of so loving a Father. And that Christian who
sins after all this, is to be esteemed worse than a devil ; for the
devil never sinned against that God who had shed his blood for
him, or who had pardoned so much as one sin of his. When
those sinned who were under the law of nature, they had-not
seen the Son of God die for their salvation, as a Christian hath;
and there is uo doubt but Christians will deserve new torments.

CONTEMPLATIONS OF THE STATE OF MAN. 425
and greater than those who have not had the knowlege of God,
nor received so raany benefits frora hira.
Let us consider about what sin is coraraitted, and we do of
fend God. It is about complying with a sensual gust, which
in the end bereaves us of health, of honor, of substance, and
even of pleasure itself ; suft'ering many days of grief for a mo
ment's delight; about things of the earth, which are vile and
transitory; and about goods of the world, which are false, short,
and deceitful. What would we say, if, for a thing of so small
value as a straw, one man should kill another ? No more than
a straw are all the felicities of the world in respect of those of
heaven ; and, for a thing of so small consideration, we are trai
tors to God, and crucify Christ again; and that a thousand
times, as often as we sin mortally against hira.
Lastly, consider whom we offend. It is God, who is most
perfect, most wise, iraraense, omnipotent, and infinite. We sin
against him who infinitely loves us, who suffers us, who heaps
his benefits and rewards on us. To do evil to those who raake
much of them, even wild beasts abhor it. What ! is it then
for thee to injure him who loved thee more than himself; who
hath done thee all good, that thou shouldst do no evil ? Fear,
then, this Lord ; reverence his majesty, love his goodness, and
^ offend him no more. Sin is so evil, that it is every way evil.
Behold it on every side, it still seems worse. It is not only evil
as it is an injury. to God, but it is evil in itself in its own na*
ture; for if there were no God, or that God were not offended
with it, yet it were a most horrid evil, the greatest of all evils,
and the cause of all evils. In regard of this deformity and
filthiness of sin, the philosophers judged it to be abhorred above
all things; and those "who denied the immortality of the soul
and the providence of God, affirmed that nothing should raake
them corarait it ; and there have been sorae amongst them
who have suffered great extremities to avoid a vicious act. Da
mocles, as Plutarch writes, chose rather to be boiled in scalding
water, than to consent to a filthy act. For this reason is Hippo
celebrated araongst the Greek matrons, who chose rather to die
than offend. These were Gentiles, who saw not hell open for
the punishment of sinners, because it was an offence unto God ;
but only for the enormity and filthiness it had in itself. This

426 JEREMY TAYLOR.
made thera endure prisons and tortures rather than admit it.
What should Christians then do, who know how much sin is
oft'ensive to God ? Certainly they ought rather to give a thou
sand lives, than once to injure their Creator by committing an
offence, which not only Gentiles, but even nature, hold in hor
ror ; which hath planted in brute beasts, although they cannot
sin, a natural aversion frora that which looks Ijke sin.
Pliny admires the force of lightning, which melts the gold
and silver, and leaves the purse which contains it untouched.
Such is sin, which kills the soul, and leaves the body sound
and active. It is a ffash of lightning sent from hell, and such
leaves the soul which it hath blasted.
Sin, though it were the best thing in the world, yet, for the
evil effects it produces, it ought to be avoided raore than death.
It bereaves the soul of grace, banishes the Holy Ghost, de
prives itof the right of heaven, makes a sinner unworthy of divine
protection, and condemns hira unto eternal torraents in the other
world, and in this to many disasters; for there is neither plague,
war, famine, nor infirmity of body, whereof sin hath not been
in some sort the occasion : and, therefore, those that weep for
their afflictions, let them change the object of their tears, and
weep for the cause, which is their sin,
I will therefore from henceforth resolve, that although I were
certain that men should not know my sins, and that God would
pardon them, yet I will not offend for the very filthiness of sin.

END OF VOL, IV,

PaiNlED EY A. J. VALPY, BED LION COURT, FLEET STREET.

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