A SERMON Preached on Christmas-Day.

THis high Feast of the Nativity of our blessed Saviour is called by Saint Chrysostome [...], the great Metropolitane Feast; For as to the chief City the whole Countrey resort, Thither the tribes goe up, saith David, even the tribes of the Lord, Psal. 122. So all the Feast-dayes of the whole yeare, all the passages and peri­ods of our Saviours blessed oeconomy, of that great work of our Re­demption; all the solemn commemorations of the blessed Saints and Martyrs meet and are concentred in the joy of this Feast: If we will draw them into a perfect Circle, we must set the foot of the Com­passe upon this Deus similis factus, God was made like unto man; but if we remove the Compasse, and deny this Assimilation the In­carnation of Christ, there will be no roome then for the glorious com­pany of the Apostles; For the Noble Army of Martyrs, the Cir­cumcision is cut off, the Epiphany disappears, our Easter is buried, and the Feast of the holy Ghosts Advent is past, and gone from us, as that mighty wind which brought it in. Blot out these two words, [Page 2] Puer natus, a Child is born, the Son of God made like unto us, and you have wip'd the Saints all out of the Kalendar.

We will not now urge the solemn Celebration of it, that hath been done already by many, who have thought it a duty not onely of the Closet, but the Church, and a fit subject for Publique Devo­tion, and upon this account Antiquity lookt upon it with joy and Gratitude, as upon a Day which the Lord had made, and Saint Austin commends this Anniversary Solemnity, as delivered to after-Ages either from the Apostles themselves, Vel ab ipsis A­postolis, vel ple­nariis conciliis instituta &c. Aug. p. 118. or decreed by Councells, and devoutly retain'd in all the Churches of the world. But we doe not now urge it; for when power speaks, every mouth must be stopped, Logick hath no sinews, an argument no strength, Antiquity no Au­thority, Councells may erre, the Fathers were but children, all Churches must yield to one, and the first Age be taught by the last; speech is taken from the faithfull Counsellors, and judgement from the Aged, Job 12,20. and but yesterday that monster was discovered, which the Churches for so many Centuries of yeares heard not of, and so made much of it, and embraced it, which they must have run from, or a­bolisht, if their eye had been as cleare, and quick as theirs of after-Times. I doe not stand up against Power, I should then forget him, whose memory we so much desire to celebrate, who was the best teacher, and the greatest example of Obedience; what cannot be done, cannot oblige, and where the Church is shut up, every mans Chamber, every mans Breast may be a Temple, and every day a Ho­ly-day, and he may offer up in it the Sacrifice of prayse and Thanks­giving to the blessed Son of God; who came and dwelt amongst us, and was made like unto us, which is the onely End of the Celebra­tion of this Feast: Christ is made like unto us, is as true, when every man tells himself so, and makes melody in his heart, as when ti's preached in the great Congregation; but it sounds better, and is heard further, and is the sweeter Musique, when all the people say Amen; when with one heart, and one soule, and in one place they give glory to their Saviour, who that he might be so, factus est similis he was made like unto them.

My Text is [...] a principle in Divinity, and is laid down unto us in the forme of a Modall proposition, which, as we are taught in our Logick, consists of two parts, the Dictum, and the Modus; 1. the proposition, Christ is made like unto us; 2. the modification, or qualification of it with an Oportuit, or Debuit, It behoved him so to be: In the Dictum or proposition our meditations are directed to Christ and his Brethren, and we consider, quid Christus, quid nos, what [Page 3] Christ is, and what we were. God he was from all eternity, in the fulnesse of time factus similis, made like unto us.

We miserable naked sinners; Enemies to God, at such a distance from him, so farre from the least participation of the Divine Nature, that we were fallen from the Integrity and first Honor of our own, facti similes made like indeed, but if a Prophet, and a king, if David draw our picture, similes jumentis quae pereunt, let our sorrow and shame interpret it like to the Beasts that perish, but now facti filii Dei by Christs assimilation to us, made like unto God, exalted by his Humiliation, raysed by his descent, magnified by his minoration, Candidati Angelorum, lifted up on high to a sacred emulation of an Angelicall estate; with songs of joy and Triumph we remember it, and it is the joy of this Feast fratres Domini, the Brethren of Christ.

Thus with a mutual aspect Christs humility looks upon the exalta­tion of our Nature, and our exaltation looks back again upon Christ, and, as a well made picture lookes upon him that looks upon it, so Christ drawn forth in the similitude of our flesh looks upon us, whilst we with joy and Gratitude have our eyes set upon him: They an­swer each other [...] and are parallels. Christ made like unto men, and again, men made like unto him, so like, that they are his Brethren: Christ made like [...] in all things will fill up the of­fice of a Redeemer, and men made like unto God [...] in all things which may be required at the hands of those who are Redee­med; his obedience lifted him up to the crosse, and ours must lift us after him, and be carried on by his to the End of the world; And as we find it in Relatives they are [...] there is a kind of Conver­tency in these Terms, Christ and his Brethren, Christ like unto his Brethren, and these Brethren like unto Christ. Christ is ours, and we are Christs, saith the Apostle, 1 Cor. 3. and Christ Gods. And in the last place, the modification, the Debuit, It behoved him, carries our thoughts to those two common Heads, or places, the [...], the Conveni­ence, and the [...] the Necessitie of it, and these two in Civil Acts are one; for what becomes us to doe, we must doe, and tis ne­cessary we should doe it: what should be done, is done, and it is im­possible it should be otherwise say the Civilians, because the law supposeth obedience, Impossibilitas juris which is the Complement and perfection of the law; and this Debuit looks equally on both, both on Christ, and his Brethren, if in all things it behoved Christ to be like unto his Bre­thren, which is the benefit, Heaven and Earth will conclude, men and Angels will inferre Debemus, that it behoveth us to be made like unto Christ, which is the Duty.

My Text then is divided equally between these two Termes Christ and his Brethren: That which our devotion must contem­plate [Page 4] in Christ is, First, his Divine: 2. his Humane Nature: 3. the union of them both; for 1. we cannot but make a stand, and enquire quis ille? who he was who ought to doe this; and in the 2. place en­quire of his Humane nature; For we find him here flesh of our flesh and Bone of our Bone, Assimilatum made like unto us; what can we say more? Our Apostle tells us [...] in all things, and then will follow the union of them both exprest in this passive fieri in this his assi­milation, and the Assumption of our Nature, which all fill us with admiration, but the last rayseth it yet higher (and should rayse our love to follow him in his Obedience) quod debuit, that it behoved him that the dispensation of so wonderfull, and Catholique a benefit must be Translated tanquam ex officio, as a matter of Duty. The end of all, is the end of all, Our salvation, the end of our Creation, the end of our Redemption, the end of this assimilation, and the last end of all, the glory of God, which sets an oportet upon Man as well as upon Christ, and then his Brethren and he will dwell together in u­nity: Onely here is the difference, our obligation is the easiest, tis but this, to be bound and obliged with Christ, to set our hands to that bond, which he hath sealed with his Bloud; no heavy Debet to be like unto him, and by his condescension so low to us, to raise our selves neerer to him, by a holy and diligent imitation of his obedi­ence, which will make up our last part, and serve for application.

And in the first place, we aske with the Prophet, quis ille? who is he that cometh? who is he that must be made like unto us? what is done? and who did it? of so neere a relation, that we can hardly ab­stract the one from the other; and if one eye be leveld on the fact, the other commonly is fixed on the hand that did it; Magnis nego­tiis ut magnis Comediis edecumati apponuntur actores; Great Bur­dens require equall strength to beare them, matters of moment are not for men of weak abilities and slight performance, nor every Actor for all parts; To lead Captivity Captive, to bring prisoners to Glory, to destroy Death, to shut up the gates and mouth of Hell, these are Magnalia, wonderfull things, not within the sphere of com­mon Activity. We see here, many sonnes there were to be brought unto Glory at the 10. v. but in the way there stood sinne to Intercept us, the feare of Death to Enthrall us, and the Divell ready to devour us, and we, what were we? Rottennesse our mother, and wormes our Brethren, lay us in the ballance, lighter then vanity, [...] men fallen below the condition of men, lame and impotent, not able to move one step in these wayes of Glory, living Dead men; quis no­vus Hercules? who will now stand up for us? who will be our Cap­taine? we may well demand quis ille? who he is? Some Angel we may think, sent from Heaven, or some great Prophet; No: inquest is made in this Epistle, neither the Angels, nor Moses returned; The Angels, [...] in no wise, Glorious Creatures indeed they are, Cae­lestiall [Page 5] spirits, but yet Ministring spirits, in all purity serving the God of purity, saith Naz: not fit to intercede, but ready at his Beck, Nazianz. Orat. 43. with wings indeed, but not with Healing under them, [...] but second lights too weak to enlighten so great a Darknesse; their light is their Obedience, and their fairest Elogium, Ye Angels, that doe his will; they were but finite Agents and so not able to make good an infinite losse, they are in their own Nature mutable, and so not fit a­gents to settle them who were more mutable, more subject to change then they; not able to change our vile bodies, much lesse able to change our soules, which are as immortall as they, but are lodgd in a Tabernacle of Flesh, which will fall of it self, and cannot be raised a­gaine, but by his power, whom the Angels worship; In prison we were, and Cui Angelorum? written on the doore; miserable Cap­tives, so deplorably lost, that the whole Hierarchie of Angels could not help us.

And if not the Angels, not Moses sure, though he were neerest to God, and saw as much of his Majesty as Mortality was able to bear; the Apostle tells us, he was Faithfull in his House [...] as a ser­vant, but Christ [...] as a sonne; smite he did the Aegyptians, Heb. 3.5. and led the people like sheep through the wildernesse, but he who was [...] the Captaine of our salvation as he is stiled at the 10. v. was to cope with one more terrible then Pharoah and all his Host, to put a Hook into the Nostrills of that great Leviathan, to lead not the people alone, but Moyses himself through darknesse and death it self, able to uphold and settle an Angel in his Glorious estate, and to rayse Moyses from the dead. Not Moyses then, but one greater then Moyses; not the Angels, but one whom the Angels worship, who could command a whole Legion of them; or if a Pro­phet, the great Prophet which was to come; if an Angel, the Angel of the Covenant, Certe hic Deus est; Ask the Divells themselves, and when he lived, they roard it out. Ask the Centurion and they that watched him at his Death, and they speak it with Feare and Trem­bling: Truly this was the Sonne of God.

Christ then our Captaine is the Sonne of God; but God hath di­vers sonnes, some by Adoption, and then he is made so; some by Nuncupation, and then he is but called so; and some by Creation, and then he is created so; for they who rob and devest him of his Essence, yet will yeild him his Title, and though they deny him to be God, yet will call him his Sonne. We must follow then the Phi­losophers Method in his description of morall happinesse, proceed [...] by way of Negation, and to establish him in his right of fili­ation tell you, he is not a Sonne, not Adoptivus filius his, Adopted sonne, who by some great merit of his could so dignifie himself, as to deserve that Title, which was the Dreame, or rather Invention of Photinus. [Page 6]

Adoption is but a supply, a grafting of a strange Branch into ano­ther stock, but he whose name is the Branch growes up of himself, of the same stock and root, Deus de Deo, God of God, very God of very God, made manifest in the flesh, 2. not Nuncupativus, his son by Nuncupation, his Nominall sonne, such a one as Sabellius, and the Patro-passiani fancied, as if the Father had been assimilated, and so called the sonne, impiously making the Father, the Sonne, and the Holy Ghost not three persons but three names: Lastly, not filius Creatus his Created Sonne, [...], a meere Crea­ture, and of a distira [...]t Essence from his Father as the more riged Arians, nor the most excellent Creature [...] in substance like unto the Father, but not consubstantiall with him, as the more moderate, whom the Fathers called [...], halfe Arians conceived; To these Heretiques we reply non est Filius Dei, he is not thus the sonne of God; and as Aristotle tells us, that his Morall happinesse is the chiefest good, but not that good, which the volup­tuary fancieth, the Epicures good; nor that which ambition flyes to, the Politicians good; nor that, which the contemplative man abstracteth, an universal Notion and Idea of Good; so may the Chri­stian by the same Method consider his Saviour his chiefest blisse and happinesse, and by way of Negation draw him out of these foggs and mists, where the wanton and unsanctified wits of men have placed him, and bring him into the bosome of his Father, and fall down and worship God and man Christ Jesus. Behold a voyce from Heaven spake it, This is my beloved sonne; we may suspect that voyce, when Photinus is the Echo, an Angel from Heaven said vocabitur, he shall be called the sonne of the most High. Our Faith starts back and will not receive it, if Sabellius make the Glosse; our Saviour himself speaks it, Ego & pater unum sumus, I and the Father am one. The truth it self will be corrupted, if Arius be the Commentator, to these we say he is not thus the Sonne of God [...], Naz. Or. 39. [...]. to contract the personality with Sabellius, or to di­vide the Deity with Arius are blaspemies in themselves Diametri­trically opposed, but equally to the truth. The Captaine of our sal­vation is the sonne of God, begotten, not made, the brightnesse of his Father, streaming from him as light from light; his Image, not according to his humane Nature, but according to his divine [...], the Image and Character not of any qualities in God, but of his person, the true stamp of his substance, begotten as bright­nesse from the light, as the Character from the Type, as the word from the mind, which yet doe not fully declare him; quis enarrabit? saith the prophet, who shall declare his generation? And who more fit to teach us, then he who came out of the bosome of God? who more fit to give us laws, then God himself? what tongue of men or Angels can so well expresse his will, as the word which was made [Page 7] flesh, and pitcht his tent, dwelt amongst us, opened a Schoole as it were, to teach all that would learn the way unto Happinesse? or what expectient could Wisdome have found out so apt and powerfull to draw our Love out of these labyrinths and mazes wherein it wanders and divides it self, to take it from these painted and false Glories, and bring it back and fix it on that which is eternall, as this, to bow the Heavens and come down, and in our flesh, and as man to in­struct men, to gaine them in their own likenesse, to tell them he was not that onely, which they saw, but of the same essence with his Fa­ther, which they could not see? so that here is Majesty and Humi­lity joyned, and united in one to draw them out of darknesse, into that great light, which shall discover and lay open unto them, the deformity, the ugliness, the deceitfulness of those flattering objects, in which our thoughts, desires, and endeavours met as in their cen­ter. And if this infinite and unconceivable love of God in manife­sting himself in our flesh, doe not draw and oblige us, if these bonds of love will not hold and fetter us to a regular obedience, which must begin and perfect our peace, then we are past the reach of any Argu­ment which men or Angels can bring, and no chaines can hold us, but those of Everlasting Darknesse.

And indeed his eternall Generation by it selfe would but little avail us, for Majesty is no medicine for our Malady, we who are children of the Time, have need of a Captaine which must be born in Time; we were sick of an Eritis sicut Dii, a bold and foolish ambition and affectation to be Gods: and this disease became Epidemicall, we all would be Independent, be our owne Law-givers, our owne God; Pride threw us down, and Nothing but Humility, the exinanition of the Son of God could raise us: And we may observe in the 7 ^th. of Esay, God bids Ahaz ask a sign not onely è coelo, from Heaven, but è terra, from the earth beneath, è profundis, from the lowest depth, quia utrumque copulavit (it is S. Basils note upon that place) because at the Union of the Godhead with our Nature, there was a neere Conjunction with Heaven and Earth. A sign from Heaven is a great Grace, but we would have a sign from earth too; and here we have it; Factus similis, he was made like unto his Brethren, [...], a God amongst Men, a God on the Earth is a signe indeed.

And therefore in the next place as he is Deus de patre, God of his Father, so he is Homo de matre, Man of his Mother; the Son of God and the Son of Mary. Will you have a sign? here it is, a signe to be adored, and a sign to be wondred at, and a sign to be spoken against, saith old Simeon, a sign è profundis, we may say from the deep abyss of his mercy. Ecce expectat nasci sua membra quae fecit, Behold the Heavens are the work of his fingers, yet he suffered himself to be [Page 8] fashioned in the womb of a Virgin, took of Man what he abounds with, to be Born, and Dye, digested into members, knit together with sinewes, built up with bones, covered with our flesh, inveloped with skin, raised up to the perfect similitude, nay drawn down to the low condition of his Creature; he would be any thing but sin, to re­deem him from Sin, and save him, and descend so low as the Grave, and as Hell it self, to raise him to a capability, and hope of Heaven and Immortality. Mira [...] a wonderfull condescention, a wonderfull fall from his Throne to the Womb, from his dwelling place on high to dwell in the Flesh, from his Angels Gloria in Excel­sis, Glory be to God on high, to the Shepherds, vidimus in praesepi, we have seen him in the Cratch, from the Seraphins [...] Holy, Holy, Holy, to the Jewes bitter Sarcasme, Come down from the Crosse, from riding on the Cherubin to the hanging on the Tet, Mirabilis descensus, this was a wonderfull descent, nor could we think God could do it, but that we know, he can do more than we can think. Where was that hand that made and fashioned us, that meated the Heavens and measured out the Waters, that weighed the Mountains in scales? where was that voyce which thundered from Heaven, that mighty voyce which broke the Cedars of Li­banus? where was that God that was from everlasting? Doe we not stand at gaze, and put on wonder? Doe we not tremble to say it? and yet to say it, as we should, is Salvation. Latuit in Humi­litate majestas, That Majesty lay hid in Humility, that Power was in Frailty; That Hand in the Crotch, and in the Clouts, that Voyce in an Infant not able to speak, [...], saith Naz. Nazianz. orat. 38. The God of Spirits was incarnate, he that was invisible was seen, he that could not be touched, handled; we have seen with our eyes, we have heard him, our hands have handled him, saith S. John; He that was from everlasting had a beginning; he that was the Son of God Factus similis, made the Son of Man like unto his Brethren.

We cannot put on too much caution and reverence when we speak of God; De Deo vel seriò loqui periculosum, ne fortè Deo indigna lo­quamur. Our tongue will be as the pen of a ready writer, and run too fast, if feare do not hold it, and it is very dangerous to speak of that Majesty which is at such an infinite distance from us, that it is far safer to adore, than discourse of it; the Christian world hath been too daring and bold with him, to speak of him what they please, and then to teach him to speak, to make a language of their owne, and say it is his; although the words be such, as were never heard from Heaven, nor can be found in the Book of the Generation of Jesus Christ; If we be his Disciples, when we speak to him, or of him, let us use his own words, for then he will better understand us, and we shall better understand one another; for when we set up a Mint of our own, and take to our selves the royalty of coynage, whatsoe­ver [Page 9] we work out, we send abroad as current, though the character and stamp present more of our own Image, than his; when we will be over-witty, commonly we are over-seen; God is made like unto Men: if the words were not his, we should not dare to speak them; but this is [...], the submission and minoration of Christ, and if he will descend so low, if he will take our likeness, [...], he takes it in good part, Naz. 16. [...]b. and is well pleased to learn these words from us, because they are his own: Like a man, a man of sorrowes, a worm and no man, a despised, rejected man, he will have us call him so, he hath put it into our Creed, and counts it no disparagement. He set a time for it, and when the Appointed time came, he was made like unto us, and all Generations may speak it to his glory, to the end of the world. Before he appeared darkly wrapped up in Types, veyled in Dreames, beheld in Visions, that he appeares in the likenesse of our Flesh, that he appeares, and speaks, and suffers in our Flesh, is the high prerogative of the Gospel. And here he publisheth himself in every way of representation, [...] in our Image, or likenesse, in the forme of a servant, our very picture, a living picture, a picture drawn out to life indeed, such a picture, as one man is of another, [...] by way of Comparison; for how hath he spread and dilated himself by a world of comparisons? He is a Shepherd to guide and feed us, a Captaine to leade us, a Prophet to teach us, he is a Priest, and he is the Sacrifice for us, he is Bread to strengthen us; he is a vine to refresh us; he is a Lamb, that we may be meek, he is a Lyon that we may be valiant, he is a Worm, that we may be patient; he is a Doore, to let us in; and the way through which we passe into life; he is any thing, that will make us like him; sinne, and error, and the Devil hath not appeared in more shapes to deceive and destroy us, then Christ hath to save us. Lastly [...] by his exemplary virtues, and those raised to such a high pitch of perfection, that neither the cursed Heretiques, nor the mis­creant Turk, nor the Devil himself could reach, and blemish it; ne­ver was righteousnesse in his verticall point, but in him, where it cast not the least shadow for envy or detraction to walk in, for a­mongst all the Heresies the Church was to cope withall, we read of none that called his piety into question; and all this propter nos for our sakes; that in his Meeknesse we may shut up our Anger, in his Humility abate our Pride, in his Patience still and charm our Fro­wardnesse, in his Bounty spend our selves, in his Compassion and Bowels melt our stony hearts, and in his perfect Obedience beat down our Rebellion: not in the Cloud, or in the fiery Pillar, not in Darknesse and Tempest, not in those wayes of his, which are as hard to finde out, as the passage of an arrow in the aire, or a ship in the sea, but in tegmine carnis, as Arnobius speaks, under no other Covert, than that of our Flesh, so like us, that we may take a pattern by him.

This indeed may seem an indignity to God, and in all ages there have been found some, who have thought so; not onely [...] the Hea­then, who in Tatianus in plain terms tel the Christians they did [...] betray too great a folly in believing it, but even Christians themselves and children of the Church, [...] as Naz: calls them, ill lo­vers of Christ, who did rob him with a complement, and to uphold his honour, did devest him of his Deity; and whilest with great shew of piety and reverence, they stood up to remove from God the Nature, they unadvisedly put upon him the weaknesse of man, drew him out to our distempers and sick constitution, as if God were sicut homo as man, like unto us in our worst complexion, who are com­monly very tender and dainty what likenesse we take, and affect that similitude alone, which presents us greater, and fairer than we are; For our pictures present not us, but a better face, and a more exact proportion, and with it, the best part of our wardrobe; we are but grashoppers, but would come forth and be seen taller than we are by the head and shoulders; in the largenesse and height of an Anakim. This opinion we have of our selves, and therefore are too ready to perswade our selves, that God is of our mind; and, that God will descend so low, or take the likenesse of a mortall; though he tell us so himself, yet we will not believe it, which is to measure out the immense goodnesse and wisdome of God, by our Digite and Scantling, by the imaginary line of a wanton and sick fancy, to bound and limit his determinate will, to teach God, and put our owne shapes upon him, to confine him to a Thought, and then Christ hath two Persons, or but one Nature, a Body, and not a Body, is a God alone, or a Man alone, the whole body of Religion and our Christian Faith, must shiver and flie to pieces.

Nos autem non sic: but we have not so learned Christ; not learned to abuse and violate his great love, and call it good manners, and then urge our fears, and unprescribed and ground­lesse jealousies; [...]? shall his honour be the lesse because he hath laid it down for our sakes? Naz. ib. shall he lose in his esteem because he fell so low for our advancement? or can we be afraid of that Humility, which purchased us glory, and returned in triumph with the keyes of Hell, and of Death? He made himself a Sheepherd, and laid down his life for his Sheep, and shall we make that an argument, that he is not a King? He clothed himself with our Flesh, he lights a Candle, he sweeps the House, descends to low Offices for our sake, so far from being ashamed of our Nature, that he made hast to assume it, [...]? and dost thou impute this to God? No: to us his Humility is as full of wonder, as his Ma­jesty; Non erubescimus de Christo, we are not ashamed of the man Christ, expecting the leisure of nine moneths Travel, passing through and enduring the loathsome Contumelies of our Nature, born in a [Page 11] Stable, cradled in a Cratch, wrapped up in Clouts, poor and despised, non de crucifixo Christo, not of our crucified Lord hanging on the Cross, but wonder heighteneth our joy, and joy raiseth our wonder, and we cry out with S. Austin, Oh prodigia! oh miracula! Oh prodigie, oh mi­racle of Mercy! [...]! oh the strangenesse of this New Birth! with the Wise-wen, we open our Treasuries, and pre­sent him gifts, and worship him as a King, though we finde him in a manger.

And this is signum è terra, a sign from the depth, from the low condition of our Flesh; factus similis, saith the Apostle, Psal. 40. made like unto his Brethren; corpus aptasti mihi, saith he himself in the Psalm, a Body hast thou prepared me, so like us, that the Divel himself as quick-sighted as Marcion or Manes took him for no other, and was entrapped [...] with the outward garment and vaile of his flesh, and venturing upon him as man found him a God, Naz. Or. 39. and striking at the First Adam was overcome with the Second, beat down and conquered with that blow which he levelled. But as he hath taken our Flesh, must he take our Soul too? may not his Divinity as A­pollinarius fancied, supply the place of our better part? shall we not free him from those passions and affections, which when they move and are hot within us, our common Apologie is, Humanum est, that we are but men? No: to S. Hilaries Corporatio we must adde the Greeks [...], and if S. Hilaries incorporating of Christ will not reach home, their inhumanition will [...] draw them toge­ther, and unites them both, both body and soul; he came to save both, and both he took, to free the body from Corruption, and the soul from Sin, to refine our Drosse into Silver, and our Silver into pure Gold, to raise our Bodies to the Immortality of our Souls, and our Souls to the purity of the Angels, perfect God and perfect Man, of a reasonable Soul, and humane Flesh subsisting.

And now being made up of the same Mould and Temper, ha­ving taken from man what makes and constitutes man, being the same wax as it were, why may he not receive the same impressions of Love and Joy, Grief and Feare, Anger and Compassion, affectus sensualitatis, even those affections which are seated in the sensitive part? Behold him in the Temple with a Scourge in his Hands, & you will say he was angry: Goe with him to Lazarus his Grave, and you shall see his Sorrow dropping from his eyes: Mark his eye upon Je­rusalem, and you shall see the very bowels of Compassion. Follow him to Gethsemane, and the Evanglist will tell you, he began to be grievously troubled. Ecce tota haec Trinitas in Domino, saith Tertull. Tert. de Anim. c. 1. Behold here is this whole Trinity in our Lord; 1. Rationale, the Rationall part; for he teacheth what he learnt, disputes with the Pharisees, and instructeth the people in those wayes which reason [Page 12] commends as the best and readiest to lead them to the End. 2. In­dignativum, the Irascible power which breaths it self forth in woes and bitter Invectives against the Scribes and Pharisees. 3. Concupiscenti­vum, the Concupiscible Appetite; for he desires, he earnestly de­sires to eat the Passeover with his Disciples: We may be bold to say, and it is Gratitude, and not Blasphemy to say it; angry he was, and joy he did, and breath forth his desires, and grieve, and feare, si­milis [...] like in all things, but with this huge difference; In all these no ataxie or disorder, not the least stoop nor de­clination from reason; no storme in his Anger, no frensie in his joy, no woman in his Teares, no wanton in his Love, no coward in his Feare, like unto us in passion, but not bowed or misled by pas­sion like unto us. In us they are as so many severall winds driving us to severall points; and almost at the same time, our Fear hath a relish of Hope, and our Hope is allayed with some Fear; our desires contradict themselves; we would and we would not, and we know not what we would have; our sorrow will ebbe out into Anger, our Anger flowes uncertainly, sometimes it swells into Joy if it be not checkt, and if it be, and we misse our end, it frets, and wasts, and consumes it self, and is neer lost in that flood of sorrow which it brought in; nunquam sumus singuli, we are never long the same men, but one passion or another rises in us, & troubles us a while, and so makes way for another, such a perplexed middle, such a lump of contradictions is man. Thus it is in us; but in him they are straight and even lines drawn to their right center: his anger on Sin, his love on Piety, his joy on the great Work he had to doe, his Feare was his Jealousie lest we should fall from him; when he grie­ved it was that others did not so; when he seemed most moved, in better temper than we are when we pray. All our qualities he had, which were indetectabiles, as the Schooles speak, which implyed no defect of Grace, nor detracted from his all-sufficient satisfactory righteousnesse, poenam sine culpa, those affections which might make him sensible of Smart, but not obnoxious to Sin, and in him they were not properly passions, Euseb. Episc. Thessal. apud Phot. Biblioth. cod. CLXII. saith Eusebius Bishop of Thessalonica, but rather [...] naturall operations, which did shew him to all the world, as it were, with an Ecce, Behold the man, and thus he condem­ned sin in the flesh, Rom. v. 3. that is in those punishments which his flesh endured; he that tells us he was like unto us in all things, brings in his exception, at the fourth chap. v.3. yet without sin, for his miraculous conception by the holy Ghost was a sure and invinci­ble Antidote against that poyson of the Serpent, and so presented him an innocent and spotlesse Lambe fit for a Sacrifice.

We have now filled up S. Pauls [...], and found our Captaine God and Man Christ Jesus like unto us in all things; we have beheld him in intimis naturae, in the very bowels, as it were, and entrailes of [Page 13] our nature, nay in sordibus naturae, in the vilenesse of our Nature; searching and purging the whole Circle and compasse of it, and working out our corruption from the very root; we have consider'd him in that height, which no mortall eye can reach, in his Divine na­ture, and we have lookt upon him, where he might be seen, and heard, and felt in his Humane nature; we must now with a reverent, and fearfull hand but touch at the passive sieri, which points out to the union of both the Natures in one Person, the Apostle tels us, Debuit fieri similis, That it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren.

And to the apprehension of this union, as to the knowledge of God, we are led by weak and faint representations drawn from sen­sible things, and we are led by negations, the [...], the quomodo, is best answered by non hoc modo, not after this manner; Factus est, he was made like unto us, tis true, but not so as flesh and Bloud may imagine, or a wanton and busie wit conceive; not [...], not [...] saith Basil, not by any mutation of his divine essence, Basil de Hum. Christi Gen. sine peri­culo status sui saith Tertull. without any danger of the least alteration of his state, his glory did not take from him the forme of a servant, nor did this Assimilation lessen or alter him in that, by which he was equall to his Father, nor did the mystery of godlinesse bring any de­triment to the Deity. G. Nyssen calls him [...], and Tertullian, Deum carne mixtum in his Apologie, (and Austin, Greg. Nyssen. Cath. or. c. 27. and Cyprian, and Irenaeus use the same phrase) a God mixt with our na­ture, but not so as a drop of water cast into a vessel of wine, and tur­ned into that substance, in which it is lost, as Eutyches fancied, but as the soule and body though two distinct Natures grow into one man, so did the Godhead assume the manhood without confusion of the Nature, or distinction of the persons; united as the Sunne and the light, saith Justin Martyr, as a graft to a plant say others, [...] saith Basil: as in a fiery sword, there are two distinct Natures, the fire, and the sword; two distinct acts, to cut, and to burne; and two distinct effects, cutting and Burning; from whence ariseth one common effect, to cut burning, and to burne cutting; all which with all the representations which the wit of man can find out, can­not expresse it, but leave us in our gaze and wonder, whilst the man­ner of it is hid from our eyes, and removed further out of sight, then when we first lookt after it. Those beasts which came too neer to this mountaine, this high mystery, were strucken through with a Dart, and staggerd in the very attempt, and left to walk uncertainly in that mist and darknesse, which their too daring curiosity had cast [...] &c. saith Nazianzen, Naz. orat. 26. hot and busie wits they were; Arius [...] a subtill sophister; Nestorius of a quick wit and voluble tongue; Apollinarius, the stoutest Champion the Church had against Arius, in comparison of whom some thought the great Athanasius to be but a child in understanding (not to mention [Page 14] Cer inthus, Valentinus, Eutiches) these pressing too forward upon this great mystery, were struck blind at the doore, and running con­trary wayes, met all in this, that they ran the hazard of their own soules, and of that which should be as deare to them, the peace of the Church. Be not then too inquisitive to find out the manner of this union, for the holy Father seales up thy lips, that thou mayst not once think of Asking the question, Just. Mart. and tells thee [...], that thou art not like to meet with an answer; and what greater folly can there be then to attempt to do that, which cannot be done? or to search for that, which is past finding out? or to be ever a be­ginning, and never make an end? Search the scriptures, for they are they that testifie of him, testifie that he was God blessed for evermore; that, that word which was Godw, as also made flesh, that he was the Son of God and the Sonne of man, the manner how the two Natures are united is [...], Basil. ib. unsearchable, unfoordable, and the knowledge of it, if our narrow understandings could receive it, would not adde one haire to our stature, and growth in Grace; that he is God and man, that the two Natures are united in one person, who is thy Saviour and mediator, is enough for thee to know, and to rayse thy nature up to him. Take the words as they lye, in their Native pu­rity and simplicity, and not as they are hammered and beat out, and stampt by every hand, by those who will be Fathers, not Interpre­ters of Scripture, and beget what sense they please, and present it not as their own, but as a child of God. Then Lo, here is Christ, and there is Christ, this is Christ, and that is Christ, thou shalt see many images and characters of him, but not one that is like him, an im­perfect Christ, a half Christ, a created Christ, a fancied Christ, a Christ that is not the Son of God, and a Christ that is not the Son of Man; and thus be rowled up and down in uncertainties, and left to the poore and miserable comfort of Conjecture, in that, which so far as it concerns us, is so plain and easie to be known. Doe thoughts arise in thy heart? do doubts and difficulties beset thee? [...], saith Justin Martyr, thy Faith is the solution, and will soon quit thee of them, and cast them by; thy Faith not assumed, or insinuated in­to thee, or brought in, as thy vices may be, by thy education, but raised upon a holy hill, a sure foundation, the plain and expresse Word of God, and upheld and strengthned by the Spirit. Christian, dost thou believe? Thou hast then seen thy God in the Flesh, from Eternity, yet born; Invisible, yet seen; Immense, and circumscri­bed; Immortall, yet dying; the Lord of life, and Crucified; God and man Christ Jesus. Amaze not thy self with an inordinate feare of undervaluing thy Saviour; wrong not his love, and call it thy Reverence; why should thoughts arise in thy Heart? his power is not the lesse, because his mercy is great, nor doth his infinite love shadow or detract from his Majesty; for see, He counts it no dispa­ragement to be seen in our flesh, nor to be at any losse, by being thus [Page 15] like us; our Apostle tells us, [...], there was a Decorum in it, and it behoved him to be like unto his Brethren.

That Christ was made like unto us, is the joy of this Feast, but that he ought to be, is the wonder and extasy of our joy; that he would descend is mercy, but that he must is our astonishment: Oportet and Debet are binding termes and words of Duty. Had our Apostle said, It behoved us that he should be made like unto us, it had found an easy belief, the debuit had been placed in loco suo, in its proper place, on a sweating brow, on dust and putrefaction, on the face of a captive; All will say it Behoved us much; but to put a Debet upon the Son of God, to make it a Decorum, a beseeming thing for him to become Flesh, to be made like unto us; to set a Rubie in Clay, a Dia­mond in Brasse, a Chrysolet in baser Metall, and say, it is placed well there, to worry the Lambs for the Wolf, to take the Master by the throat for the Debt of a Prodigall, and with an Oportet to say it should be so; to give a gift, and call it a Debt, is not out usuall language on earth: on Earth it is not, but in Heaven it is the proper Dialect, fixed up in Capitall letters on the Mercy Seat, the joy of this Feast, the Angels Antheme, Salvator Natus, a Saviour is born, and if he will be a Saviour, an Undertaker, a Surety, such is the Nature of Fidejussion and Suretiship, debet, he must, it behoveth him, as deeply engaged as the party, whose surety he is.

And let us look on the aptnesse of the meanes, and we shall soon find that this Foolishnesse of God (as the Apostle calls it) is wiser than men, and this weaknesse of God is stronger than men, 1 Cor. 1.25. & that the oportet is right set. For medio existente conjunguntur extrema, if you will have extremes to meet, you must have a middle line to draw them toge­ther, and behold here they meet, and are made unum, one, Ephes. 2.14. saith the Apostle, the proprieties of either Nature being entire, and yet mee­ting and concentring themselves, as it were, in one person; Majesty puts on Humility; Power, Infirmity; Eternity, Mortality; by the one he dyes for us, by the other he riseth again; by the one he suffers as Man, by the other he conquers as God; in them both he perfects and consummates the great work of our redemption.

And this Debuit reacheth home to each part of my Text, to Christ as God. The same hand that made the vessell, when it was broken, and so broken, that there was not one sherd left to fetch water at any pit, to repaire and set it together again, that it may receive and con­tain the water of life, ut qui fecit nos reficeret, that our Creation and Salvation should be wrought by the same hand, and turned about upon the same wheele.

Next we may set the debuit upon his person, and he is media per­sona a middle person, and the office will best fit him, even the of­fice of a Mediator; and then, as he is the Son of God, who is the Image of the Father, and most proper it may seem to him to repair that Image, which was defaced, and well neere lost in us. For we had not onely blemished this Image, but set the Devils face and su­perscription upon Gods coyne; for Righteousnesse there was Sin; for Purity, Pollution; for Beauty, Deformity; for Rectitude, Per­versenesse; for the Man, a Beast; scarce any thing left by which he might know us, venit filius ut iterum signet, the Son comes, and with his blood revives again the first character, marks us with his owne signature, imprints the Graces of God upon us, makes us current money, and that his Father may know us, and not cast us off for re­fuse silver, shewes him his face.

Lastly, it reacheth the [...] the assimilation it self, and layes hold on that too; made like he was, and debuit, he ought to be so, to satisfie in the same nature which had offended, carnem gestare pro­pter meam carnem, to take flesh for my flesh, and a soul for my soul, [...], to purge and refine me in my own, to wash and cleanse the corruption of my flesh in the immense Ocean of his Divinity, and [...] in all things to be made like unto his Bre­thren. Debuit looks on all his Godhead, on his Person, on his Assimilation. God, no Man or Angell; The second person in Tri­nity, not the Father, or the holy Spirit; made like unto his Bre­thren; his bare naked Divinity, though it might have saved us, yet it was not so fit, and at too great a distance for us. Debuit slumbers every storm, answers every doubt, scatters our feares, removes our jealousies, and builds us up in our most holy faith; Though he be God, though he be the wisdome of God, though he be the Son of God, yet debuit he ought to be made like unto us to restore his Creature, to exalt his Nature, and in our own shape and likeness, in our own flesh, to pay down the price of our Redemption.

So then debuit fieri, here is an aptnesse, and conveniency, but debet he ought, vox ista importat necessitatem, it behoved him, implyes also a kind of necessity. That God could be made like mortall man is a strange Contemplation, but that he would is a rise and exaltation of that; but debuit, that he ought, superexalteth that, and sets it at a higher pitch, but that he must be so, that necessity in a manner brings him down, were not his love as infinite as his power, would stagger and amaze the strongest faith; who would believe such a re­port? But he speaks it himself, and it was the fire of his love that kindled in him, and then he spake it with his tongue, oportet, he must die, and if die, be born; not onely is, but would not would; but ought; not ought, but of necessity must be made like unto his Bre­thren. [Page 17] I say, a strange contemplation it is, for there need no such for­cible tye, no such chaine of necessity to hold him, libere egit, what he did he did freely; nothing more free, and voluntary, more sponta­neous then this his Assimilation; for as if he had slacked his pace, and delay'd his Fathers expectation, and not come at the appointed period of time, he suddenly cryes, Lo, I come, in the volume of thy book it is written of me, that I should doe thy will, oh God, Psal. 40.7.8. vers. he calls it his desire, and he had it written in his heart; Tis true, li­bere fecit, this condescension, this his assimilation was free, and vo­luntary, with more cheerfulnesse, and earnestnesse undertaken by him, then 'tis received now by us (it is our shame and sinne, that we dare not compare them; that he should be so willing to be like us, and we should be so unwilling to be like him) but if we look back upon the precontract which past between his Father and him, we shall then see a Debuit, a kind of necessity laid upon him, our Saviour him­self speaks it to his Blessed mother, [...], Luke 2.49. I must go about my Fathers businesse; we may measure his love by the De­cree, that is, we cannot measure it, for the decree is eternall; before the foundation of the world was laid was this foundation laid an ever­lasting foundation to lay Gold and Silver upon, all the rich & precious Promises of the Gospel, to lay our obedience and conformity to him, upon; and upon them both, upon his love, and our obedience raise our selves up to that eternity, which he hath purchased and promised to all his Brethren that are made like unto him. Infinite love, eternall love, that which the eye of Flesh may count a dishonour, was his joy, his perfection, his love, which put a Debuit upon him, a necessity, and brought him after a manner, under the strict and peremptory Terms of an obligation, under a necessity of being borne, a Necessity of obedience, a Necessity of dying; Debuit taketh in all and presenteth them to our Admiration, our joy, our love, our obedience, and Gra­titude; [...] every way, and in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his Brethren.

The applicati­on. We have now run the full compasse of the Text, and we find our Saviour in every point of it similem [...] like in all things; and now to apply it; If Christ be like unto us, then we also ought to be like unto him, and ought to have our Assimilation, our Nativity, by the way of Analogy and by the rules of proportion, answerable to his. For to this end was he made like unto us, you will say, That he may save us; nay, but that he may present us to his Father by the virtue of his assimilation made like unto him; for without this he cannot save us. Behold here am I, and the Children which thou hast gi­ven me; Holy as I am holy, Just as I am just, Humble as I was hum­ble; A man conformable to Christ is the glory of this Feast. Father, I will that they whom thou hast given me (and he gives him none, but those who are like him) may be, where I am: Heaven hath received [Page 18] him, and it will receive none but those, who are like him, not those that name him, not those who set his name to their fraud, to their malice, to their perjury, to their Oppression; not those many An­tichrists, whose whole life is a contradiction to him: All that he re­quires at our hands, all our Gratitude, all our duty is drawn together, and consists in this [...], to be like unto him. To be like unto him? why, who would not be like unto him? who would not be drawn after his similitude? Like him we all would be in his Glory, in his Transfiguration on mount Tabor; oh by all meanes build us here a Tabernacle; but like him in the cratch, like him in the wil­dernesse, like him in his daily converse with men, like him in the High priests Hall, like him in the Garden, like him on the Crosse, here we start back and are afraid of his countenance: In humility, in hunger, in sweat, in colours of Bloud, few there be that would be thus drawn: But, if we will be his Brethren, this is the copy we must take out, these be our postures, these our Colours; bathed in his Bloud, tis true, but withall bathed in the waters of Affliction, bathed in our own teares, and bathed in our own Bloud; we meet and cope with the Devil in this our wildernesse; we walk honestly, as in the day; in that day, which he hath made. We have our Agony in our Contrition; and in our Regeneration we hang upon the Crosse; There our lusts and affections are fastned as it were with nayls, their strength taken from them, that they cannot move in any opposition to Christ, but our anger turns from our brother who is like him, and is levell'd on sin, which is most unlike him; our love shuts it self to the world, and opens it self to receive him; The hardship we under­goe, brings in our fellowship with him; our suffering with him doth assimilate us, and in a manner Deify us; our following him in all his wayes drawes us as neer to him, as Flesh and Bloud can approch; and our joy, our greatest triumph is in this our Assimilation, and thus we come forth like unto him.

And in the next place, as he was factus made like unto us, so are we facti similes made like unto him; we are not borne so, we are not so by chance, we cannot think our selves, we cannot talk our selves into his likenesse, nor will he imprint it in us whilst we sleep, or doe worse; this picture, this Resemblance is not drawn out with a thought, or a word. How many be there who take his name, yet are not like unto him, because they will not be made so? Christians they are sine sanguine & sudore, without bloud or sweat, drawn out not by an obedient will, but a flattering fancy; they struggle not with Temptation, for they love it, they fight not against their Flesh, but nourish, and cherish it, make it their labour and ambition to please it; they have no feare, no Trembling, no Agony, no Crosse, nay they beat their fellow servants and persecute them, because they are like him; crucifie him in his members every day, and yet present [Page 19] themselves to the world as his children, as the very pictures of our Saviour, and so soon like him, that they will never be made so. When we see men fast and pray, not that they have done evill, but that they may do more, (the Pharisees did so) when we see men bowing before him, when they are ready to lift up their heele against him, when we heare their Hosannas to day, and their Crucifyes to mor­row (the Jewes did so) when we see men follow him as his Disci­ples, and call him their Master, and then sell him for some pieces of silver, deliver him to their Lusts, their Ambition, their Covetous­nesse, ( Judas did so, the son of perdition, and so nothing like unto a Saviour) when we see men wash their hands as if they were clear of all guilt, and yet in a Tumult leave Christ and his Religion to be tom in pieces, and trod under feet, and to make their peace, care not what becomes of him; ( Pilate did so) when we see men tem­pting Christ, to turn stones into bread, to do that by miracle, for which he hath fitted its ordinary proper meanes; (the Devil did so) when we see these men (and the world is full of such) shall we say that they are like unto Christ? we may say as well, that the Pha­risees were like him, and the Jewes were like him, and Judas was like him, and Pilate was like him, and the Devil himselfe was like him, as they. No: a Christian is not so soon made up, does not grow up a perfect man in Christ in a moment; For though our first conversion be in an instant, yet it is not so in an instant, but that it is wrought in us by meanes, and a new making there is, whensoever we are made Christians. To be like unto Christ is a work of Time, and we grow up to this similitude by degrees; our Faith meets with many rubs and difficulties to passe over; For how often doe we ask our selves the question, How should this be? and then when by prayer and meditation, and our continued exercise in piety, we have got the victory, we build and establish our selves in our most holy Faith. Our Hope, what is it but a conclusion gathered by much pains and experience, by curious and watchful observation, by a painful peregri­nation through all the powers of our souls, and actions of our life? and when with great contention we have settled these, and see an even­ness and regularity in them all, then we rest in hope. And for our Charity, it is called the labour and work of Charity, for we must force out the love of the World, before we bring in the love of our Bre­thren; we must deny our covetousness, before we can give a peny; de­ny our appetite, deny our selves, before we can taste of the powers of the world to come; we must maintain a tedious war against the flesh, and be unlike our selves, before we can be like unto Christ; as he was made like unto us, so must we be made like unto him: and this is our union with him, and we are made one, even as he, and his Fa­ther are one.

To draw the Parallel yet neerer; as there was a debuit upon Christ, [Page 20] so there is upon us, as it behoved him to be made like unto us, so it behoveth us to be like unto him: In the volume of the book it is writ­ten of him, and in the same volume we shall finde it written of us, that we should doe his will, and have his law in our heart, and in this as in other things, Nihil prius intuendum, quam quod decet; our first thought should be what will become us; To see Nero an Em­perour with his Fiddle, or Harp, or in his Buskins acting upon a Stage; to see Domitian catching of Flyes, or Hercules at the Distaffe; what an incongruous thing is it? An humble Christ, and a proud Christian; a meek Christ, & a bloody Christian; an obedient Christ, and a traiterous Christian; Christ in an agony, and a Christian in plea­sure; Christ fasting, and a Christian rioting; Christ on the Crosse, and the Christian in a Mahometicall Paradise, non bene conveniunt, there is no decorum in it, nothing but Soloecisme & Absurdity, which even offends their eyes who commit the same, so boldly, as if it car­ried with it some elegancy; no: debet, and oportet, we must act our parts with art, and a decorum, do that, which behoveth us, and it is a debt, and a debt which we must be paying to our lives end, to our last breath, and then we shall take our Exit with applause.

Lastly, to draw the Parallel to the full; Oportet, it is not onely beco­ming us, but Necessary; for if a kind of Necessity lay upon Christ by his contract with his Father, to be made like unto us, a great ne­cessity will lie upon us, by our covenant with him, to be like unto him; a Necessity, and woe unto us, if we be not. It is unum necessa­rium, it is that one thing Necessary, and there is nothing Necessary for us, but it. For run to and fro the world, and in that great Empo­rium and Mart of Toyes and Vanities, find out one thing that is ne­cessary, if you can, though you search it, as the Prophet speaks, with Candles: Is it necessary to be rich? Behold Dives in Hell, and La­zarus in Abrahams Bosom. Is it necessary to be Noble? Not many noble are chosen. Is it necessary to be Learned? where is the Scribe? where is the disputer of this world? Every thing hath its Necessity from us, not from it self; for of it self it cannot shew any thing that should make it so: It is we that file these chaines, and fashion these nayles of Necessity, and make her hand of Brasse: Riches are neces­sary, because we are covetous; Honour is necessary, because we are proud, and love to have the preheminence; Pleasure is necessary, because we love it more than God; Revenge is necessary, because we delight in blood. Lord, how many Necessaries do we make, when there is but one? one, sine quo non debemus, without which we ought not, and sine quo non possumus, without which we cannot be happy, and that is our assimilation, and being made like unto Christ, in whom alone all the Treasuries of Wisdome, and Riches, and Ho­nour, all that is necessary for us, are to be found.

And now, to conclude, we have two Nativities, Christs Nativity and ours; he made like unto us by a miraculous Conception, and we again made like unto him by the same spirit of Regeneration, ad illum pertinuit propter nos nasci, ad nos propter illum renasci, saith S. Austin: his love it was to be born for us, and our Duty it is to give him Birth for Birth, and to be born again in him; And then as thou art merry at his Feast, he will rejoyce at thine, even celebrate thy birth­day, Come let us rejoyce, saith he; and [...], It was meet we should make merry, for these my brethren were dead, but are alive, they were lost, but they are found; they were like unto the Beasts that perish, but they are now made like unto me: Ands as Christ had an Antheme at his Birth, a full quire of the Heavenly Host praysing God, so shall we at ours, Joy and Triumph at the birth of a Christi­an, at his assimilation to Christ; for every reall resemblance of Christ is an Angels feast, and Angels, and Archangels, and Domina­tions, and Powers, shall triumph at these our [...], an this Feast of our Regeneration, and be glad spectators of our growth in Christ, rejoyce to see us of the same mind, every day liker and liker to him, till we grow to ripenesse and maturity to be perfect men in Christ Jesus, and being made like unto him, at last be [...] equall to the Angels, and with Angels and Archangels, and all the Company of Heaven cry aloud: saying, ‘Salvation, Honour, Power, Thanksgiving, be unto him that sitteth upon the Throne, and to him that was made like unto us, even to the Lamb for evermore. Amen.’

A SERMON Preached on Good-Friday.

The Introdu­ction. GOds benefits come not alone, but one gift is the pledge of another, the grant of a mite, the assignment of a Talent; a drop of dew from Heaven is a Prognostique of a gracious showre, which nothing can draw dry but Ingratitude; the Father might well say, S. Dionys. de divin. Nom. p. 200. that the love of God was as a constant and endlesse Circle from Good, to Good, in Good, without error, or inconstancy, rowling and carrying it self about in an everlasting gyre.

He spared not, but delivered up his sonne for us all, saith the Text, but how many gifts did usher in this? for he gave him often in the Creation of the world; for by him were all things made, and without him was made nothing that was made: when God gives, Joh. 1.3 he gives his Sonne; for as we ask, so he gives in his name whatsoever we ask; every action of God is a gift, and every gift a tender of his Sonne, an [Page 24] art to make us capable of more. Thus the Argument of Gods love is drawn à minori ad majus, from that which seems little, to that which is greater; from a Grain to a Harvest, from one Blessing to a Myriad, from Heaven to thy Soul, and from thy Creation to thy Redemption, from his Actions to his Passion, which is the true au­thentique instrument of his love.

Here his love was in its Zenith, in its Verticall point, and in a direct line casts its rayes of comfort on his lost Creature: Here the Argument is at the highest, and S. Paul drawes it down à majori ad minus, and the Conclusion is full, full of all comfort to all. He that gives a Talent, will certainly give a Mite; he that gives his Son wil also give Salvation, and he that gives Salvation will give all things which may work it out, qui tradidit, he that delivered his Son is fol­lowed with a quomodo non? how shall he not with him give us all things? quomodo non? It is impossible it should be otherwise, so that Christ comes not naked, but clothed with Blessings; he comes not empty, but with the Riches of Heaven, with the Treasuries of Wisdom and Happinesse; Christ comes not alone, but with troops of Angels, with glorious Promises and Blessings; nay to make good the quo­modo non, to make it unanswerable, unquestionable; It is his Na­kednesse that clotheth us, his Poverty that enricheth us, his no Re­putation that ennobles us, his minoration that makes us great, and his Exinanition, his emptying himself that fills us, and the tradidit is an instrument of conveyance, his being delivered for us, delivers to us the possession of all things.

In which words there is a cloud, and a cloud of Blood, the cloud of Christs Passion, for so most interpreters in plain termes expound the tradere by in mortem exponere, making his delivery to be nothing else, but an exposing him to shame, and misery, and death: we need not stand upon it; a tradidit were enough, for he is no sooner out of his hands, but he becomes a man of sorrowes: a tradidit were enough, but here is a non pepercit, he spared him not, so spared him not, that he delivered him up, and so delivered him up, that he spared him not, [...] the same thing expressed by two severall words to make it sure. A cloud then there is, and a cloud of Blood, but it distills in a sweet showre of Blessings, and we see a light in this cloud, by which we may draw that saving conclusion, quomodo non? How shall he not with him give us all things?

Here then is an assignment made to Man-kind: 1. Christ given: 2. Given for us all: and last of all the full streame of his Bles­sings [Page 25] issuing out with his blood; with him we have all things.

The Division. Or, because it is a work of infinite love, we will call it scalam a­moris, the scale, or ladder of love; and then the steps, the parts con­siderable will be these: 1. The person delivered, Tradidit proprium Filium, he delivered his own Son. 2. The delivery and manner of it, tradidit & non pepercit, he delivered and spared him not. 3. The persons for whom, pro nobis omnibus, for us all; And these will in the last place, the end of all, the end of his Delivery, the end of all his Suf­ferings, and make us bold to challenge the Devil and all the world, and ask the question, quomodo non? how shall he not with him give us all things?

He spared not, but delivered his Son; Tradidit pro­prium filium, his own Son. and this though we make it the first step, yet indeed it is the top of the ladder, and the highest pitch of his love, from which the light of his countenance shines up­on us, and shewes us that he loved us as his own Son, nay more than his own Son; and in this his manifestation of his love, is rather a Father to us than to him; de suo periclitatur, ut nos lucretur, saith the Father; to gain us, he is willing in a manner to be himself at a losse, and to win us from slavery, endanger his own, quasi orbitatis haurit doborem; he will spoyle and rob himself to enrich us, and to make us his children, deliver up his own. Naz. or. 38. A strange contemplation it is, and Nazianzen shuts it up in admiration, counsels us to sit down and reverence it with silence. For can God delight to make his own Son a Sacrifice, who would not suffer Abraham to doe his command, and offer up his? or might he not have taken an Angel for his Son, as he did a Ramme for Isaac? [...]; what reason can be given for this his Delivery? Here the object is so radiant, that it con­founds the sense, and we scarce can see it when we look upon it; his love at such an height, that our contemplation cannot reach it; and though in plain terms we are told that it was done, yet we are slow of heart to believe it; and therefore Photinus adopted a Son, Arrius created one, horruit Marcion, Marcion was afraid of the very thought: Deliver up he might an adopted Son, some excellent creature, or a phantasme, but started back and would not come neer to subscribe that he delivered up his own Son. His own Son in their Divinity, was a Son by Creation, or a Son by Adoption, or a Son in Appearance, which is not a Son. But this groundlesse and indiscreet care of Gods Honour, was a great sin against it, and S. Ambrose observes, that they who denied this for fear, were far worse, and more injuri­ous to Christian Religion, than they who denied it for stomack; this pretence of his Honour more dangerous than perversenesse and [Page 26] pertinacy: for when pride, or vain-glory, or ambition, shape and po­lish an Errour, it is as soon discovered as the hands that wrought it; but when a shew of love, and piety, and zeale, paint and com­mend it, and send it abroad in this glory, uncautelous and ignorant men are soon taken with it, never doubt, but yield, and are quickly deceived, and count it their Duty and Religion to be so. But why should we fear where no fear is? why should we fear to disparage him, when he is so well pleased to humble himself? why should we be wiser than God? why should we offend and scandalize Christ as Peter did? Be this far from the Lord, from the Son of God, that is, let God forbid that which he will have done? why should we check his Wisdome? or be troubled at his Love? when God will deliver him, to talk of improbability, or incongruity, or impossibi­lity, is to speak against God; If he will deliver him, his will be done, and he that rests in Gods will doth best acknowledge his Ma­jesty.

It was his will to deliver him, and this cleares all doubts, and beats down every imagination that exalteth it self against it; If he will do it, we have but one word left us for answer, Amen, let it be done: he hath wisdome and power to attend his will, and who are we that darken counsel with words without knowledge? when we fall down at his foot-stoole and acknowledge his infinite power; when we say, He onely can do wondrous works; when we in all humility acknow­ledge that he can do more than we can think; that he can uphold us when we are ready to fall, enrich us in poverty, strengthen us in weaknesse, supply us with all necessary meanes and encouragements in this our race; when we preach it on the house tops, that he can tread down all our enemies under our feet, and bind Satan in chains; when we believe and rely on it, that he is able to immortalize our flesh, to raise us out of the dust, and set us in heavenly places, we think we have raised our magnificats to the highest, and indeed a Christian need not set his Songs and Hallelujahs to a higher note; but yet we do not rise so high, nor so fully expresse him, as when we give him an absolute will; He doth what he will in Heaven, and in Earth; non vox hominem sonat. This can belong to none but the high­est, to God the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords; and this makes him Lord paramount, and commander of all. For even his omnipo­tency seems to submit and vayle to his will, and is commanded by it; for many things he doth not doe, not because he cannot, Dei posse velle est, T [...]r [...]l. advers. Praxeam. c.x. & non posse nolle, saith Tertull, he can do what he will, and what he will not do, we may say he cannot do; quod voluit, & potuit, & ostendit, but what he would do, he could & did: what his Son? his own Son? his beloved Son, as infinite and omnipotent as himself? shall he be delivered? yes, tradidit illum, he delivered him, because he would, quia voluit; his will is that which opens the windowes of [Page 27] heaven, and shuts them again; that binds and looses, that plants and roots up, that made the world and will destroy it; his will it was that humbled his Son, and his will it was that glorified him. He might not have done it, not have delivered him; he might, without the least impairing of his Justice, have kept him in his bosome, & never shewed him to the world; but as he begatus again of the word of Truth, so he delivered up his Son [...] quia voluit, because he would. For as in the Creation God might have made man as he made the other creatures by his dixit, by his word alone, but would not, but wrought him out of the Earth, and was the Potter which formed and shaped him out of the Clay with his own hands: so in the great work of our Redemption, he did not send a Moyses, an Angel, a Cherubin, or Seraphim, but tradidit proprium filium, delivered up his own Son, & in this delivery gave a price infinitely above that which he brought, motal, sinfull men, which were of no value at all, but that he made them; and he payes down not a Talent for a Talent, but a Talent for a Mite, for Nothing, for that which had made it self worse than no­thing; his Son, for those who stood guilty of Rebellion against him, and his love for the world, which was at enmity with him. And thus he was pleased to buy his own will and love in us, and by this his in­finite love to bound as it were his infinite power, his infinite wis­dome, and his illimited will; for here his power, his wisdome, his will, may seem to have found a non ultra, he cannot do, he cannot find our, he cannot wish for us more, than what he hath done in the delivery of his Son.

And now, if we ask, what moved his will? not sure any loveli­nesse, or attractivenesse in the object; there was nothing to be seen but loathsomnesse and deformity, and that enmity which might soo­ner move him to wrath, than compassion, and make him rather send down fire and brimstone, then his Son: That which moved him was in himself, not to be found in the world, which stood out against him, and when he did come, would not receive him, but was bound up in his own bowels of mercy and compassion; he loved us in our blood, and loving us he bid us live, and that we might live, delive­red up his own Son to death. For his mercy was the Orator to move his will, and being mercifull, he was also willing to help us; Mercy is all our plea, and it was his motive, and wrought in him a will, a cheerful will, [...] saith Saint James; it rejoyceth against Judgement; though we had forgot our Duty, yet would not he forget his Mercy, but hearkned to it, and would not continere mise­ricordias, Ps [...]l. 77 [...]. shut up his tender mercies in Anger, which is a Metaphor taken from martiall affaires; for in a siege an Army doth compasse in a Town or Castle, that they may play upon it in every place, the Greeks call it [...] to shut it up as in a net. This is it which the Prophet David calls claudere, or continere, to shut up his mercy in [Page 28] anger; the Septuagint renders it [...] to make a trench about it and besiege it. Now the goodnesse of God, and his love to his Creature, would not suffer him thus to shut up his tender Mercies, as a Fort or Town is shut up to be undermined, and beat upon, and overcome; but as the besieged many times make sallyes upon the enemy, so the love and mercy of our God brake forth even through his anger, and gained a conquest against the legions of his wrath. Let the World be impure, let Men be sinners, let Justice be importu­nate, let Power be formidable, and Vengeance ready to fall, yet all must fall back, and yield to the Mercy and Love of God, which cannot be overcome, nor bound, nor shut up, but will break forth, and make way through all opposition, through sin, and all the powers of darknesse, which besiege and compasse it about, and will raise the siege, drive off and chase away these Enemies, and to conquer Sin, will deliver up his Son for the Sinner. And this was aenigma amoris, saith Aquinas; this was the riddle, or rather the mystery of his love to pose the wisdome of the world: I may say, being Love, and infi­nite, it is no riddle at all, but plain and easie: for what can love doe that is strange? what can it doe amisse? that which moved him to do it, shewes plainly that the end for which he did it, was very good: Dilexit nos, he loved us, is the best commentary on Tra­didit Filium, he delivered his Son for us, and takes away all scruple and doubt; for if we can once love our Enemies, it is impossible but that our Bowels should yern towards them, and our will be bent and prone to raise them up even to that pitch and condition, which our love hath designed; and if our love were of that nature, Heavenly as he is Heavenly, or but in some forward degree proportioned to his, we should see nothing that were difficult, nothing that were absurd, nothing that might misbecome us, which might promote or advan­tage them: if our Love have heat in it, our Will will be forward and earnest, and we shall be ready to lay down our lives for them. For Love is like an Artificiall Glasse, and when we looke through it, an Enemy appears a Friend; Disgrace, Honour; Difficulties No­thing. When he saw us weltring in our blood, his love was ready to wash us; when we ran from him, his love ran after us to apprehend us; when we fought against him as enemies, his love was a Prophet; Loe all these may be my children. What speak we of Disgrace? his Love defends his Majesty, and exalts this Humility of his son: [...], &c. saith Plato, Love hath this priviledge that it can­not be defamed, and by a kind of Law hath this huge advantage, to make Bondage, Liberty; Disgrace, Honourable; Infirmity, Omni­potent: who can stand up against Love, and say, why didst thou this? Had Marciou, and Photinus, and Arrius, well weighed the force and priviledge of Love; their needlesse fear, I may say, their bold and irreverent fear would have soon vanished, nor would they have de­nied Christ to be the Son of God, quia tradidit, because he delivered [Page 29] him up for us, but have seen as great glory in his Humility, as in his Glory, and would have faln down and worshipt God and man, even this crucified Lord of life, Christ Jesus. Love will doe any thing for those whom it looks, and stayes upon. If you ask a coat, it gives the cloak also; if you defire her to goe a mile, she will goe with you twaine, and is never weary, though she passe through places of hor­ror and danger; if you be in the most loathsome dungeon, in the val­ley and shadow of death, she forsakes you not, but will go along with you. Must the Son of God be delivered? Love sends him down, Charitas de coelo demisit Christum, it was Love that bowed the Hea­vens, when he descended; must he suffer? Love nayles him to the Crosse, and no power could doe it, but Love. Must he be sacrificed? Love calls it a Baptisme, & coarctatur, how is Love straitned till the Sacrifice be slain? Must he dye? Must the Son of God dye? Love calls it [...], his perfection, Heb. 2.10. So, though he be the Son of God, though we were his enemies, yet Love reconcileth all these seeming contradictions, resolves every doubt, tunes these jarring strings, and out of this discord maketh that melody which delighteth both men and Angels, and God himself; even that melody, whereof our love should be the resultance. He loved us, and then the Con­clusion doth sweetly and naturally follow, Non pepercit, he spared not his owne Son, but delivered him up. And so from the Person, we passe to the Delivery it self,

The Oeconomy and glorious dispensation of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is here termed [...] a delivery; and delivered he was, First, into the Virgins womb, for that was a strange descent, and e­ven then began his passion; Nasci se patitur, saith Tertullian, Tert. de patient. he suffer'd himself to be fashion'd in the womb, took of man, what is proper and naturall to him, to be Born and dye. Here he was drawn out and fit­ted, made an object for the malice of men, and the rage of the Di­vell to work on; here he was made a mark for his enemies to shoot at, here he had a back for the whip, and flesh to be ploughed, a face to be spit upon, a body to be nayld to the Crosse; here he was built up as a Temple, to be beat down again with axes and Hammers, with misery and Affliction. Mira traditio! a strange delivery it was of the sonne of God into the womb of a Mortall, yet tradidit illum he thus delivered him.

And being Borne, what was his whole life, but [...] a delivery of him, from sorrow to sorrow, from misery to misery, from po­verty to shame, from derision to malice, from malice, to death? this was the pomp and Ceremony, with which he was brought to his Crosse, and from thence to his grave. Deliver me not into the [Page 30] hands of my enemies, saith David. Behold, his freinds were his ene­mies: what creature was there to whom he was not deliver'd? De­liver'd to the Angels, to keep him (you will say) in all his wayes; but what need had he of an Angels assistance, whose wisdome reach­ed over all? what need he an Angels tongue to comfort him who was Lord of the Angels, and who with his voyce could have de­stroyed the Universe? but now he, who could turne stones into Bread, who could work it out of nothing, as he did in the multiplying of the loaves, is content toreceive an Almes from the hand of his Mi­nister. Deliver'd to Joseph and Mary, Luk. 2.51. subject to them. to whom, saith the Text, he was obedient: Deliver'd from Annas to Caiaphas, from Caiaphas to Pilate; from Pilate to Herod; from Herod to Pilate againe, and from Pilate to the Jewes, to doe with him what they pleased; de­liver'd to all the creatures, to heat, and to cold, to the thornes which gored him, to the whip which made long furrows in his flesh; to then ayles, which fastned him; to the speare which peirced him; to the Crosse which rack'd him; to the grave, which swallowed him; deliver'd to the Divell himself, and the power of darknesse: No creature from the highest to the lowest, to which he was not de­livered; deliver'd in his body and his soule; in every part of his body, in those, which seem'd to be free from paine, his tongue, which their cruelty toucht not; for he that was man, yet had no­thing of the impatience of man, complain'd of Thirst; he said I thirst: Deliver'd up to a quick and lively sense of paine, for many times extremity of paine takes it away, and it is lost in it self, but here paine did quicken his sense; the more he endured, the more sensible he was; the more he suffer'd, the more feeling he had; his last gasp was breathed out [...] with a strong loud voyce; de­liver'd he was to envy which deliver'd him, saith the Text; to trea­chery which betray'd him; to malice, which laid on sure strokes; to pride, which scorned him; to contempt, which spet upon him; to all those furious passions which turne men into Divells; from such a delivery we all cry Good Lord deliver us.

But thus deliver'd he was not onely to men, but to the passions of men, to the wild and brutish passions of his enemies, to the rage of Devills; and in the next place, not onely to their passions, but his own, which as man he carryed about with him, [...] my soule is troubled, John 12.27. [...] in an Agony, Luk. 22.44. quae sentitur prius quam discitur, which none can tell what it is, but he that hath felt it, and none ever felt such an Agony but he, [...] he is grievously vexed. Matth. 26.38. [...] his soule was very hea­vy, for these severall expressions the Evangelists give us; Trouble, vexation, an Agony, heavinesse in his soule, these were the bitter in­gredients which fill'd up his cup so full, that he made it his prayer to have it taken out of his hand; the consideration of which hath [Page 31] induced some to conceive, that the sense of his paine had so weakned his intellectuall faculties, that he forgat himself; non fuit haec meditata Christi oratio, saith Calvin, Calvin. Harm [...]. & in locum his paine was so great that it gave no time or leisure to his reason, to weigh what he said, which in effect is, he spake he knew not what. But we may truly say, non fuit haec Inter­pretis meditata oratio, this Author did not well understand, nor consi­der what he wrote, and might seeme not well to have advised with his reason, that would leave wisdome it self without the use of it; no question it was the language of a bleeding Heart, and the resul­tance of his grief, for grieve he did and feare; and he who as God could have commanded a Legion of Angels, as man had need of one to comfort him. He was deliver'd up to his passions to afflict, not swallow him up; no disorder, no jarr with reason, which was still above them; no sullennesse in his grief, no despaire in his complaints; no unreasonableness in his thoughts; not a thought which did rise a­misse; not a word which was misplaced; not a motion which was not regular; he knew he was not forsaken, when he asked, why hast thou forsaken me? the bitternesse of the cup struck him into a feare, when his obedience call'd for it; he prayed indeed, that this cup might passe from him, which was not, as some think, the cup of his Crosse and passion, but this cup of his Agony; in which prayer it is plaine he was heard, for the Text tells us, there stood by an Angel from God to comfort, and strengthen him, Luk. 22.43. For being of the same mould and temper, he was willing to receive the same impressions, which are so visible in man, of sorrow and feare, even those affections which are seated in the sensitive part, and without which misery and paine have no tooth at all to bite us; for our passions are the sting of misery, nor could Christ have suffered at all, if he had been free from them; if misery be a whip, 'tis our passion, and fancy that make it a Scorpion: what could malice hurt me, if I did not help the blow? what edge had an injury, if I could not be angry? what terror had death, if I did not feare? It is opinion and passion that makes us mi­serable; take away these, and misery is but a name. Tunde, Anaxar­chum enim non tundis, you touch not the Stoick though you bray him in a morter. Deliverd then he was to these passions, to feare, and to grief, which strein'd his body, which rackt his joynts, which stretched his sinews, which trickled down in clods of bloud, exhaled them­selves through the pores of his flesh in a bloudy sweat; the fire that melted him was his feare and his grief.

Da si quid ultra est; is there yet any more, or can he be delivered further? not to despaire, for it was impossible; not to the torments of Hell, which could never seize on his innocent soule; but Irae Dei, to the wrath of God, which wither'd his heart like Grasse, and burnt up his bones like a Hearth; and brought him even to the dust of death. Look now upon his countenance, it is pale and wan; upon his heart, [Page 32] it is melted like wax; look upon his Tongue, it cleaves to the roof of his mouth: what talk we of Death? the wrath of God is truely [...], the fearfullest, and terriblest thing in the world; the sting of sin, which is the sting of Death. Look into your own soules; That weake apprehension of it, which we sometimes have, what a night and darknesse doth it draw over us? what a night? nay what a Hell doth it kindle in us? what torments do we feele, the Types and sad representations of those in the bottomlesse pit? how do our delights distast us? our desires strangle themselves? what a Tophet is the world? and what Furies are our Thoughts? what do we see, which we do not turne from? what do we know which we would not forget? what do we think, which we do not startle at? or do we know what to think? now what rock can hide us? what moun­taine can cover us? we are wearie of our selves, and could wish ra­ther not to be, then to be under Gods wrath; were it not for this, there would be no Law, no Conscience, no Divell, but with this the Law is a killing letter, the Conscience a Fury, and the Divell a Tor­mentor. But yet there is still a difference between our apprehensi­on and his, for alas! to us his wrath doth not appeare in its full Horror, for if it did we should sooner dye, then offend him. Some do but think of it, few think of it as they should, and they that are most apprehensive, look upon it as at distance, as that which may be turned away; and so not fearing his wrath, treasure up wrath against the day of wrath. To us, when we take it at the nearest, and have the fullest sight of it, it appears, but as the cloud did to Elias servant, like a mans hand; but to Christ the Heavens were black with clouds and winds, and it showred down upon him, as in a tempest of fire and brimstone; (we have not his eyes, and therefore not his apprehen­sion; we see not so much deformity in sin as he did, and so not so much terrour in the wrath of God.) It were Impiety and Blasphemy to think that the blessed Martyrs were more patient than Christ, Cujus natura patientia, Tert. de patient. saith Tert. whose very nature was patience, yet who of all that noble Army ever breathed forth such disconso­late speeches? God indeed delivered them up to the saw, to the wrack, to the teeth of Lions, to all the engines of cruelty, and shapes of death, but numquid deseruit? they never cryed out they were forsaken; he snatched them not from the rage of the perescutor by a miracle, but behold a greater miracle.

In all their Torments they had more life & joy in their countenance, than they who looked on, who were more troubled with the sight-than they were with the punishment; their Torture was their Tri­umph; their Afflictions were their Melody; of Weak they were made Strong.

Torments, Racks, and Strapadoes, and the last Enemy, Death it self, were but a recreation and refreshment to the Christians, who suffered all these with the patience of a stander by. But what speak we of Martyrs? Divers sinners (whose ambition never reacht at such a Crown, but rather trembled at it) have been delivered up to afflicti­ons and crosses, nay to the anger of God; but never yet any, nay not those who have despaired, were so delivered as Christ; we may say that the Traitor Judas felt not so much, when he went and hang­ed himself; For though Christ could not despaire, yet the wrath of God was more visible to him than to those that doe, who beare but their owne burden, when he lay pressed under the sinnes of the whole world. God in his approches of Justice, when he comes toward the sinner to correct him, may seem to go like the Consuls of Rome with his Rod and his Axes carried before him; many sin­ners have felt his rod, and his Rod is Comfort; in his Frown, Fa­vour; and in his Anger, Love; and his Blow may be a Bene­fit; but Christ was struck as it were with his Axe; others have trembled under his wrath, but Christ was even consumed with the stroke of his hand. For being delivered to his wrath, his wrath delivers him to these Throwes and Agonies; delivers him to Judas, who delivers, nay betrayes him to the Jewes, who deliver him to Pilate, who delivered him to the Cross, where the Saviour of the world must be murthered, where Innocency and Truth it self hangs betweene two Thieves. I mention not the Shame, the Torment of the Cross, for the Thieves endured the same. But his soul was crucified more than his body, and his heart had sharper nailes to pierce it, than his hands or his feet. Tradidit & non pepercit, he delivered him, and spared him not.

But to rise one step more; Tradidit & deseruit, he delivered, and in a manner forsook him, restrained his influence, denied relief, withdrew his comfort, stood, as it were a far off, and let him fight it out unto death; he looked about and there was none to help, even to the Lord he called, but he heard him not, [...], Mat. 27.46. he roared out for the very grief of his heart, and cryed with a loud voyce, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And could God forsake him? when he hung upon the Crosse, did he not see the joy which was set before him? Yes he did, but not to comfort, but ra­ther torment him, Altissimo Divinitatis consilio actum est, ut gloria militaret in paenam, saith Leo. By the counsell of the Godhead it was set down and determined, that his Glory should adde to his Pu­nishment, [Page 34] that his Knowledge, which was more clear than a Sera­phins, should increase his Grief; his Glory, his Shame; his Hap­pinesse, his Misery; that there should not onely be Vinegar in his Drink, and Gall in his Honey, and Mirrhe with his Spices; but that his Drink should be Vinegar; his Honey, Gall; and all his Spices as bitter as Mirrhe; that his Flowers should be Thorns; and his Triumph, Shame. This could sin do, and can we love it? This could the love and the wrath of God do, his love to his Creature, and his wrath against sin: And what a delivery, what a desertion is this, which did not deprive him of strength, but enfeeble him with strength; which did not leave him in the dark, but punish him with light? what a strange delivery was that, which delivered him up without comfort, nay which betrayed and delivered up his comforts themselves? what misery equall to that which makes Strength a Tormenter, Knowledge a Vexation, and makes Joy & Glory a Per­secution? There now hangs his sacred Body on the Cross, not so much afflicted with his passion, as his Soul was wounded with compassion, with compassion on his Mother, with compassion on his Disciples, with compassion on the Jewes who pierced him, for whom he prayes, Tantam patien­team nemo un­quam perpetra­vit. Tert. de Patientia. when they mock him, which did manifest his Di­vinity as much as his miracles; with compassion on the Temple, which was shortly to be levelled with the ground; with compassion on all Mankind, bearing the burden of all, dropping his pity and his blood together upon them; feeling in himself the torments of the blessed Martyrs, the reproch of his Saints, the wounds of every bro­ken heart, the poverty, diseases, afflictions of all his Brethren to the end of the world; delivered to a sense of their sins, who feel them not, and to a sense of theirs who grone under them; delivered up to all the miseries and sorrowes, not onely which he then felt, but which any men, which all men have felt, or shall feel to the time the Trump shall found, and he shall come again in Glory. The last de­livery was of his soul, which was indeed traditio, an yielding it up, a voluntary emission or delivering it up into his Fathers hands; praeven­to carnificis officio, saith the Father, he prevents the spear, and the hand of the Executioner, Tert. A pol. and gives up the Ghost. What should I say? or where should I end? who can fathome this depth? The Angels stand amazed, the Heavens are hung with black, the Earth opens her mouth, and the Grave hers, and yields up her dead; the veyl of the Temple rends asunder, the Earth trembles, and the rocks are cleft, but neither Art nor Nature can reach the depth of this wis­dom and love; no tongue, neither of the living nor of the dead, nei­ther of men or Angels, are able to express it. The most powerfull E­loquence is the Threnody of a broken heart, for there his death speaks it self, and the vertue and power of it reflects back again upon him, and reacheth him at the right hand of God, where his wounds are open, his merits vocal, interceding for us to the end of the world.

We have now past two steps and degrees of this scale of love with wonder and astonishment, and, I hope, with grief and love, Tradidit pro nobis. For us sinners. passed through a field of Blood to the top of mount Calvarie, where the Son of God, the Saviour of the World, was nailed to the Crosse, and being thus lifted up upon his Crosse, he looketh down upon us to draw us after him. Look then back upon him who looks upon us, whom our sins have pierced, and behold his blood trickling down upon us; which is one ascent more, and brings in the persons for whom he was delivered, First, for us. Secondly, for us all.

Now this pro nobis, that he should be delivered for us, is a con­templation full of delight and comfort, but not so easie to digest; for if we reflect upon our selves, and there see nothing but confusi­on and horrour, we shall soon ask our selves the question, why for us? why not for the lapsed Angels, who fell from their estate as we did? They glorious Spirits, we vile Bodies; they heavenly Spirits, we of the earth earthly, ready to sink to the earth, from whence we came; they immortall Spirits, we as the Grasse, withered before we grow; yet he spared not his Son, to spare us, but the Angels that fell he cast into Hell, and chained them up in everlasting dark­nesse, 2 Pet. 2.4. We may think that this was munus honorarium, that Christ was delivered for us for some worth or excellency in us; no, it was munus eleemosynarium, a gift bestowed upon us in meere com­passion of our wants; With them he deales in rigour, and relents not; with us in favour and mercy, and seeks after us, and layes hold on us, when we were gone from him, as far as sin and disobedience could carry us out of his reach: It was his love, it was his will to doe so, and in this we might rest; but Divines will tell us, that man was a ritter object of mercy than they, quia levius est alienâ mente peccare quam propriâ, because the Angels sin was more spontaneous, De Angelis qui­busdam suâ sponte corruptis, corruptio [...] gens Daemonum eva­sit. Tert. Apol. c. 22. wrought in them by themselves; man had importunam arhorem, that flattering and importuning Tree, and that subtill and seducing Serpent, to urge and sway him from his obedience; Man had a Tempter, the Angels were both the temptation and tempters to themselves; Man took in Death by looking abroad, but the Angels by reflecting upon themselves, gazed so long upon their own Beauty, till they saw it changed into horrour and deformity; and the offence is more par­donable, where the motive is ab extrinseco, from some outward as­soile, than where it grows up of it self. Besides, the Angels did not all fall, but the whole lump of mankind was leavend with the same lea­ven, and pity it may seem, that so noble a Creature made up after Gods own Image, should be utterly lost. These reasons with others we may admit, though they may seem rather to be conjectures than reasons, and we have not much light in Scripture to give them a fai­rer appearance; but the Scripture is plain, that he took not the An­gels, Heb. 2.16. he did not lay his hands upon them, to redeem them [Page 36] to liberty, and strike off their Bonds, and we must goe out of the world to find out the reason, and seek the true cause in the bosome of the Father, nay in the bowels of his Son, and there see the cause why he was delivered for us written in his Heart; it was [...] Tit. 3.4. the love of God to mankind, and what was in mankind but enmity and hostility, sinne and deformity, which are no proper mo­tives to draw on his love? and yet he loved us, and hated sinne, and made haste to deliver us from it; Dilexisti me, domine, plusquam te, quando mori voluisti pro me, saith Aust. Lord when thou dyedst for me, thou madest it manifest, that my soule was dearer to thee, then thy self; such a high esteeme did he set upon a Soule, which we scarce honour with a thought, but so live, as if we had none. For us men then, and For us Sinners was he delivered, the Prophet Esay speaks it, and he could not speake it so properly of any, but him, He was wounded for our transgressions, and broken for our Iniquities, So that he was delivered up not onely to the crosse, E [...] 53. and shame, but to our sinnes which nayled him to the crosse, which crucified him not onely in his Humility, but in his glory, now he sits at the right hand of God, and puts him to shame to the end of the world. Falsò de Judaeis querimur, why complain we of the Jewes malice? or Judas's treason? of Pilates injustice? we, we alone are they, who cru­cifyed the Lord of life; Our Treachery was the Judas which be­trayed him; Our malice, the Jew which accused him; our perjury, the false witnesse against him; our Injustice, the Pilate that con­demned him; our pride scorned him; our envy grinned at him; our luxury spet upon him; our covetousnesse sold him; our corrupt bloud was drawn out of his wounds; our swellings prickt with his Thornes; our sores launced with his speare, and the whole Body of sinne stretched out and crucified with the Lord of life. Tradidit pro nobis, he delivered him up for us sinners; no sinne there is, which his bloud will not wash away, but finall impenitency, which is not so much a sinne, as the sealing up of the body of sinne, when the mea­sure is full; pro nobis, for us sinners; for us? for us the progeny of an arch-traytor, and as great traytors as he, take us at our worst; if we repent, he was delivered for us, and if we do not repent, yet he may be said to be delivered for us, for he was delivered for us to that end that we might repent.

Pro nobis, Pro nobis om­nibus, so us all. for us men, and for us sinners he was deliver'd; pro infirmis, for us when we were without strength; pro impiis, for us when we were ungodly; pro peccatoribus, for sinners; Rom. 5.6,7. for so we were con­sider'd in this great work of our Redemption, and thus high are we gone on this scale and ladder of love. There is one step more, pro no­bis omnibus, he was deliver'd for us all, all, not consider'd as elect, or reprobate, but as men, as smners, for that name will take in all, for all have sinned. And here we are taught to make a stand, and not to [Page 37] touch too hastily, and yet the way is plaine and easie; pro omnibus, for all; this some will not touch, and yet they doe touch, and presse it with that violence, that they presse it almost into nothing, make the world not the world, and whosoever not whosoever, but some cer­taine men, and turne all into a few, deduct whom they please out of all people, Nations, and Languages, and out of Christendome it self, and leave some few with Christ upon the Crosse, whose persons he beares, whom they call the elect, and meane themselves; sic Deus dilexit mundum, so God loved the world, that is the Elect, say they, John 3.16. they are the world, where tis hard to find them; for they are called out of it, and the best light we have, which is of Scripture, discovers them not unto us in that place; and if the Elect be this world which God so loved, then they are such Elect, which may not believe, and such elect as may perish, and whom God will have perish, if they doe not believe. Tis true, none have benefit of Christs death but the Elect, but from hence it doth not follow, that no other might have had; theirs is the kingdome of heaven, but are not they shut out now, who might have made it theirs? God, saith Saint Peter, would not that any should perish, 2 Pet. 3.8. and God is the Saviour of all men, saith Saint Paul, but especially of those that believe, 1 Tim. 4.10. all, if they believe, and repent; and those who are obedient to the Gos­pel, because they doe; the bloud of Christ is powred forth on the Believer, and with it he sprinkles his heart, and is saved; the wicked trample it under their foot, and perish. That the bloud of Christ is sufficient to wash away the sinnes of the world, nay of a thousand worlds; that Christ paid down a ransome of so infinite a value, that it might redeeme all that are or possibly might be under that Cap­tivity; that none are actually redeemed, but they who make him their Captaine, and doe as he commands; that is, believe and re­pent; or to speak in their own language, none are saved but the elect: In this all agree, in this they are Brethren, and why should they fall out, when both hold up the priviledge of the believer, and leave the rod of the stubborne Impenitent to fall upon him? The death of Christ is not applyed to all, say some; It is not for all, say others; the virtue of Christs meritorious passion is not made use of by all, say some; it was never intended, that it should, say o­thers; and the event is the same, for if it be not made use of and ap­plyed, it is as if it were not, as if it had never been obtain'd; onely the unbeliever is left under the greater condemnation, who turned away from Christ who spake unto him, not onely from heaven, but from his crosse, and refused that grace which was offer'd him, which could not befall him, if there had never been any such overture made; for how can he refuse that which never concern'd him? how can he forfeit that pardon, which was never seal'd? how can he de­spise that spirit of grace, which never breathed towards him? They who are so tender and jealous of Christs bloud, that no drop must [Page 38] fall, but where they direct it, doe but veritatem veritate concutere, un­dermine, and shake one truth with another; set up the particular love of God to believers, to overthrow his generall love to Mankind; confound the virtue of Christs passion, with the effect, and draw them together within the same narrow compasse; bring it under a Decree, that it can save no more then it doth, because it hath its bounds set, hitherto it shall go and no further, and was ordained to quicken some, but to withdraw it selfe from others as shut out and hid from the light and force of it, or having any Title to it, long be­fore ever they saw the sunne; And thus they shorten the hand of God, when it is stretched out to all; bound his love, which is prof­ferred to all, stint the bloud of Christ, which gusheth out upon all; and circumcise his mercy, which is a large cloak, saith Bernard, large enough to cover all; and the reason is no better then the position, quod vis esse charum, effice ut sit rarum, to make salvation more pre­cious and estimable, it must be rare; Then 'tis most glorious when tis a peculiar; when tis entayld on a few; why should the love of God be a common thing? I answer, why should it not be common, since he is pleased to have it so? why should he cast away so many, to en­deare a few? and can there be any glory in that priviledge, which is writ with the bloud of so many millions? why should it not be com­mon, since he would have it not onely common, but communi­cated to all, and expresses himself as one grieved, and troubled, and angry, because it is not so? why should we feare Gods love should be cast away by being proferd to many? His love of friendship and complacency to those whom he calls his Friends, cannot be lost, but is as eternall as himself, it assists, and upholds them, and will crown them everlastingly. Nor is his generall love of good will and affecti­on lost, though it be lost; for it is ever with him, even when the wicked are in hell. Plus est bonitas Dei, quam beneficentia; Christs bloud is ever in the Flow, though there be but few that take the Tide, and are carried along with it; Gods goodnesse is larger then his Beneficence; he doth not doe what good he can, or rather, he doth not doe what good he would, because we fall back, and will not re­ceive it; we will not suffer him to be good, we will not suffer him to be mercifull, we will not suffer him to save us. This is the condemna­tion of the world, John 3 19. that light came into the world, and men loved dark­nesse more then light. Ap [...]l. Flor. 1. The Philosopher will tell us of the Indians, ad nascentem solem siti sunt, tamen in corpore color noctis est, they live at the very rising of the sunne, yet their Bodies are black and swarthy and resemble the night; so many there be, who live in the very Region of light, where the Beames fall upon them hot and pure, and are darted at their very eyes, and yet remaine the Children of darknesse: Facit infidelitas multorum ut Christus non pro omnibus moriatur, qui pro omnibus mortuus est, saith Saint Ambrose; Christ was deliverd for all, is a true proposition; it is Infidelity alone that can [Page 39] make it Hereticall, and yet tis true still, though to him that believes not, it is of no more use then if it were false; he was delivered for thee, but thou wilt not receive it; his passion is absolute, but thou art impenitent; he dyed for Judas who betrayed him, but will not save Judas that despaired, and hang'd himself: Infidelity, and impeniten­cy are the worst Restrictives which limit and draw down to parti­culars, a proposition so profitably generall, and bound so saving a universall, that contract and sink all into a few.

To conclude this; Christs hanging on the Crosse looks upon all, but all doe dot cast an eye, and look up in faith upon him; he was de­liver'd to deliver all, but all will not be deliver'd: Omnis natura no­stra in Christi hypostasi invixit, Our whole nature was united in Christs person; not the persons of a few, but our whole nature, and our whole nature is of compasse large enough to take in all; and in that common nature of man he offered up himself on the Crosse, for the sinne of all, that he might tollere peccatum mundi, take away the sinne of the world, destroy the very species and being of it; which though it be not done, cannot be imputed to any scantnesse, or de­ficiency of virtue in his bloud, which is of power to purge out sinne wheresoere it is, if the heart that fosters it, be ready and willing to receive and apply it: And in this common nature of man, not from Abraham or David, but from the first man Adam himself, as Saint Luke carryes up his Genealogy, did Christ offer up himself upon the Crosse; and in this common nature, he presents himself before his Father, and now God looks upon Christ and mankind, as our eye doth upon light, and colours, which cannot be seen without light; before this light came into the world, we were covered over with darknesse, and deformity, and God could not look upon us, but in anger; but through this common light we may be seen and be be­loved, we may be seen with pleasure; for as he was delighted in his Sonne, so in him he is well pleasd in those sonnes which he shall bring with him to glory; but it we will fully withdraw our selves from this light, then doth his soule hate us. Christ is the brightnesse of his Glory, light enough for God to look through upon a thousand worlds, multiplyed a thousand times; and if we doe not hide our selves from it, hide our selves in the cavernes of Earth in the world; If we doe not drown our selves in the bottome of the Sea, in the de­luge of our lusts; if we doe not bury our selves alive in stubborne im­penitency; if we doe not stop up all the passages of our soules, if we doe not still love darknesse, and make it a pavilion round about us; he will look upon us through this light, and look lovingly upon us with favour and Affection, he will look upon us, as his purchase, and he that deliver'd him for us, will with him give us all things; which is the end of all, the end of this his being delivered, and offers it self to our consideration in the last place.

The end. With him he gives all things. He delivered, he sent, he gave him, for all these expressions we find to make him a Gift: He is the desire, and he is the riches of all Nations, so that, as whatsoever we do we must do, so whatsoever we have we receive in his name: The name of Jesus, saith S. Peter of the impotent man, Act [...] 3. hath made this man strong; by his name we are justified, by his name we are sanctified, and by his name we shall en­ter into glory, with him we have all things, for in him are all the treasuries of Riches and Wisdome; we may think of all the King­domes of the earth and the glory of them, but these come not within the compasse, nor are to be reckoned amongst his Donations. For as the Naturalists observe of the glory of the Rainbow, that it is wrought in our eye, and not in the cloud, and that there is no such pleasing variety of colours there, as we see; so the pomp and riches, & glory of this world are of themselves nothing, but are the work of our opinion, and the creations of our fancy, have no worth, nor price, but what our lusts and desires set upon them, luxuria his pretium fe­cit, 'tis our luxury, which hath raised the market, and made them va­luable and in esteem, which of themselves have nothing to com­mend them, and set them off. My covetousnesse makes that which is but earth a God; my ambition makes that which is but aire, as heaven; and my wantonnesse walks in the midst of pleasures, as in a Paradise; there is no such thing as Riches and Poverty, Honour and Peasantry, Trouble and pleasure, but we have made them, and we make the distinction; there are no such plants grow up in this world of themselves, but we set them, and water them, and they spread themselves, and cast a shadow, and we walk in this shadow, and de­light or disquiet our selves in vain. Diogenes was a King in his tub, when great Alexander was but a Slave in the world which he con­quered; how many heroick persons lie in chains, whilest folly and basenesse walk at large? and no doubt there have been many, who have looked through the paint of the pleasures of this life, and be­held them as monsters, and then made it their pleasure and triumph to contemn them. And yet we will not quite exclude and shut out riches, and the things of this world, from the summe, for with Christ they are something, and they are then most valuable, when for his sake we can fling them away; for it is he alone that can make Riches a gift, and Poverty a gift; Honour a gift, and Dishonour a gift; Plea­sure a gift, and Trouble a gift; Life a gift, and Death a gift; by his power they are reconciled and drawn together, and are but one and the same thing; for if wee look up into heaven, there we shall see them in a neer conjunction, even the poor Lazar in the rich mans bo­som. In the night there is no difference to the eye between a Pearl and a Pibble-stone, between the choicest beauty and most abhorred deformity. In the night the deceitfulnesse of riches, and the glory of affliction lie hid, and are not seen, or in a contrary shape, in the false shape of terrour where it is not, or glory, where it is not to be found; [Page 41] but when the light of Christs countenance shines upon them, then they are seen as they are, and we behold so much deceitfulnesse in the one, that we dare not trust them, and so much hope and advan­tage in the other, that we begin to rejoyce in them, and so make them both conducible to that end for which he was delivered, and our con­voyes to happiness.

All things is of a large compasse, large enough to take in the whole world, but then it is the world transformed & altered, the world con­quered by Faith, the world in subjection to Christ; All things are ours, when we are Christs; for there is a Civil Dominion and right to these things, and this we have jure creationis, by right of Creation, for the earth is the Lords, and he hath given it to the sons of men; and there is an Evangelical Dominion, not the power of having them, but the power of using them to his glory, that they may be a Gift; and this we have jure adoptionis, by right of Adoption, as the sons of God, begotten in Christ. Christ came not into the world to purchase it for us, or enstate us in it, he did not suffer that we might be wanton, nor was poor that we might be rich, nor was brought to the dust of death, that we might be set in high places; such a Mes­sias did the Jewes look for, and such a Messias doe some Christians worse than the Jewes frame to themselves; and in his name they beat their fellow-servants, and strip them, deceive and defraud them, because they fancy themselves to be his, in whom there was found no guile, and they are in the world as the mad Athenian was on the shore; every ship, every house, every Lordship is theirs; and indeed they have as fair a title to their brothers estate, as they have to the kingdome of Heaven, for they have nothing to shew for either. I re­member in 2 Corinth. 4.4. S. Paul calls the Divel the God of this world, and these, in effect, make him the Saviour of the world; for (as if he had been lifted up and nailed to the Crosse for them) to him every knee doth bow, nor will they receive the true Messias, but in this shape: for thus they conceive him giving gifts unto men, not spirituall, but temporall, not the Graces of the Spirit, Humility, Meeknesse, and Contentednesse; but Silver and Gold, dividing In­heritances, removing of Land-marks, giving to Ziba Mephibosheths land, making not Saints, but Kings upon the earth; and thus they of the Church of Rome have set it down for a positive truth, that all civil Dominion is founded in Grace, that is, in Christ; a Do­ctrine which brings with it a Pick-lock, and a Sword, and gives men power to defraud or spoyle whom they please, and to take from them that which is theirs, either by fraud or by violence, and to do both in the name and power of Christ. But let no man make his charter larger than it is, and in the Gospel we finde none of such an extent, which may reach to every man, to every corner of the earth, which may measure out the world, and put into our hands any part [Page 42] of it, that either our wit or our power can take in; for Christ never drew any such conveyance, the Gospel brought no such tidings, but when labour and industry have brought them in, sets a seal, imprints a blessing on them, sanctifies them unto us by the Word, and by Prayer, and so makes them ours, our servants to minister unto, and our friends to promote, and lift us forward into everlasting habitati­ons.

Our Charter is large enough, and we need not interline it with those Glosses, which the Flesh and the love of the World will soon suggest; with Christ we have all things, which work to that end, for which he was delivered: we have his commands, which are the pledges of his love, for he gave us them that he might give us more, that he might give us a Crown: we have his promises of immorta­lity and eternall life; Faciet hoc, nam qui promisit est potens, he shall do it, for he is able to perform it: with him every word shall stand, he hath given us faith, for that is the gift of God, to apprehend and receive them, and hope to lift us up unto them: He hath given us his Pastors to teach us (that is scarce looked upon as a gift) but then he hath given us his Angels to minister unto us, and he hath given us his Spirit, fills us with his Grace, if we will receive it, which will make his commands, which are now grievous, easie; his Promises, which are rich, profitable, which may carry us on in a regular and peaceable course of piety and obedience; which is our Angel, which is our God, and we call it Grace. All these things we have with Christ, and the Apostle doth not onely tell us that God doth give us them; but to put it out of doubt, puts up a quomodo non? challenges, as it were the whole world to shew, how it should be otherwise, How will he not with him give us all things? And this question addes ener­gy, and weight, and emphasis, and makes the position more positive, the affirmation more strong, and the truth of it more perswasive and convincing, shall he not give us all things? It is impossible but he should; more possible for a City upon a hill to be hid, than for him to hide his favour from us; more possible for Heaven to sink into Hell, or Hell to raise it self up to his Mercy-seat, than for him to with-hold any thing from them to whom he hath given his Son: Impossible [...], as most inconvenient, as that which is a­gainst his Wisdome, Naz. Or. 36. his Justice, his Goodnesse, and [...], as abhorrent to his will to deny us any thing: In brief, if the Earth be not as Iron, the Heavens cannot be as Brasse, God cannot but give, when we are fit to receive, and in Christ we are made capable; and when he is given, all things are given with him, nay more than all things, more than we can desire, more than we can conceive; when he descends, Mercy descends with him in a ful shower of Bles­sings to make our Souls as the Paradise of God, to quicken our Faith, to rouze up our Hope, and in this Light, in this Assurance, in this [Page 43] Heaven we are bold with S. Paul to put up the question against all Doubts, all Feares, all Temptations that may assault us, He that spa­rede not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him give us all things?

The Conclusi­on. And now we have passed up every step and degree of this scale and ladder of love, and seen Christ delivered and nailed to the Crosse, and from thence he looks down, and speaks to us to the end of the world, Crux patientis fuit Cathedra docentis, the Crosse on which he suffered was the Chaire of his profession, and from this Chair we are taught Humility, constant Patience, and perfect Obedi­ence, an exact art and method of living well, drawn out in severall lines, so that what was ambitiously said of Homer, that if all Sciences were lost, they may be found in him, may most truly be said of his Crosse and Passion, that if all the characters of Innocency, Humili­ty, Obedience, Love, had been lost, they might here be found in libro vitae agni, in the Book of the Life, nay of the Death of the Lamb, slain from the foundation of the World, yet now nailed to the Crosse.

Let us then with Love and Reverence look upon him, whothus looks upon us, put on our Crucified Jesus, that is [...] as Chrys. every Vertue, his Humility, his Patience, his Obedience, and so bear about with us the dying of our Lord, and draw the pi­cture of a Crucified Saviour in our selves. To this end was he deli­vered up for us, to this end we must receive him, that we may glori­fie God, as he hath glorified him on earth, for Gods Glory and our Salvation are twisted together, and wrought as it were in the same thred, are linked together in the same bond of Peace, I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorifie me. Thus it runs, and it runs on evenly in a stream of love.

Oh, how must it needs delight him to see his Gift prosper in our hands, to see us delivering up our selves to him who was thus deli­vered for us; to see his purchase, those who were bought with this price, made his peculiar people! Lift then up the gates of your souls, that this King of Glory may come in: If you seek Salvation, you must seek the glory of God; and if you seek the glory of God, you shall find it in your Salvation: Thou may'st cry, loe here it is, or loe there it is, but here it is found: The Jew may seek salvation in the Law; the Superstitious in Ceremony, and bodily exercise; the Zelot in the Fire and in the Whirlwind; the phantastick lazy Chri­stian in a Thought, in a Dream; and the profane Libertine in Hell it self: Then, then alone we find it, when we meet it in conjunction with the glory of God, which shines most gloriously in a Crucified Christ, and an Obedient Christian, made conformable to him, and [Page 24] so bearing about in him the markes of the LORD JESUS.

To conclude then: Since God hath delivered up his Son for us all, and with him given us all things; let us open our hearts and re­ceive him, that is, Believe in his name, that is, be faithfull to him, that is, love him, and keep his Commandements, which is our confor­mity to his Death, and then he will give us; what will he give us? he will heap gift upon gift, give us power to become the Sons of God. Let us receive him, take in Christ, take him in his Shame, in his Sorrow, in his Agony, take him hanging on the Crosse, take him, and take a pattern by him; that as he was, so we may be troubled for our sins, that we may mingle our Teares with his Blood, drag our Sin to the Bar, accuse and condemn it, revile and spit in its Face, at the fairest presentment it can make; and then naile it to the Crosse, that it may languish and faint by degrees, and give up the Ghost, and die in us, and then lye down in peace in his Grave, and expect a glorious Resurrection to eternall life, where we shall re­ceive Christ, not in Humility, but in Glory, and with him all his Riches, and Abundance, all his glorious Promises, even Glory and Immortality, and Eternall life.

A SERMON Preached on Easter-Day.

WE do not ask, of whom speaketh S. John this? or who is he that speaks it? for we have his character drawn out in lively colours in the verses going before my Text. The Divine calls him a voyce, ver. 12. when he meanes the man who spake it. I turned to see the voyce that spoke with me; and in the next verse tells us, he was like to the Son of man in the midst of the seven golden Candlesticks, governing his Church, setting his Tabernacle amongst men; not abhorring to walk amongst them, and to be their God, Le [...]. 26.11,12. that they might be his people.

Will ye see his Robes and Attire? Clothed he was with a gar­ment down to the foot, which was the Garment of the High Priest, and his was an unchangeable Priesthood, Heb. 7.24. and he had a golden Girdle, or Belt, as a King, v. 13. for he is a King for ever, and [Page 46] of his kingdome there shall be no end: Righteousnesse shall be the girdle of his loynes, and Faithfulnesse he girdle of his reines, Es. 11.5. His head and his haires were white as wooll, v. 14. and as white as snow, his Judgement pure and uncorrupt, not byassed by outward respects, not tainted or corrupted by any turbulent affection, but smooth, & even as waters are, when no wind troubles them; His eys as a flame of fire, piercing the inward man, searching the secrets of the heart, nor is there any action, word, or thought, which is not manifest in his sight: His feet like unto fine brasse, sincere and constant, like unto himself in all his proceedings, in every part of his Oeconomy; his voyce as many waters, v. 15. declaring his fathers will, with power, and authority, sounding out the Gospel of peace to all the world: and last of all out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, v. 16. not one­ly dividing asunder the soul, and the spirit, but discerning the thoughts and intents of the heart, and taking vengeance on those who persecute his Church. His Majesty dazled every mortall eye; his Countenance was as the Sun shining in his strength; and now of him who walks in the midst of his Church, whose Mercy is a large Robe reaching down to the feet, who is girt with Power, who is clo­thed with Justice, whose Wisdom pierceth even into darknesse it self, whose Word is heard from one end of the world to the other, whose Majesty displayes its beams through every corner of it, we can­not but confesse with Peter, This is Christ, the Sonne of the living God.

And can the Saviour of the world, the desire of the Nations, the glory of his Father; can Beauty it self appeare in such a shape of Terrour? shall we draw out a mercifull Redeemer with a warriours Belt? with eyes of Fire? with feet of Brasse? with a voyce of Terrour? with a sharp two-edged Sword in his mouth? Yes: such a High Priest became us, who is not onely mercifull, but just; not onely meek, but powerfull; not onely fair, but terrible; not onely clothed with the darknesse of Humility, but with the shining robes of Majesty; who can dye, and can live again, and live for evermore; who suffered himself to be judged and condemned, and shall judge and condemne the world it self. S. John indeed was troubled at this sight, and fell down as dead, but Christ rouzeth him up, and bids him shake off this feare; for he is terrible to none, but those who make him so; to Hereticks, and Hypocrites, and Persecutors of his Church, to those who would have him neither wise, nor just, nor powerfull, non accepimus iratum, sed fecimus, he is not angry till we force him, & 'tis rather our sins that turn back again upon us as furies, than his wrath, that makes him clothe himself with vengeance, and draw his sword: To S. John, to those that bow before him, he is all Sweetnesse, all Grace, all Salvation, and upon these, as upon St. John, he layes his right hand, quickens and rouzeth them up: Feare [Page 47] not, neither my girdle of Justice, nor my eyes of fire, nor my feet of brasse, nor my mighty voice, nor my two-edged sword; for my Wisdom shall guide you, my power shall defend you, my Majesty shall uphold you, and my Mercy shall crown you. Fear not, I am the first and the last; more humble than any, more powerfull than any, scorned, whipped, crucified, and now highly exalted, and Lord of all the world. I am he that liveth, and was dead, and behold I live for ever­more, &c.

Which words I may call (as Tertullian doth the Lords Prayer) breviarium Evangelii, the breviary, or summe of the whole Gospel, or with Austin, symbolnm abbreviatum, the Epitome and abridge­ment of our Creed, and such a short Creed we find in Tertullian, which he calls Regulam veram, immobilem & irreformabilem, the sole, immutable, unalterable rule of Faith, and then

The articles or parts will be these—

• 1. The Death of Christ, I was dead.
• 2. The Resurrection of Christ, with the effect and power of it, I am he that liveth.
• 3. The duration, and continuance of his life, which is to all eternity, I live for evermore.
• 4. Power of Christ, which he purcha­sed by his death, the power of the keyes; I have the keyes of Hell, and of Death. And these,

• 1. Are ushered in with an Ecce, Behold, that we may consider it.
• 2. Sealed & ratified with an Amen, that we may believe it.

That there be not in any of us, as the Apostle speaks, an unbelie­ving heart to depart from the living God: I am he that liveth, and was dead.

And of the death of Christ we spake the last day: Par: 1. we shall one­ly now look upon it in reference to the Resurrection, consider it as past; for it is fui mortuus, I was dead; and in this we may see the method and proceeding of our Saviour, which he drew out in his blood, which must sprinkle those who are to be saved, and make them nigh unto him to follow in the same method, à morte ad vitam, Luke 24.25 Heb. 2.20 from suffering to glory, from death to life. Tota ecclesia cum Christo computatur ut una persona, Christ and his Church are in computations but one person; he ought to suffer, and we ought to suffer; they suffer in him, and he in hem, to the end of the world; nor is any [Page 48] other method, either answerable to his infinite Wisdome and Ju­stice, which hath set it down in indelible characters, nor to our mor­tall and frail condition, which must be bruised, before it can be hea­led; must be levelled with the ground, before it can be raised up; quicquid Deo convenit, Tetuil. homini prodest, that which is convenient for Christ, is profitable for us; that which becometh him, we must wear as an ornament of grace unto our head; there is an oportet set upon both, he ought, and we ought first to suffer, and then to enter into glo­ry; to die first, that we may rise again.

And first, it cannot consist with the wisdome of God, that Christ should suffer and die, and we live as we please, and the reign with him, and so pass à deliciis in delicias, from one paradise to another; that he should overcome the Divel for those who will be his vassals; that he should foile him in his proud temptations, for those who will not be humble; beat off his sullen temptation, for those who will distrust and murmure; that he should make his victorious death commeatum delinquendi, a licence and charter for all generations to fling away their weapons, and not strike a stroke: If he should have done this, we could not have taken him for our Captaine, and if we will not enter the lists, he will not take us for his Souldiers; non no­vimus Christum si non credimus, we do not know Christ, if we be­lieve him not to be such a one as he is, a Captaine that leads us, as Moses did the children of Israel through the Wildernesse full of fiery Serpents, into Canaan; through the valley of death into life.

Nor is it expedient for us who are not born, but made Christians, (and a Christian is not made with a thought) whose lifting up suppo­ses some dungeon, or prison in which we formerly were; whose ri­sing looks back into some grave. Tolle certamen, ne virtus quidem quicquam erit, take away his combat with our spiritual enemies, with afflictions and tentations, & Religion it self were but a bare name, and Christianity, as Leo the tenth is said to have called it, a fable. What were my Patience, if no misery did look towards it? what were my Faith, if there were no doubt to assoile it? what were my Hope, if there were no scruple to shake it? what were my Charity, if there were no misery to urge it, no malice to oppose it? what were my Day, if I had no Night? or what were my Resurrection, if I were never dead? Fui mortuus, I was dead, saith the Lord of life, and it is directed to us, who do but think we live, but are in our graves, entom­bed in this world (which we so love) compassed about with enemies, covered with disgraces, raked up, as it were, in those evils, which are those locusts which come out of the smoke of the bottomlesse pit; & when we hear this voice, & by the vertue and power of it look upon these, and make a way through them, we rise with Christ, our [Page 49] hope is lively, and our faith is that victory, which overcometh the world.

Nor need this Method seeme grievous unto us, for these very words, Fui mortuus I was dead, may put life and light into it, and commend it, not onely as the truest, but as a plaine and easie me­thod: For by his Death we must understand all those fore-running miseries, all that he suffer'd before his death, which were as the Traine, and Ceremony, as the officers of the High priest to lead him to it; as poverty, scorne and contempt, the burden of our sinnes, his Agony and bloudy sweat, which we must look upon as the principles of this Heavenly science, by which our best master learned to succour us in our sufferings, to lift us up out of our graves, and to rayse us from the dead. There is life in his death, and comfort in his suffe­rings; for we have not such an High priest, who will not help us, but which is one, and a chief end of his suffering and death who is touch'd with the feeling of our Infirmities, and is mercifull and faithfull, Heb. 2.17. hath not onely power, (for that he may have, and not shew it) but a will and propension, a desire, and diligent care to hold up them who are ready to fall, and to bring them back, who were even brought to the Gates of death. Indeed mercy without power can beget but a good wish, Saint James his complementall charity; Be ye warmed, and be ye filled, and be ye comforted, which leaves us cold, and empty, and comfortlesse: and Power without mercy, will nei­ther strengthen a weak knee, nor heale a broken heart, may as well strike us dead, as revive us; but Mercy and Power, when they meet and kisse each other, will work a miracle, will uphold us when we fall, and rayse us from the dead, will give eyes to the blind, and strength to the weak, will make a fiery furnace a Bath, a Rack a Bed, and persecution a Blessing, will call those sorrowes that are, as if they were not; such a virtue, and force, such life there is in these three words, I was dead.

For though his compassion and mercy were coeternall with him as God, yet as man, didicit, he learnt it. He came into the world, as into a Schoole, and there learnt it by his sufferings and death, Heb. 5.8. For the way to be sensible of anothers misery, is first to feele it in our selves; it must be ours, or if it be not ours, we must make it ours, before our heart will melt; I must take my brother into my self, I must make my self as him, before I help him; I must be that Lazar that beggs of me, and then I give; I must be that wounded man by the way side, and then I powre my oyle and wine into his wounds, and take care of him; I must feele the Hell of sinne in my self, before I can snatch my Brother out of the fire. Compassion is first learnt at home, and then it walks abroad, and is eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame, and heales two at once, both the miserable, and [Page 50] him that comforts him; for they were both under the same disease, one as sick as the other; I was dead, and I suffer'd, are the maine strength of our Salvation. For though Christ could no more forget to be mercifull, then he could leave off to be the sonne of God, yet before he emptyed himself, and took upon him the forme of a ser­vant, sicut miseriam expertus non era, ita nec miscricordiam experi­mento novit, saith Hilary, as he had no experience of sorrow, so had he no experimentall knowledge of mercy and compassion; his own hunger moved him to work that miracle of the loaves, for it is said in the Text, He had compassion on the multitude; his poverty made him an Crator for the poore, and he begs with them to the end of the world; He had not a hole to hide his head, and his compassion melted into tears at the sight of Jerusalem: When he became a man of sorrowes, he became also a man of compassion. And yet his experi­ence of sorrow, in truth, added nothing to his knowledge, but ray­seth up a confidence in us to approach neer unto him, who by his miserable experience is brought so neer unto us, and hath reconciled us in the Body of his flesh, Coloss. 1.21. for he that suffer'd for us, hath compassion on us, and suffers and is tempted with us, even to the end of the world; on the Crosse with Saint Peter, on the Block with S. Paul, in the fire with the Martyrs, destitute, afflicted, tormented: would you take a view of Christ looking towards us with a melting eye? you may see him in your own soules, take him in a groane, mark him in your sorrow, behold him walking in the clefts of a bro­ken heart, bleeding in the gashes of a wounded spirit; or, to make him an object more sensible, you may see him every day begging in your streets; when he tells you, He was dead, he tells you as much; In as much as the children were partakers of flesh and Bloud, he also him­self took part of the same, and in our flesh was a hungry, was spet upon, was whipt, was nayld to the Crosse, which were as so many parts of that discipline, which taught him to be mercifull; to be mercifull to them who were tempted by hunger, because he was hungry; to be mercifull to them who were tempted by poverty, because he was poore; to be mercifull to those who tremble at disgrace, because he was whipt; to be mercifull to them, who will not, yet will suffer for him; who refuse and yet chuse, tremble and yet venture; are afraid, and yet dye for him; because as man he found it a bitter Cup, and would have had it passe from him, who in the dayes of his flesh offer'd up prayers, and supplications with strong crying and teares for mortall men, for weak men, for sinners: pertinacissimè durant quae discimus experientiâ, [...]. Ari [...]. An [...]. post. l 2. c. xix. This experimentall knowledge is so rooted and fix'd in him, that it cannot be removed now, no more then his naturall knowledge; he can as soon be ignorant of our actions as our suffe­rings, [...] saith the Philosopher, Experience is a collection of many particulars registred in our memory; and this ex­perience he had, and our Apostle tells us didicit, he learnt it, and the [Page 51] Prophet tells us, he was vir sciens infirmitatum, Es. 53. a man well read in sorrowes, acquainted with grief, and carryed it about with him from his Cradle to his crosse; and by his Fasting and Tentation, by his Agony; and bloudy sweat, by his precious Death and Buriall he remembers us in famine, in Tentation, in our Agony; he remembers us in the houre of death, in our grave (for he pitties even our dust) and will remember us in the day of judgement.

We have passed through the hardest part of this Method, and yet it is as necessary as the end; for there is no coming to it with­out this; no peace without trouble, no life without death; Not that life is the proper effect of death; for this cleare streame flowes from a higher, and purer fountaine, even from the will of God, who is the fountaine of life, which meeting with our obedience (which is the conformity of our will to his) maketh its way with power through fire and water, as the Psalmist speaks, through poverty and contu­milies, through every cloud and tempest, through darknesse, and death it self, and so carryes it on, to end and triumph in life: I was dead, that was his state of humility; but I am alive, that's his state of Glory; and is in the next place to be consider'd.

Vivo, I am alive; Christ hath spoken it, who is truth it self, and we may take his word for it, for if we will not believe him when he sayes it, neither should we believe, if we should see him rising from the dead. And this his life and resurrection is most conveniently pla­ced in that, Non dabis, thou wilt not suffer thy holy one to see corruption; for what stronger reason can there be found out in matters of faith then the will & pleasure of that God, who brings mighty things to pass? & to this end Saint Paul cites the 2. Psalme, and S. Peter the 16. and in this the humble soule may rest, and behold the object in its glory, and so gather strength to rayse it self above the fading vani­ties of this world, and so reach, and raise to immortality. What fai­rer evidence then that of Scripture? what surer word then the word of Christ? He that cannot settle himself on this, is but as S. Judes cloud, carryed about with every wind, wheel'd and circled a­bout from imagination to imagination; now raysed to a belief that it is true, and anon cast down into the midst of darknesse; now as­senting, anon doubting, and at last pressed down by his own unsta­blenesse into the pit of Infidelity. He that will not walk by that light which shines upon him, whilst he seeks for more, must needs stumble and fall at those stones of offence, which himself hath laid in his own way; why should it be thought a thing incredible, that God should raise the dead to life? If such a thought arise in a Christian, Acts 26.8. reason never set it up: I verily thought my self, saith Saint Paul in the next verse, but it was when he was under the Law, and he whose [Page 52] thoughts are staggered here, is under a worse law, the law of his members, his lusts, by which his thoughts and actions are held up, as by a law; is such a one that studies to be an Atheist, is ambitious to be like the beasts that perish, and having nothing in himself, but that which is worse than nothing, is well content to be annihilated. For why should such a temptation take any Christian? why should he desire clearer evidence? why should they seek for demonstrati­on? or that the Resurrection of Christ should be made manifest to the eye? That is not to seek to confirm and establish, but to destory their faith; for if these truths were as evident as it is that the sun doth shine when it is day, the apprehension of them were not an act of our faith, but of our knowledg; and therefore Christ, saith Ter­tullian, shewed not himself openly to all the people at his Resurrecti­on, ut fides non mediocri praemio destinata, Tert. Apol. non nisi difficultate consta­ret, that faith, by which we are destined to a crown, might not con­sist without some difficulty, but commend it self by our obedience, the perfection and beauty whereof is best seen in making its way through difficulties: and so Hilary, Habet non tam veniam quàm praemium, Hil. l. 8. de Trin. ignorare quod credis, not perfectly to know what thou cer­tainly believest, doth so little stand in need of pardon, that it is that alone which drawes on the reward. For what obedience can it be for me to assent to this, that the whole is greater then the part? that the Sun doth shine? or any of those truths which are visible to the eye? what obedience is it to assent to that which I cannot deny? but when the object is in part hidden, in part seen; when the truth we as­sent to, hath more probability to establish it, then can be brought to shake it, then our Saviour himself pronounceth, Blessed are they who have not seen, and yet have believed.

Besides, it were in vain he should afford us more light who hath given us enough; for to him that will not rest in that which is e­nough, nothing is enough. When he rained down Manna upon the Israelites; when he divided the red sea, & wrought wonders amongst them, the Text sayes, For all this they sinned still, and believed not his wondrous works. The Pharisees saw his miracles, yet would have stoned him; they saw him raise Lazarus from the dead, and would have killed them both. The people said, He hath done all things well; yet these were they that crucified the Lord of life. Did any of the Pharisees believe in him? we might ask, Did any of his Di­sciples believe in him? Christ himself calls them Fools and slow of heart to believe what the Prophets had foretold; their Feare had sullied the evidence, that they could not see it, the Text sayes they forsook him and fled. And the reason of this is plain; For though faith be an act of the understanding, yet it depends upon the will, and men are incredulous, not for want of those meanes which may raise a faith, but for want of will to follow that light which leads unto [Page 53] it; do not believe because they will not, and so bear themselves strongly upon opinion preconceived, beyond the strength of all evi­dence whatsoever; when our affections and lusts are high and stand out against it, the evidence is put by and forgot, and the object, which calls for our eye and faith, begins to disappear and vanish, and at last is nothing; quot voluntates, tot fides, so many wills, Hilary. so many Creeds; for there is no man that believes more than he will. To make this good, we may appeale to men of the slendrest observation, least experience; we may appeale to our very eye, which cannot but see those uncertain and uneven motions, in which men are carried on in the course of their life. For what else is that that turnes us a­bout like the hand of a Diall, from one point to another? from one perswasion to a contrary? How comes it to pass that I now embrace what anon I tremble at? what is the reason that our Belief shifts so many Scenes, and presents it self in so many severall shapes? now in the indifferency of a Laodicaean, anon in the violence of a Zelot? now in the gaudiness of Superstition, anon in the proud & scornful slovenry of factious Profaneness? that they make so painfull a peregrination through so many modes and forms of Religion, and at last end in Atheist? what reason is there? there can be none but this, the pre­valency and victory of our sensitive part over our reason, and the mu­tability, yea, and stubbornesse of our will, which cleaves to that which it will soon forsake, but is strongly set against the truth, which brings with it the fairest evidence, but not so pleasing to the sense. This is it which makes so many impressions in the mind: Self-love, and the love of the world, these frame our Creeds, these plant and build, these root and pull down, build up a Faith, and then beat it to the ground, and then set up another in its place. A double-minded man, saith S. James, is unstable in all his wayes. Remember, 2 Tim. 2.8. saith S. Paul, that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised up from the dead, according to my Gospel; that is a sure foundation for our faith to build on, and there we have [...], fair and certain pledges of it, which are as a Commentary upon ego vivo, I live, or as so many beams of light to make it open and manifest to every eye; which give up so fair an evidence, that the malice of the Jew cannot avoid it. Let them say his Disciples stole him away, whilest their stout watchmen slept; what, stole him away? and whilest they slept? it is a dream, and yet it is not a dream, it is a studied lye, and doth so little shake, that it confirmes our faith; so transparent, that through it we may behold more clearly the face of truth, which never shines brighter, than when a lye is drawn before it, to vaile and shadow it. He is not here, he is risen, if an Angel had not spo­ken it, yet the Earthquake, the Clothes, the clothes so diligently wrapt up, the Grave it self did speak it; and where such strange impossibili­ties are brought in to colour and promote a lye, they help to con­fute it; id negant quod ostendunt, they deny what they affirm, and [Page 54] malice it self is made an argument for the truth. For it we have a better verdict given by Cephas, and the twelve: 1 Cor. 12.15. We have a cloud of witnesses, five hundred brethren at once, who would not make themselves the Fathers of a lye, to propagate that Gospel, which either makes our yea, yea, and nay, nay, or damnes us; nor did they publish it to raise themselves in wealth and honour; for that teacheth them to contemn them, and makes poverty a beati­tude, and shewes them a sword, and persecution, which they were sure to meet with, and did afterwards in the prosecution of their of­fice, and publication of that faith; nor could they take any delight in such a lye, which would gather so many clouds over their heads, and would at last dissolve in that bitternesse, which would make life it self a punishment, and at last take it away; and how could they hope that men would ever believe that, which themselves knew to be a lie? These witnesses then [...], are many and beyond exception. We have the blood too, the testimony of the Martyrs, who took their death on't, and when they could not live to publish it, laid down their life, and sealed it with their blood. And there­fore we, on whom the ends of the world are come, have no reason to complain of distance, or that we are removed so many ages from the time wherein it was done; for now Christ risen is become a more obvious object than before; the diversity of mediums have increased & multiplied it; we see him in his word, we see him through the blood of Martyrs, & we see him with the eye of faith; Christ is risen & alive, secundum scripturas, saith S. Paul, and he repeats it twice in the same chapter. Offenderunt Judaei in Christum lapidem (it is S. Austins, & let it passe for his sake) when the Jew stumbled at him he presented but the bignesse of a stone, but our infidelity will find no excuse, if we see him not now, when he appears as visible as a mountain.

Vivo, Vivo, that is, vivifico, I give life. saith Christ, I am alive; there is more in this vivo than a bare rising to life, [...], he liveth, is as much as he giveth life; there is virtue and power in his Resurrection, a power to abolish Death, 2 Tim. 1.10. and to bring life and immortality to light, a power to raise our vile bodies, and a power to raise our viler souls; shall raise them? nay, he hath done it already conresuscitati, we are risen together with him, and we live with him; for we cannot think that he that made such haste out of his own Grave, can be willing to see us rotting in ours. From this vivo it is, that though we dye, yet we shall live again, Christs living breathes life into us, and in his Resurrection he cast the modell of ours; Idea est eorum quae fiunt exemplar aeternum, saith Seneca; and this is such a one, an eternall pattern for ours; Pla­to's Idea, or common form, by which he thought all things have their existence, is but a dream to this, this is a true and reall, an efficaci­ous, working pattern. For as an Artificer hath not lost his art, when he hath finished one piece, no more did Christ his power, when he [Page 55] had raised himself, which as he is, is everlasting, and it worketh still to the end of the world; perfectum est exemplar minùs perfecti, that which he wrought upon himself is most exact and perfect, a fit pat­tern of that which he means to work on us, which will be like to his indeed, but not so glorious.

And now ego vivo, I live, is as loud to raise our hope, as the last trump will be to raise our bodies; and how shall they be able to hear the sound of the trump, who will not hear the voice of their Saviour? ego vivo, Christ life derives its vertue and influence on both; on the Body, with that power which is requisite to raise a bo­dy now putrified, and incinerated, and well near annihilated; and on the Soul, with such a power which is fitted to a soul, which hath both understanding and will, though drawn and carried away from their proper operations for which they were made: we do not read of any precept to bind us, or any counsel to perswade us to contribute any thing, or put a hand to the resurrection of our bodies, nor can there be, for it will to be done whether we will or no; but to awake from the pleasant sleep of sin, to be renewed and raised in the inward man, to die to sin, and be alive to righteousness, we have line upon line, and precept upon precept; and though this life of Christ work in us both the will and the deed, yet a necessary and a law lies upon us, and wo will be unto us, if we work not out our salvation. By his power we are raised in both, but not working after the same manner; there will be a change in both: as the flesh at the second, so the soul at this first resurrection must be reformata & Angelificata, must be spi­ritualized, refined, and angelified, or rather Christificata, if I may so speak, Christified, drawing in no breath but his, having the same mind which was in Christ Jesus. Whilst our bed is in the darkness, whilst cor­ruption is our Father, and the worm our Mother and Sister, we cannot be said to be risen; and whilest all the alliance we have is with the world, whilest it is both Father, and Mother, and Sister to us; whilest we mind earthly things, we are still in our graves, nay in hell it selfe, Death hath dominion over us; for let us call the world what we please, our Habitation, our Delight, our Kingdome, where we would dwell for ever, yet indeed it is but our Grave: If we receive any influ­ence from Christs life, we shall rise fairly; not with a Mouth, which is a Sepulchre, but with a Tongue, which is our Glory; not with a wi­thered hand, but with a hand stretched out to the needy; not with a gadding Eye, but an eye shut up by covenant not with an itching but with an obedient eare; not with a heart of stone, but with a heart after Gods own heart. Our life, saith the Apostle, Colos. 3.3. is hid with Christ in God, and whilest we leave it there, by a continuall meditation of his meritorious suffering, by a serious and practicall application of his glorious Resurrection, we hide it in the bosome of Majesty, and no dart of Satan can reach it. When we hide it in the mineralls of the [Page 56] earth, in the love of the world, he is the Prince of the world, and is there to seize on it; when we hide it in malicious and wanton thoughts, they are his baits to catch it; when we hide it in sloth and idlenesse, we hide it in a grave which he digged for us, we en­tomb our selves alive, and as much as in us lies bury the Resurrecti­on it self; but when we hide it in Christ, we hide it in him who car­rieth healing and life in his wings; when we do per Christum Deum colere, worship God through Jesus Christ our Lord, and put our life in his hands, then the life of Christ is made manifest in our mortall flesh, 2 Cor. 2.4. then we have put off the old man, and in a manner put off our mortality, we are candidati aeternitatis, as Tertul. speaks, candidates for eternity, and stand for a place with Abraham and Isaac, for we have the same God, and he is not the God of the dead, but of the living.

We see now what vertue and power there is in this vivo, Vivo in aeter­num. I live for evermore. in the life of Christ: But we must rise yet higher, even as high as eternity it self; for as he lives, so behold he lives for evermore; a Priest for e­ver, and a King for ever, Heb. 7.16. being made not after the law of a carnall Commandement, after that law which was given to men, that one should succeed another, but after the power of an endlesse life, the A­postle calls it [...], a life that cannot be dissolved, that cannot part from the body. And thus, as he lives for evermore, so whatso­ever issues from him is like himself, everlasting; the beams as lasting as the light, his Word endureth for ever; his Law is eternall, his Intercession eternall, his Punishments eternall, and his Reward eter­nall. Not a word which can fall to the ground, like ours who fall after it, and within a while breath out our souls as we do our words, and speak no more: Not lawes which are framed and set to the times, and alter and change as they do, and at last end with them; but which shall stand fast for ever, aeterae ab aeterno, eternall as he is eternall; he hath spoken this once, and he will speak no more: not an Intercession which may be silenced with power, but imprinted in him, and inseparable from him, and so never ceasing; an Interces­sion which omnipotency it self cannot withstand; and his punishment not transitory, which time may mitigate or take away, but an ever­lasting worm; not a Reward which may be snatched out of our hands, but lasting as the Heavens, nay as Christ himself; and they who would contract and shrink it up in the one, and so make a tem­porary, perishing everlastingness, (which shall last as long as it lasts) do stretch beyond their line, which may reach the right hand, as well as the left, and put an end of the Reward, as they would do to the Pu­nishment, for of the one, as well as of the other it is said, that it shall be everlasting; all that flowes from him is like himself, yesterday, and to day, and the same for ever.

And such an High Priest it became us to have, who was to live for ever; for what should we do with a mortall Saviour? or what can a mortall Saviour do for us? what could an arm of flesh, a withering, dying arm avail us? shadow us to day, and leave us to morrow, raise us up now, and within a while let us fall into the dust, and at last fall down and perish with us. Man is weak and dieth, man given up the ghost, and where is he? where is (I will not say Alexander or Caesar) but where is Moses, that led his people through the red sea? where are his lawes? where is David? S. Peter speaks it freely, that he was both dead and buried, and that his Sepulchre was with them unto that day; but the son of David is ascended into Heaven, is our Priest for ever, and lives for evermore.

And this title of eternity is wrought in his Girdle and Garment, may be seen in his Head and Eyes of fire, adorns his burning feet, is en­graven on his sword, may be read in his countenance, and platted in his crown, and doth well become his power, his wisdome, his justice, his goodnesse; for that which is not eternall is next to nothing; what power it that which sinks? what wisdome is that which failes? what riches are they that erish? what mercy is that which is as the mor­ning dew, which soon falls, and is as soon exhaled and dryed up a­gain? Vertue were nothing, Religion were nothing, Faith it self were nothing, but in reference to eternity; Heaven were nothing, if it were not eternall; Eternity is that which makes every thing something, which makes every thing better than it is, and addes lu­stre to light it self; I live evermore, gives life unto all things. Eter­nity is a fathomlesse ocean, and it carries with it pow [...]r, and wisdome, and goodnesse, and an efficacious activity, a gracious and benevolent power, a wise and provident goodness; for if he live for evermore, then is he independent; if he be independent, then is he most power­full; and if he be most powerfull, then is he blessed; and if be blessed, then is good: He is powerfull, but good: good, but wise; and these, Goodnesse, and Care, and Wisdome, and a diligent care for us meet in him, who lives for evermore, and works on us for our eter­nall salvation.

And first, as he lives for evermore, so he intercedes for us for evermore, and he can no more leave to intercede for us, than he can to be Christ; for his Priesthood must faile before his Intercession; because this power of helping us is everlastingly and inseparably in­herent in him. St. Paul joyns them together, his sitting at the right hand of God, and his interceding of us, Rom. 8.34. so that to leave interceding were to leave the right hand of God, where he looks down upon us, is present with us, and prepares a place for us; his Wounds are still open, his Merits are still vocall, his Sufferings are still importunate, his everlasting presenting of himself before his Fa­ther, [Page 58] is an everlasting prayer, Jesus at the right hand of the father, more powerfull than the full vials, the incense, the prayers, the grones, the sighs, the roarings of all the Saints that have been, or shall be to the end of the world; and if he sate not there, if he inter­ceded not, they were but noise, nay, they were sins; but his inter­cession sanctifies them, and offers them up, and by him they are powerfull; and by this power, the sighs, the breathing, the desires of mortall, fading men, ascend the highest heavens, and draw down eternity.

And this is a part of his Priestly office, which he began here on earth, and continues for us, makes it compleat, holds it up to the end of the world.

Again, this title of eternity is annexed to his Regality, and is a flower of his Crown, not set in any but his; Thou art a King for e­ver, cannot be said to any mortall. Did he not live for evermore, he could not threaten eternall death nor promise everlasting life; for no mortall power can rage for ever, but passeth, as lands do from one Lord to another, lyes heavy on them, and at last sinks to the ground with them all; nor can the hand that must wither and fall off, reach forth a never-failing reward; Infinitude cannot be the issue and product of that which is finite, and bounded within a determined period. And this might open a wide and effectuall door unto sin, and but leave a sad and disconsolate entrance for Vertue and Piety, which is so unsatisfying to flesh and blood, that the perseverance in it requires no lesse a power, than that which Eternity brings along with it, to draw it on. How bold and daring would men be before the Sun and the People? what joy and delight would fill them, did not the thought of a future and endless estate pierce sometimes through them, and so make some vent to let it out? when the evill that hangs over them is but a cloud, which will soon vanish, few men are so serious as to look about and seek for shelter. Post mortem nihil est, Ipsa (que) mors nihil, there is nothing after death, and death it self is no­thing; sets up a chair for the Atheist to sit at ease in, from whence he looks down upon those, who are such fools, as to be vertuous, and smiles to see them toil and sweat in such rugged and unpleasing wayes, carried on with a fear on the one side, and a hope on the other, of that which will never be. And indeed, how weary, and how soon weary would men be of doing good, if there were not a lasting re­compence, if they were not half perswaded (for a ful perswasion is but rare) that there were something laid up in everlasting habitations? Honour, Repute, and Advantage, these may bring forth a Hypo­crite, these may bind on the phylacteries on a Pharisee; but nothing can raise up a Saint, but eternity; nor can that which fleeteth and passeth away build us up in a holy faith: and then there would be no [Page 59] such ship as Faith, which might feare a wreck, 2 Tim. 1.19. no such anchor as Hope; our faith were vain, our hope were also vain, and we were left to be tossed up and down on the waves of uncertainty, ha­ving no haven to thrust into, but that which is as turbulent & uncer­tain as the sea it self, and with it ebbs and flowes, and at last will ebb into nothing.

But vivo in aeternum, I live for evermore, derives an eternity to that which in it self is fading, makes our actions which end in the do­ing of them, and are gone and past, eternall; our words, which are but wind, eternall; and our thoughts which perish with us, eter­nall; for we shall meet them again, and feel the effect of them to all eternity: It makes Hell eternall, that we may flie from it; and Heaven eternall, that we may presse towards it, and take it by vio­lence. Christs living for ever, eternizeth his threatnings, and makes them terrible; his promises, and makes them perswasive and elo­quent; eternizeth our faith and hope, eternizeth all that is praise­worthy, that they may be as a passe, or letters commendatory to prevaile and procure us admittance into his presence, who onely hath immortality, and can give eternall life. This is the vertue and ope­ration of this vivo in aeternum, I live for evermore; for though a time will come when he shall not govern, and a time when he shall not in­tercede, yet the power of his Scepter, the vertue of his Intercession is carried on along with the joy and happiness of the Saints, as the cause with the effect, even to all eternity, and shall have its operati­on in the midst of all our glorious ravishments, and shall tune our Halellujahs, our songs of Thanksgiving to this our Priest and King that lives for evermore. We pass now from the duration and conti­nuance of his life, to his power. He hath the keyes of Hell and of Death.

Habeo claves, I have the keyes, is a metaphoricall speech; Et me­taphorae feracissimae controversiarum, saith Martin Luther, Metaphors are a soyl wherein controversies will grow up thick, and twine, and plat themselves one within the other, whilest every man manures them, and sowes upon them what seed he please, even that which may bring forth such fruit, which may be most agreeable to his taste and humour. Lord what a noyse have these keyes made in the world? you would think they were not keyes, but bells, sounding terrour to some, and making others more bold and merry than they should be: Some have gilded them over, others have even worn and filed them quite away, put them into so many hands, that they have left none at all. For though they know not well what they are, yet eve­ry man takes courage enough to handle them, and let in, and let out whom they please; one faction turns them against another, the Lutheran against the Calvinist, and diabolifies him; and the Calvinist [Page 60] against the Lutheran, and superdiabolifies him. The Church of Rome made it a piece of wisdome to shut us out, and all that will not bow unto her, as subordinate and dependent on that Church; which was but idle physick, which did neither hurt nor good, but was as a dart sent after those who wee gone out of reach; a curse denounced a­gainst those who heard it, and blest themselves in it; indeed a point of ridiculously affected gravity, such as that Church hath many: for what prejudice could come to us by her shutting us out, who had al­ready put our selves out of her Communion? unlesse you will think the valour of that Souldier fit for Chronicle, who cut off the head of a man who was dead before. I have the keyes, saith Christ, and it is most necessary he should keep them in his hands; for we see how dangerous it may prove to put them into the hand of a mortall man, subject to passions, and too often guided and commanded by them; and we know what Tragedies the mistaking of the keyes have raised in the world.

And yet he that hath these keyes, this power, hath delegated al­so a power to his Apostles, not onely to preach the Gospel, but to correct those who disobey it. I would not attribute too much to the Pastors of the Church, in this dull and iron, or rather in this wanton age, where any thing, where nothing is thought too much for them, where all hath been preaching till all are Preachers; yet I cannot but think they have more than to speak in publick, which, 'tis thought, every Christian may do. They are the Ambassadours of Christ, set a­part on purpose in Christs stead, to minister to his Church; nay, but to rule and govern his Church (it is S. Pauls phrase) and they carry about with them his commission, a power delegated from him to se­ver the Goats from the Sheep, even in this life, that they may be­come sheep (to segregate them, Abstin [...]r [...]. Cyp. Segregare, ex­auctorare, virgâ Pastorali serire. Hier. &c. to abstein, or withhold them, to ex­auctorate them, to throw them out, to strike them with the pastorall rod, to anathematize them, &c. this was the language of the first and pu­rest times) which by degrees fell in its esteem by some abuse of it, by being drawn down from that most profitable and necessary end for which it was given, which at last brought all Religion into dis­grace: nor indeed could it be otherwise; for if upon the abuse of a thing we must straight call for the beesome to sweep it away, what can stand long in its place? the Temple is prophaned, that must down to the ground, Liberalty is abused, shut up your purse and your bowels together; Prayer is abused, and turned into babling, tack up your tongues to the roof of your mouth; nay, every thing in the world is abused; if this argument be good, the world it self should long since have had its end. But such a power Christ did leave unto his Church, and the neglect of it on the one side, and the contempt of it on the other, hath brought in that lukewarmness, that indifferency amongst the professors of Christianity, which, if God [Page 61] prevent not, will at last shake and throw down the profession it self, and fill the world with Atheists, which will learn by no Masters but such as instruct fools, nor acknowledge any keyes but those which may break their head.

But indeed we have had these keyes too long in our hands, for though they concern us, yet are they not the keyes in the Text, nor had we lookt upon them, but that those of the Romishparty, where­soever they find the keyes mentioned, take them up and hang them on their Church; But we must observe a difference betwixt the keyes of the kingdome of Heaven, which were given to Peter, and the keyes of Hell and of Death; although with them, when the keyes are seen, Heaven and Hell are all one. For the keyes of David, which o­pens and no man shuts, and shuts and no man opens, were not given to the Apostles, but are a regality and prerogative of Christ, who onely hath power of life and death, over Hell and the Grave; who therefore calls himself the first and the last, because although when he first publisht his Gospel, he died and was buried, yet he rose again to live for ever, so to perfect the great work of our salvation, and by his power to bind those in everlasting chains who stood out against him, and to bring those that bow to his Scepter out of prison into liberty, and everlasting life. The power is his alone, and he made it his by his sufferings (He was obedient to death, therefore God did highly exalt him) became a Lord by putting on the form of a servant; but he hath delegated a power to his Apostles, and those that succeed them, to make us capable, sit subjects for his power to work upon, which neverthelesse will have its operation and effect; either let us out, ot shut us up for ever under the power of Hell and of Death: were not he alive and to live for evermore, we had been shut up in darknesse and oblivion for ever; but Christ living infuseth life into us, that the bonds of Hell and of Death can no more hold us than they can him. There is such a place as Hell, but to the living mem­bers of Christ there is no such place; for it is impossible it should hold them, and you may as well place Lucifer at the right hand of God, as a true Christian in Hell: for how can light dewll in darknesse? how can purity mix with stench? how can beauty stay with horrour? If Nature could forget her course, and suffer contradictories to be drawn together, and to be both true, yet this is such a contradiction, which unless Christ could die again (which is impossible) can never be reconciled. Heaven and earth may passe away, but Christ lives for evermore, and the power and vertue of his life is as everlasting as everlastingnesse it self.

And againe, There was a pale Horse, Rev. 6.8. and his name that sate on him was death, and he had power to kill with the sword, with hunger, and with the beasts of the Earth; but now he doth not kill us, he doth but [Page 62] stagger, and sling us down, to rise again and tread him under our feet, and by the power of an everliving Saviour to be the Death of death it self. Death was a king of terrors, and the Feare of death made us slaves, Heb. 2.15. brought us into servility, and bondage all our life long, made our pleasures lesse delightfull, and our virtues more tedious then they are, made us tremble, and shrink from those Heroique undertakings for the truth of God; but now they in whom Christ lives, and moves, and hath his Being, as in his own, dare look upon him in all his hor­ror, expeditum morti genus, saith Tertull: and are ready to meet him, in his most dreadfull march, with all his Army of Diseases, racks, and Tortures; and as man before he sinned knew not what Death meant, and Eve familiarly conversed with the Serpent, so doe they with death, and having that Image restored in them are secure and feare it not; for what can this Tyrant take from them? Their life? that is hid with Christ in God: It cannot cut them off from pleasure, for their delight is in the Lord: It cannot rob them of their trea­sure, for that is laid up in heaven: It can take nothing from them, but what themselves have already crucified, their Flesh: It cannot cut off one hope, one thought, one purpose; for all their thoughts, purposes and hopes were leveld not on this, but on another life. And now Christ hath his keys in his hand, Death is but a name, it is no­thing, or if it be something, it is such a thing, that troubled S. Austin to define what it is: we call it a punishment, but indeed it is a bene­fit; a favour, even such a favour, that Christ who is as Omnipotent, as he is everlasting, who can work all in all, though he abolished the Law of Moses, the law of Ceremonies, yet would not abrogate this law, by which we are bound over unto death, because it is soprofi­table and advantageous to us; it was threatned, it is now a pro­mise, or the way unto it; for death it is, that lets us in that which was promis'd; it was an end of all, it is now the beginning of all; it was that, which cut off life, it is now that, through which, as through a gate, we enter into it; we may say, it is the first point and moment of our After-eternity, for tis so neer unto it, that we can hardly sever them; for we live, or rather labour, and fight, and strive with the world, and with life it self (which is it self a tempta­tion) and whilst by the power of our everliving Christ, we hold up and make good this glorious contention, and fight and conquer, and presse forward towards the mark, either nature faileth, or is prest down with violence, and we dye, that is our language; but the spirit speaketh after another manner, we sleep, we are dissolved, we fall in pieces, our bodies from our soules, and we from our miseries and Temp [...]tions; and this living, everliving Christ gathers us together again, breaths life and eternity unto us, that we may live and reign with him for evermore. And so I have viewed all the parts of the Text, being the maine Articles of our faith, 1. Christs death, 2. his life, 3. his eternall life; and last of all, his power of the keys; his [Page 63] Dominion over hell and death; we will but in a word fit the Ecce, the behold in the Text, to every part of it, and set the seale to it, Amen, and so conclude.

And first, we place the Ecce the behold, on his death; he suffer'd and dyed, that he might learne to have compassion on thy miseries and on thy dust, and rayse thee from both, and wilt thou learne no­thing from his compassion? wilt thou not by him, and by thy own sinnes and miseries, which drew from him teares of Bloud, learne to pitty thy self? wilt thou still rejoyce in that iniquity which troubled his spirit, which shed his bloud, which he was willing should gush out of his heart, so it might melt thine, and work but this in thee to pitty thy self? we talk of a first Conversion, and a second, and I know not what Cycles and Epicycles we have found out to salve our irregular motion in our wayes to blisse; if we could once have compassion on our selves, the work were done; and when were you converted? or how were you converted? were no such hard questions to be answer'd; for I may be sure I am converted, if I be sure that I truly pitty my self; shall Christ onely have compassion on thy soule? But then again, shall; he shed his bloud for his Church, that it may be one with him and at unity in it self, and canst thou not drop a teare when thou seest this his body thus rent in pieces, as it is at this day? when thou seest the world, the love of the world break in and make such ha­vock in the Church, (oh 'tis a sad contemplation) will none but Christ weep over Jerusalem?

Secondly, let us look upon him living, and not take our eye from off him, to fill and feed, and delight it with the vanities of this world; with that which hath neither life nor spirit; with that, which is so neer to nothing; with that which is but an Idol? Behold he liveth, that which thou so dotest on, hath no life, nor can it prolong thy life a moment: who would not cease from man whose, breath is in his nostrills? and then what madnesse is it to trust in that which hath no breath at all? shall Christ present himself alive to us, and for us, and shall we lay hold of corruption & rottennesse? and when heaven opens it self to receive us, run from it into a charnell-house, and so into hell it self?

But then, in the third place, Behold he lives for evermore, and let not us bound and imprison our thoughts within a span, and when immortality is offer'd, affect no other life but that which is a vapour: Let us not rayse that swarme of thoughts, which must perish, Colos. 3.3. but build up those works upon our everliving Saviour which may follow us, follow us through the huge and unconceivable tract of eternity. Doth our Saviour live for evermore? and shall we have no spirit in us, but that which delights to walk about the earth, and is content [Page 64] to vanish with it? Eternity is a powerfull motive to those who ne­ver have such pensive thoughts, as when they remember their frailty, and are sick even of health it self, and in a manner dead with life, when they consider it as that blessing which shall have an end. Eter­nity is in our desire, though it be beyond our apprehension; what he said of time, is truer of eternity, if you doe not ask what it is, we know, but if you ask, we are not able to answer, and resolve you, or tell you what it is; when we call it an infinite duration, we doe but give it another name, two words for one (a short Paraphrase) but we doe not define what it is. And indeed our first conceptions of it are the fairest; for when they are doubled, and redoubled, they are lost in themselves, and the further they extend themselves, the more weary they are, and at greater losse in every proffer, and must end, and rest at last in this poore, unsatisfying thought, that we can­not think what it is. Yet there is in us a wild presage, an unhandsome acknowledgment of it, for we fancy it in those objects, which vanish out of sight, whilst we look upon them; we set it up in every desire, for our desires never have an end. Every purpose of ours, every action we doe is Aeternitati sacrum, and we doe it to eternity, we look upon riches as if they had no wings, and think our habitations shall endure for ever; we look upon honour, as if it were not Aire, but some Angel confirm'd, a thing bound up in eternity; we look upon beauty, and it is our heaven, and we are fixt and dwell on it, as if it would never shrivel, nor be gathered together as a scroule; and so in a manner make mortality it self eternall. And therefore since our desires doe so far enlarge themselves, and our thoughts doe so mul­tiply, that they never have an end, since we look after that which we cannot see, and reach after that, which we cannot graspe, God hath set up that for an object to look on, which is eternall indeed, in the highest Heavens; and as he hath made us in his own image, so in Christ, who came to renew it in us, he hath shewed us a more excel­lent way unto it, & taught us to work out eternity even in this world, in this common shop of change; to work it out of that in which it is not, which is neer to nothing, which shall be nothing; to work it out of riches, by not trusting them; out of honour by contemning it; out of the pleasures of this world by loathing them; out of the flesh, by crucifying it; out of the world by overcoming it; and out of the Divell himself by treading him under our feet. For this is to be in Christ, and to be in Christ, is to be for evermore. Christ is the eternall Sonne of God, and he was dead, and lives, and lives for evermore, that we may dye and live for evermore, and not onely attaine to the Resurrection of the dead, but to eternity.

Last of all, let us look upon the keys in his hand, and knock hard, that he may open to us, and deliver our soule from hell, and make our grave not a prison, but a Bed to rise from to eternall life; or if we be still shut in, we our selves have turn'd the key against our selves; for [Page 65] Christ is ready with his keyes to open to us; and we have our keys too; our key of knowledge to discerne between Life and Death, and our key of Repentance, and when we use these, Christ is ready to put his, even into our hands, and will derive a power unto us mortalls, unto us sinners, over hell and death.

And then in the last place, we shall be able to set on the Seal, the Amen, & be confirmed in the certainty of his Resurrection and power; by which we may raise those thoughts, and promote those actions, which may look beyond our threescore yeares and ten, through all suc­cessive generations, to immortality, and that glory which shall never have an end. This is to shew and publish our faith by our works, as S. James speaks, this is from the heart to believe it, as S. Paul; for he that thus believes it from the heart, cannot but be obedient to the Gospel, unless we can imagine there could be any man that should so hate himself, as thus deliberately to cast himself into, and to run from happinesse, when it appeares in so much glory: He cannot say Amen to life, who kills himself, for that which leaves as soul in the grave is not faith, but fancy; when we are told that honour cometh towards us, that some golden shower is ready to fall into our laps, that content and pleasure will ever be neer, and wait upon us, how loud and hearty is our Amen? how do we set up an Assurance-office to our selves? and yet that which seemes to make its approch to­wards us, is as uncertain as uncertainty it self; and when we have it, passeth from us, and (as the ruder people say of the Devil) leaves a noysome and unsavoury scent behind it, and we look after it, and can see it no more: but when we are told that Christ liveth for evermore, and is coming, is certainly coming with reward and punishment, vox fancibus haeret, we can scarce say Amen, so be it. To the world, and pomp thereof we can say Amen, but to Heaven and Hell, to eterni­ty we cannot say Amen, or if we do, we do but say it.

For conclusion then: The best way is to draw the Ecce and the Amen, the Behold, and our assurance together, so to study the death and life, the eternall life and the power of our Saviour, that we may be such proficients as to be able with S. Paul [...], to meet the Resurrection, Phil. 3.11. to look for and hasten the coming of the Lord, when his Life, and Eternity, and Power, shall shine gloriously, to the terrour of those who persecute his Church, and to the com­fort of those who suffer for Righteousnesse sake; when that Head which was a forge of mischief and cruelty, that Hand which touched the Lords Anointed, and did his Prophets harm, shall burn in hell for ever; when that Eye which would not look on vanity, shall be fil­led with glory; that Eare which hearkned to his voice, shall heare nothing but Hallebujahs, and the musick of Angels; and that Head which was ready to be laid down for this living, everliving, powerfull Lord, shall be lifted up, and crowned with glory and honour for ever­more. Which God grant, &c.

A SERMON Preached on Whitsunday.

WHen the spirit of truth is come, &c. and behold he is come already, and the Church of Christ in all a­ges hath set apart this day for a memoriall of his coming; a memoriall of that miraculous and un­usuall sound, that rushing wind, those cloven tongues of fire, And there is good reason for it, that it should be had in everlasting remembrance: For as he came then in solemn state upon the Disciples, in a manner seen & heard, so he comes, though not so visibly, yet effectually to us, upon whom the ends of the world are come, that we may remem­ber it: though not it a mighty wind, yet he rattles our hearts toge­ther; though no house totter at his descent, yet the foundations of our souls are shaken; no fire appears, yet our breasts are inflamed; no cloven tongues, yet our hearts are cloven asunder; [...], every day to a Christian is a day of Pentecost; his whole [Page 68] life a continued holy-day, wherein the Holy Ghost descends both as an Instructer and a Comforter, secretly and sweetly by his word characterizing the soul, imprinting that saving knowledge, which none of the Princes of this world had, not forcing, not drawing by violence, but sweetly leading, and guiding us into all truth. When He the spirit of truth is come, &c.

In which words we have [...], the Epiphany, or Apparition of the blessed Spirit, as Nazianzen speaks, or rather the promise of his coming and appearance; and if we well weigh it, there is great reason that the Spirit should have his Advent, as well as Christ his, that he should say, Lo I come, Psal. 40. For in the volume of the book it is written of him, that the spirit of the Lord should rest upon him, Es. 11.2. and I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, Joel 2.28. Christus legis, Spiritus Sanctus Evangelii complementum, Christs Ad­vent for the fulfilling of the Law, and the Spirits for the fulfilling and compleating of the Gospel; Christs Advent to redeem the Church, and the Spirits Advent to teach the Church; Christ to shed his blood, and the Spirit to wash and purge it in his blood; Christ to pay down the ransome for us Captives, and the Spirit to work off our fetters; Christ to preach the acceptable year of the Lord, and the Spirit to interpret it, for we may soon see, that the one will little availe without the other; Christs Birth, his Death, and Passi­on, Chists glorious Resurrection, but a story in Archivis, good newes sealed up, a Gospel hid, till the Spirit come and open it, and teach us to know him, Phil. 3.10. and the vertue and power of his Resurrection, and make us conformable to his death.

This is the summe of these words, and in this we shall passe by these steps or degrees. First, carry our thoughts to the promise of the Spirits Advent, the miracle of this day, cùm venerit, when the spirit of truth comes; in a sound to awake them, in wind to move them, in fire to enlighten and warm them, in tongues to make them speak. Secondly, consider [...] the work and employment of the Holy Ghost, [...], he shall lead you into all truth.

In the first we meet with 1. nomen personae, (if we may so speak) a word pointing out to his person, the demonstrative pronoune ille, when he shall come. 2. Nomen naturae, a name expressing his nature, he is a spirit of truth, and then we cannot be ignorant whose spirit it is.

In the second we shall find Nomen officii, a name of office and ad­ministration, [...] is the word, from whence comes [...] a lea­der or conducter in the way, for so the Holy Ghost vouchsafed to be their leader and conducter, that they might not erre, but [...], [Page 69] keep on in a strait and even course in the way.

And in this great office of the Holy Ghost, we must first take notice of the lesson he teacheth; it is Truth. Secondly, the large ex­tent of this lesson, [...], he leads into all truth. Thirdly, The method and manner of his discipline, which will neerly concern us to take notice of; it is ductus, a gentle and effectuall leading; he drives us not, he drawes us not by violence, but [...] is the word here; he takes, as it were, by the hand, and guides and leads us into all truth.

And first, though we are told by some, that where the article [...] is added to fo, there we are to understand the person of the Holy Ghost, yet we rather lay hold on the pronoun [...] ille, when he the spirit of truth shall come, he shall lead you; which points out to a distinct person: For if with Sabellius he had onely meant some new motion in the Disciples hearts, or some effect of the Spirit, [...] had been enough, but [...] He, designes a certain person; and ille he, in Christs mouth, a distinct person from himself. Besides, we are taught in the Schools, Actiones sunt suppositorum, actions and ope­rations are of persons; now in this verse Christ sayes that he shall lead them; and before he shall reprove the world; and in the prece­dent chapter he shall testifie of me, which are proper and peculiar ope­rations of the blessed Spirit, and bring him in a distinct person from the Father and the Son. And therefore S. Augustine rests upon this dark and generall expression. The Holy Ghost communicates both of the Father and the Son, is something of them both, whatsoever we may call it; whether we call him the Consubstantiall and Coeter­nall communion and friendship of the Father and the Son; or with Gerson, and others of the Schools, Nexum Amorosum, the Essentiall Love, and Love-knot of the undivided Trinity.

But we will wave these more abstruse and deeper speculations, in which, if we speak not in the Spirits language, we may sooner lose than profit our selves, and speak more than we should, whilest we are busie to raise our thoughts and words up to that which is but enough: It will be safer walking below amongst those observations, which as they are more familiar and easy, so are they more usefull, and take what oare we can find with ease, than to dig deeper in this dark mine, where if we walk not warily, we may meet with poyso­nous fogs and damps instead of treasure.

We will therefore in the next place enquire why he is called the [Page 70] Spirit of Truth, for divers attributes he hath; he is called the Spirit of Adoption, Rom. 8.15. the Spirit of Faith, 2 Cor. 4.13. the Spirit of Grace, of Love, of Joy, of Zeale; for where he worketh, Grace is ope­rative, our Love is without dissimulation; our Joy is like the joy of heaven, as true, though not so great; our Faith a working faith, and our Zeal a coale from the Altar, kindled from his fire; not mad and raging, but according to knowledge; he makes no shadowes, but substances; no pictures but realities; no appearances but truths; a Grace that makes us highly favoured, a precious and holy Faith, full and unspeakable Love, ready to spend it self, and zeal to consume us; of a true existence, being from the spirit of God, who alone truly is: but here the spirit of Truth, yet the same spirit that planteth grace and faith in our hearts, that begets our Faith, cilates our Love, works our Joy, kindles our Zeal, and adopts us in Regiam familiam, into the Royall Family of the first-born in Heaven: but now the spirit of Truth was more proper; for to tell men perplext with doubts, that were ever and anon (and sometimes when they should not) asking questions of such a Teacher, was a seal to the promise, a good assurance they should be well taught, that no difficulty should be too hard, no knowledge too high, no mystery too dark and ob­scure for them, but Omnis veritas, all truth should be brought forth and unfolded to them, and have the vayle taken from it, and be laid open and naked to their understanding.

Let us then look up upon and worship this spirit of Truth, as he thus presents and tenders himself unto us, as he stands in opposition to two great enemies to Truth; as 1. Dissimulation, 2. Flattery; and then, as he is true in the lessons which he teacheth, that we may pray for his Advent, long for his coming, and so receive him when he comes.

And first, dissemble he doth not, he cannot; for dissimulation is a kind of cheat, or jugling, by which we cast a mist before mens eyes, that they cannot see us; it brings in the Divel in Samuel's mantle, and an enemy in the smiles and smoothness of a friend; it speakes the language of the Priest at Delphos, playes in ambiguities, promises life, As to King [...], who a [...] slew. when death is neerest, and bids us beware of a chariot, when it means a sword, No, this spirit is an enemy to this, because a spirit of truth, and hates these in volucra dissimulationis, this folding and involvednesse, these clokes and coverts, these crafty conveyan­ces of our own desires to their end, under the specious shew of inten­ding good to others; and they by whom he speaks, are like him, and speak the truth [...], 2 Cor. 3.12. in the simplicity and godly sincerity of the spirit, not in craftinesse, not [...], handling the Word of God deceitfully, 2 Cor. 4.2. Eph. 4.14. not [...], not in the slight of men, throwing a Die, & what cast you would have them, no­ting [Page 69] their Doctrine to men and the times, that is, not to men and the times, but to their own ends, telling them of Heaven, Wisdom 1.5. when their thoughts are in their purse. This holy spirit of Truth flies all such deceit, and removes himself far from the thoughts which are without un­derstanding, and will not acquit a dissembler of his words; there is no­thing of the Divels method, nothing of the Die, or hand, no win­dings nor turnings in what he teacheth, but verus vera dicit, being a spirit of truth, he speaks the truth, and nothing but he truth, and for our behoof and advantage, that we may believe it, and build up­on it, and by his discipline raise our selves up to that end, for which he is pleased to come and be our teacher.

And as he cannot dissemble, so in the next place, flatter us he cannot; the inseparable mark and character of the evill spirit, qui ar­ridet ut saeviat, who smiles upon us, that he may rage against us, lifts us up that he may cast us down; whose exaltations are foiles, whose favours are deceits, whose smiles and kisses are wounds; for flattery is as a glasse for a fool to look upon, and so become more fool than before; it is the fools eccho, by which he hears himself at the re­bound, and thinks the wiseman spoke unto him; and it proceeds from the father of lies, not from the spirit of truth; who is the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever; who reproves drunkennesse, though in a Noah; adultery, though in a David; want of faith, though in a Peter, and layes our sins in order before us: his precepts are plain, his law is in thunder, his threatnings earnest and vehement; he calls Adam from behind the bush, strikes Ananias dead for his hypocrisie, and for lying to the holy Spirit deprives him of his own. Thy excuse to him is a libell, thy pretence fouler than thy sin; thy false worship of him is blasphemy, and thy form of godlinesse open impiety; and where he enters the heart, Sin (which is the greatest errour, the grossest lye) removes it self, heaves and pants to go out, knocks at our breast, and runs down at our eyes, and we hear it speak in sighs and grones unspeakable, and what was our delight, becomes our torment. In a word, he is a spirit of truth, and neither dissembles, to decieve us, nor flatters, that we may deceive our selves; but ve­rus vera dicit, being truth it self, tells us what we shall find to be most true, to keep us from the dangerous by-paths of errour and mispri­sion, in which we may lose our selves, and be lost for ever.

And this appears, & is visible in those lessons and precepts which he gives, which are so harmonious, so consonant, so agreeing with them­selves, and so consonant and agreeable to that Image after which we were made, to fit and beautifie it when it is defaced, and repaire it when it is decayed, that so it may become in some proportion: & mea­sure like unto him that made it: for this spirit doth not set up one pre­cept against another, nor one text against another; doth not disanul his [Page 72] promises in his threats, nor check his threats with his promises; doth not forbid all Feare in confidence, nor shake our confidence, when he bids us feare; doth not set up meeknesse to abate our zeale, nor kindles zeale to consume our meeknesse; doth not teach Christian li­berty, to shake off obedience to Government, nor prescribes obedi­ence, to infringe and weaken our Christian liberty. This spirit is a spirit of truth, and never different from himself, never contradicts himself, but is equall in all his wayes; the same in that truth which pleaseth thee, and that which pincheth thee; in that which thou consentest to, and that which thou runn [...]st from; in that which will rayse thy spirit, and that, which will wound thy spirit: And the rea­son why men who talk so much of the spirit doe fall into grosse and pernicious errors, is from hence, that they will not be like the spirit in this, equall, and like unto themselves in all their wayes; that they lay claime to him in that Text which seemeth to comply with their humour, but discharge, and leave him in that which should purge it; that upon the beck, as it were, of some place of Scripture, which upon the first face and appearance, looks favourably upon their pre­sent inclinations, they run violently on this side, animated and po­sted on by that which was not in the Text, but in their lusts and fancy, and never look back upon other testimonies of divine Autho­rity, that Army of evidences, as Tertullian speaks, which are openly prest out and marshall'd against them, which might well put them to a halt and deliberation; which might stay and drive back their intention, and settle them at last in the truth, which consists in a moderation betwixt two extremes: For we may be zealous, and not cruell; we may be devout, and not superstitious; we may hate Idolatry, and not commit Sacriledge; we may stand fast in our Chri­stian liberty, and not make it a cloak of maliciousnesse; if we did follow the spirit in all his wayes, who in all his wayes is a Spirit of truth; for he commandeth zeale, and forbids Rage; he commends devotion, and forbids superstition; he condemns Idolatry, yea, and condemns sacriledge; he preacheth liberty, and preacheth obedience to supe­riours, and in all is he same spirit.

And this spirit did come, His Advent. and Christ did send him; and in the next place, to this end he came, to be our leader, to guide us in the wayes of truth, to help our infirmities, to be our conduct, to carry us on to the end; which is nomen officii, the name of his office, and Admi­nistration, which one would think, were but a low office for the spi­rit of God, and yet these are magnalia spiriûts, the wonderfull things of the spirit, and doe no lesse proclaime his divinity then the Crea­tion of the world; we wonder the blind should see, the lame goe, the deaf heare, the dead be raysed up, but doth it not follow, pauperes Evangelizantur, Mat. 11.5. the poore receive that Gospel? weigh it well, and in the Ballance of the fanctuary, as great a miracle as the former.

And this his Advent and coming was free and voluntary, and though he was sent from the Father, and the sonne, yet sponte venit, he came of his own accord, and he not onely comes, but sends him­self, say the schooles, as he dayly works those changes and alterations in his creature. These words to be sent, and to come, and the like, Dicit Mittam, ut propriam autoritatem oftendat; Tum denique veni­et, quo verbo spiritûs po­testas indica­tur. Naz. Or. 37. are not words of diminution or disparagement: He came in no ser­vile manner, but as a Lord; as a friend, from a friend as in a letter, the very mind of him that sent it; which shewes an agreement, and concord with him that sent him, but implyes no inferiority, no de­gree of servility or subjection. Yet some there have been, who have stumbled at the shadow which this word hath cast, or indeed at their own, and for this made him no more then a Creature, [...], a su­pernumerary God, brought in to serve, and minister, and no distinct person of the blessed Trinity. But what a grosse error, what foule ingratitude is this, to call his goodnesse servility? his coming to us, submission and obedience? and count him not a God, because by his gracious operation, he is pleased to dwell in men, and make them his Tabernacle? why may we not as warrantably conceive so of either person? For God (with reverence to so high a Majesty) serves us more then we doe him, who are nothing, but by his breath and power; he serves us every day, nay, he Feedeth they young Ravens that call upon him. He knocks at our doores, he intreats, waits, suffers, commands us to serve one another, commands his Angels to serve, & minister unto us; res rationes (que) nostras curat, he keeps our Accounts numbers our teares, watcheth our prayers, in our misery in the deepest dungeon he is with us. And these are no disparagements, but Argu­ments of his excellency, and infinite goodnesse, and faire lessons to us, not to be wanting to our selves, and our brethren, who have God himself thus carefully waiting upon us; and to remember us, that to serve our brethren, is to exalt and advance and rayse us up to be like unto him. When we wash our brethrens feet, when we bind up their wounds, when we sit down in the dust with them, when we visit them in prison, and minister to them on their bed of sicknesse, we may think we debase our selves, and doe decrease as it were; but it is our honour, our Crown, our conformity to him, who was the ser­vant of God, and our servant, and made himself like unto us, that he might serve us in his flesh, and doth so to the end of the world invisibly by his spirit. Tis the spirits honour to be sent, to be a lea­der, a conduct, and though sent he be, yet he is as free an Agent as the sonne, and the sonne as the Father. Tertullian calls him Christi vicarium, Christs vicar here on earth to supply his place; but that argues no inequality, for then the sonne too must be unequall to the Father; for his Angel, his Messenger he was, and went about his fathers businesse. And to conclude this; in a farr remote, and more qualifyed sense we are his vicars, his deputies, his Stewards here on earth, and 'tis no servility, 'tis our honour and glory to doe [Page 74] his business to serve one another in love, to be Servants, to be An­gels (I had almost said) to be holy Ghosts one to another? John 20.21. As my Father sent me, saith our Saviour to his Disciples, so send I you, and he sends us too, who are Haereditarii Christi Discipuli, Christs Disci­ples by inheritance and succession, that every one as he is endowed from above, should serve him, by serving one another; and though our serving him cannot deserve that name, yet is he pleased to call it helping him; that we should help him to feed the hungry, to guide the blind, and teach the ignorant, and so be the Spirits Vicars, as he is Christs; that Christ may fill us more and more with his spi­rit, which may guide and conduct us through the manifold errors of this life, through darkness and confusion, into that truth which may lead us to bliss.

The Spirits lesson. For as he is a spirit of Truth, so in the next place, the lesson which he teacheth is Truth, even that truth, which is an Art, (Saint Austin calls it so) and a law to direct and confine all other Arts, quâ praee­unte seculi fluctus calcamus, which goes before us in our way, and through all the surges of this present world, brings us to the presence of God, who is truth is self; a truth, which leads us to our Origi­nall, to the Rock, out of which we were hewen, and brings us back to our God, who made us not for the vanities of this world, but for himself; an Art to cast down all Babells, all towring and lofty ima­ginations, which present unto us falshoods for truths, appearances for realities, plagues for peace; which scatter and divide our soules, powre them out upon variety of unlawfull objects, which deceive us in the very nature, and end of things. For as this spirit brought life and immortality to light, 2 Time. 1.10. (for whatsoever the prophets and great Rabbies had spoken of immortality, was but darknesse in comparison of this great light) so it also discovered the errors, and horror of those follies which we lookt upon with love and admira­tion, as upon heaven it self. What a price doth luxury place on wealth and riches? what horror on nakednesse and poverty? How doth a jewell glitter in my eyes, and what a slurr is there upon virtue? what Glory doth the pomp of the world present, and what a sad and sullen aspect hath righteousnesse? How is God thrust out, and every Idol, every vanity made a God? but the truth here, which the spirit teacheth, discovers all, pulls off the vayle, shewes us the true countenance and face of things, that we may not be deceived; shewes us vanity in riches, folly in honour, death and destruction in the pomp of this world; makes poverty a blessing, and misery happinesse, and death it self a passage to eternity; placeth God in his Throne, and man where he should be, at his footstoole, bowing before him, which is the readiest way to be lifted up unto him, and to be with him for evermore. In a word, a truth of power to unite us to our God, that brings with it the knowledge of Christ, the wis­dome [Page 75] of God, which presents those precepts and doctrines which lead to happinesse; a truth that goes along with us in all our wayes, waits on us on our bed of sicknesse, leaves us not at our death, but followes us, and will rise again with us unto judgement, and there either acquit or condemn us, either be our Judge or Advocate. For if we make it our friend here, it shall then look lovely on us, and speak good things for us; but if we despise it, and put it under our basest desires and vile affections, it will then fight against us, and tri­umph over us, and tread us down into the lowest pit. Christ is not more gracious then this truth to them that love it; but to those who will not learne, shall be Tribulation and anguish; the Sun turn'd into Bloud, the world on fire, the voyce of the Archangel, the Trump of God, the severe countenance of the Judge will not be more ter­rible then this truth to them that have despised it. For Christ Jesus shall judge the secrets of the heart, acquit the just, condemn the im­penitent, according to this truth which the spirit teacheth, accor­ding, saith Saint Paul, to my Gospel, Rom. 2.16.

The large ex­tent of this lesson. This is the lesson, The spirit teacheth truth; let us now see the ex­tent of it, which is large and universall; for the spirit doth not teach us by halves, doth not teach some truths and conceal others, but teacheth all truth, makes his disciples and followers free from all errors that are dangerous, and full of saving knowledge. For saving knowledge is all indeed, that truth which brings me to my end, is all, and there is nothing more to be known; I desired to know nothing but Christ and him crucified, saith S. Paul, 1 Cor. 2.2. here his desire hath a Non ultra; this truth is all, this joyns heaven and earth together, God and man, mortality and immortality, misery and happiness in one, drawes us neer unto God, and makes us one with him. This is the Spirits lesson, Commentum Divinitatis, the invention of the di­vine Spirit, as faith is called the gift of God, not onely because it is given to every believer, (and too many are too willing to stay till it be given) but because this spirit first found out the way to save us by so weak a means as Faith.

And as he first found it out, so he teacheth it, and leaves out nothing, not a tittle, not an Iota, which may serve to compleat & per­fect this Divine Science. In the book of God are all our members written; All the members? yea, and all the faculties of our soul; and in his Gospel, his Spirit hath framed rules and precepts to order and regulate them all in every act, in every motion, and inclination; which if the Eye offend, pluck it out, if the Hand, cut it off; which limit the understanding to the knowledg of God, which bind the will to obedience, and moderate & confine our Affections, level our hope, fix our joy, stint our sorrow, which frame our speech, compose our gesture, fashion our Apparel, set and methodize our outward behavi­our. [Page 76] Instances in Scripture, in every particular, are many and obvious; and what should I more say; for the time would faile me to men­tion them all: In a word then, this truth, which the spirit teacheth, is fitted to the whole man, fitted to every member of the body, to every faculty of the soule, fitted to us in every condition, in every relation; it will reign with thee, it will serve with thee, it will manage thy riches, it will comfort thy poverty, ascend the throne with thee, and sit down with thee on the dunghill; it will pray with thee, it will fast with thee, it will labour with thee, it will rest and keep a Sabbath with thee; it will govern a Church, it will order thy Fa­mily; it will raise a kingdome within thee, it will be thy Angel to carry thee into Abrahams bosome, and set a crown of glory upon thy head. And is there yet any more? or what need more than that which is necessary? There can be but one God, one Heaven, one Religion, one way to blessednesse, and there is but one Truth, and that is it which the Spirit teacheth; and this runs the whole compass of it, directs us not onely ad ultimum, sed usque ad ultimum, not onely to that which is the end, but to the means, to every step, and passage, and approch, to every help and advantage towards it, and so unites us to this one God, gives us right to this one Heaven, and brings us home to that one end for which we were made. And is there yet any more?

Yes, particular cases may be so many and various, that they cannot all come within the compass of this truth, which the spirit hath plainly taught; 'tis true, but then, for the most part they are cases of our own making; cases which we need not make, cases sometimes raised by weakness, sometimes by wilfulness, sometimes even by sin it self, which reignes in our mortall bodies, and to such, this lesson of the Spirit is as an Ax to cut them, off. But be their Originall what it will, if this truth reach them not, or if they bear no Analogy or affinity with that which the Spirit hath taught, nor de­pend upon it by any evident and necessary consequence, they are not to be reckoned in the number of those which concern us, be­cause we are assured that he hath led us into all truth that is neces­sary. Some things indeed there are, which are indifferent in them­selves, quae lex nec vetat nec jubet, which this Spirit neither com­mands not forbids, but are made necessary by reason of some cir­cumstance of time, or place, or quality, or persons (for that which is necessary in it self, is alwayes necessary) and yet are in their own nature indifferent still; veritas ad omnia occurrit, this truth (which is the spirits lesson) reacheth even these, and containes a rule certain and infallible, to guide us in them (if we become not lawes unto our selves, and fling it by) to wit, the rules of Charity and Christian pru­dence, to which if we give heed, it is impossible we should miscarry. It is the love of our selves the love of the world, not charity, or [Page 77] spirituall wisdome, which make this noyse abroad, which rend the Church in pieces, and work this desolation on the earth; it is the want of conscience, the neglect of conscience in the common and known wayes of our duty, which have raised so many needless cases of conscience, which if men had not hearkened to their lusts, had ne­ver shewn their head; had been, what indeed they are, nothing: the acts of charity are manifest, 1 Cor. 13. She suffereth long, even injuries and errours, but doth not rise up against that which was set up to enlarge and improve her. Charity is not rash to beat down eve­ry thing that had its first rise and beginning from Charity; is not puffed up, swells not against a harmless, yea, and an usefull constitu­tion, though it be of man. Doth not behave it self unseemly, layes not a necessity upon us of not doing that which lawful authority even then styles an indifferent thing, when it commands it to be done. Chari­ty seeketh not her own, treads not the publique peace under foot, to procure her own; Charity is not provoked, checks not at every feather, nor startles at that monster, which is a creation of our own: Chari­ty thinketh no evil, doth not see a Serpent under every leaf, nor Ido­latry in every bow of Devotion; if we were charitable, we could not but be peaceable; if that which is the main of the Spirits les­son, did govern mens actions, there would be abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth. Multa facienda sunt non jubente lege, sed li­berâ charitate, saith Austin, Charity is free to do, & suffer many things which the Spirit doth not expresly command, and yet doth command in generall, when it commands and enjoyns obedience to Authority, which hath no larger circuit to walk and shew it self in, than in things in themselves indifferent, which it may enioyn for orders sake, and the advantage of those things which are necessary, which are already under a higher and more binding law, than any Poten­tate or Monarch of the earth can make. The acts, I say, of Charity are manifest, but those of Christian prudence are not particularly de­signed, Prudentia respicit ad siagu­laria. because that eye is given us to view and consider particular occurrences and circumstances, and it depends upon those things which are without us; whereas Charity is an act of the will, and here, if we would be our selves, or rather, if we would not be our selves, but be free from by-respects, and unwarrantable ends, if we would divest our selves of all hopes or feares of those things which may either shake, or raise our estates, we cannot be to seek. For how easy is it to a disengaged and willing mind to apply a gene­rall precept to particular actions? especially if Charity fill our hearts, which is the bond of perfection, and the end and comple­ment of the Law, which indeed is our spirituall wisdome? In a word, in these cases, when we goe to consult with our reason, we cannot erre, if we leave not Charity behind us; or if we should erre, our charity would have such an influence upon our errour, that it should trouble none but our selves: for Charity [Page 78] beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

And this is the extent of the Spirits lesson; and if in other truths more subtill than necessary we are to seek, it matters not, for we need not seek them; for it is no sin not to know that which I can­not know, it is no sin to be no wiser than God hath made me; or what need our curiosity rove abroad, when that which is all, and a­lone concerns us, lies in so narrow a compasse? In absoluto & facili aeternitas, Hil. de Trin. saith Hilary, the way to heaven may seem rough and trou­blesome, but it is an easy way, easy to find out, though not so easy at our first onset to walk in, and yet to those that tread and trace it often, as delightfull as Paradise it self. See, God hath shut up Eter­nity within the compasse of two words, Believe and Repent, which is a full and just commentary on the Spirits lesson, the summe of all that he taught, lay your foundation right, and then build upon it; be­cause God loved you in Christ, do you love him in Christ; love him and keep his commandements, than which no other way could have been found out to draw you neer unto God. Believe and Repent, this is all. Oh wicked abomination, whence art thou come to co­ver the earth with deceit, with malice? what defyance, what conten­tention, what gall and bitternesse amongst Christians? and yet this is all, Believe and Repent. The pen, the tongue, the sword, these are the weapons of our warfare. What ink, what blood hath been spilt in the cause of Religion? how many Innocents defamed? how many Saints anathematized? how many millions cut down with the sword? yet this is all, Believe and Repent. We hear the noyse of the whip, and the ratling of the wheeles, and the prancing of the horses; the horseman lifteth up his bright speare and his glittering sword, Nah. 3.2,3. Every part of Christendome almost is a stage of war, and the pretence is written in their banners, (you may see it waving in the aire) for God and Religion; and this is all, Believe and Repent. Who would once think the pillars of the earth should be thus shaken that the world should be turned into a worse Chaos than that out of which it was made? that there should be such wars and fightings a­mongst Christians, for that which is shut up and brought unto us in these two words, Believe and Repent? for all the truth, which is ne­cessary, which will be sufficient to lift us to our end, and raise us to happinesse, can make no larger a circumference than this; this is the Law and the Prophets, or rather, this is the Gospel of Christ; this is the whole will of God; in this is knowledge, justification, re­demption and holiness; this is the Spirits lesson, and all other les­sons are no lessons, not worth the learning, further than they help and improve us in this. In a word, this is all in all, and within this narrow compass we may walk out our span of time, and by the con­duct of the same Spirit, in the end of it attain to that perfection and [Page 79] glory, which shall never have an end. And so from the lesson and ex­tent of it, we passe to the manner and method of the spirits Teach­ing; it is not Raptus, a forcible and violent drawing, but ductus ( [...] is the word) a gentle leading, and guiding into all truth: Ducet vos,

And now we know our Teacher, and the Lesson, it will be good to know the method of this Discipline; The word is [...], he shall lead you, which implyes a capability, a preparednesse, a willingnesse in them to be led; and the spirit that leadeth us, teacheth us also to follow him; not to resist him, that he may lead us; not to grieve him by our backwardnesse, that he may fill us with joy; not to quench him, that he may enlighten us; [...], 2 Tim. 1.6. to stir up his gifts, that they dye not in us.

Now this promise was directly and primarily made to the Apo­stles, whose Commission was extraordinary, even as large as the whole world, and therefore needed the spirits guidance in a more high and eminent manner; the gifts of Tongues, and diversities of graces, which might fit them for so great a work, that as their care, so their power might be as universall as the world. And yet to them it was given in measure, and where measure is, there are degrees, for they were lead by degrees, not streight to all truth, but by steps, and approches. Saint Peter himself was not wrapt up as his preten­ded successor into the chaire of truth, to determine all at once; for when pentecost was now past, he goes to Caesarea, and there learnes more then he did at Jerusalem, sees that in the sheet which was let down to the earth, which he heard not from the Tongues, and of a truth now perceived what he did not before, Acts 10.34. that God was no accepter of persons, that now the partition-wall was broken down, that Jew and Gentile were both alike, and the Church, which was formerly shut up in Judea, was now become Catholique; a Body, which every one that would, might be a member of.

Besides, though the Apostles were extraordinarily and miracu­lously inspired, yet we cannot say, they used no meanes at all to bring down the blessed Spirit; for tis plaine, they did wait for his coming, they did pray for the truth, they did labour for the truth, they did conferre one with another, met together in coun­sel, deliberated before they did determine; nor could they imagine they had the spirit in a string, and could command him as they please, and make him follow them whithersoever they were pleased to go. And then between us and the Apostles there is a maine difference, nor can we expect an ocular and visible descent; and therefore if we will be taught by the spirit, we must use the meanes which the same spirit hath prescribed in those lessons which he first and extraordi­narily taught the Apostles, and not make use of his name to mis­interpret [Page 80] interpret those lessons which he taught, or bring in new of our own, and as new, so contrary to them; for what is new, must needs be contrary, because he then taught all truth, and what is more then all, is nothing; what is more then all truth must needs be a lye.

Nor did he lead them into all truth for themselves alone, but for all those who should come after them, for all generations to the end of the world; he made them Apostles, sent them to make us Chri­stians, to make that which he taught them, a rule of life, and to fix it on the Church as on a pillar, that all might read it, that none should adde to it, or take away from it; and for this they are called a Foundation, Ephes. 2.20 and we are said to be built upon them (Jesus Christ being the head corner-stone) which we could not be, if their testimony were so scant and defective, that there were left a kind of necessity upon us to hew and square out what stones we please, and lay a new one of our own to cast down theirs, and beare up whatso­ever our insolent and boundlesse lusts will lay upon it: And now whats become of my Text? for if this be admitted, we cannot say the spirit led them; for what leading is that, which leaves us so farre behind at such a distance from the end, that in every age he must come againe, and take us by the hand, and draw us some other way, even contrary to that which he first made known? and what an all is that, to which every man may adde what he please, even to the end of the world? for every mans claim and Title to the spirit is the same, as just & warrantable in any as in one; & when they speak con­trary things, the evidence is the same, that is, none at all, unless this be a good Argument, he hath the spirit, because he sayes so; which is as strong on his side, that denyes it upon the same pretence: Amongst the sonnes of men there are not greater fooles then they, who have no­thing to say for what they say, but that they say it, and yet think this nothing enough, and that all Israel are bound to hearken to them, as if God himself did speak.

And this is an evil, a folly, a madnesse, which breaths no where but in Christendome, never heard of in any other body or society, but that of Christians; for though many Governours of Common­wealths did pretend to a kind of commerce and familiarity with some God, or Goddess, when they were to make a law; yet we doe not read of any (as farre as I remember) that did put up the same pre­tence, that they might break it; but when the law was once pro­mulg'd, there was nothing thought of, but obedience, or punish­ment. But Christians who have the best Religion, have most abused it, have play'd the wantons in that light in which they should have walkt with feare and trembling; and finding themselves at losse, finding no satisfaction to their pride and ambition, to their malice, and lusts, from any lesson the Spirit hath yet taught, have learnt an [Page 81] Art to suborne something of their own to supply that defect, and call it a Dictate of the spirit. Nor was this evill of yesterday, or which befell the weakest onely; for the Divell hath made use of it in all ages, as of the fittest Engine to undermine that truth which the spirit first taught. Tertullian as wise a man as the Church then had, being not able to prove the Corporiety of the soule by scripture, flyes to private Revelation in his Book De anima non per aestimatio­nem, sed Revelationem; what he could not uphold by reason and judg­ment, Post Ioannem quo (que) propheti­am meruimus conscqui, &c. Tertull. de Anim, c. ix. montanizans. he strives to make good by Revelation; for we, saith he, have our Revelations as well as Saint John: Our sister Priscilla hath plenty of them; her traunces in the Church; she converses with Angels, and with God himself, and can discerne the hearts and in­ward thoughts of men. Saint Hierome mentions others, and in the dayes of our fore-fathers Calvin many more, Calvin. contra Libert. who applyed the name of the spirit to every thing that might facilitate and help on their designe, as parish priests (it is his resemblance) would give the name of six or seven severall Saints to one image, that their offerings might be the more. I need not goe so farre back for instance. Our present age harh shewen us many who have been ignorant, yet wiser then their Teachers, so spirituall, that they despise the word of God, which is the dictate of the spirit (for this monster hath made a large stride from forreigne parts, and set his foot in our coasts) If they murder, the spirit moved their hand, and drew their sword; if they throw down Churches, it is with the breath of the Spirit; if they would bring in parity, the pretence is, the Spirit cannot endure that any should be supreme, or Pope it but themselves; our humour, our madnesse, our malice, our violence, our implacable bitternesse, our railing and reviling must all go for inspirations of the spirit; Simeon and Levi, Absolon and Achitophel, Theudas and Judas, the Pharisees and Ananias, they that despise the holy Spirit of God, these Scara­bees bred in the dung of sensuality, these Impostors, these men of Belial must be taken no longer for a generation of vipers, but for the scholars and friends of the holy Ghost; whatsoever they do, whi­thersoever they goe, He is their leader, though it be to hell it felf.

May we not make a stand now, and put it to the question, whe­ther there be any holy Ghost, or no? and if there be, whether his office be to lead us? Indeed these appropriations, these bold and vi­olent ingrossings of the blessed Spirit have, I fear, given growth to conceits well neer as dangerous, that the spirit doth not spirare, breaths no grace into us, that we need not call upon him; that the text which telleth us, the holy Ghost leadeth, is the holy Ghost that leads us; that the letter is the spirit, and the spirit the letter; an adulterate piece new coyned, an old Heresie brought in a new dress and tire upon the stage again; that he is [...], a strange unheard of Deity, and [...], [Page 82] an ascriptitious and supernumerary God; Nazianz Or. 37. Quis veterum vel recentium adoravit spiri­tum? quis ora­vit? &c. sic Macedoniani, & Eunomiani, Ibid. I might say that it is more dangerous than this: for to confess the Spirit, and abuse him, to draw him to as an accessary and abettor, nay as a principall, in those actions which nature it self abhors and trembles at, is worse than out of errour to deny him. For what a Spirit, what a Dove is that which breathes nothing but gall and wormwood? but fire and brimstone? what a Spirit is that, which is ever pleading and purveying for the flesh? what a Spirit is that which is made to bear witnesse to a lie? for as Petrarch tells us, Nihil importunius erudito stulto, that there is not a more troublesome creature in the world, than a learned foole; so the Church of Christ and Religion never suffered more than by carnall men, who are thus spirit-wise; for by acknowledging the Spirit, and making use of his name, they assume unto themselves a licence to do what they please, and work wicked­nesse, not onely with greedinesse, but cum privilegie, with priviledge and authority; which whilest others doubt of, though it be not one­ly an Error, but Blasphemy, yet parciùs insaniunt, they are not so outragiously made.

But yet we must not put the spirit from his office, because dreams, or rather the evaporations, of mens lusts do passe for revelations; or say he is not a leader into truth, because wicked or fanatick persons walk on in the wayes of Errour, in the wayes of Cain, or Corah, and yet are bold to tell the world, that this spirit goes before them. The mad Athenian took every ship that came into the harbour to be his, but it doth not follow hence that no wise and sober merchant knew his own. To him that is drunk things appeare in a double shape and proportion, Geminae Thehae, & gemini soles, two cities, and two suns for one; but I cannot hence conclude that all sober men do so, nor can I deny the Spirits conduct, because some men wander as they please, and run on in those dangerous by-paths, where he will not lead them: this were to deny an unquestionable and fundamen­tall truth; for an inconvenience to dig up the foundation; because men build hay and stubble upon it, or because some men have sore eyes, to pluck the Sun out of its sphere. It were indeed dangerous to teach, that the spirit did teach and lead us, were there not meanes to try and distinguish the Spirits instructions from the suggestions of Satan, or those [...], those mishapen lumps and abortive births of a sick and loathsome brain, or our private humour, which is as great a Divel. Beloved, 1. Epist. of St. John, c. 4. v. 1, 2. saith S. Joh. believe not every spirit, that is, eve­ry inspiration, but try the spirits, whether they be of God, for many false Prophets are gone out into the world, that is, have taken the chaire, and dictate magisterially what they please, in the name of the Spirit, when themselves are carnall. And he gives the rule by which we should try them in the next verse, Every spirit that confesseth Je­sus is the Lord, is of God, that is, whosoever strives to advance the [Page 83] Kingdome of Christ, and to set up the spirit against he flesh, to magnifie the Gospel, to promote men in the wayes of innocency, & perfect obedience, which infallibly lead to happinesse, is from God; every such inspiration is from the spirit of God; for therefore doth the spirit breath upon us, that he may make us like unto God, and so draw us to him, that where he is we may be also. But then those inspirations which bring in God to plead for Baal, which cry up Re­ligion to gain the world, which tread down peace and charity, and all that is praise-worthy under feet, to make way for mens unruly lust, to pace it more delicately to its end; they that magnifie Gods will, that they may do their own; these men, these spirits cannot be from God: By their fruits you shall know them. For their hypocrisie, as well and cunningly wrought as it is, is but a poor cob-web-lawn, and we may easily see through it, even see these spirituall men swea­ting and toyling for the flesh, these spirits digging in the mineralls, and making haste to be rich: for though Gloria Patri, Glory be to God on High, he the Prologue to the Play, (for what doth an hypo­crite but play?) yet the whole drift, the businesse of every Scene and Act is to draw and conclude all in this, From hence we have our gain. The Angel or the Spirit speaks first, and is the Prologue and Mammon, and the Flesh make up the Epilogue. Date manus, why should not every man clap his hands; surely such Roscii, such nimble cunning actors deserve a plaudite, By their fruits you shall know them; what spirit soever they have it is not of God; for nothing more contrary to the flesh than this spirit, and therefore he cannot lead this way, nor can he teach any thing that may flatter or countenance it; there is nothing more against his nature than this; fire may de­scend, and the earth may be removed out of its place; nature may change her course at the word and beck of the God of nature; but this is one thing which God cannot do, he cannot change himself, nor can his spirit breath any doctrine forth which savours of the world, of the flesh, or corruption; and therefore we may, nay we must suspect all those doctrines and actions, which are said to be the effects and products of the blessed spirit, when we observe them drawn out and levelled to carnall ends, and temporall respects; for sure the spirit can never beat a bargain for the world, and the truth of God is the most unproportioned price that can be laid out on such a purchase. When I see a man rowl his eys, compose his countenance, order and methodize his gesture, as if he were now on his death­bed, to take his leave of the world; when I hear him loud in Prayer, and as loud in reviling the iniquity of the times; when I see him startle at a misplaced word, as if it were a thunder-bolt; when I heare him cry as loud for a reformation as the Idolatrous Priests did upon Baal, I begin to think I see an Angel in his flight and mount, going up into heaven; but then after all this extaticall devotion, after all this zeal, and in the midst of all this noyse wherein I see [Page 84] him stoop like the vultur, and flie like lightning to the prey, I can­not but say within my self, Oh Lucifer, son of the morning, how art thou fallen from heaven? how art thou brought down to the ground, nay to hell it self? sure I am the spirit of truth looks upward, moves upward, directs upward to those things which are above; and if we follow him, neither our doctrine nor our actions will ever savour of this dung.

So then, we see this inconvenience and mischief, which sometimes is occasioned by this doctrine of the Spirits leading, is not unavoid­able; it is not necessary, though I mistake, and take the Divel for an Angel of light, that the holy Ghost should be put to silence; though Corah and his complices perish in their gainsayings, yet God forbid that all Israel should be swallowed up on the same gulph. In the third of the first of Samuel, Samuel runs to Eli, when the voice was Gods, but was taught at last to answer, Speak Lord, for thy ser­vant heareth; though there be many false Prophets, yet Micaiah was a true one; and though there be many false Teachers come in­to the world, yet the spirit of God is a spirit of Truth, & ducet nos, and he shall lead us into all truth.

And that we may follow as he leads, we must observe the wayes in which he moves; for as there is [...], a way of peace, Luk. 1.79. so there are [...], the wayes of truth, and in those wayes the spirit will lead us. I may be in viis iniquitatis, in the wayes of wickednesse, in the wayes of the Gentiles, and prophane men, in viis meis, in my own wayes, in those wayes which my fancy and lust hath chalked out; on that pinacle and height where my ambition hath placed me; in that mine and pit where my coverousnesse hath buried me alive; and in these I walk with my face from Jerusalem, from the truth, and in these he leads us not. How can he learn poverty of spirit, who hath no God but Mammon, and knows no sin but poverty? How can he be brought down to obedience and humility, who with diotrephes in S. John loves to have preheminence, and thinks him­self nothing, till he is taller than his fellowes by the head and shoul­ders? how can he hearken to the truth who studies lies? and doe we now wonder why we are not taught the truth, where the Spirit keeps open school? there is no wonder at all; the reason why we are not taught, is because we will not learn. Ambition soars to the high­est seat, and the Spirit directs us to the ground, to the lowest place; the love of the world doth fill our barns, and the Spirit points to the bellies of the poore, as the better and safer garners; my private factious humour tramples under foot obedience to superiours, be­cause I my self would be the highest, and challenge that as my pecu­liar, which I deny to others; but this spirit prescribes order. Doth Montanus lead about silly women, and prophesy? doth he call his [Page 85] dreames revelations? Eusebius tells us, that the Spirit which led him about was nothing else but an inseparable desire of precedency. [...]. l. 1. c. 21. Tert. coat. Va­lent. c. 4. Doth Valentinus number up his Aeones and as many crimes as gods? Tertullian informes us that he hoped for a Bishoprick, but fell from those hopes, and was disappointed by one who was raised to that dignity by the prerogative of Martyrdome, and his many sufferings for the truth. Doth Arrius deny the divinity of the Son? read Theodoret, and he will shew you Alexander in the chaire before him. Theod. l. 1. c. 2. Doth Aerius deny there is any difference between a Bishop and Pres­byter? the reason was, he was denied himself, and could not be one; so that he fell from a Bishoprick as Lucifer did from Heaven, whose first wish was to be God, and whose next was that there were no God at all. From hence these stirres and tumults in the Church of Christ, from hence these storms and tempests, which blow and beat in her face; from hence these distractions and uncertainties in Christian Religion, that it is a matter of some danger but to men­tion it; which made Nazianzen (in some passion as it may seem) cry out [...], &c. I would, saith he, Naz. Or. 20. there were no precedency, no priority, no dignities in the Church, but that mens estimation did onely rise from vertue; but now the right hand and the left, the higher and the lower place, these terms of difference have led men not into the truth, but into that ditch where Errour mudds it self. Caeca avaritia, saith Maximus, covetousness and ambition are blind, and cannot look upon the truth, though she be as manifest as the sun at noon; and it fares with men in the lust of their eyes, in the love of the world, as it did with the man in Arte­midorus, who dreamt he had eyes of gold, and the next day lost them, had them both put out; for now no smell is sweet but that of lucre, no sight delightfull but of the wedge of gold; and so by a strange kind of Chymistry they turn Religion into Gold, and even by Scripture it self heap up Riches, and so they lose their sight and judgement, and savour not the things of God, but are stark blind to that truth which should save them.

But now grant, that they were indeed perswaded of the truth of that which they defend with so much noyse and tumult, yet this may be but opinion and fancy, which the love of the world will soon build up, because it helps to nourish it; and how can we think that the spirit did lead them in those wayes, in which self love and desire of gaine did drive on so furiously? for sure the spirit of truth cannot work in that building, where such Sanballats laugh him to scorne. Now all these are the very cords of vanity, by which we are drawn from the truth, and must be broken asunder, before the spirit will lead us to it; for he leads us not over the Mountaines, nor through the bowells of the Earth, nor through the numerous Atomes of our vaine and uncertaine and perplext imaginations, but as the wis­dome [Page 86] which he teacheth, so is the method of his Discipline, pure, peaceable, Jam. 3.17. and gentle, without partiality, without hypocrisie, and hath no savour or relish of the Earth; for he leads the pure, he leads the peaceable, he leads the humble. In a word, he leads those who are lo­vers of peace and truth.

Conclus. And now to draw towards aconclusion: will you know the wayes in which the Spirit walks, and by which he leads us? will you know the rules we must observe, if we will be the Spirits Schollars? I will be bold to give them you from one who was a great lover of truth, even Galen the Physician: I can but name them, for the time will not suffer me to insist; they are but four, the first, is [...], a love of Truth; the second, [...], a love of Industry, a frequent meditation of the truth; the third is [...], an orderly and methodicall proceeding in the pursuit of Truth; the last is [...], exercitation, and our conformity to the truth in our con­versation: And this gold, though it be brought from Ophir, yet may it be usefull to adorn and beautifie those who are the living temples of the holy Ghost.

And first, Love is a passion imprinted in us to this end, to urge and carry us forward to the truth, and it is the first of all the passions, the first of all the operations of the soul, the first mover, as it were, being a strong propension to that we love, and which is fitted and proportioned to the mind, seeking out the meanes, and working forward with all the heat of intention unto the end; eminent a­mong the affections, calling up my fear, my hope, my anger, my sorrow; my fear of not finding out, yet in the midst of fear raising a hope to attain to it; my sorrow that I find not so soon as I would; and my an­ger at any thing that is averse or contrary, at any cloud or difficul­ty that is placed between me and the truth. The love of Christ, saith S. Paul, constraineth me, 2 Cor. 5.14. [...] (a resemblance taken from women in travell) constraineth, urgeth me, worketh in me such a desire, as the pain in travell doth in a woman to be dlivered; for do we not labour and travell with a conclusion, which we would find out? and what joy is there, when we have? like that of a woman in travell, when a man-child is brought into the world. If you love me, keep my commandement, John 14.15. saith Christ; if you love me not, you can­not, but if you love me you will certainly keep them.

Will you know the reason why the wayes of truth are so deso­late? why so little truth is known, when all offers it self, and is even importunate with us to receive it? there can be no other rea­son given but this, that our hearts are congealed, our spirits frozen, and we are coldly affected to the truth, nay are averse and turn from it; this truth crosseth our profit, that our pleasure; other truths [Page 87] stand in our light, & obstruct our passage to that we most desire. S. Paul speaks plainly, If the truth be hid, it is hid to them that perish, 2 Cor. 4.3,4. in whom the God of this world hath fo blinded their mind, that the light of this truth should not shane upon them; for if we have eyes to see her, she is a fair object, as visible as the Sun; if we do but love the truth, the spirit of truth is ready to take us by the hand and lead us to it; but those that withdraw themselves doth his soul hate.

Now in the next place, this love of truth brings in [...], a love of Industry, for if we love it, it will be alwayes in our thoughts, and we shall meditate of it day and night; for to love seven yeares are but a few dayes, and great burdens are but small, and labour is but pleasure, and we walk in the region of truth, viewing it, and de­lighting in it, gathering what may be for our use; we walk in it as in a Paradise. Truth is best bought when it costs us most, and must be wooed oft and seriously, and with great devotion; as Pythagoras said of the gods, Non est salutanda in transitu, is not to be spoken with in the By and passage, is not content with a glance and slutation, and no more; but we must behold it with care and anxiety, we must make a kind of peregrination out of our selves, and must run and sweat to meet it, and then this spirit leads us to it. And this great encouragement we have, that in this our labour we never faile of the end we labour for; which we cannot find in our other endeavours and attempts, in which we have nothing to uphold us under those burdens which we lay upon our own shoulders, but a deceitful hope, which carries us along to see it self defeated, the frustration whereof is a greater penalty and vexation than that which we undertook for its sake. How many rise up early to be rich, and before their day shuts up are beggers? how many climb to the highest place, and when they are neer it, and ready to fit down, fall back into a prison? But in this we never faile, the Spirit working with us, and blessing the work of our hands, making our busie and carefull thoughts as his chariot, and then filling us with light; such is the priviledge and pre­rogative of Industry, such is the nature of Truth, that it will be wrought out by it; nor did ever any rise up early, and in good earnest travell towards it, but this spirit took him by the hand and brought him to his journeys end. If thou seekest her as silver, Prov. 2.4,5. if thou search for her as for had treasure (which because it is hid we remove many things, turn up much earth, and labour hard, that we may come to it) then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the know­ledge of God; in which work our industry and the Spirits help are as it were joyned and linked together.

You will say perhaps, that the Spirit is an omnipotent Agent, and can fall suddenly upon us, as he did upon the Apostles this day; that he can lead us in the way of truth, though we sit still, though our [Page 88] feet be chained, though we have no feet at all; but the Proverb will answer you; [...].

If God will you may sail over the sea in a sieve; but we must re­member the Spirit leads us according to his own will nad counsel, not ours; that as he is an Omnipotent, so he is a free Agent also, and worketh, and dispenceth all things according to the pleasure of his will; and certainly he will not lead thee, if thou wilt not follow; he will not teach thee, if thou wilt not learn; nor can we think that the truth which must make us happy is of so easie purchase, that it will be sown in any ground, and as the Divels tares grow up in us, Nobis dormientibus, whilest we sleep.

The third is [...], method, or an orderly proceeding in the wayes of truth; for as in all other Arts and Sciences, so in our spiri­tuall wisdome, and in the school of Christ, we may not hand over head huddle up matters as we please, but must [...], keep an or­der and set course in our studies and proceedings: our Saviour Christ hath a [...], Mat. 6.33. seek first the kingdome of God, and in that king­dome every thing in its order; there is something first, and some­thing next to be observed, and every thing is to be ranked in its pro­per place: the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews tells us of principles of Doctrine which must be learned before we can be led forward to perfection; Heb. 5.13,14. of milk, and of strong meat; of plainer Lessons before we reach at higher Mysteries; nor can we hope to make a good Christian, veluti ex luto statuam, as soon as we can make a pi­cture, or a statue out of clay. Most Christians are perfect too soon, which is the reason that they are never perfect; they are spirituall in the twinkling of an eye (they know not how, nor no man else) they leap over all their alphabet, and are at their [...], their end, before they begin; are at the top of the ladder before they have set a foot to the first step or rown; they study heaven, but not the way to it; they study faith, but not good works; repentance without a change or re­stitution; Religion without order; they are as high as Gods closet in heaven, when they should be busie at his foot-stool; study predestina­tion, but not sanctity of life; study assurance, but not that piety which should work it; study heaven and not grace, and grace but not their duty; and now no marvel if they meet not with that saving truth in this [...], in this so great disorder and confusion; no marvel when we have broke the rules and order, & not observed the method of the Spirit, if the Spirit lead us not, who is a Spirit that lo­veth order, and in a right method and orderly course leads us into the truth.

The last is [...], exercitation and practice of the truths we learn, which is so proper and necessary for a Christian, that Christian [Page 89] Religion goes under that name, and is called an exercise by Clem. [...]. Strom. l. 4. Al. Nyssen, Cyril of Ilierusalem, and others; and though they who lead a Monasticall life have laid claim to it as their own (they were called [...]) yet it may well belong to every one that is the Spi­rits Scholar, who is as a Monk in the world, shut up out of it, even while he is in it, exercising himself in those lessons which the Spirit teacheth, and following as he leads, which is to make the world it self his monastery. A good Chritian is the true [...], Epictet. Arrian. l. 3. c. 5. and by this daily exercise in the doctrines of the Spirit, he doth [...], as the Stoicks speak, drive the truth home, and make it en­ter into the soul and spirit; for as Auaxagoras said well, manus causa sapientiae, 'tis not the brain, but the hand that causeth knowledge, Talis quisque est qualibue dele­ctater; inter artisicem & artificium mi­ra cognatio est. and worketh wisdome: for true wisdome, that which the Spirit tea­cheth, consists not in being a good Critick, or in rightly judging of the sense of the words, or being a good Logician in drawing out a true and perfect definition of Faith and Charity, or discoursing aptly and methodically of the Lessons of the Spirit; or in being a good Ora­tour, in setting out the beauty and lustre of Religion to the very eye. No, saith the son of Syrach, He that hath no experience knoweth little, Ecclus. 34.10. Ex mandato mandatum cernimus, by practising the command we gain a kind of familiarity, a more inward and certain knowledge of it; If any man will do the will of God, he shall know the Doctrine; Joh. 7.17. in Divinity, and indeed in all knowledge whose end is practice, that of Aristotle is true, Those things we learn to do we learn by doing them; we learn devotion by prayer; charity, by giving of alms; meek­nesse, by forgiving injuries; humility and patience, by suffering; temperance, by every day fighting against our lusts; as we know meat by the taste, so do we the things of God by practice and expe­rience, and at last discover heaven it self in piety; and this is that which S. Paul calls knowledge according to godlinesse; 1 Tim. 6.3. we taste and see how gracious the Lord is, we do as it were see with our eyes, and with our hands handle the word of truth. In a word, we manifest the truth, and make it visible in our actions; and the Spirit is with us, and ready in his office to lead us further, even to the inner house; and secret closet of truth, displayes his beames of light, as we press forward and mend our pace, every day shining upon us with more brightnesse, as we every day strive to increase; teaching us not so much by words as by actions and practice, by the practice of those vertues which are his lessons, and our duties; we learn that we may practice, and by practice we become as David speaks, Psal. 119.99. wiser then our teachers. to conclude, day unto day teacheth knowledge, and every act of piety is apt to promote and produce a second, to beget more light, which may yet lead into more, which may at last strengthen & establish us in the truth, and so lead us from truth to truth, to that happy estate which hath no shadow of falshood, but like the Spirit of Truth endureth for evermore.

THE FIRST SERMON.

NOthing more talkt of in the world, then Religion, nothing lesse understood, nothing more negle­cted, there being nothing more common with men, then to be willing to mistake their way; to withdraw themselves from that, which is indeed Religion, because it stands in opposition to some pleasing errour, which they are not willing to shake off, and by the help of an unsanctified, complying fancy, Multi fibi fi­dem ipsi potiut constitunut, quam accipiunt, dum quae ve­lunt sapiunt, & nolunt sape­pere quae vera sunt, cum sapi­entiae haecveri­tas sit, ea in­terdum sapere, quae nolis. Hilar. 8. de Trin. V. 22. to frame one of their own, and call it by that name. That which flatters their corrupt hearts, That which is moulded and attemper­ed to their bruitish desigus, That which smiles upon them in all their purposes, which favours them in their unwarrantable under­takings, That which bids them Go on and prosper in the wayes which lead unto death, That with them is True Religion.

In this Chapter, and indeed in every Chapter of this Epistle, our Apostle hath made this discovery to our hands: Some there were, as he observes, that placed it in the ear; did hear and not do: and rested in that: some did place it in a formall devotion: did pray, but pray amisse, and therefore did not receive: some that placed it in [Page 2] a shadow and appearance, Verse 25. seemed to be very religious, but could not bridle their tongue, and were safe they thought under this shadow: o­thers there were, that were partiall to themselves, despisers of the poor, that had faith and no works, in the second Chapter, and did boast of this: others, that had hell fire in their Tongue, and carried about with them a world of iniquity, which did set the wheel, the whole course of Nature on fire, in the third Chapter, and last of all, some he observed warring and fighting, killing, that they might take the prey, and divide the spoil, in the fourth Chapter; And yet all religi­ous; Every one seeking out death in the errour of his life, and yet every one seeming to presse forward towards the mark, for the price of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. To these, as to men rea­dy to dash upon the rock and shipwrack, doth our Apostle cry out as from the shore, to turn their compasse, and steer their course the right way, and seeing them, as it were, run severall wayes all to meet at last in the common gulph of eternall destruction; He calls, and calls aloud after them. To the superstitious, and the prophane, To the disputer and the scribe, to them that do but hear, and to them that do but babble, To them that do but pro­fesse, and to them that do but beleeve, the word is; Be not decei­ved, This is not it: but Haec est, This is pure Religion is vox à Tergo, as the Prophet speaks, Esay 30. a voice behinde them, saying, This is the way, walk in it: This is as a light held forth to shew them where they are to walk; as a royal Standard set up to bring them to their colours: This doth Infinitatem rei ejicere, as the Civilians speak. Take them from the Devils latitudes and expatiations, from frequent and fruitlesse hearing, from loud, but heartless prayer, from their beloved but dead faith, from undisciplined and malitious zeal, From noise and blood, from fighting and warring, which could not but defile them, and make them fit to receive nothing, but the spots of the world, from the infinite mazes and by-paths of Errour, and brings them into the way, where they should be, where they may move with joy and safety, looking stedfastly to­wards the End.

Let us now hear the conclusion of the whole matter, whatso­ever Divines have taught, whatsoever Councels have determined or the schoolmen defined: whatsoever God spake in the old times, whatsoever he spake in these last dayes, That which hath filled so many volumes, and brought upon us Fatigationem Carnis, that wea­riness of the flesh, Ecclesia. 1 2.12. which Solomon complains of, in reading that multitude of Books, with which the world doth now swarm with, That which we study for, which we contend for, which we fight for, as if it were in Democritus his Well, or rather, as the Apostle speaks, in Hell it self, quite out of our reach, or if there be any truth that is necessary, or any other commandment, it is briefly com­prehended in this saying, even in this of Saint James, Pure Religi­on, [Page 3] and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to vi­sit, &c.

I way call it the picture of Religion in little; in a small com­passe, and yet presenting all the lines and dimensions; the whole signature of Religion, fit to be hung up in the Church of Christ, and to be lookt upon by all, that the people, which are and shall be born may truly serve the Lord: May it please you therefore a while to cast your eyes upon it, and with me to view. First, The full proportion, and severall lineaments of it, as it were the essen­tiall parts which constitute, and make it what it is, and we may distinguish them as the Jew doth the Law: by Do, and Do not; The first is Affirmative: To do Good: to visit the fatherlesse and wid­dows in their affliction. The second not to do evil; to keep our selves unspotted from the world. And then secondly, to look up­on as it were the colours and beauty of it, and to look upon it with delight, as it consists, First in its purity, having no mixture. Se­condly, in its undefilednesse, having no pollution. And then third­ly, the Epigraph or title of it, the Ratification or seal, which is set to it to make it Authentick, which is set to, not of men, or by men: but divinâ manu by the hand of God Himself, which drew the first co­py, and pattern: For, this is true Religion apud Deum & patrem with God and the Father, and as he gave witnesse to his Son from Heaven, This is my beloved Son, so doth he also to Christiain Re­ligion, of which he was the Author and Finisher. Haec est, This is it, and in this I am well pleased: Pure Religion and undefiled be­fore God, &c.

Let us now in order view these; and these two; To do Good, and abstain from Evil, our charity to others in the one, and our charity to our selves in the last, in being as those Dii benefici those Tutelar Gods to the Widows and Fatherlesse, and those [...] to keep all evil from our selves, I call the effentiall parts of Religion, without which it can no more subsist, then a man with­out a soul; For as the body without the spirit is dead, even so faith with­out works is dead also.

Not that we exclude Faith, or Prayer, or Hearing of the Word; for without faith religion is but an empty name, and it comes by hearing, and is increased by devotion. Faith is a foundation upon a Foundation: for as Truth is the foundation of faith, Amb. in Psal. 118. so is faith the Foundation of an Holy Conversation, in this we edifie our selves, and in this we sustain and uphold others, in this we stand, and in this we raise up others; From faith are the issues of life, from this, as from a fountain flow those waters of comfort, which refresh the widow, and fatherlesse, and that water of separation, Num. 31.23. which purifies us, keeps us unspotted, as white as snow.

But our Apostle mentions none of these, and I will give you some reason; at least, a fair conjecture, why he did not. And [Page 4] first, not Faith, we see here where he tells us what Pure Religion is, he doth not so much as name it; for indeed, it is the ground of the whole draught and portrayture of Religion, and as we ob­serve it in Pictures it is in shadow; not exprest, out yet seen: sup­posed by Saint James, writing not to Insiders, but to those who had already given up their names unto Christ. And it is like those [...] in the Mathematicks, which Tully calls Iuitia Mathematico­rum, the beginnings and principles of that science, which if we grant not, we can make no further progresse in that science. In the sixth to the Hebrews Saint Paul calls it a principle of the Doctrine of Christ: and what necessity was there for my Apostle to com­mend that unto them which they already embraced, to direct them in that in which they were perfect, to urge that which they could not deny; not deny? nay, of which they made their boast all the day long? No: Saint James is for Ostende mihi, he doth not once doubt of their faith, but is very carnest to force it out, that it may evaporate, and shew it self in their works of piety: Then faith is a starre, 2 Tim. 1.19. and when it streams out light, and the beams are the works of charity: Then faith is as a ship, when Pure Religion is the rudder to steer and guide it, that it dash not on a rock, and ship-wrack: Then faith is the soul of the soul, when by its quick­ning and enlivening power we run the wayes of Christs command­ments: pure creduat, pure ergo loquantur, faith the Father: Their belief is right, therefore let their conversation be sincere, no other conclusion can naturally be deduced from faith, and of it self it can yeeld no other, and this it will yeeld, if you do not in a manner de­stroy it, and spoyle it of its power and efficacy; for what an un­naturall inconsequence is this, I beleeve that Christ hath taught me, to be mercifull, as my heavenly Father is mercifull: That cha­rity hath the promise of the world to come, Therefore I will shut up my bowels; this I am sure is one part of our belief, if it be not, our Creed is most imperfect; and yet such practicall conclusions doth our avarice and luxury draw. Our faith is spread about the world, but our charity is as a candle under a bushell; the great er­rour, and folly of this our age, which can shew us multitudes of men and women, which, as the Apstle speaks, are ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the Truth, which have con'd their Creed by heart, but have little skill, or forgot their skill they have, in the royall Law; who cry up faith as the Jews did the Temple of the Lord, and are very zealous for it, yet suffer it to decay and waste, till it be dead, as my Apostle speaks, cat out the very heart of it, by a carelesse and prophane conversation, as the Jews with their own hands did set fire on that Temple. which they so much adored.

And this may be a second reason, why he mentions not faith in his character of Religion; for having every where preacht up the [Page 5] power and efficacy of faith, men carnally minded did so fill their thoughts, with the contemplation of that fundamentall vertue, that they left no roomfor other vertues, not so efficacious indeed to justi­fie a sinner, yet as necessary as faith it self: did commend & extol the power of faith, when it had none at all in them, nay, (which is the most fatall miscarriage of all) did make it an occasion, Rom. 6.6. through which sinne revived, which should have destroyed in them the whole body and juncture of sin; it being common to men at last to fix and fettle their minds upon that object which is most often presented to their mindes, as the Countrey peasant having heard much talk of the City of Rome, began at last to think there was no other City but that: If we look forward to the second Chapter of this Epistle, we shall think this more then a conjecture; for there he seems to take away from faith its saving attribute, Numquid fi­des potest salvmn sacere? Can faith save a man? What an Heretick, what a Papist would he be, that should but put up this question in these our dayes? wherein the sola justificat hath left faith alone in the work of our salvation: and yet the question may be put up, and the resolve on the negative may be true; It cannot save him certainly that saith he hath faith, and hath not works: And thus, though he dis­pute indeed against Simon the sorcerer, and others, as we may gather out of Irenaeus, yet in appearance he levels his discourse against Paul the Apostle: for not by works, but by saith, faith Saint Paul, not by faith, but by works, saith Saint James, and yet both are true, the one speak­ing to the Jews, who were all for the Law the other to those who were all for faith, and to them who had buried all thought of good works in the pleasing but deceitfull contemplation of faith, he speaks no other language, but do this; and exalts charity to the higher place, that their vain boasting of faith might not be heard; for faith, saith he, hath no tongue, nay, no life without her, and thus in appearance he takes from the one, to establish the other, and sets up a throne for charity, not without some shew, and semblance of prejudice to faith.

For last of all, to give you one reason more: Faith indeed is na­turally productive of good works: For what madnesse is it to see the way to eternity of blisse, and not to walk in it? Each article of our Creed points out, as with [...]e finger, to some vertue to be wrought out in the minde, and publisht in the outward man. If I beleeve that Christ is God, it will follow, I must worship him: If he died for sinne, the consequence is plain enough, we must die to it: If he so loved vs, the Apostle concludes, we must love one ano­ther: charity is the proper effect of faith, and upon faith, and cha­rity we build up our hope, if we beleeve the promises, and per­form the condition, if we beleeve him that loved us, and love him, and keep his commandments, we are in heaven already. But yet we may observe, that the corruption of our hearts findes somthing in [Page 6] faith it self, to abate and weaken her force, and power, and to take off her activity, and so makes the very object of faith an encou­ragement to evil, and (which is a sad speculation) the mercy of God, a kinde of temptation to sinne: Mercy is a pretious oynt­ment, and mercy breaks our head; mercy blots out sin, and mer­cy revives it; mercy is our hope, and mercy is made our confusi­on: we should sin no more, but we sin more and more, because his mercy endureth for ever: we turn the grace of God into wanton­ness, and make this Queen of his glorious attributes to wait on our lust: of a Covering, a purging, a Healing, a saving, (I tremble to speak it) we make it a damning mercy; for had we not abused it, had we not relied upon it too much, had we not laid upon it all our uncleannesse, our impenitency, and wilfull obstinacy in sinne, it would have upheld us, and lifted us up as high as Heaven; but our bold presumption layes hold of it, and it flings us off, and we fall from it, into the bottomlesse pit.

This then we may take for a sufficient reason, why our Apostle puts not faith into his description of Pure Religion, and in the next place, as he doth not mention faith, so he passeth by in silence, ra­ther then forgets those other excellent duties of prayer, and hear­ing the word.

For these two, whatsoever high esteem we put upon them; how­soever we magnifie them till they are nothing, till our selves are worse than nothing, worse than the beasts that perish, yet are they not the end; and their end is perdition, who make them so, and think that to aske a blessing is to have it, when they put it from them: or to hear of God is to love him: to hear of that happi­nesse, which he hath laid up, is to be in Paradise. The perfection of the creature, saith the Philosopher is ad naturae suae sinem perve­nire, to attain to the end for which he was made, and the end of the Christian is, to be like unto Christ, that where he is, He may be also; that is his end, that is his perfection: Now to draw this home, these two, to Hear and to Pray; do not make us like unto him, but are sufficient means to renew the image of God in us, that so we may resemble him, they are not the haven to which we are bound, but are as prosperous and advantagious windes to carry us to it, Quod per se bonum est, semper est bonum, that which is good in it self, and for it self, is alwayes good, as true piety, true Religion, but those duties which tend to it, have their reward or punishment as they reach, or misse of that end; what is hearing, if it beget not obedience? what are prayers if they be but the calves of our lips? Oh, 'tis a sad question to be ask't, when we shall see Christians full of malice and deceit, Have they not heard? they have heard that malice shall destroy the wicked, that deceit is an abominati­on, that oppression shall eat them up, yet will be such monsters, as if they never heard; oh, 'tis a sad expostulation to the wicked, [Page 7] Have they not heard, and as sad a return may be made to our prayers; we may stretch out our hands, and God may hide his eyes from us, we may make many prayers and he not hear, we may lift up our hands, and vocie unto Heaven, and our minde stay below wallow­ing in the mire of foul pollutions, mixt and ingendering with the vanities of the world; for as we may fast to strife and debate, so we may pray to strife and debate, as there may be a politick Fast, so our prayer may have more in it of craft than devotion, we may make it a trade, a craft, an occupation, and so [...] stoutly la­bor and holdout, not to take the kingdom of Heaven, but to devour widows houses; make this Key of the Gates of Heaven, a picklock to open Chests, and so debase it to these vile offices, which is a sin, cujus non audeo dicere nomen, for which I have no name bad e­nough to give it: and what is Prayer then? what are the means if we rest in them as in the end? what are they, if we draw and force them to a bad end? what are they if we make no use of them at all, or make this sad and fatall use of them; if our Prayers bring down a curse; our hearing flatter us in our disobedience, if we Hear, and Pray, and Perish? These two, and what else of this nature have their worth and efficacy from Religion, from charity to our selves, & others, which are as the two wings, on which our pray­ers ascend, and mount to the presence of God, to bring down a bles­sing from thence: These sanctifie our fasts, these open the ears of the deaf, that hearing they may hear and understand: These conse­crate our Pulpets, and are the best panegyricks on our Sermons, and make them indeed the word of God, powerfull in operation, and without these our prayers are but babling, and the Sermons, which we hear, but so many libels against us, or as so many knells and sad indications, that they, that hear them, are condemned, and dead already.

For again, to visit the fatherlesse and widows in affliction, that is, to be full of good works, and to renounce, and abstain from the pleasures of the world (for those pleasures we dote on, those riches we sweat for, are those that bespot us) is a far harder task then to say a hundred pater no sters, or to continue our prayers, as Saint Paul did his preaching untill midnight, or to hear a Sermon every day. Bid the wanton leave the lips of the harlot: Acts 20. bid the ambitious make himself equall to them of low degree: bid the mammonist be rich in good works, and if he do not openly pro­fess it, yet the conjecture will be easy and probable, that the wanton would chuse rather to fast twice in the week with the Pharisee, than to make himself an Eunuch for the Kingdom of Heaven: the ambitious and covetous rather say their prayers (for such can but say them) then to stay themselves in the eager pursuit of their ends but so long, as to give an almes: the ambitious will pray and hear, and do any thing rather than fall lower, and the Miser [Page 8] chain his ears to the Pulpit, rather than to open them to the com­plaint of the poor: S. Basil observed it long since [...], &c. Grat. ad Dite­scentes. and tels us that he knew many, who without any great pains might be brought, to fast and pray, and to perform all parts of Religion, which were not chargeable, but could not be wonne with the most powerfull eloquence, or strongest reason to any part of it, which did cost them [...] but one half-peny [...] a cheap Religion is as easy, as cheap; but Go, sell all that you have, and give to the poor, is a better pill, which we hardly let down, and with a sowre coun­tenance, and should we prescribe it now, to men of this Iron age, would they not as S. Paul speaks in another case, say, that we were out of our wits?

And therefore in the last place, These two, if they be truly in us, are never, can never be alone, but suppose faith, which is sigillum bonorum operum, Serm. 23. as Chrysologus speaks, the seal to every good work to make it currant and authentick, and he that is perfect in these, cannot be to seek in the rest. He that can govern a ship in a storm, when the Sea rages, and is unquiet, may easily mannage a cockboat in a calm: he that can empty himself to his brother, that thinks the bellies of the poor the best granaries for his corn, and the surest treasury for his money, that can give unto God the things that are Gods, and return them back by the hands of his Ambassadours the poor, who beseech us in his Name; he that is an exile at home, and hath banisht himself from the world, he lives in, so uses it, as if he used it not; he that hates sin, as an infectious plague, and in a holy pride will keep his distance from it, though it bow towards him in the person of his dearest friend, that can detest sacriledge, though his father were intricht by it, and passed it over to him, as an inheritance: He that can thus keep himself unspotted of the world, will lift up pure hands, and beat down his body and be ready to hearken what the Lord God will say; he that sends up so many sacrifices to God, he that thus makes himself a sacrifice, will offer up also the incense of his prayers: he that can abstain from sinne, may fast from meat, he that hath broke his heart, will open his car: In a word, he that approves himself in these two, cannot but be active and exact in the rest.

And now having shewed you, what is but shadowed in this pi­cture and description of Religion; let us look upon the picture it self, so look upon it, that we may draw it out, and expresse it in our selves, in every limb and part of it, that they that behold us may say, God is in us of a truth, and glorifie him at the sight of such religious men.

And first we see Charity stretching forth her hand, and casting her bread upon the waters, the bitter waters of Affliction, going a­bout to the widow and fatherlesse, and doing good, doing all those [Page 9] things which Jesus began to teach, walking in love as Christ loved us; Ciem. 2. strom. 404. And this we may well call a part of Religion, and a fair represen­tation of it; for by this the image of the likenes of God is repaired in us saith Bern, is made manifest in us, and as it were visible to the eye: For in every Act of charity he that dwels on High comes down in the likeness of men, speaks by the tongue, gives by the hand of a mortal man, moves in him, & moves with him to perfect this work. This makes us as God, in stead of God, one to another: for Homint homo quid praestat? one man is not superiour to another, as he is a man (for in the Heraldry of Nature, all are of the same degree, all are equal; for all aremen) but when charity filleth his Heart, and stretcheth forth his Hand, he takes the higher place, the place of God, is his Embassadour and Steward, not of the same Essence with God, but bearing about with him, his Image, saith Clem. Al. Put you on, saith S. Paul, bowels of mercy, [...] as the elect of God, when we have put them on, we then are indeed the elect of God, endowed with his spirit, carrying about with us the mercies of God, sent as it were from his mercy seat, with comfort and relief to those, who are minished and brought low by oppression, affliction & sorrow; we may flat­ter our selves, and talk what we please of Election, and if we please intail it on a Faction, but most sure it is, without charity our election is not sure, and without bowels we can be no more Elect, then Judas the traytor was; Elect, that is by interpretation, the sons of perdition; It is doing good alone that makes us a Royall priesthood, and this Honour have all his Saints; the kings of the Gentiles, saith our Savi­our, exercise authority upon them, and they that exercise authority over them are called [...] benefactors or gratious Lords, are called what they should be, not what they are, for if they were gratious & Benefactors, then were they kings indeed, annointed with the oil of mercy, which is sent down from Heaven, being from the Heaven, Heavenly; that day, when this distilled not from him on others, Titus the Emperour did count as lost. Diem perdidi, so it is in Su­eton: but Zonaras hath it [...] I have not reigned to day, this day I was not Gods vicegerent: we read in the book of the Kings, that God gave Solomon a large Heart, and Pi­neda glosses it liberalem fecit, He made him liberall and mercifull; we read that David was a man after Gods own heart, and Procopius upon that place gives this as the probable reason of this denomina­tion, that he was [...] a lover of the poor, mercifull as he is merciful, [...] Imitation gives us a kinde of neer­nesse, and familiarity with God; that in which we represent him, Synes. Epist. 30 makes as one with him, makes us as Christ speaks, his brother, and sister, and mother. This is our affinity, this is our honour, this is in a manner our Divinity on earth; For God and man, saith Synesius have but this one onely thing common to them both, and that is, Heb. 13.16. [...] to do good; To do good and to distribute, forget not, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.

This then may well go for one part, or limb of Religion: And in the next place, as in the visitation of the fatherlesse and widows all charity to our Brother is implyed, so all charity to our selves is shut up in this other in keeping our selves unspotted of the world. And this phrase in keeping our selves, is very significant, and that its weight; for those spots, which so defile us, and make us such Leo­pards, are not so much from the world, as from our selves, as a cheat is not onely from the cunning of the Impostor, but from the want of wisdom and experience in him that is deceived; 'tis Igno­rance that promotes the cheat, that draws the power and faculty into Act, makes him that hath a subtle wit, injurious, and tis an evil heart, that makes the world contagious; for wisdom pre­vents a cheat, and watchfulnesse a spot. This world in it self hath nothing in it that can defile us; for God saw all that he made was good, Tertul. despe­ctaculis. c. 2. and it was very good, but Nihil non est Dei, quod Deum offen­dit, there is nothing by which we offend God, but is from God; that beauty, which kindles lust, is his gift; that gold which hath made that desolation upon the earth, was the work of his hands; he gives us the bread we surfet on; he filleth the cup, that intoxicates us; the world is the Lords, and all that therein is, but yet this world bespots us not, because 'tis his, who cannot behold, much lesse could make any unclean thing.

We must therefore search out another world: and you need not travell far, 1 ep. 2.16. for you may stay at home, and finde it in your selves; S. John hath made the discovery for you in his first Epi­stle, where he draws the map of it, and divides it to our hands in­to three provinces or parts; the first, the lust of the flesh, where unlawfull pleasures sport themselves; secondly, the lust of the eyes, where covetousnesse builds her an house; thirdly, and the pride of life which whets a sword for the Revenger, erects a throne for the Ambitious, raiseth up a triumphant Arch for the vain-glorious; this is the world, saith S. John, even a world of wickednesse; this inverteth the whole course of Nature, makes the wheel of the Cre­ation move disorderly; this world within us, makes that world without us an enemy; makes beauty deceitfull, wine a mocker, ri­ches a snare works that into sinne, out of which, we might have made a key to open the gates of Heaven; drops its poyson under every leaf, upon every object, and by its mixture with the world, ingenders that serpent, which spets the poyson back again upon us, and not onely bespots, James 1.15. and defiles, but stings us to death: for when Lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sinne, and when sinne is fini­shed it defiles a man, and leave those spots behinde it, which de­face him, and gives him a thousand severall shapes; the Schools call it maculam peccati the blot and stain of sinne, which is of no po­sitive reality, but a deprivation, and defect of beauty in the soul, and varies, as shadows do, according to the diversity of those bo­dies, [Page 11] that cast it. We see then, that there is a world within us, as well as without us, and when these two are in conjunction, when our lust joyns it self to the things of this world, as the prodigall is said to do to a master in a farr countrey, then follows pollution and deformity, and as many spots, as there be sins, which are as many as the hairs of our head; Beauty brings in deformity, riches poverty, plenty brings leanness into the soul; and therefore to conclude this, to keep our hearts with diligence, and to keep our selves unspotted of the world, is a main and principall part of our Religion, and will keep us members of Christ, and parts of the Church, when prophanenesse, and coverousnesse, which is Idola­try, shall have laid her discipline, her honor in the dust: A man of tender bowels and a pure heart is as the Church; and the gates of hell cannot prevail against him. By this we imitate that God we worship, we draw neer unto him, as neer as flesh and morta­lity will permit; our escaping the spots and pollutions of this world makes us followers of that God, who marks every spot we have, and is not touched, sees us in our blood and pollution and is not defiled, beholds all the wickednesse in the world, and yet remains the same for ever, even goodnesse and purity it self; this makes us partakers, as Saint Peter speaks of the Divine nature, in a word, 2 Pet. 1.4. to be in the world and tread it under our feet, to be in Sodom, and to be a Lot, on the hills of the robbers, and do no wrong, to be in the midst of snares and not be taken; to be in Paradise, Import. and see the Apple pleasant to the sight, to be compast about with glorious objects of delight and pleasures, and not to Taste or Touch or Handle, is the neerest assimilation that Dust and Ashes, that mortall man can have to his Creator.

I may well then call these two the Essentiall parts of Religion: Antigoni Ima­ginem [...]otege­nes obliquam fecit, ut quod corpore deerat, picturae potius deesse videre­tur, tantumque eam partem oslendit, quam toram poterat ostendere. Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 35. c. 11. of which as you have taken a short severall view, so be pleased to observe also their mutuall dependance and necessary connexion; for if either be wanting, you spoil the whole peece; for neither will my charity to my brother entitle me to Religion, if I be an e­nemy to my self; nor my abstaining from evil Canonize me a saint, if my goodnesse be not diffusive on others, and if we draw out in our selves the picture of Religion, but with one of these, we do but like the painter, who to flatter Antigonus, because he had but one eye, Drew but the half face.

For first, to visit the Fatherlesse and widdows, i. e. to be plente­ous in good works, ista sunt quasi incunabula pietatis saith Gregory, Augustin. these are the very beginings and nurcery of the love of God, and there is no surer, and readier step to the love of God whom we have not seen, then by the love of our Brethren whom we see; Gregor. Tunc ad alta charitas mirabiliter surgit, cum ad ima proximorum se misericorditer attrahit, Then our charity begins to improve itself, and rise as high as Heaven, when it bowes and descends, and falls [Page 12] low, to sit with a Brother in the Dust; and if you search the Scriptures, if you look over Christs Sermon on the Mount, you will easily be induced to beleeve, that the greatest service we can do to God, is to serve one another in love, who made us all, and to this end; alterutra diligentia charitatis, as Tertul. calls it; This mutual and reciprocal work of charity in upholding each other, is that which makes us indeed the servants of Christ.

Secondly, as compassion to our Brethren is a fair preparation to purity of life, so doth purity of conversation commend our li­berality, and makes it to be had in remembrance in the sight of the Lord; Compassion in a prophane, impure person, is but a sudden forced motion, is but by fits and starts, for sure it cannot stay, and dwell in such a sty. He that wallows in the pleasures of this world, he that devotes himself to riot and luxury, cannot gain the title of religious by some cup of cold water, some peece of mony, which he gives; He that gathers by oppression, and then lets fall an Almes, doth but steal an Oxe to make a Sacrifice, perdere scit, Tae. 1. Hist. donare nescit, as Piso said of Otho. He knows how to blast and spoile, but not how to give an Almes; and commonly those winds blow not out of the Treasury of the Lord: this boun­ty flows not from the clear Fountain of Divine love, but hath some other spring. Thus to visit the fatherless and widows, and to reach out that hand unto them, which is stained with the blood of others, is not pure and undfiled Religion, it may be Bread, 'tis not an Almes, that is brought by the Hand of an Oppressor, or Pharisee.

And therefore in the next place, as they bear this fair corre­spondence and mutually uphold each other, so we must not think it possible to separate them. For some there be who come on slowly to the works of charity, because they are not guilty of those sins, Greg. Hom. 36. in Evang. which have shame written in their very foreheads, pigri ad exercenda bona praecipua, quia securi, quod non commiserint mala Graviora, as Greg. are very backward to to good, because they have not been overforward to do evil; dull and heavie, to the performance of the best deeds, because they have not been active in the worst; men, for the many of them, of more forecast, then conscience, that owe their morality not to the love of God, but the world, knowing well enough, that those vices which the world cries down, are commonly enemies to thrift, delightful but costly; there being scarce any one of them, which is not a stake in his way, which makes haste to be rich, and therefore they do abstain, that they may not abstain, abstain from these disgraced expensive vices, that their abstinence from these may be as a war­rant, or commission for them, to make their Brethren their daily sustenance, and to eat them up as they eat Bread, to devour these Temples of the Holy Ghost with as little regret, as they do those, [Page 13] which are made with hands: And this is a common fault amongst Christians; to think the performance of one part of our Duty to be an Apologie for the neglect of the other, and that the obser­vance of some few precepts, will absolve us from the breach of the rest, that a sigh is louder then an oath, and can sooner call down a pardon, then the flying Book can bring a curse; that the diligence of the Eare will answer for the boldness of the Hand: That a Fast will make Sacriledge a Virtue, and the keeping of the seventh Day, acquit us of those sins which we have resolved already to corumit in the other six.

Indeed saith Basil, it is a great deal easier to do nothing at all, then to finish and perfect a good work. Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not commit Adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Those are Negative precepts, and require but [...] but forbea­tance and sitting still; a not drawing to the Harlots lips, a not touching the wedge of gold, a not taking up the instruments of cruelty, but to love our Neighbour, as our selves, to fell all and give to the poor, to visit the Fatherless and Widows in their affliction, are [...], works fit for a Souldier, Basil in Ps. 1. and strong man in Christ; and we must beat down many enemies, many wilde passions in our way, before we can raise our selves to this height, nor can any man take this Honour to himself, but he that is called and fitted of God, as were Abraham, and Isaac, and those Patriarcks and Apostles, who were full of good works: Both then are required at our hands, and if God hath joyned them both together, let no man take upon him to divorce or put them asunder.

For in the next place, these two thus linkt and united together, will keep Religion pure and undefiled, which I told you were as the colours and beauty of it; the Beauty of Holiness, which hath its colour and Grace, from whence it hath its being and strength, and if it be true, will shine in the perfection of Beauty. Religion, if it be true, and not a name only is, as a virgin pure, and undefiled, and makes us so, and espouses us to Christ; and as the father tells us, Omnia virginis, virgo sunt, all that a virgin hath is so a virgin, Basil l. de virginitate. her eyes not touch't with vanity, her ears not defloured with evil communication, her thoughts not ravish't with the insiliencie of wanton desires, her tast not violated with studied dainties, and devised meats, but in all is like her self, a Virgin: So is this Re­ligion, simple, and solid; Full of it self, and receives no Hetero­geneous matter, but is ever the same, and about the same: There is nothing in our love, which sowres our Justice, nothing in our Justice to kill our Compassion, nothing in our liberality to defile our Chastity, nothing in our Fear to beat down our Confidence, Tertul. de coren. mel. nothing in our Zeal to consume our Charity. Christianus nusquam est aliud, a true Religious man is alwayes himself.

And as it is pure without mixture; so it is [...] and cannot subsist with pollution and prophaneness. 2 Tit. 2.5. [...] now are our Olympicks. Now is the great trial to be made before God and the Father: and our Religion consists in this, to fight it out, [...] legally, a condition they were bound to, who were ad­mitted to those games and exercises: for before they did contend, in the proclamation was made to this purpose, whether they were not Servants or Theeves, or otherwise of an infamous life; and if any of these were proved against them, they were put back; The same proclamation is made from Heaven, to those who enter our Olympicks, who enter Religion and give up their names to Christ, that they may sight for mastery and be crowned; our Savi­our tells them they must [...] sit down, and consider what it is, in which they have ingaged themselves, how full of trouble, how full of danger, how many thorns and lets there be in their way, how many Adversaries; not to think it is enough to name Christ; but when they name him, let them depart from all Iniqui­ty, and carefully provide, that the Integrity of their life should rather commend their Religion, then that their Religion should be suborned, and brought in to countenance the irregularity of their manners: For we cannot but observe, that from the cor­ruption of mens lives, have all those corruptions and mixtures crept into Religion, which carry with them a neer likeness and resemblance to those spots, which men have received from the world; Ambition hath brought in her mixture, and covetousness hers, and pleasures have dropt their poison, and left their very marke and characters in the doctrines of men, which are framed and fashioned to favour and advance that evil humor, which doth first set them up. Covetousness and Ambition may set up a Chair, or Consistory, and from thence shall provision be made to feed, and nourish them both to a monstrous grouth: Nam ut in vitâ, l. 12. c. prim. sic in causis spes improbas habent saith Quintil. for those un­lawful hopes, and foul desires, which sway us in our lives, ap­pear again, and shew themselves as full of power to pervert, and mislead us in point of Doctrine. One would think that the world had nothing to doe in the Schoole of Christ, that Mammon could not hold the pen of the scribe, or conclude in the Schools, or have a voice and suffrage in a Councel, that mony, and honour, and pleasure, could bring nothing to the stating of a Question, but through the corruptness of mens mindes, and manners, it hath in all ages so fallen out, that these have been the great deciders of Controversies, have started Questions, and resolved them, have called Councels, and decreed with them; for we may be soon perswaded it was no other spirit then this, which was sent from Rome in a Cloakbag to the Councel of Trent, we say the World; we have seen enough to raise such a Thought: That the Church [Page 15] hath been governed, that, That which we call Religion, hath been carried on by private Interest. From hence are those cor­ruptions of Truth, and mixtures in Religion; From hence those Generations of Questions, those Catalogues of Herefies; From hence so many Religions, and none at all, for Faction cannot be Religion, (for it cuts off the fairest part and member she ha [...], which is Charity) And thus, if Religion lose one of these colours, she loses her beauty; If she be not pure, she cannot long be sin­cere and entire, and if she be defiled, she will receive Additions; the worship of Saints to the worship of God, the sire of Purgato­ry to the blood of Christ, the indulgence of man, to the free par­don of God, Irreverence and prophaneness to our hatred of su­perstition, and to our zeal, oppression, and murder: In a word, if it be not pure without mixture, and undefiled without pollution, it is not Religion.

And now I have shewed you the picture of Religion in little, The Ratifica­tion. represented it to you in these two; Doing of Good, and abstaining from Evil; filling the hungry with good things, and purging, and emptying our selves of all uncleanness; you have its beauty in its Graceful and Glorious Colours of Purity and Undefiledness, Dignum Deo speciaculum, a picture to be hung up in the Church, nay, before God himself; for thus it appears Coram Deo & Pare before God and the Father, and hath its ratification from Him. He was the first that set it up to be lookt upon: He hath reveal'd his will by his Son, who is the wisdome of his Father, who gave unto us the words which his Father gave him; which give us a full, John 17.8. and exact rule of life, a method of Obedience and Glory, the way to be like him in this world, and to see him in the next, and there needs no other method, no other way, no other Rule, nor a Basil, or a Benedict to enlarge it; nor is it of so easie and quick di­spatch, that it hath left to men leisure for further practice, nor so imperfect, that it should need supply from a second Hand: why should the fancy, the unsetled, whirling fancy of a man who is ignorant as a beast before him, take the boldness to prompt, and instruct the wisdome of the Almighty? quod à Deo discitur totum est, all that we need learn, all that we can learn, he alone can teach us. By this, Christian Religion hath the prerogative above all other Religions in the world; for though there be many that are called Gods as S. Paul speaks; 1 Cor. 8.5. though there be many that are called religions, yet unto us as there is but one God, so there is but one Religion, which is commentum divinitatis the invention, or rather the Revelation of the Deity, and had no author, could have no author but God himself. Take that which seems to carry a fairer shew and comes abroad [...] like A­grippa, and Bernice with great pompe and ceremony, with volun­tary Humility, Blinde obedience, with Sackcloth, and fasting, [Page 16] with a pilgrims staff, with penance and satisfaction; and we know from what hands it came; ab Hominibus & per Homines of men, and by men, who, for many of them, drew Religion out of the soule into the outward man, betook themselves to this bo­dily exercise, as to a Sanctuary, so to avoid the continual luctati­ons and lasting Agonies of the minde, enters Religion (that is the phrase) but carried little Charity, and all those spots they re­ceived from the world along with them. What voice from Hea­ven did Charles the fifth the Duke of Parma, and others hear, that having lived in all state and pompe, they should count it merito­rious to be buried in the Hood of a Capuchin? or what satisfacti­on is this Coram Deo & Pa [...]re, before God and the Father?

Again, take that which indeed is called Religion, and with that noise and vehemency, as if there were none but that, yet is as different from it as a picture from a man; Take all our mi­mick gestures, our forced and studied deportment, the Pharisai­cal extermination of the Countenance, our libelling the Times (which we help to make evil) our zeal, our revenge, our indig­nation against sin in all, but our selves, all these are but puppets of our own making, a creation of a sick and distempered fancy, and do but justifie us Coram Hominibus before men, Luke 16.15. saith our Savi­our, and those too no wiser then our selves, but that which fol­lows defaceth all our pageantry, Spectat nos ex alto Deus rerum ar­biter; men see us, who see but our face, but God also is a specta­tor, and He knoweth the Heart. Take that zeal, which consumes not our selves, but others about us; this fire is not from Heaven, nor was it kindled by the Father of lights; that hand which is so ready to take a Brother by the throat, was never guided by the Author of our Religion, who is our Father: That tongue which is full of Bitterness and reviling, was never toucht by a Cherubin, but set on fire of Hell. These are not Religions Coram Deo & Patre before God and the Father, but this Religion to do good, and ab­stain from evil ex alto origine ducit acknowledgeth no author but the God of Heaven, hath God and the Father to bear witness to it, was foreshewed by the Prophets, chundered out by the Apostles and Christ himself, who was the Author and Finisher of our Faith and Religion.

And this may serve, The Applica­tion. first, to make us in love with this Religion, because it hath such a founder as God the Father who is wisdom it self, and can neither be deceived, nor deceive us. Ye men and Brethren, and whosoever among you feareth God, to you is this word of salvation sent; Acts 13.26. sent to you from Heaven; from God and the Father; in other things you are very curious, and ever de­sire to receive them from the best hands: what a present is a picture of Apelles making? or a statue of Lysippus? not the watch you wear, but you would have it from the best Artificer; [Page 17] and shall our curiosity spend it self on vanities, and leave us care­less, and indifferent in the choice of that, which must make our way to eternity of bliss, shall we make darkness our pavilion round about us, and please our selves in error, when Heaven bows and opens it self to receive us? and shall we worship our own imaginations, and not hearken what God and the Father shall say? what a shame is it when God from Heaven points with his finger to the rule; Haec est this is it; that we should frame a Religion to our selves, that every mans fancy, and humour, or which is the height of impiety, every mans sin should be his Lawgiver? that when there can be but one, there should be so many Religi­ons, Arbitrary Religions, such as we are pleased to have, because they smile upon us, and flatter and bolster up our irregular de­sires; a Hearing Religion, and a Talking Religion, and a Tra­ding Religion, a Religion that shall visit the Widow and Orphan, but rather to devour, then refresh them? Behold, and look no farther, God the Father hath made a Religion, which is pure and undefiled to our hands; and therefore as Seneca counsels Poly­bius; when thou wouldst forget all other things, Cogita Caesarem, entertain Caesar in thy thoughts; so that we may forget all other sublimary, worldly, I may say, Hellish Religions, let us think of this Religion, whose Author and Founder is God, whose wisdom is infinite, whose power uncontrolable, whose authority unque­stionable; for talk what we will of authority, the authority of man is like himself, and can but binde the man, and that the frai­lest and earthliest part of him, only God is Rex mentium the King of our mindes, and no authority in Heaven, or in Earth, can binde or loose a Soule but his, who first breathed it into man; Come then let us worship and fall down before God the Father, the maker both of us, and our Religion.

Again in the second place, if Saint James be Canonical, and Authentick, if this be true Religion, then it will make up an an­swer sufficient to stop the mouth of those of the Romish party, who are very busie to demand at our hands a catalogue of Fun­damentals, and where our Church was before the dayes of Refor­mation, [...] as it is in the Proverb; These and such like they put up unto us, as Archytas did his rattles into childrens hands, to keep them from doing mischief; that being busie, and taken up with these, we may have less leisure to pull down her Idols, or discover her shame; Do they aske what truths are Fundamental? Faith supposed, as it is; here they are charity to our selves, and others; nihil ultra scire, est omnia scire, to know this, is to know all we need to know; for it is not sufficient to know that, which is sufficient to make us happy? but, Tert. de prae­script. if nothing will satisfie them but a Catalogue of particulars, Habent Mosen & Prophetas, they have Moses and the Prophets, they have the [Page 18] Apostles, and if they finde them not there, in vain shall they seek for them at our hands; they may if they please seek them there, and then number them out, as they do their Prayers, by Beads, and present them by Tale, but if they will yet know, what is Fundamental in our conceit, and what not, they may [...] draw them out with both hands; for first let them observe what points they are, in which we agree with their Church, and (if they be in Scripture) let them set them down, if they please, as Fundamental in our account, and on the other hand, let them mark in what points we refuse Communion with them, and they cannot but Think that we esteem those points for no Fundamentals. And again do they, who measure Religion rather by the pomp and state it carries with it, then the power and majesty of the Author, whose command alone made it Re­ligion, ask us, where our Religion was in the dayes before there was a withdrawing from the Communion with that Church, we may answer; it was here in the Text; for haec est this is it; and if they further question us, where it was professed, we need give no other reply then this; it was profest, where it was pro­fest; if it were not protest in any place, yet was it true Religion, for the truth depends not on the profession of it, nor is it less truth, if none receive it; but profest it was even amongst them, in the midst of them, round about them; but wheresoever it were, Haec erat, this was it, this was true Religion before God and the Father, to visit the Fatherless and Widows in their Affliction, and to keep our selves unspotted of the World.

To conclude then. Conclus. 3. Men and Brethren, are these things so? and is this only true Religion to doe good and abstain from evil? what a busie noise then doth the world make for Religion, when it offers it self and falls so low, offers it self to the meanest under­standing, the narrowest capacity, and throws it self into the em­braces of any that will love it; Littus Hyla, Hyla, Omne sonabat, Religion is the talke of the whole world, it is preach't on the house tops, and it is cryed up in the streets, we are loud for it, and smother it in that noise, we write for it, and leave it dead in that letter, to be found no where but in our books; we fight for it, and it is drowned in the blood that is spilt; and Saint James his, that is, Christs Religion is little thought of, but trampled under foot in the quarrel: For if this should take place amongst the sons of men, we should have more religion and less noyse; for haec est, this is it, which alone is able to slumber this noise, to still the raging of the Sea, and the tumults of the people: This would stay the hand of the scribe to write less, and to more pur­pose; This would break the Bow, and cut the Spears, and burn the Charriots with fire: Could this Religion, Could the Gospel of Christ prevail; Could we deny our selves, and take up the [Page 19] Cross, and keep our selves unspotted from the world, there would be then no wars, nor rumurs of wars: Let us not deceive our selves; it is the neglect and want of this, that hath been the main cause of all these hot contentions and digladiations which have been, and as yet are in the Church of Christ, I mean amongst those who call one another Christians, whose mark and badge it is, to love one another, but they lie one to another, and love the world, and in a base but fierce emulation justle one another out of it, and so lose the thing, and retain nothing but the name, which is less then a shadow, rejoyce together at the news of a Saviour, and neglecting this Religion in the Text, are all lost, are disciples of Christ, but such disciples as shall be punished with more stripes then they that never heard of his name. This, this is it, that con­demns the world; that makes it an Aceldama, a field of blood, as Hell it self, full of confusion; for if men had been careful to walk by the same rule, which was as plain and manifest, as if it had been written with the Sun-beams, and kept themselves in a joynt obedience to this Religion, to those truths wherein they could not but agree, and not sought out many inventions, the seed-plots, and nurseries of contention and debate, (for from hence they spring, and here they will grow, and grow thick, and multiply) if our Religion had been pure and undefiled, it had saved many a poor carkas from the fire; and I may be bold to say, many a soul from Hell; and though mens opinions in other matters had been as different as their shape and complexion, yet their agreement in the known duties of Religion, would have been a Fence and Bul­wark strong enough, to have kept contention from breaking in with fire and sword. But when Ambition and Covetousness and other low and vile respects had taken possession of the hearts of men, then matter of Religion, became matter of Faction, and the fuel of that fire, which consumed many, but troubled all: then began men to rack the Scriptures, to make them speak what they would have them, even that which might dilate their phylacteries, and stretch forth the Curtains of their Habitation, and feed that noxious humour in them which was most predominant, and like those Souldiers in Tacitus malle victoriam, quam pacem, to desire not peace, but victory; though most times, which side soever prevailed, it was not so much against an adverse party, as the truth it self. This hath been a great, nay, the greatest evil under the Sun, and hath brought in so many Religions into the world, that many men are not as yet well resolved which to chuse, the Divels subtilest engine to bring in at last an opinion, that there is none at all.

By this you may see of what soveraign use my Text is, even as a pretious balm, which can so easily allay the swelling, and raging controversies, with which the Church is so much troubled, (as [Page 20] some Philosophers have told us that oyle powred into the sea when 'tis most tempestuous doth presently calme it; Mare oleo tranquillatur. Plin Nat. Phil. l. 2. c. 103. many have wish­ed, that there were a Judge of controversies, which might appease these broyles, with which Christendome is distracted; and some have thought it necessary, and therefore have set one up, and built a chair with this priviledge; that he that fits in it, though he be an Heretick can never erre. Behold here is a Judge of controversies, teaching every man to judge and give sentence of life or death in himself; if this be his Religion, he is alive, and shall live for ever­more, but if he case this behinde him, and shut charity out of doors, he is condemned already; this is our Judge of controversies, and I think, we need no more. The Jews say, that when Elias shall come, he shall resolve all their doubts; Lo Elias is come already, and in these words of my Text hath sufficiently resolved all controversies in Divinity, so far forth as is necessary for our information; Thou canst not now aske what lack I yet? for here are [...] all that Jesus did teach, and if we can interpret this Text; that is, express and manifest it in our lives and conversation, then have we [...] confidence with God and the Father. To conclude,

Let us therefore as many as be perfect, be thus minded, let us cleave to this, and make it our guide and Angel in our way, and if you be otherwise minded, if in other things less necessary you erre as men, God shall reveal even the same unto you, as far as his wisdome sees it necessary; it is that excellent counsel of S. Paul Phil. 3.15. Let us be thus minded, and let us have this picture of Religion drawn out by S. James ever hanging before our eyes, let us look up­on it, let us walk with it, let us go to bed with it, let us carry it a­bout with us whithersoever we goe, I was about to say, let us fall down and worship it (you need not fear superstition) for this is the worship of God himself; Oh let it be as an ornament to our heads, let us hang it up in our best room, our hearts, but so as to shew it to the widow and the fatherless, Plin. Neg. l. 38.8. let us make it, as Polycletus called his most excellent peece Canona a rule and pattern, by which we may draw and express it, and make it visible in our life and conver­sation, that men may see it, and glorifie God, even the Father which is in Heaven, that Angels may see it and applaud it; that God him­self may see it, and fix an Euge upon it, well done, for it is done be­fore me, and according to the pattern which I set up, and this shall keep us at peace within our selves, this shall make our enemies at peace with us, this shall be to us Righteousness, and peace, and glo­ry, and peace shall be upon us, as many as walke according to this rule and mercy and upon the Israel of God.

Which God Grant. &c.

THE SECOND SERMON.

THe words are the words of old Eli the Priest; and have reference to that message which yong Samuel brought him from the Lord, such a mes­sage, as did make both the ears of every one that heard it tingle, ver. 11. Come see the work of sin, what desolation it makes upon the Earth. Ophni, and Phinehas, the two prophane, and a­dulterous Sons must die: old Eli, the indulgent Father, the High Priest must die; Thirty four thousand Israelites must fall by the sword of the Philistines: The Arke, the glory of Israel must be taken, and be delivered up in triumph unto Dagon; this was the word of the Lord, which he spake by the mouth of the child Samuel, and not a word of his did fall to the ground at the 19. verse: for what God foretells, is done already; with him that calleth the things that are not, as if they were, as the Prophet speaks, there is no difference of times, Nothing past; Nothing to come; all is present; So that old Eli did see this bloody Tragedy acted, before it was done; saw it done before the signal to Battle was given; did see his Sons slain, whilst the Fleshook was yet in their hands; himself fall, whilst he stood with Samuel; the Israelites [Page 22] slain before they came into the field, the Arke taken whilst it was yet in the Tabernacle; a fad, and killing presentment, whether we consider him as a Father, or a High Priest; a Father looking upon his Sons falling before the Ark, which they stood up and fought for; as a High Priest beholding the people slain, and van­quisht, and the Ark, the Glory of God, the Glory of Israel, in the hands of Philistines.

But the word of the Lord is gone out, and will not return empty and void; for what he sayes shall be done, and what he binds with an oath is irreversible, and must come to pass, and it is not much material, whether it be accomplisht to morrow, or next day, or now instantly, and follow as an Eccho to the Pre­diction, nam una est scientia Futurorum, Hier. ad Pam­mach. adversus errores Joann. Hierosol. saith S. Hierome, for the knowledge of things to come is one and the same: And now it will be good to look upon these heavie Judgments, and by the terror of them fly from the wrath to come; as the Israelites were cured by looking on the Serpent in the Wilderness; (For even the Justice of God, when it speaks in thunder, makes a kinde of melody, when it toucheth, and striketh upon an humble, sub­missive, yeelding heart.) Behold old Eli an High Priest to teach you, who being now within the full march, and shew of the Enemy, and of those judgments which came apace towards him like an Armed man not to be resisted, or avoided, and hearing that from God which shook all the powers of his soul, settles, and composes his troubled minde with his consideration, That is was the Lord: in this silences all murmur, slumbers all impatience, buries all disdain, looks upon the hand that strikes, bows, and kisseth it; and being now ready to fall, raiseth himself up, upon this pious and Heavenly resolution Dominus est, It is the Lord, Though the people of Israel fly, and the Philistines triumph, though Ophni and Phinehas fall, Though himself fall backward, and break his neck, Though the Ark be taken, yet Dominus est

Which words are a Rhetorical Enthymeme, perswading to humi­lity, and a submissive acquiescience under the Hand, the mighty Hand of God, by his power, his justice, his wisdom, which all meet and are concentred in this, Dominus est, It is the Lord. He is omnipo­tent, and who hath withstood his power? He is just, and will bring no evil without good cause; He is wise, & whatsoever evil he brings, he can draw it to a good end, and therefore Faciat quod bonum in oculis, let him do what seemeth him good. Or you may observe first, a judicious discovery, from whence all evils come. Dominus est, It is the Lord. Secondly, a well-grounded resolution [...] to behave our selves decently, and fittingly, as under [Page 23] the power, and justice, and wisdom of God, Let him do what seem­eth him good. The first is a Theologicall Axiome Dominus est, It is the Lord, There is no evil in a City, Which he doth not do. The second a conclusion as necessary, as in any Demonstration: most necessary I am sure for weaknesse to bow to Omnipotency: In a word, The Doctrine most certain, Dominus est, It is the Lord ... All these evils of punishment are from him; and the resolution, (which is as the use and application of it) most safe Faciat quod bonum in oculis, Let him do what seemeth him good.

Of these we shall speak in their order: and in the prosecution of the first (for we shall but touch upon, and conclude with the last) that you may follow me with more ease, we will draw the lines by which we are to passe, and confine our selves to these four particnlars, which are most eminent, and remarkeable in the sto­ry. First, that Gods people the true professors may be delivered up to punishment for sinne. Secondly, that in these general judge­ments upon a people, the good many times are involved with the evil, and fall with them. Thirdly, that Gods people may be de­livered up into the hands of Philistines and Aliens, men worse then themselves. Fourthly, that the Ark, The glory of their profession, may be taken away; These four, and then fix up this inscription, Dominus est, It is the Lord, and when we have acquitted his Justice, and wisdom in these particulars, cast an eye back upon the inscrip­tion and see what beams of light it will cast forth for our direction. Dominus est, it is the Lord, &c.

And in the first place, of Ophni and Phineas, the Text tels us, That they hearkened not unto the voice of their Father, because the Lord would destroy them, which word Quia is not casuall, but illative, 2 Ch. v. 25. and implyes not the cause of their sinne, but of their punishment: they did not therefore sin, because God would punish them; but they hearkened not to the voice of their Father, therefore the Lord de­stroyed them, as we use to say, the Sun is risen, because it is day; for the day is not the cause of the Suns rising, but the Sun rising makes it day. They were sons of Belial, vessels already fitted for wrath, as we may see, by their many fowl enormities, and there­fore were left to themselves, and their sinnes, and to wrath which at last devoured them! Gods Decree, whatsoever it be, is im­manent in himself, and therefore could not because of that diso­bedience and wickednesse, which was extrameous and contrary to him, nor could there be any action of Gods, either positive, or ne­gative joyned with it, which might produce such an effect, and what need of any such Decree or Action, to make them disobedi­ent, who refuse to hearken to their Father, or to harden them whose sinne was now great before the Lord? But we must conclude these two within the 34000. that were slain; And now, C 2.17. the de­livering up the people in such a number to the sword may seem [Page 24] to prejudice, and call in question the Justice of God, what? His people? His own people, cull'd out of the Nations of the earth, must these fall by the sword of these Aliens, these enemies to God, that know not his Name? shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? yes he will: for even in this, Dominus est, It is the Lord.

For as the Lord once said to his people: Es. L. 1. where is the bill of your mothers divorcement, whom I have put away? so here he may ask, were is that Bill, and obligation, which I made to pro­tect you, if there be any brought forth, we shall finde it rather like a Bill of sale, then the conveyance of an absolute Gist: on the one side, God promiseth something on his behalf, on the other, there is something required on ours; Read the Covenant, and con­tract between them: they had his promise to be their God, and they were the sons of promise; Gal. 4. but then, these promises were conditionall, and in every conditionall promise, there is an obligation and command: I will be their God, that is his promise, and they shall be my people, that's their duty; and if these meet not, the promise is void, and of none effect. There is not a more true and naturall glosse upon this promise, than that of Azariah, in the Chronicles, 2 Chron 15.2. Hear you men of Asa, of all Judah, and Benjamin, The Lord is with you whilst you are with him; and if you seek him, he will be found of you, but if you forsake him, he will forsake you, both must go together, or both are lost; for if they will be his people, then his promise is firm, being found in the eternall essence of God, and so as constant, and immutable as Himselfe: but if they break his commandment, and put it from them: Then to be their God, were not to be their God; then to make good his promises were to vilisy, and debauch them: This were libera­litarem ejus mutare in servitutem, Tertul. to turn his liberality into slavery, pro­digally to pour the Pretious oyl of his goodnesse into a vessell that could not hold it, to protect and countenance a man of Belial; be­cause he bears the name of an Israelite. And therefore in the 27. of Isaiah at the 11. verse, where God upbraids his people of folly, he presently cancells the bill, and puts them out of his protection, Therefore he that made them will not have mercy upon them, he that sra­med them will shew them no favour, what though they be the peo­ple which he hath purchased? yet he will take no care of his own purchase; though they be his possession, he will give them up, he will not do what he promised, and yet be Truth it self; for if they do not their Duty, he did not promise; Though he made them; though he formed them; yet he will not own them, but forsake and abhor his own work; he will surrender them up, and deliver them to Destruction. Even here, upon the forehead of a desolate, and rejected Israelite, we may set up this Inscription, Dominus est, It is the Lord. [Page 25] And now, if we look up upon the Inscription, Dorrinus est, It is the Lord, we may read and interpret it, without a Guide, and learn not to Trifle with God, because he is our Lord, not to mock him with our Hypocrisy, and force in our profession to countenance our Sin, to be worse then Philistines because we are Israelites, to be his Enemies, because we call our selves Gods people; to be worse, then Turks or Jews, because we are Christians. Oh the Happy times of the Infant Church, when the Pagan could finde nothing amongst the Christians to accuse, but their Name, and then what Times are These, when you can scarce see any thing commendable in the Christian, but the Name? you may call it, if you please, the dotage, or blindnesse, of the Church; for the Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord; The Israelite, the Israelite, The Christian, the Christian, the Protestant, the Pro­testant. This is the Musick, with which most use to drive away the evil Spirit, all sad and melancholy thoughts from their hearts: but indeed, (saith Basil) the Devil doth [...] doth daunce, and leap for joy to hear it, when he hears not withal, the noise of our groanings, of our prayers, of our good works, nor the Harmony of a well tuned, and well composed life to go up to Heaven along with it. Oh what pitty is it that God should place us in Paradice in a place of pleasure and safety, and we for­feit it, that he should measure out unto us, as it were, by the line, a goodly Heritage, and we pluck up our own hedges, and lay our selves open to every Wild-Beast, that he should make us his people, and we force him to be our Enemy, in a word, that our Inheritance should begger us, our security betray us, and our royal prerogative undo us; and further we carry not this consideration.

2. We passe to the second particular: and in the second place, in so great a number as 34000, I may say, in the whole Com­mon-wealth of Israel (for a Common-wealth may suffer in a far less Number) we cannot doubt, but some there were that fear­red the Lord, and shall there be, as the Wise-man speaks, 2 Eccle. 14. Horat. Gen. 18.23. the same event to the righteous, and the wicked, to the clean, and him that sacrificeth not? will God Incesto addere integrum, will he destroy, saith Abraham, the righteous with the sinner? This indeed is the depth of God; and a great part of the world have been troubled at the very sight of it; but yet, if we behold it with that light, which Scripture holds forth, we shall finde it is not so unfordable, but we shall make some passage through it.

For, I if we could not make answer; or render any reason, yet this ought not to prejudice, or call in question the justice of it, especially with us men, who are of Dull, and slow understandings, and when we have wearied our selves in searching out causes of natural things, yet after all our sweat and oyle cannot attain so [Page 26] far, as to know, why the grasse which is under our feet is green, rather then purple, or of any other colour, and therefore far below those Supernaturals; and most unfit to search out those causes, which God may seem to have lockt up in his own Brest; God is the lord of all the earth, Psal. 90.4. and as the Prophet tells us a thousand years in his sight are but as one day, so in the case we now speak of, a thousand, a million, a world of men are with him, but as one man, and when the Lord Chief Justice of Heaven and Earth shall sit to do judgement upon sinners (what Caligula once wantonly wished to the people of Rome) all the world before him have but as it were, one neck, and if it please him, by that jus pleni Dominii, by that full power and Dominion he hath over his creature, A Platone dici­tur, Deus [...] vide Plutarch. quaest convival. l. 8. q. 2. He may, (as he welneer did in the Deluge) strike it off at a blow. His judgements are past finding out, and therefore not to be questioned; He is the great Geometrician of the World, which made all things in number, weight, and measure, and hath infinitely surpast all human inventions whatsoever, and therefore we cannot do him less honour, then Hiero King of Sicily did to Archimede the great Mathematician; for when he saw the Engins which he made, and the marvellous effects which they did pro­duce, he caused it to be proclaimed, that whatsoever Archimede did after affirme, how improbable soever it might seem, yet should not once be called into question, but be received and en­tertained as a truth; Let the course of things be carried on as it will, let death passe over the door of the Egyptian, and smite the Israelite, let Gods Thunder misse the house of Dagon, and shiver his own Tabernacle, yet God is just and true, and eve­ry man a liar, that dares but ask the question; why doth He this? Look over the whole Book of Job, and you shall see how Job, and his Friends are tost up and down on this great deep: For it being put to the question, why Job was thus fearfully handled, his Friends ground themselves upon this conclusion; that all af­fliction is for sin, and so lay folly and hypocrisie to his charge, and tell him roundly, that the judgement of God had now found him out, though he had been a close irrigular, and with some art and cunning hid himself from the eye of the World; but Job on the contrary, as stoutly pleads and defends his innocencie, his justice, his liberality, and could not attain to the sight of the cause, for which Gods hand was so heavy on him; why should his Friends urge him any more, Job 30.32. or persecute him as God? they dispute in vain, for in their answers, he sees nothing but lies. At last when the controversie could have no issue, C. 21.34. Deus è machina God himself comes down from Heaven, and by asking one question puts an end to the rest, Job. 38.2. who is this, that darkneth Counsel with words without knowledge? condemns Iob, and his Friends of ig­norance, and weaknesse, in that they made so bold and dan­gerous [Page 27] attempt, as to seek out a cause, or call his judgement in­to question.

2. It may be we may save the labor that we need not move the question, or seek any reason at all, for in these common ca­lamities which befall a people, it may be God doth provide for the Righteous, and deliver him, though we perceive it not. Some examples in Scripture make this very probable; the old World is not drowned, till Noah be stript, and in the Ark, the shower of fire falls not on Sodom, till Lot be escaped; Daniel and his fel­lows, though they go away into captivity with rebellious Judah, yet their captivity is sweetned with honours and good respects, in the Land into which they go, and which was a kinde of lea­ding captivity captive, they had favour, and were intreated as friends, by their enemies, who had invaded and spoiled them. And may not God be the same upon the like occasions? How many millions of righteous persons have been thus delivered, whose names notwithstanding are no where recorded? some things of no great worth are very famous in the world, when many things of better worth lie altogether buried in obscurity caruerunt quia vale sacro, because they found none who could or would transmit them to posterity. Vixere fortes ante Agamemnona, no doubt, but before and since millions have made the like es­capes, though their memory lies rak'd up, and buried in oblivion.

But then, suppose the righteous do taste of the same cup of bitternesse with the wicked, yet it hath not the same taste and relish to them both, for calamity is not alwayes a whip, Calamitas non est poena, militia est minus. Foe lix. nor doth God alwayes punish them whom he delivers over to the sword; to lose my goods, or life is one thing, and to be punisht, another, it is against the course of Gods providence and justice, that inno­cency should come under the lash; Gen 28.23. shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? yes, he shall, and without any breach of his justice, take away that breath of life which he breathed into our No­strils, though we had not sinned after the similitude of Adams transgression; for he may do what he will with his own, and take away our goods or lives from us, when and how he pleaseth, because he is Lord over them, and we have nothing which we received not from his hands: God is not alwayes angry, when he strikes, nor is every blow, we feel, given by God the aven­ger, for he may strike as a Father; and therefore these evils change their complexions, and very natures with the subject up­on whom they are wrought, they are, and have the blacknesse of darknesse in the one, but are as Angels, and messengers of light to the other, and may lead the righteous through the valley of death into the land of the living, when the wicked are hewen down by the sword, to be fuel for the fire. What though they both be [Page 28] joyned together in the same punishment, as a Martyr, and a Thief in the same chain, August. de ci­vitate Dei. l. 1. c. 8. yet manet dissimilitudo passorum, in similitudine passionum; though the penalties may seem alike, yet the diffe­rence is great betwixt the patients, though the world perhaps cannot distinguish them; and death it self, which is a key to open the gates of Hell to the one, may be no the other, what the Rab­bles conceive it would have been to Adam, had he not fallen, but osculum pacis a kisse of peace, a gentle, and loving dismission into a better state, to conclude this then, a people, a chosen people, a people chosen out of this choice, Gods servants, and friends may be smitten, Josiah may fall in the battle, Daniel may be lead into Captivity, John Baptist may lose his head, and yet we may hold up our inscription Dominus est it is the Lord.

And now, let us but glance upon the inscription, and so passe to the third particular; and the first sight of it may strike a terror into us, and make us afraid of those sins, which bring these gene­ral judgements upon a Nation, as Oppression, Prophanenes, Sacri­ledge, uncleannesse (which are as visible in the story of the Is­raelites, as their punishment) which you see carry a train, which will enwrap our Posterity, our Family, our whole Country and like the Dragons tail in the Revelation draws down the stars from Heaven, and brings good men, even the Saints of God, within the compasse, and smart of them: parce Carthagini, si non tibi, said Tent. to Capula, if you well not be good to your self, yet spare Carthage, spare your Country, spare the Charets of Israel and Horsemen there­of, spare those Lots, which keep your Sodom from burning, who when a Nation is ready to sink, and dissolve, bear up the pillars of it, know ye not that the Saints shall judge the world saith Saint Paul? who being first acquitted by Christ, shall sit with him as his friends, and assessors, and judge and condemn those sinnes, which brought them within the reach of Gods temporal judgements, and over-whelm'd them in the common Calamity and ruine of their Coun­try.

3. We passe now to the third particular: and if Israel must fall yet let her not fall by the sword of a Philistine. Tell it not in Gath nor publish it in Askelon was part of the Threnody, and Lamenta­tion of David on the like occasion, and he gives his reason; Lest the Daughters of the Philistines rejoyce, and the uncircumcised triumph: for besides the misery to have such an enemy rejoyce in their mi­sery, 2 Sam. 1.20. which will make that affliction, which is but a whip, a Scor­pion; this Defeat might seem to cast some disgrace, even upon their Religion; there being nothing more common in the world, then to commend a false Religion by some fatal miscariage of the professors of the true; to judge of Religion by its State and spreading; to cry it up for Orthodox, when the Church hath [Page 29] peace, and to Anathematize it, as Heretical, when she is Militant, and under the Crosse, nothing more common with wavering and carnal men, then to lull themselves asleep in most dangerous Errors, by no other Musick, then the cryes, and lamentations of those who oppose them: If Ophni and Phinehas fall in the battle, if Eli the High Priest break his neck, if the Ark be taken, then Da­gon is god; any thing is god, which is either the work of our hands, or our Fancy. And therefore this may seem not onely a rueful, but a strange spectacle, and (as Diogenes said of Harpalus a notori­ous, but prosperous Theef) testimonium adversus Deum di [...]ere to stand up as a witnesse against God himself, Tul. de Nat. Deer. and the Government of the World: Tertul. but the Father will tell us malus interpres Divinae providentiae humane infirmitas, the weak and shallow considerati­ons of men are but bad interpretations of the providence of God, the wit of man, a poor Jacobs staff, to take the height and depth, the true and full proportion of it. For as we cannot judge of the Beauty of the Vniverse because that in regard of the condition of our Mortality, we can be pleased but in part of it, and so can­not at once, at one cast of our eye see the whole, in which those parts which offend us, are at peace; no more can the Soul of man, which is confined within a clod of Earth, judge of the course and Method of that Providence, which is most like it self, in those events which seem most disproportionable, which is then most strait and even, when sinners flourish, and just men are op­prest, most equal when the honest man hath not a mite, and the deceitful a Talent, when the true Prophets are fed with the bread of affliction, and every Balaam hath his wages: when Israel falls, and the Philistin prevailes, because we cannot behold him, but in this, or that particular, but can no more follow him in all his wayes, then we can grasp the World in the palm of our hands.

And by this light we may discover, first, That true Religion cannot suffer with the professors of it, but when they are slain with the sword, and wander up and down destitute, afflicted, tor­mented, is still the same, [...], saith Basil, of the same hue and complexion, and in true esteem, more faire and radiant, when her poor witnesses are under a cloud, in disgrace, nay, I will be bold to say, (and whosoever rightly understands the na­ture of Religion, will never gainsay it) that if it had not one pro­fessor breathing on the Earth, not one that did dare to name, and own her (as Eliah once thought, there was but one) yet Religion were still the same, reserv'd in the surest Archives we can ima­gine, even in sinu Dei in the Bosom of God, the Law-giver (Re­ligion being nothing else, but a Defluxion and emanation from him, a beam of his eternal Law) so that, that which makes, and Constitutes a true Israelite, which is one inwardly, as Saint Paul [Page 30] speaks, Rom. 1.2. and in the spirit, hath too much of Immortality, of God in it to fall to the ground, or expire, and be lost with the Israelite. Let not your hearts be troubled, Religion can no more suffer, then God himself.

2. For secondly, If Religion could suffer, it suffered more by the Priests and peoples sin, then the Philistines sword: for by them the name of God and Religion was evil spoken of, Isa 52.5. and that which cannot suffer, was made the object of their malice, and scorn; as Nazianzen spake of Julians persecution, that it was both a Comedy and Tragedy, Invect. secunda a Comedy full of scoffs and obtrecta­tions, and a Tragedy full of Horror, and yet the Comedy was the most Tragical and bloody of the two. And therefore God Jealous of his Honour, awakes as one out of sleep, returns the scoff upon the Philistine; and makes up the last Act of this Tragedy in his blood; first punisheth the guilty Israelite, and then the Executioner, the text sayes, He smote them in the hinder parts, and put them to perpetual shame, Psal. 78.66, forcing them to make the similitude of their Emrods in gold, and to send them back with the Ark as an Ob­lation for their sin; so that you see here Gods Method, by which he ordinarily proceeds: first he prepares a sacrifice as vve read Zeph. 1.7. that is, appoints his people to slaughter, then bids his Guests as it is in the same verse, sanctificat vocatos suos, as the vul­gar read it, sanctifies, that is, sets apart these Philistines, that they may be as Priests to kill and offer them up, and vvhen this is done, God falls upon the Priests themselves, and makes them a sacrifice; Zeph. 2.4. Gaza shall be forsaken, Askelon a desolation, they shall drive out Ashdod at Noon-day, and Ekron shall be rooted out: and novv vve may wel conclude; that God is just in all his wayes, and righte­ous in all his judgements, and fix up our inscription upon this particular also: when Israel is delivered up into the hand of the Philistine; D minus est; it is the Lord.

And novv, if vve look vvell upon the inscription, vve shall finde it to be like the pillar of the cloud, Exod. 14. a cloud of darknesse to the Philistine, but giving light to the Israelite. And 1. the Philistine hath no reason to boast of this, as a preferment, that he is made the instrument of God in the execution of his judgements upon his people; for vve shall finde that it hath been one of the most dangerous, and fatal offices in the World, Nebuchadnezzar vvas so, God called him to it, Jer. 21. Go up against the Land of Merathaim, or of Rebels, and he did lead Israel into Captivity, but hear the vvord of the Lord. How is the Hammer of the Lord cut a sunder, and broke; Jerusalem is taken, but Shishak also shall fall, and in the 28. of that Prophesie, that cup which was sent to Jerusalem, and the Cities of Judah, and the kings thereof, and put into their hands to drink, at the 15. ver. is afterward put into the hand of the king of Shishak to drink, and to be drunken, to [Page 31] spew, and fall; Thus saith the Lord, you shall certainly drink it, Jer. 25.27.28. and he gives the reason, at the next verse: for lo, I begin to bring evil upon the City, which is called by my Name, or where my Name is called upon; and shall you go free, shall you go utter­ly unpunished? if you can raise such a hope, then hear a voice from Heaven; which shall dash it to pieces; I have said it, and I will make it good; you shall not go unpunished v. 29. I have be­gun with my own house, but I am coming towards you in a Tempest of fire, to devour yours, I have shaken my own Ta­bernacle, and the house of Dagon shall not, cannot stand. For they, whom God appoints, as Executioners of justice upon his people, are like the image, which the Tyrant saw in his dream, Daniel the 2. partly iron, and partly clay partly strong, and partly broken. v. 42. First God findes them apt; and fit, full of malice, and gall, (for whose hands were fitter to fling stones at David, then his, whose mouth was full of curses? who fitter to keep Gods people in bondage then a Pharaoh? or to lead them into Captivity, then he, whom God did afterwards drive into the fields amongst the Beasts? who could have crucified the Lord of life, but the Jews?) and finding them apt and fit, he permits them, gives these serpents leave to spit their poison, gives these Hang-men leave to do their Office; This, his not hindring them, was all the warrant, and commission they had; G [...]up a­gainst the Land can be no more then this, I know you are upon your March, and I will not stand in your way, to stay you, but you shall do me service against your wills, with that malice which my Soul hates; (for we cannot think, that God inspired the Tyrant, or sent a Prophet to him with the message to bid him do that, which he threatens to punish) no: he doth but permit them, he gives them leave to be his Executioners, and in this his permission is their strength, they pursue the Israelite, and lay on sure strokes; their malice is caried on in a Chariot of four wheels, made up of cruelty, impatience, ambition, impudence, and drawn as Bernard expresses it) with two wilde horses, Bern. in Cant. Ser. 39. earthly power, and secular pomp, and now they drive on furiously, and God is as one asleep, as one that marks them not, because he will not hinder them, but within a while he will awake; strike off their Chariot wheels, and restrain them, say to them, as he doth to the swelling Sea, Hitherto, you shall go, and no farther, and them they are but clay, they crumble, and fall to nothing. Why should the Philistine boast himself in his mischief? the goodnesse of God endureth yet dayly, and is every day, Psal. 51.2. and in every age the same, and it is no concluding argument, that we please God. when we are imployed in the punishment of those that of­fend him, nor can we thus argue, no more then we can attribute reason, and wisdom to an Asse, because it pleased God once to [Page 32] make use of so contemptible a Creature, to reprove the folly of a Prophet.

Secondly, it gives light to the Israelite, by which he may or­der his steps, with more caution and warinesse; For as our Saviour sayes we may make a friend of Mammon, and Saint Chrysostom adds even of the Devil himself, so may a true Israelite make a friend of a Philistine, and they who survive, may learn by the 34000. who were slain, who being dead, yet speak unto them and us, to fly from the wrath of God, who when we re­bell against him, can punish us by far worse then our selves. Oh, who would not look upon those sins, as the most horrid spectacles in the World, for the punishment of which, God should cull out such instruments, that are under a greater curse, fitter for the fire then those on whom they are used? If we go on and continue in sin, Joel 2.25. God may send out his great Army against us, his Grashoppers, his Cankerworm, and his Caterpillar, and eat up our Harvest; Habbac. 2.11. He may raise up every Creature, even the timber out of the wall to speak against us; and if we still stand out a­gainst him, he may raise up some accursed Alien, some Philistine, some childe of Perdition to wreak his vengeance upon us; who would not be afraid of that cup of bitternesse, which must be brought to him by the hand of a Philistine? and forsake sin, if not for the punishment, yet for the executioner? A sad sight it was to see David the Father whipt for his Adultery, by his Son, and David the King chastised by his Subject, who should have kist his Feet; 2 Sam. 16.11. (he himself saies, The Lord bid him doe it) to see a whole Nation carried away Captive by a man, who did after­wards degenerate into a Beast, to see so many thousand Israclites fall at the feet of Idolaters, and servants of Dagon; but the inscripti­on is indeleble, what is writen, is written, Dominus est, it is the Lord.

4. But now in the last place: not onely the Priests, and the peo­ple, but the Ark it self was delivered up: the Ark of his Cove­nant, and the Ark of his strength; Ps. 132. Exod. 37. 1 Sam. 4. from whence God gave his Oracles, wherein were the Tables of the Law, and Testimony written by the Finger of God, the Glory of God, as Phinchas his wife calls it, even this was made a prey to these cursed Aliens, brought in Tri­umph into the house of Dagon, at the sift Chapter. And here we may lay our hands upon our mouth, once have I spoken, yea thrice, but here is a great depth, Horror and amazement; and we may fear to proceed any further. What? defeat his own com­mand? deliver up his own Ordinance; what? deliver up his strength into Captivity, and his Glorie into the enemies hands? yes, even here, Dominus est it is the Lord. God did it, because he suffered it to be done, did it, tanquam dormiens as one asleep, with­drew himself: when he awakes, then he will lift up his hand, and [Page 33] it shall fall upon the Philistine, and bruise him to pieces; then it shall be his power and irresistible Arm, now it is but his con­nivence, and permission. What the rage of the Persecutor, what the Philistine, what the Devil doth, God is said to do, and in ma­ny places of Scripture, it is called his will: [...]. quia volens permittit, because he willingly permits it, for should he interpose his pow­er, it could never be done, 2. Because he foretels and threatens it, and binds it with an Oath, as he doth here, which he would never do, if he meant to hinder it. Lastly, Though he will not the thing it self, as murder, and Sacriledge, and the Profanation of his Ark yet notwithstanding some good will of God is accom­plished by it; For even in the most horrid Execution, some good will of God may be accomplisht, he delivers up Christ to be Crucified, but his will was to save the World, and he that was willing his Son should suffer, yet hated the Jew, and for that ve­ry fact made their house desolate, he found them in the gall of bitternesse, and left them so, to do his will when they brake it; the malice was their own, and God suffered them to breath it forth, but the issue, and event was an Act of Gods will, of his wisdom, and power; And thus he delivers up the Ark, but it was to preserve it, as Agesilaus abrogated the Laws of L [...]curgus, that he might establish them, ut semper essent aliquan [...]o non fuerunt, Valer. Max. l. 7. c. 2 saith the Historian, they were laid aside awhile, that they might remain, and be in force for ever; so God suffers his Ark to be lead into Captivity, that it might conquer, first Dagon, and then the Israelite, strike off his hypocrisy, and work, and fashion him to the will of God, of whom the Ark was but a representation; suffered it to be removed for a time, that it might be restored a­gain both to its place and dignity.

For we may observe in these Israelites, what (if we could be impartial) we may soon discover in our selves in the use of those helps, which God hath graciously afforded us: They both ho­noured and dishonored the Ark, gave it too high an esteem, and yet undervalued it, they called it their God, and made it their Idol. A strange contradiction: yet so visible in the course and progresse of carnal worshippers, that he that sees them in their race, would think they ran two contrary wayes at once were ve­ry Religious, and very profane, at once did invade Heaven with violence, and yet drive furiously to the lowest pit.

And first, we have just reason to imagine, that when the Ark was taken up upon the Levites shoulders, and they sang let God arise (which was the set and constant form) they spake not by metaphor, but as if indeed they had their God on their shoulders: for in the fourth Chapter, when Israel was smitten at the 2. ver. let us bring say they, the Ark of the Covenant, at the third: The Ark is brought out, and now victory is certain, for when it cometh [Page 34] amongst us, it willsave us say they. But, as Epictetus once taught his Scholars, that they should so behave themselves, that they might be an Ornament to the Arts, and not the Arts unto them; so the integrity of the Jew should have been a defence to the Ark, and not the Ark made use of, to stand up for a prophane impe­nitent Israelite. For what a wile, and sophisme of Satan is this, to perswade a polluted sinful soul, that when he hath scornfully re­jected the substance; (that piety which should make him strong in the Lord) at the last, in the time of Danger, and the furious approach of the enemy, a shadow should stand forth, and fight for him; that when he had broken the Law and Testimonies, not regarded the Oracles, forget all the Mercies of God, and robd him of his glory, that then, I say, the shell, the Ark, the Shittim wood should be as the great power of God to maintain his cause: certainly, if this be not a wile of the Devil, I know no snare he hath, that can catch us: if this be not to deceive our selves, I shall think there is no such thing, as error in the World,

But again in the second place, and on the contrary, as they did Deificare Arcam, as the father speaks, even deifie the Ark, attri­bute more unto it, then God ever gave it, or was willing it should have; so they did also depretiare vilifie, and set it at naught: called it their strength, their glory, their God, but imployed it in baser offices then ever the Heathen did their gods, who called upon them, to teach them, to steal and deceive: Not long since their Priests committed rapes at the door of the Taberna­cle, Pulcra laverna, Da mihi falle­re &c. Hor. and now they expect the Ark should help those prophane miscreants, who had so polluted it. Oh, the Ark, the Ark, the glory of God, that is able to becalm, and slumber a Tempest, to binde the hands of the Almighty, that he shall not strike; to scat­ter an Army; to make kings to fly, to crown a sinful Nation with victory, to bring back an adulterer Lanreate, a Ravisher with the spoiles of a Philistine, that shall be a buckler, a protection to defend them, who but now defiled it; that shall be their God, which they made their Abomination: bring forth the Ark and then what are these uncircumcised Philistines? God heard this, saith the Psalmist, Psal. 78.59. and was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel, and seeing that all the cry was for the Ark, no thought for the sta­tutes and Testemonies, which lay shut up in the Ark, and oblivion together; seeing the signe of his presence had quite shut him out, of whose presence it was a signe, seeing it so much hono­red, so much debased, so sanctified, and so polluted, he delivers up the people, and the Ark together into the Philistines hands, that they might learn more from the Ark in the Temple of Da­gon, then they did, when it stood in their own Tabernacle, learn the right use of it now, which they had so fouly abused, [Page 35] when they enjoyed it: in a word; strikes off their embroydery, that they might learn to be more glorious within.

I remember, there is a constitution in the Imperial Law, st seudatarius rem Feuae &c. if he that holdeth in see farm useth con­trary to the will, and intent of the Lord, redit a D [...]menum, it presently returns into the Lords power. And we may ob­serve that the great Emperour of Heaven and earth proceeds af­ter the same manner, with his Leige-men, and homagers the Jews: for when they fell to Idolatry, Hos. 2.9. and bestowed the corn and the wine, which God gave them, upon Baal, then presently God takes to himself away the corn in the time thereof, and the [...]tne in the season thereof, & aufer am lanam & lanam, I will recover, [...]aith he, my flax and my wool, recover it as my own, thus unjustly u [...]ur­ped and detained by these Idolaters. I will cause all her mirth to cease, her Fast-dayes, her New-Moons, her Sabbaths, as if he had said, I will defeat my own purpose. I will nullify my Ordinance, I will ab­olish my own Law, I will put out the light of Israel, which to my people hath been, but as a meteor, to make them wander in the crooked wayes of their own Imaginations. I will deliver the Creature from the bond of corruption, which seems to groan, and travel in pain under these abuses of prophane men; it being a kinde of servitude and Captivity to the Creature to be dragged, and haled by the lusts, and fancies, and disordinate affections of pro­phane men, to be dragged to the drudgery of the Gibeonices, which I made to be as free, as the Israelite himself, to be in bondage and slavery under the pride, and extravagant desires, under the most empty, and brutish fancies of corrupt men; Auferam; I will take them away, from such unjust Vsurpers. What should a Prodigal do with wealth? what should a Robber do with strength? what should a boundlesse oppressor do with power? what should Ophni and Phinehas, Adulterers, Oppressors, a sinfull Nation, a people laden with iniquity, do with the Ark of the Co­venant of the Lord? I will begin, and I will also make an end. 1 Sam. 3.12. This glory shall depart from Israel, and the Ark shall be taken, and here, when the Ark is taken, and the glory departed from Is­rael; the word, and inscription is still the same, Dominus est: it is the Lord.

And now, to apply this last particular; shall I desire you to look up upon the inscription, it is the Lord? Behold the Prophet Jerem, hath done it to my hand. Ite ad Stlo. Go to my palace, which was in Shiloh; where I set my Name at the first, Jer. 7.12. and see what I did to it for the wickednesse of my people. Go unto Shiloh, and there purge the corruption, the plague out of your hearts, wash off the paint of your hypocrisie with the blood of these 34000. Israclites. Look [Page 34] upon the Ark, but not so to be dazled, and dote on the glory and Beauty of it, as to lose the sight of your selves, and those sinnes which pollute it. Look upon the word and Sacraments, but not to make them the non ultrà of your worship, and to rest in them, as in the end, to eat, and wash, and hear, and no more, to say the word of God is sweet, and not to taste and digest it, to attribute virtue and efficacy to the Sacrament, and yet be fit­ter to receive the Devil, then the sop; not at once to magni­fie, and prophane it, to call it the bread of life, and make it poy­son; not to come neer the Ark; not to handle these Holy things without feeling; in a word; Not to make them first an Idol; and then nothing in this World.

For (my brethren) it is a very dangerous thing thus to over­value those things, which in themselves are highly to be estee­med, and are above comparison with any thing in this World: for when we make them more then they are, we in effect make them lesse then they are, and at last nothing, of no use at all; nay we make that a snare unto us, which was made a Help; and as e­very Creature within the bounds of its own nature is useful, and profitable, so also these external helps, the Ark of God, the word and Sacraments of the Church, are great blessings, and high­ly to he Honored, whilst we use them to that end, for which they were first Instituted, whilst we walk within that compasse, and circle, which God hath drawn, according to that form which he hath shewed us. That Jew deserves not the name of an Isra­clite, that should by word or gesture dishonour the Ark, when we see, he was not permitted to touch it; but then, he that of a signe of the presence of God, in the day of Battle, shall make it his God, is so much a Jew, that he deserves to be flung out of the Synagogue. And that Christian, that bows not to the majesty of the word, and receives it not as a letter, and epistle from God, as Saint Augustin calls it; that esteems not of the Sacraments, as those visible words, the signes and pledges, and conveiances of his great love, and favour to us in Christ, hath too little of the Christian, to make him so much, as one of the visible Church; but he that is high in his P [...]negyrick, and ever calling: speak Lord, for thy servant heareth; and then lies down to sleep, or if he be awake, is onely active in the denying the power of that word, he so much magnified, and called for, and thinks he hath done all duties, all offices to God, if he do but give him the eare, (which is to trust in the Ark more then in God) He that shall make the Sacrament first an Idol, and then a seal, to shut up Treason in si­lence, as the Jesuite, or use it as an Opiate once or twice in the yeer, to quiet his conscience, his viaticum, and provision rather [Page 35] to strengthen him in sin, then against it; he that shall thus mag­nifie, and thus debase it, and thus exalt, and thus tread it un­der foot, is guilty of Heresie, saith Erasmus, which is not properly an Heresie, but yet such a kinde of Heresie, which may make him Anathema, though he be of the Church, and at last sever him, as a Goat from the Sheep. And now let us Judge, not according to the appearance, but let us Judge righteous judgement, or rather (if you please do but judge ac­cording to the appearance. Cast an eye upon these unhappy times, which if they be not the last, yet so much resemble those, which, as we are told, shall Vsher in the great Day, that we have great reason, to look about us, as if they were the last; weigh I say, the controversies, the businesse of these times, and concerning those Duties, and Transactions, which constitute and consummate a Christian, you shall finde as great silence in our Disputes, as in our lives and practice. The great Heate and Contention is concerning Baptisme and the Lords Supper, and the Government and Disciplien of the Church, 'tis not, whether we should denie our selves, and abstain from all fleshly lusts, but whether we may wash or not, whether eat or not, whether Christ may be conveighed in­to us in Water, or in Bread? whether he hath set up a chaire of infallibilitie at Rome, or a Consistory at Geneva, whether he hath Ordained one Pope, or a Million? what digladiations? what Tragedies about these, and if every particular Fancy be not pleased, the cry is, as if Religion were breathing out its last, when as true Religion consists not principally in these; and these may seem to have been passed over to us, rather as favours and Honours, and Pledges of his Love, then strict and severe Commands. That we must wash, and eat, are Commands, but which bring no Burden, or hardship with them, the performance of them being more easie, as no whit repugnant to flesh and blood; It is no more, but wash and be clean, Eat in remembrance of the Greatest Benefit, that ever man-kinde received. All the difficulty is in the performance of the vow, we make in the one, and the due preparation of the soul for the other, which is the subduing of the lusts, and Affections, the Beatifying of the inward man, which is truely, and most properly the service of Christ, which is the Ark of our Ark, the Glory of our Glory, and the Crown of all those outward Advantages, which our Lord and Master hath been pleased to afford us; Mic. 6.6. we may say with the Prophet Micah, wherewith shall we come before the Lord? or bow our selves before the High God? will he be pleased with the diligence of our ear, with our Washing and Eating, and answer with him at the eighth verse: He hath shewed thee oh man, [Page 38] what he doth require, to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk Humbly with thy God. Ite ad locum meum Siolo. Goe to my palace in Silo, and there learn to disdeceive your selves by their Ex­ample, lest, if all your Religion be shut up, with theirs, in the Ark, all in outward Ceremony and Formality God may strike both us, and the Ark we trust to, recover and call back those Helps and Gracious advantages from such prodigal usurpers. For when all is for the Ark, nothing for the God it represents; when we make the Pulpit our Ark, and chain all Religion to it; when the lips of the Preacher, which should preserve knowledge, and be as a Ship (as Basil speaks, to conveigh that Truth, which is more precious, then the Gold of Ophir, Orat. [...]. brings nothing but Apes and Peacocks, loath­some and ridiculous Fancies? when the Hearers must have a Song for a Sermon and that too many times, much out of Tune, when both Hearer and Speaker act a part, as it were upon a stage, even till they have their Exit, and go out of the World; when we will have no other Laver, but that of Bap­tisme, no bread but that in the Eucharist; when we are such Jewish Christians, as to rely on the shell and outside, on Ex­ternal formalities and performances, more empty and lesse significant, lesse effectual then their Ceremonies; we have just cause to fear, that God may do unto us, as he did unto Shilo; or as he threatened the same people Amos 8. Send a Famine into the land, not a Famine of bread, but of Hearing the word (and such a famine we may have, though our loaves do multiply, though Sermons be our dayly Bread) that he may deprive us of our Sacraments, or deliver them up to Dagon, to be polluted by superstition, or to be troden under foot by prophaners (which of the two is the worst) that we may even loath, and abhor that in which we have taken so vain, so unprofitable, so pernicious delight; and condemn our selves, and our own foul ingratitude, and with sorrow and confusion of Face subscribe to this Inscription, Dominus est, It is the Lord.

Concl. And now we have setled the inscription, Dominus est, it is the Lord, upon every particular; which may seem at first not so well placed; but as the head of Jupiter upon the body of a Tyrant; a merciful God plucking up, and destroying his own people, fighting for the Philistine against the Isra­elite, as if a dead Israelite, were of a sweeter savour in his Nostrils, then a dead Philistine, and the Ark were better pla­ced in the House of Dagon, then in his own Tabernacle: but look again, and consider it aright, and you will say, it was [Page 39] rightly fixed. For the wayes of God are equall, Ezek. 18.29. but ours are un­equal, and nothing but the inequality of our own, makes his seem so; whilest he remaines the same God in the fire, and in the Earth-quake, which he was in the still voice, the same when he slew them, and when his light shined upon their, his Justice takes not from his Mercy, nor his mercy from the equity of his Justice; but he is just when he bindes up, and merciful, when he wounds us; his justice, his wisdom, his mercy are over all his works. The same God that overthrew Pharaoh in the Red sea, that slew great and mighty kings; did deliver up his own people, good and bad; did deliver them into their Enemies hands; did deliver up the Ark to Da­gon, for his Justice, his wisdom, and mercy endure for ever.

And now, having gone along with old Eli in his discovery, we cannot but take up his resolution, let him do what seemeth him good: and we called it Elies use, or application of his Doctrine; and let us (for conclusion) make it ours; and learn to kisse the Son lest he be angry; nay, to kisse him, to bow be­fore him when he is angry, to offer him up a peace-offering, our wills, of more power then a Hecatomb, then all our nu­merous Fasts, and Sermons to appease his wrath, and to bring peace, and order again into the World; that our wills be­ing his, being subdued by his Spirit, and delivered up into that blessed Captivity, to be under his Beck, and Command, they may stand out against all our natural, and carnal desires, and check and quiet them; which is the truest surrendry we can make, and makes us of the same minde with Christ, who would not saith Hilary, Quod vult of fice did ipsum concedi sibi non vult. De Trin. l. 10. have the granted which he would have done, did not refuse the Cup, but desired it might passe from him: that as Saul, when he was struck to the ground, cryed out, Lord what wouldst thou have me do? so may we, when his hand is upon us, in our trembling and astonishment; say, Lord what wouldst thou have us to suffer? Fiat voluntas, Thy will be done, though it be in our destruction. By this we testifie our consent with him, this is our friendship with God, and they who (as Abraham was) are Gods friends, have idem velle, & i [...]em nolle, will, and nill the same things with him, are ready Sequi Deum, to follow God in all his wayes, when he seems to withdraw, and when he comes neer us, when he shines upon us, and when he thunders, in what he commands, and what he permits, in what he absolutely will do, and what he makes way for, and will suffer to be done, to follow him [Page 40] in all, Sen. ep. 96. and bow before him, Non pareo Deo, sed assentior, & ex antmo illum, non quia necesse est, sequor, saith the Heathen Se­ncca; I do not onely obey God, and do what he would have me, but I am of his minde, and whatsoever is done in Hea­ven and earth, is done as I would have it; The world is never out of frame with me, I see nothing but order, and Harmony; no disturbance; no crossnes in the course of things; for that wis­dome which is the worker of all things, is more moving them any m [...]on, Wisd. 7. and passeth, and goeth through them all, reacheth from one end to another mightily, and draws every motion, and action of men to that end, in which if we could see them, we should wonder and cry out, so, so, thus we would have it. The stubornest knee may be made to bow, and Obedience may be constrained, Balaam obeyed God, but it was against his will, but the true Israelite doth it with joy, and readinesse, and though it be a blow, counts it as a favour; For he that gave it, hath taught him an art, Psal. 115.3. to make it so Goa doth whatsoever he will in Heaven and in Earth, saith the Psalmist, God wills it, and doth it, and when [...]is done, our will must bow before it, and we must say with old Ele, Faciat quod bonum in oculis, let him do what he will. Take the will of God in those several wayes, the Scripture, and the light of reason hath discovered it to us, and in every kinde we must subscribe, and vvhat he doth vve must vvill, and vvhat he vvill suffer, must seem good in our eyes, and there is volun­tas naturalis inclinationis & aesiderti, that desire and inclination which naturally was in him, to work and wish the good of his Creature, which is the proper, and natural effect of his good­nesse for he Created us, for our good, and his Glory; and there is another will, voluntas P [...]aec [...]pti, the Law and Ordinance, vvhich he hath laid upon his Creature, vvhich is every vvhere in Scrip­ture called his will; for as he Ordained his Creature for good, so he made known unto it the means, by vvhich it should at­tain to that good for vvhich it vvas at first Ordained. Now vve cannot but yeeld in these, for can therebe any Question made vvhether vve vvil set a fiat, and subscribe to our ovvn good? It is strange that any man should be unwilling that God should love him; unwilling to be happy, or loath that way, which so great love hath designed to bring him to this end. The number is but few of those that do this will; but tis the voice of the whole Christian World, that this will should be done. But there is yet further, as we may observe, voluntas accasionata, a secon­dary, and Consequent will in God, not natural, but occasioned, and to which he is in a manner constrained. The severity of God, the miseries, and afflictions of this life; induration of will-ful and stubborn sinners, eternal paines laid up in the World to come, are [Page 41] the effects of this occasioned will. Besides this, there is voluntas permissionis his permissive will, by which he doth give way so far, as he thinks good to the intents, and actions of evil men: He doth not command them, He doth not secretly suggest them, nor doth he incline the Agents to them, nor incline the Philistines to invade that Land, which is none of theirs, but by his infinite prae­science, foreseeing all actions, and events possible, determines (for reasons best known to himself) to give way to such actions, which he saw would be done, if he gave way; and to these two, we cannot but yeeld, unlesse we will deny him to be God, for if we beleeve him just, or wise, we cannot but say Fiat, let him do what he will; let him be angry, and let him carry on his anger in what wayes, and by what means he please; He is our Father, O Foelicem, cui Deus dignatur irasci, Te [...]tul. and loves us, and if we vvill be enemies to our selves, he doth but an act of Justice, and of mercy, if he use the rod, vvhat though he give line to vvicked men, to do that vvhich his soul hates, to suffer that to be done vvhich he forbids? He permits all the evil that is done in the World, if he did not permit it, it could not be done, and if he did not permit evil, Obedience vvere but a name, for vvhat praise is it, not to do that, vvhich I cannot do? vvhatsoever evil he suffers, his Wisdome is alvvayes present vvith him (for he is Wisdome it self) and can dravv that evil vvhich he but suffers to be done, and make it serve to the Advancement of that good vvhich he vvill do, he vvill make it as the hand of justice to pu­nish offendors, and execute his vvill, and make it as his rod, or Discipline to teach sinners in the way, if vve could once sub­due our vvills to that vvill of his, vvhich is visible in his precepts, if vve could ansvver love vvith love, and love him, and keep his Commandments, vve should have no such aversnesse from the o­ther tvvo, no such dislike, if he do vvhat he is forced to do, or permit that to be done, which he hath condemned already: If we do whatsoever he commands us, and be his friends, what is it to us, though he binde the sweet influences of the Pleiades, Job. 38.31. Deut. 28.3. Job 38.38. or loose the bonds of Orion? though he make the Heavens as brasse, and the Earth as iron? though the clods cleave fast together, and the clouds distil not upon them? what is it to us, if he beat down his own Temples, when the tower of Babel reacheth up to Hea­ven? if the black darknesse be in Goshen, and the Egyptians have light; if fools sport and triumph in their folly, and the whip be laid on the back of the innocent? what is it to us how, or where he casts about his Hail-stones, and coals of fire?

In all these sad and dismal events, in these judgements, which fall crosse with our judgement, and (as the eye of flesh looks upon them) to the minde of God himself, in all these perplexities, these riddles of providence, the friend of God, is still his friend, and favours, nay, applauds whatsoever he doth, or is pleased to suffer to be done, which he would not suffer, did not his Justice and Wisdome require it, which is able to make the most crooked paths straight, to fill every valley and level every mountain, to work good out of evil, and so make all those seeming extube­rancies, that which to us seem'd disorder, and confusion, that which our ignorance wondered at, smooth and plain and even at the last; Dominus est, it is the Lord, when that word is heard, let every mouth be stopt, or let it declare his Glory amongst the Nations, and his wonders among the people; at that word, let eve­ry knee bow both of things in Heaven, and things in earth; let men and angels say Amen, his will be done, Dominus est, It is the Lord, it is the antecedent, and the most natural consequent, or conclusion, that can be drawn from it, is this of old Eli the High Priest; Faciat quod bonum in oculis, let him do what seemeth him good.

To conclude then: when we are thus wrought and fashio­ned to his hand and will, thus meek and yeelding to his Scepter; when we follow him in all his wayes, and not question, but o­bey his Providence, which is the bridle of the World, and fit for no hands but his, when with old Eli here, we joyn our Fa­ciat; with his fecit, and are willing he should do, whatsoever is done; when the Lord thunders from Heaven, and shoots his arrows abroad; when we can look upon them sticking in our own sides, Psa. 19. and say; thus, thus it should be, Judicia Domini vera, the Judgements of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether, then we have the spirit of God and we have the wil of God, and these ar­rows will be to us, as Jonathans were to David, as signes, and war­ning to fly from some danger neer at hand, that those evils we suf­fer may work that patience, which may make us Cooperarios Dei (as Tertullian spake of Job) fellow workers with God, Tertul. De pati­ent. and joyn us with him in the conquest of those temptations, which they bring along with them; that our patience may beget experience, how weak and fraile we are, when we are moved, and guided by our own will, and this experience; Hope which being founded on the promises of the God of truth, can neither deceive us, nor make us ashamed, a hope that our Ark will return, and God will restore to us all those helps and advantages, which he shall think neces­sary for us in this our warfare. He that hath the will of God, hath this hope, built upon his power, and wisdom, which alwayes accompanies his will; he that hath the will of God, hath what [Page 43] he will; hath power, and wisdom, in the strength of which we shall be able to lift up our heads, in the midst of all the busie noyse the World shall make, be stedfast, and immovable, when the tempest is loudest, and when our sun shall be darkned, and the stars fall from Heaven, when there shall be Sects, and divisions, and great perplexity, when our Ark shall be taken, and the glory depart from Israel, look upon all with an eye of Charity, or as Erasmus speaks, with an Evangelical eye, and walk on in a constant course of piety, and contention with those infirmities, which so easily beset us, beating down sin in our selves, though we can­not destroy errour in our brethren, and so becomes as Nazianzen once spake of his people of Nazianzum, like the Ark of Noah, and by this our spiritual Wisdom, escape that deluge, and Inundation of Contention, which hath neer overflovved, and swallowed up the whole Christian World, and so walk upon these floods, and waves, Christ himself going before, till vve rest upon our Ararat, our holy Hill, that new Jerusalem, that City of peace, where there will be no envie, no debate, no Sects, no Divisions, no contentions, no wars, no rumor of wars, but love, and peace, and unity, and joy, and unconceivable bliss for evermore.

THE THIRD SERMON.

NOthing more familiar in Scripture, then to compare a Christian mans life to a walke, and Christianity to a way, [...], Ac­cording to the way, which they call Heresy, so worship I the God of my Fathers, saith Saint Paul, Acts. 24.14. and the resemblane fitteth very well. For, as they, who travell in the way, meet with variety of Objects, it may be a plant or Flower (saith Saint Basil) it may be a Serpent, In Psal. 2. or a Ly­on; objects to delight them, and objects to terrify them, all to re­tard, and deteine them, to stay them longer from their journeys end; so in the course of Religion, in our way to happiness, every step is with danger, our pathes are ensnared, an our Progresse in­tangled: if a plant, or Flower, Prov. 22.13. the pomp and glory of the world stay us not, yet there is Leo in via, a Lion in the way, difficulties, 2 Cor. 7.5. which we must struggle with, and there are Feares in the way, fightings without, and Terrors: Intur causus ambulamus, saith Austin, we walk in the midst of ruine, where every object may prove a Temptation, and every Temptation an overthrow, nay [...] saith Isidor: with our ruine about us: not onely the way, but our feet be slippery.

Wee need not goe farre for instance; for every man may find one in himself; but we will take this (which Saint Paul hath put into our hands) of the Colossians; the occasion of my Text; and of them Saint Paul professes in this Epistle, That they had made a fair onset in Christianity; that they were forward in their way; he be­holds them with joy, and rejoyceth to see them walk, to see their or­der, and their stedfast Faith in Christ, in the verse before my Text: but withall perceiving some uneven steps, and dangerous swarvings, and declinations from the will of Christ, and those wayes, which his Wisedome drew out in the Gospel, he calls loud upon them; and at once commends, and instructs them, armes them against those false Teachers, who by their mixtures and additions, had made it another Gospel; commends them for their choice of their way, and directs them how to walk. In the way they were, but there was Philosophus in viâ, V [...]s. 8. at the Eighth, the Philosopher in their way, with his subtilties to spoile and rob them; and then the word is, Nen o vos depraedetur, let no man make a spoile of you, draw you by force out of the way, by the vaine deceit of Philosophicall specula­tions; And there was Angelus in viâ, an Angel in the way, with his glorious excellencies to amaze them, v. 18. and here the word is [...], Let no man defraud you of your reward, of that I berty, which Christ hath granted you, which makes a fair and open way to you, without the mediation of Angels. Last of all, There was Lex in viâ, there was the Law in the way, with her shadows and ceremonies to deteine them, and there word is nemo vos judicet, Let no man judge or condemn you of a Holyday, or new Moone, or the Sabbath Day, v. 16. Harken not to the Philosopher, but to him in whom dwelleth all the Fulnesse of the God-head bo­dily, v. 9. and that wisedome which the Holy Ghost teacheth. Bow not to an Angel; but to him, who is head of all Principality, and Po­wer. v. 10. And look not unto the Law, which is but a shadow; but to the Body, the Truth and sollidity of the things themselves, which is in Christ. These three are all, Et haec tria unum sunt, and these Three are One, I may say, these Three Cautions and directions are but one, at least drawn up and collected in this one, which I have read unto you; Three severall lines, but meeting in this Center, sicut accepist is, walk in Christ, as you have received him, which is as a light from Heaven, to direct us in our way, that we be not taken by the deceit of Philosophy; That we stoop not to the glory of Angels; That we catch not at the shadow, when we should lay hold on the substance: In a word, This keeps us close to Christ, and his Doctrine, which must not be mixed, or blended, either with the Law, or Phi­losophy, or that voluntary Humility, and worshipping of Angels, [Page 47] which is Idolatry; As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walke in him.

At the very hearing of which Exhortation, I know every man will say, That it is good and wholsome counsell, well fitted and apply'd by Saint Paul to the errors, and distempers of that Church, to which he writ, but not so proper, nor applyable to ours; For so farr are we from being ensnared with Philosophy, that we see too many ready to renounce both their sense, and reason, to be lesse then men, nay to be inferior to the beasts, neither to discourse, nor see; not to see, what they see; nor to know what they cannot be ig­norant of, that they may be Christians, as if Christ came to put out our eyes, and abolish our Reason. And for voluntary worship, there is no feare of that in them, who will scarce acknowledge any Obligation and can with ease turne a Law into a Promise: will that profane person ever stoop to an Angel, who is thus familiar with God himself? And the Law; it goes for a Letter, a Title, and no more; for Ceremonies, they were but shadows, but are now mon­sters. Christ in appearance left us two, and but two, and some have dealt with them, as they used to do with monsters, exposed them to scorne, and flung them out; so that this Counsell now in respect of us, will not appeare, as an Apple of Gold with Pictures of silver, Prov. 25.31. but may seem to be quite out of its place and Season. But yet, let us view it once again, and we shall find, that it is a generall Prescript looking forward, and applyable to every Age of the Church, an Antidote against all Errors and deviations, and if we take it as we should, will [...], look round upon all, and either prevent, or purge out all error whatsoever: For though our errors be not the same with theirs, yet they may proceed from the same ground, and be as dangerous, or worse: peradventure, we may bee in no danger of Philosophy, but we may be of our selves, and our self-love may more ensnare us, then their subtilties can doe: wee may be too stiff to bow to an Angel; but our eyes may dazle at the Power, and excellency of men, and wee may be carried about from Doctrine to Doctrine, from error to error with every breath of theirs, as with a mighty wind; and though we stand out against the Glory of an Angel, yet we may fall down and miscarry by the ex­ample of a mortall man: in a word, we may defy all Ceremonies, and yet worship our own imaginations, which may be lesse signifi­cant then they.

Let us then, as the Apostle elsewhere speaks, suffer this word of Exhortation; let us view, and handle this Word of Life, and it will present us with these two things.

1. A Christian mans Duty in these words, Ambulate in Christo, walk in Christ.

Secondly, The Rule by which we must regulate our motion, and be directed in our walk, sicu [...] accepistis, we must so walk in Him, as we have received him, which two, stand in flat opposition to two maine Errors of our life. For either we receive Christ, and not walke in him, or walke in him, but not with a Sicut, not as we have received him; Of these in their order.

In the handling of the first, we shall point, and levell our dis­course at these two particulars. 1. Shew you, That Christianity is not a lazy, idle Profession, a sitting still, or standing, a speculation, but a walke. 2ly, Wherein this walke or motion principally con­sists. And first, we find no word so expressive, no word more com­monly used in holy Writ then this, To walke with God, Gen. 16. To walk before God, Gen. 24.40. to walke by Faith, 2 Cor. 5.7. To walke in good Works, Ephes. 2. and in divers other places; For indeed, in this one word, in this one syllable, in contained the whole matter, the end and summe of all; All that can be brought in, to make up the perfect man in Christ Jesus.

For first; This brings forth a Christian, like a Pilgrim, a Travel­ler, forgetting what is behind, and weary of the place he stands in, counting those few approaches he hath made as nothing, ever pan­ting and striving, gaining ground, and pressing forward to a high­er degree, to a better place; As there is motus ad perfectionem, a mo­tion to persection; so there is motus in perfectione, a motion, and pro­gresse even in perfection it self; the good Christian being ever per­fect, and never perfect till he come to his journeys end.

Secondly, It takes within its compasse all those essentiall requi­sites to action. 1. It supposeth faculty to discover the way. 2ly, A power to act, and move in it. 3ly, Will, which is nothing else, but principium actionis, as Tert. calls, the beginning of all motion, the Imperiall power, which as Queen commands, and gives act to the understanding, senses, Affections, and those faculties which are subject to it; And besides this, to walke, implies those outward and adventitious helps; Knowledge in the understanding, and love in the Will, which are as this Pilgrims staffe, to guide and uphold him in his way; his knowledge is as the day to him, to walke as in the Day, and his Love makes his journey shorter, though it be through the wildernesse of this world, to a City not [Page 49] made with hands, nor seen. For faculty without knowledge, Hebr. 11. is like Polyphemus, a body with power to move, but without eye-sight to direct, and therefore cannot chuse but offend and move amisse; and faculty and knowledge without love, and desire, are but like a Body, which wanting nourishment, hath no sense of hunger to make it call for it, and therefore cannot but bring leanness into the soul: For be our naturall faculty and ability what it will, yet if we know not our way, we shall no more walk in it, then the Traveller sound of body and limbe can goe the way aright, of which he is ut­terly ignorant; Againe, be our Abilities perfect, and let our know­ledge be absolute, yet if we want a mind, and have no love, if we suffer our selves to be over-swayed by a more potent affection to something else, we shall never doe, what we know well enough, and are otherwise enabled to. Now to walk in Christ takes in all these: Faculty, Power, Will, Knowledge, Love; Then you see a Christian in his walk, rejoycing as a mighty man to run his race, when the Understanding is the Counsellor, and points out; This is the way, walk in it; and the will hath an eye to the hand; and dire­ction of the understanding, bows it self, and as a Queen drawes with in those inferior faculties, the senses and Affections, when it opens my eye to the wonders of Gods Law, and shutts it up by cove­nant to the vanity of the world; when it bounds my touch and tast, with Touch not, Tast not any forbidden thing; when it makes the senses as windows to let in life, not death, Jer. 9.21. and as gates shut fast to the world, and the Devill, and lifting up their Heads to let the King of Glory in, when it composeth, and tuneth our Affe­ctions to such a Peace, and Harmony, setting our love to piety, our anger to sinne, our feare to Gods wrath, our hope to things not seen, our sorrow to what is done amisse, and so frameth in us, nunc modulos Temperantiae, nunc carmen pietatis, as Saint Ambrose speakes, now the even measures of Temperance, now a Psalm of piety, now the Threnody of a broken heart, even those Songs of Sion, which the Angels in heaven, and God himself delight in; and all these are vi­tually included in this one word, to walk in Christ, and if any of these be wanting, what proffers soever we make; what fancies soever we entertaine, what empty conceptions soever we foster, yet flesh and blood cannot raise it self on these wings of wind, nor can we be more said to walk, then they who have been dead long a­goe.

For so farre is the bare knowledge of the way from advancing us in our walke, that it is a thing supposed, and no where under the command, as it is meerly speculative, and ends in it self; no more then to see, or feele, or heare, and so essentiall is this motion of walk­ing to a Christian, that in the language of the Spirit wee are never truely said to know, till wee walke, and that made imperfect know­ledge, which receives those things, which concern our peace, no o­therwise [Page 50] then the eye doth colours, or the eare sounds; never be­ing once named or mentioned in the Scripture, but with disgrace; If any man say, I know him, and keep not his Commandements, he is a lyar. 1 Joh. 2.4. so that to define our walking by Knowledge and specu­lation, is a kind of Heresy, which rather deserves an Anathema, and should be drove out of the Church with more zeal and earnestness, then many, though grosse, yet silly, impertinent errors, which p [...]sse abroad about the world, but under that name.

For 1. this speculative knowledge is but a naked assent, and to more, and hath nothing of the will: and the understanding is not an arbitrary faculty, but necessarily apprehends objects in that shape and form they represent themselves; nor is it deceived, even when it is deceived (I mean in things which concern our walk) for the bill and accusation against us, is not, that we doe not, but that we will not understand; nolumus intelligere ne cogamur & facere, saith Aug. we wilnot know our way, for no other reason, but because we are most unwilling to take the paines, and walk in it. And therefore in eve­ry Christian peripatetique, there must be something of the Sera­phin, and something of the Cherubin, there must be heat, as well as light, love as well as knowledge: for love is active, and will pace on, Hugo de San­cto vict. where Knowledge doth but stand at gaze, Amor intrat, ubi cog­nitio foris stat, love is active, and will make a battery, and forcible entrance, and take the Kingdom of heaven by violence, whilst Spe­culation stands without, and looks upon it, as in a Map. What talke we of knowledge and speculation? It is but a look, a cast of the mindes eye, and no more, and doth but place us, as God did Moses once upon mount Nebo, to see that spirituall Canaan, which we shall never enjoy; and then what comfort is it, to know what Justification is, and to want that hand of a quick and active faith, which alone can lay hold on Christ? to talke of Election, and ne­ver make it sure? to dispute of Paradice, and have no title to it? to speak of nothing more, then Heaven, and be an heire of Damnati­on? And then, what a fruitlesse mock-knowledge is that, which sets God a walking, whilst we sleep and dreame? makes the Master of the Vineyard work, and sweat, and stands idle it self all the day long? which hath a full view of what God hath done before all Time, and no power at all to move us, to do any thing in this our day? when we are well seen in the Decrees of God, and little move in our own Duties? when we can follow God in all his ways, and tell how he worketh in us, and are afraid of that feare and trembling, with which we should work out our Salvation? can speak largely of the Power of Gods Grace, and resist it? of perse­verance, and fall more then seven times a day? This knowledge, I say, is but a bare assent, and so far from being enjoyn'd us, that, as the case now stands, ignorance were the safer choice; and rather then thus to know him, we may say with the Apostle, Let him that is ignorant, 1 Cer. 14.38. be ignorant still.

For in the second place: as we use it, it workes in us at the most but a weake purpose [...]f minde, a faint velleity, a forc'd involunta­ry approbation, which we would shake off, if we could, as we do a friend which speaks what we would not hear, and calls that poy­son, which is as Honey to our tast: For who can see such sights, and not in some degree be taken with them? Who can look upon the Temple, and not ask, what Buildings are these? who can see the way to life, and not approve it? but you know, I may purpose to rise; and yet fold my hands to sleep? I may commend the way, and not walke in it: Nay, how often do we pray, Give us ever of this Bread of life, and yet labour most for this bread that perisheth; which we at once revile and embrace, and speak evill of it, because we love it, when heaven is but as a Picture, which we look upon, and wonder, and refuse, and hath no better place of reception, then that common Inne of all wild, and loose imaginations, the fancy? Christ is the way: it is in every mans Creed; and if this would make us walkers, what a multitude of Sectaries? what a Herd of Epicures? what an assembly of Atheists? what a congregation of fools? I had almost said, what a Legion of Devills might goe under that name? For even the Devills themselves have acknowledged Christ, and this way is not evill spoken of, nay, it is magnifyed of them who had rather wallow in the mire, then walk in it: How is Christ made not onely panis quotidianus, our daily Bread, but sermo quoti­dianus, the talk of every day and houre? In our misery we im­plore his help; In his Name we lie down, and in his Name we rise up, In his Name we Prophesy: if afflictions beat upon us, he is cal­led upon to calme the storme? If our conscience chide us, we have learnt an unhappy art and skill to force him in to make our Peace? We love to talke of him, we many times leave our necessary cal­lings, and trades most unnecessarily, but to heare of him: but all these may be rather proffers, then motions, rather pleasing and flat­tering thoughts, then painfull ambulations, as St. Augustine speaks of himself, in his Confessions, Confess. l. 8. c. 5. cogitationes similes conatibus expergisci volentium, thoughts like to the endeavours of men half asleep, who would be awak'd, and cannot, who move and stirre, and lightly lift up the head, and then fall down fast asleep: I have been too li­berall, and given them more strength, then they have, I mean, then these Gnostiques give them, whom they neither more, nor stirr, but leave them in their prospect, fast asleep.

Or at the best, in the third place, this inclination, this approba­tion is but a Dreame, visus adesse mihi, &c. Christ may seem to walk with us, when he is not in all our ways; and as in Drames we seem to perform many things, we do all things, and we do no­thing.

We plead we wrestle, we fight, we Triumph, we sayle, we fly, we see; not what is, but hath, or should be done, and all is but a dreame: so when we have made a fancifull peregrination through all the pleasant fields, and rivers of milk, through all the riches and glory of the Gospel, and delights which it affords; when we have seen our Saviour in his Cratch, lead him to mount Calvary, beheld him on his Crosse, brought him back with Triumph from his grave, and placed him at the right hand of God; wee may think indeed, we have walked all this while with Christ: but when our conscience shall recover her light, which was darkned with the pleasures and follyes of this present life, when she shall dart this light upon us, and plainly tell us, that we have not fasted with him, that we have not watched one houre with him, that we have not gone about with him doing good, that we have loved those enemies, which he came to destroy, That we have been so farre from crucifying our flesh, that we have crucifyed him again to fulfill the lusts thereof; That the world, and not Christ hath been the Forme, which moved us in the whole course of our life; behold then it will appeare, that all was but a dreame. Foolish men that we are, who hath bewitched us? we dispute, we write books, we coine distinctions, we study for the truth, we are angry for the truth, we lose our Peace for the Truth, we fight for the truth, we die for the truth, and when all is done, upon due examination, nothing is done, but we have spun a Spiders webb, which the least breath of Gods displeasure will blow a way: we have known the way, and approved it, have sub­scrib'd, that, This is the way, but have made no more progresse to­wards our journeys end, then our picture; we have but dreamt of life, and are still in the valley of the shadow of Death.

Conclus. And now, what saies the Scripture? Awake thou that sleepest, that dreamest, and stand up from the dead. Let us not please our selves with Visions, and Dreames, with the suborned flattery of our own imaginations; Let us not think, that if we seek the way, and like it, and speak well of it, we are in heaven already, or have that hope, that well-grounded never failing Hope, which may entitle us to it; why should such a thought arise in our heart? a thought, that makes us worse then fooles, or mad-men, and will keep us so, courting of sinne, labouring in iniquity, and wit gree­dinesse working out our own destruction; a thought that shuts out God, and makes an open entrance for a legion of Devills, and then welcomes, and attends them; For all the sinnes which the Flesh is subject to, or the Devill can suggest, may well stay, and find a place of rest, with such a thought. Why should we please, and loose our selves in such a Though? See, here is water, what doth let me to be baptized? said the Eunuch to Philip, Act. 8. Here is light; what hindereth, that we doe not walk in it? Behold heaven opens [Page 53] it self, and displayes all its beauty, and glory? why do we run from it? Knowledge directs, but we will not follow; Knowledge per­swades; but we will not hearken; Knowledge commands; but we rebell: we are Illuminated, wee professe we know Christ, but wee will not be sanctified; For by our Works we deny him. Tit. 1.16. Our Knowledge follows, and pursues us, we cannot shake it off; it staies with us, whether we will or no; it goads, it provokes, it chides, it importunes, it triumphs within us, but yet not over us, because those vanities, which we are too familiar with, will not suffer us to yeeld; we cannot be ignorant of what we know, but we are too often un­willing to doe that of which we cannot be ignorant; our self-love undoes us, and our own will drives us on the rocks, whilst the light within us points out to the Haven, where we should be, and the knowledge within us, which did exhort, instrust and correct, is made a witnesse against us, and a Judge to condemne us to more stripes then they shall feele, who had not so much as a glance of light, but did sit in darknesse, and in the shadow of Death.

Let us them not fly, but walk, not hover aloft in the contempla­tion of what is to be done, but stoop down, and doe it, subdue the will to our Knowledge, the sense to reason; let us learn to walk; & by walking, be more learned, then before, [...]: for Practice saith Naz. is to Knowledge, Naz. Or. tertia. what Knowledge is to it, a Foundation, as we build our Practice upon Knowledge, (for we must know before we can walk) so we raise our knowledge higher, and higher upon practice, as Heat helpeth motion, and is increast by it, and the torch burns brighter, being fann'd by that aire which it inlightens. Psal. 25.14. The secret of the Lord is revealed to them that fear him, and his Coveuant to give them more understanding, saith David. Let us then joyne, as St. Peter exhorts; with Knowledge, Temperance, 2 Pet. 1.6. and with Temperance Patience, and with Patience Godliness, and these will make, that we shall neither be [...], idle, and not walk, for [...], walk, but to nopurpose, unfruitfull in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. For to joyne these two, Knowledge and Practice, and to abound more and more, is to walk in Christ. Thus much of the first.

2 Part. And thus wee see a Christian mans life is not as empty, aery speculation, a sitting still, or standing, but a walke. Let us now in the second place see, wherein this motion, or walke principally consists: and you may think perhaps, That I shall now point out to the Deniall of our selves, shew you Christ's Cross to take up, and bid you follow him; to fight against the World, and all that is in the world; the lusts of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, Joh. 1.2.16. and the pride of life; that it is, To lay hold of Christ, to love Christ, to be Adopted, to be Regenerate, to be called, and converted (for with these Gene­ralities [Page 54] the Religion of too many is carried along, and not with the thing it self, but the Name; and with these names and Notions they play and please themselves, [...]. as the silly Fly doth with the flame of the Taper, till they loose their wings and feet, and are but a bo­dy, a Lump that can neither walk, nor move; They deny them­selves with an Oath, and yet are themselves still as greedy as rapa­cious, as before; They take up the Crosse, but 'tis to lay it on o­ther mens shoulders, they follow Christ, but as Peter did, afarr off, or rather as the Jews, to crucify him, They fight against the world, that is, against one another, who shall possesse it (for even this we doe not doe, not fill our coffers, but in the name of Christ, and Religion.) They lay hold on Christ, but 'tis to carry him a­long with them, to promote, and further their designes. They love him, 'tis plaine they doe, and yet no give him a cup of cold wa­ter,, when he beggs at their doore? They love him, as they doe one another, til 'tis put to the Tryall: They are Adopted, but not of his family; Regenerated, but are liker to the Father of lies, then him, they pretend to: They are called, and converted; For they know the very houre, and moment of time when they heard the voice, and said Amen to it. Lord what a noyse have these Phrases, these words made in the World; and yet 'tis the world still; even a world of wickednesse? Sen. Centrov. As the Orator said of Figures, possu­mus sine his vivere, we may live and be saved with less noise; for all these signifie but one, and the same thing; To deny our selves, to take up the Crosse, to follow Christ, to fight against the world, to lay hold on Christ, to love him, to be Adopted, Regenerated, and Converted, all is no more then this, to believe in Christ, and to be sincere, upright, just, and honest men. Yet these words, and words of Holy writt, the language of the Spirit of God, and they all full and significant, nor can I give you a fairer Interpretation of my Text, He that de­nies himself, walks in Christ: he that loves Christ, walkes in him, hee that is Adopted, Regenerate, Converted, walks in Christ; but this is too generall, and I see but ill use made of these excellent expres­sions, which should make us better, and through our own wilfull solly, make us worse (for we may shape our selves how we list, in our Fancy, and be quite the contrary) we will therefore inter­pret this walk in Christ by that of Saint Paul, 1 Cor. 7.13. Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called, where the word [...] he was called, Grot. in loc. points out, and designes (as a Learned man hath observed) the time of his Heavenly Calling; and so both callings are made com­patible, and friendly linkt together; my condition of life in this world, and my calling to a better, my being a part of the Common­wealth, and my being a member of Christ. For Christ came not to breake Relations, or to disturb Common-wealths; not to shut up the Tradesmans shop, or block up the Sea to the Merchant, nor to take the Husband-man from the Plough; and I may doe all these, [Page 55] and yet denie my self, and take up the Crosse, and fight against the world; or rather I cannot do all these, unlesse I doe the other, not abide in one calling, as I should, unlessed walk worthy of the other, not be a good Merchant, unlesse I be a god Christian (that we doubt not) nay, but not walk in Christ, unlesse we walke in our Calling. The life, saith Saint Paul, which I now live in the Flesh, Gal. 2.20. I live by the Faith of the Son of God; That is, Those things, which I do pertaining to the flesh, and which this naturall, mortall life re­quires, as to eat, drink, converse with others, and to seek my meat by the sweat of my browes (which may seem to have no relation to a Spirituall life) I do them in the Faith of the Son of God. For in all these things, I have alwayes an eye to the rule of Faith, I make that my starre, my Compasse to steer by, and my care is, to make every action of my life in my temporary, conformable and conso­nant to my heavenly calling. And the reason is plain; for even our naturall and civill Actions, as farr as they are capable of hone­stie or dishonesty, pertaine or have reference to faith; for although Christ and his Religion do not necessitate, or compell men to en­gage in this, or that particular Action, or calling, yet notwithstan­ding it is a rule sufficient to govern and direct us in any: to keep us in a faire correspondency, and obedience to reason and the will of God; the Faith and Religion of Christ being practicall, and having that force, and efficacy, which may be showne and manifested in all the civill Actions of our life. Wisd. 16.21. As the Jewish Rabbies report of the Manna, which the Children of Israel did eat in the Wilder­nesse; that it had this wonderfull property, that it would fit it self to every mans tast, and look what Viand, what meat it was, that any was delighted with, it would in tast be like unto it; so doth Christianity, like this Manna, doctâ quadam mobilitate, by a cer­tain secret force, apply it self to every Tast, to every Calling. Read the Sermon on the Mount, and those Epistles which the holy Apo­stles sent to severall Churches, and what is there delivered (the Foundation first laid) then an Art of Governing our selves, and conversing with men? Art thou called to be a Servant, 1 Cor. 7.21. Or there it is, art thou cal­led, being a servant. Eph. 6 7. serve as in the sight of Christ? Art thou called to be a master; Remember thou hast a Master in Heaven? Art thou a Husband-man, it will hold the Plough with thee? Art thou a Trades-man? it will buy and sell with thee? Art thou a Schollar? it will study with thee: if thou go into the Vineyard, it will beare the heat of the day with thee, till the Evening, and then pay thee thy wages: if thou sell, it will oversee thy weights and measures: If we bargaine, it will re­member us, that wee defraud not one another, for this Counsell was given to the Thessalonians, who were most of them men of Trade, 1 Thess. 4.6. and Merchants: VVhen we speak, he bids us, cast away lying. And thus doth Christian Religion spread its beames through every cor­ner of the Earth; shining upon us at every turne, and every motion, 5. Ephes 25. [Page 56] waiting upon us in every condition of life, keeping every man within the bounds of his Calling, and Honesty; and whilst we fol­low this light, walk within these bounds, stretch not, as Saint Paul speakes, 2 Cor. 10.14. Beyond mea­sure. beyond our line, wee may be truly said to walke in Christ.

Vse. And therefore, to make some use of this, Let us not deceive our selves, and think we never walk in Christ, but when we walk to Church to heare some Newes of him; that when we have shut him out of our Houses, and shops, wee shall be sure to meet with him againe at Church, that we never serve him, but in his own House, we have some reason to feare, we never serve him worse; never Walk lesse, then when we walk so farre; And certainly, if the End be better, and more Noble then the means to the End, then our E­ven and upright motion in our severall conditions, must needs have the preheminence: For here; in the Church we are called; but there we work in the Vineyard: Here we take out our lesson, there we con it; here we receive rules to guide us, there we practice them: Here Christ is formed in us, there he is manifested, as it were, in our flesh, in our outward Actions: In a word, here we are taught to goe, there we walk in Christ. Oh then, let us not so perversly Honour Christ, as to dishonour him, or think, that he that passed through the contumelies of our nature, as Tert speaks, and was made like unto his brethren, should disdaine to be with us, and walk with us in our Calling, be it never so meane; That Christ is disgraced, when we call him into our counting-Houses, or our Shops; that we do not walk in Christ, when we sweat in our calling. You know what Saint John Baptist said to the Souldier, and the Publican, and certainly, Luk. 3.14. if the Publican in his custome-House, if the Souldier with his sword in his hand, may walk in Christ, I know no calling so meane, no trade so low, as to be excluded. It was a witlesse, and groundless Etymon, which he gave, who said, they were called me­chanick Arts, quia intellectus in iis quodammodo moechatur, because the understanding in these manual trades, seems to adulterate and pollute it self, for nothing can pollute a foul but sin, and dishone­sty, and the soul is then most pure, when passing as it were through these earthy and carnall affaires, she orders them aright, but re­ceives nothing that is earthy or carnall from them, retaining still, in the midst of these imployments, her native and proper spirituali­ty. In the third of Gen. Adam himself is set to till the ground; at the 6. Noah is a Ship-wright, at the 24. you shall see Rebeccah with Bracelets indeed on her armes, but with a Pitcher on her shoulder. In the 6 of the Judges, Gideon receives his Commission to be Cap­taine of Israel, whilst the flayle was in his hand: And where did our Saviour call the Disciples, but as they were mending their Netts? And to take off this imputation, himself descended to a [Page 57] Trade, was obedient to his Parents; Iustin Martyr saies, Coll cum Tryph. Judae [...]. he made [...] ploughs, and yoakes. Be our calling what it will, we then walk truly in Christ, when we walk honestry in it: Nor on­ly our attention, our sighes, our groans, our often mentioning his Name, but our silence, our honesty, our Industry, may make us Christian peripatetiques. Let us then, in the name of Christ, and Religion, abide in our particular calling (be it whatsoever Provi­dence hath placed us in, high or low, rich or poore) let us [...], abide in it against all Temptations whatsoever, beare them, beare up against them by his power; keep a good Conscience against the flatteries of the world; and the loving and bitter me­naces of Poverty; in his Name rise up early, and lye downe late, in his Name cast out those evil Spirits, those false suggestions which might hinder us in our walke, and so presse forward in a constant and uninterrupted Motion, never shaken nor changed with the ma­nifold changes, and chances of this sading World, and then we shall bee not onely Christs servants, but his Companions and friends, he will call us so; and then when Christ thus goes along with us in all our wayes, when we walke on Earth, but by this light from Hea­ven, we may assure our selves by thus walking, wee walke in Christ.

We passe now from the Duty, To walk in Christ, to the manner, How we must walke in him, or the Rule by which we must regu­late our motion; sicut accepistis, we must so walk as wee have received Him.

Second Ge­nerall part. As you have received him, so walke in him; that is, since you have received him, walk in him, and in this sense we may take it; ‘"Rest not in the outward Profession, think not, that you are onely ves­sells to receive him, but channells, or conduits through which he must be conveyed, even through every veine, through every fa­culty of your soul, and every member of your bodyes, and so be made visible in the actions of your life.’

To receive him, and not to walk in him, will but swell and en­large the burden of our Accounts; as to receive any good from him, and not to use it to that end for which it was given, is the worst e­vill that can befall us. Many receive him, because he comes with so much beauty, that they cannot refuse him, because they are con­vinced, That he is fairer then the children of men; and most wor­thy to be received; For not onely out of the mouthes of babes and Suck­lings, but out of the mouthes of wicked men hath God ordeined strength, and wisedom is justified, not onely of her friends, but of her Enemies. Many receive him, as it were in a throng, applaud Chri­stianity, dare not refuse it, lest the multitude of those they live with, should confute and silence them; Si nomen Christi in tanta Gloriâ [Page 58] non esset, tot professores Christisancti Ecclesia non haberet, Greg. Hom. 3 2. in Evang. saith Greg. If the name of Christ were not so high, and glorious in the world, the Church would fall short in her number of Professors, where­of many make but a proffer at christianity, for companies sake.

This the Apostle may seeme either to have seen, or been afraid of, either to have had it in his eye, or in his jealousie, and therefore strives to remove, or to prevent it, for it is farre the lesser evill, not to know his Name, then thus to receive him, an unhappy igno­rance finding some mercy even in judgement, of which a fruitlesse and ungratefull knowledge is not capable.

And in this sense we may take it; but if we look forward, and consider the many cautions the Apostle puts up against Philosopy, Traditions of men, and the Law of Ceremonies, I see not, but that [...], Nihil peregri­num audite: Oecum. in loc. here may be an Adverb of similitude and likenesse, and then the sense will runne thus; walk in him, in that manner you have re­ceived him, as he was presented and delivered to you by me, or as S. Iude interprets it, vers 3. as he was delivered [...] once for all, unto the Saints: Sicut edocti estis. v. 7. otherwise we receive him not, or receive something else for Christ, or something more, or something lesse then Christ. And as the danger is great, if we receive him not, so is it no lesse if we re­ceive him not in his owne shape, in his full Beauty & Perfection, in which he hath been pleased to present himself unto us in his Go­spel. The grand error, and mistake of the world is in the manner of receiving him: For as in respect of his Person, we find that the Chri­stians in former Ages could not agree in the manner of receiving Christ [...], Naz. Or. 26. but some would receive him after this manner, some after a­nother; some a created Christ, others a half Christ, some through a conduit-pipe, others lesse visible, then a Type, in an aeriall and fantasticall body, a Christ and not a Christ, a Christ divided, and a Christ contracted, [...], saith Naz. and many Christs, indeed as good none at all: So in the practicall part, in respect of his Doctrine, we often erre, and dangerously in the receiving him: we say, Anathema to the Arrians, Manichees, and Anabaptists, and let them passe with the censure of the Church upon them; but how we do receive him? If we will hearken to our selves, our conscien­ces will tell us; with his curly locks, and spicy cheeks, with his Flag­gons and his Apples, (as he is said to be described in the Canticles) to save sinners, but not to command them, with Gospel, and Mer­cy as much as he wil, but not with any law; a Physitian that should heal us, without a Prescript, a King without a Scepter; a Sonne, that will be kist (we like that well) but not be angry. Some re­ceive him without the Law, not onely taking away the rigor of it, [Page 59] but abolishing it quite, removing it out of our sight, not onely as a Covenant, but as a Rule of life to guide and govern us, and then the Christian is a Libertine: some receive him with the Law of works, and make them not onely a condition required of a justifi'd Person, but a part and helping cause of justifying a sinner, and taking off the guilt, which is the work of Mercy alone, and then the Christian is in part a Jew; some receive him in the very shape the Jews expected him, with Drum and colours, and then the Christian is a man of blood. Some receive him in the shape of Elias, driving out all that oppose him from the Land of the Living; and then the Christian is a consuming fire. Some receive him, not as a sacrifice for sinne, but as an Abettor, and Countenancer of those foule Enormities which nayl'd him to his Crosse; and then the Christian is a man of Belial. The ambitious receive him, and with him Honor, and the highest place: The wanton gallant re­ceives him, and with him all the vanities of the world; a poore, naked Christ, with silk and purple, and delicious fare. The Cove­tous receive him, and with him Mammon, and so walke in a shadow, till he fall into the grave, which in this is like him; That it will not be satisfyed, or say, It is enough: In a word, the Papist impro­priates him, the Schismatique divides him, the Heretick trades with him. The Ambitious scorne him: The Covetous sells him, the Oppressor whips him, The mocker spits in his face; The Liber­tine crucifies him againe, most receive him, but most of all that most, are enemies to the Crosse of Christ.

And therefore in these latitudes and deviations, inter tot humanos errores, when there are so many errors and mistakes, it will be ne­cessary, to have an eye to the sicut, to the rule, that we neither ex­ceed, nor come short, Scriptura non fallit si se Homo non sallat, Aug. de urbis exerdie. saith Aust. the word received, the rule cannot deceive a man, if a man deceive not himself first, and then suborne, and force in the rule, to make good the cheat. It is a well of living water; if we do not stop it, as the Philistines did Isaac's wells, and then fill it with Dust, Gen. 26.15. with earthy glosses, consult with flesh and blood, and make that an Interpreter one of a Thousand. It is a glasse, and will shew thee the colour, the full proportion of every step, and motion, if thou look stedfastly upon it, and not goe away, and forget, and then look up­on others in their walke, or make they own fancy a glasse, like that which Pliny said, did hang in the Temple of Smyrna, in which thou mayst see every thing but thy selfe. It is the Word of God, Psal 60.56. Figurant ver­ba mea, ut qui ceram premen­do figurat digi­tis, is illam premendo, qua­si dolore afficit. who cannot lye, his Oracle, His voice from heaven to thee walking here on the Earth, and it will direct thy steps, and make thy pathes streight, if thou doe not dolorem verbo afferre, as David complains of his enemies, bring grief unto it, wrest and wreath, and shape, and figure it by violence, fit it to thy Action, and make light it self beare [Page 60] witness to a work of darknesse, make that place of Scripture plead for thee, which in plaine termes hath given sentence against thee, and co [...]mned thee as a Malefactor; Ad omnia occurrit veritas, the Rule will help us at all losses in our way, if we do not chuse and de­light to wander, and call error it self Truth, because it gives us of that forbidden fruit, which is pleasant to our eye and tast, or which our humour, or fancy, or Lust have markt out, as our chiefest hap­piness; for these are the best, and most Authentique Interpreters of this world. These are the Doctors in our Israel.

How readest thou? that's the rule; not how thinkest thou? how wishest thou? how wouldest thou have it? and we must walke sicut accepimus, as we have received; This is set up against all other sicuts, all other Rules whatsoever, and bids us beware of men, beware of our selves, and try every spirit; for it is not sicut vidimus, as we see others walke, nor sicut visum est, as it may seem good in our own eyes (for no man more ready to put a cheat upon us, then our selves) nor sicut visum est spiritui, as it may seeme good to every spirit (for we are too prone, to take every lying spirit, even our owne (which is but our Humour or Lust) for our Holy Ghost) what Saint Iohn said of Antichrist, may also be said of the spirit, we have heard that the spirit shall come, and behold now there are many spi­rits, the world is full of them, so that there are as many Rules al­most as men, by which they walk severall wayes, but to the same end, pressing forward to the delights, and glory of this world, no­thing doubting of their right and title to the next; thus joyning to­gether God and the World (as Iulian the Apostate did his own statues, Naz. Orat. 3. Invect prior. and his [...]) that they may be worshipt both toge­ther. None of these will fit us, but sicut accepimus, as we have re­ceived from Christ, and his Apostles, which is the onely, sufficient Rule to guide us in our walke.

And first, not sicut vidimus, as we have seen others walke; no: though their praise be in the Gospel, and they are numbred a­mongst the Saints of God; For as St. Bern. calls the examples of the Saints condimentum vitae, the sawce of our life, to season and make pleasant, what else may proue bitter to us (as Iobs Dunghill may be a good sight for me to look upon in my low estate, and his patience may uphold me; Dauids Groanes and complaints, may tune my sorrow; Saint Pauls labours, and stripes and Imprison­ment, may giue me an Issue [...], 1 Cor. 10.13. a way, a Power to escape the like Temptation, by conquering it. I may wash off all my Grief with their Teares, wipe out all disgrace with their contumelies; and bury the feare of Death in their graves) so they may prove, if we be not wary, venenum vitae, as poyson to our life and walke: For, I know not how, we are readier to stumble with the Saints, [Page 61] then to walke with them, Readier to lie downe with David in his bed of lust, then in his Couch of teares; Readier to deny Crist with Peter upon a pretense of frailty, then to weep bitterly out of a deep sense of our sinne: In the errors and deviations of my life, I am No­ah, and Abraham, and David, and Peter,: I am all the Patriarchs, and all the Apostles, but in that which made them Saints, I have little skill, and lesse minde to follow them: It will concern us then, to have one eye upon the Saint, and another upon the rule, that the Actions of good men may be as a prosperous Gale to drive us for­ward in our course, and the rule, the Compasse to steere by; for it will neither help nor comfort me, to say, I shipwrackt with a Saint. My Brethren, saith Saint Iames, have not the saith of Christ in respect of Persons, Iam. 2.1. for it is too common a thing to take our eye from the rule, and settle it upon the Person, whom we gaze upon till we have lost our sight, and can see nothing of man, or infirmity in him: His virtue and our esteeme, shines and casts a colour, and brightness upon the Evill, which he doth, upon whatsoever he saies, though it be false; or does though it be irregular; that it is either lesse visible, or if it be seene, commends it self, by the person that did it, and so steales, and wins upon us unawares, and hath po­wer with us, as a Law. Could St. Augustine erre? There have been too many in the Church, who thought he could not, and to free him from error, have made his errors greater then they were by large additions of their owne, and fathered upon him those mishapen Births, which (were he now alive) he would startle at, and run from, or stand up, and use all his strength to destroy: Could Calvin or Luther doe, or speak any thing, that was not right; they that follow them, and are proud of their Names, willing to be distinguish'd from all others by them, would be very Angry, and hate you perfectly, if you should say, they could; and we can­not but be sensible what strange effects, this admiration of their Persons hath wrought upon the Earth, what a fire it hath kindled, hotter then that of the Tyrants Furnace; Dan. 3. for the flames have raged even to our very doores. Thus the Examples of good men, like two-edged swords, cut both wayes, both for good, and for bad; and sinne and error may be conveighed to us not onely in the Cup of the Whore, but in the Vessells of the Sanctuary; They are as the Plague, and infect wheresoever they are, but spread more contagi­on from a Saint, then from a man of Belial; in the one they are scarce seene, in the other they are seen with horror, in the one, we hate not the sinne: so much as the person, and in the other we are favour­able to the sinne for the persons sake, and at last grow familiar with it, as with our freind. Nihil perniciosius Gestis sanctorum, Luther de Ab­rog. priv. Miss. said Luther himself, There is nothing more dangerous, then the Actions of the Saints, not strengthened by the Testimony of Scripture, and it is farre safer to count that a sinne in them, which hath not its [Page 62] warrant from Scripture, then to fix it up for an ensample; for it is not good to follow a Saint into the Ditch. Let us take them, not whom men (for men may Canonize themselves, and others as they please) but whom God himself, as it were with his owne hand hath registred for Saints. Sampson was a good man, and hath his name in the catalogue of beleevers; Numb. 25. Phinehas a zealous man, who staid the Plague, by executing of judgement, but I can neither make Sampson an argument to kill my self, nor Phinehas, to shed the blood of an Adulerer. Lib. 2. de Bap­tismo. q 4 [...]. Heb. 10.24. Saint Basil observes, that amongst those many seeming contradictions in Scripture, one is of a fact, or worke done, to the Precept. The command is, Thou shalt not kill: Sampson killed himself, Phinehas with his speare nailes the adulterous couple to the earth, but every man hath not Sampson's spirit, nor Phinehas com­mission: The Fathers rule is the rule of wisdome it self: when we read in Scripture a fact commended, which falls crosse with the Precept, we must leave the Fact, and cleave to the Precept; for ex­amples are not rules of life, but provocations to good works, sicut vidimus, as we have seene, is not a right sicut: sicut Elias, like as E­lias, but not to consume men with fire; like unto Peter, but not to cut off a mans eare; and like unto Saint Paul; but himself corrects it with another sicut, 1 Cor. 11.1. sicut ego Christi, as I am unto Christ.

Secondly, But in the next place; if not sicut vidimus, as we have seene others, then not sicut visumfuerit, as it shall seem good in our own eyes; for fancy is a wanton, unruly, froward faculty, and in us, as in Beasts, for the most part, supplies the place of reason, vul­gus ex veritate pauca, Pro Rose. Comaedo. ex opinone multa aestimat, saith Tull. the Com­mon people (which is the greatest part of mankinde) are lead ra­ther by Opinion, then by the truth (for vulgus is of a larger signi­fication then we usually take it in) because they are more subject and enslaved to those two turbulent Tribunes of the soul, The Iras­cible, and Concupiscible Appetite, and so more opinionative then then those, who are not so much under their command: It is truly said, Affectiones sacilè faciunt opiniones, our affections will easily raise up opinions; for who will not soon fancy that to be true, which he would have so? which may either fill his hopes, or satisfy his lusts, or justifie his anger, or answer his love, or look friendly on that which our wild Passions drive us to: Opinion is as a wheele, on which the greatest part of the world are turned, and wheeled a­bout, till they fall off severall waies into severall evills, and doe scarce touch at Truth in the way. Opinion builds our Church: chuseth our Preacher, formeth our Discipline, frameth our gesture, measureth our Prayers, Methodizeth our Sermons: Opinion doth exhort, instruct, correct, Teaches, and commands; If it say, Goe, we goe, and if it say, Doe this, we doe it; we call it our conscience; and it is our God; and hath more worshippers, then Truth. For [Page 63] though Opinion have a weaker Ground-work, then Truth, yet she builds higher; but it is but Hay and stubble, fit for the fire. Good God: what a Babel may be erected upon a Thought? I verily thought, saith Saint Paul, and what a whirlwind was that thought? Act. 26.9. which drove him to Damascus with Letters, and to kick against the pricks. Shall I tell you, it was but Fancy that in Davids time beat downe the carved works with Axes and Hammers: It was but a Thought that destroyed the Temple it self, that killed the Pro­phets, and persecuted the Apostles, and crucified the Lord of life Himself. And therefore it will concern us to watch our Fancy, and to deal with it as Mothers doe with their children: who when they desire that which may hurt them, deny them that, but to still and quiet them, give them some other thing they may delight in, take away a Knife, and give them an Apple; so when our Fancy sports and pleaseth it self with vaine and aery speculations, let us suspect and quarrell them, and by degrees present unto it the very face of Truth, as the Stoick speaks [...], Epict. fist and winnow our imaginations, bring them to the light, and as the devout Schoolman speaks, resolve all our effectuall notious by the Accepi­stis, Gers. by the Rule, and so demolish all those Idolls, which our Passi­ons by the help of Fancy have set up; for why should such a deceit pass unquestioned? why should such an Imposture scape without a marke?

Thirdly, But now, if we may not walke sicut visum est, as it seem­eth good unto us, yet we may sicut visum est Spiritui sancto, as it seemeth good to the Holy Ghost; Yes, for that is to walke accor­ding to the rule, for he speaketh in the word, and to walk after the Spirit, and to walk by this Rule, are one and the same thing: but yet the World hath learn'd a cursed Art, to set them at distance, and when the Word turnes from us, and will not be drawn up to our Fancy, to carry on our pleasing, but vaine imaginations, we then appeal to the Spirit; wee bring him in, either to deny his owne word, or which in effect is the same, to interpret it against his own meaning, and so (with Reverence be it spoken) make him no bet­ter, then a Knight of the post, to witnesse to a lie; This we would doe, but cannot, for make what noise we will, and boast of his Name, we are still at visum est nobis, it is but Fancy still, 'tis our own spirit, not the Holy Ghost. For as there be many false Christs, so there are many false spirits, and we are commanded not to be­leeve; 1 Joh. 4.1. but to try them, and what can we try them by, but by the Rule? and as they will say, lo here is Christ, or there is Christ, so they will say, Lo here is the spirit, and there is the spirit; The Pope laies claime to it, and the Enthusiast laies claim to it, and who­so will may lay claim to it on the same grounds, when neither hath any better Argument to prove it by, then their bare words, no [Page 64] Evidence, but what is forg'd, in that shop of vanities, their Fancy, idem Actio, Titio (que). both are alike in this; And if the Pope could perswade mee, that [...]e never open'd his mouth, but the spirit spake by him, I would then pronounce him Infallible, and place him in the chaire; and if the Enthusiast could build me up in the same faith, and belief of him, I would be bold to proclaim the same of him, and set him by his side, and seek the Law at his mouth: would you know the two Grand Impostors of the World, which have been in every age, and made that desolation, which we see on the Earth? They are these two; A pretended zeal, and a pretence of the spirit. If I be a Zealot, what dare I not doe? and when I presume I have the Spirit, what dare I not say? what Action so foule, which these may not authorize? what wickedness imaginable, which these may not countenance? what evill may not these seale for good, and what good may they not call evill? oh take heed of a false light, and too much fire; these two have walkt these many Ages about the Earth, not with the blessed Spirit, which is a light to illuminate, and as Fire to purge us, but with their father the Devil, transform'd into Angels of light, and burning Seraphins; but have led men upon those Precipices, into those works of Darknesse, which no night is dark enough to cover.

Conclus. 1. I might here much enlarge my selfe, for it is a subject fitter for a Sermon, then a part of one, and for a Volume, then a Sermon, but I must conclude;

And for conclusion, let us, whilst the light shineth in the world, walk on, guided by the rule, which which will bring us at last to the holy Mount: For objects will not come to us, but have onely force to move us to come to them; Aeternall Happiness is a faire sight, and spreads its beames, and unvailes its beauty, to win our love, and allure and draw us, and if it draw us, we must up and be stirring, and walke on to meet it; Climachus. what that devout Writer saith of his Monk, is true of the Christian, he is assidua naturae violentia, his whole life is a constant continued violence against himself, against his corrupt nature, which as a weight hangs upon him, and cloggs and fetters him, which having once shaken off, he not onely walks, but runns the wayes of Gods Commandements.

Conclus. 1. Secondly, let us walke honestly, as in the Day, walk [...], as becommeth Christians, in our severall stations, and conditions of life, and not think Christ dishonoured, if we mingle him with the common Actions of our life; For we never dishonour him more, then when we take him not in, and use him not as our guide and rule, even in those Actions, which for the grosnesse of the subject, and matter they work on, may seem to have no favour, or rellish of [Page 65] that, which we call Religion. Be not deceived; Ma [...]um Remp­turb [...]i quam comam. [...]ec. he that thus take [...] him in is a Priest & a King, the most honorable person in the world. Behold the profane Gallant, who walks and talks away his l [...]e, who divides himself between the combe and the glass, and had ra­ther the Common-wealth should flie in pieces, then one hair or his Periwig should be out of its place, to whom we bow, and cringe to, and sail down to, as to a Golden Calf; I tell you, the meaness Ar­tizan that works with his hands, even he that grindes at the Mill, is more honourable then hee. Take the speculative, Phantastique Zea­lot, the Christian Pharisee, that shuts himself up between the eare and tongue, between hearing much, and speaking more, and doing contrary, the worst Anchoret in the world, being full of Oppressi­on, deceit and bitterness; I may be hold to say, The vilest per­son, he that sits with the doggs of your Flock, is more Honorable, more righteous then hee, and of such, as these, Saint Paul spake of­ten, Philip. 3.18. and he spake it weeping, that they did walk, but walke as Enemies to the Cross of Christ.

Let then Every man move in his owne Sphere orderly, abide in the Calling wherein he is called, and in the last place, That we may move with the first mover Christ, the beginner and Author of our walke, Let us take him along with us, in all our waies; Hearken what Christ Jesus the Lord will say, That we may walk before him with Reverence, and Godly feare, not sicut vidimus, Heb. 11.28. as we have seen, but look upon one another as the two Cherubims, 1 King. 6. touching and moving one another; but with the Ark of the Testimony in the midst betwixt us, and by that either inci­ting, or correcting one another in our walk; Secondly, not sicut visum suerit, not as it shall seem good in our own eyes; (for no­thing can be more deceitfull, then our own thoughts) nor sicut visum spiritui, not as every spirit may move us, which wee call Holy, for it may be a lying spirit, and lead us out of our way in­to those evills, which grieve that Blessed Spirit, whose Name we have thus presumtuously taken in vain. But let us walk, as we have re­ceived him, let us joyn example with the word, & it will be no more as a meteor to mislead us, but a bright morning Starr to direct us to Christ; correct our fancy by the rule, and it will be sanctum cogitatori­um, a Lymbeck, an holy elaboratory of such thoughts, which may fly as the Doves to the windows of heaven; and last of all, try the Spirit by the word (for the word is nothing else but the breathing and voice of the Spirit) and then thou shalt be baptized with the Spirit and fire; the Spirit shal enlighten thee, and the spirit shall purge and cleanse thee, and lead the into all truth; shall breath comfort and strength into thee, in this thy walk and pilgrimage, and thou shalt walk from strength to strength, from virtue to virtue, even till thou come to thy journeys end, to thy Fathers house, to that Sabbath & rest, which remains to the Children of God.

THE FOURTH SERMON.

THese words are our Saviours; and it was usuall with this our good Master, by those things, which were visible to the eye, to lift up his hearers minds and thoughts, to spiritual, and Heavenly things, to draw his discourse from some present occasion, or businesse in hand. He curseth the fig-tree, Math. 21.19. Sterilitas no­stra in Ficu Luke. 11. which had nothing but leaves, to correct our sterility, and unfruit­fulnesse: at the table of a Pharisee, upon the sight of the clean out­side of his cup, he discovers his inward parts full of ravening, and wicknesse: At Jacobs well, Iohn. 4. he powreth forth to the woman of Samaria the water of life. After he had supped with his disciples, he takes the cup and calls the wine his Blood, John. 15. and himself the true Vine. Thus did Wisdom publish it self in every place, upon e­very occasion; The well, the Table, the High-way side, every place was a Pulpit, every occasion a Text, and every good les­son, a Sermon.

To draw down this to our present purpose; In the beginning of this Chapter, he worketh a miracle, multiplyes the loaves, and [Page 68] the fishes, that the remainder was more then the whole, a mi­racle of it self, able to have made the power of god visible in him, and something indeed it wrought with them; for, behold at the 24. v. they seek him, they follow him over the Sea; They ask him; Rabbi when camest thou hither? at the next verse, but our Saviour knowing their hypocricy, answers them not to what they ask, but instructs them in that they never thought on. Verily, verily, you seek me not for the miracle, but the loaves. v. 26. But behold, I shew you yet a more excellent way: I shew you bread better then those loaves, better then Moses his manna: be­hold I am the bread of life v. 48 and my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed, v. 55. and he commends it unto them by three Virtues, or effects, 1. That it fills and satisfies, which nei­ther the loaves, nor Moses his manna could do: For he that cometh to me, that devoteth himself to me, shall never hunger, and he that be­leeveth in me shall never thirst v. 35. 2. It is a living bread, v. 51. a bread that gives life, which Moses manna could not do, but was destroyed with them, that ate it in the wildernesse, v. 49. 3. That it was bread, which had power to incorporate them, to embody them, to make them one, and give them union, and communion with the Lord of life, in the words of my Text, He that cateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, that is, (as Christ him­self, who best knew his own meaning, interprets it) that beleeveth in me, v. 35. that so feeds on the mystery of my Incarnation, that can look upon my crosse to which my flesh was fastned, and there with the eye of faith behold, and wonder at those rich treasuries of wisdom, and Patience, of Humility, of Obedience, and love, which are the truest title, and superscription, which could be written on his Crosse: that can look upon the seve­ral passages of my blessed Aeconomy, and receive, and digest them, and turn them into nourishment, that can look upon my Birth, and be regenerate, and born again, upon my precepts, and make them his daily bread, upon my Crosse and be crucified to the world, upon my Resurrection, and be raised to newnesse of life, He that thus eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me and I in him.

You have the occasion, and sum of these words; (for more then an allusion to our eating and drinking in the Sacrament, I cannot see, and that too, though the Church of Rome would have more, is more then we can prove) I may call it the true Cha­racter of a Christian, and who could draw it better then Christ? it consists as you see, of two parts.

• 1. The Christians, or the Beleevers part, He dwells in Christ.
• [Page 69]2. Christs part, he dwells in every man that is Regenerate.

So that in this our union with Christ, there passeth a double action, one from us to Christ, another from Christ to us; and, as in arched buildings, all the stones do mutually uphold each other, and if you remove and take one away, the rest will fall; so do these two interchangeably hold up and prove one another: For if we dwell not in Christ, Christ will not dwell in us, and if he dwell not in us, it is impossible we should dwell in him; Or we may resemble these two, our relation to Christ, and Christs to us, to the two Cherubins: Exod. 25. covering the mercy seat with their wings, and their faces one to the other, with the Co­venant in the midst between them; and the Cherubins, though they were both Cherubins, and very like, yet were two distinct Cherubins: so though our dwelling in Christ, and Christs dwelling in us, tend to the same and, yet they are two, and the Covenant is in the midst between them, if we will be his people, he will be our God; if we dwell in him, he will dwell in us. Take it then in these two propositions or Doctrines.

• 1. That something, some act is required on our parts, which is here exprest by dwelling in him.
• 2. Something is done by Christ, some virtue, some efficacy proceeds from him, which is here called dwelling in us.

In both which is seen, that mutual, interchangeable reciproca­tion between Christ, and a Regenerate Soul: as he dwelleth in Christ; so Christ dwelleth in him: and as Christ dwelleth in him, so he dwelleth in Christ; I am my beloveds, and my beloved is mine. He that eateth my flesh. &c.

We begin with the first, that some act of ours is required, which is here exprest by dwelling in him; Now to dwell in Christ, is a phrase peculiar to this our Evangelist, and he often useth it, both here, and in his first Epistle, and it is full, and expressive, and opera­tive, implying a real, durable interest in him, a reliance and de­pendance on him alone, not onely on his person, (that they are bold to do, who crucifie him again) but on his offices, as he is a King to Govern us, a Priest to mediate, and intercede for us, and a Prophet to teach us; such a dependance, which makes us truely his Subjects, his purchase, his Disciples. We usually say, the lo­ver dwells not in himself, but in him he loves, dwells there, and [Page 70] delights in such an habitation, nor is ever satisfied with pleasures of it, as we read Gen. 44. That Jacobs soul was bound up with the soul of Benjamin, his life was knit with the young mans life, his life hanged and depended on his; and by this we may dis­cover, what is meant by this phrase; when our souls are bound up with Christs, when our understandings, wills, and affections, are bound up with his will (for what Cassian speaks of his Monk, is true of the Christian, Nescit judica­re quis quis di­dicit perfecto obedire— C [...]ss l. 4 de instit Canob. Nescit judicare, he hath no judgement non habet suum velle, he hath no will of his own) when our un­derstandings, wills, and affections are his, as if we were but one flesh, and one blood, and one soul, that we will neither know, nor serve, nor hearken to any, but Christ, that we will have no King, no Priest, no Prophet, but him, then we dwell in him.

More particularly thus: if we dwell in him, we shall, first dis­cover and admire the majesty of Christ. Secondly, acknowledge his power, and love his command. Thirdly, rely, and depend upon him alone, as our sure castle, and protection. We shall dwell as it were within the Beauty of his rayes, within his Juris­diction, and under the shadow of his wing.

And 1. if we dwell in him, we shall discover and admire the Majesty of Christ: for we may observe; every thing, that is [...], that is in any emenency, sends a kinde of Majesty from it, as the Sun doth its Beams, which makes a welcome, and pleasing glide into the minds of men, and at once strikes them with admiration, and love; sometimes it appears in the persons, sometimes in the manners, and behaviour of men; sometimes in the order and policy, of a well governed Common-wealth: so we read, the skin of Moses face after he had talked with God, did shine so bright, that Aaron and the people were afraid to come neer him, Exod. 34. So when holy Job went out to the gate, the young men saw him, and hid themselves, and the A­ged arose and stood up Job 29.8. and it shewes it self in a well ordered Common-wealth; Majestas est in imperin, at [...]ue in omni Pop. Rom. dignita­te Quint. l. 7. instit. c. 3. it was called majestas pop. Romani, the Majesty of the people of Rome. Now if Christ be [...] considered of thee as one in eminnecy, and Supreme, thou wilt behold him, not onely faire and lovely, but clothed with Ma­jesty; I doe not mean his Majesty, in his transfiguration, when his face did shine as the Sun, and his Disciples fell on theirs; Matth 17. nor his Majesty, when he shall come to judge the quick and the dead (and yet these are fit objects, for the eye of faith to look on) but his Majesty in his cratch, his Majesty in his Humility, his Majesty on the Crosse; (for even there the theef discovered it, and it was imputed to him for righteousness, [Page 71] and made the Crosse it self a gate and passage into Paradise.) but these are too remote, and for the many, we look upon them as at distance, have so small regard of them, as if they concern'd us not, can see Majesty in a lump of flesh, in those that cannot save themselves, sooner then in him we call our Saviour; But then canst thou discover Majesty in him now? Majesty in his discipline, Wisdom in the foolishnesse of Preaching, his power in weaknesse now in this life, when he is whipt, and spit upon, and crucified again, when he lies cover'd over with disgraces and contumelies, when his Precepts are dragged in Triumph af­ter flesh and blood, and whatsoever it dictates; when for one Hosanna, he hath a thousand crucifige's, for one formal Hypocriti­cal acknowledgement, a thousand spears in his sides: when the truth is what we will make it, the Gospel esteemed no more then a fable, and Christ himself (if we look into mens lives) the most disesteemed thing in the World: when thou see [...]st him in this cloud, in this disfiguration, in this Golgotha, where is thy faith, what eyes hast thou? doth he not still appear a worm, and no man, a man of sorrows? when thou seest him thus, is there any forme that thou shouldest desire him? Or dost thou even now see his Glory, as the glory of the onely begotten Son of God? 1 Joh. 1.14. Colos. 2. doth he now appear to thee, as the head of all principality and pow­er? canst thou see him in that naked Lazar, that persecuted, forlorn imprisoned Saint? doth his majesty shine through the vanities of this World, and make them loathsome, through they labour of Cha­rity, and make it easie, through persecution, and make it joyful? in the midst of rage, and derision, of fury and contumely, is he still to thee, the King of glory? then thou dwellest in him, even in the beauty of holinesse.

2. Secondly: if we dwell in him, we shall be under his Com­mand; For they who command us, do in a manner, take us in­to themselves, do possess, and compasse, bound and keep us in on every side, and if we dwell in him, we shall be within his reach and power, not have our excursions, and run from him into the streets and high-wayes again, into Bethaven, a house of vanity. I say, we shall be under his command, we shall be his possession, his propriety. For man is a little world, I may say he is a little common-wealth, Ter. de Resur­rect. carn. c. 40. Tertullian calls him Fibulam vtri­us (que) substantiae, the clasp or button, which ties together his di­vers substances and natures, the soul and the body, the flesh and the spirit, and these two are contrary one to the other, saith Saint Paul, are carried divers wayes, the flesh to that which pleas­eth it, and the spirit to that which is proportioned to it, looking on things, neither as delightful, nor irksome, but as they may be drawn in to contribute to the Beauty and perfection of the [Page 72] soul. Gal. 5.15. These lust, and struggle one against the other, and man is the field the Theater where this battle is fought, and one part or other still prevails. Many times, nay, most times (God help us) the flesh with her sophistry, prevailes with the will, to joyn with her against the spirit; and then sin takes the chair, the place of Christ himself, and sets us hard and heavy tasks; sets us to make brick, but allows us no straw, bids us please and content our selve, but affords us no means to work it out. See how Mammon condemns one to the mines, to dig for Metals, and treasure, for that money which will perish with him See how lust fetters another with a look, with the glance of an eye, binds him with a kisse, Rom. 11.12. a kiss that will at last bite like a Cockatrice: see how self love drives us on, as Balaam did his beast, on the point of the sword? thus sin doth [...], exercise its force, and power, Lord it, and King it, reign in our mortal bodies. Again sometimes, (and why but sometimes?) but sometimes the will sanctified and upheld, and encouraged by the spirit of Christ, takes the spirits part, determines for it, against the flesh, chu­seth any thing which the spirit commends though it be compa [...]st about with terrours, and fearful apparitions, though it be irk­some, and contrary to the flesh, and then we depose Mamman, crucifie the flesh, deny our selves [...] separate our selves from our selves, Math. 16 24 from our wilfulnesse and stubbornnesse and Animosities, and so place Christ in his throne, reinstate our selves into his house, his family Eph. 3. into his kingdom, that Christ may be all in all.

And thus it is: whilst this fighting, and contention last in us, which will be as long as we last in our mortal bodies; some­thing or other will lay hold on us, will have command over us, (for there is no such aequi librium in a Christian mans life, no time when the scales are so even, or when he hangs, (as Solomon is pictu­red, between Heaven and Hell) but one side or other still pre­vailes, either we walk after the flesh, when that is most potent; or after the spirit, when that carries us along in our way against the sollicitations, and allurements of the flesh; one of them is al­wayes uppermost. It will therefore concern us to take a strict account of our selves, impartially to consider, to which part our will inclines most, whether it be hurried away by the flesh, or lead sweetly, and powerfully on by the spirit, to weigh it well, which of these bears most sway in our hearts; whether we had rather be led by the spirit, or obey the flesh in the lusts thereof; whether we had rather dwell in the world with all its pomp and pageantry, in a M [...]hometical Paradise of all sensuall delights, or dwell with Christ, though it be with persecutions. Suppose the devil should make an overture to thee, as he did once to our Sa­viour, [Page 73] of all the Kingdoms of the world, and the flesh should plead for her self, as she will be putting in for her share) and shew thee honour and power, all that a heart of flesh would leap at, in those Kingdoms; and on the other side, the spirit, thy conscience enlightned should check thee, and pull thee back, and tell thee, that all this is but a false shew, that death and destruction are in these kingdoms vail'd and drest up, with Ti­tles of honour, in purple and state; that in this terrestrial Para­dise, thou shalt meet with a fiery sword, the wrath of God, and from this imaginary, painted heaven, be thrown into Hell it self. Here now is thy tryal; here thou art put to thy choice: if thy heart can now say, I will have none of these; if thou canst say to thy flesh, what hast thou to do with me? who gave thee authority? who made thee a Ruler over me? if thou canst say to the spirit, thou art instead of God to me: if thou canst say with thy Saviour, avoid Satan, I know no power in Heaven or in earth, no dominion, but Christs, then thou art in his house, in his service (which is no service but the glorious li­berty of the sons of God) then thou art in him; thou mayest assure thy self, thy residence, thy abode, thy dwelling is in Christ.

Thirdly, If we dwell in Christ, we shall rely and depend on him, as on our tutelary God, and Protector, and so we may be said to dwell in him indeed, as in a house, which is [...] saith the Civilian, our fort, and Sanctuary commune perfugium, saith Tull. our common place of refuge, and what is our hope? whi­ther should we fly but to him? I am thine, save me, saith Da­vid, because I am thine, because I have none in Heaven but thee, and on earth desire none besides thee: Thou art my House, my Castle, my Fortresse and Defence, thou art my Hope to the ends of the World, thou art my Christ.

And this is a principal mark of a true Christian, of a man dwelling in Christ, that he wholy flings himself into his Protecti­on, that he here sixeth his hope, and doth not busie himself to finde any shelter, but here; for as the full perswasion of the Almighty power of God was the first rise to Religion, the fountain from which all worship whether true or false did flow, (for without this persuasion there could be none at all) and we finde this re­lying on his power not onely rewarded, but magnified in Scripture, Heb. 11. so the acknowledgement of Gods wonderful power in Christ, by which he is able to make good his rich and glorious promises, to subdue his, and our enemies, and do abundantly above all that we can conceive, to work joy out of sorrow, peace out of trouble, order out of confusion, life out of death, is the foundation, the pillar, the life of all Christianity, and if we build not upon [Page 74] this, if we abide not, if we dwell not here, we shall not finde a hole to hide our heads. For man, (such is out condition) e­ven when he maketh his nest on high, when he thinks he can ne­ver be moved, when he exalteth himself as God, is a weak, indi­gent, insufficient creature, subject to every blast and breath, sub­ject to misery, as well as to passion, subject to his own, and sub­ject to other mens passions, when he is at his highest pitch, sha­ken with his own fear, and pursued with other mens malice, rising, soaring up aloft, and then failing, sinking, and ready to fall; and when he falls, looking about for help and succour: when he is diminished and brought low by evil and sorrows, he seeks for some refuge, some hole, some Sanctuary to flie to, as the sie­man speaks of the Conies: they are a generation not strong, and therefore have their Burrows; to hide themselves in. Prov. 30. Now by this you may know you dwell in Christ, if when the tempest come, you are ready to run under his wing, and think of no house, no shelter, no protection but his. Talk what we will of Faith, if we doe not Trust, and rely on him, we doe not believe in him; For what is faith, but as our Amen to all his promises, our subscription to his Wisdom, and power, and goodnesse, and here we fix our taber­nacle, and will abide till the storm be overpast; Beleeve in him, and not trust in him? you may say as well the Jews did love him, when they nayled him to his Crosse. Why are you fearful, Matt. 8.26. Oh ye of little faith? said Christ to his Disciples; that faith was little indeed, which would let in fear, when Christ the wisdom of the Father, and mighty power of God, was in the ship: little, lesse then a grain of mustardseed, which is the least of seeds, so little, that what Christ calls here [...] little faith, he plainly calls [...] unbelief Matt. 17.20. the faith of this World, the weak and cowardly faith of this world, which speaks of principalities and powers, speaks swelling words, and at the sight of a cloud, which is not so big as a mans hand, strikes in, and is not seen, but leaves us groaning under every burden (for to such a faith, every light affliction is so) leaves us to com­plaints and despaire, or to those inventions, which will plunge us in greater evils, then those we either suffer, or fear. The un­beleeving man, he that dwells not in Christ, hath either no place to fly to, or else that he flyes to, is as full of molestation and tor­ment, as that which he did fly from; he flies to himself, from himself, he flies to his wit, and that befools him, he flies to his strength, and that overthrows him, he flies to his friend, and he failes him; he asks himself counsel, and mistrusts it, asks his friend Counsel, and is afraid of it, he flies to a reed, for a staff, to im­potency, and folly, and hath not what he lookt for, when he hath what he lookt for, is ever seeking ease, and never at rest; and when these evils without him, stir up a worse evil within him, a confi­science [Page 75] which calls his sins to remembrance, what a perplext distracted thing is he? what shifts, what evasions doth he catch at? her runs from room to room, from excuse to excuse, from comfort, to comfort, he flutters and flies to and fro, as the Ra­ven, and would rest though it were on the outside of the Ark. This is the condition of those, who are not in Christ, but he that dwelleth in him, that abideth in him, knoweth not what fear is, because he is in him, in whom all the treasuries of Wisdom and power are hid, and so hath ever his protection above him, knows not what danger is, for wisdom it self conducts him, knows not what an enemy is, for power guards him, what mise­ry is, for he lives in the Region of happinesse; he that dwells in him, dwells in his armory, cannot fear, what man, what devil, Eph. 7. what sin can do unto him, because he is in his armory, abides in him safely as in a Sanctuary, as under his wing. I know whom I have trusted, saith Saint Paul, not the world, not my friends, 2 Tim 1,12. not my riches not my self, for not onely the world, and riches, and friends, are a thin shelter to keep off a storm, but I know nothing in my self, to uphold my self, but, I know whom I have trusted, my Christ, my King my, Governour and Counsellor, who hath taken me under his roof, who cannot denie himself, but in these e­vil dayes, in that great day, will be my patron, my defence, my protection.

And thus doth the true Christian dwell and abide in Christ: 1. admiring his majesty: 2. Loving his command, and 3. by de­pending wholy upon his protection: these three fill up our first part, our first proposition, that some act is required on our parts, here exprest by dwelling in him.

2. partWe passe now to our second; that something is also done by Christ in us, some virtue proceeds from him, which is here cal­led dwelling in us. There goes forth virtue, and power from him, from his promises, and from his precepts, from his life, and from his passion, and death, from what he did, and from what he suffered, as there did to the woman which touched the hem of his garment, that healed her bloody issue; a power by which he sweetly, and secretly, and powerfully characterizeth our hearts, and writes his minde in our minds, and so takes possession of them, and draws them into him self, in the eighth to the Rom. 11. v. the Apostle tells us he dwelleth in us by his spirit, and that we are led by the spirit in the whole course of our life, in the second to the Ephes. the last v. we are said to be the habitation of God through the spirit, [...], his tabernacle, his temple, which he con­secrates, and sets apart to his own use and service, there is no doubt a power comes from him, but I am almost afraid to say it, there [Page 76] having been such ill use made of it; For though it become al­ready (for the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation) yet is it still expected, expected indeed rather then hoped for, for when it doth come, we shut the door, and set up our will a­gainst it, and then look faintly after it, and perswade our selves, it will come at last, once for all; There is power in his prece [...]ts, for our reason subscribes, and signes them for true, there is power in his promises, they shine in glory, Rom. 1.16. these are the power of Christ to every one that be­leeveth, and how can we be Christians, if we beleeve not? but this is his ordinary power, which like the Sun in commune profer­tur is shewn on all at once; There yet goes a more immediate power and virtue from him, John 3. [...]. (we denie it not) which like the winde works wonderful effects, but we see not whence it cometh nor whither it goes, neither the beginning, nor the end of it, which is in another World; For the operations of the spirit, by reason they are of another condition, then any other thought, or work­ing in us whatsoever, are very difficult and obscure, as Scotus ob­serves upon the prologue to the sentences, for the manner not to be perceived, no not by that soul, wherein they are wrought, profuisse deprehendas, quomodo prefuerunt non deprehendes, as Seneca in another case, that they have wrought you shall find, but the se­cret, and retired passages by which they wrought, are impossible to be brought to demonstration.

But though we cannot discerne the maner of his working, yet we may observe, that in his actions, and operations, on the soul of man, he holds the course even of natural agents, in this re­spect, that they strive to bring in their similitude, and likenesse, into those things on which they work, by a kinde of force, dri­ving out one contrary with another, to make way for their own form; so Abraham begat Isaac, and Isaac Jacob, and every creature according to its own kinde, as Plato said of Sacrates wise say­ings, that they were [...] the children of his minde, so resembling him, that you might see all Socrates in them. So it is with Christ; where he dwells, he worketh by his spirit something like unto himself, he alters the whole frame of the heart, 2 Cor. 10. drives out all that is contrary to him, all imaginations, which axalt themselves against him, never leaves purging, and fashioning us, Cal. 4. till a new creature, like himself, till Christ be fully formed in us. So it is with every one in whom Christ dwelleth.

And this he doth by the power of his spirit: 1. By quickning our knowledge, by shewing us the riches of his Gospel, his Beau­ty and Majesty, the glory and order of his house, and that with that convincing evidence, that we are forced to fall down, and worship, by filling our soul with the glory of it, as God filled [Page 77] the tabernacle with his Exod. 40. that all the powers and sacul­ties of the soul are ravisnt with the sight, and come willingly, as the Psalmist speaks, fall down willingly before him, by moving our soul, as our soul doth our body, that when he sayes go, we go, and when he sayes do this, we do it, and so it is in every one in whom Christ dwelleth.

Secondly, he dwells in us, by quickning and enlivening our faith, so dwells in our hearts by faith, Eph. 3.17. that we are rooted and grounded in love; for we read of a dead faith J [...]m 2.20. which moves no more in the wayes of righteousnesse, then a dead man sealed up in his grave, and if the Son of man should come, he would finde enough of this faith in the World; For from hence, from this, that our faith is not enlivened, that the Gospel is not throughly beleeved, but faintly received cam formidine contrarit, with fear, or rather a hope, that the contrary is true, from hence proceed all the errours of our lives: from hence ariseth that irre­gularity, those contradictions, those inconsequences in the lives of men, even from hence, that we have faith, but so as we should have the World; we have it, as if we had it not, and so use it, as if we used it not, or which is worse, abuse it, not beleeve and be saved, but beleeve and be damned; and we are vain men, saith Saint James, if we think otherwise, if we think that a dead faith can work any thing; or any thing but death, but when it is quickned, and made a working faith, when Christ dwells in our hearts by faith, then it works wonders, Heb. 11.33. 2 Cor. 2,11. for we read of its va­lour; that it subdues kingdoms, and stoppeth the mouthes of Lions, we read of its policy; that it discovers the devils enter­prises, or devices, of its medicinal vertue, that it purifieth the heart, and we read too furta fidei, the thefts, and pious depreda­tions of faith, stealing virtue from Christ, and taking Heaven by violence, and such a wonderful power it hath in that soul, in which Christ dwelleth, it worketh out our corruption and stampeth his image upon us, it worketh obedience in us, which is called the obedience of faith, that is, that obedience, Rom. 1.5. which is due to faith, and to which faith naturally tendeth, and would bring us to it, if we did not dull, and dead, and hinder it.

And 1. he worketh in us a universal and equal obedience (for if he dwell in us, every room is his) For there are, saith Parisien­sis, particulares voluntates particular wills, or rather particular in­clinations, and dispositions to this virtue, and not to another, to be liberal, and not temperate, sober, but not chasT, to fast, and hear, and pray, but not to do acts of mercy, which are virtues but in appearance, and proceed from rotten, unsound principles, from a false spring, but not from Christ, and so make up a spi­ritual [Page 78] Hermaphrodite, a good speaker, and a bad live, a Jew, and a Christian, Deus in uno homine Syllas suisse credide­ris, Valerius Max. l. 6. c 9. a Herod, and a John Baptist, a Zelot a Phinehas, and an Adulterer, and as the Historian said, two Sylla's in one man, like a play-book, and a Sermon bound up together; But these I told you, are not true virtues, but proceed many times from the same principles, which their vices do, (for I may be a Hypocrite, and a man of Belial for the same and) but where Christ dwells he purgeth the whole house, not one, but every faculty of the soul, that is the whole man: as he raised not a part, but all Lazarus, for if any part yet favour of rottennesse and corrup­tion, we cannot say, that Lazarus is risen; He worketh I say an universal, equal obedience, which as a Circle, consists in an e­quality of life, in every respect answering to the command, and working of Christ, as a circle doth, in every part, look upon the point, or Center.

2. Secondly, Col. 2.5. he works in us an even, and constant obedience, the Apostle calls it [...], the firmity and stedfast­nesse of our faith in Christ; For as the Philosoper well observes, that the affections do but [...] lightly move us, raise some mo­tion in the minde, Artic. l. 2. Ethic. c. 1.5. trouble us, and vanish; so that one affection many times drives out another, as Amnon did Tamar, our love ending in batred, and our sorrow in anger, and our fear in joy; But from virtue we are said [...] to be strongly disposed to be confirmed, and establisht in our actions: so the reason of that unevennesse, that instability, that inconstancy in the conversation of men, that they are now loud in their Hosanna, and anon, a loud in their Crucifige; now in Abrahams bosom, and anon into Dalilahs lap, now fighting, anon cursing, now very seraphical, and anon wallowing in the mire, is from this, that they have no o­ther motive, no other principle, then peradventure, some private respect, or some weak impression of some good lesson they have lately heard, some faint radiations from the truth, and there­fore can arise no higher then the Fountain, and will soon run out with it; now, it is not so with the true Christian, in whom Christ dwelleth; for he moves with the Sun, which never starts out of his sphere, hath Christ living in him, and the power of the Gospel assisting him in every motion; and so cannot have these qualms of devotion, these waverings, this unevenness, these Cadi-surgia as the Father calls them, Ephr. Sycus 1 John 3.9. 1 Pet. 1.5. these risings, and fallings, these marches and Halts, these profers, and relapses, because Christ is living in him, because the seed of God abideth in him, and he is kept by this power of Christ unto salvation.

Thirdly, he worketh a sincere, and real obedience in that heart in which he dwells, and this is proper to the true Christian; For [Page 79] the actions of an hypocrite are not natural, but artificial, not the actions of a living soul, but like unto the motions of that Arti­ficial body, which Albertus made, not proceeding from any life in them, but forced as it were by certaine wheeles, and Engines, by love of a good Name, by feare of smart, or hope to bring their purposes about, and thus many times he walks to his end in the habit of a Saint, when no other appearance will serve; but where Christ dwells, there is his spirit, and where his spirit is, there is truth, and he fashioneth and shapeth out our affections to the things themselves, makes our affections such, as so faire an ob­ject requires; that as his promises, so our affections are yea, and Amen, that as his reward is real, so is our love to it real, as the Gospel and Heaven and Christ is true, so are our affections to­wards them hearty and sincere; true as he is true, and faithful as he is faithful. So then (to conclude this) Christ dwelleth in eve­ry true Christian, not as a contracted, or divided Christ, as the Antient Hereticks made him, but dwells, as the Apostle speaks, fully and plentifully in him. Secondly, he dwells in him as Christ yesterday, and to day, and the same for ever; not as Baal, now preent with us, and anon asleep; Lastly, he dwelleth in him, not as Marcion blasphemed, [...], in a phantasme or apparition, (for so he is in every hypocrite) but true and perfect God by the same power his father gave him, as truely dwelling in him by his virtue and efficacy, as he now doth in glory in the highest Heavens.

And now we have seen both the parts. 1. Our part to dwell in him. 2. His gracious act to dwell in us: let us a little look aback upon this great light, and see what matter it will further afford us for our instruction.

And 1. we must look back upon the resemblance; the two Cherubines, and see how they keep their places, and not turn a­way the face, but eye each other continually; and by them learn, not to turn away from Christ, but to look up upon the finisher of our faith, as he looks upon us, to dwell in him as he dwells in us, which makes up our union and communion with Christ, knits us together in the bond of love. For as it is between Christ and his Father, so it must be between us and him: John 14.12. John. 17. I am in the Father, and the Father in me, and all mine is thine, and thine mine, and I glorifie him, and he glorifies me, (and that relation betwixt him, and his Father is the ground, and foundation of that reference, that union which is between Christ and a regenerate soul) and then see how it ecchos between them? my beloved is mine, and I am my well beloveds, I know my sheep, and my sheep know me, they dwell in me, and I in them. Oh auras vices, Oh happy enterchanges; [Page 80] Oh blessed Reciprocation, when Christ looks upon us in love; and we look back upon him in faith, working by love; when he shines upon us with all his Graces, and we reflect back again upon him, not in his person (for he needs it not,) being the fulnesse of him, that filleth all things, but upon him in our selves, and searching the inward man, and decking and pre­paring a place for him: upon him in that poor Lazar, in those his brethren, and our brethren; nay, upon him even in our ene­mies; for even in them, Matt. 5.44 he is pleading for them, and com­manding us to love them; I say unto you, love your enemies. Nay further yet, reflect upon him in his Enemies, and can Christ be in his enemies? not indeed, so neer, as to dwell in them, but so neer unto them as to call unto thee, to pray for them to pity them, John. 10,16 to restore them: for even they may be in the num­ber of those his other sheep: which he will bring into his ford. Oh remember the resemblance, but withal remember the thing too, and be very careful to uphold this relation, this blessed recipro­cation between Christ and thy soul.

2. Secondly, from this great sight; Christ dwelling in man, and man in Christ, [...]. let us rouse up our selves, and take courage to set a price uupon our selves, (as Pythagoras counselled) to honour and reverence our selves, to remember we are men and so have some­thing of God in us, are made partakers of the high calling in Je­sus Christ, and not to debase, and dishonour our selves, to be­come vile in our imaginations, and place them on that, which is so far below the exalted nature of man. And shall I perswade you to think well of your selves? I may as well make use of Logick, and raise arguments to prevail with a hungry man to eat, for how greedily do we suck in air? and what a perfume is the death of fools? in what perfection of beauty would we be seen to every man? in what shape of glory would we be fixt up in their sancy? what gods would we be taken for? and then praise is a sweet note, and we delight to heare it? but what a Thunderclap is a reproach? how sick are we of a repre­hension? what a losse is the losse of another mans thought? what an Anathema is it, ('tis a vulgar phrase) to be out of his books? and yet, in the midst of all disgraces, and calamities, when we are made the scorn of the World, when fools laugh at us, and drun­kards sing of us, nay, when wisemen condemn us amongst them all, there is none entertaine a viler thought of us, then we do of our selves; for we think our selves good for nothing, but to be evil. We think indeed we highly honour our selves, when we tak ethe upper seat; and place others at our footstool, when with Herod we put on royal apparel, and make us a name; when men bow before us, and call us their Lords; we think so, and this thought [Page 81] dishonours us, degrades us from that high honour, we were crea­ted to: for is not the life better then meat? and the body then raiment, is not the soul better then all these? then we honour our selves, when we beat down our bodies, when we beat down our mindes, and make our selves equal to them of low degree. then we tread the wayes of honour, look towards our Original, the rock out of which we were hewed, are Candidates of bliss, stand for a place in Heaven, to sit with Abraham and Isaac in the kingdom of God. Synes ep. 57. For man is a creature of high descent [...] an honourable creature, of a noble extraction; honourable no doubt, for whom the Son of God was content to die, onely that he might dwell in him, and if Christ, who knew well the worth of a soul, did so honour as to unite our nature in his per­son, and lift up himself upon his Crosse, to draw our persons af­ter him, then will it necessarily follow, (and ingratitude it self could not deny the consequence) that we also ought to honour our selves, and not to fall under the vanity of the creature in a base disesteeme of our selves, as if we were fit for nothing, but to be fu­el for hell: in a word, not to make that, a stews of unclaenness, a forge of all mischief, a work-house of all iniquity, which Christ did chuse to make his House to dwell in, his Temple to sit in, and his Heaven to reign in. Oh, let us remember our high ex­traction, our heavenly calling, and not thus uncover our selves, be thus vile, and base in the sight and presence of Christ.

3. And that we may thus honour our selves, our third inference shall be for caution; that we do not deceive our selves, and think that Christ dwells in us, when we carry about us but slen­der evidence that we dwell in him: For it is an casie matter to be deceived, and we never fall with such a slide and easinesse in­to any errour, as into that, which is most dangerous, and fatal to the soul. In the affaires of this life, Lord, how cautelous are we? We ask counsel, we look about us, we use our own eyes, and we borrow other mens eyes, and if we be over-reacht, how discontent and crest-fallen we are, as those who have been beaten in battel, and have lost the day: but in that, which most con­cerns us, we seek out many inventions, we hearken to every false Prophet; to our selves the worst counsellours that are; we study to be deceived, and count it a punishment to be taught. And thus we see, some flattering him with their lips, Errantis p [...]na est doceri, Plat. some brea­thing forth blasphemy, and yet all Christians; some oppressors grinding his face, some revengers piercing his sides, the Sacrile­gious robbing him, most treading him underfoot, and yet all Chri­stians; some free from gross and open, yet full of speculative, and secret sins, of envie, malice, and rancour, and yet Christi­ans. But not deceived: Christ may dwell in us, with our infir­mities, [Page 82] so they be but infirmities, but not with our wilfulnesse and hypocrity; he that taketh courage to venture on a sin, because it is a little one, makes it a great one, and tis not infirmity, but presumption) Christ, saith Saint Bernard, was born indeed in a sta­ble, but not in a stie, and will bear with something that savours of the man, of the brutish part of the man, but not with those foul pollutions, those wilful abominations, not with those sins which lay waste the conscience, and devour all that better part, all that is spirit within us; He is indeed, a House, a Sanctuary for every troubled soul, but not [...] a common recepta­cle for all offenders, as Celsus bitterly urged against Christ in Origen) not a companion for theeves and harlots, but a Physitian to heal them, not a House for every theefe to lurk in, nor a Temple for Satyrs and prophane persons to dance in. If we dwell in Christ, we dwell in a Lamb, which we cannot do with so much of the Ly­on and Viper, so much rage, so much malice and venom with­in us.

Last of all; some there be (and that not a few) who think they dwell in Christ, when they joyn themselves to such a Church, such a company, such a Congregation, think themselves in the Habitations of peace, when they are in the tents of Ke [...]ar, of bloack­nesse and darknesse; and this is the great errour of those of the Church of Rome, which draws with it all the rest, bears a train like the red Dragons tail in the Revealtion, which swept down a third part of the stars, and cast them to the earth. For doth she not in a manner tell us, that within her Territories we are safe upon what tearms soever we stand with Christ, and though we dwell in Christ, that is, perform all Christian duties, yet if we dwell not in her, be not incorporated with her, our faith, our hope, all our endeavours are in vain, and so instead of a Church, have set upoan Idol, as great an Idol as they have made the Virgin Mary; For the one as well as the other must go for a mother of mercy. And do we not with grief behold it so in other factions, though as distant from this, as the East is from the West? do they not meet in this, to count all goats, that are not within their fold; to leave no way to happinesse, but in their company; do not they look upon their condition, as most deplorable, who do not cast in their lots with them, who are not of the same collection, and discipline, of their fraternity, which they call the Church of Christ, why should men thus flatter themselves? tis not our joyning to this particular Church, or that new fancied, and new gathered Congregation, but our dwelling in Christ, our eating his flesh, and drinking his blood, our feeding on, and digesting his Doctrine, and Growing thereby, can make us Christians, and as an unnecessary separating my self from; so an uncharitable, and supercilious uni­ting [Page 83] my self with this, or that Congregation may endanger my estate, and title in Christ, and my dwelling in the one, (if I take not heed) may dispossesse me of the other. For, I conceive, there is no policy, no discipline so essential to the Church, as piety, as our obedience to Christ. Suppose I were in a wildernesse? did my soul lie, as David speaks, amongst Lions, yet might I dwell in Christ: be the government and outward policy what it will; nay, be there but a slender appearance of any, yet might I dwell in Christ; nay, did persecution seal up the Church doors, and leave no power to censure inordinate livers; were there no more left then a dic fratri, tell it to thy brother between thee and him, yet could I dwell in Christ, else why was their faith commended, who wandered up and down in Sheep-skins, and Goat-skins, in De­serts and Mountains, in Dens, and Caves of the earth? but then, Heb. 11. if we dwell not in Christ; if we do not love him, and keep his Commandements, I cannot see, what Church, what Congregati­on can be a Sanctuary to shelter us, and our crying the Church, the Church, will be but as the Jews crying the Temple, the Tem­ple of the Lord, but as the sound of brasse, or tinkling of a Cymbal, a sad knell, and fearful signe and indication of men departed from Christ, and cast out of doors, being dead in their sins. Oh then, let us take heed, as the Apostle exhorts, that no root of bitternesse spring up to trouble us, and thereby to trouble, corrupt, Heb. 12.15. and defile many; that we blesse not our selves in our hearts, and say we shall have peace, when we walk in these unpeaceable imagina­tions; call that Religion, which is indeed sensuality: for when one sayes I am of Paul, and another I am of Apollos, 1 Cor. 2.4. when one sayes, I am of this Congregation, and another, I am of that, are yet not carnal? and (we may observe) he doth not say, when one is, or when one thinketh he is, but when he sayes, that he is, when he is so pleased, and delighted in it, so rests upon it, that he must vent and preach, and publish it to the prejudice, and cen­sure of others, then when they thus say it, are they not carnal? Do they not please themselves, and commit folly in their own souls; where Pride mixeth and ingendereth with covetousnesse and worldly respects, and begets malice, debate, envy, back­biting, persecution, let us then take heed of this; of this root of bitternesse, that beareth gall and worm-wood, and let us watch over our selves, that we embrace not a name, for a thing, a Com­pany, for a Church, our humour, and fancy for Christ, and that we do not so joyn our selves with others, that we lose our hold, and place in Christ.

And therefore in the last place, let us make a strickt survey, let us impartially commune with our own hearts, and see how we have held up the relation between Christ and us, whether we can [Page 84] truely say, we are his people, and he is our God; this added to the rest makes up a number, an account, without this our joyning with such a body, such a company, nay our appearing in his Courts, our naming him, and calling upon his name, are but cyphers and signifie nothing: tis not the Church, but the spirit of Christ, and our own consciences, which can witnesse to us, that we are inhabitants of the new Jerusalem, and dwell in Christ, we read in the 45. of Gen. that when Jacob had news that his son Joseph lived, his heart fainted; for he beleeved them not; but at the sight of the chariots, which Joseph sent to carry him, his spirit revived; so it is here: when we shall be told, or tell our selves (for our selves are the likeliest to bring the news) that we have been of such a Church, of such a Congregation, and ap­plaud our selves for such a poor, and unsignificant information, blesse our selves, that the lines are fallen unto us in so goodly a place, when we shall have well looked upon, and examined all the pri­viledges, and benefits we can gain, by being parts of such a body, all this will not assure us, nor fix our anchor deep enough, but will leave us to be tossed up and down upon the waves of uncertainty, will leave us fainting, and panting under doubt and unbelief; For (to recollect all in a word.) Our admiring his Majesty, our loving his command, our relying on his protection, and resting under the shadow of his wing: Again, our ense, and feeling of the opera­tion of the spirit of Christ, by the practick efficacy of our know­ledge, the actuation and quickning of our faith, and the power of it, working a universal, constant, sincere obedience, these are the chariots, which Christ sends to carry us out of Egypt, unto our ce­lestial Canaan, and when we feel these, and by a sweet and well gai­ned experience feel the power of them in our souls; then we draw neer in full assurance; then we shall joy fully cry out with Jacob; it is enough: then we shall know, that our Joseph is alive, and that Christ doth dwell, and live in us of a truth.

And now to conclude, Concl. and by way of conclusion, to enforce all these, to imprint and fasten them in your hearts, what other mo­tive need I use then the thing it self? Christ in man, and man in Christ: for if honour, or delight, or riches will move us, here they are all, not as the world giveth them; but as truth it self giveth them, a sight into which the Angels themselves did stoop, and desire to look into. To be in Christ, to dwell in Christ, if a man did perfectly beleeve it of himself, that he were the man, non diusuperstes maneret said Luther, he would even be swallowed up, and die of immoderate joy. Here now is life and death set before us, Heaven and Hell opened to our very eye: if we do not dwell in him, if we be not united with him, we shall joyn our selves with somthing else, with flesh and blood, with the glory and vanity of the world, which will but wait upon us to carry us to our grave, feed us up and pre­pare [Page 85] us for the day of slaughter: Oh who would dwel in a Land dar­ker then darknesse it self? who would be united with death? But then, if we dwell in him, and he in us, if he call us, my little children, and we cry Abba Father, then: what then? who can utter it? the tongue of men and Angels cannot expresse it, then as he said to the Father, all thine are mine, and mine thine, so all his is ours, and all that is ours is his: our miseries are his, and when we suffer, we do but fill up that which was behinde of the affliction of Christ. Col. 2.24. He is in bonds, in disgrace, in prison with us, and we bear them joyfully, for we bear them with him, who beareth all things: our miseries, nay, our sins are his; he took them upon his shoulder, upon his account; he sweat, he groaned, he died under them, and by dy­ing took away their strength, nay, our good deeds are his, and if they were not his, they were not good; for by him we offer them unto God, by his hand, in his name, he is the Priest that prepares and consecrates them, our prayers, our preaching, our hearing, Heb. 13.15 our alms, our fasting, if they were not his, were but as the Father calls the Heathen mans virtues, [...], a faire name, a title of health upon a box of poison, Nazianz. the letter Tan written in the forehead of a reprobate.

Again, (to make up the reciprocation) as all ours are his, so all his are ours; what shall I say, his poverty, his dishonour, his suf­ferings, his Crosse are ours; yes, they are ours, because they are his; if they had not been his, they could not be ours, none being able to make satisfaction but he, none that could transfer any thing up­on man, but he that was the Son of man, and Son of God, and his Miracles were orus; For, for us men, and for our Salvation were they wrought: His Innocency, his purity, his Obedience are ours; For God so deales with us, for his sake, as if we were, as if we our selves had satisfyed.

Let St. Paul conclude for me, in that divine and heavenly close of his third Chap. of the 1. Ep. to the Cor. whether Paul or Apollo, or Cephas, or the word, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come, all are yours, and you are Christs, and Christ is Gods, and if we be Christs, then be we heires, joynt heires with Jesus Christ, as he is heire, so have we in him, right and title, to be heires, and so we receive eternal happinesse, not onely as a gift, but as an in­heritance; in a word, we live with him, we suffer with him, we are buryed with him, we rise with him, and when he shall come a­gain in glory, we who dwell in him now, shall be ever with him, even dwell and reign with him for evermore.

THE FIFTH SERMON.

THE SIXTH SERMON.

THE SEVENTH SERMON.

THE EIGHTH SERMON.

THE NINTH SERMON.

THE TENTH SERMON.