FOR the Authority of this Book of the Revelation of S. John, Occasio Operis. I should not need to plead, but that for the honorable me­mory of the Person of [Page 2]Honour, whose Body we now interr; and because of the morenesse of Time since his death, it will mis-become such an obliged Chaplain of such a bountifull Patron, not to take pains somewhat more than ordinary, and to exceed the hour in this last Publick Service which he performs, for the most liberal of Ma­sters to the meanest of Gods Houshold Servants: Let this short Apology bear me out in my prolixnesse after, since, by his own example, I desire to do much of good, at his Death, (to those who are come hither to remember him, and to mourn their own losse, though in his blessednesse) the businesse of whose Life was, to do all good to all.

The joynt consent of the Ancient and Modern Church, Authori­tus Libri. hath, with an easie refutation of some weak objections to the contrary, and with a constant and unanimous submission of their Faith and Obedience to the Contents of it, by the direction of the Holy Spirit, received this Book into, and by the special Pro­vidence of the same Spirit, preserved it in the Canon of the Scripture.

That the blessed Apostle and Evange­list S. John was the Author of it by wri­ting [Page 3]we doubt not; and that, being the Apostle of Christ, he wrote this, (as he did his Gospels and Epistles) being in­spir'd by the Holy Ghost, to remain in the Church of Christ as Apostolical Scripture: for confirmation whereof, Ʋers 1. He cals it also in the beginning, The Re­velation of Jesus Christ, and tels us, that God gave it unto him, and that he sent, and signifi'd it by his Angel unto his ser­vant John.

'Tis a slight cavil, that some have made against it, The place which it holds amongst the other Books of Canonical Scripture; because forsooth it stands the last, and was written some time af­ter the other, and therefore (say they) was added and foisted in, after the whole body of the Canon was perfected: Where there are many several Books, must not some one be the last? And if this had not been added, (added, but not foisted; for God and not Man, put it in) would they have made the same exception against the Epistle of S. Jude, which was the last before this? or against any other, which instead of this, Them­selves call the last? They cannot, for they own it: Or would they have God [Page 4] Date all his Letters, Epistles, Writings to Man at the same time? what man does so?

But, as for the Order of it, that it stands last in place, it is so far from di­minishing the Authority of it, that, in­deed it addes unto it, and does exceed­ingly commend it to us; for, it is, in­truth, as the Signet of God, with which the Holy Spirit would seal up, and con­clude the whole Canon, both Old and New of Divine Scripture; in regard whereof we have it more extraordinari­ly approv'd unto us, both in the begin­ing of it, with a Blessing upon him that readeth, and upon them that hear the words of this Prophecy, and keep those things that are written therein, vers. 3. And in the end of it, with the same Blessing upon him that keeps the sayings of the Prophecy of this Book, 22.7. and with a dreadfull curse upon him, who shall either adde unto these things, God shall adde unto him the Plagues that are written in this Book, or, shall take away from the words of the book of this Prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, c. 22. v. 18, 19. he shall have no part nor lot in it. Beloved, What could be spoken more throughly, [Page 5]to ratifie the authority of it? If we may adde nothing to it, 'tis already every way absolute and perfect, the word of God without question; the onely word to which we may not adde our own in­ventions without great offence: If we may take nothing from it, again 'tis a forcible Argument of the sacred in vio­lablenesse of it, (for what bold foisting man would ever dare to speak so arro­gantly of the most Holy his own Endea­vours? He that could write all the rest so holily, could never be guilty of such a pride, nor ever able to counterfeit so exact a Holinesse) and that it is indeed the Holy Scripture; for it is the Scrip­ture of which Christ sayes John 10. that It cannot be broken, v. 35.

This is a main point observable, in which this Book stands equall'd to the sacred unquestion'd Writings of Moses himselfe, the first and chiefe of all the Prophets, and Penmen of Gods Book; For, as those Books of his, because they usher in, and are, as it were, the Fore­door, the entrance into the rest of the whole Scripture, are therefore in seve­ral places, strengthned and fenc'd with such a seal as this, Deut. 4.2. Ye shall not [Page 6]add unto the Word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it. And again, c. 12. v. 32. Thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it: So, this Book standing in the rear, and, as it were, shutting up the back-Gate of the same Canonical Scripture, is likewise furnisht and stampt with the same Au­thentick Seale of Gods Holy Spirit, to signifie how perfect, how inviolable it is, that nothing must be put to, no Post­script; or taken from it, no Deleatur, no Index expurgatorius neither; that, as Moses was a main Coryphaeus, to lead on the Van-guard, in Gods Spiritual War­fare; so was S. John another Coryphaeus of special Note, to bring up the Rear in the same Battel.

Why it was order'd by the Church (which took care to gather together the Writings of the Apostles & Evangelists) to be plac'd the last of all the Books, there is a manifest reason; not that it is behinde the rest in worth and excellence, but in regard of the Time wherein it was written. In vita Johannis. S. Jerome reports, that in the time of the second great Persecution of the Christians under Domitian the Ro­man Emperor, (the first Tyranny they [Page 7]tasted of was under Nero) in the 14. year of his Reign did S. Lib. 3. cap. 25. Vid. Eu­seb. Hist. Ecclesias. L. 3. c. 18. John write this Book in the Island Pathmos: And Irenaeus (a Father in the Church far more ancient than St. Jerome) affirms as much that it was not (then) long, since St. John wrote his Revelation, Sed pene sub nostro saeculo, sayes he, almost about our time, toward the end of Domitians Reign; so that, An. Dom. 96. it was written, after all, both Gospels and Epistles of the New Testament; for he outliv'd all the Apostles, even to the third year of Traian the 14th Roman Emperor, sayes Sophro­nius, and that was 102 after the birth of Christ, and the 68. from his passion, by St. Jerom's computation, and 25 years after the Destruction of Jerusalem: Therefore 'tis plac'd last, because writ­ten last, not because least in Dignity and Divine Authority; no, 'tis truth which Beza speaks of it, in his Preface to it, that the Holy Ghost did set down in this precious Book, whatsoever Pre­dictions of the former Prophets did re­main, to be fulfill'd after Christs com­ming; and therefore Ocolampadius, in his Preface to Daniel's Prophecy, calls this Book the best Paraphrase upon all the other Prophets.

The Argument of this whole Book is, Argum. Libri. principally Propheticall; though there be Doctrinal, Exhortative, and Instru­ctive passages sprinkled here and there among the Prophecies; but Propheti­call, for the most part, it is; whence St. John, in the beginning, calls it the words of this Prophecy, a Prophecy of things that should come to passe, even from the time that he wrote, to the end of the world; of some Occurrents that should befall the Church of God (then) pre­sently, in St. John's time; and of other Trials that the Church should indure continually, through the whole course of her warfare here on earth; first, from the Roman Tyrants; afterward, from divers Hereticks; and lastly, from An­tichrist himselfe; of their several oppo­sitions and insultings against her, where­with they should grievously vex her, (seeming in a manner to be forsaken of Christ her Head) and almost utterly oppresse her: But withall, of those sweet consolations which the Elect of God should have under their crosse; and that those Tempests of Afflictions which they underwent, were not carnal, blown upon them with every winde, or [Page 9]meerly from the rage and malice of their Enemies; but that God (that Winde, Joh. 3.8. that Spirit which bloweth where it will) had the chiefe hand in them; and that, by his providence, things were so ordered for the exercise of the faith­full; and that they should not alwayes continue, no, not too long a time; and that they should, in his good and ap­pointed time, be changed up into the glory of Heaven; and that all the Ene­mies of the Church should at length, by the power of Christ their victorious Cap­tain, be thrown into the ever burning Lake of fire and brimstone.

We may divide the whole Booke (briefly, Partitio libri. for I must not stand long upon this Discourse; Divide it I may; I come not to expound the whole Book; and the Text it selfe affords matter enough for this short time, though I eke it out with a borrowed part of another hour) into a Preface, Paraeus. to the ninth verse of the first Chapter; the Prophecy it self, from thence to the sixteenth verse of the last Chapter; and from thence to the end, the Epilogue, or Conclusion.

We are now in the midst of the Pro­phecy, and the whole Prophecy may [Page 10]be distinguished into 7 several visions no­toriously distinct asunder to them that read them with careful observation; which Christ was pleased for the future good of his Church to shew to his belo­ved St. John, whilst he lived a banisht man in the Isle of Pathmos.

I may not stand now to shew you these 7 Visions, with the subject-matter of them: I read not a Lecture upon them all, nor upon any one, intirely: This Text is a small part of the fourth Vision, which takes up three whole Chapters, the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth: It is of the Woman travelling in birth, and the Draggon gaping to devour the fruit of her womb; of her flight into the Wildernesse, and his pursuit after her, resisted by Michael and his Angels; then of the two Beasts, one with seven heads and ten horns, the other with two horns like a Lamb, which spake as a Draggon; both persecuting the Saints: then of the victorious Lamb, upon that Mount Sion, and of the three Angels, one preaching the Gospel, another pro­claiming the fall of Babylon; a third de­nouncing punishment to them that wor­ship the Beast: Lastly, of Christ upon [Page 11]the Cloud, with a sharp sickle in his hand, and the Angel proclaiming the last Harvest of the World; and the Vintage, and Wine-presse of the Wrath of God: All this is the sub­ject of the fourth Vision; in which the future estate of Gods Church in this World, even from the Infancy of it, under the Ministry of Christs Apostles, unto the end of the World, is far more cleerly shaddowed out unto us, than in the former Visions.

The third Angel begins at the 9. verse of this Chapter, and continues to the end of the 11. Then, in the 12. and 13. verses (part of the last whereof I read unto you) follows an Epiphonema of ex­hortation and consolation to the Saints of God, that in all these vexations with which Antichrist shall grate them, they persevere with patience and constancy in the faith of Christ, and obedience to his Gospel; that they faint not under their tribulations, but hold out to the end, being held up with the hope of eternal felicity in Heaven, which is here propounded.

The Exhortation to perseverance is in the 12. verse; the Argument for it is [Page 12]taken from that Tragical end, that mi­serable and wofull event which must be­fall Antichrist, and his unsound fol­lowers; that seeing they shall (at last) drink of the Wine of the Wrath of God, and drink it off, the very dregs of it; that they shall be tormented with fire and brimstone, and shall have no rest day and night; here is the patience of the Saints, v. 12. Here is an Argument for their perseverance, that the Holy ones of God, who keep the Commandments of God, and the saith of Jesus, that they suffer manfully under the bitterest Ty­ranny of their Adversaries, as knowing, that it shall at last be guerdon'd to them with the fearfull endlesnesse of insuffer­able torments in Hell fire.

Then follows the Consolation in this verse of my Text, And I heard a voice from Heaven, saying, Write, blessed are the Dead that die in the Lord: The Argu­ment which the Holy Ghost here useth, to strengthen and comfort them, ready now to droop under the weight of their sufferings, is drawn from the assurance of (the most inestimable Reward) eter­nal bessednesse in Heaven; and that Death it selfe (the last and greatest evil, [Page 13]with which the faithfull can be afflicted by their most despiting enemies) is no evil at all, for it is the ready, though straight, and narrow, and severe Way, to the certain joy and glory of the Hea­venly Kingdome.

I heard a voice from Heaven: from thence we see (though through a cloud, through the water of that, and the tears of our owne eyes) our comfort comes; 'Tis most certain, most true; were it the voice of God himselfe, or of one of his Angels at his command, St. John sayes not whether; but, the voice of Christ himselfe his Sheep are sure it is, they know his voice; the same in effect which we have heard from him before, in his holy Gospel more than once, Joh. 5.24. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that hears my Words, and believes on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation: There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ, (Rom. 8.1.) and there is no condemna­tion too to them, in the ears of whose Souls are the words of Christ; and in John 8.51. (not without another and another) a double Verily, I say unto you (to cast off all doubt) If a man [Page 14]keep my saying, he shall nevtr see death, the eternall, the cursed death: The very same, to all purposes that this Voice sayes here; Write, blessed are the dead, &c.

There are three things observable in this Voice from Heaven; Divisio Versus. first, the com­mand to Write. Christ will not put his Church to trust to the uncertainty, the deceivableness of unwritten Traditions: but, as in the beginning, there was a generall command for the writing of this whole Prophecy, Write, sayes Christ to the Prophet St. John chap. 1. v. 19. Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter,: so has he, here again, a special command for the writ­ing of this heavenly voice, concerning the blessednesse of them who die in the Lord; he will have our comfort con­firm'd to us here, as the Divel's several suggestions were rejected and confuted by himselfe, Matt. 4. with a Scriptum est; the Scripture, the written Word of God, shall be the ground, as of our Faith, so of our Hope, our incouragement and consolation through that Faith. Se­condly, the Argument, the substance of [Page 15]what he is commanded to deliver to the Church by writing, blessednesse. And thirdly, the assurance and proofe of this blessednesse by two strong Reasons; one, that they are now gotten to the end of their Race, that they enjoy a perpetual rest from all the labours and sufferings which they have sustained under the Sun, they rest from their labours; and the other, that they have so run as to obtain; 1 Cor. 9.24. that having finisht their course, they have not rest onely, but their Brabium, their Crown also, which was laid up for them, 2 Tim. 4.7, 8. their Crown of righteousnesse, their works do follow them; 'Tis a Metalepsis, a figura­tive speech, as much as to say, the fruit of their Works, the Reward, the Crown of their Righteousnesse, which was laid up in Heaven, is given to them by the Lord the righteous Judge at that day, the day of their death, as S. Paul speaks, 2 Tim. 4.8.

That which is the Argument of this Scripture, is now our Text, and must be anon the Argument of our Discourse, Blessed are the dead, a most sweet and comfortable Argument, a Theme (be­loved) full of gracious solace, where­with to arm the faithfull against the [Page 16]evil day, that of death, that it is not, as the Epicurean Sect of Philosophers taught, Extrema linea rerum, the end of all our being; that when the body re­turns to the earth as it was made, the spirit does not so too, but unto God who gave it, Eccles. 12.7. that we are not born at all adventure, and shall be hereafter as though we had never been, as those ungodly fools dream'd, Wisd. 2.2. that the breath of our nostrils are not as smoak, and a lit­tle spark in the moving of our heart, which being extinguished our body shall be turned into ashes, and our spirit shall vanish as the soft aire: They taught ill, and their Disciples, the Sadduces learn'd as ill from them, that there is no Re­surrection, Act. 23.8. No, if Christ be preach'd that he rose from the dead, we may ask S. Pauls question, How say some among you, that there is no resurrection of the dead? 1 Cor. 15.12. And. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable, v. 19. but we are therefore miserable in this life, that at our death we may be blessed, as my Text hath it, Blessed are the dead.

In the handling of which, to fit you to the more profitable hearing of what [Page 17]shall be delivered, let me put you in minde of the Wise mans counsel, Eeclus. 7.36. Remember the end, (the last things) and thou shalt not do amisse: There are Quatuor novissima, four things, which do, last, befall the state of man, Death, Judg­ment, Blessednesse in Heaven, and Tor­ments in Hell: These would be often thought on, and duly consider'd by us, as a most soveraign Antidote against the Infections of this world, a pretious pre­servative against Sin; Death, which must bring us to Judgment; Judgment, which must either convey us to Heaven­ly Blisse, or condemn us to eternal rest­lesse misery; there is the blessednesse of the Saints in Heaven, to inflame our hearts with a holy desire after it; and the wretched state of the damned in Hell, to make us wise and wary for the avoyding of it: 'Tis a rule of St. Chry­sostom's that we should be so, and a pro­mise thereupon to ascape it, Non sinet in Gehennam incidere, Gehennae meminisse, the awfull thinking of it, will keep us from falling into it. These are the Quatuor novissima, the four last things, which the Wise man would have ingra­ven in our memories, with a Pen of Iron, [Page 18]and with the point of a Diamond, to keep us from doing anisse; Memorare novissi­ma, Remember the end, and thou shalt not do amisse.

Within the compasse of this short Text, Divisio Textus. we have two of these four last things to imploy our thoughts upon, Death and Blessednesse; Death, which all men by nature fear; Blessednesse, which all men by that same instinct, de­sire; and therefore no man living, but this Text concerns him; no man, but may reap profit from the Doctrine it af­fords: That's two-fold; in the unfold­ing and applying of which, I intreat your attention and devotion.

1. That Death, though in it selfe it be bitter and terrible, yet, to Gods chil­dren, it is so sweetned by Christ, that, in them, 'tis made the way to blessed­nesse; Psal. 118.80. This is the Gate of Heaven, and the Righteous shall enter in thereby: The Dead are blessed that die in the Lord.

2. That Blessednesse, though it be so sweet a thing, the object of all mens desires, so generally aim'd at by all men in their severall endeavours, yet, all our life time here we come short of it, we attain it not till our death; Dicique [Page 19]beatus antiobitum nemo; nemo, before that; and not omnes after, not all of us then, but they only, who die in the Lord: Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord.

I desire first to fasten your considera­tions upon Death, which is the way to blessednesse; and (to keep the best wine till the last) in the second place, to re­fresh you with the Meditation of Blessed­nesse which insueth upon death.

Nor will this former discourse, Praefatio ad partem primam. as it is pertinent to the businesse we are now upon, the death of that Worthy and Right Honorable Patriot of his Coun­trey (for whom wise men religiously mourn in a Sermon, as witty men used to lament for Heathens in an Elegy) be needlesse and superfluous to those that live; since the often taking occasion (as it is now most unhappily for us, and most blessedly for him whom we remem­ber, offer'd by that God who hath taken him from us to himselfe) to six the eyes of our minde upon the end of our life, is so behoovefull, that even Plato, the Hea­then Philosopher, but admirable for wit and learning, found such a benefit of it, that he defin'd Wisdome to be the [Page 20] Meditation of death; and though, in that, he aim'd not, as we do, to per­swade men to the often thinking upon it, (for, difinitions are the Common-Place of one sort of Learning, the speculative and perswasions of another, the practi­call) yet, in this respect especially, may we more truly affirm it than he did, that it is a great part of wisdome to ac­custome our selves often to the medita­tion of death: and howsoever the Di­vel, that great enemy of Mankinde, does, for his own ends, and the readier advancement and enlarging of his King­dome, labour by all means, to lull us into security, by the pleasures of this World, and to steal out of our thoughts the remembrance of our death, that so our death may steal upon us at unawares, Luke 21.34. and take us unprovided; to make us, ducere in bonis dies nostros, to spend our dayes in jollity, that we may go down to the Grave in a moment, Job 21.13. yet the Spirit of God directs us a safer course, Eccles. 11.8. If a man live many years and rejoice in them all, yet let him remember the days of darknesse: There is danger when death steals upon us (Oh then we have lost that blessing of our [Page 21]Text, which the soul of this our dear Father departed, hath found! 'Tis a Curse, let death come hastily; and sure 'tis lawfull to pray as we do in our Leta­ny, against a Curse, from sudden death good Lord deliver us) when we have not made our selves acquainted with it, and digested in our thoughts, the worst that it can do; then is it true indeed that S. Paul hath fore-warn'd us, 1 Thess. 5.2. that the day of the Lord commeth as a Thief in the night: Then, as the Fishes that are taken in an evil Net, and as the Birds, Eccles. 9.12. that are caught in a snare, so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it fal­leth suddenly upon them.

First therefore we consider, how bit­ter, how fearfull, and terrible a thing death is in it selfe to all mankinde, and how grievous it continues to the Natu­ral man. Secondly, How the bitterness, of it is taken away by Christ to the Faithfull, and that, to them, it is made a way to blessednesse.

How unpleasing death is, in it selfe, Part. 1 to mans Nature, appears, Mors ter­ribilis. in that it is so contrary to Nature, that it destroys our being in Nature, which every thing that hath a being does, by an instinct of [Page 22]Nature, labour to preserve; but those things that have life, especially, and so a sence and knowledge of their being; nothing is so irrecoverably hurtfull to them as death, which takes away their being; the very Beast trembles at it; But Man above all, who is indued with understanding, to know (more than by a sensitive knowledge) the benefit of his Being, how does he, even by Nature, shrink at the fear of it! Behold Saul the King of Israel, the stout and valiant man, so train'd up and exercised in war, who had slain many men, and been so conversant with the face of death in its cruellest and most ugly shapes! yet, when it came to concern himselfe, when he heard from that spi­rit which the Witch of Endor had raisd, in the likenesse of Samuel, that to mor­row, he and his Sons should be with him, his courage fail'd him, and his heart fainted, he was so stricken with a sudden fear of amazement, that (half-dead al­ready with the news of death) he fell all along on the earth, 1 Sam. 28.20. I, even the best of meer men, Gods holy Ser­vant David, by the dictate of Nature ap­prehended this fear, and fled from Saul, [Page 23]1 Sam. 26.13. and Eliah feared and fled from the threats of Jezabel, 1 King 19. and those holy men, those hundred Pro­phets of the Lord together thrust them­selves into Caves for fear of her raging, 1 Kings 18. I, beyond all these, our Sa­viour Christ himselfe, that holy one, Gods Righteous Servant, Is. 53.11. that had done no wickednesse, 1 Pet. 2.22. nor was there any de­ceit in his mouth; he, as he was Man, yielding to the power, to the very weak­est of humane nature in himselfe, did not free himself from this fear of death; I speak not of his quitting his place, and departing by ship into a desart upon the beheading of John, Matth. 14. but, when the treason of Judas grew close upon him, when he was at hand that betrayed him, then did he [...], Matth. 26.37. The word is two signifi­cant for our English phrase; it signifies such a deadly griefe and astonishment with fear, as makes all the spirits faint within, being utterly forsaken of help; now do the sorrowes of the grave compasse him, the snares of death overtake him, Ps. 116.3.18.4. and the flouds of wickednesse make him a­fraid.

Beloved, if he suffered the force of [Page 24]Nature to prevail so far, to be so strong in him, what can the strongest of weak men hope to meet with in his encounter with death, if left to himselfe, and that help which Humane Nature can af­ford him, but faintnesse of heart, and dejectednesse of spirit, and a trembling of his best bloud through every joynt?

'Tis a strong and violent breach of one of the goodliest Frames of Nature, (for I speak still of the Natural man) when the Soul is inforc'd from the body; we hear not without a secret compassion the forsaken Oxe bemoaning his owne losse, with his lowing, when his Fellow, that had long drawn with him in the same yoke, is haled from him to the slaughter. The Turtle does more, upon the losse of her Mate, mourns in solita­rinesse, and pines away: When two friends who have converst together in amity for some years space, are now to be parted and removed into several pla­ces far distant, where they shall no more enjoy the pleasure of each others fami­liarity (I speak it feelingly, and I even weep it; he whose remove we now grieve, though I alwayes reverenc'd him as my Lord, yet he vouchsaf'd even [Page 25]to love me as his Friend) what sadnesse is this to them? and how pensively do they brook it!

Think, when a man and wife who have spent much time together in that near tie of love and mutual society, shall at last be parted by that violent necessity, and unkind stroke of death, what a heart-breaking it must be to the Hus­band, to have the wife of his bosome, whom his soul lov'd so tenderly, to be rent from his side by that Iron-hand of dissolution; now all his joyes leave him, and he refuseth to be comforted, because she is not: And then, think withall what a sad divorce this muct needs prove be­twixt the soul and the body, who have liv'd long together in a strict neernesse of affection, as greater cannot be; when the soul must leave the body, his so dear Consort, to which he gave life, and form'd a better being; when he must be forc'd to take into his consideration the miserable condition that then attends either of them: first for the body, that it must, after a few hours, be shut up in a dark and loathsome Grave, and be made food for Worms and Toads; that body which now lives and breathes, and [Page 26]sees, and speaks, and hears, and stretches it selfe upon a bed of Down, presently to be laid forth upon the cold earth, blinde and deafe and dumb, without sence, without speech, without life; that body which was so lately cherish'd with such variety of food, whose belly and palate was courted and serv'd with the riches of Sea and Land, which was cloathed with Silks and Purple, and was lodg'd in a Couch of Ivory, deck'd with Coverings of Tapestry, with carved works about it, and fine linnen upon it, and perfumed with Myrrh, Aloes, and Cinnamon, and was defended from heat and cold, and the least unpleasing Ayre, with a thousand divis'd curiosi­ties, which liv'd in stately Palaces of magnificent structure and costly furni­ture; that delicate body to be so soon clapt up with a Habeas Corpus into so narrow a Prison, into a loathsom stink­ing Grave of dead Carkasses, full of bones and rottennesse, noysomnesse and Vermine, and it more noysom than they; What a thought of horrour must this be to the afflicted soul in behalf of the body, when he contemplates that sad change! Instead of his lofty Palace, the homliness [Page 27]of a Sepulchre; of his soft bed, the harsh­nesse of the earth; of his delicate Gar­ments, the basenesse of the Winding­sheet; for his former neatnesse nothing but putrefaction; for his perfumes, a stinking savour, (and for his savour it selfe, deadnesse;) for his Servants and attendants, the company of crawling worms at the best, which will more re­ally destroy him, than (when alive) the most unfaithfull of his servants could: How must he be tormented with extre­mity of griefe, for that which shall be­fall his body!

But then, to imagine the state of the Soul which has not hope in Christ (for we are in Nature yet) to think of that Incognita, that new Region, unknown to any living Wight, whither it must now travel naked and unaccompanied, save with the horror of his gnawing Con­science, to labour to conceive those un­conceivable woes of that other world, and to comprehend that incomprehensi­ble eternity of them, 'tis wonder he can live a moment to digest that indi­gestible thought; 'tis a wonder that the terror of it does not prevent the hand and sythe of his approaching death, that [Page 28]it does not anticipate his fate, and prove more quick to dead him, more nimble than his disease to strike and slay his soul: For one to be taken from his wealth, pleasure, honour, friends, wife, children; to leave these outward con­tentfull things makes death bitter to him; 'tis another death, This O mors quàm amara est memoria tuis! 'tis the Wise-mans exclamation, Ecclus. 41.1. O death, how bitter is the remembrance of thee, to a man that liveth at rest in his possessions, that hath nothing to vex him, that hath prospepity in all things! The separation that is made betwixt him and his world, afflicts him; but the separation betwixt him and himselfe (his soul and his body) is intollerable; how loathly it leaves that old companion? how loathly it goes out of that beloved dwelling! St. Hierome writes the life of Hilarion, a good Christian, a devout and holy man, one that feared God, and in most of his life so little feared death, that he desired nothing more, than to be dissolved, and to be with Christ: Phil. 1.23 and yet, when death began to seize upon him, when he was now in his last agony, his soul had a strong touch of this fear, and was loath [Page 29]to go, insomuch that he was fain to have recourse to his faith, and, by the help of it to encourage his fainting soul in his journey to Heaven; Egredere, go out my soul, what fearest thou? go out va­liantly; hast thou serv'd God these se­venty years, and dost thou now fear to leave thy body? Beloved, Eratenim eremita; & morie­baturocto­ginta an­nos natus. if this Holy man, who had, from ten years age, dedi­cated his whole life to the service of God, found yet the natural man so strong in him, that he was put to his plunge, in which he might have stuck, had he not awaken'd his faith ( awake, awake, why sleepest thou, O my faith?) and call'd that to his help, how terrible must this dissolution needs appear to them who have liv'd in their sins, and not yet cast off those sins by repentance! who, when they should grapple with death, and conquer it by their faith in Christ, alas! they lie under the weight of their sins and cannot rise; they strug­gle in vain; that load oppresses them; their sin, 1 Cor. 15.56. which is the sting of death is fast­ned in their hearts and slayes them; their death is a flaughter, the worst death of all, Mors peccatorum pessima, Psal. 34.21. Evil misfortune shall slay [Page 30]the ungodly; Siccine separas, amara mors? may be their complaint, in the bit­ternesse of their spirit they may well call it the darknesse of death, as Agag did, 1 Sam. 15.32.

Beloved, have you look'd enough up­on death in his worst shape? and can ye collect how terrible he must needs appear to the wicked, over whom he hath full power? since, even to Gods holy ser­vants, out of a natural desire to preserve their being, since, even to Gods belo­ved Son, when to shew himselfe truly man, he was content to yield so sar to the sway of humane nature within him­selfe, he seem'd so odious, that in the presence of some of his Apostles, he did not let to discover his passion, My soul is exceeding sorrowfull, even unto death, Matt. 26.38. Mat. 26.44. to pray to his Father thrice a­gainst it; and, but that the will of his Father was in the midst of his bowels, and his obedience stronger than death, he would have begg'd three times more, that the Cup might have pass'd from him; so odious, that for the comfort of the Elect, 'tis one of the greatest bles­sings betroath'd to them in the New Je­rusalem, that, there shall be no more death, [Page 31]Rev. 21.4. Then now cheer up your thoughts again by faith in Christ, and with that eye of faith, behold death vanquisht by that Christ, behold him trampled under those victorious feet, so languishing, so dead himselfe, that he cannot hurt you, he cannot scare you.

This is the second consideration of death, Mors Por­ta Coeli. that how evil soever it be in it selfe, even the way to Hell, yet, by Gods goodnesse it is become a Portal to the Children of Grace, by which the soul passeth out of the miseries of this life into the joyes of Heaven; even the dead are blessed, that die in the Lord.

God made not Death, Wisdome 1.13. through the envy of the Divel it came into the world, Wisd. 2.24. 'tis he that was the Murderer from the beginning, Joh. 8.44. Murderer of our bodies and of our souls too, death of both is his work, 'tis he that has the power of death; Heb. 2.14 and if only the body di'd, he would soon disown the name, and disvalue all the power he had: Now wherefore came Christ into the world? wherefore was he manifested in the flesh? why, for this purpose sayes S. John, ut dissolvat opera, that he might [Page 32]destroy the works of the Divel, 1 John 3.8. He took part of our flesh and blood; why? that he might die; without that he could not die; the Godhead is im­mortal, and why die? but, that through his death he might destroy him that had the power of death, the Divel, Heb. 2.14. So truly might he say of himselfe, John 10.10. I am come, that they might have life.

This was it which was prophecyed so long since, Hos. 13.14. O mors, ero mors tua: O death, I will be thy death, thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction; the Prophecy is not yet fulfill'd, if we read that place as the Vulgar Edition hath it, I will be thy death; Death shall be destroyd indeed, but not yet, 'tis the last enemy, 1 Cor. 15.26. that must be destroyd; but if we read it, as we have well translated it, O death, I will be thy plagues, 'tis every day fulfill'd in that glorious victory, with which so many of the Saints of God, at their dissolution, do triumph over it; Christ does not take away death, but the evil of death; not the being, but the sting of it; as, whilome he suf­fered Esau to meet his Jacob, but first he drave all enmity out of the heart of that Esau, Gen. 33.4.

This is one degree of the change, which Christ has wrought in the nature of death to his Servants, that it hath no power over them to hurt them; they shall not be hurt of this second death, Revel. 2.11. who overcome the first, that of the soul by sin; conquer that by Faith, and thou subduest the fear of this, He that believeth in me, though he were dead yet shall he live, John 11 25. he shall chaunt out S. Pauls triumph, 1 Cor. 15. O Death, where is thy sting? O Grave, where is thy victory?

This is one degree, but this is not all; 'tis not enough to make us blessed, that death hurts us not; it must be forc'd a­gainst the own nature of it, to help us; it is a part, as being a means, of our happinesse, that we die; Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die, 1 Cor. 15.36. so that the very blow we receive from this hard hand, is heal­ing; that which our sin made to be our last enemy, the goodnesse of God hath made the first friend that we meet with in our passage to another world.

When a child sees a goodly cluster of ripe Grapes, he thinks it pity to put them into the presse, and to deface [Page 34]them; but the skilfull man knows, that this hard usage preserves the liquor of them from corruption: we are some­times these ignorant children; we think it pity that such a holy, devout, religious good man should die; alas, he can be ill spared, yet God in his wisdome, makes this man, thus ripe for heaven, the more happy by death it selfe; he fals in­to the ground, that he may bring forth much fruit, Jo. 12.24.

This is the true ground, beloved, of all our spirituall rejoycing upon our Death-bed, that we know we leave this, for an infinitely better life, that we can say with the Apostle, Phil. 1.21 Mori mihi lucrum, we gain by this change: That we re­ceive no hurt by death; that it is, at the worst, but a sleep, in which we rest from our labours, this is much; but that we should reap profit and honour, that the Crown of Righteousnesse is layd up for us, that the reward of our works doth follow us: this is all; this is the very blessednesse of the dead that die in the Lord.

The former is sufficient to inforce the Apostles Exhortation, 1 Thess. 4.13. con­cerning them who are asleep, that we [Page 35]sorrow not for them; but this is able to make us so affected toward our Brethren, when they go before us to our heavenly Father, as our Saviour Christ would have his Disciples affected towards him upon the like occasion, If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said I go unto the Father, John 14.28. Be not sorry, not only so, but rejoice rather, because (as Solomon taught long since) the day of death, is not so sad, is better, more joy­ous, than the day of our birth, Eccl. 7.1. If any man could have found a life wor­thy to be prefer'd unto death, so wise, great, and glorious a King must needs have done it; and yet he, in his very Throne, commends his Coffin above his Scepter, and would rather choose to be a subject for worms to feed upon, than a Prince of men: This makes us no more to marvel at those Heathens, who mour­ned at the birth, and feasted at the death of their children; and yet alas, they had not halfe the cause, that we have, of rejoycing; they knew some of the miseries that accompanied this life, what troubles, and cares, and anxieties, and wants men passed through, what crosses and calamities they indure here, [Page 36]which are the punishments of sin; but sin it selfe, the greatest burden of this life, the sorest evil that waits upon, and makes it most wearisome, this malum culpae, this evil of sin, they were not, as they ought, aware of; and yet they were so affected with the feeling of those other ills, that they made merry at the death of their friends, out of a misera­ble conceit they had, that they then ceased to be miserable.

We know what they did, and more; we understand the wretchednesse of li­ving in this vale of tears; and we under­stand what causes it, the snares of sin, from which we are loosed, when we are freed out of the prison of this body, he that is dead, Rom. 6.7 is free from sin: We under­stand the Happinesse of dying, that it not only unfetters us from these chains of sin an shame, but conveyes us to an eternity of holinesse and glory: How should we cheer our selves in this expe­ctation, yea, assurance of being so hap­py? How should we say, out of choice and faith, what the Prophet Jonah said out of bitter passion? It is better for me to die, Jon. 4.3. than to live, to die in the Lord, for such, when they are dead, are blessed.

It is time for us to have done with this first discourse, Part. 2 which the Text mi­nisters unto us concerning death, and the bitternesse of it, in it selfe, to the na­tural man; and the sweetnesse which Christ, by his death, hath infused into it, to all that die in him.

Now turn your thoughts with pa­tience ('tis high time to beg that) upon the other subject-matter of the Text, Blessednesse.

A subject, that we shall finde of as great importance, and as nearly to con­cern every of us, as the other: If that were needfull to us, for the weaning our affection from the vanities of this world, this is as usefull for the inflaming those affections toward the glory of another World; Forget not the former, but afford this also some time of meditation: by no means lose the memory of death; Be as wise in this point, as those wise men, Philosophers of India, who were called Brachmanae; they would have open Sepulchres placed before the doors of their houses, that as they went out and in, they might think of that place, whether they must go at last; that was a bridle to them with which they held [Page 38]themselves in awe; and let us still place our graves before the door of our minds, and imagine we hear God speaking to us, as to his Prophet Jeremy, Descende in domum figuli, Go down to the Potters house, Jer. 18.2. and there I will cause thee to hear my words: God could have spoken with his Prophet in any other place, as well as that, where men were busied about clay; but he would thereby admonish us, that the Tombs of dead men, where all humane clay, all the carkasses of men, that were made of clay, (and of which clay is made) are gathered together, as in a Potters house, that these are the fittest Schools of wisdome to us; there God usually expounds unto his Audi­tors, the most deep and hidden myste­ries of wisdome; there not with logical Sophisms, but by evident undeniable demonstration, he layes before our eyes, the frailty of our flesh, the shortnesse of our life, the deceitfulnesse of the world, the vanity of all things under the Sun; and what becomes, at last, of all the strength of Man, and beauty of Woman, and pride of both, and of the glory of all the world, that all of it is vain­glory.

And, indeed, from this inconsideration spring so many errours of our life, so much arrogancy and ambition, and covetousnesse; such immoderate desire, to joyn Title to Title, and House to House, and Field to Field, till we for­get that title of Dust which is due unto us, and the House of the Grave, and the Field of the Potter; that we look not often enough into the Monuments of dead men, and read this lesson in them, that they might have been be­fore now, and very shortly may be, must be, our own habitation; how ma­ny of us now sin with great ease, and so little remorse, as if we had a God of wood and stone, or at best, but a breaden God (such as they have in every Church, and at every Altar, within the Popes great Bishoprick) who saw us not, nor could take vengeance of our sins, unless when superstitious man takes his unpro­vok'd God, and throws him at our head; yet, when death appoaches, and affrights our waken'd consciences with remem­brance of our former abasing of Gods mercies, and the sight of his angry countenance against us for it, how would we wish a thousand times, it were [Page 40]undone! how would we buy it off, were it in our power, with thousands of Rams, and ten thousands of rivers of Oyle! Mic. 6.7.

Well, If the consideration of this be so behoovefull to us for the withdrawing of our Souls from sin (for which purpose I have thus long chafed your memories to the due meditation of it) the conside­ration of the other can be no lesse be­hoovefull for the inkindling our souls after glory; for which purpose I must entreat a new attention and devotion in you.

I will not be still presuming upon so much time, Beatitudo as I shall need to speak of blessednesse at large, and to discourse, as the true nature of it, so the manifold errors of others about it; nor does my Text require it: There is no man but has, by nature, some kind of knowledge of it, that it is the best and choisest thing that can be, and as Boetius defines it, an estate made perfect by the enjoying of all good things; which, who so has obtained, he is fully satisfied; he seeks, he desires, he wishes nothing more: But what that is, in the possession whereof this happinesse consists, and which en­doweth a man with this perfect estate, [Page 41]that has ever been a thing so difficult and obscure to the most learned ages of old Heathenism, that there is no one question has bred such perplexity and differenee in opinions amongst the an­cient Philosophers; some placing it in knowledge, some, in vertue, some, in plenty, some, in pleasure; I cannot, I list not, I need not name them all: St. Austin tels us, De Civit. l. 19. c. 1. the learned Varro has observ'd, that Philosophers have wran­gled about this point, to the number of 288 different opinions; not to trouble you with the relation of them.

That which I propound to be obser­ved, briefly, is that,

1. True blessednesse is a thing gene­rally desired of all men.

2. That notwithstanding this so gene­rall desire, it is never fully obtain'd by any man till his death.

3. And then, not by all men, but by those only who die in the Lord, Blessed are the dead, who die in the Lord.

That every one man does, Votum omnium. in his de­sire, aim at blessednesse, no one man will deny; so little need there is to prove it; ask every man by the poll, if he would be blessed? ye know his an­swer [Page 42]before-hand; we are all alike born with that desire in us; nor is there any thing which we do at any time, in which we have not a close purpose to blesse our selves; in every humane action there is an end propounded for which we work; not the finis cujus, the end of the action; as, when a man giveth over to work; but the finis cui, the end, for which he worketh: as, he that studieth, he studieth to this end, that he may at­tain knowledge; and the Merchant that traffiques, he trades to this end, that he may grow rich; and the ambi­tious, that serves and flatters, he does it to this end, that he may get into some place; this end is the beginning in every of our actions; 'tis primum in in­tentione, as the Philosopher speaks, the first thing in our intentions; that which sets us at work: and when we have pro­pounded to our selves, that we will at­chieve knowledge, or riches, or honour, then we betake our selves to such actions as we think to be the means for procu­ring them, as study, or merchandize, or servile flattery, the practise of the unde­serving Parasite, as, of the ingenuous minde, to high actions of vertue.

Now that which is the finis ultimus, the last end of all, that which all men, in their several projects aim at, as their Master-prize, and upshot of all their en­deavours, is agreed on by all sides, to be blessednesse: He that studies to be such, either he falsely places true hap­pinesse in that, or else by that he thinks to compass some higher degree of being happy: He that labors for a quiet and retired life, either he believes that to be the only happy estate, or else hopes by that to make way to a setled happinesse: Men may diversly erre in their opinions, either concerning what is true happi­nesse, or concerning what is the true way to it; but happily, blessed they would be; they know, to be blessed, is to be best; therefore they desire nothing so earnestly as that; no, nothing at all, but what they think to be a means to that; but that they desire only for its own sake, as being the most perfect good, in respect whereto, all other good is imperfect, and subordinate; and that being purchast, nothing can be wanted or wish'd for by the boundlesse thoughts of Man.

Not unfitly therefore does David the Father countenance his whole Book of Psalms, Psal. v. [...]. with such a blessed Introit, Bea­tus qui non abiit in consilio impiorum, Blessed is the man that hath not walked in the counsel of the ungodly: a very omen and presage of blessednesse to him that shall take delight to read and meditate on that book of Psalms, as it was his own incouragement for his entrance in­to so holy a work: And most comforta­bly does our Saviour Christ, his Son, commend unto us his most excellent Sermon upon the Mount, with that gracious assurance, in the very begin­ing of the same, blessednesse, upon seve­rall holy endeavours, Mat. 5. of Poverty in spi­rit, of Mourning, of Meeknesse, &c. Beati pauperes; Beati qui lugent, &c. Blessed are the poor in spirit; Blessed are they that mourn; Blessed are the meek; the mercifull; the peace-makers, and the rest: as know­ing, there was no so ordinary ready way to win a reverent respect in his new Au­ditors to that unheard of doctrine he was to deliver, as, at first, to open unto them a door of hope concerning that which every one of them, in their seve­rall studies and practises, and wishes, and [Page 45]endeavours, did propound as the utmost end, and best good of all, to be bles­sed.

All men seek it in this life; Non ante obitum. but no man can enjoy it til another life: That is the second Consideration; which will the better appear unto us, when we shall, first, in some measure, as our weaknesse is capable of it, apprehend what it is, to be truly blessed: And that is, in it selfe, of such an excellent high nature, as it can better be declared and conceived by the negative, than by the affirmative; that, as it is truly said of God himselfe, who is the Fountain of blessednesse, in regard of the sublime and transcendant glory of his being, that we can better be taught to know what he is not, than what he is; so this which does so immediatly proceed from his so glorious essence, can better be shadowed out to the darknesse of our understanding, in saying, wherein it does not consist, than in venturing up­on the inaccessible brightnesse of it.

The Prophet Isaias told us, 64.4. and the Apostle St. Paul has quoted it from him, 1 Cor. 2.9. that eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into [Page 46]the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him: If no man hath seen or heard, nor conceived in his heart (which, yet, can conceive more than it can expresse) those admi­rable perfections with which the Hea­venly Jerusalem is enrich'd, he cannot possibly declare it to another: we can say with the Evangelist, S. John in his Revelation, 22.3. that there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God, and of the Lamb shall be in it; that there shall be no night; they shall need no candle, nor the light of the Sun, for the Lord God giveth them light, v. 5. We can descend lower to these transitory good things, in which the Worldling makes himselfe believe that he can finde happinesse; and af­firm boldly against all the strength of reason which humane wisdome has de­vised, that it is not to be found in Hu­mane knowledge, since the wisest of natural men has confessed, Socrates. after all his greedy search for an extraordinary mea­sure of it, he knew but this one thing, that he knew nothing: and another of their greatest Clerks has set it down un­der his hand, Seneca. that the greatest part of those things we know, is the least part [Page 47]of those things whereof we are ignorant; And a third, more learned than they both, even then, Aristotle. when he laboured most certainly and demonstratively to know, [...], we know not, we do but think we know: That it is not to be had in Riches, which could never yet give satisfaction to mans extensive covetousnesse; nor ever any man, who drank the deepest draught of this be­witching cup of Fortune, could slake his excessive thirst of having more, Quo plus sunt pota, plus sitiuntur opes, which breake our sleepe, and disquiet our thoughts; we cannot enrich one man, but by impoverishing another, (a rude Art which true blessednesse was never yet aware of) which the greater they grow, the more care, and watch, and keeping they require: True blessednesse keeps the man, and not the man it; he that once has it, can never fear to lose it: That Might and Power affords it not, since the most commanding Emperors cannot safe-guard themseves and their Countreys without the assistance of ser­vants and Soldiers, and abundance of warlike provision: whereas none is tru­ly happy who cannot stand of himselfe, [Page 48]who has not an assurance of all provision within himselfe, though all without him should fail him: That worldly ho­nour comes far short on't, which is so oft expos'd to the scorn of Fortune, which can never be free from hatred and envy, and suspition, which ever shews men in their own colours, look'd upon quite through their purple to their very selves, and most while, to the making of them ridiculous; for, as he who is set to view upon an open stage, is not therefore favoured, because all mens eyes are upon him, but does more clear­ly appear to all men, how fair or foul he is in his person or action; Aristot. ex Biante so, Magi­stratus virum (non facit, sed) indicat: High places of honour do not make men wiser, or better, but make lower men see, how wise, or how foolish, how good, or how bad they are: That the plea­sures of this life have nothing in them to make us happy, which hinder the use of our Reason, darken the light of our understanding dull the edge of our best wits, and are accompanied with nothing more, than their owne contra­ries, Griefe, and Repentance.

Yea, admit this were not so, that our knowledge were not stark ignorance; our riches miserable poverty; our po­wer manifest weaknesse; our honour meer shadowy titles; our pleasure bit­ternesse of spirit; but that all the good things of this world were fair, and real, and substantial, yet, the short continu­ance of them, that they are not eternal; eternal! not durable, not lasting; so fa­ding, so momentary, so soon lost by him that holds them longest, this alone is e­nough to prove, that they are so far from affording true blessednesse, that they are no pieces, no fragment, no, not worthy to be counted shadows of it,

If none of these, which by vnlgar men, and wise men too, are rated for the best things of this life, what is it can settle us here in a state of blisse?

If any thing can possibly do it, 'tis, without all question, Religion that has the preheminence, that will bring this mighty thing to passe, and if any man be capable of it in this life, 'tis onely the good Christian that may glory in it; Blessed is the man that hath not walked in the counsel of the ungodly, Psal. 1. Blessed are they that are undefiled in the way, and [Page 50]walk in the Law of the Lord, Psal. 119. Blessed are all they that fear the Lord, and walk in his wayes, Psal. 128. Blessed is he that considereth the poor and needy, Psal. 41. Blessed are they that hear the word of God, Lu. 11.28 and keep it: So that, here, if any where, appears some contradiction to our do­ctrine; these may challenge an enjoy­ing of blessednesse while they live in this world of wretchednesse.

And enjoy it, indeed, they do, in some measure, though far short of what they shall do; there is Beatitudo viae, such a blessednesse which may be had whilst they are on their way (undefiled­nesse in the way, walking in Gods wayes, are but the way, and wayes, to that which is the end, even the salvation of their souls, 1 Pet. 1.9.) that they truly and indeed are possest of in this life; Haec est vita aeterna, says our Saviour, John 17.3. This is life eternal to know thee and Jesus. He that hears my words, and beleeveth on him, hath eternal life, John 5.24. he hath it in that degree as, here, he is capable of it: But Beatitudo patriae, the perfection of blisse; the sight and fruition of God in Heaven; that intire union with him, when we shall be like unto himselfe, for [Page 51] we shall see him as he is, 1 John 3.2. This is for another life; this is the crown laid up, which the righteous Judge shall give at that day: 2 Tim. 4.8. Ʋltima semper Ex­pectando dies homini est; Dicique beatus Antiobitum nemo, supremaque funera debet: Ovid. This expect not till death; for, thus, only the dead are blessed.

To take away all scruple, 'tis an ob­servable truth, that S. Gregory Nyscen hath in his book De Beatitud. that God in himselfe is Verè Beatus, most properly blessed, as having it in, and from him­himselfe; and that from him, as from a Fountain, it issues forth upon Angels and Men, who are blessed in the parti­cipation of it, which they receive from him: Such as is the difference between the face of man which God made, and his Picture drawn by an earthly skilfull hand; though this be too distant to ex­presse it, yet 'tis the best we can light upon; there the prime and true beauty is in the living face; and the second, the resemblance, the counterfeit of it in his image: so here, the most excelling blessednesse is in the Deity it selfe, and the next from him, upon those creatures of his, who were facti ad similitudinem [Page 52]ejus, made after his likenesse, and are his Image.

He is true Blessednesse, in him­selfe, and to us; but to us, how? no otherwise than as he is applied unto us, and we conjoyn'd unto him, which act of joyning us unto him, and applying him unto us, is that which is called Fruitio, or Visio Dei, when we perfectly enjoy him by our sight of him, and see him as he is: This is that act, which is our formall blessednesse; For God, though he be blessednesse, yet he is not formally in us, but objectivè, as the School speaks, or effectivè: That which makes us formally blessed, is the sight of his glorious countenance; that which makes us, thus like to him, is, that we see him as he is; His servants shall see his face, and his name shall be in their foreheads, Revel. 22.3, 4, 5.

Now can this be the portion of any living man, to see his face? this which was denied to Moses, his so beloved Ser­vant, to whom he had said, I know thee by name, and thou hast found grace in my sight, Exod. 33.12. (grace in it, but not the sight it selfe) yet to him, Thou canst [Page 53]not see my face; no, no man shall see me and live, v. 20. if not see his face and live, then, not that true blessednesse which consists in that sight while we live: There is a measure of seeing God in this life; and so a measure of happiness; but neither full; we see God in his workes; O come hither, and behold the works of the Lord, Psal. 46.8. And, These see the workes of the Lord, Psal. 107.24. And, Behold the goodnesse and severity of God, Rom. 11.22. This is, with Moses, to see the back parts of Jehovah, Exod. 33.23. to behold him in his workes, of Po­wer, and Justice, and Goodnesse.

So then, there is a cleer and open see­ing of our Creator, that true beatifical Vision, which the blessed Saints and Angels in Heaven only enjoy; and there is a weaker sight, a more obscure glimpse of the Deity, which only the servants of God have here by faith; they, and none else; neither Heathen, who are not called to the knowledge of God, nor wicked men, who resist the Grace of God calling them, who do not open to him when he knocks, nor yield obe­dience to the good motions of his Spirit; these see him not at all; They have eyes, [Page 54]but see not; Matth. 13.14. at most, seeing they see, but do not perceive; the eye of their mind is so wholly darkned, that it is, and they are, darknesse it selfe, as S. Paul tels the Ephesians before they were called to the light of grace, Eph. 5.8. Now, if the eye of thy winde, if the light that is in thee be darknesse, how great is that dark­nesse? Matth. 6.23. And, can darknesse it selfe see? so great a darknesse, see God himselfe! him whom eye hath not seen! Isa. 64.4. He is seen, but by one of these two wayes; cleerly, by them in heaven, and sub-obscurely, by his on earth; we have ground for them both in one verse of St. Pauls, 1 Cor. 13.12. Now we see through a glasse, darkly; but then, face to face: just the same that I told you from 1 John 3.2. We shall see him as he is.

In a word, we are blessed here, onely in that we hope we shall be blessed here­after; and that hope of blessednesse is grounded upon the hope we have, that we shall see God face to face: Blessed are the pure in heart, saies Christ, Matth. 5.8. why? they shall see God; they are blessed because they shall be blessed: This was the ground of Job's happinesse while he liv'd, in regard whereto, death and [Page 55]destruction could not hurt him; Though after my skin, worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God, Job 19.26. This was it that made David blessed here, and was such a preservative to him a­gainst fainting in the midst of all his troubles; I should utterly have fainted, but that I believe verily to see the goodnesse of the Lord: where? in the land of the li­ving, Psal. 27.15. So that the blessed­nesse which we have here, consists in the hope, that we shall be blessed in Heaven.

Without salvation no perfect blessed­nesse, that's sure; but, we are saved by hope, Rom. 8.24. and we are blessed on­ly by hope, whilst here we live; neither is revealed yet, the glory that shall be re­vealed; so the Apostle cals it, Rom. 8.8. for, what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? v. 24.

I hope we may now conclude this point with that saying of the wise-man, Ecclesiasticus 11.28. Judge no man blessed before his death; for, before blessed he shall be, die he must sayes our Text; Blessednesse is first, in the order of the words; but, in the order of nature, death; and with that exhortation of [Page 56]the Prophet David, which follows upon the confidence he had that he should see the goodnesse of the Lord in the land of the living, Psal. 27. that, for blessednesse sake we would not rush upon death, as some Heathens, being taught the im­mortality of the soul, cast themselves and their souls away, that they might be immortal; but rather, Tarry the Lords leisure; be strong, and he shall com­fort thy heart; and put thy trust (thy hope) in the Lord: Let none, by their impatience to bear a lesse misery, rid themselves into a greater; whoever he be that can speak with that Emphasis, I am the man that have seen affliction, Lam. 3.1. and does therefore with Job aban­don the day of his birth, Job. 3.3. and importune for the hour of death, would this man have death be good unto him, and save him! O then, let him apply the coun­sel of the 26. verse as a remedy against the complaint of the first, It is good that a man should both hope, and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.

Well, Non om­nes post o­bitum. the last part remains yet to be handled; no man can obtain true bles­sednesse till he leaves this world; that we have done with; nor then all men, [Page 57]but morientes in Domino; they who so cease to live, as that they die in the Lord; these are they who are bles­sed.

Beza renders it, propter Dominum, who die for the Lord; who in their fervent love to him, lay down their life for his sake, as his Son did for theirs, and lose it, or rather give it, or rather yet, sell it, in his quarrel, and for the defence of his truth; true this; but not all; for, thus to expound it, ties this promised blessednesse, onely upon the Martyrs of God, those valiant and faithfull Ser­vants of his (as if his many many promi­ses to the faithfull became void, if they were not valiant too, or, though va­liant, if they had not a cruel occasion to trie their valour) who patiently un­derwent the torments of a violent death at the hands of persecutors, for the wit­nesse-bearing to the truth of his Gospel: These, no doubt, are blessed in Heaven; He that loses his life for my sake shall finde it, Matth. 10.39. blessed with a double crown, both as they regarded the glo­ry of God, and the good of their Chri­stian brethren, by their example of constancy; the bloud of the Martyrs ha­ving [Page 58]ever been the seed of the Church, and that which is fire to their flesh and bones, water to the Gospel to make it slourish; a good confession witnessed before the wicked Tyrants of the world, doth good service to God and his truth; so it fell out in that martyrdome of S. Paul which he suffered in his life time, (for they are Martyrs too, which for Gods cause stoutly endure any kind of misery be­sides death; and yet, to humour some rigid Interpreters, who will not be brought to allow of a living Martyr, let us for once call every affliction a death too, not onely by the example of Pha­raoh, who persecuted the Church of God; Take away this death, Exod. 10.17. but especially, by that of S. Paul, who, in this afflicted sense, suffered many, yea, dayly deaths for the Church; he was in deaths often, 2 Cor. 11.23. he did die dayly, 1 Cor. 15.31.) The things which bappened unto him in his persecution at Rome, they fell out unto the furtherance of the Gospel, insomuch, that many of the bre­thren in the Lord, waxing confident by his bonds, were much imboldned to speak the word without fear, Phil. 1.12, 14. This is it that has made many of Gods righteous [Page 59]servants not sparing of themselves, that Christ might be magnified in their bo­dies, whether it be by life or by death, by life I say, and S. Paul sayes so too, as well as by death, v. 20. and that they might be blessed after this life and death, as those Martyrs the Apostle speaks of, Heb. 11.35. who were tortured, and cared not to be delivered, that they might obtain a better resurrection.

But we must not restrain this blessed­nesse to those only who thus die for the Lord, since the Lord bestows this crown of blisse upon them also, who are [...], so the Text, who die in the Lord.

If we will know what this is, Mori in Domino to die in the Lord, and who they be that so do, we must first understand what it is, to be in the Lord while we live; for, even then this happinesse begins in us, when we begin to be in Christ; There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ, Rom. 8.1. If no condemnation, then no wrath of God; if not that, then Grace and Love, and Favour; and consequent­ly, salvation, and eternal life; Man is no indifferent thing to his Maker; if he does not hate, he loves; nay, the very [Page 60]earth upon which Man is, God does ei­ther blesse it with encrease, or curse it with barrennesse; and the Lord of the earth (under the Lord of Heaven) Man, much more: and no lesse than this is the effect of Gods love to Mankinde; God so loved the World, John 3.16. So, how? even to everlasting life, v. the same. Now what it is, thus uncondemnedly, to be in Christ? we have it explained, John 3.18. He that believes on him is not condemned: so, in the verse before, Who­soever believeth in him, shall not perish, 16. Not be condemned! not perish! what them! he shall have life everlasting: that's the effect of Gods love; that's the consequent of Gods not condem­ing: So then, to be in Christ, is to be in the love of God, and faith of Christ, to cleave unto him, and rely upon him; then are we, by his Holy Spirit, ingraf­ted into him; made his members, spi­ritually joyn'd unto him, and live in him.

There is a general conjunction, which all men living have with the Son of God, in that he took upon him our hu­mane nature; not the flesh of man, but of mankinde; Forasmuch as the Children [Page 61]are partakers of flesh and bloud, he also himselfe likewise took part of the same, Heb. 2.14. But this conjunction which is so general with all men, does not there­fore make all men to be in him; we are thus conjoyned with him, as I may say, only in regard of the matter; and to say sooth, all this notwithstanding, there is a great disjunction betwixt him and us, and the nature of men, as of men, does much differ from that nature which the Son of God took upon him; that Humane Nature of his (now with him in Heaven) is of it selfe immortal, without spot or stain, free from all sin, adorned with all holinesse, and purity, and the fulnesse of all excellent graces; ours is impure and unholy, and wofully subject to corruption, because miserably defiled with sin; we are conceived in sin, Psa. 51.5. saies holy David; we are by nature the sons of wrath, saies S. Paul, Ephes. 2.3. our na­tural, our first birth in the flesh separates us from him, keeps us out of him; but our second, our spiritual birth, our re­generation, when we are born again, Joh. 3.5. of water and the spirit; when we are indued with the spirit of Christ, to believe in him, to live according to the direction [Page 62]of his Holy Spirit; then is our nature so repaired, so renewed, that we come near to his nature; we are thereby con­formed to the image of the Son of God, Rom. 8.29. so conformed, that we are mem­bers of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones, Ephes. 5.20. 'tis an Hebrew phrase; they were wont to say of their Brothers and kinred, Os meum est, & caro mea; he is my bone, and my flesh, as having re­ceived from the same loins, and womb, the same matter of flesh and bones com­mon between them.

I, beyond all this, besides the fleshly substance which Brothers receive from the same Parents, they do most what agree in the likenesse of disposition, which they draw from the same com­mon birth: 'Tis so with the Sons of God, when they are made the Brethren of Christ, being born of the Spirit of God; besides that, they partake of the same nature, they are of the same mind with him; which token of Brotherhood the Apostle requires in us, Phil. 2.5. Let this minde be in you which was in Christ Jesus, they are of the same spirit, and minde; they are pure, even as he is pure, 1 John 3.3. 'Tis his quickening and san­ctifying [Page 63]spirit, that puts life into them, and makes them his members; that puts holinesse into them, and makes them his Brethren; The Sanctifier and the san­ctified are all of one, for which cause he is not ashamed to call them Brethren, Hebr. 2.11.

This our so near conjunction with Christ, and being in him, the Apostle hath fitly express'd ( Rom. 11.) by a Graft grafted into a Plant, by which resemblance is fully made good what I have said concerning the nearnesse of a Christian to Christ by faith, and his spi­ritual living in him; in as much as the Graft, and the Plant are now made both one thing; not only one and the same matter, which before was different, and two, the one a good Olive-tree, the o­ther wilde; but further, that the same sap also does nourish all, and the same spirit gives life and growth to all, and all this by faith, as v. 20. because of un­beliefe, they were broken off, the natural branches, the Jewes, Tu vero fide, but thou standest by faith; thou standest, as he that tels thee so, S. Paul lived, by the faith of the Son of God, Gal. 2.20.

'Tis the same in effect with that which the Son of God had taught before, John 15. I am the Vine, ye are the branches, v. 5. Now the branch (who knowes not) lives in the Vine, has the same life common with it, sprouts and springs forth from the same power within; and we, as that, must bring forth the fruits of the same spirit: For, deceive we not our selves, beloved, 'tis not enough to professe Christ outwardly, to say we believe in him; this does not prove us to be ingrafted into him, no more than the bramble was therefore King, because it said unto the Trees, If in truth ye annoint me King, Judg. 9.15. this was only said; there was no truth in it, therefore there was no truth in it, because of that other truth which Christ hath said, that of a Bramble-bush men do not gather Grapes, Luke 6.44. because it is altogether fruit­lesse: But if we do indeed and in truth cleave unto Christ, by a true and lively faith, an effectual and operative faith, a faith working by love, and bringing forth the fruits of good Works, then be sure we are in him; The branch cannot bear of it selfe, except it abide in the Vine, no more can ye (saies Christ) except ye [Page 65]abide in me, John 15.4. And therefore when S. Paul had comforted the faithfull with an assurance of freedome from con­demnation, to them that are in Christ, Rom. 8. because our being in him by faith, is an internal note, and cannot so easily be discerned, he adds presently, v. 1. another, an external, a practical note of Gods children, whereby they may be known, even by the fruit of their Faith, who walk, saies he, not after the flesh, but after the spirit: All men carry their flesh about them, with the infir­mities of it, and do often feel the force of sin within themselves; but, Rom. 6.13. Vers. 12. so they yield not to it; so they suffer it not to reign in their mortal bodies; so they do not obey it in the lusts thereof, Rom. 8.13. Rom. 6.4 but dayly strive to mortifie, by the Spirit, the deeds of the body; so they walk in newnesse of life, and not after, the old man, the flesh; this is to them a token of the spirit of God in them; that spirit is a pledge of their faith; and both an assurance that they are in Christ, so, as not to be con­demned when they are judged; so, as to have begun their state of bles­sednesse.

Now if they be thus happy who are in him, as in that Text of the Apostle, and thus in him, as in our exposition upon it; then surely, they who abide in him, as in that other Text of S. John, hold­ing fast that which they have, that no man take away their crown; abide in him, till they have passed through Epi­stle and Gospel, and come to this Text here in the Revelation, that they die in the Lord; holding fast the same faith unto the end; and by the force of it, recommending their spirit, Lu. 23.46 in the end, into the hands of him that gave it; they must not doubt to partake of this bles­sednesse, pronounc'd by a voice from Heaven, Blessed are the dead that thus die.

They are blessed who live in the Lord, by the faith of Christ, who believe in him; Beata quae credidit, saies Elizabeth to the blessed Virgin, Luke 1.45. thou are blessed in that thou hast believed; but in a far lower degree; according to the measure of our knowledge, such is our happinesse; but that knowledge which we have of God by faith, is but a be­ginning of that we shall have by sight: we know him now but in part, 1 Cor. 13.9. [Page 67] But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away: Then we shall know even as we are known, v. 12. then shall we enjoy that perfect blisse which only can give us satisfaction; satiabor, cum evigelavero, saies holy Da­vid, Psal. 17.16. I shall behold thy face in righteousnesse, and when I awake up after thy likenesse, I shall be satisfied with it.

Beloved, ye have seen, in part, where­in this blessednesse consists, which is the greatest, and most absolute good to man that he can desire; and who they be that shall obtain it. To exhort you to the desire of so great a good, were need­lesse, since every man does, by nature, long after it, with the strongest bent of his affection; 'tis a thing born with us, and we cannot choose but covet earnestly this best gift, to be happy: but, 1 Cor. 12.21. because we often fail in our judgment of the right way to it; and now that this voice from Heaven has made known unto us the only certain entrance that must con­vey us thither, yield we willingly to this perswasion for our own good, that we apply our hearts unto it; labour we, by being in Christ, as born of God, by living in Christ, as abiding in him, [Page 68]that at length we may also die in the Lord.

If, to die in the Lord were all, per­haps to perswade that also, will not need much [...] [...]ur; there is no man, but with halfe [...] Exhortation will be easily induced to [...] of the Prophet Ba­ [...]am's minde, concent to die the death of the righteous, and that his last end might le like his, Num. 23.10. but will they con­sider, that to effect this they must first be as well content to live the life of the righteous, and let their beginning and continuance be like his? If we would die in the Lord at the last, and so be blessed, we must, in the mean, holily endeavour to live in the Lord, by Faith and Repentance, Acts 24.16. and a good conscience both before God, and towards men: If we spend the time of our life upon our own lusts; if we now live unto our selves, little hope we have to die in him: Live we not then, and live we too; do we both as S. Paul counsels, 2 Cor. 5.15. not [...]enceforth to our selves, but to him who died for us. Be we in Christ, and abide we in him, only this way we shall surely di [...] in Christ, and be blessed by him, and with him.

Beatus qui vigilat, Revel. 16.15. Blessed is he that watcheth: To watch, in holy Scripture, is to live the life of fifth (as on the other side, sin is [...] the sleep of the soule) Watch ye, stan [...] [...] in the faith, 1 Cor. 16.13. and Awake, thou that sleepest, Ep [...]. 5.14. (i.e.) Rouze up thy selfe, shake off the sleep of sin, and lead the life of righteousnesse; now, this watch must continue till the Bridegroom comes; this holinesse of life must hold out, till Christ calls fo [...] [...] [...]y d [...]ath; we must watch till we shall never sleep; we must be holy till we shall never sin; we must do the one, and be the other, till we get up to Heaven: Bratiquos cum venerit, Luke 12.37. Blessed indeed are those servants whom the Lord when he com­meth shall finde watching: to have watcht before, will be but a drowsie excuse, if then we sleep in sin: to have done ma­ny good things, Mat. 7.22 even to the casting out of Divels, will not avail us, if we be not then found doing; Blessed is that ser­vant whom his Lord, when he comineth shall finde doing; as he hath lived to, so shall he die in the Lord; of a truth, the Lord will make him Ruler over all that he hath, Luke 12.44.

What an incouragement is this, Consola­tio. be­loved, to the servants of God, against the fear of death? that, as Christ, when he began to give his Law, which con­tained many Precepts, that seem'd strict and difficult for our ability to per­form, that he might draw us the more willingly to an obedience to them, does severally prefix before them this blessed­nesse, whereto at last they bring us, Mat. 5. so because death had been made by fin, so terrible to the Natural man, therefore Christ, who died to over­come death, and to take away sin, which is the sting of it; as, by this means he has made it easie and sweet to them that die in him, so he would make it appear so also, by this assurance of blessed­nesse upon it, Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord.

Be we not therefore afraid of Death, which must be the means to convey us unto blisse: Be we not loath (when God shall call us) to leave the miseries of this life, this warfare upon earth for the crown in Heaven; nay, be we carefull, by a life to him, that we may die in the Lord, and we shall finde that such a cer­tain remedy against the fear of death, [Page 71]that we shall rather, with S. Pauls cheer­fulnesse, make choice of S. Phil. 1.23 Paul's Cupio dissolvi, even desire to be dissolved, and to be with Christ the Lord; we shall not pitch our thoughts upon that false sha­dow of blessednesse, which the few and evil dayes of this life can afford, but look toward our Countrey, our Home, to that green Pasture, Psa. 23.2. and those waters of comfort, whither the Shepheard of our Souls shall conduct those Sheep which be­long unto his Fold; we shall resolve to fight the good fight here, 2 Tim. 4.7. and expect to tri­umph in peace there; we shall set up our rest to sow in tears here, Ps. 126.5. and comfort our selves with the assured hope of reap­ing in joy there: In a word, we shall not look for true blisse in this wretched world, which cannot give it, but stay our time with patience; all our time wait with joy, all the dayes of our appoin­ted time, till our change commeth, 14.14. not hasten to gather our Grapes in the Spring, before they be ripe, sour Grapes to edge our teeth here, Eze. 18.2 Lu. 13.28 and give us gnashing of teeth in the other World, but constantly bear the heat of the Sum­mer here, and stay for the sweetnesse of Autumn, and the delight of the [Page 72]Vintage in Heaven, where we may ga­ther o [...] full Clusters, full ripe, and drink of the fruit of the Vine, even new, with our Christ, in his Fathers King­dome.

This grant, good Christ, unto us all, that we may live in thee, by a true faith and holy life, and die in thee, by our constancy in that faith, which we have here possessed, and inherit that blessednesse which thou hast promised, even for thy Names-sake, and for thy great Mercies-sake.

To thee, &c.

THe whole History of this business is not long to be read unto you, that you may better conceive the occasion of these words: 'Tis recorded by three of the Evangelists; so worthy a [Page 74]passage it was thought by them not to be omitted; but in fewest words by S. Mat­thew: he concludes it in three short ver­ses, almost as short as sweet; please you hear it.

Vers. 13. Then were there brought unto him little children, that he should put his hands on them, and pray; and the Disciples rebuked them.

Vers. 14. But Jesus said, Suffer little Children, and forbid them not, to come un­to me; for, of such is the Kingdome of Hea­ven.

Vers. 15. And he laid his hands on them.

In which short History there are three several parts acted: The first, by them who brought the children, the Parents, in all probability: Christ had, now, for the space of three years, travelled about that Countrey of Palestine, helping and healing; he went about, saies S. Peter, do­ing good, and healing all, Acts 10.38. For this the people magnified him, and fol­lowed him: but the Priests and the Pharisees (they especially of Jerusalem) were mad with anger and indignation, to see a stranger so go in strength of Au­thority and Repute amongst them, and [Page 75]the esteem which the people had of them, daily to decrease: This drives them to a consultation (what pity it is, so holsome a word should be infected by their conspiracy!) for to make him a­way, and to censure whosoever should acknowledge him to be the Messiah. The Messiah, in the mean while, bestirs himselfe (he knowes he has not much time,) through Judea and Galilee, to bid a farewel to his Auditors, whom he had lately foretold of his passion and death: They, poor souls, hearing they were like to lose him, and having had good trial of his miraculous power, and what good they had received from him, by the imposition of his hands, and by his prayer, now therefore as Joseph, when he hears his old Father Jacob is sick, makes haste to bring his yong sons unto him, that he may lay his hands on them, and they may partake of his bles­sing, ere he leaves them, Gen. 48.1. so these here come, with their babes i'their arms, that they also may receive some benediction from him before his last de­parture, that he should lay his hands on them, saies the Text, and pray: That was their part.

The next part was acted by the Disci­ples; but not so well; they were out i'their part, nothing like the Disciples of such a Master; we cannot here say of them as he of Theophrastus his Scholar, Ʋt Christi Discipulos possis agnoscere: They whom he had entertained for that ser­vice sake specially; to be Fishers of men: to get all into their nets; to draw all to him; they must be the forwardest to make them stand back, to forbid their approach; I, to rebuke them that brought them; who did, in this, per­form the duty of Disciples better than they?

But now enters the best Actor i'this Scene; he spake, Never man spake like this man, John 7.46. he put life and spi­rit into his words; the words that I spake unto you, saies himselfe, they are spirit, and they are life, 6.63. and his speech was not without action, they go together in this story; a comfortable speech, a charita­ble action; Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, &c. there is his speech; he laid his hands on them: S. Mark tels what he did more; he took them up in his arms, put his hands on them, and blessed them, Mark 10.16. that's his action.

Of all these we have only the last and best Actor to intend at this time; and in him, if we can make good use of his speech alone, 'twill be an hour well spent; so much was the Text read at first, Suffer little children to come, &c.

It is Christs general command, Division. con­cerning the Children of believing Parents (for such were these, and of such he speakes) that they be admitted to him.

An absolute command, and a reason­able one, and shewed to be so; he gives a Reason of it, as a righteous Lord, who does not though his least word might bind us to strict obedience) inforce any thing by his absolute and meer anthori­ty, but deals reasonably and justly with us; he gives an account, of whom no man wisely durst ask, What doest thou? why doest thou this?

So, there is not only a command in the Text, Suffer them to come; but a reason of it also, for, of such is, &c. Two gene­ral parts.

And the command it selfe is not lightly given, lest so they should slight it; Sub-divi­sion. but to shew the importance of it, and the ne­cessity of the duty, he charges it upon [Page 77]them a second time; he commands af­firmatively, and he commands negatively; there is Sinite, and there is, Ne prohibite: Suffer them, that is once; and again I say unto you, Forbid them not: So there be two points in the first part.

And in the Reason too there is an Ob­servation that scarce any Expositor mis­ses, whom I have read upon the place, that in the Original it is not, [...], but [...]; not illo­rum, theirs is the Kingdome of Hea­ven; but talium, of such is, &c. So in all the three Evangelists; and that, saies Musculus, (and indeed, who not?) is much more than if he had said theirs; to give notice, that, not only those little ones did belong to Heaven, but also, that they did so belong to it, that who­soever were not like them, were not such a one as they, he must have no entrance there.

And this observation will require also a two-fold discourse in the second part; one for Illorum, and another for Talium: the first for these children, their right to this Kingdome, for they are included; the second for those that are like them, and that whosoever is not such is exclu­ded.

We begin with the Command, and first with the affirmative part of it; Sinite parvulos, Suffer little children to come unto me.

Christ therefore came to us, Sinite. that he might make us able to come to him: And as his comming to us was generall; not to some one man; not to some one Family; not to some one People, but in Mundum, into the whole World; Jesus Christ came into the World to save sinners, 1 Tim. 1.15. As he came to all, so he in­vites all to come to him; Venite omnes, Matth. 11.28. Come unto me all: If the Jew may come, the Greek may come al­so; if the free may come, the bond may come also; if the Male may come, the Female may come also; and, as S. Paul speaks there, Gal. 3.27. concerning Na­tions, and Sexes, and Conditions of life, that there is no difference, they are all alike, in this respect; There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither Male nor Female, ye are all one in Christ Jesus: So may we go fur­ther upon the same ground, to all estates, all fortunes, all ages; there is neither noble nor ignoble, there is neither rich nor poor, there is neither old nor yong, [Page 80]there is neither man nor child; but as both of them are Homo, so all of them are unum, Omnes unum, ye are all one in Christ Jesus.

But yet, lest Generalities should not take enough deep impression in mens mindes; and that these little children, who are not able to plead their owne cause, nor to urge the strength of this Grant, which they have as largely from God, as any others, lest they should lie neglected, as not contained in the Roll of them that are invited, as if Christ had not room and entertainment for their children, as well as themselvs, when they come to his House; there­fore upon the sight of these Children, he does from them, as from thender flowers, gather the sweet comfort of this more particular Doctrine, to feed his Disciples with; add after this general invitation, Matth. 11. he claps down this as a Post­script, that they be not left out, Sinite parvulos, bring them with you too; he that provides for Pulli Corvorum, Job 38.41. the young ones of the Ravens, and is still a Helper of the friendlesse, as the Pro­phet stiles him, Psal. 10.16. he will also be a Father even of the fatherless, Ps. 68.5. [Page 81]and take speciall order for the Childrens comming; a command in particular for them: Suffer little children to come unto me.

'Tis worth the while to consider, how fully Christ does expresse his love to children upon any occasion: once, be­sides this time, we read in the Gospel, that he had to do with a childe, that childe whom he propounded to his Dis­ciples imitation, Mark 9. and both him at that time, and these at this time, he took up in his arms, Vers. 36. that we may believe they were dear to him.

And indeed, very easily may we be induced to believe it, when we consider the nature of God, and the condition of Children; God is a God of pity and compassion, as he stiles himselfe; nay, as he proclaims himselfe (so well he is pleased with it) Deus, Deus misericors, & clemens: The Lord, The Lord God, mercifull and gracious, Exod. 34.6. And no so fit an object of pity; nothing so like to move compassion, as the very fight of tender children: Jacob knew this well enough when he was to meet his enraged Bro­ther Esau, of whom he was greatly afraid, saies the Text, Gen. 32.7. (for indeed [Page 82]the rage of a Brother is rage indeed, as Tacitus has noted, Quae apud concordes vincula charitatis, incitamenta irarum, a­pud infensos sunt. Annal.1. That which binds men together in love, whilst they are at concord, puts them farther at variance, being once enemies) when he was to meet the wrath of this Brother, so incensed against him; and therefore bethought himselfe of the best means to appease him, sending Present after Present (great and rich ones) to win upon his favour, before he durst come near him: All this notwithstanding, when he drew near him, when Jacob lif­ted up his eyes, and looked, and beheld Esau come, and his Army with him, four hun­dred men, he mistrusted the strength of all his presents; he doubts he is not re­conciled enough, he is driven to his ut­most shift for the effecting it, to that which surely will (if any thing can) make his fury fall, and his heart even melt within him; he takes the children, and divides them to their severall Mo­thers; he puts the handmaids and their children formost, and Leah and her chil­dren after, and Rachel and her Joseph after; this, this prevailed against all his [Page 83]Brothers prae-conceived malice; Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, saies the Text, and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept, Gen. 33.4.

May we not thinke, Jacob learnt this way from the story of his Uncle Ishmael? who, when he was a childe, being in distresse, with his Mother Ha­gar in the Wildernesse, so near death, that the Mother left him, as not able to endure to see the death of the childe, but went a good way off, and wept, and cried, lift up her voice and wept; yet, that place tels us not, that God heard her loud cry, but that he was moved to compassion with the voice of the childe, which yet was so soft a cry, that we hear nothing of it in the story; Hagar cried aloud, but God heard the voice of the Lad, and for his sake sent her comfort, Genes. 21.17.

We cannot easily conceive it; the compassionate love which God bears to little children, he loves the very name of them, and gives it to them he loves most; and that then, when he most de­sires to make them know he loves them; what name did Christ call his beloved Disciples by, when he was, now, shortly [Page 84]to leave them, and was newly entered the lists of his conflict with death, when Judas had taken the Sop, and Satan was entered into him, and had set him on working (not the works of God, but of his Father the Divel) that he went out immediately, when the plot was now laying, that must anon take effect upon his life? John. 13.33. Then, then Filioli, little little children; filii will not serve to speak the extent of his affection: all children are beloved of their Parents; but filioli, their little, their darling children are tenderly doted on; he takes any occa­sion to do them reputation among men; Their Angels, Matt. 18.10. Though the Angels that guard all men do continu­ally behold the face of God, yet Angeli corum, [...], by way of excellence, 'tis publisht of them, that their Angels; nor is it publisht by the voice of any Prophet or Apostle, but Audivi vocem de coelo, by a voice from Heaven; and thence too, 'tis not the voice either of Saint of God, or of Angel of childe, but of Christ himself, to shew his love to them; his pusille, his little ones, he would have none be their Herauld but himselfe, himselfe in person; Non alienae [Page 85]vocis ergano sed oraculo suae, from none other, but from his own mouth, as here, to give the charge for their comming to him, so in the chapter before, for not despising one of them; for, I say unto you, that in Heaven their Angels do alwayes be­hold the face of my Father who is in Hea­ven, v. 10.

Such was his liking to them, that he would be made one of them, and would be prophecied unto us under that title, above all other; Parvulus natus nobis, Isa. 9.6. Ʋnto us a childe is born: And those happy Babes, those Innocents that were his Coaetanes, he honoured them with the first crown of martyrdome in his Church, and for his sake, through whose tender sides his own more pre­cious life was aimed at: And ever since, and before, did, and does, God take spe­cial care of children, as those who be­ing destitute of all help in themselves, have most need of his; insomuch, that as truly as David did, may all men living in a thankfull acknowledgement of his mercy, sing it of themselves, Thou art he that took me out of my Mothers womb; thou wast my hope when I hanged yet upon my Mothers brest, I have been left unto thee [Page 86]ever since I was born; thou art my God even from my Mothers womb, Ps. 22.9.

So great care argues as great love; and so great love loves to enjoy the thing that's loved, that as wise Solomon brings in this wisdome of the Father, the Son of God, speaking of himself, Pro. 8.31. Deliciae meae, esse cum filiis hominum, My delight is to be with the sons of men, so will it not offend him to be spoken in his name, Deliciae meae, esse cum Filiolis homi­num, My delight is to be with the Children of men: and therefore, if not for their sakes, yet for his sake, Sinite Parvulos, Suffer little Children to come unto him.

But, Nolite prohibere. is it enough once said? if not, you must hear it again, for come they must; if not with Sinite venire, then with Nolite prohibere; for now, as if the former were not enough, another is ad­ded to signifie, though not a different command, yet the same, because the second time uttered, with a more inten­sive, and forcible affection: Many, with me, do observe here, that the repetition of the Injunction does argue the ear­nestnesse of Christs Will and Law, to have it take place; for, ever, commonly an ingemination either of one and the [Page 87]same word again repeated, or of sundry words bearing the same sence, gives, as 'twere, a double strength to the decla­ration of what is delivered, Noct. Att. 13.23. as Phavori­nus in A. Gellius,

[...], War not any longer beloved yong men, nor fight together: where both the words sig­nifie the same thing, saith yet, that the addition of the second word, though adding nothing in signification to the former, is not to make up the verse, but as they continued in their strife, so, du­plex eadem compellatio admonitionem facit instantiorem, his second time urging the same manner of speech, did give the more earnestnesse to his advice; and though they were the same words in sence, yet one might very well think them to be others, quia aures & animum saepius feriunt, because they beat upon the ears and minde of a man more often; therefore Suffer them to come; I, and be­side that, Forbid them not.

A repetition that one of us, at first, would think needlesse, and that none would be so hard-hearted, to repell such Innocents; yet something sure there was that ministred occasion to this, [Page 88]which seems so needlesse a behest, and we need not look far for it; the last words before the Text tell us, that the Disciples rebuked them: why they should do so would be enquired, and it will be no hard matter to guesse at it; for, the best do no more than as probability of Reason leads them, seeing it is not exprest in the Text; of one thing they are all agreed (they will not, and we must not be too harsh in our censure up­on the Disciples) what was not the cause; not envy in them, or ill will toward the children, or their friends that brought them: And for what was the cause, in the general, there is no great difference; a wrong-grounded zeal that they bare towards their Master (such a one as S. Paul discovered to be in Israel, Rom. 10.2. that they had a zeal, but not accord­ing to knowledge) S. Chrysostome saies, 'twas zeal of his Honour, for they ran regardlesly to him, and almost upon him; and so Theophylact conjectures, that the women came in disordered heaps, thronging about him with their children for a blessing, and this they thought some disparagement to the dig­nity and authority of his Doctrine, that [Page 89]he should have any thing to do with Children; S. Jerome is of opinion, that they had regard to his ease in so doing, that he should not be press'd too much, and wearied with the throng, and he there-hence argues the imperfection of their faith; and with him agrees S. Am­brose in his Comment upon S. Luke, that it was their observance toward their Master, to avoid the trouble of the croud. Again, whereas the common causes of mens comming to him, were either to receive the benefit of instructi­on from his Doctrine, or the ease from some infirmity, by the power of his Mi­racles; these were not sick, might the Disciples think, and so, not in need of the one; they were Children, and there­fore not capable of the other.

But these were the thoughts of men, who judged of Christ, by their carnall sence, and according to his outward appearance; and yet not unlikely to be the Disciples errors; especially the first of them, which men are prone to run upon; they are needlesly afraid to think too meanly of Christ, and that has been the cause of too many superstitions in the Church; this one amongst the rest, [Page 90]that men become Suitors to the Saints in Heaven, to mediate their Prayers to God, because they think it dishonorable to Christ, to be the common Advocate; as also, to fear to think too honorably of him, and to deal too bountifully with him, in his House and Houshold, has been the cause of prophanations more than enow; [...], betwixt both, the Mean would do well.

Whatever was the ground, Ʋse. let us make this use of it, to consider, how God still orders every evil action to some good end; how all things work toge­ther for good, Rom. 8.28. to them that love God; how from this very slip of his Disciples, which he suffered them to fall into, he is pleased to take occasion the more, to manifest his love to little Children, and to leave this sweet and comfortable say­ing, amongst the rest of his Monuments, as a Testimony of it to all posterity, Suf­fer little Children to come unto me; so much the rather, forbid them not.

But is there no more required on our part? Baptism. only to suffer them? not to for­bid them? Yes: That was specially di­rected to those whom it chiefly concerns to admit them to him, his Disciples, and [Page 91]their Successors, the Ministers of his Word and Sacraments; the rest must do more, help them forward, lend them feet to bring them; when they cannot run with their own feet (saies S. Serm. 10. De verbis Apostoli. Austin) they run by the help of others; Accom­modat illis Mater Ecclesia, aliorum pedes, ut veniant: And 'tis no more than that which was so long since foretold by the Prophet Isaiah, in his Prophecy of the ample Restauration of the Church, chap. 49.22. They shall bring thy Sons in their arms, and thy Daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders.

But whither so fast with these Sons and these Daughters that are carried? why, to Christ no question; thither the Text calls them: True, but the way to him? No other left us by his direction, for our first entrance, but Baptism; to that our Church Liturgy applies this Text: nor is there any of our Ancient Writers, but does so; yea, in a manner appropriate it thereto; and wheresoe­ver they treat of Baptism, ever this verse comes in; that has made some of them call Baptism, Introitum ad Regnum Coe­lorum, Heavens entry: Some, the Sa­crament of Initiation; Some, the Door; [Page 92]Some, the Gate of Heaven.

For, whereas no man can come to Christ, except he be a New man, and we are all born with the corruption of the Old man upon us, Quod natum ex carne, caro, John 3.6. That which is born of the flesh, is flesh: Conceived in sin, and born in iniquity, Psal. 51.5. and therefore, Natura, filii irae, S. Paul assures us, Sons of wrath by nature, Eph. 2.3. Not filioli here; grown Sons of great wrath: Therefore of necessity we must be renew­ed, regenerate, born once again; Nisi quis Renatus fuerit, John 3.3. Except a man be born again, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God; born of the spirit, if we will leave to be flesh, Quod natum ex spi­ritu, spiritus; That which is born of the spirit, is spirit; he is the only Author, the principal efficient cause of our new Birth.

The Principal, I say; for, he does not use to worke Regeneration in the heart of any man [...], as the Enthusiasts will have it, immediately; but by such ordinary meanes as he has appointed, both for himselfe to offer, and for us to apprehend, eternal Salvation: The means allotted to us in this behalfe, who [Page 93]are Receivers, is Faith, the onely Hand he has given us, to reach out, and lay hold on, and apply unto ourselves the Grace of God offered, the merit of Christ, with the consequents thereof, Forgivenesse of our sins, justification and eternal salvation: By faith of Jesus Christ the righteousnesse of God is unto all, and up­on all that believe, Rom. 3.22.

But then in respect of God, who is the Donor, the means by which he does u­sually bestow these Graces upon us, and convey them unto us, are two; his Word, his Sacraments.

Of the efficacy of his Word no Chri­stian doubteth; By hearing comes faith, Rom. 10.17. and by the hearing of faith is the spirit received, Gal. 3.2.

And, for the Sacraments, they have as little reason to trouble themselves, and the Church of God with seruples of doubt, as if they were but bare signes and no more: Do not the Fathers call the Sa­craments, Verbum visibile, a visihle Word? Are they not, as it were, an Epitome of the Gospel? Receive they not all their worth and vertue, and operation, not only from the present Grace, but from the ancient Appointment and Ordi­nance [Page 94]of God, and from the Word of God, which, by Divine, as well as Ecclesiasti­call Ordination, is joyned to the out­ward Elements?

But, to make it good against them, in this one Sacrament, which we have now in hand. If he, and he onely, shall be saved, in an ordinary course, who believes and is baptized, Mark 16.16. may we not well reckon Baptism an ordinary means of this salvation? If of salvation, then also of those other graces which are the way unto it, regeneration, remission of sins, righteousness, and renewing of the mind; Except a man be born of water and the spi­rit, John 3.5. there's regeneration by it: John Baptist preach'd the Baptism of Re­pentance for the remission of sins, Luk. 3.3. Repent, saies S. Peter, and be baptized for the remission of sins, Act. 2.28. and, Arise, says Ananias to Paul upon his conversion, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, Act. 22.16. there's remission: Ye are wash'd, saies St. Paul, 1 Cor. 5. then presently follows upon that, Ye are sanctified, ye are justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus, v. 11. there be two other graces: As many of you as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ, Gal. 3.27. and [Page 95]having Christ upon us, we have his obe­dience, his merits, his righteousnesse; how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Rom. 8.32.

So that, as S. James, in the case of our regeneration, does joyn together the Spirit and the Word, which is one of the means he uses to that purpose; Of his own will begat he us, with the Word of Truth, Jam. 1.18. so our Saviour Christ does joyn the Holy Ghost and Baptism, which is another effectuall meanes; Except a man be born of water and the spirit, he can­not enter into the Kingdom of God, Joh. 3.5. And S. Paul couples both these means together, makes them march hand in hand, as equally usefull to sanctification in the Church of God; Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it, that he might sanctifie it and cleanse it, with the washing of water by the Word, Eph. 5.26. what shall I say more? This will I say, that,

A cause, therefore we need not fear to call it, of our regeneration and salvation, though not the principall; that's God himselfe; yet, the instrumentall, as we speak in Schools, or medium; He saved us, saies the Apostle; God, Tit. 3. there's the principall cause, by the washing of re­generation, [Page 96]there's the instrumentall, v. 5.

We have the steps of all the ancient Fathers of the Church walking in this Track, a warrant to us for this confi­dence: [...] we find it call'd, and [...], a second Birth, and a Divine Generation by Dionysius; [...], a being born again, by Greg. Nazianz. [...], the Bath by which we wash away our sinnes, Clem. Alexandr. Peccatorum omnium re­missionem, the forgivenesse of all our sins, by S. Ambrose; Fons Divinus, quo Fideles in Creaturam novam regenerantur, by Cas­siodorus, the Divine Fountain by which the Faithfull are made up into a New Creature; and by every one, the Door of Heaven, the Sacrament of Initiation, the first admission into Gods Kingdome.

Not, that all that are baptized, are thereby necessarily admitted into the Kingdome of Heaven; or, that all do receive the Grace of God, who receive the Sacrament of his Grace: for, as not the Bread and Wine in the Eucharist, so neither the water in Baptism, does con­tain, in it selfe, any vital force or effi­cacy: That Grace which is a conse­quent of the Sacraments, it doth accom­pany [Page 97]them as their end, the benefit whereof whoso partakes, he receives it from God himselfe, the Author of Sacra­ments, and not from any other natural or supernatural quality in them: And therefore their manner of necessity to life supernatural, is not in all respects, as food unto natural life; they are not Phy­sical, but Moral Instruments of Salvation; Duties of Service and Worship, which un­lesse we perform, as the Author of them requireth, they are unprofitable: Hu­go's Rule we acknowledge, and fol­low in this case, De Sacr. lib. 1. c. 3, Fideles salutem ex istis elementis non quaerunt, etiamsi in istis quae­runt; though we seek for salvation in Baptism, yet not from Baptism, but from God; for, this is the instrument of God to that end and purpose, a Moral Instru­ment, the use whereof is in our hand, the effect in his; for the use, we have his express command; for the effect, his condi­tional promise: so that without our obe­dience to the one; there is of the other no apparent assurance: whereas on the other side, where the signes and Sacra­ments of his Grace are not either omit­ted, through contempt,, or received with contempt, we are not to doubt, but that [Page 98]they really give what they promise, and are what they signifie: The same is true here, which Solomons Wisdome observeth in the Brazen Serpent, He that turned him­selfe to it was not healed by the thing he saw, but by thee, O Saviour of all, Wisd. 16.7.

The necessity therefore that Ispake of, for the comming to Christ this way, for our being renewed by this second Birth, I hope appeareth: which necessity not­withstanding we do not preach unto you to be so absolute, as if God had ne­ver another door into Heaven; as if he had so tied his saving Grace to this means, as without it 'twere impossible to be attained by any: this is the high­way, the common door, by which he hath appointed us to enter; and there­fore, on our part, we are bound to this way, if we can get to it; but if there be an impossibility on our part, and that without our contempt, or neglect of his Ordinance, it shall please God we be prevented (I speak not of them that are born out of the Church, Qui foris sunt, Deus judicat, 1 Cor. 5.13. we leave them (with S. Paul) to be judged by God, but) for them who are born in fidere, in that league which God made with Abraham [Page 99]and his seed for ever; God forbid such unmannerly, uncharitable thoughts in Christians, that because God binds our obedience to this ordinary meanes, we should likewise prescribe to him, and tie him to his owne Ordinance; that we should thinke he has not other wayes to let us into his Kingdome; that because he does not usually, therefore he cannot extraordinarily work saving Grace in the hearts of some, without this outward means.

As therefore on the one side, we blame those men as too remisse, who have too mean a regard of this ordinary and im­mediate meanes of life, relying wholly upon the bare conceit of that eternal Election, which, notwithstanding in­cludes a subordination of means, with­out which we are not actually brought to enjoy what God secretly did intend; and therefore to build upon Gods Ele­ction, if we keep not our selves to the wayes which he hath appointed for men to walk in, is but a selfe-deceiving va­nity: So on the other side, we may as little approve the too severe conceit of those who condemn the children of Christian Parents dying before Baptism, [Page 100]into a place in Hell, which their owne fancies have built for them, and that of severall fashions, according to their se­verall conceits; a Limbus Infantum, wherein some are so milde, as to inflict no other punishment upon them, but the not seeing God, Vid. Bel­larm. De Amissione Gratiae. Tom. 3. l. 6. c. 1. which they call Poena damni: Some, more anstere, will have them suffer some grief also, for that loss; others cruelly award them the perpetual torment of Sense, added to the losse of Gods presence (so well they agree a­mongst themselves, who are at discord in opinions, to the Church of England.)

S. Tom. 7. De Bapt. l. 4. c. 22. Austin tels us another tale, that the Sacrament of Baptism is, then, invisibly fulfild, when not contempt of Religion, but the point of necessity does exclude it. And seeing that our Baptism under the Gospel, does succeed in the very stead of Circumcision under the Law, we ought not to set a harder censure upon the Babes of believing Parents, dying without Baptism, and without contempt of it; than all antiquity has done upon the sons of the Hebrewes, whom either Infirmity of disease untimely cut off, or the cruelty of Pharaoh, Exod. 3. or of Antiochus, 1 Maccab. 1. suffered not to [Page 101]see the eighth day of their age, till when by the Law they might not be circum­cised: In which case it hath ever been held the part of prudent and holy cha­rity to hope; and to make men rather partial than cruel Judges, as having reason in a charitable presumption, to gather a great likelihood of their salva­tion, to whom the benefit of believing Parents being given, the rest that should follow is prevented by some such casu­alty, as man had in himselfe no power to avoid.

One errour more there is, Paedo­baptismus concerning this way of Children in Baptism comming to Christ, with which though I may not now trouble you long, yet unlesse I would betray my Text, I must needs discover it unto you; because it does so flatly bid defiance to my Text, and stands in such direct terms of opposition to it.

The Disciples here may be suspected to be in a fair way to have turn'd Ana­baptists; they lik'd not that Children should come to Christ: but Christ was displeased with them; and for fear the Divel (who is such a profest enemy to the Church of God, and to the encreas­ing [Page 102]of his Kingdome) should, from this ill example of theirs, take advantage af­terwards to establish such a Sect, he nips it in the bud; he takes the children of this Edom, and throws them against the stones; he sets downe a Canon in his Church, for the direction of succeeding Ages, a Canon of such a Council as can never erre, nor which shall ever be re­pealed, Suffer little Children, and forbid them not, to come unto me.

Could any man have thought, that so long as this Canon had been in force, it should not have been preservative strong enough against that poison, which the Divel hath since instill'd into some mens brains, who have enacted a Statute in their Conventicle, as it were in spight of this, that till they come to years of discretion, to the use of reason, they come not to Baptism, that is to say (say Christ what he will) till they cease to be children, they shall in no wise come to Christ: They slept surely while the enemy sow'd these Tares in their hearts! Is't possible they should be conversant in any of Christs fields? that they should read any of his Gospels, and not light upon this Ear of good Wheat which growes in so [Page 103]many of them? Me thinks the Divels should have clapt these three Gospels into the Inquisition, or caused the Council of Trent to have taken them into their con­sideration, to have enlarg'd their Index expurgatorius, and expurg'd this sweet command of Christ out of all these three Evangelists, before he had gone about to make an Anabaptist.

The very Reason that they give for their Fancy, is the same that is given by so many for the Disciples mistake here, because that for want of the use of Rea­son, they are not yet capable of such heavenly Mysteries; which, had it been of force, S. Peter had also long since, with his too much modesty, depriv'd himselfe of that mysticall heavenly bles­sing of having his feet wash'd with our Saviours owne hands; Lord (saies he) dost thou wash my feet? thou shalt never do it: but what Christ said then to him (who was but a Childe in the knowledge of Heavenly Mysteries) the same may the Ministers of Christ, in his Name, pro­nounce to any of these Children, upon the like occasion, Quod ego facio, tu ne­scis modo, What I do thou knowest not yet, but thou shalt know hereafter, Jo. 13.7.

Euntes, Docete, Baptizate; 'tis our Saviours last charge to his Disciples, in the end of S Matthews Gospel, Go and teach all Nati [...]ns, baptizing them; (not to ward this blow with the original Text, which does not signifie to teach, but to make Disciples, but to try it out with their owne translated weapon) See, (say they) The Word preach'd and the Sacra­ment must go together, & therefore they that are not capable Auditors of the one, are not fit Receivers of the other: And Qui crediderit, & baptizatus fuerit, Mark 16. He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved: Vers. 16. No Baptism therefore (say they) before a Profession of their Faith: S. Epist. 23. Austin makes answer to Boniface, a Bishop in his time concerning this very difficulty, whether it may truly be said for Infants at the time of their Baptism, as we use by our Godfathers, that they do believe? and the effect of his Answer, is, Yea; but with this distinction; a pre­sent actuall habit of faith there is not in them; but, that habit of faith, which afterward doth come with years, is but a farther building up of the same Edifice, the first foundation whereof was laid by the Sacrament of Baptism; for, that [Page 105]which then we professed, without any understanding, when we afterward come to acknowledge, do we any thing else, but onely bring unto ripenesse the very seed that was sown before? We are then Believers, because then we begin to be that, which more of Gods Grace, in processe of time, makes perfect: And till we come to actuall beliefe, the very Sacrament of faith is a shield as strong as, after this, the faith of the Sacrament, a­gainst all contrary infernall Powers.

But, not to trouble your patience too long with discussing these points, a thing fitter for the Schools; and because there is more Pulpit-matter in the other part of the Text, let this, in one word, be the Church's Challenge to them; either let them make it appeare unto us, that Baptisme gives a greater blessing to our Children, than Christ gave to these; or, that the same reason applied to the seed of faithfull Parentage, whom the Apostle avows to be holy from the very birth, 1 Cor. 7.14. will not make them also ca­pable of an equal blessing; for, not illo­rum only, but talium; not only of these, saies Christ, but of such is the Kingdome of Heaven; That's the Reason of the duty, and the second part.

If of such, Illorum. then of these also; for, ho­rum must be the ground of talium: And if Heaven belongs unto them who are like the Children of Christian Parents, because they are like them; then surely they themselves have, by vertue of Gods gracious Promise, an interest unto it; they, concerning whom he hath made his Covenant with the Father of them all, his Servant Abraham, the Father of the faithfull, Ero Deus tuus, & Seminis tui post te, Gen. 17.7. I will be a God unto thee and to thy Seed after thee: not his seed according to the flesh only, but e­ven vobis, & filiis. vestris, as S. Peter preach'd it generally to them, all of so many severall Nations, Act. 2.39. The promise is to you, and to your Children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.

No, saies our Anabaptist (that loves to imbrue his hands, with Pharaoh and He­red in the spiritual death (as much as in him lies) of so many tender Sucklings) not illorum for all this; No Children are meant in this clause, but they who are like them: How? not in years, but in simplicity, in innocency, and in humi­lity: A good Interpretation, I grant, [Page 107]and not of their owne finding out; but that which the most reverend Interpre­ters of Scripture in the purest times (how little soever they regard their El­der Books) have laid before them, but with little purpose by their Allegoricall Interpretation (which is also good and lawfull) to afford them a hint for the avoiding the literall.

If these here whom Christ blessed had not a right to the Kingdome of Heaven, surely our Saviour gave a very impro­per Reason for his action, which even themselves will not be so impious to affirme: and these here are Chil­dren, and that little ones; if [...] will not serve, they are [...]; if Parvi be not small enough, they are Parvuli, the diminutive little children; lap-children S. Mark makes them, for he reports, Christ tooke them in his arms when he blessed them, 10.26. as we do little chil­dren when we baptize them; and S. Luke he has a lesse word for them than either S. Matthew or S. Mark, lesse than [...], than ordinary litte ones, that can newly go, or speak, [...] he calls them; and that's properly Infants; so we have translated it.

But we take this for granted of all but them, whom we labour not much to satisfie in so manifest a truth; and therefore hasten to the last particular in the Text; that, as of them, so, of such as they are, Talium (saies Christ) est Regnum coelorum, of such is the Kingdome of Heaven.

And in it, Talium. having first acknowledged the simplicity of the Truth in the literal sense, we will follow the Fathers in this Allegory, seeing the Scripture does often abound in severall senses, all agreeing to the Analogy of faith.

And indeed it must needs be so, when we consider, that not onely such are ad­mitted, but that whosoever is not such, is excluded; so S. Mark and S. Luke too in setting down this Story, Whosoever shall not receive the Kingdom of God as a little childe, he shall not enter therein: Are we driven then here to Nicodemus his question? Joh. 3.4. How can a man be a child when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his Mothers womb? No, 'tis not the age of a child that Christ requires, but that that innocency and humility which does naturally appear in them, should, by Education and Grace, be practised in [Page 109]as many of us as would finde the way to Heaven; so S. Paul expounds it for the former, Be children in malice, 1 Cor. 14.20. (i. e.) be harmlesse, be innocent; and our Saviour Christ expounds it for the later, Whoso shall humble himselfe as this little childe, the same is greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven, Matt. 18.4.

So that every childish quality is not to be imitated by us; S. Paul forbids that in that place to the Corinthians, Be not childish in understanding, and (per­haps he too) chides those men, Heb. 5.12. who were so childishly ignorant, that they had yet need of milke, and not of strong meat: Solomon is weary of induring them, Quousque parvuli diligitis Infan­tiam? Prov. 1.22. How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? But they are propounded to our imitation, in re­gard of those good qualities, in which God is specially delighted; those, a­mongst the rest, are chiefly, the two I nam'd unto you, Innocency and Humili­ty: of each of which very briefly, and we have done.

This Innocency we must not so under­stand, as I finde some of the Papists, Innocen­tia. Darrad, &c. in expounding this place, are willing to do, [Page 110]who thinke that children, upon their Baptism, are so clear from sin, that, now, they have not the least spot or stain left in them, and would have us be so: They are indeed in that Well-spring of New Birth, so throughly wash'd from the guilt of Original sin which they brought with them into the world, that it is not laid to their charge to condemn them; No, no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, Rom. 8.1. But yet the seeds of that concupiscence, which does de­prave our whole nature, are not so done away, but that we have still need to cru­cifie the Old man within us all the dayes of our life; Mendaces sumus, saies S. John, 'tis a bold lie, to say we have no sin in us, 1 John 1.8. Take heed of this Plea; if we once plead it, Vide Cas­siani Col­lationem 22. c. 13. we shall set God on pleading too: I will plead with thee, saies God, because thou sayest, I have not sinned, Jer. 2.35.

Innocent we may be, as Job was, who, maugre the Divels malice, yet held fast his innocency, Job 2.3. Such innocency we may attain to, as David wash'd his hands in when he went up to the Altar of God, Psal. 26. we may, and must, strive to be like Zachary and Elizabeth [Page 111]his wife, righteous before God (i. e. with­out hypocrisie) walking in the Command­ments of God: But that walking is an ar­gument, that we are not yet come to the mark; I, In all the Commandments and Ordinances of God, without reproofe, Luke 1.6. but how without reproofe? S. Austin does interpret it to Innocentius, sine querela, non sine peccato; not without sin, but without grievance, quarrel, just complaint, or exception to be made a­gainst them; he does often distinguish betwixt peccatum and querela; the one sin in general, which no man is freed from (for 'tis an absolute Sentence, and needeth no exposition, Gal. 3.22 God hath conclu­ded all under sin) the other, some great offence (as David calleth it) some mali­cious wickednesse, some hainous, noto­rious scandalous sin, culpable in the eys of men, and worthy of censure and crimination: An Innocency we may, and must aim at, for the model and ca­pacity of this life, for the state of Pas­sengers and Wayfaring men; but to magnifie the arm of flesh, and the nature of man, more than reason admits (as the Pelagians of our Time do) and by a sophistical and deceitfull conclusion, to [Page 112]seek to obscure the Truth, and to over­reach the World in this point, that be­cause they finde in the Scripture often mention of the Innocency, Justice, Righteousnesse, Perfection of the Chil­dren of God, (dissembling, or not right­ly weighing the drift of the place) they should infer hereupon, that a man may in this life attain to such a Saint-like In­nocency, as to be clear from all sin, is a conceit which savours not of that Humi­lity commended in these Children.

And therefore, Humilitas if we mark it, our Sa­vour Christ, where he expounds himself, c. 18. insists more upon that other child­like quality, and commends it unto us for the best way to Christ, and to Hea­ven, Humility; Not whosoever shall be without sin, as this little childe, but, Whosoever shall humble himselfe as this little Childe, Vers. 4. the same is greatest in the King­dome of Heaven. Now, Humility may be, and ought most to be in him who is subject to sin; and 'tis the want of it onely that puts that same Non sum sicut caeteri in the mouth of our Pharisee; 'Twas to the sinfull, but humble Publi­can, Luke 18. that Christ applies this ve­ry speech to in effect, Matt. 18. not he [Page 113]that is without sin, but he that humbleth himselfe shall be exalted, there in S. Luke; exalted indeed, for he shall be the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven, here in S. Matthew.

Of this in few words, and I'le tire your patience no longer.

Of such is the Kingdom of Heaven: Of such little ones, of such humble ones: see the Pattern first, and the humility that is in them. What childe, though never so Nobly born, though the Son of a Prince, takes advantage from the greatnesse of his birth, to lessen his Hu­mility? Who ever saw spark of pride in Swathing-clouts? or the least shew of disdain for any usage, though he were laid in a Crib, in a Manger, as the best Childe was? The Heir of the House, as long as he is a Childe, (S. Paul tels us) differs nothing from a Servant, though he be Lord of all, Gal. 4.1. The Heir of the King­dom took upon him the form of a Ser­vant, Phil. 2.7. I, as he would come to us by the name of a Childe, Ecce, Par­vulus natus, so he propounds himself the Pattern of nothing so expresly, as of this vertue; Discite ex me, Matth. 11. Learn of me: what? I am meek and lowly in [Page 114]heart, v. 29. Learn of him that, and then we may learn any thing, all that this Book of his can teach us; we shall be nourish'd and grow strong by the sweet­nesse in it, if we come to it as S. Peter bids us, and as new born Babes, desire the sincere milk of the Word, that we may grow thereby, 1 Pet. 2.2.

We see the Pattern; consider what need there is that we imitate it; that as our children are so, so Gods Children must be so: We must know therefore, that the way to Heaven is directly con­trary to the way of this world; that as Seneca bids his Wise man go against the Croud, march the contrary way to the multitude; so in things appertaining to salvation, we must omnino diversa via in­cedere, sayes one, For they proceed in such a course, as in the eyes of worldly men seems most unlikely; here, If any seems to be wise, let him become a fool, that he may be wise, 1 Cor. 3.18. Here, He that findeth his life shall lose it, and he that lo­seth his life for my sake shall finde it, Matth. 10.39. Here, Whosoever will be great, let him be your Minister, and whosoever will be chief, let him be your servant, Matth. 20.26. Here, he that became obedient to death, [Page 115]even the death of the Crosse, God highly ex­alted him, and gave him a Name above every Name, Phil. 2.9. and even therefore, saies S. Paul; and here, Whosoever shall humble himself as this little Childe, the same is grea­test in the Kingdom of Heaven, Matth. 18.4. so truly said the Lord by the Prophet Isaias, My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your wayes my wayes, 55.8.

From this consideration the devoutest Fathers of the Church of Christ have trod this uncouth path, and because it is so hard to light on, have chalk'd it out to us. S. Gregory, Ep. 39. Humilie­mur in mente, si ad solidam conamur per­venire celsitudinem, Let's be lowly in minde, if we think of rising to the true height: S. Austin, Serm. 10. De Verbis Domini, Magnus esse vis? à minimo incipe. Wilt thou be great? begin to be so at being little: No safe erecting a stately structure for magnificence, without first digging deep to lay the foundation in Humility; that thou mayest be great in Gods eyes, (sayes he in another place, Serm. 11. De Temp. be small in thine own eyes; just so said Samuel to Saul, When thou wast little in thine own sight, then wast thou not made the Head of the Tribes? then [Page 116]the Lord annointed thee King over Israel, 1 Sam. 15.17. God looks upon us, as we look upon things through a Perspe­ctive-Glasse; to see great things we use it not, but with it we look at small things; for this Glasse makes such as them great in our eyes; so these men that are great, I wis, in their owne thoughts, that say with the Church of Laodicea, Rev. 3.17. that they are rich, and increased with goods, &c. when they are poor and miserable, they that thus belye themselves with a false conceit of Great­nesse, God looks not on them at all, He that telleth lyes shall not tarry in my sight, Psal. 101. But behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him, that are so little as to be afraid, and so humble as to mistrust themselves, and to put their trust in his mercy, Psal. 33.17. Those that do with the ten Lepers in S. 17.12. & 18.13. Luke, and with the humble Publican, stare à longe, stand a far off: To us they seem small, and of no reputation, but the Perspe­ctive eye of his wisdome makes them great; when they are little in their own sight, then does he make them as the Heads of their Tribes.

He is not like these Children, that brags, with the Pharisee, Luke 18.11. he is not like other men; (yes, like men, like natural men he is, but not like Children, like these Children) and he makes him­selfe most unworthy of this Kingdome who sayes of himselfe, as the Jews of the Centurion, Luke 7.4. that he is worthy for whom the Lord should do this: Non, Non sum dignus, we learn from one that was worthier than any of us, a greater than whom was not among the sons of women, Matth. 11.11. I am not worthy to loose the latchet of his shooe, Luke 3.16. Quis ego sum, Domine? was the question of a great King, Lord, who am I? saies David, 1 Chron. 29.14. and minor sum, was the an­swer of a holy Patriarch, I am lesse than the least of thy mercies, saies Jacob, Gen. 32.10. Like those Plutarch writes of, that saild to Athens to get Philosophy, first they were called Sophistae, wise men; after that, Philosophi, but Lovers of wis­dome; then Rhetores, onely Reasoners, and Discoursers; last of all, Idiotae, sim­ple, unletter'd men; still the more they profited in learning, the lesse they ac­knowledg'd it: so these holy men, like Circles, the nearer they came to their [Page 118]Centre, Christ Jesus, upon whom they rest, the lesse still they made themselves: And so must we in spiritual graces, study to be great, but not know it; as the stars in the firmament, though they ex­ceed the earth in bignesse, yet seem much lesse, and the higher and bigger of them, lesse than the least; In alto, non altum sapere, not to be high-minded in high deserts, is the way to high prefer­ment.

The preferment in my Text, Regnum. Joh. 14.2 the Kingdom of Heaven, 't has many Mansions, saies Christ; but 't has not one for a high-minded, for a proud man, no, not for a proud Angel; they, when they lost their humility, lost their place there; and shall Man, by getting pride, get in thither? Pride has once already sorely shaken the walls of Heaven, and cast down the (too big spirited) spiritual In­habitants; and therefore a sure guard there is against the re-entry of such an enemy; he had need be a strong man to recover that place which Angels could not hold, freed by Gods grace in Christ, from all sins, but especially from that daring sin Angusta Porta; though this Kingdome within be spacious and [Page 119]glorious, Mat. 7.14 yet the gate is streight that leads unto life: as they be few, so those few are little ones, humble ones, Tales, saies my Text, such as these little Children that enter in thereat.

This grace of all other, (I know not how, whether for the excellency of it in it selfe, or for the necessity of it in regard of us) there's more to be said of it than of any other, and a man has more to do to hold a mean; it is both a Grace it selfe, and a Vessel to com­prehend other Graces; and this is the nature of it, the more it receiveth of the blessings of God, the more it may, for it ever emptieth it selfe by a modest estimation of it's owne gifts, that God may alwayes fill it; it wrestleth, and striveth with God, according to the po­licy of Jacob; that is, winneth by yield­ing, and the lower it stoops to the ground, the more advantage it gets to obtain the blessing: O quam excelsus es, Austin Confess. Domine? & humiles corde sunt domus tuae: O Lord, how high and soveraigne art thou? and yet the humble of heart are thy houses to dwell in: Where is the house (saies God) that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest? To him [Page 120]will I look, even to him that is poor, and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my words, Isa. 66.2. What was it in the blessed Virgin, (the Mother of Gods First-born, the Glory and Flower of Woman-kinde) that God regarded so much? she tels us in her Magnificat, He hath regarded the lowlinesse of his Hand­maid; Lu. 1.48. yea, the bloud and juice of the whole Song is in praise of this one Grace; He hath scattered the proud, he hath put down the mighty, V. 51, 52. he hath exalted the humble and meck.

I must end with this one Observation more, that ye may be assur'd 'tis this Grace of Humility is intended in the Ta­lium of my Text, this especially in which we must be like these children, if we will gain the Kingdom of Heaven, because the very same blessing, in the very same words, is, in another place of the Gospel, by Gods Charter, confirm'd upon the very same Vertue, Blessed are the poor in spirit, Matt. 5.3. quoniam ipso­rum est Regnum Coelorum, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven: And if we hope to enter this Kingdom, by the help of this humble Poverty in spirit, let none of us be so proud to refuse to [Page 121]learne and practise the Prayer of a King against Pride, Let not the foot of Pride come against me, Psal. 36.12. (Let not the proud man insult o're me, and trample on me with his feet, so some expound it; I, let not the sinne of Pride get any foot­hold in my heart, so the very Let­ter will warrant S. Austin's Exposition, Non veniat mihi pes superbiae) that so, we being like little Children, may be suffered to come to this Child that was born to us, that we may meeke and lowly creep to him, who himselfe is meek and lowly in heart; to him, in whom the Father blesseth us with spirituall blessings in heavenly places, Ephes. 1.3. who himselfe was thus highly exalted, to this Kingdom, not without his Propter quod, even for this cause, that he humbled himselfe, and who will, with the Reward of the same King­dome, make good his promise upon all his humble, his little Children, Suffer little Children, and forbid them not to come unto me, for of such is the Kingdom of Hea­ven: Come ye Children of my Father, re­ceive the Kingdom. Amen.

To him, even to him; &c.

OUR Saviour Christ, a little be­fore he humbled himselfe to death, the shamefull death, would, by this extraordinary act of Power, proclaim to the World, that [Page 124]he did indeed humble himselfe; none else could do it; that Pilate was deceiv'd in his imaginary Power he thought he had to crucifie him, or to release him, John 19.10. that he was the good Shepheard, who gave his life for his Sheep, John 10.11. No man could take it from him, but he laid it down of himselfe, v. 18. Therefore he would ride in triumph into Jerusa­lem; and in the Temple, his Fathers House, he would do an act (of Justice, true; but withall) of Majesty and Au­thority; one, the greatest that ever he vouchsafed to shew while he liv'd among us: Such opinion S. Jerome had of it, though the giving sight to one born blinde were a great Miracle; Jo. 9.6, 7. and the restoring life to a Carkass putrified in the grave, Jo. 11.44 a greater; Mat. 17.2 and the shewing his glory on the Mount in his Transfiguration, might ex­ceed those, yet, Mihi inter omnia signa quae fecit, hoc videtur mirabilius, I ac­count none like this (saies he) that one Man, at that time grown contemptible amongst them, so far, that they had even mark'd him out for slaughter, should then (maugre the anger of the many Priests, of the Chiefe Priests, who were so potent in that place) play Rex [Page]among them (as Zachary's prophecy of him is applied to this one particular action) should overthrow their Tables and their Seats, and send them all packing, Zach. 9.9 Mat. 21.5 21.12. not any of them, not all of them daring to resist him: Sure there appear'd more than humane Majesty in his face, and his eyes sparkled Divinity, thinks that holy Father; and who can think other­wise? As when in the Garden over Ke­dron, Captain Judas, and his Band of men came arm'd to take him he did, with a word (and his Aspect now, was as his language then) with an Ego sum, Joh. 18.6 I am (that dreadfull name of his Deity, by which he would of old be made known to the Egyptians) cast them all upon their backs. Exo. 3.14

And besides his power manifested in his Miracle, the story gives us a taste al­so of that care which he had of his Fa­thers glory, and the just indignation which he had conceived against them that had dishonoured his House; soon as he was entered the City in State, whi­ther goes he? not to Davids Tower, not to the Kings Palace; no, he sought not his own glory, he had told them plainly before, John 8.50. nay, he shunn'd it, [Page 126] when they would have taken him by force, to make him a King, John 6.15. His King­dom was not of this world: Jo. 18.36 But I honour my Father, saies he, John 8.49. He goes to his House, and all the honour he had received by the Peoples late acclama­tions, Mat. 21.9 he gives up to him; he intends an imployment of great importance, that concerns the honour of his Fathers House; Luk. 2.48 wist ye not, (so he satisfies his Mothers griefe for his absence) Wist ye not that I must be about my Fathers business? Luke 2.49. This in particular above all other businesses, he took speciall care of; when he began his Preaching, he began this Reformation; against the first Passeover that we read he shewed him­selfe at, Joh. 2.13 (that S. John only tels us of) He whipt them out of the Temple, Ʋers. 15. and pou­red out the Money, and overthrew the Ta­bles: And now he was to end his Preach­ing, and his life, he will end well as he began; he will to the Temple, and sweep it clean before he goes, and once again, cast out all that sold and bought there, Mark 11.15. Lu. 19.45 and overthrow the Tables, and the Seats; and this we have related by every of the other three Evangelists.

And this we have followed by Christ, with the greatest measure of severity that ever was forced from him in any other of his actions that we read of in all the story of his life: Alas, he was in his owne nature, Isa. 53.11 the Prophets Sheep before the Shearers, the Prophets and the Evangelists Sheep, and Lamb too, Act. 8.32. for the slaughter, dumb, Joh. 1.29 and not opening his mouth the Agnus Dei, not of Rome, but of the World; meeknesse was his Vertue, his exemplary Vertue, that he professed to teach, and set up his Bill for it, Matth. 11. Discite à me, quia mitis; Come to me, to my School, v. 28. If you will learn meeknesse Learn it of me, v. 29. He came not to condemn the World, but that, through him, it might be saved, John 3.17. He was the Instrument of Gods mercy, the Peace-Maker, Matt. 5.9. ( blessed Title for ever) the means of reconcilement betwixt God and the World; and yet when it comes to the point of Honour for his Fathers House, then this Merci­full and Peaceable, this mediating and reconciling Man, first falls upon him­selfe, the very Peace-Maker, and after, upon his Fathers Enemies; then Zelus Domus tuae comedit me, Psal. 69.9. The [Page 128]zeal of thine House hath eaten me up; It hath even-eaten, and it hath eaten even-Me; and us Moses, to whom God himselfe gives testimony of being en­dowed with this Vertue of Christ's, that he was very meek, above all the men that were upon the face of the Earth, Num. 12.3. yet, when Gods worship was at stake, I, lost, and the Golden Calfe had got the better, and won upon the peoples hearts, this meek man had anger for such a sin, anger that waxed hot against the Idol and Idolaters, Exod. 32.19. So this meeker than Moses, even than, when he comes according to that Pre­diction of the Prophet, Ecce! Rex tuus venit Metis, Behold! thy King commeth unto thee meek, Zach. 9.9. yet, when he sees the place appointed for his Fathers worship converted to a petty Staple of Merchandize, Gods House of Prayer made a Den of Thieves, this was a height of Sin, to beget an anger in him who was made of mildnesse; and though he spared the Adulteresse; Jo. 8.11. pardoned an Extortioner, Luk. 19.9 Zachaeus; Ate with Publi­cans and sinners; Mat. 9.11 Luk. 5.27 Lu. 23.42 received one Publican into his Service, and one Thiefe into his favour, nay, into his very Paradise; [Page 129]suffered the Betrayer of him to dip in the dish with him; bear with great sins, Mat. 26.23. and great Sinners in other kindes, yet, If any man defile the Temple of God, him shall God destroy 1 Cor. 3.17. he is more mov'd, expresses greater indignation at this, than in all his life besides; He seems here to forget his Office of Mercy which he came for (save that severity against Sacriledge, is favour to the Saints, in rescuing the place of their solemn As­semblies from rude and covetous pro­phanenesse) and to be wholly set upon execution of judgment.

And yet, though he may seem so; and that he be sore displeased, he does not shut up his loving kindnesse in his sore dis­pleasure, Psal. 77.9. It is not altogether S. James his Judicium sine Misericordia, 2.13. Judgment without Mercy: No, Deus diligit Misericordiam & Judicium, Psal. 33.5. He loveth Mercy and Judgment, the earth is full of his goodnesse: They who will sing unto the Lord as David did, their Song must be of Mercy and Judgment, as David's was, Psal. 101.1. even in this Judgment he remembers Mer­cy: Hab. 3.2. He will not proceed in Justice against them, without a mercifull inclining to [Page 130]give them a reason of this his proceed­ing; and though it be true which we finde in Job, Who will (that is, who dare? who may?) say unto the Lord, what dost thou? or, why dost thou so? Job 9.12. yet there he denies them not, that as they see and feel what he does, so they should know, why he does it; let them hear his sweet words (for Reason is sweet, Ps. 142.6. even to him that smarts under it, and Religion much more, even when it threats and shoots, to have us returne to it, that we may get within the arrow, and without the danger) & they cannot mislike his deeds, not this, the very shar­pest of them; to stay them from murmur­ing, he prevents with a scriptum est, so that if they will not know him to be the Lord, Ex. 16.8. they shall not choose but know, if they do murmur, their murmuring is against the Lord; he preaches to them out of two of the Prophets; he shews them the right use and end, why, and for which that house was founded out of Isaias 56.7. My House shall be called the house of Prayer, and the intolerable abuse they had put upon it, out of Jer. 7.11. ye have made it a Den of Thieves. The first part of his Sermon is our Text.

In which we have, first, Divisio. this House laid claim to on God's behalfe, as his pos­session, My House, saies God. Secondly, we have the Owner of this House (who best may do it) disposing of it to a cer­tain use; it must be a House of Prayer: And thirdly, we have the Note of distin­ction, to know it from all other Houses of Prayer; the difference which God, in his Heraldry, sets upon the Elder House; it shall not only be so, but, [...], by way of excellence, It shall he called. Domus Mea, Domus Orationis vocabitur, My House shall be called the House of Prayer. Part. 1

My House. Here's first, Domus Mea. this House ap­propriated to God, and his claim put in for his speciall title to it: Three com­mon titles there are that God has to all things in the world, by which they be­come properly all his, his by all right: 1. the unquestionable right of Creation; Man, that cannot make a hair, not one hair white, or black, Matth. 5.36. and if not so small a thing, not so much as one, nothing; God is the Maker of all. 2. of Possession, he holds them all: Man is but Tenant at will of the very breath he draws; it is God, saies David, who [Page 132]when he will, taketh away his breath, Psal. 104.29. God is Proprietary of him, and of all he has. 3. of Preservation; he saves them all, God, who giveth, taketh away too, Job 1.21. that chapter proves it by Induction, by enumeration of almost every thing, Servants, Oxen, and Asses, 15. Sheep, 16. Camels, 17. House too, and children also, v. 19. and those of both sorts, sons and daughters, as it is expresly set downe, v. 13. Man cannot preserve himself, and his cattel much lesse; 'tis thou O God, that preservest Man and Beast, Psal. 36.6. 'Tis thou, O God, that saist, the Cattel upon a thousand hills are mine, at my keeping, Psal. 50.10. And thus to be his, is all no more than the very refe­rence to nature in the things, and to the God of nature, as the Fashioner, the Owner, and Conserver of them.

But yet, in particular, besides Nature, some other respect there is in God, as it were in a civil and moral kind, whereby things become yet further his; His by Ʋse, when he specially employes them, and makes them his Instruments, above the ordinary course of nature; and then are they his by claim and challenge too, he calls them so, and himselfe sets his [Page 133]own name upon them; and that's here in this Domus mea, the subject of my Text, Gods own demand of it in parti­cular to himselfe as his own, and for his more peculiar service, Domus mea, it's my House.

The whole earth is the Lords, and all that therein is, Psal. 24.1. And therefore he might freely give it as a Patrimony to his Son, the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession, Psal. 2.8. yet the earth he hath given too to the children of men, Psal. 115.16. But still the Land of Canaan is Terra mea, my Land, 2 Chron. 7.20. the rest (as himselfe speaks of his Vineyard) he sets out, and lets out to Husbandmen at large, Mat. 21.33. Ps. 44.12. (though he does not encrease his wealth by their price) who Hold of him in Capite, in Christ their Head; but that he holds to himselfe as his own Demeans; All the Beasts of the Forrest are mine, Psal. 50.10. But the Beasts that were offered up in sa­crifice to him, they were his, after a more special manner; the Cattel upon a thousand hills mine, and the City upon seven hills mine, mine by my general right I have to them, and belonging to my ge­nerall care and providence over them; but cattle for burnt offerings mine by [Page 134]divine institution, and Cities wherein I am truly worship'd mine, as partaking of my special love and favour; all Israel, my People, but more peculiarly, the Tribe of Levi mine; Israel mine Inheritance, Deut. 9.26. but to the Priests and Levites, the Lord himself is their Inheritance, Deut. 18.2. O ye, the whole House of Israel, trust in the Lord, he is their Helper and Defender, Psal. 115.9. He shall blesse the House of Israel; but shall he not also (and more especially) blesse the House of Aaron, v. 12. All her Houses have need of succour and from him; In her Palaces God is well known for a sure Refuge, Psal. 48.2. And of every House, 'tis truly said, Exc [...]pt the Lord build the House, their labour is but lost that build it, Psal. 127.1. But Solomon shall build a House for my Name, saies God, 1 Chron. 22.10. His Name is great in all Israel, Psal. 76.1. but here it dwels; Go to my Palace in Shilo, ubi habitavit Nomen meum a principio, Jer. 7.12. where my Name hath dwelt from the beginning.

God, assoon as he had a People of his Own, whom he honoured above all the world with that denomination; when he had sever'd them from the Re­fuse, [Page 135]those of Aegypt, though they were yet in the vast Wildernesse, and had, themselves no seeled habitation, yet, there, a moveable Tabernacle God would have them make for him; and, though it be after called, The Tabernacle of the Congr-gation, Exod. 28.43. ('twas theirs to serve God in) yet it has an earlier Name, which must not be forgotten; Let them make me a Sanctuary, (a place to dwell in) that I may dwell amongst them, Exod. 25.8. a House of his own, when he had a People of his own. Some go fur­ther, and observe, that Mountains and Groves served instead of this, and for this same purpose, in the time of the Patriarchs, that Abraham planted a Grove, and called there on the Name of the Lord, the everlasting God, Gen. 21.33. and that he had his Mountain in the land of Moria, whereon to appear before God with sacrifice, Gen. 22.2. and his Altar a­bout Bethel, Gen. 13.4. and there he called on the Name of the Lord: That the first sons of Adam, Cain and Abel had whe­ther to bring their Sacrifices, Gen. 4.3, 4. I, and that their Father (so soon) even during the space of his small continu­ance in Paradise, had where to present [Page 136]himselfe before the Lord, Gen. 3.8. But of that in the Wildernesse, Exod. 25 we are sure they had their charge and direction from God for the framing of it; him­selfe drew the modell for his own House, being himselfe Architect-Generall (in the most general and inclusive sence of the word) for all the Princes and peo­ple too of the earth, and for the very God of them all, in appointing a place, (though a place loco-motive) and point­ing out the pattern of it for his Worship: And against the time that they should come to settle themselves in the Land which he promised to their Fathers, he gives them a strict command concern­ing that House which should be built, Ʋnto the place which the Lord your God shall choose to put his name there, even unto his habitation shall ye seek, and thither shall you come, Deut. 12.5.

The honour of building this House David did much desire to have, and So­lomon did much rejoice to have: And after the overthrow of this, for the sins of the people, when the second was erected, though 'twas view'd with great griefe, to see how short it came of the glory of the former, Ezra 3.12 yet the loud shouts [Page 137]for joy were equall to the voice of weeping, Ezra 3.13. And, being finished, Ezr. 6.16 'twas dedicated into Gods possession with a generall joy.

Besides which Temple, there were, both in other parts of the Land, and e­ven in Jerusalem, by processe of time, no small number of Synagogues (Houses of God all) for men to resort unto for his publick service; whose necessarinesse to­gether with the Temple our Saviour himselfe, and after him the Apostles, confirmed with their frequent pre­sence.

So we see all along till Christs time, God had his House, his Houses, besides the Temple, his main Mansion-house; which Christ here reduc'd to the purity of its first Institution.

And presently after his time, though Temples, such as now, were not present­ly erected for the exercise of Christian Religion; it has been neverthelesse, not unreasonably conceived, out of those the Apostles words, Have ye not houses to eat and drink in, or dispise ye the Church of God? 1 Cor. 11.22. that he there teach­eth what difference should be made be­twixt House and House; what is fit for [Page 138]the dwelling place of God, and what for mans habitation: At the first, po­verty was a hindrance to them, they could not provide Houses (such as they would for God and his worship; but as soon as he blessed them with favour in the eyes of Princes, and blessed Princes with his favour of Christianity, they were not well till they had expressed their thankfulnesse that way; Good Constantine presently finisht one for him at Jerusalem, and gave it up into his hands with very solemne performance, the greatest part of the Bishops of Chri­stendome meeting at it, each one setting forth that action to his power in Orati­ons and Sermons, and the sacrifice of Prayer for the peace of the world, and safety of the Church, and the Empe­rours and his Childrens good, Euseb. De Vita Con­stantini, lib. 4. c. 4. &c. Athanasius, in his Apology to Constantius, reports the like of a Bishop of Alexandria, in a work of the like magnificence: And after them the worke went up apace throughout the coasts of Christendome, and they that hewed timber out of the thick trees, were known to bring it to an excellent work, Psal. 74.5.

By this means God has given us a plentiful pledge of his presence amongst us, even ad satietatem usque: woe worth the while; we have enjoyed his mercy in this kinde, as the Israelites in Quails, till we slight it. They were furious mad-brains, not to be remembred but with disdain (for, to be pitied would but have hardened them, and made them set their faces, not toward, but against the Temple) who, because these Houses had whilome, been stained with Idolatry, would have burned them to cleanse them, would have had them pull'd down and levell'd with the ground; who yet, I wis, had they some Papists dwelling-Houses, fair and stately bequeath'd to them, would not fall a demolishing of them, though Saints had been prayd to in them more than once every day; no, Man will not (he is of a more thri­ving Religion) none but God shall be the loser: And we are still too near their sick humor in the mean esteem we have of them; we are afraid to place any ho­linesse in a Temple, more than in a School-house, or a Barne: This is the House of the Lord God, would we have said so, with Solomon, 1 Chron. 22.1. of [Page 140]that Temple, had we seen it? If we would, yet that was but a Figure of Christ the Lamb, the true Temple, Rev. 21.22. and is gone; and we have learned now of Stephen (for we dare not Saint him, we must not allow him holy) that God dwels not now in Houses made with hands, Act. 7.48. (Houses say they, for Tem­ples they are loath to call them, (though Stephen did so) even then when they deny them to be Gods) Solomons people might have taken the like hint from his mouth, for their neglect of that holy place, Behold, the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain thee, how much lesse this House which I have builded, 1 King 8.27. or, if that was modesty in him, they might have caught hold of an excuse from Gods owne mouth; Thus saith the Lord, Isa. 66.1. Heaven is my Throne and Earth is my Footstool; where is the House that ye shall build unto me? And yet for all this, Solomon was not afraid to say, nor need we scruple to learn of him, I have surely built thee an House to dwell in, a setled place for thee to abide in for ever, 1 Kings 8.13. Let them take, and stand to Calvins exposition of their misunder­stood Text; that indeed God is not lockt [Page 141]up in these Temples, nor fastned to the Pillars of them, as those whom they made their gods in the Church of Rome; his presence is not bounded here, nor his favour so cemented within these walls, that it no where else shines upon his people; but yet, here he is in a more extraordinary manner, in a larger and fuller manifestation of his presence than elsewhere: Our blessed Redeemer is every where; but where a few are ga­thered together in his name, (and this is the place for that) He will be in the midst of them, Mat. 18.20. more near to them by the special gifts and graces of his Holy Spirit, which he will pour out amongst them. Jacob was not such a Novice in Religion at seventy yeares of age, but that he knew God was present every where; notwithstanding when God vouchsafed him the Vision of himselfe, and his holy Angels, and that he had a more speciall enjoying of his presence in that place than elsewhere; O then, How dreadfull is this place! this is Bethel; this is none other but the House of God, and the Gate of Heaven; surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware, Gen. 28.17.

And we are not aware oft times, that the Lord is in this place; if we were, we would come into it as into his presence; we would demean our selves in it as be­fore God; Solomon should not lose the labour of his good Councel, we would take heed to our feet (those of our body too, and especially to our affections, the feet of our soul) when we entered into the House of God, Eccles. 5.1. Ecclesiam, ut Coelum, Nilus. ade; I have much esteemed that direction of an Ancient, and wish it in­graven upon the Porch, that when we bring our bodies into the Church, we would (by the remembrance of the Church, whose House it is, of the very Doore, the very Porch of it) send our Souls, our couversations up to Heaven; 'tis the Gate of Heaven, Jacob tels us, the very Door of it is so; and 'tis holy ground, God tels us where he shews him­selfe, Exod. 3 5. and they, who put off the shooes from their feet, who lay aside all earthly respects and cogitations, and have their souls fitted for the entertain­ing the tender of of his gracious presence which he makes unto them in this place, they feele themselves, for the time, in Heaven, and the heavenly joy that [Page 143]thereby they conceive, does thenceforth fasten such an impression in their mindes, as bre [...]ds an awfull respect in them, and nourishes a reverent affection to­wards [...] very place, wherein they were par [...]aker of so great a bene­fit.

O how the Priests of Dagon, and all t [...] men of A [...]ded shame us in their z [...]! Their false Idol-God, fell in his [...]o [...]e, before the Ark of the Lord, with his [...] and hands upon the Threshold; and a [...]er that, so religious are their thoug [...] to the place once touch'd by any part of him? of It (so far from a God it was, that it was not a He) They never tread on the Threshold of Dagon in Ashdod unto this day, 1 Sam. 5.5. How far [...]esse effect [...]oes a far greater and bet­ter cause work with us in the Houses of our true God? we are so afraid to pro­phane them, o [...] [...] one side, with super­stition and Idolatry and false worship, that we dash upon that other impious prophanation of neglecting, contemn­ing them, giving occasion to men that make a mock at Religion (men as false as Dagon was a false god) to account no more of them than as of an Out-room [Page 144]about their house, Dum vitant stulti vi­tia, Horat. in contraria currunt: Is this the Ho­liness which becommeth Gods House for e­ver? Psa. 93.5. I have seene (and my soule has grieved to see it) a pissing-Channel built up against a Church-wall; Jer. 5.30. A wonderfull and horrible thing is committed in the land: posuerunt offendicula, Jer. 7.30. they have set their abominations in my House which is called by my Name to pollute it. If we dare tell Rome of their too much superstition in this kinde, to stop our mouth, they hit us in the teeth with our cold and carelesse regard; when they tell us of Pater Noster's building many Churches, and how much a do we have to mend up one, notwithstanding the great charge, and devout care of one of our Fathers, we shame and sorrow to hear, Et doci potuisse, Horat. & non potuisse refelli. Sure God sees we use it not well, not this, and other his Houses as we should; else he would warm all our hearts with King David's affection, Quam dilecta Tabernacula! O how amiable, how beloved are thy dwellings! Psal. 84.1. The zeal of Gods House, would, if not eat us, yet so affect us, that we would love the habita­tation of it, decorem Domus tuae, in the [Page 145]Latine, the beauty, the comelinesse, the decency of thine House, and the place where thine honour dwelleth, Psal. 26.8.

I am too long in this first part, I hope I am; and that, verbum sapienti, one word to the wisest in this Auditory, in this Nation, in this World, would be enough; nor dare I now spend time in bootlesse complaint, that so many Hou­ses of God in our Land are dis-inherited, like those of decay'd Gentry, without Revenues, that his servants in them, being defrauded of their Masters allow­ance, do live on Alms, small, grudg'd Alms; that especially in the most po­pulous places, where the Tradesman a­bounds, the Minister suffers want: A­rise, O God, maintain thine own cause, Ps. 74.23. Maintaine those thy poore painfull Ser­vants who lack maintenance; Mat. 5.14 as thou hast call'd them the light of the World, so do thou pour Oyle into their Lamps; pour thy grace into the hearts of thy people, to give earthly Oyle to those from whom they expect heavenly light; not to account it a great thing if they, who sow unto them spirituall things, reap their carnall things, 1 Cor. 9.11. thus to buy the Gospel, is a law­full, [Page 146]a charitable, a holy Simony; holy, though a Heathen hath said it, [...].

One word more from Domus mea; That this is Gods House: I would fain have you tell them, who will not come into Gods House to hear it from me; that they wrong the right Owner of it, by giving his possession to so many other Deities, for no lesse than Deities they make their Saints, Martial. when they invoke them; Deos, qui colit, ille facit: and they do no lesse than give them posses­sion, when they inshrine them in so ma­ny Temples built for, and dedicated to God alone: I cry them mercy; per­haps the blessed Virgin amongst them, and the severall Apostles, have more Churches consecrated them, than God, the Holy Trinity, or Christ under his sundry Titles; We have our Churches called by those severall names too, for distinction sake, but not, thereby, super­stitiously meaning, either that those pla­ces which are denominated of Angels and Saints, should serve for the worship of so glorious Creatures, or else those glorified creatures, for defence, Prote­ction, and patronage of such places; a [Page 147]thing which the Ancients do utterly dis­claim; The Nations, saies S. Austin, e­rected Temples to their gods; we to our Martyrs, not Temples, as unto Gods, but memorials, as unto dead men, whose spirits with God are still living; and therefore, besides that speciall name of distinction, by which we know one of these Houses from another, we keep still the general name, in which all these Houses agree together [...], Kirke, the Lords House; thereby acknowledg­ing, that as it is his, and by him appoin­ted for Prayer, so we must not give a­way the right of his Title to this House, by giving away the glory of his Worship in this House, either to Saint or Angel: Gloriam alteri non dabo; that which is the House of Prayer is my House; my House is that, 'tis the House of Prayer.

That's the second thing in order to be taken into our consideration, the use of this House; what the first Founder in­tended, when he gave order for the building of it; to what purpose it should be imployed, it must be a House of Prayer.

Under the title of Prayer we under­stand, Part. 2. Domus O­rationis. and comprehend the whole wor­ship [Page 148]of God, which he had commanded them to performe unto him in his Tem­ple; Divers were their Sacrifices and Ceremonies in joyn'd by God; but the Prophet would, in one word, instruct them to what scope all these must be re­ferred, Joh. 4.24 even to that worship, which is in spirit, to that spiritual sacrifice of Prayer: Just as in the 50. Psalm, God does dis­claim their Sacrifices & burnt offerings, and reduces all the services of piety to those two parts of Prayer, Thanksgiving, and Invocation; He will no Bullock out of their house, nor He-Goats out of their folds, v. 9. But offer unto God thanksgiving, v. 14. And call upon him in the day of trouble, v. 15. And therefore, when the Prophet Jeremy would (to aggravate the fault of their misbehaviour in this House) set down their proper description of it from the end of its institution, 'tis this of Prayer; What? this House become a den of Robbers? In qua invocatum est Nomen meum in oculis vestris? this House in which my Name is call'd upon? Jer. 7.11. Will not that respect check you? And he who was likeliest to know what was Gods intention in it, who was instructed with the whole care of building it; when he [Page 149]had finish'd that goodly structure, and was to solemnize the dedication of it before the Elders of Israel, and all the heads of the Tribes, the chiefe of the Fathers, yea and all the men of Israel, with sacrifices of sheep and Oxen, that could not be told, nor num­bred for multitude, 1 Kings 8. That they might not think there was no other, nor no excellenter imployment for that place than that offering of bodily, I, and bruit-bodily sacrifice, when he comes to the blessing, the chief part of that Exer­cise, then all and some is, That God will bear the Prayer that shall be made in that place: Harken to the supplication of thy Servant, and of thy People, when they shall PRAY in this place, and hear thou in hea­ven thy dwelling place, v. 30. And so all along to the end of his blessing: What prayer and supplication soever be made by a­ny man, or by all thy people Israel, which shall know every man the plague of his own heart, and spread forth his hands in this place, then hear thou in Heaven, and for­give, and do, &c. almost in every verse of twenty in that Chapter.

We heard what Solomon told God be­fore, that he had built him an House to [Page 150]dwell in: and God had told Solomon be­fore that, by Gods owne Prophet, and his own Son, that there he would dwell, Psal. 132. Here will I dwell: Why? for I have a delight therein. Vers. 13. 'Tis meet in deed, that the House he dwels in should be so dress'd up, so fitted to his minde, that he may desire it, delight in it: Now what is that Furniture of this House, that delights him? He that built it to him, can best direct us to furnish it for him; The Prayer of the upright is his de­light, saies Solomon, Prov. 15.8. Templa propter Sacrificia; Sacrifice of Beasts, before Christ, was the most usuall, and most notable external Rite; and sacri­fice of Prayer, since Christ has more than the same preheminence; This fils with Incense the golden Vials in the hands of the four and twenty Elders before the throne in Heaven, Rev. 5.8. And if with this Incense of Prayer, we mingle the Myrrh of our tears, and sighs, and groan­ings, we not only sacrifice our Prayers, but we mortifie, we kill, we offer up our selves; that's the acceptable sacrifice, if we believe the Apostle, Rom. 12.1.

'Tis then a House of Prayer, but not of Prayer onely; we exclude not Preach­ing, [Page 151]as some hot spirits, who are all for Preaching, would allow no room for Prayer in this House of Prayer; or, if for Prayer also, most of all for the Pul­pit-prayer, the very place helping to mis-perswade the People, that the Pray­er is to be valued, not for its owne, but for the Sermon sake; I wish that all such (who are content to be exceeding brief in their Desk-prayers, and as large as may be elsewhere) would heartily con­sider, whether we are not to come to, and go off from the very Word of God, with more reverence and devotion and supplication, than either the Notes, or the effusions of Man upon Gods Word; does not this seeme to magnifie a short verse when it is call'd a Text, above whole Psalms and Chapters? Nay, let them give me leave to wish again, that they would heartily consider, whether such a practice, as it is begun with an esteeming of their own private wisdoms beyond that of the Church, is not con­tinued also with a secret preferring of their own Meditations above that which they meditate upon, the Word of God; I would not wrong them in what they do; nay, I would rather rectifie them, [Page 152]that they should not do amisse, so much as to a suspition; and therefore I will, as excusingly as I may, say of them, Surely this sin is got into that high place, and they are not aware: If it be not so, why is it, that by degrees there is lesse & lesse of Gods Word read amongst them, shorter praying before and after Gods own Word, and instead of more of both these, more and longer of their owne Preaching: How would they have cried it up, if God had here christened this place Concionatorium, a House of Preach­ing, instead of Oratorium, a House of Prayer! We give unto each his place, and acknowledge, that in these two Ghostly exercises, we have verified unto us that continual intercourse of Angels, betwixt the throne of God in Heaven, and his Church here militant on earth; that the assembling of Gods people to hear, is the receiving of Angels descen­ded from above; that their meeting to pray, is the sending of Angels upwards; his heavenly inspirations, and our holy desires are as so many Angels, ascending and descending in intercourse and com­merce betwixt God and man: Preach­ing brings us to know, that God is our [Page 153]supream Truth, as praying testifies, that we acknowledge him our soveraign good: As concerning the people, we exhort, with David, to worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness, Psal. 96.9. So, with Solomon also, When thou goest to the House of God, appropinqua ut audias, Eccl. 5.1. be ready to hear: And concerning our selves, as we say with Samuel, God forbid that we should sin against the Lord, and cease to pray for you, 1 Sam. 12.23. So, with S. Paul, Vae mihi, si non Evangeliza­vero 1 Cor. 9.16. a wo befall us if we preach not the Gospel. We lessen not the necessi­ty which is laid upon us to teach, and upon you to learn, Gods holy will out of his Word; yet without prejudice to that, or any other duties out of this place, we would have no man think he is lesse bound to present himselfe to God in the Church, though in the Church, there be then no other Service than the Common-Prayer, which the more Com­mon, by being common to more, by more praying together, the better. There, we are to be have our selves as in the sight of God, and his holy Angels, the one sitting there to here, and the other attending to further our Suits; [Page 154]for so the gravest of the Ancient Fathers were seriously perswaded, Chryost. Hom. 15. ad Heb. & 24. in Act. and do oft times plainly teach, that the House of Prayer is a Court beautified with the presence of Celestial powers; that there we pray, and praise God, having his Angels intermingled, as our Associates; with reference whereunto the Apostle requires so great care to be had of De­cency, for the Angels sake, 1 Cor. 11.16. They have their golden Censers, and in them they offer up the sweet odours of our Prayers; Incensa multa de oratio­nibus sanctorum, saies the Vulgate Edi­tion, Rev. 8.3. O let them not in vaine come hither with their Censers prepar'd, and either not finde us here, or finde us empty of any thing worthy their offring up to God; when they see us in these places full of neglect, or contempt, or drowsinesse, or vain wandring thoughts, or idle unnecessary talk instead of Pray­er, they leave the place and us, offend­ed with that steam and ill scent that ri­ses from us, where they might justly expect the sweet odours of our Prayers, grieved to see us commit Idolatry, and sacrifice the calves of our lips, the watch­fulnesse of our eyes, the firstlings of our [Page 155]thoughts, and our whole minde also to him who has stoln away our hearts, and set them upon some service of his, instead of Gods.

Nolite facere, saies Christ, at his first cleansing of the Temple, do not ye make my Fathers House a House of Merchandise; do not Ye make it so; as who should say, if such it be, 'tis of your making such: God ne'r intended it for such imperti­nent service; a House of spirituall Mer­chandise he hath made it, of traffique for our souls, where, in exchange for our Petitions, we shall have His favours, not a Ladies glance, or glove, or Ribband favors; and Hers, do some of ye call such as these in this place? yea, I'le tell ye what, and whose they are; they are Baits, and Satans; 'tis he who thus loosly makes this very place his Chappel to some, which to other stricter some, is indeed Gods House, where he sells his Mercies, his Grace, his Glory, his Hea­ven, himselfe unto them, at that cheap rate, of their faithfull, and humble, and earnest supplications.

I would faine make as much haste as the time does; and that. I may do so, Last part. must presently throw my selfe upon the [Page 156]last part, Vocabitur that it shall not only be, but it shall be knowne to be; it shall have Gods speciall Note of difference upon it, it shall be called the House of Prayer: As Prayer, in it selfe, is the proper ver­tue of Christians, the Christian vertue, that by which God does distinguish his People from all the people of the world; the rest, who live on the earth, are earthly-minded, have the hearts and the thoughts of them fix'd that way, groveling downwards; but Gods Chil­dren, a new selected kind of men, who have their life from Heaven, and expect all their happinesse, every good and perfect gift from above; Jam. 1.17 Phil. 3.20 they have their conver­sation also in Heaven, their eyes, and hands and hearts heav'd up, by dayly and hearty Prayer: As Prayer does sever them from all other People, so this title, that it must be called so, does distinguish Gods House of Prayer, from all other Houses, in which we ought also to pray to God.

Every servant of his, whom he hath made Master of a House, ought (for the better testifying of his dutifull affecti­on) to have his heavenly Exercise so frequent in His House, as to make it to [Page 157]be (in an especial, though not in an only sense) a House of Paayer, and that's the next way to make it Gods House, and so to be called too; to be called so by Man, who remembers from whom he had it, Except the Lord build the House, (build and bestow it too) Man must dwell without doors, sub Deo; Coelo Tegitur, qui non habet Aedes, Lucan. and there­fore, by a principall designation, to make it a House of Prayer for the Fami­ly thereof, Gal. 6.10. for the whole Houshold of the faithfull, of Thanksgiving-Prayer for the House it selfe; but still to remember, and zealously to frequent that other House, which God hath made and called The House of Prayer, 1 Cor. 11.22. Jo. 6.35. 1 Cor. 10.16. a House not to eat and to drink in, unlesse the bread of life, and the Cup of blessing, a House onely for Divine Worship. Many Sons did God vouchsafe to acknowledge, as a dop­ted in Christ, John 1.12. but of Christ himselfe, his natural Son, the Son of his Love, that holy thing which shall be born of thee, saies the Angel to the Virgin Mary, shall be called the Son of God, Luk. 1.35. Many were the Prophets of the Lord at sundry times to declare his wil to his peo­ple, but John Baptist Christs forerunner, a [Page 158]Prophet? Mat. 11.9 yea, I say unto you, and more than a Prophet, thou shalt be called the Prophet of the Highest, Luk. 1.76. Many Houses in which it is lawfull, I, necessary to pray; but of this, saies God, and his Christ, It shall be CALLED the House of Prayer: Nay, not only the House of Gods Ser­vant, but his Field also, his High-way, his Street, his Prison may be a House of Prayer; the Dunghill shall serve Job, from whence to send up this sacrifice; and the Whales belly can Jonah use for a Church; Jon. 2.1. the Lions den for Daniel; and the Furnace for the three Children, do not hinder their requests from ascending to the Mercy-seat; God heard Moses from the midst of the Sea; Isa. 38.2. and Ezekias from his Bed; Jeremy from the Mire; and the Thiefe from the Cross, Lu. 23.42 when they called upon him: And therefore St. Paul willeth, that men pray every where, 1 Tim. 2.8. every where in their private Devotions; no place is a bar to one so holily affected, for the lifting up his soul, and pouring out his heart to God in his secret Meditations; for, surely the true worship of God is, to him in it selfe, acceptable, who not so much re­spects the place where, as the affection [Page 159]wherewith he is served: Yet, in regard of us, especially then, when we are to put up our publick requests to God; when we are to joyn our forces toge­ther, Jon. 3.5. as the Prince and people of Nineveh did, like a main Army of supplicants, that it shall not be in the power of God, (because God will not use his adverse power then) to withstand us, then sure there is great vertue, great force and efficacy in the very Majesty and holiness of the place where Gods Name is call'd upon, if for nothing else, yet for that it serveth as a sensible help to stir up devotion, and in that respect, no doubt, bettereth even our best and holiest acti­ons in this kinde.

Wherefore else is this called the Holy place? Levit. 16.3. but by way of excel­lence, in respect of all other? And why does S. Hierom translate it, Psal. 78.69. not Sanctum, but Sanctuarium? a place which is not onely made holy by conse­cration, but that makes others holy, by God in it? For, Churches are not only made publick by the solemn dedi­cation of them, but that right also, which otherwise, their Founders might have in them, is thereby surrendered [Page 160]up to God, and he made owner of them; why the separate, and holy and religious use notified in the dedication of them, to which they shall be put a part from other secular and prophane usa­ges? why, but that it may be a dumb Instructer of piety, when ever we be­hold a Temple? what heart is there will passe by a Church-wall with the same carnall inconsideration of God and Heaven, as he walkes a street in which he beholds no such reverend prospect? for this cause also at the con­secration as well of the Tabernacle, Exo. 40. as of the Temple, 1 King. 8. it pleas'd the Almighty to give a manifest signe, that he took possession of both; in the one chapter, The Cloud covered the Tent of the Congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle, v. 34. In the other, a cloud filled the House of the Lord, v. 10. A Cloud, and Glory too, and that of the Lord himselfe, filled the Lords own House, v. 11. God made account his House was sufficiently born witnesse to already for all ages, and that he needed not such another Cloud for the place of Christian worship, Mat. 12.8 but only to bear re­cord to the Lord of their Sabbath, Mat. 17.5.

The sensible increase of holinesse from a sensible-holy object; this it was made David value at so high a rate, the liber­ty of worshipping God in his House and amongst his people; Blessed are they who dwell, where thou dost, in thine owne House, Psal. 84.4. One day in thy Courts is better than a thousand otherwhere, v. 10. My soul longeth, yea, and faint [...]th for the Courts of the Lord, v. 2. 'twas his Ʋnum petii, his one, his great suit to God, that he might dwell in the House of the Lord, that he might there behold the beauty of the Lord, and visit his HOLY TEMPLE, Ps. 27.4. This favour did Hezekias obtain at Gods hands, by his prayers and tears; when he had heard his prayers, and seen his tears, and was resolved to heal him, he does expresse the greatnesse of his fa­vour to him, by adding his singular be­nefit to his health, (whereby the more to inhealthen his soul too) On the third day thou shalt go up unto the House of the Lord, 2 Kings 20.5.

Justly therefore may the Churches censure of Excommunication, whereby men are, as Cain was, Gen. 4.16 cast out of that presence of God, which is enjoyed in holy Assemblies, it may justly be reputed [Page 162]so great a punishment, 1 Cor. 5.5 1 Tim. 1.20. as a giving over to Satan; it is like a mans being out-law'd in matters of civil government; Outlaw­ry is defined by the Lawyers, to be the loss or deprivation of the benefit belong­ing to a subject: i.e. of the Kings prote­ction and the Realm; Such is the nature of this censure rightly executed; it cuts a man off from the priviledges of a Chri­stian, I would they were even cut off which trouble you, Gal. 5.12. he is out of Gods protection for the time, and reckoned as a Stranger and Forreigner, as a Heathen or a Publican, saies our Saviour, Mat. 18.17.

What they lose who are deprived of this liberty, and what we have by it who enjoy it, vouchsafe to hear in a word.

Here is first, Gods more especiall and gracious presence; When shall I come to appear before the presence of God, was Da­vids moan? Psal. 42.2. when in his ba­nishment under Saul or Absalom he was denied access to this presence-Cham­ber of his great King; and to be de­prived of that comfort, which must needs come to a mans soule by such a presence, David knew what a losse it was, when he [Page 163]cried in the agony of his soul, upon the sight of his great sin, Psal. 51. O cast me not away from thy presence, v. 11. But con­sider withall further, what be the parti­cular blessings we there enjoy through Gods mercy, Blessings, of that worth in S. Peters account, that the Angels do de­sire even to stoop down to behold, 1 Pet. 1.12. there is the Ministery of reconciliation, 2 Co. 5.18 Act. 14.27 Rom. 10.14. Eph. 1.10 Psa. 50.5 Eph. 4.12 Lu. 10.17 18. 1 Co. 10.4 Act. 20.27. Rom. 4.11. the precious Treasure of Gods holy Word, the Word preach'd, which is the door of faith, the Ordinance of God, by which his Saints are gathered, and the body of Christ edified; the powerfull means by which Satan is made to fall from Heaven like lightning, & his strongest holds beaten down; the Key of knowledge, by which is opened to us the whole coun­sel of God; there be the Sacraments, Seals of righteousness which is by faith; both of them, as Glasses, by which we see more clearly into the mystery of our Redemption, and as Monuments before our eyes of Gods exceeding love to us in Christ Jesus; and besides all these, there is the exercise of Common-Prayer and joint praising, in a more peculiar respect whereto, it is termed, called, the House of Prayer; Prayer, and praise too, saies [Page 164]the Psalmist, wayteth for God in Sions Praise waiteth for thee, O thou that hearest prayer, Psal. 65.1, 2. It cannot be small comfort to enjoy, (are such consolations of God, Vid. Hier. in Ps. 31. p. 306. ad finem. as these, small with any, Job 15.11.) or small losse to be deprived of the fruition of these things. By the want of publick Prayer (to omit the other in­conveniencies) a man is destitute of that quickening which the children of God receive, by being provok'd, edified, and inflam'd with one anothers forwardness, and hath lesse interest in that blessing, which the joynt Prayers of more of the Faithfull, with a united force, do bring down in a full measure upon those by whom they are offer'd up and presented to the Throne of Grace: And however a man in his own reason may imagine he does well enough with the private use of Prayer, though he enjoy not the publick; yet, this alone, that there is no such promise of blessing to the single, as to the concurrent, (nay, none at all to the private, if the publick be not wait­ed upon and desired) this cuts off all so­latary contentment and grounded sa­tisfaction therein, and confirms the wo still upon those, Eccl. 4.10 who not onely are alone, [Page 165]but will be sequestred from the presence of God in the holy Assemblies.

Alas! we do not generally under­stand our owne happinesse herein, and as Christ said to the Woman of Samaria, John 4.10. we do not know the gift of God, else with what cheerfulnesse would men call upon themselves, and out-call the Bell! Come, let us go to the Mountain of the Lord, to the House of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us his wayes, Isa. 2.3. How glad would they be, with David, when any should say unto them, we will go into the House of the Lord? Psal. 122.1. Ʋp, let us go and pray to the Lord of Hosts; I will go also, Zach. 8.21. Thus would it be, if we had Davids heart.

Poore, wofull, miserable men they in the mean while, who do, even wilfully, excommunicate and banish themselves from Gods House; so as do not onely some Separatists, who (as if our Church, because perhaps she wants some beauty, and is certainly not altogether so faire here, as she shall be in Heaven, had therefore utterly lost her face) flie from our Congregations, as if they were so many Cages of unclean Birds, or else Market-Cages of men more uncleane [Page 166]than they and our Recusants, who, be­cause they see not their Breaden and Wooden gods amongst us, refuse all socie­ty with us in holy things; I must onely say to the former, Can we not be holy at all, unlesse we are more holy than all, holy beyond the state of militarinesse? Nulla fides pietasque viris, Lucan. qui castra se­quuntur, they have no faith, no holiness, who delight in war in a secular war; Ps. 68.30. and their holinesse is but imperfect, their faith but a growing faith, who are ban­ded in a spirituall warfare: and to the latter, Can we not be holy, unlesse we are unholy too? not serve God, unless him onely, Mat. 4.10 Mat. 6.24 2 King. 5.18. we do not serve? unlesse we serve Mammon as well as God? unlesse we bow in the House of Rimmon, as well as in Gods House? unlesse we bow to the God of the King of Syria, as well as to Elisha's God, the God of Israel? unlesse we have our severall sorts of holy waters, those of Abana and Pharpar, Vers. 12. as well as holy Baptismal water, that one of Jor­dan? But too many others there are who will have no House, and in a man­ner no God too, who caring only for their purses, that they may not pay for their abscence, and, a little for their [Page 167]reputation, that they may not be thought plain Atheists, do otherwise al­most wholly cast themselves out of the presence of God, in their carnall lazi­nesse, (they cannot rise time enough) and loose prophanenesse (they have somewhat else to do than to take care for Heaven) passing over many of these dayes, wherein the service of God in these Houses can have no attendance from them; they have no love to the preaching of the Word, no respect nor appetite to the Sacraments, no delight to the duties of Invocation and Prayer.

Not in this place; that's the point we stand upon from this Text; further we cannot judge: They will say they pray at home; perhaps they do so: but shall God appoint a House for the Prayer of the Church? and shall not the Church in gratitude as well as obedience, appoint Prayer for the House of God? Because no man hath hitherto been so impious, as plainly & directly to condemn Pray­er; therefore the best stratagem Satan has (who knows his Kingdome to be no way more shaken, than by the publick devout Prayers of Gods Church, in Gods Church) is, by traducing the dignity of [Page 168]the place ( yea, Gen. 3.1. has God said, that his House is a House of Prayer?) and the necessity of the number, to bring both of them into contempt, and so to slack the fervency of mens devotion towards them, he has made some, in this case, wiser in their generation than he could hope to make either David, Luk. 16.8 who, not­withstanding the one of his suggestions, would still worship God in the beauty of ho­linesse, Psal. 96.9. or S. Paul, who should be likely to prevail with God as much as one; and yet he, not yielding to that other temptation, thought it much more both for Gods glory, and his own good, if Prayers might be made, and thanks given in his behalfe, by a number of men, by many persons, 2 Cor. 1.11.

O the true judgement of the Ancient Church in this point, Lib. de Ponit. delivered to us by the Fathers, by S. Ambrose, Multi mini­mi, dum congregantur sicut nives sunt mag­ni & multorum preces impossibile est conteri, ones single prayer, like one feather of Snow, soon melts away, whereas many of both these littles grow to much, so much that God cannot slight the Pray­ers which come from the consent of his many: Apolog. 1.39. by Tertullian, we come by troops [Page 169]to the place of Assembly, that being banded as it were together, we may be supplicants enow to besiege God with our Prayers; by more than these: but I am weary of this cavil, and your trouble. The Lord of his infinite mercy give us such a due respect to these publick De­votions, that he may not in his wrath, Psal. 95. ult. Ps. 51.11. take away both the place of his Rest, and his holy Spirit from us, that he may not leave us to our owne Styes, to our owne Spirits, to nothing else but a bare pre­tence to his Holy Ghost, Psal. 106.48. and let all the most deluded of his People say, Amen.

PAlatum ejus dulcissimum, saith the Spouse, of Christ, Cant. 5.16. As we have well translated it, His mouth is most sweet; and that most sweet, because of that sweet doctrine, those sweet instructions, exhortations, conso­lations, those verba vitae aeternae acknow­ledged by Simon Peter, Jo. 6.68. those [Page 172] words of eternal life that distil from it. Jud. 14.14. And if ever Sampsons Riddle were a truth that out of the strong came sweet, then nevermore, than at this time, when this strong Lion of the Tribe of Judah was to be rent and torn, Rev. 5.5. when all his strength was for a while, to be covered in weak­ness, when as St. Paul speaks, 2 Cor. 13.4. He was to be Crucified through weakness when he was to leave his sorrowful fa­mily, to go from them, his last farewel to them, the last song of this spotlesse swan, the Prologue to that direful Ca­tastrophe, his death, the preparing his poor Disciples against it, is most full of sweet, to allay, to temper the bitterness of their sorrow for it.

A miserable fear, a bitter sorrow was lately wrought in them; by that intima­tion of his departure in the end of the foregoing Chapter, that modicum vobis­cum, V. 33. and non potestis venire, that he had but a little while to be with them, and (worse then so) whether he goes they can­not yet come, and (worse than that too) during that time of his absence from them, they should be sifted by Satan as wheat, Luk. 22.31. they should be con­tinually subject to the violence of his [Page 173]persecuting instruments, and (that which makes all this so much worse) they, who had hitherto liv'd in peace, and in a competency of Estate, while they enjoyed his presence, should now, from that, fall into the mallice of the world; they, whose memory he had newly rubd'd with the contemplation of their former setled estate, When I sent you without purse, or scrip, or shooes, lacked ye any thing? nothing, Lu. 22.35. Now to them, he that hath a purse let him take it, he shall have need of it, and he that hath no sword let him sell his garment rather than not buy one, v. 36. A severe a strict Lent, this was to them against his Passion; because I have said these things un­to you, Tristitia implevit cor vestrum, Jo. 16.6. sorrow hath fill'd your heart; A strange nature of the little-great heart of man; so wide, so large it is, of such immence infinite extent for the receit of joy; it so opens it self for that, that all the glad ti­dings which the world can afford are not able to fill it; for that it still cryes give, give, till it findes that greatest joy of which it is not capable, that joy which cannot come into his heart, because his heart cannot contain it, but his heart [Page 174]and self must enter into it, intra in gau­dium domini tui, Mat. 25.21. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord, thy Lord and thy God, 1 Joh. 3.20. who is, major corde, sayes S. John, God is greater then thy heart, but poure a drop or two of grief into it, 'tis soon fill'd, 'tis soon contracted into such a streight, the poor worm, that gladly stretches forth it self to the sun-shine of the spring, does not more draw in his little body upon the suddain tread of a careless hoof, then man shrinks in his heart at the report of losse, or fear of smart; that as a thick cloud makes our sun to set at noon, so troubles our heart and presseth it to so narrow a context, that it may be soon said to us, tristitia in plevit cor, sorrow hath soon fill'd our hearts.

And when can this Chapter begin more seasonably, then upon a cor contri­tum and tribulatum, upon a troubled heart? when his Disciples hearts are so confounded with grief and fear, in the last Chapter, 'tis high time to begin this, and to begin it with this cordial Non turbetur cor vestrum, Vers. 1. let not your heart be troubled, the ingredients to this cordial are two, Faith and Hope; Faith in the [Page 175]first verse, ye believe in God, believe also in me; there must be a faith to lay hold on God in general, and a faith to appre­hend Christ also as God, to believe him to be God of the substance of his Father, infinite Almighty, and so able to over­come this death; that though he goes from them, yet he goes not one step on­ly to his death, but another step to his resurrection, and a third step to his as­sension; and then comes in hope v. 2. a fit ingredient too for hearts-ease, but for which (we say in our Proverb) the heart would break, hope, whose object is some future good to our selves, though hard, yet possible, so the Schoole de­fines it, possible, though not by our selves, yet by the help of this Christ, whom we believe in as God; the future good is the many mansions in his Fathers house, and the possibility of our attaining them by his help is in my Text, Vado parare, I go to prepare a place for you.

So then, as to his former speeches, it suited well, because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath fill'd your heart; so to this, and that which fol­lowes, it will as well agree, which our Saviour has in the beginning of the 16. [Page 176]chapter, these things have I spoken to you, [...], that ye should not be offended; for that there was a Contrista­bimini, ye shall be sorrowfull, and for this a Tristitia vestra vertitur in gaudium, Joh. 16.20. but your sorrow shall be turned into joy: His vado, which before was such cause of griefe to them, express'd by Simon Peters lamentable expostulation as well as question, Domine, quo vadis? Lord, Jo. 13.36 whither? and, Lord, why? to what end goest thou from us? that it may now refresh them with consolation, has an Expedit annex'd to it, John 16.7. It is expedient for you that I go away; expe­dient, that so ye may receive the Holy Ghost, to lead you into all truth: If I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you: And therefore is that, John. 7.39. The Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified: Expe­dient, for the weaning them from their Milk, that so he might' begin to feed them with stronger meat, for the with­drawing them from that bodily know­ledge they had of him, and that carnall affection they bare to him, to a more sublime knowledge of him as God, so as [Page 177] to know him is eternal life, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent, John 17.3. and to a more spirituall love of him, to love God, as S. John speaks, 1 John 4.20. whom they see not, that his absence from their sight might be an exercise of their faith, that they might be blessed in not seeing, and yet believing, as Christ speaks to Thomas, Joh. 20.29. for, 'tis not he that seeth, but, he that believeth on the Son of God hath everlasting life, John 3.36. and, Sicarni carnaliter adhaeseritis, S. Austin tels us, Capaces spiritus non eritis, we cannot receive the Holy Ghost, so long as we persist to know Christ, and to love him according to the flesh onely; And lastly, expedient for this cause in my Text, to which both the former tend, [...], to prepare a place for you.

So that these are (shortly) the two Parts of our Text; Divisio. The Tristitia imple­vit cor vestrum, the sorrow which the Disciples of Christ conceiv'd in their hearts, upon notice of his departure from them, in the first word, Vado, I go: And secondly, the Non conturbetur cor vestrum, the removing that sorrow from their hearts, by informing them of [Page 178]the expediency of his departure in re­gard of themselves, in the other words, Parare vobis locum, To prepare a place for you: First, he brings his Disciples and us into the Mount Calvary; there we see him going, departing from us by his death, Vado, I go; then he brings us into the Mount Thabor, where he shews himselfe unto us in his glory; He pre­pares a place for us, where we shall par­take of his glory, I go to prepare a place for you.

I go: Vado. Here it would be considered, how Christ is said to go. And, for the better understanding it, it will be need­full to answer Simon Peters question, to calm his expostulation; Lord, whither? Lord, why? to what end dost thou go? And for that we have some light in this verse where my Text lies; I go to prepare a place; and that place is among those many Manfions in his Fathers House, In my Fathers House are many Mansions: And that thither he goes, it is most evi­dent, by his owne cleare answer to the question, John 16.5. I go my way to him that sent me: or, if we be ignorant who that is, he gives it us in plainer termes yet, John 14.12. Vado ad Patrem, I go to my Father.

Now this brings in the difficulty that would be cleared, Quomodo. how Christ can be said to go to his Father, God to God; I will not take up time with that common objection, that God is every where, and fills all places, Heaven and Earth full of his glory; the answer is obvious; but for this particular, how Christ should go to the Father, who has told us before, that the Father is in him, and he in the Father, John 10.38. and that the Father, who dwelleth in him, he doth the works, John 14.10. how can he be said to go to him? shal we think that thought of blasphemy, that the Father was now gone from him? had forsaken him? No, Non derelinques, Ps. 16.10. thou shalt not leave my soul when it is in Hell, not his Godhead only, which he had from the Father, but also his soul, and that humane nature which he took from the Virgin, Ego & Pater unum, John 10.30. I and my Father are one: The Father is with that, in that also; and yet for all this, relinquo mundum, & vado ad Patrem, saies Christ, I leave the World, and go unto the Father: Jo. 16.28. I leaven the World, and go; See, if this phrase will help any thing for our satisfaction in this doubt! we indeed do then go to [Page 180]God, when we leave the World; that is, Col. 3.2. when we cease to set our affections on things which are below, when we give over to love the World, 1 Jo. 2.15 and the things that are in the World; when by strength of faith we unintangle our selves from the Bird­lime, the baits and allurements of it; when, 2 Pet. 2.20. as speaks S. Peter, we get to escape the pollutions of the world; when having our mindes enlightned by Faith, and our hearts encouraged with Hope, and our brests inflamed with divine Love, we begin to know God, to contemplate his Goodnesse, to delight in his Testimonies, to trust in the Lord God, then we go to him, and we cleave fast to him, andhae­rere bonum we crie with David, It is good for me to hold me fast by God: Ps. 73.28. Thus we leave the World, and go to the Father: But Christ does not so, for he was never intangled, never polluted; he was that holy, Innocent, unpolluted; he had ne­ver set his affections on things below, that, by a change of them, he should go to the Father.

But yet we too, go one step nearer than this; by this we but begin to go to God, we do not perfectly arrive at our jour­neys end; we but come to the threshold, [Page 181]the outward Court, Gods House; we then enter into his Privy Chamber, Lu. 22.30 to eat and drink in his Kingdome, when after this life, instead of our faith, we shall obtain the light of God; instead of our Hope, we shall come into possession; in­stead of our weak imperfect charity here, we shall be most safe in that degree of perfect love which casteth out all fear, 1 Jo. 4.18 when in the light of his glory we shall heare himselfe speaking to our souls, Euge, bone serve, Well done, Matt. 25.21. good and faithfull servant, enter into the joy of thy Lord.

But neither does this assoil the doubt; nor can Christs going to the Father hold any proportion with this second step of ours; he, in the very beginning of his Conception in the womb, was thus for­ward; that blessed Soule of his, at the very instant of being created by God, and joyn'd unto the Word, had in it the fulnesse of all Wisdome, Grace, Glory, eternal beatitude, and therefore could not, in this respect, to speak properly, pronounce his Vado ad Patrem, I go unto the Father.

Proceed we then, yet, one step further in Mans journey, and see, if by that we can finde out the way that Christ [Page 182]went; for, all this while we have drawn but one part of Man, his Soul, out of the world, and reduc'd it to its native home: But at the last day, when this Mortal body of ours shall put on immorta­lity, 1 Cor. 15 53. this corruptible flesh shall put on in­corruption; when it shall also be freed from those necessities, with which it is incumbred in this world, when it shall have no need to be refresh'd with meat and drink and sleep, to be warm'd with cloathes and fire, or cool'd with gentle blasts, or defended with house and har­bor, then shall we go quite out of the world, finish the utmost of our journey, and the whole man come to the end of it, to his God in Heaven.

This, beloved, is the third and last step, which Christ himselfe had not yet gone, and must go; his Body was not yet in Heaven: This was it he meant, when he said of himselfe, I came forth from the Father, and am come into the World; Again, I leave the World, and go unto my Father, John 16.28. What means he by the first, I came from my Father into the World? why I tooke upon me this humane body, subject to hunger and thirst, and cold and heat, and troubles [Page 183]and sorrows, and smart and death, such as the rest of mens bodies in this world, which are abased under the yoak and burden of mortality and corruption; what means he by the last, I leave the world, and go to my Father? Not that he leaves this humane body which he had once taken, and remaines onely that which before he was, God with the Fa­ther; but, I cast off all ensigns, all bad­ges and tokens of mortality and corrup­tibility; I will still weare this humane body, but now by me made a glorified body, which shall still live; but free from the bondage of worldly griefes, of worldly necessities; in rest, in tranqui­lity, in joy, in glory: These are the words (saies Christ to his Disciples after his resurrection, when his Body was glo­rified) These are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you, Luke 24.46. What thinke we of this, while I was with you? Was not Christ now with them when he spake thus unto them? while I was with you, while I was as you are in the world, subject to those mise­ries which the world imposeth, and in need of those supplies which the world affordeth; now I am not with you, I [Page 184]am with the Father, I live now even in respect of my body, that same life which the father lives; free from all trouble, from all change: and thus may Christ truly be said to go unto the Father.

And why should this then breed so much grief to his Disciples? why should their hearts be so fill'd with sorrow for this? what should need our Saviours non turbetur cor vestrum? any counsel, or comfort, where there is seeming so little cause of discontent: one would think they should rejoyce rather; and so Christ tells them plainly, If ye lov'd me, ye would rejoyce, because I said I goe unto the Father, v. 28. but poor souls, they were so wounded with the vado, 't should seem they minded not the rest, so heart-strick­en with the sad news of his going from them, that they ne're thought of, to whom; their love was such to him, that they would not go from him to any, Domine ad quem ibimus? when Jesus asked them, will ye also go away Jo. 6.68. Lord to whom shall we go? and their weaknesse did haply expect a reciprocal affection in Christ suitable to their ignorant de­sires, Lord to whom shal we go from thee? [Page 185]Lord to whom wilt thou go, from us?

And in truth, beloved, let not the strongest amongst us, blame this distracti­on in their opprest hearts; 'tis a word from Christs mouth, I go, enough to fetch blood, not sighs alone, from the greatest heart of the best resolved Chri­stian: Behold thy King cometh! Mat. 21.5. O Hosanna for that, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest, Mat. 21.9. his comming was the expecta­tion of Israel, I, and expectatio gentium, Gen. 49. the expectation of the world; Ver. 10. Veniat dilectus, Cant. 4.6. let my Beloved come into his Garden; and, veni dilecte mi, 7.11. Come my Beloved, let us go forth into the field, 'tis rogans eum, ut veniret, Luke 7.3. the Centurion sent the Elder to him, be­seeching him that they would come; the most comfortable word that ever flew to the ears of any Christian, ecce venio, be­hold I come quickly; then, Rev. 22.12. Vers. 20. merces mea me­cum, there is a reward to be lookt for, even so, come Lord Jesus; hast thee unto us O Lord; come, though thou comest to visit our offences with thy rod, Psa. 89.32 Psa. 23.4. and our sins with scourges; Thy rod and thy staff shall comfort us; come, though thou comest to [Page 186]chasten us, to rebuke us, onely rebuke us not in thine anger, Psa. 6.1. neither chasten us in thy heavy displeasure, onely in anger, in dis­pleasure come not Lord, that's a com­ing against us, not to us, but excepting that, come any way; this word venio of Christ I come, to his servants, should be as welcome as his venite will be at the last day, Mat. 25.34. come ye blessed of my Father, inhe­rit the Kingdome; but, go from us, spoken to Christ, what man in his right wits can be so cruel to himself, as to send such a word from his heart to his lips? who but the besotted earthly-minded Gergesenes can beseech him to depart out of their coasts? yes, the Devils can too, and they are both as two rare examples, recorded together in the same passage of story at the latter end of the eighth chapter of St. Matthew, they can cry quid nobis tibi, Jesu? what have we to doe with thee, Jesus thou Son of God? Indeed I read it once from St Peter, in his weak­ness, in the beginning of his conversion, Depart from me, Ʋers. 8. Lord, for I am a sinful man, Lu. 5. But the Lord knew it was a speech of modest humility in him, when upon the first sight of his sins, he appre­hended [Page 187]Christ as an angry Judge accor­ding to the desert of them, and was therefore so desirous afterward to re­deem that fault, when he knew him bet­ter, with his loathnesse to leave him, with his readiness to go with him, both into prison and to death, Lu. 22.13. our discede to Christ now, our putting him from us, should be as irksome to every of his servants, as his discedite shall be, at the last day, to his enemies, Matt. 25.41 depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire. And as our discede to him cannot be spoken but with horror, so his vado, alone to us, his going from us cannot be heard but with extremity of grief, and therefore in one place where 'tis set down alone, it has a vae with it to the Author of it, Fi­lius hominis vadit, ve autem, Matt. 24.26. the Son of Man goeth, but woe to that wretch, woe to that man, saith Christ, by whom he is betrayed; and therefore too, in so many other places where himself must give notice of it to his Disciples, he knew it would be so heavy news to them, if alone deliver'd, yet he sel­dome, throughout all the Gospels, utters the word, without another [Page 188]word of comfort to poyze with it in the ballance, vado I go, Jo. 14.12. that dejects them; but presently, ad patrem, I goe to the Father, that to raise them up again; si abiero, if I depart, Jo. 16.7. there's the weight of grief; but present­ly, mittam eum, I will send the Comforter unto you, there's the ease of consolation: ith' next verse to my Text, if I go, that confounds them with sorrow; but pre­sently, I will come again, and receive you unto my self, that to chear them with un­speakable joy; and so here in my Text too, I go, enough to break their hearts; but presently, parare locum, I go to pre­pare a place for you; 2 Cor. 4.9. enough to make a dead man live; so, though they be cast down, they are not destroyed, for 'tis the Lord that killeth, 1 Sam. 2.6. and maketh alive, he bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up again. I go,

To prepare a place for you. Parare locum. And this second general part of the Text will im­ploy our Meditations about these three particulars: 1. The Place. 2. The Preparation of it. And 3. The parties for whom 'tis prepar'd: Vobis, for you.

For the first, 'tis a Place; Locus. one place for all; Locum vobis, A place for you: And, in the beginning of this same verse, 'tis Mansiones Multae, Many Mansions: And this has caused some Haesitancy, and variety of opinion among learned Writers, concerning the difference, or equality of the joy and glory which shall be in the Saints of God in Heaven; ei­ther opinion makes so fair a shew, that, if in it selfe it be not probable enough, 'tis free from danger: I quarrel not those who see not with my eyes, and therefore say, that neither of them is clearly and convincingly deducible out of any place of holy Scripture, and therefore I quarrel them not, because 'tis no way determined by the Church; I love not breaches in things which are not of absolute necessity to salvation, nor perfectly fundamental; Ʋnusquisque suo sensu abundet (though his sensus be not mine) without breach of Cha­rity.

One side does urge those severall pla­ces from the Word of God, Psal. 62. Matt. 17. Rom. 2. Rev. 22. &c. where 'tis said, that God shall reward every man, how? according to his works; and from the inequality of our works on earth, [Page 190]infer a greater or lesse degree of reward in Heaven. The other side will under­stand that saying generally; in regard of glory to some, and condemnation to others, To them who by patient continu­ance in well doing, seek for glory, eternal life; and to them who obey not the truth, Indig­nation and wrath, Rom. 2.7. The Sheep on the right hand, to the Kingdome prepared; and the Goats on the left hand, to everlast­ing fire: 'Tis every mans reward accor­ding to his works, say they; for, there is Merces iniquitatis too, 2 Pet. 2.15. The wages of unrighteousnesse; and that stipen­dium peccati, that wages of sin is death, Rom. 6.27. And again, they answer these places by opposing another for them­selves, that in Mat. 20. the men that had differently laboured in the Vinyard, which was a representation of Gods Church upon earth, some had born the burden and heat of the day, some wrought but one hour; yet, to all the same propor­tion of reward; they received every man a penny, v. 10. and the housholder justi­fies himself against their murmuring, that he had done them no wrong, v. 13. again, they on that one side, argue for the contrary, there are degrees of pu­nishment [Page 191]for the damned in Hell; It shall be easier for them of Tyre und Sidon, Matt. 11. v. 21, 22, 23. than for them of Chorazin and Bethsaida; and for the men of Sodom, than for them of Capernaum, ergo, several measures of joy, for the Saints in Heaven: they on the other side, acknowledge that argu­ment probable, but not necessary; 'tis a way of reasoning, that does not alwaies hold; a man may kill himself but not do the contrary, not revive himself a­gain: besides, they are differenc'd in suffering, because they draw it upon themselves, according to the several de­merit of their offences here, so do not the elect their glory, that's onely mise­rentis Dei; 'tis the gift of God, eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord, Rom. 6.23. and then they oppose that of our Savi­our, Mat. 13.43. fulgebunt justi sicut Sol, the Righteous shall shine as the Sun in the kingdome of their Father; all the righte­ous there as the Sun, as well as they, that turn many unto righteousness as the starrs, Dan. 12.3 and there is no greater splen­dor to be compar'd to, than that of the Sun, and whosoever comes there, he must be righteous, he must exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, [Page 192]Mat. 5.20. many more places are brought on either side, & afterward by the other, I might spend the time of a Sermon, in but relating them, Luk. 20.36. Mat. 25. we shall be like unto An­gels; and they differ in their orders, the five Talents well imployed, were rewar­ded more then the two, he that soweth sparingly, 2 Cor. 9 6. shall reap sparingly; and divers more, so for the other, as Christ promi­sed to his Disciples, they should sit upon twelve Thrones judging the twelve Tribes, Mat. 19.28. So S. Paul would have the Corinthians know, that the Saints shall judge the world, 1 Cor. 6.2. and that we shall judge Angels, v. 3. that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be com­pared with the glory that shall be revealed in us, Rom. 8.18. And if God, in giving glory, respects not any worth in our works, why (say they) should one mans work exceed another in the reward? Much more is contended by either par­ty: But he that subscribes to neithers, when he has heard all they have hitherto said, without clearer evidence from the Word of God, may be a good Christian still, and notwithstanding this unfunda­mental incertainty, in the right way to Heaven, either to a different Mansion, if [Page 193]he so believe, or to an equal place, if he so surmise, which Christ is gone up to prepare for him: I not deny the proba­bility; more than that, the Verisimili­tude; more than that too, to him that will have more than that, the assurance of an unequal measure of joyes and glo­ry; that in coelestibus, Ephes. 1.3. in hea­venly places; these many Mansions may be, are different Mansions: onely, I do not peremptorily conclude every other man under my own faith; in this case, and in such like to this, the Apostles humble Rule is mine, I am content to have faith to my selfe before God, Rom. 14.22. and not to measure another man by my Bushel (in things indifferent, for want of ample Revelation, or large capacity, there is no standard-faith) and not to call his weights, diverse from mine, either deceitfull or abomination, Prov. 11.1. because it does not exactly jump with my owne Ballance; and therefore with submission I believe, that every man may be perswaded in his own minde (as S. Paul speaks in another point of difference as unnecessary to salvation, Rom. 14.5.) and that without hazard of losing this [Page 194]place prepar'd for him: Once for all; I am sure, upon good ground, that there is a place prepared for Gods Saints; and the meanest that is plac'd there, shall in that place receive a full reward, 2 Jo. 8. What would we more? that God shall be all in all, 1 Cor. 15.28. that in his pre­sence is the fulnesse of joy, and they who are plac'd on his right hand shall have pleasures for evermore, Psal. 16.11.

I shall have no time at all to speak of that, which all time, and all the tongues and pens of the most ready Writers, im­ployed all that time, can never expresse the excellency and dignity of this place; so high seated, which we may, in some sort, measure by the stars, each of which being so huge a bulk, does therefore on­ly seem so small to us, because it is so high above us: But this Holy City, far a­bove them, so large in extent, that we can never name the height and large­nesse of it: S. Johns twelve thousand fur­longs, Rev. 21. and his hundred forty four cubits, by the Angels measure, was but of that City which descended out of Heaven, a small Epitome of this. All the several Dominions of all the Princes [Page 195]in the world, put all together, are not so much as one star there; and yet how numberlesse to us are they! and what another infinite number of them could it contain? O Israel, how great is the House of God! and how large is the place of his possession! Great, and hath no end, high, and unmeasurable, Baruch 3.24. we may a little guesse, and but guesse, at the surpassing beauty, and magnificent structure of it, by comparison with this place where we now dwell, this Stabulum Pecudum, as one cals it, this Ox-stall in respect, this place of exile, this Vale of mi­series and fears; yet this hath that great Work-master builded of so famous a frame; such a goodly aspect to our sense has the large Theatre of this World, the roofe of Heaven over us, so fairly adorned, gilded, enamel'd; the Pave­ment of earth under us, so spread with Natures Carpets, of all colours pleasing to the eye; such spacious Seas, such sweet Springs, and gliding Rivers; the Mountains so stately without pride; the Valleyes so low without envy; the Woods so pleasant with their shade; the Fields and Meadows so delightsome and [Page 196]profitable; at this Spring time chiefly, when the clearnesse of the Sky, and the warmth of the Air, helps our old Gran­dam Earth to spin and weave her Tape­stry, and all Trees to spread forth their Hangings: not to speak of the erected Townes, the sumptuous Cities, and majestical Palaces, the artificiall workes of mens hands; if there be a meer Worldling that has mistaken his way, and is by chance got to Church, such a description as this is enough to make him mistake his Heaven too, and take this World for it, to make him wonder why Christ should ever go from such a Paradise of pleasure to prepare any other place; why he is so taken with the shew of these, that he could be content to set up his rest here, to conclude with Peter, Bonum est esse hic: these delights do so possesse his heart, that he sticks in the gay mire of them, lifts not up his thoughts above them: But, know, O thou man of this World, all this which is wealthy enough to be thy Heaven, is so poor and con­temptible for Christs sake, that it is [Page 197]scarce worthy to be the Christians Dung-hill; however, Phil. 3.8. one of the best of them, S. Paul will at best bestow no better a name upon it; we must learne by these, to meditate what far better cost, and more unmatch­able worke our God and Father has bestowed upon his owne heavenly habitation, the Palace of the great King, the New Jerusalem; the out­side of it we can see, and that we see bedeckt with so many thousands of thousands of glittering spangles, of rich Gems; the inside of it, the bles­sed Saints onely and Angels in Heaven behold with God, and we cannot im­magine the beauty of it; Eye hath not seen, nor eare heard, neither hath entred into the heart of man to conceive, the things that God hath prepared there for them that love him, 1 Cor. 2.9. 'Tis but Humanum loquor, that which mans Reason is capable of, the description which S. John gives of it, the Jasper and pure gold, those precious stones, the Saphire, and Emerald, and Sardo­nix, and Sardius, and Chrysolite, Rev. 21. O quam dilecta Tabernacula! O how [Page 198]amiable are thy Dwellings, thou Lord of hosts! Psal. 84.1. Blessed are they that dwell in thy House, they will be alway [...]s praising thee, v. 4.

And shall we, beloved, who know there is such a place there, whose ex­cellency we cannot know here, shall we still so over-please our selves with the Gawds of this lower World, as to keep back our Conversation from being in Heaven? Shall we spend our time in striving for place here? Matth. 23.6. for the uppermost Rooms at Feasts, and the cheefe Sears in Synagogues? till we shuffle our selves out of this place, this uppermost room, and great Feast, the Supper of the Lamb, the Supper of the great God? Rev. 19.9, 17. This King­dome, if that will inflame our hearts with a longing for it; I appoint unto you a Kingdome, Luke 22.29. not an earthly Kingdome, such as the Mother of Ze­bedees children dream'd of, Matth. 20. No, his Kingdome is not of this World, v. 20, 21. but, such as his Father had appointed unto him, Joh. 18.36. so are all they who are wash'd from their sins in his bloud, made Kings unto God, and [Page 199]to his Father, Rev. 1.5. not a tempo­rary, but an everlasting Kingdome: of his Kingdome, saies Daniel, shall be no end, Dan. 4.3. The word Mansion here intimates the durance, the perpetuity of it, a manendo, no fear, no danger of the losse of it, of trouble in it; such a glorious Kingdom, saies Solomon, and such a beautifull crowne is there to be received at the Lords hands, Wisd. 5.16. And if this will not, I know not what outward expression can make us pray heartily every day, Adveniat Regnum tuum, adveniat nobis; Let thy Kingdome come to us, that holy passionate desire which David had to enter into these courts of the Lord, Psal. 84.2. This place which Christ is gone to prepare for us.

The Preparation of the place is another branch of this second Generall part, Vado pa­rare. Vado parare; he goes upon an Errand, for all his Disciples, to prepare this place for them.

But if this be all the occasion to draw Christ from them, one would think he should not need to make such haste for them; for, if we remember, this place needs not now preparing; 'twas pre­pared [Page 200]long since; What saies Christ to the Guests of it? Mat. 25.34. Come ye blessed, inherit the Kingdom, Paratum vo­bis à constitutione mundi, prepared for you; when? even from the beginning of the world: Surely Man was borne to no lesse than a Kingdome from the begin­ing: In the very begining see it; Let us make Man, Gen. 1.26. saies God, in our Image, after our likenesse: what then? why pre­sently in the next words, Let them have dominion over the Fish of the Sea, and over the Fowle of the Air, and over all the Cattell, and over all the Earth: A Dominion, a Kingdome, at the first, in the beginning; and a large one too, but not permanent; he held it but a while; Man being in honour, had no understanding, Psal. 49.12. to hold what God had given him, to abide by it; he was soon dispossest by his early sin, soon vanquish'd out of this Dominion: And therefore well was it with him, that God had prepared another, a better for him; this place, this Kingdome, Paratum à Constitutione mundi, from which he could not fall.

But how will this hold? Paratum, and Vado parare? why, as S. Austin (Tract. 68. in Jo.) quotes that saying from the Prophet, Deus fecit quae fu­tura sunt: 'Tis no unusual phrase in holy Scripture, when they speake of Gods actions which are infinite, eter­nall as himselfe, to whom all things are continually present, which are, and which were, and which are to come, Creavi, & faciam illud, Isa. 46.11. So Tremelius translates it, as well as the Vulgat edition, I have cre­ated, and I will make it; just as in these two Texts, I have prepared a place for you, and I will prepare it: There is the like expression in the end of the two and twentieth Psalm, The Heaven shall declare his righteous­nesse unto a People that shall be borne, whom the Lord hath made: He hath already made them, and yet they shall be borne, in their succession, to the end of the World; as David does acknowledge of himselfe, Psal. 139. that, before he was borne, All his members were written in Gods Book, when as yet there was none of them.

So this place was prepared, as Christ is said to be slain, ab origine mundi, from the foundation of the World; and yet he was slain after that, by the promise of God, The Serpent shall bruise his heele, Gen. 3.15. He was slain in the faith of the Father, before his incarnation; he was slain in the sacri­fices of the Law, which were this Lamb sacramentally; he was slain in his severall members, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? Act. 9.4. He was slain in Abel; The death of innocent Abel, sayes Lyra, was a Figure of the death of this Lamb; And yet after all this, he was still to be slain upon the Crosse. So, this place was pre­pared before, in Gods eternall preor­dination; and yet Christ goes now to prepare it by his Death, and anon, by his Resurrection; and after that, by his Ascension into Heaven: By his Death he purchaseth it, and payes the great price of our Redemption, and opens the gates of Heaven to us: The High Priest went into the Sanctum Sanctorum, not without blood; and this High Priest of ours by his owne blood [Page 203]must enter into the Holy place, and so obtain eternall redemption for us, Hebr. 9.12. so having conquered Death by his Resurrection, he then ascends to take possession of this Place for us; He is, Praecursor pro nobis, Hebr. 6. The forerunner is for us entred, even Jesus, vers. 20. Initiavit nobis viam Novam, in the tenth of that Epistle; That New, that hitherto untrodden, way hath he consecrated for us, and is entred into Hea­ven it selfe, now to appear in the presence of God for us, Heb. 9.24. That's the last particular.

Vobis, for you, God, whatsoever he doth he doth it for some end; a wise man is not lightly so little master of his actions, but he still propounds to him­self some end in every of them: now be­cause the end intended must still be the most perfect good, and all meaner ends must conduce to that last end, that best good, and because God, in himself, is summum bonum, the greatest good that can be, and so could not possibly ad­vance his actions to any end better than himself, therefore, for himself, hath he done all things whatsoever he hath [Page 204]done, universa propter semetipsum, Prov. 16.4. All things were created by him, and for him, Col. 1.16. for himself chiefly, but not for himself wholly: the first thing that he did for us, 'twas for him­selfe too, for his owne glory; his owne glory is that finis ultimus, the maine, the utmost, the principal end of all his actions, and should be of ours; his Election and Predestination of us be­fore the faundation of the world; 'twas ad laudem gloriae, To the praise of the glory of his grace, Eph. 1.12. But there is a subordinate end too, by which his actions tend to the last end; and that's the benefit of that creature, which he made after his own image, the good of man: as in the first creation, whatsoe­ver he made, was for man; and there­fore he made the world and all the other creatures before he made man, that they might be ready for his use; so, in that great work of re-creation, of redemption, all that he did, was for man, the very birth of his son (to be­gin there) for that the song of the hea­venly hoast was, Gloria in excelsis Deo, Glory to God in the highest; but not a [Page 205]minims rest in it, before they come to Peace on earth, and good will towards men, Luke 2.14. there's the Prophet's, natus nobis he was born for us Isa. 9.6. his whole life, it was chiefly, honoro patrem, Jo. 8.49. I seek not my own glory, v. 50. but I honour my Father; upon the man born blind, John 9. ver. 4. He must work the works of him that sent him, and 'twas ver. 3. That the works of God should be made manifest in him; and Lazarus sickness, Jo. 11. that he might die and be raised again by him, 'twas pro gloria Dei, v. 4. for the glory of God; but both these acti­ons of his, were for both their good too; and so was all the rest of his life spent in that imployment, the good of man, that one verse, Mat. 4.23. is a short true abstract of it all, He went about, teaching, and preaching, and healing all manner of sickness, and all manner of disease among the people, there's his vixit nobis, he lived for us too: come to his death, he humbled himself, and became obedient, there was the glory of his Father in his obedience, he humbled himself to death, that death should have no more dominion over him, Ro. 6.9. that that last enemy, death might [Page 206]be destroyed, 1 Cor. 15.26. that, through death, he might destroy death, and him that had the power of death, that is, the Divel, Heb. 2.14. that death might be swallowed up in victory, ver. 54. There's his victory, his glory; but, pro nobis too, Christ died for us, Rom. 5.8. by his death are we recon­ciled to God, ver. 10. there is his mortuus pro nobis: his resurrection next, Christ was raised up from the dead, Rom. 6.4. [...], Paraeus. some translate it, (and they may well, the word bears it home, In or propter gloriam) for the glory of the Father; and, propter nostrum justifi­cationem, Rom. 4.25. He was delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification; ther's his resurrexit pro no­bis: Lastly his ascension, that was all glorious, when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, Eph. 4.8. having spoyled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them, Col. 1 Pet. 3.22. 2.15. He is gone to sit on the right hand of his Father, in height of majesty and glory, and all this, as all else for us, to appeare in the presence of God for us, Heb. 9.24. to make intercession for us, Heb. 7.25. To prepare a place for us, here in [Page 207]my Text, here ascendit pro nobis, all for us, in every of his actions, an expedit vobis; and particularly in this, it is ex­pedient for you, that I go, Jo. 16.7. for, I go to prepare a place for you.

For you, who never cared to prepare a place for me, when in great humility I came to visit you, as he might object truely, if he would enter into judgment with us; a poor provision here made for him, a stable his presence-cham­ber, and a Cratch his Cradle, from thence driven into Egypt, and from place to place, I, to no place; This Son of Man, had not where to lay his hend, Mat. 8. ver. 20. Master where dwellest thou? Jo. 1. ver. 38. his Disciples might well ask, 'twas a hard question, that, no place prepared for him here, even when he was to eat the Passeover, not a place prepared for that; and those few poor Disciples, that would have prepared one for him, could not tell where without his help; prepare it! I, with all the heart we have; but, where wilt thou that we prepare for thee to eat the Passeover? Mat. 26.17. Thus, we rewarded him evil for good, to the great discomfort of his soul, [Page 208]and sinful shame of ours, Psal. 35.12. yet he, we see here, loves his enemies, blesses them that curse him, does good to them that hate him, and would have us do so, in imitation of him, that, as he is, we may be, the children of our Father which is in Heaven, Mat. 5.44.

We have but small time for the large extent of this Vobis, Verbum sapienti. sat. who they be that are contained in it; of this, one word will suffice to all that are wise unto salvation: Not a man here but would gladly be one of those You's, and therefore would be loth to give it so narrow a Scantling, as to reach only to those few Disciples to whom Christ then spake it; That other Paratum, Matth. 25. extends it further, to all those whom he shall, at the last day, place on his right hand; Paravi vobis, it is prepared for all you, for all those who, since the speaking of it, have been, and who, to the end of the world, will be his Disciples; God prepares both, Place and Inhabitants too, Place for Inhabitants, and Inhabitants for the Place, Those Vessels of Mercy whom he had before prepared unto glory, Rom. 9.23. [Page 209]In the Parable, Matt. 25. Those Virgins onely, quae Paratae erant, who were Prepared, Ready, went in with him to the Marriage.

Now, Ʋse. though in preparing this Place for us, we must leave that to Christ alone; yet, in preparing our selves for this Place, we must joyne with him; Non salvat te sine te, is a true Rule; Austin. Intreat God first to prepare us by the working of his sanctifying Grace in our hearts; but when we have received that Talent of Grace, we must imploy it also, and and work together with God, 1 Cor. 3.9. Who shall ascend into this Hill of the Lord? Psal. 24. He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart, in one place; Psal. 15. He that leads an uncorrupt life, and doth the thing that is right, in another: Here is one way of preparing our selves, by purifying the heart through faith, ( Act. 15.9.) to an uncorrupt life, and cleansing the hands in inno­cency to good workes; that which St. Paul prescribes, if we will be Vessels unto honour, we must be prepared unto every good worke, 2 Tim. 2.29.

We must be prepared to do good, and to suffer evil, if occasion requires, and it may conduce to his glory; that's one way more: When Christ speaks of this Kingdome Luke 22. he thus describes those for whom it is design'd; first, Ye are they that have continued with me in my temptations, vers. 28. and then, I appoint unto you a Kingdome, vers. 29. This was the way which Christ himselfe went, Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? Luke 24.26. He entred this holy place by his owne blood, Hebr. 9. Be we not spa­ring of our paines and labour, and sweat and blood, if need be, rather than not follow him; follow the Lamb whither soever, Revel. 14.4. and which way soever he goeth; even Agnum occi­sum, follow the Lamb which was slain, Rev. 5.12. Suffer with him, that's the way to reigne with him, 2 Tim. 2.12. to have Kingdom and Glory too, to reign with him, and to be glorified with him, Rom. 8.17. Let us not grudge, beloved, to take pains, to suffer pain, in this place of our Preparation for [Page 211]that Place; we will not, if we looke with faith to this Place which is set before us; if we looke unto Jesus the Au­thor, and Finisher of our faith, Heb. 12.2. 'Twas a course that himselfe tooke, to strengthen himselfe in his Combate here, as he was Man; He, for the joy that was set before him, Ibid. endured the Crosse, and despised the shame: The sufferings of this present time, in the worst of their nature, are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed, Rom. 8.18. though they were lasting; but they are momentary too, our Affliction is light, and but for a moment, 2 Cor. 4.17. When the Pro­phet Daniel had reckoned up many sore calamities upon the people, they are encourag'd to the constant under­going of them with this certain com­fort, Ʋsque ad tempus, Daniel 11.24. 'tis but for a time: whatsoever the burden of worldly crosses be, which the faithfull servants of God groan under; drowne not your selves in tears; faint not in your triall; make not your life more bitter with pen­sive thoughts, nor waste your spirits [Page 212]with impatient complaints; apply the Balsome, this sweet contemplation of the short continuance, Ʋsque ad tempus, 'tis but for a time; when ye are revil'd and persecuted, Matth. 5.11. when ye have triall of cruel mockings and scourg­ings (Heb. 11.36, 37.) yea, of Bonds and imprisonment, destitute, afflicted, and tor­mented; why, Ʋsque ad tempus, all this is but for a time: They are the dam­ned in Hell, Drexe­lius De Aeternit. that are more overwhel­med with the eternity, than with the extremity of their sufferings; no mea­suring of Time there; no hope of release, after thousands of millions of Ages; there is cause of, there is place for impatience; But these tem­porary woes, these short afflictions, lightned with an expectation of en­largement, endure we them, have we patience in them; Ʋsque in tempus, saies the Son of Syrach too, Ecclesiasticus 1.23. Ʋsque in tempus sustinebit patiens, A patient man will bear for a time, and afterward joy shall spring up unto him.

This is the Exhortation, that from hence, I desire to leave with you, [Page 113] Possesse your soules with patience, Luk. 21.19. not­withstanding the miseries of this life, though they were greater, and com­fort your selves with a hopefull looking for of this place prepared by Christ; Troubles here, and Crosses, and discontents, and perhaps great causes of them; to some, their whole time is a Lent, and their whole Lent a Passion-Friday; But, there is a Place prepared: To do good, and to suffer evill (the Chri­stians vertue) is a hard task, not to plot and prosecute revenge of re­ceiv'd wrongs; not to undermine others to a fall, and upon their necks step higher; to curb the irre­gularity of our affections, to wage a continuall warre with our owne rebellious thoughts, ambition, and covetousnesse, and voluptuousnesse, and all the other Divels about us, exceeding difficult to flesh and blood; but here is a help from the Spirit, our LENT cannot last long; the Feast of CHRIST's, and of our Resurrection is not far. There is a Place prepared, a Place of Peace and [Page 214]Rest, and joy, and glory, fulnesse of joy, and pleasures for evermore. Thi­ther, Lord, in thy good time, bring us, who art gone before to prepare it for us.

To thee, O Christ, with the Father, and the Spirit, &c.