The works of the pious and profoundly-learned Joseph Mede, B.D., sometime fellow of Christ's Colledge in Cambridge

S. MATTHEW 11. 29.

—Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your Souls.

THese Words are a continuing of the former Exhortation to take upon us the yoke of Christ: First, in general, That we follow his Example, Learn of me: Then in particular, wherein we should follow him, In Meekness and Lowliness; For I am (saith he) Meek and Lowly in heart. Then the Profit we shall reap thereby; Do this, And ye shall find rest unto your souls.

For the first, Learn of me: Observe, That Christ is given unto us not only for a Sa∣crifice for sin, but for an Example of life. They are the words of one of our Col∣lects. For he is our Lord and King, and Subjects we know will naturally conform and fashion themselves unto the manners of their Princes;

Regis ad exemplum totus componitur orbis:

And those which do so, are accounted the most devoted to them, and are the best ac∣cepted of them. If Christ then be our Lord and King, we must acknowledg him to be such by conforming to his Example, and endeavouring to follow his steps. Be∣sides, since he took this yoke of obedience upon him out of love to us, how can we chuse but offer our necks thereto our selves, out of duty to him? If he hath done so much to make our yoke easie, which before was so unsupportable; should we now think much to put it on? Nay it is the very character of God's chosen ones, to carry in them a conformity and resemblance of Christ. For whom (saith S. Paul Rom. 8. 29.) he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first-born among many brethren.

And this duty of conforming unto Christ consists not only in doing as he did, but suffering also as he hath done. 1 Pet. 2. 20. If when you do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently; this is acceptable with God. ver. 21. For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an Example, that we should follows his steps. See also 1 Ioh. 3. 17. And this conformity and sampling (as I may say) of Christ, extends not only to those Acts of his which he did as man, where the imitation is plain and direct; but in a certain sort to those supereminent ones, which exceed the nature of a mere man, and were done by the concurrence and power of his Godhead; which be∣cause otherwise unimitable, we must express by way of a mystical resemblance. Thus are we to imitate his expiatory Death and Burial, by our dying unto sin. Shall we con∣tinue in sin, (saith S. Paul, Rom. 6. 1.) that grace may abound? v. 2. God forbid. How shall we that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? v. 3. Know ye not that so many of us as are baptized into Iesus Christ, were baptized into his death? To the same purpose, 1 Pet. 4. 1. Forasmuch, saith he, as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm your selves likewise with the same mind; for he that hath suffered in the flesh, hath ceased from sin, &c. So likewise in suffering one for another, Eph. 5. 1. Be ye followers of God, as dear children, v. 2. And walk in love, as Christ hath also loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God. In the like manner must we imitate his Resurrecti∣on and Ascension. S. Paul Rom. 6. 4. Therefore (saith he) we are buried with him into death; that like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. Accordingly. Col. 3. 1. If then ye be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. All which you see are grounded upon this one Principle, Learn of me. Some Physiognomers con∣ceit the Head of a man to be the model of the whole Body; and where there is any spot, wart, or like mark about the Face or other part of the Head, that there is another answerable to it in some sutable part of the Body; and upon this ground they will ad∣venture to discover some hidden mark in the unseen parts of the Body. But whatsoever it be in the natural Body. I am sure it is true in the mystical Body of Christ, That every cha∣racter in the Head, Christ, must have something answerable to it in his Body, the Church.

THUS much for the general, We must learn of Christ. But what is that here in my Text which Christ would have us learn of him? It followeth, I am Meek and Lowly in heart. And this we must learn of him; this is that yoke of his he would have us wear, that we may find rest unto our souls. For under these two words our Saviour comprehends the whole Habit of Obedience, they being two such dispositions of the mind a•• make it ••actable and pliable to put on and wear the yoke he speaks of. As if he had said, I am wholly qualified to obedience, I am fitted for this yoke; learn of me to put it on, for I am meek and lowly.

Now though Lowliness and Meekness are of very near affinity, and such, as both of them do dispose a man for the duties of both Tables of God's Commandments; yet hath Lowliness (as I take it) a prerogative in our devotion to Godward, and Meek∣ness is more proper for the duties we owe to our neighbours. I will therefore construe them here, as others have done before me, as dividing the whole Decalogue between them; Lowliness, as a mother, including the Duties of the First; and Meekness, those of the Second Table. Which are the two parts of that Yoke which Christ wore for us, and which every one that cometh to him must learn to put on.

In the handling whereof I will therefore rather chuse to follow the order of the Decalogue,* 1.1 and first begin with Lowliness, though it be last placed in the words. Lowliness therefore, as I said, stands here for the whole duty of the First Table, which is Cultus Dei, religious service or devotion towards God; or as the Scriptures phrase is, The fear of the Lord: Which as it is founded upon the acknowledgment of the Su∣perlative and Transcendent Excellency of God in his Soveraignty of Power, Wisdom and Goodness; so the first and mother-disposition and affection of the Heart to his Worship and Service is Humiliation of the Soul and Lowliness of Mind: For all Emi∣nency is worshipped with humility, reverence and submission; that is, as we some∣times, and rightly, speak, By keeping a distance: And the Soveraign or Supreme Excel∣lency of God must be adored with the lowest demission of mind, and with the greatest stoop the Soul can make. We find by experience, that that disposition of the Eye which fitteth it to behold the visible Sun, makes a man blind when he looks down upon him∣self: So here the apprehension of the transcendent Excellency of God, ten thousand times brighter than the Sun, if truly admitted into our hearts, must needs darken all over∣weening conceit of any worthiness in our selves. The greater we would apprehend his Power, the more sensible we must be of our own Weakness. The greater we acknow∣ledg

and adore his Goodness, the less Goodness must we see in our selves. The more we would apprehend his Wisdom, the less we are to be pussed up with our own know∣ledg. As in a pair of scales, the higher we would raise the one scale, the lower we pull down the other: so the higher we raise God in our hearts, the lower we must de∣press our selves. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.* 1.2 And this is that Lowliness of heart which Christ would have us learn of him, Who being in the form of God—made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a ser∣vant —And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross, Phil. 2. 6, 7, 8.

Hence it comes That the humblest nature and the humblest condition are the fittest for devotion. For humble natures, experience shews them the most religious; where∣as those which the world so much commendeth for high and brave spirits of all others do buckle the worst unto devotion.* 1.3 God seeth not as man seeth: It is not the tallest Eliab, but the humblest David, who is the man after God's own heart. He that hum∣bleth himself as a little child, the same is the tallest and goodliest Soul in the kingdom of heaven. The Stars in the firmament, howsoever they here seem small to us, yet are bigger than the Earth: So he that is despicable and small here in the eyes of men, is there a great one in the eyes of God.

As the humblest nature, so the humblest estate and condition is best fitted for Religi∣on; * 1.4 as the poor rather than the rich. Therefore Agur desired of God, not to give him riches, more than food convenient for him; lest being full, he should deny him, and say, Who is the Lord? Such likewise is the state of adversity and affliction, being a state of lowliness, and an estate wherein our hearts are taken down; and therefore more fit to bring us home to God than that of prosperity: whence you know that David saies, Psal. 94. 12. Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O Lord; and Psal. 119. 67, 71. Before I was afflicted I went astray, But now I have kept thy word. It is good for me that I have been afflicted.

For diseases (say the Physicians) must be cured by contraries. It was Pride which caused the disloyalty and rebellion both of Men and Angels against their Creator: whence is that of the Son of Sirach, Ecclus. 10. 12. The beginning of Pride is, when one departeth from God, and his heart is turned away from his Maker. ver. 13. Pride is the beginning of sin, and he that hath it, shall pour out abomination. If Pride then be the be∣ginning of our rebellion against God, then must Lowliness be the proper disposition of those who fear and worship him. And, Tanto quisque est vilior Deo, quanto est pretiosior sibi; The higher any one is in his own esteem, the lower he is in God's.

Now from this near affinity and inseparable dependance between a Religious devo∣tion and an Humble and Lowly mind, it is that the Scripture useth them as equipollent terms. Prov. 22. 4. By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches, honour, and life. Prov. 3. 33. The curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked; but he blesseth the habi∣tation of the Iust. Ver. 34. Surely he scorneth the scorners, but he giveth grace, or sheweth favour, unto the lowly. Where scorners and the wicked on the one part, and the lowly and the just on the other, are interchangeably used for one and the same. In like manner speaks the son of Sirach, Ecclus. 12. 4, 5. Give to the godly man, and help not a sinner. Which in the next words he altereth thus, Do well unto him that is lowly, but give not to the un∣godly. In the same notion of Humility and Lowliness, S. Paul tells the Ephesian Elders at Miletus, that he had served the Lord with all humility of mind, Acts 20. 19.

I have dwelt the longer upon this point, To shew that Lowliness of mind is the pro∣per disposition for devotion and the mother of a religious fear, because the* 1.5 present occasion if you examine it, is nothing else but the exercise of what I speak of. For the End of Fasting is to beget Lowliness and humbleness of mind, that so we might be right∣ly disposed and affected to approach the Divine Majesty, and tender our supplications unto him: Especially at such times when his dreadful rod is shaken over us, to bid us down and cry for mercy, lest we perish. Are they not some of the first words we uttered this day? O come, let us humble our selves, and fall down before the Lord with reverence and fear. Hence Fasting and Humbling a mans self go in Scripture for equipollent terms. My cloth∣ing was sackeloth (saith David, Psal. 35. 13.) I humbled my self with fasting. So Ahab hum∣bled himself, and thereby deferred his judgment, 1 King 21. 29. Hezekiah humbled him∣self both he and the inhabitants of Ierusalem, 2 Chro. 32. 26. Manasseh likewise besought the Lord, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his Father, 2 Chron. 33. 12.

If we take a view of the Ceremonies of this Discipline which the Ancients used, and we in some part continue; they imply nothing else but Lowliness; either to express it, if we be already so affected; or to work and beget it in our hearts, if as yet we have it

not. They are reducible to three heads: 1. of Habit, 2. of Gesture, 3. of Diet. For Ha∣bit, it was anciently Sackcloth and Ashes. By the coursness of Sackcloth they ranked themselves, as it were, amongst the meanest and lowest condition of men. By Ashes, and sometimes Earth, upon their heads, they made themselves lower than the lowest of the creatures of God: For the lowest of the Elements is the Earth, than which we use to say a man cannot fall lower.

Qui jacet in terra, non habet unde cadat.

For Gesture, they sate or lay upon the ground, which in the Primitive Church was called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 humicubatio, a natural ceremony both to express and ingenerate or increase, this disposition of Lowliness and abjection of our selves; and as frequently practised among the Christian Fathers, as it is seldom or never used among us. It were a thing most comely, and undoubtedly most profitable, if either these Ceremonies, or some other answerable to them, were reviv'd amongst us at such times as these. If we were all of us this day attired (if not in Sackcloth, for perhaps it sutes not with the custom of our Nation, yet) in the dolefullest habit of mourners if we lay all groveling upon the ground; would not such a ruful spectacle, would not the very sight of such an uncouth Assembly much affect us? The mournful hue of Funeral solemnities, we know by experience, will often make them to weep who otherwise had no particular cause of sorrow; how much more when they have?

But the Principal ceremony, and which we retain, is Abstinence from meat and drink, from which this whole exercise hath the name of Fasting: the End thereof being to bring down our Bodies, thereby the better to humble our Souls, or to express so much; I mean to express our sorrow and dejection, if we be already so affected. Mores animi sequuntur temperamentum corporis: If the Body be full and lusty, the Mind will be lofty and refractary, and most unfit to approach the Divine Majesty with reverence and fear. How uncomposed is that Heart to sue to God for mercy and aversion of his judg∣ments, which is fraught with rebellious, unclean, proud and lustful thoughts, like so many dogs barking within it? But these are all engendered and cherished by full feed∣ing, and cannot be easily quelled unless they be starved. When I fed Israel to the full, (saith the Lord, Ier. 5. 7, 8.) then they committed adultery, and assembled by troups in harlots houses, &c. Ieshurun (saith Moses in his prophetical song, Deut. 32. 15.) wax∣ed fat and kicked, and forsook the Lord that made him, and lightly esteemed of the rock of his salvation.

Wherefore S. Paul was fain to pinch his Body, and bring it down with fasting: I keep under my body (saith he, 1 Cor. 9. 27.) and bring it into subjection; lest that by any means, when I have preached unto others, I my self should be a cast-away. Hilarion a religious young man, when after much abstinence and course diet he felt his flesh still unruly and rebellious, Ego, (inquit) Aselle, faciam ut non calcitres, nec te hordeo alam, sed paleis, fame & siti te conficiam: thus threatning his Beast, (that is, his Body) that he would take an order with it, that it should not kick; and that he would no longer seed his Ass with corn, but give it a little chasse or straw; nay punish it with hunger and thirst. Such is the danger of a pampered Body, and such the necessity of keeping it under.

Thus you see what is the chief End we are to aim at in this our solemn abstinence; namely, to beget this lowliness in our hearts, this humiliation in our souls, to subdue the high-mounting flames of our unruly desires, by withdrawing the fuel which breeds and nourishes them. Which as it is at all times requisite in some measure, whensoever we approach the Majesty of God for mercy and forgiveness; so then especially and in a more than usual manner, When God shakes the rod of his judgments over our heads, and bids us down and prostrate both souls and bodies before him, left his judgments break us in pieces, if we bow not. He that attaineth this, hath fasted well: he that hath not, may thereby know he hath not done enough, or not as he should do. If the boiling of our lusts be cooled and calmed; if the swelling conceits of worth in our selves be ta∣ken down, with a true and feeling apprehension of our vileness and wretchedness by reason of sin, which makes us the most unworthy creatures in the world; if those ram∣ping weeds of contempt and despising of others be cropped and withered (and these, I can tell you, will quite spoil a garden where many good flowers grow;) if after this manner we be affected, then are we humbled: if not, we are not yet sufficiently ta∣ken down; all our service is hypocrisie, nor will our devotion be accepted of that All-seeing Majesty who resisteth the proud,* 1.6 but giveth grace to the humble.* 1.7

THUS much of Lowliness, the mother of the duties of the First Table. Now I come to Meekness,* 1.8 which implies our obedience to the Second. What Meekness,

or Mansuetudo, signifies in Ethicks every one knows, that Vertue which tempereth anger; or, as I may so call it, Vnangriness. But sometimes whilest we take words in Scrip∣ture according to our own or the Philosophical notion, we slip into a mistake; as it falls out in this word Meekness, whose notion in the Hebrew and Scripture use is as large well-nigh as of Vertue it self, so far as it hath respect to the Second Table. For it signifies, as I may so speak, yokeableness, or a pliableness and tractableness to be or∣dered; a certain tameness of disposition to obedience of laws, for untamed cattel are not fit for yoke; and may be expressed, as I think, by Ingenuity, or Ingenuous good∣ness; or, as we speak, Fair-conditioned; by which we understand a general dispo∣sition to be well ordered in such actions as are exercised in the conversation of men.

Thus it is taken in that of our Saviour, Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth, Matt. 5. 5. Which appears out of Psal. 37. 10, 11. whence it is taken, where the meek and the wicked are opposed as terms of equal extent. For yet a little while (saith David) and the wicked shall not be: but the meek shall inherit the earth. Who seeth not that by meek is here meant the opposite party to the wicked? So I under∣stand that, Psal. 76. 9. God arose to judgment, to save all the meek of the earth; id est, omnes probos terrae, all the honest or vertuous of the earth. And Psal. 149. 4. For the Lord taketh pleasure in his people; he will beautifie the meek with salvation. Zeph. 2. 3. Seek the Lord, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment, seek righte∣ousness, seek meekness: It may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord's anger. Amos 2. 6. For three transgressions and for four of Israel, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they sold the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of shooes. Vers. 7. That pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor, and turn aside the way of the meek. Here that which in the first is expressed poor and righteous in the next is changed into poor and meek, shewing meek and righteous to be equipollent terms. So S. Iames 1. 21, 22. as writing to Hebrews, useth the Hebrew notion; Wherefore (saith he) lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the ingraffed word, which is able to save your souls. But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only. Again ch. 3. 13. Who is a wise man and indued with know∣ledg amongst you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wis∣dom: where it is evident that Meekness cannot be taken in that restrained sense of Philosophers, for that would be non-sense.

Yet I deny not but Meekness in Scripture also is taken for a special Vertue: and for the excellency of that Vertue amongst men, were all the rest denominate thereof: For it is an usual Trope of the Scripture, to make that which is taken for the most eminent and notable in any kind, to bear the name of the whole kind; as the Fore∣man speaks for the whole Iury, and Armies are comprised in the names of their Cheif∣tains. In the Decalogue it is a regular Synecdoche: Father and Mother, for all sorts of Superiours; Murther, for whatsoever hurt to the body of our neighbour; Adul∣tery, for all sins of intemperance; Thest, all injuries in our neighbour's goods; The sanctifying of an holy day, to comprehend the holy usage of all things sacred and con∣secrate to divine uses. So Peace, the chief of blessings, stands in the Hebrew style for happiness; that is, all blessings whatsoever. Whence is their salutation, Peace be unto you. So Meekness, of near a-kin to Peace, stands here for a general name to all probity or honesty; as Lowliness did for Religious devotion. For the yoke of devotion to God hath its peculiar, to be taken on with stooping and humbleness; the yoke of a well-ordered converse with men, with this tameness or meekness. For as Meekness in the special sense is a vertue exercised only towards men: so in this general notion thereof, I extend it no farther; making, as I told you, Lowliness and Meekness to share the Decalogue betwixt them.

Here now I might observe at large, How Meekness seasoneth all our actions and carriage towards men, giving that genuine sweetness and relish of Vertue to them all; this being the reason of that so general acception of the word in the phrase of Scrip∣ture. I might also inlarge my self unto all the several offices and duties of this Vertue. But let me commend unto you those two which are most principal and immediate, and therefore expresly required in our Liturgie, as the truest tokens of Repentance; namely, forgiving of offences, and satisfaction of injuries; both of them genuine off-springs of this Meekness.

And ye shall find rest unto your souls.

HERE is that inestimable Benefit which befalleth those who take up Christ's yoke and learn of him to be meek and lowly; They shall find rest unto their souls. For

the understanding whereof we must know, that there is a twofold Ease mentioned in this Invitation of our Saviour. The one, to those who come unto him by Faith, Come unto me, &c. and I will ease you, or give you rest. The second, to those who take upon them his yoke, that is, the yoke of obedience to God's commandments; a yoke which Christ first wore for our sakes, and made it his, that so he might make it possi∣ble for us to wear it, whilest the main weight still rests upon his shoulders: Those who put their necks to this yoke, shall find rest unto their souls.

These two Rests are near of kin, but not the same: The first Rest is that which Christ gives; the second, the Rest which we shall find. All those who come and by Faith apply themselves to Christ, shall have Ease: But there is something else to be done before our selves shall find and know it; we must put our necks into the collar, and take his yoke upon us, and then there shall not only be Rest obtained for us, but we shall find and feel our selves eased.

For a Sinner hath a twofold Burthen; 1. The weight of his sin, and 2. The pain he feels thereby; for such is the condition, we know, of every one that is laden. Answe∣rable therefore to this twofold Burthen, there is a twofold Rest and Ease to be attained. The first is by taking off the burthen by remission of our sin in our Iustification, when Christ discharges those who come unto him of their load, and beareth it upon his own back, by justifying and acquitting them of sin. The second is the ceasing of the pain which the pressure of sin hath caused; when a sinner by wearing of the yoke of Christ finds peace of conscience, and ease and rest unto his soul. For the pain and aking of the Soul for sin doth not presently cease, though sin be taken off. A man condemned to die, doth not presently feel the comfort of his pardon as soon as it is obtained; for it may be gotten many daies before he knows it, and till then his pain and discomfort will be as if it were not gotten at all. Also a man that hath overlong born a burthen too heavie for him, is often we know, so benummed, that he thinks he feels the pressure of his burthen still, some while after it is taken off his back. So is the ease here; the pain of the soul will not presently cease when Christ hath taken off our sin, nor will the joy and comfort of our pardon be so soon found as our pardon is obtained.

[unspec 1] Let this then be the first Observation, That as those only are justified and discharg∣ed of their sin by remission who flee unto Christ by Faith: So only those have pro∣mise of rest and peace of conscience who take his yoke upon them; and being, as he was, meek and lowly, stoop unto God, and submit their lives unto his Commandments. Art thou heavy-laden, and wouldst thou be discharged of thy sin? Go unto Christ, and he will ease thee. Wouldst thou know thy sins are acquitted? wouldst thou have peace, and feel thy conscience sweetly comforted? Take this yoke upon thee, learn of him to be yokeable,* 1.9 to be meek and lowly, to walk in the waies of God; and thou shalt find rest to thy soul. By this, saith S. Iohn, we know that we know him, (namely, to be our Advocate, and the propitiation for our sins) if we keep his Commandments. There is no way but this to feel and have notice thy sins are forgiven thee.

Many do trust all to a supposed Faith as a short and compendious cut to quiet their conscience: But never look to find peace with God so long as thou hast peace with sin: There is no peace unto the wicked, saith the* 1.10 Prophet. What Iehoram, 2 King. 9. 22. asked Iehu, Is there peace, Iehu? What peace (saith Iehu) so long as the whoredoms of thy mother Iezebel and her witchcrafts are so many? So saith God to all such whose life and conversation is unreformed; What peace can be unto thy soul, so long as contempt of his worship, extortion, defrauding of thy neighbour, covetousness, drunkenness, backwardness to all good duties, reign still within thee? If thou wouldst have peace in thy soul; if thou wouldst have the wringing torments of a troubled conscience to be calmed within thee; If thou wouldst find out that peace of God which passeth all understanding;* 1.11 let thy whole life and conversation, as far as thou art able, be ruled by the Law of God; wear that yoke which Christ thy Sa∣viour hath made so easie; learn of him to be meek and lowly, and thou shalt find rest unto thy soul.

But some perhaps will say, What needs so much preciseness and strictness of life? For my part, I do as other men do; I can dispense sometime and take my pleasure in sin, and am not thus yoked (as you speak,) but take my liberty according as I see ad∣vantage, either for my profit or contentment; and yet am not disquieted, but find my soul at rest and ease without thus much ado.

I answer, It is hard to conceive that a man should give himself the reins to commit sin, and his Conscience not to twitch him more or less, though he useth all the means he can to smother it. But if it doth not, thy case is so much the more woful

and dangerous: For, alas! it is not a rest and ease of soul, as thou misdeemest, but hardness and deadness of heart, which thou mistakest for rest and quietness: A conditi∣on than which there cannot be a worse, and of all estates of the soul the most hope∣less. And this is the fruit of a customary violation of the Conscience, which being often bruised, scratched at first with smaller sins, and at length rent and torn with greater, contracts one scar and brawn all over, and so becomes senseless and unfeel∣ing. How dreadful therefore is it, if men would consider it, to adventure the Con∣science upon the least violence? if it endure but a scratching once or twice, it is se∣cretly, and before a man is aware, hardned to endure a wound. O let us be then tender to keep our Conscience tender, else we are undone. Is it therefore indeed so with thee, that thou canst take thy sinful liberty, and yet find no scruple check thee? Canst thou cast off the yoke of Christ, and yet thy heart be at rest within thee; or at the worst, if it pants a little, it will soon have done? O rouse it up in time, else the time will come, when thy Conscience will be so awaked, that all the world cannot quiet and still it. The longer it hath been smothered, the more dreadful and un∣quenchable will the flame be when it once breaketh out. No tongue of mortal man is able to express the terrors which then shall overwhelm thee.

In the day-time we know Spirits and Hobgoblins usually walk not, but in the night∣time, when darkness covereth the face of the earth: So in the brightness and Sun∣shine of health and pro••perity, what marvel though this terrible Fiend, an evil Con∣science, doth not much haunt a dull and stupid heart? but in the darkness of sickness, in the midnight of death, when the black times of calamity shall surprise thee, then will this grifly and gastly Spirit begin to affright and scare thee; then will he roar in the chamber of thy soul, and most hideously rattle his chains about thine ears.

As the blows and bruises received in the flower of our youth, though then we feel them not, will pain us in the decay of our strength, in our declining years: So the blows and bruises given the Soul by sin in the days of our jollity and prosperity, will most grievously torment us when by sickness, fear of death, or other calamity, our wonted mirth and transitory contentment shall be eclipsed. Then as the carkass of him that is slain, though it seemed stark and stiff, is said to bleed afresh at the pre∣sence of the murtherer: So when our former and unfelt sins, whereby the Soul was wounded and murthered, shall present themselves unto our view, as at such times they use to do, then our stark and benummed Conscience will gush out streams of bloud, and be in danger to bleed unto eternal death. What would a man then give for this Rest unto his soul? even all the gold of Ophir, all the riches of the East and West Indies; yea he would be content never to have had ease, never to have enjoy∣ed any contentment (no not lawful) in these worldly and transitory things all the days of his life, so he might have but one dram of that comfortable quietness of Soul which a good conscience bringeth.

A good conscience therefore, from a life well led, is a Iewel unvaluable, for which [unspec 2] a man should undergo the hardest task, and forgo all the contentments of the world, if it could not otherwise be gotten. Which is the Second thing I here observe. For our Saviour we see propounds it as a Reward and Prize, such as he thought sufficient to allure any reasonable man, even to abandon his liberty and freedom, and to enter a bondage, and to take a yoke upon his neck; a yoke the sweetest that ever was worn, and far surpassing the greatest liberty in the world.

A good conscience, saith Solomon, Prov. 15. 15. is a continual Feast; that is, an ever∣lasting Christmas. The twelve-days-Feast of our Blessed Saviours Nativity, how is it longed for before-hand? how welcomed when it comes? and yet it lasts but a short time. But a good conscience is a Feast that lasts all the year, yea all a mans life long; and that too without satiety, without fulness, without the least wearisomness.

There are three things in a Feast which make it so pleasing and desirable, Mirth, good Company, and good Chear. In this Feast all three of them are superlative.

• 1. For Mirth, all the merriment and Musick, all the wine and good chear in the world will not make a man's heart so light and merry as the wine which is drunk at the Feast of a good conscience. This is no superficial matter, but rooted in the very Centre of the Soul. Whereas your Wine-mirth is but the smothering sometimes, if not drowning, of a deeper grief; like the lustick fit in some Countries of such as are going to execution.* 1.12 Give strong drink (saith Solomon) unto him that is ready to pe∣rish, and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts.
• 2. For Society and Company, what Feast in the world can afford the like this doth? For it hath not only exceeding good, but all suitable and homogeneal, where is no

• admixture of ill. Here you shall have no unruly persons blaspheming God or men, to make themselves or others pastime: no unsavoury communication to stain and pol∣lute by degrees the purity of the Soul, and make a reckoning unsupportable, when the day shall come wherein we must give accompt of every idle word. But a good Conscience hath ever good Company, and so good as will admit no ill. For the Father is with it, that great and mighty God who made us: The Son is with it, even Christ himself who redeemed us; they sup and feast together: The Holy Ghost is with it, who chears up and sanctifies the hearts of all who come to this Table. What Feast in the world can shew so honourable, so loving, so chearful company as this?
• 3. And for the last thing which makes a Feast desirable, good Chear; it is a Table richly furnished with all Varieties and Dainties, a collection of all the Rarities and Delicacies, not which Sea and Land only, but which Heaven it self affords. Who would not come upon any invitation to partake of such a Feast as this?

Notes

• * 1.1

  Of Lowliness.
• * 1.2

  Matt. 5. ••.
• * 1.3

  1 Sam. 16. 7.
• * 1.4

  Prov. 3••. 8, 9.
• * 1.5

  This was preached Anno 1625. when there was a great plague in London.
• * 1.6

  Iames 4. 6.
• * 1.7

  1 Pet. 5. 5.
• * 1.8

  Of Meekness.
• * 1.9

  1 I••••n 2. 3.
• * 1.10

  Esa. 48. 22.
• * 1.11

  Phil. 4. 7.
• * 1.12

  Prov. 31. 6.