LXXX sermons preached by that learned and reverend divine, Iohn Donne, Dr in Divinity, late Deane of the cathedrall church of S. Pauls London.

SERMONS Preached in LENT.

SERMON XIII. Preached in Lent, To the KING. April 20. 1630.

JOB 16. v. 17, 18, 19.

Not for any injustice in my hands: Also my prayer is pure. O earth cover not thou my blood; and let my cry have no place. Also now behold, my Witnesse is in heaven, and my Record is on high.

IObs friends (as, in civility we are faine to call them, because they came upon a civill pretence, to visit him, and to comfort him) had now done speaking. It was long before they would have done. Andivi frequenter talia, saies Iob to them, I have often heard such things as you say, they are not new to me; and therefore, Onerosi consolatores, Miserable comforters, troublesome comforters are ye all, old and new. But, Numquid finem habebunt verba ventosa, saies he, Shall your windy words, your empty, your aery, your frothy words have any end? Now they have an end. Eliphas ends his charge in the last, and in this Chapter Iob begins to answer for himselfe. But how? By a middle way. Iob does not justifie himselfe; but yet he does not prevaricate, he does not betray his Innocence neither. For there may be a pusillanimity even towards God; A man may over-clog his owne conscience, and belie himselfe in his confessions, out of a distempered jealousie, and suspition of Gods purposes upon him; Iob does not so. Many men have troubled themselves more, how the soule comes into man, then how it goes out; They wrangle, whether it comes in by Infusion from God, or by Propagation from parents, and never consider, whether it shall returne to Him that made it, or to him that marr'd it, to Him that gave it, or to him that corrupted it. So, many of our Expositors upon this Booke of Iob, have spent themselves upon the Person, and the Place, and the Time, who Iob was, when Iob was, where Iob was, and whether there were ever any such person as Iob, or no; and have passed over too slightly the senses, and doctrines of the Booke. S. Gregory hath, (to good use) given us many Morals, (as he cals them) upon this Booke, but, truly, not many Literals, for, for the most part, he bends all the sufferings of Iob figuratively, my∣stically upon Christ. Origen, who (except S. Gregory) hath written most of this Booke; and yet gone but a little way into the booke neither, doth never pretend much literal∣nesse in his expositions, so that we are not to looke for that at Origens hands. We must not therefore refuse the assistance of later men, in the exposition of this Text, Not for any Injustice in my hands, &c.

In this Chapter, and before this text, we have Iobs Anatomy, Iobs Sceleton, the ruins to which he was reduced. In the eighth verse he takes knowledge, That God had filled him with leannesse and wrinckles, and that those wrinckles, and that leannesse were witnesses against him, and, That they that hated him, had torne him in peeces, in the ninth verse. In the eleventh verse, That God had delivered him over to the ungodly, and, That God himselfe had

shaked him in peeces, and set him up as a marke to shoote at, in the twelfe verse, That God had cleft his reins, and poured out his gall upon the ground, in the thirteenth verse, and in the fourteenth, That he broke him, breach after breach, and run over him as a Gyant, and at last, in the sixteenth verse, That foulenesse was upon his face, and the shadow of death upon his eye∣lids. Now, let me aske in Iobs behalfe Gods question to Ezekiel, Putasnè vivent ossaista? Doest thou belceve that these bones can live? Can this Anatomy, this Sceleton, these ruines, this rubbidge of Iob speake? It can, it does in this Text, Not for any Injustice in my hands, &c.

And, in these words, it delivers us, first, The confidence of a godly man; Doe God what he will, say ye what ye will, That because I am more afflicted then other men, therefore I am guilty of more hainous sins then other men, yet I know, that whatsoever Gods end be in this proceeding, It is not for any Injustice in my hands, Also my prayer is pure. Secondly, it delivers us that kinde of infirme anguish, and indignation, that halfe∣distemper, that expostulation with God, which sometimes comes to an excesse even in good and godly men, O earth cover not thou my blood, and let my cry have no place; I desire not that any thing should be concealed or disguised, let all that ever I have done be writ∣ten in my forehead, and read by all men. And then thirdly and lastly, it delivers us the foundation of his confidence, and the recovery from this his infirmity, and from his excesse in the manner of expressing it, if he have beene over-bold therein, My Witnesse is in heaven, and my Record is on high; God is his Witnesse, that that which they charge him with, is false, That that which he saies in his owne discharge (in that sense that he saies it) is true; And in these three, Iobs Protestation, Not guilty, Iobs Manifest, I would all the world knew all, Iobs Establishment, and consolidation, My Witnesse is in Heaven; in these three branches, and in some fruits, which, in passing, we shall gather from them, we shall determine all that appertaines to these words.

I remember S. Gregory, in handling one text, professes, that he will endevour to handle it so, Vt ejus altitudo non sic fieret nescientibus cognita, ut esset scientibus onerosa; So, as that the weakest understanding might comprehend the highest points, and the highest un∣derstanding not be weary to heare ordinary doctrines so delivered. Indeed it is a good art, to deliver deepe points in a holy plainnesse, and plaine points in a holy delightful∣nesse: for, many times, one part of our auditory understands us not, when we have done, and so they are weary; and another part understands us before we begun, and so they are weary. To day, my humble petition must be, That you will be content to heare plaine things plainly delivered. Of which, be this the first, That Iob found himselfe un∣der the oppression, and calumny of that mis-interpretation, that Kings themselves, and States, and Churches have not escaped.

The towre of Siloe fell and slew them, therefore they were the greater sinners in Je∣rusalem; this man prospers not in the world, Therefore he proceeds not in the feare of God; the heire wastes the estate, therefore the estate was ill gotten, are hasty conclu∣sions in private affaires. Treasures are empty, therefore there are unnecessary wastes; Discontented persons murmure, therefore things are ill carried; our neigbours prosper by Action, therefore we perish by not appearing, are hastie conclusions in State affaires. This man is affected when he heares a blasphemous oath; and when he lookes upon the generall liberty of sinning; therefore he is a Puritan; That man loves the ancient formes, and Doctrines, and Disciplines of the Church, and retaines, and delights in the reverend names of Priest, and Altar, and Sacrifice, therefore he is a Papist, are hastie conclusions in Church affaires. When we doe fall under these mis-interpretations, and ill applicati∣ons of Gods proceedings, we may say with Iob, I also could speake, as you doe; if your soule were in my soules stead, I could heape up words against you, and shake my head at you, conclude desperately, speake scornefully of you. But I will not; yet I will not betray my selfe, I will make my protestation, what end soever God propose to himselfe in this his pro∣ceeding, It is not for any injustice in my hands, Also my prayer is pure.

In these two, cleannesse of hands, purenesse of Prayer, are all religious duties com∣prehended: for cleane hands denote justice and righteousnesse towards men, and pure prayer Devotion, and the service and worship of God. Iob protests for both. Therefore does Origen say of Iob, Certè puto, quod & audeo dicere, I doe verily beleeve, and therefore may be bold to say, that for constancy and fidelity towards God, Iob did exceed, Non solum homines, sed & ipsos Angelos, Not onely men, but Angels themselves; for, saies

Origen, Iob did not only suffer Abs{que} culpa, without being guilty of those things to which his afflictions were imputed, but he suffered Cum gratiarum actionibus, he said grace when he had no meat, when God gave him Stones for Bread, and Scorpions for Fish; he prai∣sed God as much for the affliction it self, as for his former, or his subsequent benefits and blessings. Not that Iob was meerly innocent, but that he was guilty of no such things, as might confer those conclusions, which, from his afflictions, his enemies raised. If I ju∣stifie my self, sayes Iob, Mine own mouth shall condemn me; Every self-justification is a self-condemnation; when I give judgement for my self, I am therein a witnesse against my self. If I say I am perfect, sayes he in the same place, even that proves me perverse; If I say I never goe out of the way, I am out then, and therefore because I say so: I have sin∣ned, sayes he, What shall I do unto thee O thou preserver of men? Iob felt the hand of destru∣ction upon him, and he felt the hand of preservation too; and it was all one hand; This is Gods Method, and his alone, to preserve by destroying. Men of this world do some∣times repaire, and recompence those men whom they have oppressed before, but this is an after recompence; Gods first intention even when he destroyes is to preserve, as a Physitians first intention, in the most distastfull physick, is health; even Gods demoliti∣ons are super-edifications, his Anatomies, his dissections are so many re-compactings, so many resurrections; God windes us off the Skein, that he may weave us up into the whole peece, and he cuts us out of the whole peece into peeces, that he may make us up into a whole garment.

But for all these humiliations, and confessions, Iob doth not wave his protestation; My rightcousnesse I hold fast, and my heart shall not reproach me as long as I live. Not that I shall never sin, but never leave any sin unrepented; And then, my heart cannot reproach me of a repented sin, without reproaching God himself. The Sun must not set upon my anger; much lesse will I let the Sun set upon the anger of God towards me, or sleep in an unrepeted sin. Every nights sleep is a Nunc dimittis; then the Lord lets his servant depart in peace. Thy lying down is a valediction, a parting, a taking leave, (shall I say so?) a shaking hands with God; and, when thou shakest hands with God, let those hands be clean. Enter into thy grave, thy metaphoricall, thy quotidian grave, thy bed, as thou entredstinto the Church at first, by Water, by Baptisme; Re-baptise thy self every night, in Iobs Snow water, in holy tears that may cool the inordinate lusts of thy heart, and with-hold uncleane abuses of those hands even in that thy grave, thy Bed; And evermore remember Iobs feare and jea∣louste in that place, That when he had washed himself in Snow water, Abominabuntur me ve∣stimenta mea, Mine own clothes will make me foul again. Thy flesh is thy clothes; and to this mischievous purpose of fouling thy hands with thine own clothes, thou hast most clothes on when thou art naked; Then, in that nakednesse, thou art in most danger of fouling thy hands with thine own clothes. Miserable man! that couldest have no use of hands, nor any other organ of sense, if there were no other creature but thy self, & yet, if there were no other creature but thy self, couldest sin upon thy self, and foule thy hands with thine own hands. How much more then, if thou strike with those hands, by oppression in thy office, or shut up those hands, and that which is due to another, in them? Sleep with cleane hands, either kept cleane all day, by integrity; or washed cleane, at night, by re∣pentance; and whensoever thou wakest, though all Iobs messengers thunder about thee, and all Iobs friends multiply mis-interpretations against thee, yet Iobs protestation shall be thy protestation, what end soever God have in this proceeding, It is not for any injustice in my hands, and the other part of his protestation too, Also my prayer is pure.

As cleane hands denote all righteousnesse towards man, so doe pure prayers all devo∣tion, and worship, and service of God. For, we are of the houshold of the faithfull, and the service which we are to doe, as his houshold servants, is prayer; for, his house is the house of prayer. And therein onely is it possible to us, to fulfill that Commandement, pray continually, that continually, in all our familiar actions, we may serve God, glorifie God, (whether we eate or drink, we may doe it to his glory) and every glorifying, every thanksgiving, is prayer; there cannot be a more effectuall prayer for future, then a thank∣full acknowledgement of former benefits. Petitc, & dabitur; How often is that repea∣ted in the Gospell, and in the Epistles? Aske, and it shall be given yee; no grant with∣out prayer, no deniall upon prayer.

It must be prayer, and my prayer; Also my prayer is pure. I must not rely upon the prayers of others; not of Angels; Though they be Ministeriall spirits, and not onely to

God himselfe, but between God and Man, and so, as they present our prayers, no doubt poure out their owne for us too, yet we must not rely upon the prayers of Angels. Nor of Saints; Though they have a more personall, and experimentall sense of our miseries then Angels have, we must not relie upon the prayers of Saints. No, nor upon the pray∣ers of the Congregation, though we see, and heare them pray, except we make our selves parts of the Congregation, by true devotion, as well as by personall presence.

It must be mine own prayer, and no prayer is so truly, or so properly mine, as that that the Church hath delivered and recommended to me. In sudden and unpremeditate pray∣er, I am not alwayes I; and when I am not my self, my prayer is not my prayer. Pas∣sions and affections sometimes, sometimes bodily infirmities, and sometimes a vain de∣sire of being eloquent in prayer, aliens me, withdraws me from my self, and then that prayer is not my prayer. Though that prayer which Luther is said to have said upon his death-bed, Oremus pro Domine Deo nostro Iesu Christo, Let us pray for our Lord and Savi∣our Christ Jesus, may admit a good sense, because Christ being (as S. Augustine sayes often) Caput & Corpus, both the Head and the Body, as he is the Body, the Church, sub∣ject to so many pressures, he had need to be prayed for; yet, his state being considered at that time, almost at the last gasp, he being scarce he, that prayer can scarce be called his prayer.

In that African Councell, in which S. Augustine was present, to remedy the abuse of various formes of Prayers, which divers Churches assumed, it was decreed that no pray∣ers should be received in the Church, but such as were composed, or approved by the Councell. We have proceeded so too; No prayers received for publique use, but those that are delivered by publique authority; and so, they become My prayers. As the Law of the Land is my Law, and I have an inheritance in it, so the prayers of the Church are my prayers, and I have an interest in them, because I am a Son of that fami∣ly. My Baptisme is mine, and my Absolution is mine, because the Church hath given them to me, and so are her prayers mine. You would scarce thank a man for an extem∣porall Elegy, or Epigram, or Panegyrique in your praise, if it cost the Poet, or the Ora∣tor no paines. God will scarce hearken to sudden, inconsidered, irreverent prayers. Men will study even for Complements; and Princes and Ambassadors will not speak to one another, without thinking what they will say. Let not us put God to speak to us so, (Preaching is Gods speaking to us) Let not us speak to God so, (Praying is our speaking to God) not extemporally, unadvisedly, inconsiderately. Prayer must be my prayer; and Quid habeo quod non accepi? Even in this kinde, what have I that I have not received? I have received my prayer altogether, as a bundle of Myrrhe, in that prayer which I have received from my Saviour, and then I have received it appropriated to me, and apportioned to my particular necessities, and sacrifices, by the piety and wisdome of the Church; so it is my prayer, and, as Iobs prayer was, pure prayer, Also my prayer is pure.

The Holy Ghost hath so marshalled and disposed the qualifications of Prayer in this place, as that there is no pure prayer without clean hands. The lifting up of hands was the gesture of prayer, even among the heathen, Manibus supplex or are supinis. Amongst the Jews, Prayer, and the lifting up of hands, was one and the same thing, Let the lifting up of my hands be an evening Sacrifice; And, longer then Moses hands were lifted up, his prayer had no effect. All this, perchance therefore especially, that this lifting up of my hands, brings them into my sight; then I can see them, and see whether they be clean, or no, and consider, that if I see impurity in my hands, God sees impurity in my Prayer. Can I think to receive ease from God with that hand that oppresses another? Mercy from God with that hand that exercises cruelty upon another? Or Bounty from God with that hand that with-holds right from another? Prayer is our hand, but it must be a cleane hand, pure prayer.

That Emperour whom no religion would lose, Constantine, (for, the heathen deified him, and the Christians canonized him, They made him a god, and we came as neare as we could, we made him a Saint) that Emperour was coyned Praying. Other Emperours were coyned Triumphing, in Chariots, or preparing for Triumphs, in Battailes, and Vi∣ctories, but he, Constantine, in that posture, Kneeling, Praying. He knew his coyn would passe through every family; and to every family he desired to be an example of piety; Every peece of single money was a Catechisme, and testified to every Subject all this, surely he will graciously receive my Petition, and look graciously upon me, when I

kneele, for, behold he kneels to, and he exhibits petitions to that God, from whom he acknowledges, that he needs as much as I can from him. And yet this Symbolicall, and Catechisticall coyn of Constantines, was not so convincing, nor so irrefragable a testimo∣ny of his piety, (for Constantine might be coyned praying, and yet never pray) as when we see as great a Prince as he, actually, really, personally, daily, duly at prayer with us.

To end this branch, let not thy prayer be lucrative, nor vindicative, pray not for tempo∣rall superfluities, pray not for the confusion of them that differ from thee in opinion, or in manners, but condition thy prayer, inanimate thy prayer with the glory of God, and thine own everlasting happinesse, and the edification of others, and this prayer is Iobs prayer, pure prayer. And farther we enlarge not his Protestation, My hands are cleane, I do no man wrong; my prayer is pure, I mock not God. But because continuing under so great afflictions, men would not beleeve this, he proceeds, perchance to some excesse, and inconsideratenesse, in desiring a manifestation of all his actions, O Earth, cover not thou my blood, and let my cry have no place.

Difference of Expositions makes us stop here, upon this inquisition, in what affection Iob spake this. Whether this were meerly an adjuration of the earth, not to cover his blood, but that his miseries, and the cry thereof might passe, and be transferred over all the world; or whether it had the nature of an imprecation upon himself, That he wish∣ed, or admitted against himself, that which is against the nature of every man to admit, that is, to have all that ever he had done, published, declared, manifested to all the world. S. Gregory, according to his manner, through all this book, which is, to apply all Iobs sufferings to Christ, and to make Iob some kinde of type of Christ, makes no more of this, but that it is an adjuration of the earth, in the person and behalf of Christ, not to suck in, or smoother his blood, but that it might be notified, and communicated to all the world. And truly, this is a good use, but it cannot be said to be a good sense of the place, because it cannot consist with the rest of the words.

Amongst our later men, Cajetan, (and he, from a Rabbi of the Jews, Aben Ezra) takes this to be an adjuration of the Earth, as Gregory does, but not, as Gregory does, in the per∣son of Christ, but of Iob himselfe; That Iob adjures the earth, not to cover his blood, that is, not to cover the shedding of his blood, not to conspire with the malice of his enemies so much, as to deny him buriall when he was dead, that they which trod him downe alive, might not triumph over him after his death, or conclude that God did certainly forsake him alive, since he continued these declarations against him, when he was dead. And this also may have good use, but yet it is too narrow, and too shallow, to bee the sense of this phrase, this elegancy, this vehemency of the Holy Ghost, in the mouth of Iob.

S. Chrysostome, I think, was the first that gave light to the sense of this place. He saies, that such men, as are (as they thinke) over-punished, have naturally a desire, that the world knew their faults; that so, by comparing their faults with their punishments, there might arise some pitty and commiseration of their state. And, surely, this, that Chryso∣stome sayes, is true, and naturall; for, if two men were to be executed together, by one kinde of death, the one for stealing a Sheep, (perchance in hunger) the other for killing his Father, certainly, he that had but stollen the Sheep, would be sorry the world should think their cases alike, or that he had killed a Father too. And in such an affection Iob sayes, I am so far from being guilty of those things that are imputed to me, that I would be content, that all that ever I have done, were knowne to all the world.

This light, which S. Chrysost. gave to this place, shined not out, (I think) till the Re∣formation; for, I have not observed any Author, between Chrysostome and the Reforma∣tion, that hath taken knowledge of this interpretation; nor any of the Reformation, as from him, from Chrysostome. But, since our Authors of the Reformation, have some∣what generally pursued that sense, (Calvin hath done so, and so Tremellius, and so Pis∣cator, and many, many more) now, one Author of the Romane Church, (one as curious and diligent in interpreting obscure places of Scripture, as any amongst them, and then more bold and confident in departing from their vulgar, and frivolous, and impertinent interpretations of Scriptures, then any amongst them) the Capuchin Bolduc, hath also pursued that sense. That sense is, that in this adjuration, or imprecation, O Earth cover not thou my blood; Blood is not literally bodily blood, but spirituall blood, the blood of the soule, exhausted by many, and hainous sins, such as they insimulated Iob of. For, in

this signification, is that word, Blood, often taken in the Scriptures. When God sayes, when you stretch forth your hands, they are full of blood, there blood is all manner of rapine, of oppression, of concussion, of violence. When David prayes to be delivered from blood∣guiltinesse, it is not intended onely, of an actuall shedding of blood, for, it is in the Origi∣nall, à sanguinibus, in the plurall; other crimes then the actuall shedding of blood, are bloody crimes. Therefore, sayes one Prophet, the land is full of bloody crimes; And, ano∣ther, blood toucheth blood, whom the Chalde Paraprase expresses aright, Aggregant pec∣cata peccatis, blood toucheth blood, when sin induces sin. Which place of Hosea, S. Gre∣gory interprets too, then blood touches blood, cum ante oculos Dei, adjunctis peccatis cru∣entatur anima; Then God sees a soule in her blood, when she wounds and wounds her selfe againe, with variation of divers, or iteration of the same sins.

This then being thus established, that blood in this Text, is the blood of the soule, exhausted by sin, (for every sin is an incision of the soule, a Lancination, a Phlebotomy, a letting of the soule blood, and then, a delight in sin, is a going with open veines into a warme bath, and bleeding to death) This will be the force of Iobs Admiration, or Impre∣cation, O Earth cover not thou my blood, I am content to stand as naked now, as I shall doe at the day of Judgement, when all men shall see all mens actions, I desire no disguise, I deny, I excuse, I extenuate nothing that ever I did, I would mine enemies knew my worst, that they might study some other reason of Gods thus proceeding with me, then those hainous sinnes, which, from these afflictions, they will necessarily conclude against me.

But had Iob been able to have stood out this triall? Was Iob so innocent, as that he need not care, though all the world knew all? Perchance there may have been some excesse, some inordinatenesse in his manner of his expressing it; we cannot excuse the vehemence of some holy men, in such expressions. We cannot say, that there was no excesse in Moses his Dele me, Pardon this people, or blot my name out of thy booke; or that there was no excesse in S. Pauls Anathema pro fratribus, That he wished to be accursed, to be separated from Christ for his brethren. But for Iob, we shall not need this excuse; for, either we may restraine his words to those sins, which they imputed to him, and then they have but the nature of that protestation, which David made so often to God, Iudge me, O Lord, according to my righteousnesse, according to mine innocency, according to the clean∣nesse of my hands; which was not spoken by David simply, but respectively, not of all his sins, but of those which Saul pursued him for: Or, if we enlarge Iobs words generally to all his sins, we must consider them to be spoken after his repentance, and reconciliation to God thereupon; If they knew, (may Iob have said) how it stood between God and my soule, how earnestly I have repented, how fully he hath forgiven, they would never say, these afflictions proceeded from those sins.

And truly, so may I, so may every soule say, that is rectified, refreshed, restored, re∣established by the seales of Gods pardon, and his mercy, so the world would take know∣ledge of the consequences of my sins, as well as of the sins themselves, and read my leafes on both sides, and heare the second part of my story, as well as the first; so the world would look upon my temporall calamities, the bodily sicknesses, and the penuriousnesse of my fortune contracted by my sins, and upon my spirituall calamities, dejections of spi∣rit, sadnesse of heart, declinations towards a diffidence and distrust in the mercy of God, and then, when the world sees me in this agony and bloody sweat, in this agony and bloody sweat would also see the Angels of heaven ministring comforts unto me; so they would consider me in my Peccavi, and God in his Transtulit, Me in my earnest Confessi∣ons, God in his powerfull Absolutions, Me drawne out of one Sea of blood, the blood of mine owne soule, and cast into another Sea, the bottomelesse Sea of the blood of Christ Jesus; so they would know as well what God hath done for my soule, as what my soule and body have done against my God; so they would reade me throughout, and look upon me altogether, I would joyne with Iob, in his confident adjuration, O Earth cover not thou my blood; Let all the world know all the sins of my youth, and of mine age too, and I would not doubt, but God should receive more glory, and the world more be∣nefit, then if I had never sinned. This is that that exalts Iobs confidence, he was guilty of nothing, that is, no such thing as they concluded upon, of nothing absolutely, because he had repented all. And from this, his confidence rises to a higher pitch then this, Nec clamor, O Earth cover not thou my blood, and let my cry have no place.

What meanes Iob in this? Doubtfull Expositors make us doubt too. Some have said, that Iob desires his cry might have no place, that is, no termination, no resting place, but that his just complaint might be heard over all the world; Stunnica the Augustinian in∣terprets it so. Some have said, that he intends by his cry, his crying sins, that they might have no place, that is, no hiding place, but that his greatest sins, and secret sins might be brought to light; Bolduc the Capuchin interprets it so; according to that use of the word Clamor, God looked for righteousnesse, & ecce clamorem, behold a cry; that is, sins crying in the eares of God. But there is more then so, in this phrase, in this elegancy, in this ve∣hemency of the Holy Ghost in Iobs mouth, Let my cry have no place.

In the former part, (Iobs Protestation) he considered God and man; righteousnesse to∣wards man in cleane hands, and, in pure prayers, devotion towards God. In this part, (his Manifest) he pursues the same method, he considers man, and God; Though men knew all my sins, that should not trouble me, sayes he, (and that we have considered) yea, though my cry finde no place, no place with God, that should not trouble me; I should be content that God should seeme not to heare my prayers, but that hee laid me open to that ill interpretation of wicked men, Tush, he prayes, but the Lord heares him not, he cries, but God relieves him not. And yet, when wilt thou relieve me, O thou reliever of men, if not upon my cries, upon my prayers? Yet, S. Augustine hath repea∣ted that, more then once, more then twice, Non est magnum exaudiri ad voluntatem, non est magnum; Be not over-joyed when God grants thee thy prayer. Exauditi ad voluntatem Daemones, sayes that Father, The Devill had his prayer granted, when he had leave to enter into the Heard of Swine; And so he had (sayes he, exemplifying in our present ex∣ample) when he obtained power from God against Iob. But all this aggravated the De∣vils punishment; so may it doe thine, to have some prayers granted. And, as that must not over-joy thee, if it be, so if thy prayer be not granted, it must not deject thee. God suffe∣red S. Paul to pray, and pray and pray, yet, after his thrice praying, granted him not that he prayed for. God suffered that si possibile, if it be possiblle, and that Transeat calix, Let this Cup passe, to passe from Christ himselfe, yet he granted it not.

But, in many of these cases, a man does easilier satisfie his owne minde, then other men. If God grant me not my prayer, I recover quickly, and I lay hold upon the hornes of that Altar, and ride safely at that Anchor, God saw that that which I prayed for, was not so good for him, nor so good for me. But when the world shall come to say, Where is now your Religion, where is your Reformation? doe not all other Rivers, as well as the Tiber, or the Poe, does not the Seine, and the Rhene, and the Maene too, begin to ebbe back, and to empty it selfe in the Sea of Rome? why should not your Thames doe so, as well as these other Rivers? Where is now your Religion, your Reformation? Were not you as good run in the same channell as others doe? This is a shrewd tenta∣tion, and induces opprobrious conclusions from malicious enemies, when our cries have no place, our religious service no present acceptation, our prayers no speedy return from God. But yet because even in this, God may propose farther glory to himselfe, more be∣nefit to me, and more edification even to them, at last, who, at first, made ill constructi∣ons of his proceedings, I admit, as Iob admits, O Earth cover not thou my blood, (let all the world see all my faults) and let my cry have no place, (let them imagine that God hath forsaken me, and does not heare my prayers;) my satisfaction, my acquiescence arises not out of their opinion, and interpretation, that must not be my triall, but testis in coelis, My witnesse is in heaven, and my record is on high, which is our third, and last Conside∣ration.

We must doe in this last, as we have done in our former two parts, crack a shell, to tast the kernell, cleare the words, to gaine the Doctrine. I am ever willing to assist that ob∣servation, That the books of Scripture are the eloquentest books in the world, that eve∣ry word in them hath his waight and value, his taste and verdure. And therefore must not blame those Translators, nor those Expositors, who have, with a particular elegancy, varied the words in this last clause of the Text, my witnesse, and my record. The oldest Latine Translation received this variation, and the last Latine, even Tremellius himselfe, (as close as he sticks to the Hebrew) retaines this variation, Testis, and Conscius. And that collection, which hath been made upon this variation, is not without use, that conscius may be spoken de interno, that God will beare witnesse to my inward conscience; and testis, de externo, that God will, in his time, testifie to the world in my behalfe. But other

places of Scripture will more advance that observation of the elegancy thereof, then this; for in this, the two words signifie but one and the same thing, it is but witnesse, and witnesse, and no more. Not that it is easie to finde in Hebrew (nor, perchance, in any lan∣guage) two words so absolutely Synonymous, as to signifie the same thing, without any difference, but that the two words in our Text are not both of one language, not both Hebrew. For, the first word, Gned, is an Hebrew word, but the other, Sahad, is Syriaque; and both signifie alike, and equally, testem, a witnesse. He that heares the voyce of swea∣ring, and is a witnesse, sayes Moses, in the first word of our Text; and then the Chalde Pa∣raphrase, intending the same thing, expresses it in the other word, Sahad. So in the con∣tract between Laban and Jacob, Laban calls that heap of stones, which he had erected, Iegar-Sehadutha, by an extraction from the last word of our Text, Sahad; Jacob calls it, by the first word: And the reason is given in the body of the Text it selfe, in the vulgat Edition, (though how it got thither, we know not, for, in the Originall it is not) Vter{que} juxta proprietatem lingua suae; Laban spake in his language, Syriaque, Jacob spake in his, Hebrew, and both called that heape of stones, a witnesse.

Now, our bestowing this little time upon the clearing of the words, hath saved us much more time; for, by this meanes we have shortned this clause of our Text, and all that we are to consider, is but this, My witnesse is in heaven. And truly, that is enough; I care not though all the world knew all my faults, I care not what they conclude of Gods not granting my prayers, my witnesse is in heaven. To be condemned unjustly amongst men, to be ill interpreted in the acts of my Religion, is a heavy case; but yet, I have a reliefe in all this, my witnesse is in heaven.

The first comfort is, Quia in Coelis, because he, whom I rely upon, is in heaven. For, that is the foundation and Basis upon which our Saviour erects that prayer, which he hath recommended unto us, Qui es in coelis, Our Father, which art in heaven; when I lay hold upon him there, in heaven, I pursue cheerefully and confidently all the other petitions, for daily bread, for forgivenesse of sins, for deliverance from tentations; from, and for all. Est in coelis, he is in heaven, and then Sedet in coelis, be sits in heaven; That as I see him in that posture that Stephen saw him, standing at the right hand of the Father, and so, in procinctu, in a readinesse, in a willingnesse to come to my succour, so I might contem∣plate him in a judiciary posture, in a potestative, a soveraigne posture, sitting, and consi∣der him as able, as willing to relieve me. He is in heaven, and he sits in heaven, and then habitat in coelis, he dwels in heaven, he is, and he is alwayes there. Baals Priests could not alwaies finde him at home; Iobs God, and our God is never abroad. He dwels in the heavens, and, (as it is expressed there) In excelsis, he dwels on high; so high, that, (as it is there added) God humbles himselfe, to behold the things that are in heaven. With what amazednesse must we consider the humiliation of God, in descending to the earth, lower then so, to hell, when even his descending unto heaven, is a humiliation? God humbles himselfe, when he beholds any thing lower then himselfe, though Cherubins, though Seraphins, though the humane nature, the body of his owne, and onely eternall Son; and yet he beholds, considers, studies us, wormes of the earth, and no men.

This then is Iobs, and our first comfort, Quia in coelis, because he is in heaven, and sits in heaven, and dwels in heaven, in the highest heaven, and so, sees all things. But then, if God see, and say nothing, David apprehends that for a most dangerous condition; and therefore he sayes, Be not silent, O Lord, lest if thou be silent, I perish. And againe, Hold not thy peace, O God of my praise, for the mouth of the wicked is opened against me: And, Lord, let thy mercy be as forward as their malice. And therefore, as God, from that heighth, sees all, (and the strictest examination that we put upon any Witnesse, is, that if he pre∣tend to testifie any thing upon his knowledge, we aske, how he came by that knowledge, and if he be oculatus testis, a Witnesse that saw it, this is good evidence) as God is to this purpose, all eye, and sees all, so for our farther comfort, he descends to the office of be∣ing a Witnesse, There is a Witnesse in heaven.

But then, God may be a Witnesse, and yet not my Witnesse, and in that, there is small comfort, if God be a Witnesse on my adversaries side, a Witnesse against me. Even I know, and am a Witnesse, saith the Lord; that is, a Witnesse of the sins, which I know by thee. And that is that which Iob, with so much tendernesse apprehended, Thou renewest thy witnesses against me; Thou sent'st a witnesse against me, in the Sabaeans, upon my servants; and then, thou renewedst that witnesse in the Caldaeans upon my cattell; and then, thou

renewedst that, in thy stormes and tempests, upon my children. All this while God was a Witnesse, but not his witnesse, but a witnesse on his adversaries side. Now, if our own heart, our owne conscience condemne us, this is shrewd evidence, saies S. Iohn; for mine owne conscience, single, is a thousand witnesses against me. But then, (saies the Apostle there) God is greater then the heart; for, (saies he) he knowes all things; He knowes circumstances of sinne, as well as substance; and, that, we seldome know, seldome take knowledge of. If then mine owne heart be a thousand, God, that is greater, is ten thou∣sand witnesses, if he witnesse against me. But if he be my Witnesse, a Witnesse for me, as he alwaies multiplies in his waies of mercy, he is thousands of thousands, millions of millions of witnesses in my behalfe, for there is no condemation, no possible condemnation, to them that are in him; not, if every graine of dust upon the earth were an Achitophel, and gave counsell against me, not if every sand upon the shoare were a Rabshakeh, and railed against me, not if every atome in the ayre were a Satan, an Adversary, an Accuser, not if every drop in the Sea, were an Abaddon, an Apollyon, a Destroyer, there could be no condemuation, if he be my Witnesse. If he be my Witnesse, he proceeds thus in my behalfe, his Spirit beares witnesse with my spirit, for mine inward assurance, that I stand established in his favour, and, either by an actuall deliverance, or by some such declara∣tion, as shall preserve me from fainting, if I be not actually delivered, he gives a farther testimony in my behalfe. For, he is in Heaven, and he sits in Heaven, and he dwels in Heaven, in the highest Heaven, and sees all, and is a Witnesse, and my Witnesse; there is the largenesse of our comfort.

But will all this come home to Iobs end and purpose; That he need not care though all men knew all his faults, he need not care though God passed over his prayers, because God is his Witnesse; what declarations soever he had in himselfe, would the world be∣leeve, that God testified in his behalfe, when they saw his calamities multiplied upon him, and his prayers neglected? If they will not, herein lyes his, and our finall comfort, That he that is my Witnesse, is in the highest Heaven, there is no person above him, and therefore He that is my Witnesse, is my Judge too. I shall not be tried by an arbitrary Court, where it may be wisdome enough, to follow a wise leader, and think as he thinks. I shall not be tried by a Jury, that had rather I suffered, then they fasted, rather I lost my life, then they lost a meale. Nor tryed by Peeres, where Honour shall be the Bible. But I shall be tryed by the King himselfe, then which no man can propose a Nobler tryall, and that King shall be the King of Kings too; for, He, who in the first of the Revelati∣on, is called The faithfull Witnesse, is, in the same place, called The Prince of the Kings of the earth; and, as he is there produced as a Witnesse, so, He is ordained to be the Iudge of the quick and the dedd, and so, All Iudgement is committed to him. He that is my Witnesse, is my Judge, and the same person is my Jesus, my Saviour, my Redeemer; He that hath taken my nature, He that hath given me his blood. So that he is my Witnesse, in his owne cause, and my Judge, but of his owne Title, and will, in me, preserve himselfe; He will not let that nature, that he hath invested, perish, nor that treasure, which he hath poured out for me, his blood, be ineffectuall. My Witnesse is in Heaven, my Judge is in Heaven; my Redeemer is in Heaven, and in them, who are but One, I have not onely a constant hope, that I shall be there too, but an evident assurance, that I am there already, in his Person.

Go then in this peace, That you alwaies study to preserve this testification of the Spi∣rit of God, by outward evidences of Sanctification. You are naturally composed of foure Elements, and three of those foure are evident, and unquestioned; The fourth Ele∣ment, the element of Fire, is a more litigious element, more problematicall, more dispu∣table. Every good man, every true Christian, in his Metaphysicks,(for, in a regenerate man, all is Metaphysicall, supernaturall) hath foure Elements also; and three of those foure are declared in this text. First, a good Name, the good opinion of good men, for honest dealing in the world, and religious discharge of duties towards God, That there be no injustice in our hands, Also that our prayer be pure. A second Element is a good conscience in my selfe, That either a holy warinesse before, or a holy repentance after, settle me so in God, as that I care not though all the world knew all my faults. And a third element is, my Hope in God, that my Witnesse which is in Heaven, will testifie for me, as a witnesse in my behalfe, here, or acquit me, as a mercifull Judge, hereafter. Now, there may be a fourth Element, an Infallibility of finall perseverance, grounded

upon the eternall knowledge of God; but this is, as the Element of fire, which may be, but is not, at least, is not so discernable, so demonstrable as the rest. And therefore, as men argue of the Element of fire, that whereas the other elements produce creatures in such abundance, The Earth such heards of Cattell, the Waters such shoales of Fish, the Aire such flocks of Birds, it is no unreasonable thing, to stop upon this consideration, whether there should be an element of fire, more spacious, and comprehensive then all the rest, and yet produce no Creatures; so, if thy pretended Element of Infallibility pro∣duce no creatures, no good works, no holy actions, thou maist justly doubt there is no such element in thee. In all doubts that arise in thee, still it will be a good rule, to choose that now, which thou wouldst choose upon thy death-bed. If a tentation to Beauty, to Riches, to Honour, be proposed to thee, upon such, and such conditions, consider whe∣ther thou wouldst accept that, upon those conditions, upon thy death-bed, when thou must part with them, in a few minutes. So, when thou doubtest, in what thou shouldst place thy assurance in God, thinke seriously, whether thou shalt not have more com∣fort then, upon thy death-bed, in being able to say, I have finished my course, I have fought a good fight, I have fulfilled the sufferings of Christ in my flesh, I have cloathed him when he was naked, and fed him when he was poore, then in any other thing, that thou maiest conceive God to have done for thee; And doe all the way, as thou wouldst do then; prove thy element of fire, by the creatures it produces, prove thine election by thy sanctification; for that is the right method, and shall deliver thee over, infallibly, to ever∣lasting glory at last, Amen.

SERMON XIV. Preached at VVhite-hall, March 3. 1619.

AMOS 5.18.

Woe unto you, that desire the day of the Lord: what have yee to doe with it? the day of the Lord is darknesse and not light.

FOr the presenting of the woes and judgements of God, denounced by the Prophets against Judah and Israel, and the extending and applying them to others, involved in the same sins as Judah and Israel were, Solomon seemes to have given us somewhat a cleare direction; Reprove not a scor∣ner lest he hate thee, Rebuke a wise man and he will love thee. But how if the wiseman and this scorner bee all in one man, all one person? If the wiseman of this world bee come to take S. Paul so literally at his word, as to thinke scornefully that preaching is indeed but the foolishnesse of preaching, and that as the Church is within the State, so preaching is a part of State government, flexible to the present occasions of time, appliable to the present dispositions of men; This fell upon this Pro∣phet in this prophecie, Amasias the Priest of Bethel informed the King that Amos medled with matters of State, and that the Land was not able to beare his words, and to Amos him∣selfe he saies, Eate thy bread in someother place, but prophecy here no more, for this is the Kings Chappell, and the Kings Court; Amos replies, I was no Prophet nor the son of a Prophet, but in an other course, and the Lord tooke me and said unto me, Goe and Prophecie to my People. Though we finde no Amasiah no mis-interpreting Priest here, (wee are farre from that, because we are far from having a Ieroboam to our King as he had, easie to give eare, easie to give credit to false informations) yet every man that comes with Gods Message hi∣ther, brings a little Amasiah of his owne, in his owne bosome, a little wisperer in his owne heart, that tels him, This is the Kings Chappell, and it is the Kings Court, and these woes and judgements, and the denouncers and proclaimers of them are not so acceptable here. But we must have our owne Amos, aswell as our Amasias, this answer to this suggesti∣on, I was no Prophet, and the Lord tooke me and bad me prophecy. What shall I doe?

And besides, since the woe in this Text is not S. Iohns wo? his iterated, his multiplied wo, Vae, vae, vae habitantibus terram, a woe of desolation upon the whole world (for God loves this world, as the worke of his owne hands, as the subject of his providence, as the Scene of his glory, as the Garden-plot that is watered by the Blood of his Son:) Since the Woe in this Text is not Esaies wo, Vae genti peccatrici, an increpation and commination upon our whole Nation (for God hath not come so neare to any Nation, and dealt so well with any Nation as with ours:) Since the Woe in this Text is not Ezekiels Woe, Vae Civitati sanguinum, an imputation of injustice or oppression, and consequently of a male∣diction laid upon the whole City (for God hath carried his woes upon other Cities, Vae Chorasin, vae Bethsaida; God hath laid his heavy hand of warre and other calamities upon other Cities, that this City might see her selfe and her calamities long before in that glasse, and so avoid them:) Since the Woe in this Text, is not the Prophets other woe, Vae domui, not a woe upon any family (for when any man in his family comes to Ioshua's protestation, Ego & domus mea, As for me and my house we will serve the Lord, the Lord comes to his protestation, In mille generationes, I will shew mercy to thee and thy house for a thousand generations:) Since the Woe in this Text, is not Esaies woe againe, Vae Coronae, (for, the same Prophet tels us of what affection they are, that they are Idolaters, persons inclin'd to an idolatrous and superstitious Religion, and fret themselves, and curse the King and their God; we know that the Prophets Vae Coronae in that place is Vae Coronae superbiae, and the crowne and heighth of Pride is in him, who hath set himselfe above all that is called God. Christian Princes know that if their Crownes were but so as they seeme (all gold) they should bee but so much the heavier for being all gold; but they are but Crownes of thornes gilded, specious cares, glorious troubles, and therefore no sub∣ject of pride:) To contract this, since the Woe in this Text, is no State woe, nor Church woe, for it is not Ezechiels Vae Pastoribus insipientibus, which cannot feed their flock, nor Ieremies Vae Pastoribus disperdentibus, Woe unto those lazie Shepheards, which doe not feed their flock but suffer them to scatter: Snce the Woe in this Text is not a woe upon the whole World, nor upon the whole Nation, nor upon the whole City, nor upon any whole Family, nor upon any whole ranke or calling of men, when I have asked with Solomon, Cui vae? to whom belongs this woe? I must answer with S. Paul, Vae mihi, woe unto me if I doe not tell them to whom it belongs. And therefore since in spirituall things especially charity begins with it selfe, I shall transferre this Vae from my selfe, by laying it upon them, whom your owne conscience shall find it to belong unto; Vae deside∣rantibus diem Domini; Woe be unto them that desire the day of the Lord, &c.

But yet if these words can be narrow in respect of persons, it is strange, for in respect of the sins that they are directed upon, they have a great compasse; they reach from that high fin of Presumption, and contempt, and deriding the day of the Lord, the judgements of God, and they passe through the sin of Hypocrisie, when we make shift to make the world, and to make our selves beleeve that we are in good case towards God, and would be glad that the day of the Lord, the day of judgement would come now; and then they come downe to the deepest sin, the sin of Desperation, of an unnaturall valuing of this life, when overwhelmed with the burden of other sins, or with Gods punishment for them; men grow to a murmuring wearinesse of this life, and to an impatient desire, and perchance to a practise of their owne ends: In the first acceptation, the day of the Lord is the day of his Judgements and afflictions in this life; In the second, the day of the Lord is the day of the generall judgement; And in the third, the day of the Lord, is that Cre∣pusculum that twilight betweene the two lives, or rather that Meridies noctis, as the Poet cals it, that noone of night, the houre of our death and transmigration out of this world. And if any desire any of these daies of the Lord, out of any of these indispositions, out of presumption, out of hypocrisie, out of desperation, he fals within the compasse of this Text, and from him we cannot take off this Vae desiderantibus.

First then the Prophet directs himself most literally upon the first sin of Presumpti∣on. They were come to say, that in truth whatsoever the Prophet declaimed in the streets, there was no such thing as Dies Domini, any purpose in God to bring such hea∣vy judgements upon them; to the Prophets themselves they were come to say, You your selves live parched and macerated in a starved and penurious fortune, and therefore you cry out that all we must die of famine too, you your selves have not a foot of land a mong all the Tribes, & therfore you cry out that all the Tribes must be carried into ano∣ther

Land in Captivity. That which you call the Day of the Lord is come upon you, beggery, and nakednesse, and hunger, contempt, and affliction, and imprisonment is come upon you, and therefore you will needs extend this day upon the whole State, but desideramus, we would fain see any such thing come to passe, we would fain see God goe about to do any such thing, as that the State should not be wise enough to prevent him. To see a Prophet neglected, because he will not flatter, to see him despised below, be∣cause he is neglected above, to see him injured, insulted upon, and really damnified, be∣cause he is despised, All this is dies mundi, and not dies Domini, it is the ordinary course of the world, and no extraordinary day of the Lord, but that there should be such a stu∣por and consternation of minde and conscience as you talk of, and that that should be so expressed in the countenance, that they which had been purer then snow, whiter then milk, redder then Rubies, smoother then Saphirs, should not only be, as in other cases, pale with a sudden feare, but blacker in face then a coale, as the Prophet sayes there, that they should not be able to set a good face upon their miseries, nor disguise them with a confident countenance, that there should be such a consternation of countenance and conscience, and then such an excommunication of Church and State, as that the whole body of the children of Israel should be without King, without Sacrifice, without Ephod, without Tera∣fim, Desideramus, We would fain see such a time, we would fain see such a God as were so much too hard for us.

They had seen such a God before, they had known that that God had formerly brought all the people upon the face of the earth so neare to an annihilation, so neare to a new creation, as to be but eight persons in the generall flood, they had seen that God to have brought their own numerous, and multitudinous Nation, their 600000. men that came out of Aegypt to that paucity, as that but two of them are recorded to enter into the land of promise, And could they doubt what that God could do, or would do upon them? Or as Ieremy saith, Could they belie the Lord, and say it is not he? neither shall evill come up∣on us, or shall we see sword and famine? God expressed his anger thrice upon this people, in their State, in their form of government, First he exprest it in giving them a King, for though that be the best form of government in it self, yet for that people at that time, God saw it not to be the fittest, and so it was extorted from him, and he gave them their King in anger. Secondly, he expressed his anger in giving them two Kings in the de∣section of the ten Tribes, and division of the two Kingdomes. Thirdly, he exprest his anger in leaving them without any King after this Captivity which was prophesied here.

Now of those 6000. yeares, which are vulgarly esteemed to be the age and terme of this world, 3000. were past before the division of the Kingdome, and presently upon the division, they argued à divisibili ad corruptibile, whatsoever may be broken and divided may come to nothing. It is the devils way to come to destruction by breaking of unions. There was a contract between God and Iob, because Iob loved and feared him, and there the devill attempts to draw away the head from the union, God from Iob, with that sug∣gestion, Doth Iob serve thee for nothing? Doest thou get any thing by this union? or doth not Iob serve himself upon thee? There was a naturall, an essentiall, an eternall union between the Father and the Son in the Trinity, and the devill sought to break that. If he could break the union in the Godhead, he saw not why he might not destroy the God∣head. The devill was Logician good enough, Omne divisibile corruptibile, whatsoever may be broken, may be annihilated. And the devill was Papist good enough, Schisma aequipollet haeresi, Whosoever is a Schismatick, departed from the obedience of the Ro∣mane Church, is easily brought within compasse of heresie too, because it is a matter of faith to affirm a necessity of such an obedience. And therefore the devil attempts to make that Schisme in the Trinity, with that, Si filius Deies, Make these stones bread, If thou beest the Son of God, cast thy self down from this Pinnacle, that is, do something of thy self, exceed thy commission, and never attend so punctually all thy directions from thy Fa∣ther. In Iobs case he would draw the head from the union; In Christs case he would alienate the Son from the Father, because division is the fore runner (and alas, but a lit∣tle way the fore-runner) of destruction. And therefore assoon as that Kingdome was come to a division between ten and two Tribes, between a King of Judah, and a King of Israel, presently upon it, and in the compasse of a very short time arose all those Prophets that prophesied of a destruction; assoon as they saw a division, they foresaw a destructi∣on. And therefore when God had shewed before what he could doe, and declared by his

Prophets then what he would doe, Vae desiderantibus, Woe unto them that say, Let him make speed and hasten his work, that we may see it: That is, that are yet confident that no such thing shall fall upon us, and confident with a scorn, and fulfill that which the Apostle saith, There shall come in the latter daies scoffers, saying, Where is the promise of his comming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning at the Crea∣tion. But God shall answer their scorn with scorn, as in Ezekiel, Son of man, What is that Proverb which you have in the Land of Israel, saying, The dayes are prolonged, and eve∣ry vision failes? That is, the Prophets talk of great calamities, but we are safe enough, Tell them (sayes the Lord) I will make their proverb to cease, I will speak and it shall come to passe; in your dayes, O rebellious house, will I say the word, and per-form it.

And therefore ut quid vobis? what should you pretend to desire that day? what can ye get by that day? Because you have made a covenant with death, and are at an agreement with hell, when that Invadens flagellum, (as the Prophet with an elegant horror, if they can consist, expresses it) when that over-flowing scourge shall passe through, shall it not come to you? Why? who are you? have you thought of it before hand, considered it, digested it, and resol∣ved, that in the worst that can fall, your vocall constancy, and your humane valour shall sustaine you from all dejection of spirit? what judgement of God soever shall fall upon you, whensoever this dies Domini shall break out upon you, you have light in your selves, and by that light you shall see light, and passe through all incommodities. Be not decei∣ved, this day of the Lord is darknesse and not light, the first blast, the first breath of his indignation blowes out thy candle, extinguishes all thy Wisedome, all thy Counsells, all thy Philosophicall sentences, disorders thy Seneca, thy Plutarch, thy Tacitus, and all thy premeditations; for the sword of the Lord is a two-edged sword, it cuts bodily, and it cuts ghostly, it cuts temporally, and it cuts spiritually, it cuts off all worldly reliefe from others, and it cuts off all Christian patience, and good interpretation of Gods correction in thine owne heart.

Vt quid vobis? what can you get by that day? can you imagine that though you have beene benighted under your owne obduration and security before, yet when this day of the Lord, the day of affliction shall come, afflictio dabit intellectum, the day will bring light of it selfe, the affliction will give understanding, and it will be time enough to see the danger and the remedy both at once, and to turne to God by that light, which that affliction shall give? Be not deceived, dies Domini tenebrae, this day of the Lord will be darknesse and not light. God hath made two great lights for man, the Sun, and the Moone; God doth manifest himselfe two waies to man, by prosperity, and adversity; but if there were no Sun, there would be no light in the Moone neither; If there be no sense of God in thy greatnesse, in thy abundance, it is a dark time to seek him in the clouds of affliction, and heavinesse of heart. Experience teacheth us, that if we be reading any book in the evening, if the twilight surprise us, and it growes dark, yet we can reade lon∣ger in that book which we were in before, then if we took a new book of another subject into our hands: If we have been accustomed to the contemplation of God in the Sun∣shine of prosperity, we shall see him better in the night of misery, then if we began but then, Vae desiderantibus. If you seem to desire that day of the Lord, because you doe not beleeve that that day will come, or because you beleeve that when that day comes, it will be time enough to rectifie your selves, then, Vi quod vobis? this day shall be good for nothing to either of you, for to both you it shall be darknesse, and not light.

The dayes which God made for man were darknesse, and then light, still the evening and the morning made up the day. The day which the Lord shall bring upon secure and carnall men, is darknesse without light, judgements without any beames of mercy shine through them, such judgements, as if we will consider the vehemency of them, we shall finde them expressed in such an extraordinary heighth, as scarce anywhere else in Iercmy, Men shall ask one of another if they be in labour, whether they travell with childe. Wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loines, as a woman in travell? Alas, because that day is great, and none is like it. This is the unexpected and unconsidered strangenesse of that day, if we consider the vehemency, and if we consider the suddennesse, the speed of bringing that day upon secure man. That is intimated very sufficiently in another story of the same Prophet, that when he had said to the Prophet Hananiah, That he should die within a year, when God saith, his judgements shall come shortly, if then we consider the vehemency, or the nearnesse of the day of the Lord, the day of his visitation, we shall be

glad to say with that Prophet, As for me I have not desired that wofull day thou knowest, that is, I have neither doubted but that there shall be such a day, nor I have not put off my repentance to that day, for what can that do good to either of those dispositions, when to them it shall be darknesse, and not light?

Now this Woe of this Prophet thus denounced against contemptuous scorners of the day of the Lord, as that day signifies afflictions in this life, have had no subject to work up∣on this congregation (as by Gods grace there is none of that distemper here) it is a piece of a Sermon well lost; and God be blessed that it hath had no use, that no body needed it. But as the Woe is denounced in the second acceptation against Hypocrites, so it is a chain-shot, and in every congregation takes whole rankes, and here Dies Domini is the last day of Judgement, and the desire in the Text is not, as before, a denying that any such day should be, but it is an hypocriticall pretence, that we have so well performed our du∣ties, as that we should be glad if that day would come, and then the darknesse of the Text is everlasting condemnation.

For this day of the Lord then, the last day of judgement, consider only, or reflect on∣ly upon these three circumstances: First, there is Lex violata, a law given to thee and bro∣ken by thee. Secondly, there is Testis prolatus, Evidence produced against thee, and con∣fessed by thee. And then there is Sententia lata, A judgement given against thee, and executed upon thee.

For the Law first, when that Law is To love God with all thy power, not to scatter thy love upon any other creature, when the Law is not to do, not to covet any ill, wilt thou say this Law doth not concern me, because it is impossible in it self, for this coveting, this first concupiscence is not in a mans own power? Why, this Law was possible to man, when it was given to man, for it was naturally imprinted in the heart of man, when man was in his state of innocency, and then it was possible, and the impossibility that is grown in∣to it since, is by mans own fault. Man by breaking the Law, hath made the Law impos∣sible, and himself inexcusable; wilt thou say with that man in the Gospell, Omnia haec à juventute, I have kept all this Law from my youth? From thy youth? remember thy youth well, and what Law thou keptst then, and thou wilt finde it to be another Law, Lex in membris, A Law of the flesh warring against the Law of the minde, nay thou wilt finde that thou didst never maintain a war against that Law of the flesh, but wast glad that thou camest to the obedience of that Law so soon, and art sorry thou canst follow that Law no longer.

This is the Law, and wilt thou put this to triall? Wilt thou say who can prove it? Who comes in to give evidence against me? All those whom thy sollicitations have o∣vercome, and who have overcome thy sollicitations, good and bad, friends and enemies, Wives and Mistresses, persons most incompatible, and contrary, here shall joyne toge∣ther, and be of the Jury. If S. Pauls case were so far thy case, as that thou wert in righ∣teousnesse unblameable, no man, no woman able to testifie against thee, yet when the records of all thoughts shall be laid open, and a retired and obscure man shall appeare to have been as ambitious in his Cloister, as a pretending man at the Court, and a retired woman in her chamber, appeare to be as licentious as a prostitute woman in the Stews, when the heart shall be laid open, and this laid open too, that some sins of the heart are the greatest sins of all (as Infidelity, the greatest sin of all, is rooted in the heart) and sin produced to action, is but a dilatation of that sin, and all dilatation is some degree of ex∣tenuation, (The body sometimes grows weary of acting some sin, but the heart never grows weary of contriving of sin.)

When this shall be that Law, and this the Evidence, what can be the Sentence, but that, Itemaledicti, Go ye accursed into ever lasting fire? where it is not as in the form of our judgement here, You shall be carried to the place of execution, but Ite, Goe, our own con∣sciences shall be our executioners, and precipitate us into that condemnation. It is not a Captivity of Babylon for 70. yeares, (and yet 70. yeares is the time of mans life, and why might not so many yeares punishment, expiate so many yeares sinfull pleasure?) but it is 70. millions of millions of generations, for they shall live so long in hell, as God himself in heaven; It is not an imprisonment during the Kings pleasure, but during the Kings displeasure, whom nothing can please nor reconcile, after he shall have made up that account with his Son, and told him, These be all you dyed for, these be all you pur∣chased, these be all whom I am bound to save for your sake, for the rest, their portion is everlasting destruction.

Under this law, under this evidence, under this sentence, vae desiderantibus, woe to them that pretend to desire this day of the Lord, as though by their owne outward righ∣teousnesse, they could stand upright in this judgement. Woe to them that say, Let God come when he will, it shall goe hard, but he shall finde me at Church, I heare three or foure Sermons a week; he shall finde me in my Discipline and Mortification, I fast twice a week; he shall finde me in my Stewardship and Dispensation, I give tithes of all that I possesse. When Ezechias shewed the Ambassadors of Babylon all his Treasure and his Armour, the malediction of the Prophet fell upon it, that all that Treasure and Armour which he had so gloriously shewed, should be transported to them, to whom he had shew∣ed it, into Babylon. He that publishes his good works to the world, they are carried into the world, and that is his reward. Not that there is not a good use of letting our light shine before men too; for when S. Paul sayes, If I yet please men, I should not be the servant of Christ; and when he saith, I doe please all men in all things: S. Austine found no difficulty in reconciling those two; Navem quaero, sayes he, sed & patriam, When I goe to the Ha∣ven to hire a Ship, it is for the love I have to my Country; When I declare my faith by my works to men, it is for the love I beare to the glory of God; but if I desire the Lords day upon confidence in these works, vae scirpo, as Iob expresses it, woe unto me poore rush, for (sayes he) the rush is greene till the Sun come, that is, sayes Gregory upon that place, donec divina districtio in judicio candeat, till the fire of the judgement examine our works, they may have some verdure, some colour, but vae desiderantibus, wo unto them that put them∣selves unto that judgement for their works sake.

For ut quid vobis? to what end is it for you? If your hypocriticall security could hold out to the last, if you could delude the world at the last gasp, if those that stand about you then could be brought to say, he went away like a Lambe, alas the Lambe of God went not away so, the Lamb of God had his colluctations, disputations, expostulations, appre∣hensions of Gods indignation upon him then: This security, call it by a worse name, stupidity, is not a lying down like a Lamb, but a lying down like Issachers Asse between two burdens, for two greater burdens cannot be, then sin, and the senslesnesse of sin. Vt quid vobis? what will ye doe at that day, which shall be darknesse and not light? God dwels in luce inaccessibili, in such light as no man by the light of nature can comprehend here, but when that light of grace which was shed upon thee here, should have brought thee at last to that inaccessible light, then thou must be cast in tenebras exteriores, into darknesse, and darknesse without the Kingdome of heaven. And if the darknesse of this world, which was but a darknesse of our making, could not comprehend the light, when Christ in his person, brought the light and offered repentance, certainly in that outward darknesse of the next world, the darknesse which God hath made for punishment, they shall see nothing, neither intramittendo, nor extramittendo, neither by receiving offer of grace from heaven, nor in the disposition to pray for grace in hell. For as at our inanimati∣on in our Mothers womb, our immortall soule when it comes, swallowes up the other soules of vegetation, and of sense, which were in us before; so at this our regeneration in the next world, the light of glory shall swallow up the light of grace. To as many as shall be within, there will need no grace to supply defects, nor eschew dangers, because there we shall have neither defects nor dangers. There shall be no night, no need of candle, nor of Sun, for the Lord shall give them light, and they shall raigne for ever and ever. There shall be no such light of grace, as shall work repentance to them that are in the light of glory; neither could they that are in outward darknesse, comprehend the light of grace, if it could flow out upon them. First, you did the works of darknesse, sayes the Apostle, and then that custome, that practice brought you to love darknesse better then light; and then as the Prince of darknesse delights to transforme himselfe into an Angell of light; so by your hypocrisie you pretend a light of grace, when you are darknesse it selfe, and therefore, at quid vobis? what will you get by that day which is darknesse and not light?

Now as this Woe and commination of our Prophet had one aime, to beat down their scorne which derided the judgements of God in this world, and a second aime to beat downe their confidence, that thought themselves of themselves able to stand in Gods judgements in the next world; so it hath a third mark better then these two, it hath an aime upon them in whom a wearinesse of this life, when Gods corrections are upon them, or some other mistaking of their owne estate and case, works an over-hasty and impatient

desire of death, and in this sense and acceptation, the day of the Lord is the day of our death and transmigration out of this world, and the darknesse is still everlasting darknesse. Now for this we take our lesson in Iob, Vita militia, mans life is a warfare; man might have lived at peace, he himselfe chose a rebellious warre, and now quod volens expetiit nolens portat, that warre which he willingly embarked himselfe in at first, though it be against his will now, he must goe through with. In Iob we have our lesson, and in S. Paul we have our Law, Take ye the whole armour of God, that ye may be able having done all to stand; that is, that having overcome one temptation, you may stand in battle against the next, for it is not adoloscentia militia, but vita; that we should think to triumph if we had overcome the heat and intemperance of youth, but we must fight it out to our lives end. And then we have the reward of this lesson, and of this law limited, nemo coronatur, no man is crow∣ned, except he fight according to this law that is, he persever to the end. And as we have our lesson in Iob, our rule and reward in the Apostle, who were both great Commanders in the warfare; so we have our example in our great Generall, Christ Jesus, Who though his soul were heavy, and heavy unto death, though he had a baptisme to be baptised with, & coarctaba∣tur, he was straightned, and in paine till it were accomplished, and though he had power to lay down his soul, and take it up againe, and no man else could take it from him, yet he sought it out to the last houre, and till his houre came, he would not prevent it, nor lay downe his soule. Vae desi∣derantibus, woe unto them that desire any other end of Gods correction, but what he hath ordained and appointed, for ut quid vobis? what shall you get by choosing your owne wayes? Tenebrae & non lux; They shall passe out of this world, in this inward darknesse of melancholy, and dejection of spirit, into the outward darknesse, which is an everlasting exclusion from the Father of lights, and from the Kingdome of joy; their case is well expressed in the next verse to our Text, they shall flie from a Lyon, and a Beare shall meet them, they shall leane on a wall, and a Serpent shall bite them; they shall end this life by a miserable and hasty death, and out of that death shall grow an immortall life in torments, which no wearinesse, nor desire, nor practice can ever bring to an end.

And here in this acceptation of these words, this vae falls directly upon them who co∣louring and apparelling treason in martyrdome, expose their lives to the danger of the Law, & embrace death; these of whom one of their own society saith, that the Scevolaes, the Caves, the Porciaes, the Cleopatraes of the old time, were nothing to the Jesuites, for saith he, they could dye once, but they lacked courage ad multas mortes; perchance hee meanes, that after those men were once in danger of the Law, and forfeited their lives by one comming, they could come again and again, as often as the plentifull mercy of their King would send them away, Rapiunt mortem spontanea irruptione, sayes he to their glo∣ry, they are voluntary and violent pursuers of their own death, and as he expresses it, Cre∣deres morbo adesos, you would think that the desire of death is a disease in them; A graver man then he mistakes their case and cause of death as much, you are (saith he, incouraging those of our Nation to the pursuit of death) in sacris septis ad martyrium saginati, fed up and fatned here for martyrdome, & Sacramento sanguinem spospondistis, they have taken an oath that they will be hanged, but that he in whom (as his great patterne God himselfe) mercy is above all his works, out of his abundant sweetnesse makes them perjured when they have so Tworne and vowed their owne ruine. But those that send them, give not the lives of these men so freely, so cheaply as they pretend. But as in dry Pumps, men poure in a little water, that they may pump up more; so they are content to drop in a little blood of imaginary, but traiterous Martyrs, that, by that at last they may draw up at last the royall blood of Princes, and the loyall blood of Subjects; vae desiderantibus, woe to them that are made thus ambitious of their owne ruine, ut quid vobis? Tenebrae & non lux, you are kept in darknesse in this world, and sent into darknesse from heaven into the next, and so your ambition, ad multas mortes, shall be satisfied, you dye more then one death, morte moriemini, this death delivers you to another, from which you shall never be delivered.

We have now past through these three acceptations of these words, which have falne into the contemplation, and meditation of the Ancients in their Expositions of this Text; as this dark day of the Lord, signifies his judgements upon Atheisticall scorners in this world, as it signifies his last irrevocable, and irremediable judgements upon hypocriticall relyers upon their own righteousnesse in the next world, and between both, as it signifies their uncomfortable passage out of this life, who bring their death inordinately upon themselves; and we shall shut up all with one signification more of the Lords day, That,

that is the Lords day, of which the whole Lent is the Vigil, and the Eve. All this time of mortification; and our often meeting in this place to heare of our mortality, and our im∣mortality, which are the two reall Texts, and Subjects of all our Sermons; All this time is the Eve of the Resurrection of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. That is the Lords day, when all our mortification, and dejection of spirit, and humbling of our soules, shall be abundantly exalted in his resurrection, and when all our fasts and abstinence shall be abundantly recompenced in the participation of his body & his bloud in the Sacrament; Gods Chancery is alwayes open, and his seale works alwaies; at all times remission of sins may be sealed to a penitent soule in the Sacrament. That clause which the Chancel∣lors had in their Patents under the Romane Emperours, Vt praerogativamgerat conscientiae nostrae, is in our commission too, for God hath put his conscience into his Church, & whose sins are remitted there, are remitted in heaven at all times; but yet dies Domini, the Lords resurrection is as the full Terme, a more generall application of this seale of reconciliati∣on: But vae desiderantibus, woe unto them that desire that day, only because they would have these dayes of preaching, and prayer, and fasting, and trouble some preparation past and gone. Vae desiderantibus, woe unto them who desire that day, onely, that by rece••∣••ing the Sacrament day, that they might delude the world, as though they were not of a contrary religion in their heart; vae desiderantibus, woe unto them who present themselves that day without such a preparation as becomes so fearful and mystesious an action, upon any carnall or collaterall respects. Before that day of the Lord comes, comes the day of his crucifying; before you come to that day, if you come not to a crucifying of your selves to the world, and the world to you, ut quid vobis? what shall you get by that day? you shall prophane that day, and the Author of it, as to make that day of Christs tri∣umph, the triumph of Satan, and to make even that body and bloud of Christ Jesus, Vehi∣culum Satanae, his Chariot to enter into you, as he did into Iudas. That day of the Lord will be darknesse and not light, and that darknesse will be, that you shall not discerne the Lords body, you shall scatter all your thoughts upon wrangling and controversies, de mo∣do, how the Lords body can be there, and you shall not discerne by the effects, nor in your owne conscience, that the Lords body is there at all. But you shall take it to be onely an obedience to civill or Ecclesiasticall constitutions, or onely a testimony of outward con∣formity, which should be signaculum & viaticum, a seale of pardon for past sins, and a pro∣vision of grace against future. But he that is well prepared for this, strips himselfe of all these vae desiderantibus, of all these comminations that belong to carnall desires, and he shall be as Daniel was, vir desideriorum, a man of chast and heavenly desires onely; hee shall desire that day of the Lord, as that day signifies affliction here, with David, Bonum est mihi quòd humiliasti me, I am mended by my sicknesse, enriched by my poverty; and strengthened by my weaknesse; and with S. Bern. desire, Irascar is mihi Domine, O Lord be angry with me, for if thou chidest me not, thou considerest me not, if I taste no bitter∣nesse, I have no Physick; If thou correct me not, I am not thy son: And he shall desire that day of the Lord, as that day signifies, the last judgement, with the desire of the Martyrs under the Altar, Vsquequo Domine? How long, O Lord, ere thou execute judgement? And he shall desire this day of the Lord, as this day is the day of his own death, with S. Pauls desire, Cupio dissolvi, I desire to be dissolved, and to be with Christ. And when this day of the Lord, as it is the day of the Lords resurrection shall come, his soule shall be satified as with marrow, and with fatnesse, in the body and bloud of his Saviour, and in the participation of all his merits, as intirely, as if all that Christ Jesus hath said, and done, and suffered, had beene said, and done, and suffered for his soule alone. Enlarge our daies, O Lord, to that blessed day, prepare us before that day, seale to us at that day, ratifie to us after that day, all the daies of our life, an assurance in that Kingdome, which thy Son our Saviour hath purcha∣sed for us, with the inestimable price of his incorruptible bloud, To which glorious Son of God, &c.

SERMON XV. Preached at VVhite-hall, March 8. 1621.

1 COR. 15.26.

The last Enemie that shall be destroyed, is Death.

THis is a Text of the Resurrection, and it is not Easter yet; but it is Easter Eve; All Lent, is but the Vigill, the Eve of Easter: to so long a Festivall as never shall end, the Resurrection, wee may well begin the Eve betimes. Forty yeares long was God grieved for that Generation which he loved; let us be content to humble our selves forty daies, to be fitter for that glory which we expect. In the Booke of God there are many Songs; there is but one Lamen∣tation: And that one Song of Solomon, nay some one of Davids hundred and fiftie Psalmes, is longer then the whole booke of Lamentations. Make way to an everlasting Easter by a short Lent, to an undeterminable glory, by a temporary humiliation. You must weepe these teares, teares of contrition, teares of mortification, before God will wipe all teares from your eyes; You must dye this death, this death of the righteous, the death to sin, before this last enemy, Death, shalbe destroyed in you, and you made par∣takers of everlasting life in soule and body too.

Our division shall be but a short, and our whole exercise but a larger paraphrase upon the words. The words imply first, That the Kingdome of Christ, which must be perfe∣cted, must be accomplished, (because all things must be subdued unto him) is not yet per∣fected, not accomplished yet. Why? what lacks it? It lacks the bodies of Men, which yet lie under the dominion of another. When we shall also see by that Metaphor which the Holy Ghost chooseth to expresse that in, which is that there is Hostis, and so Militia, an enemie, and a warre, and therefore that Kingdome is not perfected, that he places perfect happinesse, and perfect glory, in perfect peace. But then how far is any State con∣sisting of many men, how far the state, and condition of any one man in particular, from this perfect peace? How truly a warfare is this life, if the Kingdome of Heaven it selfe, have not this peace in perfection? And it hath it not, Quia hostis, because there is an enemy: though that enemy shall not overthrow it, yet because it plots, and workes, and machinates, and would overthrow it, this is a defect in that peace.

Who then is this enemy? An enemy that may thus far thinke himselfe equall to God, that as no man ever saw God, and lived; so no man ever saw this enemy and lived, for it is Death; And in this may thinke himselfe in number superiour to God, that many men live who shall never see God; But Quis homo, is Davids question, which was never an∣swered, Is there any man that lives, and shall not see death? An enemie that is so well victualled against man, as that he cannot want as long as there are men, for he feeds up∣on man himselfe. And so well armed against Man, as that he cannot want Munition, while there are men, for he fights with our weapons, our owne faculties, nay our cala∣mities, yea our owne pleasures are our death. And therefore he is Novissimus hostis, saith the Text, The last enemy.

We have other Enemies; Satan about us, sin within us; but the power of both those, this enemie shall destroy; but when they are destroyed, he shall retaine a hostile, and tri∣umphant dominion over us. But Vsque quo Domine? How long O Lord? for ever? No, Abolebitur: wee see this Enemy all the way, and all the way we feele him; but we shall see him destroyed; Abolebitur. But how? or when? At, and by the resurrection of our bodies: for as upon my expiration, my transmigration from hence, as soone as my soule enters into Heaven, I shall be able to say to the Angels, I am of the same stuffe as you, spirit, and spirit, and therefore let me stand with you, and looke upon the face of your God, and my God, so at the Resurrection of this body, I shall be able to say to the Angel

of the great Councell, the Son of God, Christ Jesus himselfe, I am of the same stuffe as you, Body and body, Flesh and flesh, and therefore let me sit downe with you, at the right hand of the Father in an everlasting security from this last enemie, who is now destroyed, death. And in these seven steps we shall passe apace, and yet cleerely through this paraphrase.

We begin with this; That the Kingdome of Heaven hath not all that it must have to a consummate perfection, till it have bodies too. In those infinite millions of millions of generations, in which the holy, blessed, and glorious Trinity enjoyed themselves one another, and no more, they thought not their glory so perfect, but that it might receive an addition from creatures; and therefore they made a world, a materiall world, a corpo∣reall world, they would have bodies. In that noble part of that world which Moses cals the Firmament, that great expansion from Gods chaire to his footstoole, from Heaven to earth, there was a defect, which God did not supply that day, nor the next, but the fourth day, he did; for that day he made those bodies, those great, and lightsome bodies, the Sunne, and Moone, and Starres, and placed them in the Firmament. So also the Hea∣ven of Heavens, the Presence Chamber of God himselfe, expects the presence of our bodies.

No State upon earth, can subsist without those bodies, Men of their owne. For men that are supplied from others, may either in necessity, or in indignation, be withdrawne, and so that State which stood upon forraine legs, sinks. Let the head be gold, and the armes silver, and the belly brasse, if the feete be clay, Men that may slip, and molder away, all is but an Image, all is but a dreame of an Image: for forraine helps are rather crutches then legs. There must be bodies, Men, and able bodies, able men; Men that eate the good things of the land, their owne figges and olives; Men not macerated with extortions: They are glorified bodies that make up the kingdome of Heaven; bodies that partake of the good of the State, that make up the State. Bodies, able bodies, and lastly, bodies inanimated with one soule: one vegetative soule, all must be sensible and com∣passionate of one anothers miserie; and especially the Immortall soule, one supreame soule, one Religion. For as God hath made us under good Princes, a great example of all that, Abundance of Men, Men that live like men, men united in one Religion, so wee need not goe farre for an example of a slippery, and uncertaine being, where they must stand upon others Mens men, and must over-load all men with exactions, and distortions, and convulsions, and earthquakes in the multiplicity of Religions.

The Kingdome of Heaven must have bodies; Kingdomes of the earth must have them; and if upon the earth thou beest in the way to Heaven, thou must have a body too, a body of thine owne, a body in thy possession: for thy body hath thee, and not thou it, if thy body tyrannize over thee. If thou canst not withdraw thine eye from an object of tentation, or withhold thy hand from subscribing against thy conscience, nor turne thine eare from a popular, and seditious Libell, what hast thou towards a man? Thou hast no soule, nay thou hast no body: There is a body, but thou hast it not, it is not thine, it is not in thy power. Thy body will rebell against thee even in a sin: It will not performe a sin, when, and where thou wouldst have it. Much more will it rebell against any good worke, till thou have imprinted Stigmata Iesu, The Markes of the Lord Iesus, which were but exemplar in him, but are essentiall, and necessary to thee, absti∣nencies, and such discreete disciplines, and mortifications, as may subdue that body to thee, and make it thine: for till then it is but thine enemy, and maintaines a warre against thee; and war, and enemie is the Metaphore which the holy Ghost hath taken here to expresse a want, a kind of imperfectnesse even in Heaven it selfe. Bellum Symbolum mali. As peace is of all goodnesse, so warre is an embleme, a Hieroglyphique, of all misery; And that is our second step in this paraphrase.

If the feete of them that preach peace, be beautifull, (And, O how beautifull are the feete of them that preach peace? The Prophet Isaiah askes the question, 52.7. And the Pro∣phet Nahum askes it, 1.15. and the Apostle S. Paul askes it, Rom. 10.15. They all aske it, but none answers it) who shall answer us, if we aske, How beautifull is his face, who is the Author of this peace, when we shall see that in the glory of Heaven, the Center of all true peace? It was the inheritance of Christ Jesus upon the earth, he had it at his birth, he brought it with him, Glory be to God on high, peace upon earth. It was his purchase upon earth, He made peace (indeed he bought peace) through the blood of his Crosse. It was his

Testament, when he went from earth; Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you. Divide with him in that blessed Inheritance, partake with him in that blessed Purchase, enrich thy selfe with that blessed Legacy, his Peace.

Let the whole world be in thy consideration as one house; and then consider in that, in the peacefull harmony of creatures, in the peacefull succession, and connexion of causes, and effects, the peace of Nature. Let this Kingdome, where God hath blessed thee with a being, be the Gallery, the best roome of that house, and consider in the two walls of that Gallery, the Church and the State, the peace of a royall, and a religious Wisedome; Let thine owne family be a Cabinet in this Gallery, and finde in all the boxes thereof, in the severall duties of Wife, and Children, and servants, the peace of vertue, and of the father and mother of all vertues, active discretion, passive obedience; and then lastly, let thine owne bosome be the secret box, and reserve in this Cabinet, and then the best Jewell in the best Cabinet, and that in the best Gallery of the best house that can be had, peace with the Creature, peace in the Church, peace in the State, peace in thy house, peace in thy heart, is a faire Modell, and a lovely designe even of the hea∣venly Jerusalem which is Visio pacis, where there is no object but peace.

And therefore the holy Ghost to intimate to us, that happy perfectnesse, which wee shall have at last, and not till then, chooses the Metaphor of an enemy, and enmity, to avert us from looking for true peace from any thing that presents it selfe in the way. Neither truly could the holy Ghost imprint more horror by any word, then that which intimates war, as the word enemy does. It is but a little way that the Poet hath got in de∣scription of war, Iam seges est, that now, that place is ploughed where the great City stood: for it is not so great a depopulation to translate a City from Merchants to hus∣bandmen, from shops to ploughes, as it is from many Husbandmen to one Shepheard, and yet that hath beene often done. And all that, at most, is but a depopulation, it is not a devastation, that Troy was ploughed. But, when the Prophet Isaiah comes to the deva∣station, to the extermination of a war, he expresses it first thus; Where there were a thousand Vineyards at a cheape rate, all the land become briars and thornes: That is much; but there is more, The earth shall be removed out of her place; that Land, that Nation, shall no more be called that Nation, nor that Land: But, yet more then that too; Not onely, not that people, but no othe shall ever inhabit it. It shall never be inhabited from generation to ge∣neration, neither shall Shepheards be there; Not onely no Merchant, nor Husbandman, but no depopulator: none but Owles, and Ostriches, and Satyres, Indeed God knowes what, Ochim, and Ziim, words which truly we cannot translate.

In a word, the horror of War is best discerned in the company he keeps, in his associ∣ates. And when the Prophet God brought War into the presence of David, there came with him Famine, and Pestilence. And when Famine entred, we see the effects; It brought Mothers to eat their Children of a span long; that is, as some Expositors take it, to take medicines to procure abortions, to cast their Children, that they might have Children to eate. And when War's other companion, the Pestilence entred, we see the effects of that too: In lesse then half the time that it was threatned for, it devoured threescore and ten thousand of Davids men; and yet for all the vehemence, the violence, the impetu∣ousnesse of this Pestilence, David chose this Pestilence rather then a War. Militia and Malitia, are words of so neare a sound, as that the vulgat Edition takes them as one. For where the Prophet speaking of the miseries that Hierusalem had suffered, sayes, Fi∣nita militia ejus, Let her warfare be at an end, they reade, Finita malitia ejus, Let her mi∣sery be at an end; War and Misery is all one thing. But is there any of this in heaven? Even the Saints in heaven lack something of the consummation of their happinesse, Quia hostis, because they have an enemy. And that is our third and next step.

Michael and his Angels fought against the devill and his Angels; though that war ended in victory, yet (taking that war, as divers Expositors doe, for the fall of An∣gels) that Kingdome lost so many inhabitants, as that all the soules of all that shall be sa∣ved, shall but fill up the places of them that fell, and so make that Kingdome but as well as it was before that war: So ill effects accompany even the most victorious war. There is no war in heaven, yet all is not well, because there is an enemy; for that enemy would kindle a war again, but that he remembers how ill he sped last time he did so. It is not an enemy that invades neither, but only detaines: he detaines the bodies of the Saints which are in heaven, and therefore is an enemy to the Kingdome of Christ; He that de∣taines

the soules of men in Superstition, he that detaines the hearts and allegeance of Subjects in an haesitation, a vacillation, an irresolution, where they shall fix them, whe∣ther upon their Soveraign, or a forraigne power, he is in the notion, and acceptation of enemy in this Text; an enemy, though no hostile act be done. It is not a war, it is but an enemy; not an invading, but a detaining enemy; and then this enemy is but one enemy, and yet he troubles, and retards the consummation of that Kingdome.

Antichrist alone is enemy enough; but never carry this consideration beyond thy self. As long as there remaines in thee one sin, or the sinfull gain of that one sin, so long there is one enemy, and where there is one enemy, there is no peace. Gardners that husband their ground to the best advantage, sow all their seeds in such order, one under another, that their Garden is alwayes full of that which is then in season. If thou sin with that providence, with that seasonablenesse, that all thy spring, thy youth be spent in wantonnesse, all thy Summer, thy middle-age in ambition, and the wayes of prefer∣ment, and thy Autumne, thy Winter in indevotion and covetousnesse, though thou have no farther taste of licentiousnesse, in thy middle-age, thou hast thy satiety in that sin, nor of ambition in thy last yeares, thou hast accumulated titles of honour, yet all the way thou hast had one enemy, and therefore never any perfect peace. But who is this one enemy in this Text? As long as we put it off, and as loath as we are to look this ene∣my in the face, yet we must, though it be Death. And this is Vestigium quartum, The fourth and next step in this paraphrase.

Surge & descende in domum figuli, sayes the Prophet Ieremy, that is, say the Exposi∣tors, to the consideration of thy Mortality. It is Surge, descende, Arise and go down: A descent with an ascension: Our grave is upward, and our heart is upon Iacobs Ladder, in the way, and nearer to heaven. Our daily Funerals are some Emblemes of that; for though we be laid down in the earth after, yet we are lifted up upon mens shoulders be∣fore. We rise in the descent to death, and so we do in the descent to the contemplation of it. In all the Potters house, is there one vessell made of better stuffe then clay? There is his matter. And of all formes, a Circle is the perfectest, and art thou loath to make up that Circle, with returning to the earth again?

Thou must, though thou be loath. Fortasse, sayes S. Augustine, That word of contin∣gency, of casualty, Perchance, In omnibus ferme rebus, praeterquam in morte locum habet: It hath roome in all humane actions excepting death. He makes his example thus: such a man is married; where he would, or at least where he must, where his parents, or his Gardian will have him; shall he have Children? Fortasse, sayes he, They are a yong couple, perchance they shall: And shall those Children be sons? Fortasse, they are of a strong constitution, perchance they shall: And shall those sons live to be men? Fortasse, they are from healthy parents, perchance they shall: And when they have lived to be men, shall they be good men? Such as good men may be glad they may live? Fortasse, still; They are of vertuous parents, it may be they shall: But when they are come to that Morientur, shall those good men die? here, sayes that Father, the Fortasse vanishes; here it is omnino, certè, sine dubitatione; infallibly, inevitably, irrecoverably they must die. Doth not man die even in his birth? The breaking of prison is death, and what is our birth, but a breaking of prison? Assoon as we were clothed by God, our very appa∣rell was an Embleme of death. In the skins of dead beasts, he covered the skins of dying men. Assoon as God set us on work, our very occupation was an Embleme of death; It was to digge the earth; not to digge pitfals for other men, but graves for our selves. Hath any man here forgot to day, that yesterday is dead? And the Bell tolls for to day, and will ring out anon; and for as much of every one of us, as appertaines to this day. Quotidiè morimur, & tamen nos esse aeternos putamus, sayes S. Hierome; We die every day, and we die all the day long; and because we are notabsolutely dead, we call that an eter∣nity, an eternity of dying: And is there comfort in that state? why, that is the state of hell it self, Eternall dying, and not dead.

But for this there is enough said, by the Morall man; (that we may respite divine proofes, for divine points anon, for our severall Resurrections) for this death is meer∣ly naturall, and it is enough that the morall man sayes, Mors lex, tributum, officium mor∣talium. First it is lex, you were born under that law, upon that condition to die: so it is a rebellious thing not to be content to die, it opposes the Law. Then it is Tributum, an imposition which nature the Queen of this world layes upon us, and which she will take,

when and where se lift; here a yong man, there an old man, herea happy, there a mise∣rable man; And so itis a seditious thing not to be content to die, it opposes the prero∣gative. And lastly, it is Officium, men are to have rheir turnes, to take their time, and then to give way by death to successors; and so it is Incivile, inofficiosum, not to be con∣tent to die, it opposes the frame and form of government. It comes equally to us all, and makes us all equall when it comes. The eshes of an Oak in the Chimney, are no E∣pitaph of that Oak, to tell me how high or how large that was; It tels me not what flocks it sheltered while it stood, nor what men it hurt when it fell. The dust of great persons graves is speechlesse too, it sayes nothing, it distinguishes nothing: As soon the dust of a wretch whom thou wouldest not, as of a Prince whom thou couldest not look upon, will trouble thine eyes, if the winde blow it thither; and when a whirle-winde hath blowne the dust of the Church-yard into the Church, and the man sweeps out the dust of the Church into the Church-yard, who will undertake to sift those dusts again, and to pronounce, This is the Patrician, this is the noble flowre, and this the yeomanly, this the Plebeian bran. Sois the death of Iesabel (Ieabel was a Queen) expressed; They shall not say, this is Iesabel; not only not wonder that it is, not pity that it should be, but they shall not say, they shall not know, This is Iesabel. It comes to all, to all alike; but not alike welcome to all. To die too willingly, out ofimpatience to wish, or out of vio∣lence to hasten death, or to die too unwillingly, to murmure at Gods purpose reveled by age, or by sicknesse, are equall distempers; and to harbour a disobedient loathnesse all the way, or to entertain it at last, argues but an irreligious ignorance; An ignorance, that death is in nature but Expiratio, a breathing out, and we do that every minute; An ignorance that God himself took a day to rest in, and a good mans grave is his Sab∣bath; An ignorance that Abel the best of those whom we can compare with him, was the first that dyed. Howsoever, whensoever, all times are Gods times: Vocantur obni ne diutiús vexentur á noxiis, mali ne diutiús bonos persequantur, God cals the good to take them from their dangers, and God takes the bad to take them from their trumph. And therefore neither grudge that thou goest, nor that worse stay, for God can make his pro∣fit of both; Aut ideo vivit ut corrigatur, aut utper allum bonus exerceatur; God re∣prieves him to mend him, or to make another better by his exercise; and not to exult in the misery of another, but to glorifie God in the wayes of his justice, let him know, Quantumcun{que} seró, subitó ex hac óitatollitur, qui finem praevidere nescivit: How long soe∣ver he live, how long soever he lie sick, that man dies a sudden death, who never thought of it, If we consider death in S. Pauls Statutum est, It is decréed that all men must die, there death is indifferent; If we consider it in his Mori lucrum, that is an advantage to die, there death is good; and so much the vulgat Edition seemes to intimate, when (Deut. 30. 19) whereas we reade, I have set before you life and death, that reades it, Vitam & honum, Life and that which is good. If then death be at the worst indifferent, and to the good, good, how is it Hostis, an enemy to the Kingdome of Christ? for that also is Ve∣stigium quintum, the fift and next step in this paraphrase.

First God did not make death, saies the Wiseman, And therefore S. Augustine makes a reasonable prayer to God, Ne permittas Domine quod nonfecisti, dominari Creatur ae quam fecisti; Suffer not O Lord, death, whom thou didst not make, to have dominion over me whom thou didst. Whence then came death? The same Wiseman hath shewed us the father, Through envy of the devill, came death into the world; and a wiser then he, the holy Ghost himselfe hath shewed us the Mother, By sin came death into the world. But yet if God have naturalized death, taken death into the number of his servants, and made Death his Commissioner to punish sin, and he doe but that, how is Death an enemy? First, he was an enemy in invading Christ, who was not in his Commission, because he had no sin; and still he is an enemie, because still he adheres to the enemy. Death hangs upon the edge of every persecutors sword; and upon the sting of every calumniators, and accusers tongue. In the Bull of Phalaris, in the Bulls of Basan, in the Buls of Baby∣lon, the shrewdest Buls of all, in temporall, in spirituall persecutions, ever since God put an enmity between Man, and the Serpent, from the time of Cain who began in a murther, to the time of Antichrist, who proceeds in Massacres, Death hath adhered to the enemy, and so is an enemy.

Death hath a Commission, Stipendium peccati mors est, The reward of sin Death, but where God gives a Supersedeas, upon that Commission, Vivo Ego, nolo mortem, As I

live saith the Lord, I would have no sinner dye, not dye the second death, yet Death pro∣ceeds to that execution: And where as the enemy, whom he adheres to, Serpent him∣selfe, hath power but In calcaneo, upon the heele, the lower, the mortall part, the body of man, Death is come up into our windowes, saith the Prophet, into our best lights, our understandings, and benights us there, either with ignorance, before sin, or with sense∣lesnesse after: And a Sheriffe that should burne him, who were condemned to be hanged, were a murderer, though that man must have dyed: To come in by the doore, by the way of sicknesse upon the body, is, but to come in at the window by the way of sin, is not deaths Commission; God opens not that window.

So then he is an enemy, for they that adhere to the enemy are enemies: And adhering is not only a present subministration of supply to the enemy (for that death doth not) but it is also a disposition to assist the enemy, then when he shall be strong enough to make benefit of that assistance. And so death adheres; when sin and Satan have weakned bo∣dy and minde, death enters upon both. And in that respect he is Vltimus hostis, the last enemy, and that is Sextum vestigium, our sixth and next step in this paraphrase.

Death is the last, and in that respect the worst enemy. In an enemy, that appeares at first, when we are or may be provided against him, there is some of that, which we call Honour: but in the enemie that reserves himselfe unto the last, and attends our weake estate, there is more danger. Keepe it, where I intend it, in that which is my spheare, the Conscience: If mine enemie meet me betimes in my youth, in an object of tentation, (so Iosephs enemie met him in Putifars Wife) yet if I doe not adhere to this enemy, dwell upon a delightfull meditation of that sin, if I doe not fuell, and foment that sin, assist and encourage that sin, by high diet, wanton discourse, other provocation, I shall have reason on my side, and I shall have grace on my side, and I shall have the History of thousand that have perished by that sin, on my side; Even Spittles will give me souldiers to fight for me, by their miserable example against taht sin; nay perchance sometimes the vertue of that woman, whom I sollicite, will assist me. But when I lye under the hands of that enemie, that hath reserved himselfe to the last, to my last bed, then when I shall be able to stir no limbe in any other measure then a Feaver or a Palsie shall shake them, when everlasting darknesse shal have an inchoation in the present dimnesse of mine eyes, and the everlasting gnashing in the present chattering of my teeth, and the everlasting worme in the present gnawing of the Agonies of my body, and anguishes of my minde, when the last enemie shall watch my remedilsse body, and my desconsolate soule there, there, where not the Physitian, in his way, perchance not the Priist in hi, shall be able to give any assistance, And when he hath sported himselfe with my misery upon that stage, my death-bed, shall shift the Scene, and throw me from that bed, into the grave, and there triumph over me, God knowes, how many generations, till the Redeemer, my Redee∣mer, the Redeemer of all me, body, aswell as soule, come againe; As death is Novis∣simus hostis, the enemy which watches me, at my last weaknesse, and shall hold me, when I shall be no more, till that Angel come, Who shall say, and sweare that time shall be no more, in that consideration, in that apprehension, he is the powerfullest, the feareful∣est enemy; and yet evern there this enemy Abolebitur, he shall be destroyed, which is, Septimum vestigium, our seventh and last step in this paraphrase.

This destruction, this abolition of this last enemy, is by the Resurrection; for the Text is part of an argument for the Resurrection. And truly, it is a faire intimation, and testimony of an everlasting end in that state of the Resurrection (that no time shall end it) that we have it presented to us in all the parts of time; in the past, in the present, and in the future. We had a Resurrection in prophecy; we have a Resurrection in the present working of Gods Sprit; we shall have a Resurrection in the finall consummation. The Prophet speaks in the furture, He will swallow up death in victory, there it is Abolebit: All the Erangelists speak historically, of matter of fact, in them it is Abolevit. And here in this Apostle, it is in the present, Aboletur, now he is destroyed. And this exhibites un∣to us a threefold occasion of advancing our devotion, in considering a threefold Resur∣rection; First, a Resurrection from dejections and calamities in this world, a Tempora∣ry Resurrection; Secondly, a Resurrection from sin, a Spirituall Resurrection; and then a Resurrection; Secondly, a Resurrection.

A calamitate; When the Prophets speak of a Resurrection in the old Testament, for the most part their principall intention is, upon a temporall restitution from calamities

that oppresse them then. Neither doth Calvin carry those emphaticall words, which are so often cited for a proofe of the last Resurrection: That he knows his Redeemer lives, that he knows he shall stand the last man upon earth, that though his body be destroyed, yet in his flesh and with his eyes he shall see God, to any higher sense then so, that how low soeve he bee brought, to what desperate state soever he be reducedin the eyes of the world, yet he as∣sures himself of a Resurrection, a reparation, a restitution to his former bodily health, and worldly fortune which he had before, And such a Resurrection we all know Iob had.

In that famous, and most considerable propheticall vision which God exhibited to Ezekiel, where God set the Prophet in a valley of very many, and very dry bones, and invites the severall joynts to knit again, tyes them with their old sinews, and ligaments, clothes them in their old flest, wraps them in their old skin, and cals life into them again, Gods, principall intention in that vision was thereby to give them an assurance of a Resur∣rection from their present calamity, not but that there is also good evidence of the last Resurrection in that vision too; Thus far God argues with them áre nota; from that which they knew before, the finall Resurrection, he assures them that which they knew not till then, a present Resurrection from those pressures: Remember by this vision that which you all know already, that at last I shall re-unite the dead, and dry bones of all men in a generall Resurrection: And them if you remember, if you consider, if you look upon that, can you doubt, but that I who can do that, can also recollect you, from your present desperation, and give you a Resurrection to your former temporall happinesse? And this truly arises pregnantly, necessarily out of the Prophets answer; God asks him there, Son of man, cna these bones live? And he answers, Domine tu nósti, O Lord God thou knowest. The Prophet answers according to Gods intention in the question. If that had been for their living in the last Resurrection, Ezekiel would have answered God as Martha answered Christ, when he said, Thy brother Lazarus shall rise again; I know that he shall rise again at the Resurrection at the last day; but when the question was, whether men so macerated, so seattered in this world, could have a Resurrection to their former temprorall happinesse, here, that puts the Prophet to his Domine tu nósti, It is in thy breast to proposeit, itis in thy hand to execute it, whether thou do it, or do it not, thy name be glorisied; It fals not within our conjecture, which way it shall please thee to take for this Resurrection, Domine tu nósti, Thou Lord, and thou only knowest; Which is also the sense of those words, Others were tortured, and accepted not a deliverance, that they might obtain a better Resurrection: A present deliverance had been a Resurrection, but to be the more sure of a better hereafter, they lesse respected that; According to that of our Saviour, He that findes hi life, shall lose it; He that fixeth himself too earnestly upon this Resurrection, shall lose a better.

This is then the propheticall Resurrection for the future, but a future in this world; That if Rulers take counsell against the Lord, the Lord shall have their counsell in derisi∣on; If they take armes against the Lord, the Lord shall break their Bows, and cut their Spears in sunder; If they hisse, and gnash their teeth, and say, we have swallowed him up; If we be made their by-word, their parable, their proverb, their libell, the theame and burden of their songs, as Iob complaines, yet whatsoever fall upon me, dmage, di∣stresse, scorn, or Hostis ultimus, death it self, that death which we consider here, death of possessions, death of estimation, death of health, death of contentment, yet Abolebi∣tur, it sahll be destroyed in a Resurrection, in the return of the light of Gods countenance upon me even in this world. And this is the first Resurrection.

But this first Resurrection, which is but from temporall calamities, doth so little con∣cerne a true and established Christian, whether it come or no, (for still Iobs Basis is his Ba∣sis, and his Centre, Etiamsi occiderit, though he kill me, kill me, kill me, in all these seve∣rall deaths, and give me no Resurrection in this world, yet I will trust in him) as that, as though this first resurrection were no resurrection, not to be numbred among the rersur∣rections, S. Iohn calls that which we call the second, which is from sin, the first resurre∣ction: Blessed and holy is be, who hath part in the firstresurrection: And this resurrection, Christimplies, when he saies, Verely, verely, I say unto you, the houre is comming, and now is, when the dead shall heare the ovyce of the Son of God; and they that heare it shall live: That is, by the voyce of the word of life, the Gospell of repentance, they shall have a spirituall resurrection to a new life.

S. Austine and Lactantius both were so hard in beleeving the roundnesse of the earth, that they thought that those homines pensiles, as they call them, those men that hang upon the other cheek of the face of the earth, those Antipodes, whose feet are directly against ours, must necessarily fall from the earth, if the earth be round. But whither should they fall? If they fall, they must fall upwards, for heaven is above them too as it is to us. So if the spirituall Antipodes of this world, the Sons of God, that walk with feet opposed in wayes contrary to the sons of men, shall be said to fall, when they fall to repentance, to mortification, to a religious negligence, and contempt of the pleasures of this life, truly their fall is up wards, they fall towards heaven, God gives breath unto the peo∣ple upon the earth, sayes the Prophet, Et spiritum his, qui calcant illam. Our Translation carries that no farther, but that God gives breath to people upon the earth, and spirit to them that walk thereon; But Irenaeus makes a usefull difference between afflatus and spiritus, that God gives breath to all upon earth, but his spirit onely to them, who tread in a reli∣gious scorne upon earthly things.

Is it not a strange phrase of the Apostle, Mortifie your members; fornication, uncleane∣nesse, inordinate affections? He does not say, mortifie your members against those sins, but he calls those very sins, the members of our bodies, as though we were elemented and compacted of nothing but sin, till we come to this resurrection, this mortification, which is indeed our vivification; Till we beare in our body, the dying of our Lord Iesus, that the life also of Iesus may be made manifest in our body. God may give the other resurrecti∣on from worldly misery, and not give this. A widow may be rescued from the sorrow and solitarinesse of that state, by having a plentifull fortune; there she hath one resurre∣ction; but the widow that liveth in pleasure, is dead while she lives; shee hath no second resurrection; and so in that sense, even this Chappell may be a Church-yard, men may stand, and sit, and kneele, and yet be dead; and any Chamber alone may be a Golgotha, a place of dead mens bones, of men not come to this resurrection, which is the renunci∣ation of their beloved sin.

It was inhumanely said by Vitellius, upon the death of Otho, when he walkedin the field of carcasses, where the battle was fought; O how sweet a perfume is a dead ene∣my! But it is a divine saying to thy soule, O what a savor of life, unto life, is the death of a beloved sin! What an Angelicall comfort was that to Ioseph and Mary in Aegypt, after the death of Herod, Arise, for they are dead, that sought the childes life! And even that comfort is multiplied upon thy soul, when the Spirit of God saies to thee, Arise come to this resurrection: for that Herod, that sin, that sought the life, the everlasting life of this childe, the childe of God, thy soule, is dead, dead by repentance, dead by mortification. The highest cruelty that story relates, or Poets imagine, is when a persecutor will not afford a miserable man death, not be so mercifull to him, as to take his life. Thou hast made thy sin, thy soule, thy life; inanimated all thy actions, all thy purposes with that sin. Miserere animatuae, be so mercifull to thy selfe, as to take away that life by morti∣fication, by repentance, and thou art come to this Resurrection: and thugh a man may have the former resurrection, and not this, peace in his fortune, and yet not peace in his conscience, yet whosoever hath this second, hath an infallible seale of the third resurre∣ction too, to a fulnesse of glory in body, as well as in soule. For Spiritus maturam efficit carnem & capacem incorruptelae; this resurrection by the spirit, mellowes the body of man, and makes that capable of everlasting glory, which is the last weapon, by which the last enemy death, shall be destroyed; A morte.

Upon that pious ground that all Scriptures were written for us, as we are Christians, that all Scriptures conduce to the proofe of Christ, and of the Christian state, it is the or∣dinary manner of the Fathers to make all that David speaks historically of himselfe, and all that the Prophet speaks futurely of the Jews, if those place may be referred to Christ, to referre them to Christ primarily, and but by reflection, and in a second consideration upon David or upon the Jews, Thereupon doe the Father (truly I think more generally more unanimely then in any other place of Scripture) take that place of Ezekile which we spake of before, to be primarily intended of the last resurrection, & but secundarily of the Jews restitution. But Gasper Sanctius a learned Jesuit, (that is not so rare, but an ingenu∣ous Jesuit too) though he be bound by the Councel Trent to interpret Scriptures accor∣ding to the Fathers, yet he here ackowledges the whole truth, that Gods purpose was to prove, by that which they did know, which was the generall resurrection, that which

they knew not, their temporall restitution. Tertullian is vehement at first, but after, more supple, Allegoricae Scripturae, saies he, resurrectionem subradiant aliae, aliae determinant: Some figurative places of Scripture, doe intimate a resurrection, and some manifest it; and of those manifest places he takes this vision of Ezekiel to be one. But he comes after to this, Sit & corporum, & rerum, & meánihilinterest; let it sighnifie a temporall resurrection, so it may signifie the generall resurrection of our bodies too, saies he, and I am well satisfied; and then the truth satisfies him, for it doth signifie both. It is true that Tertullian sayes, De vacuo similitudo non competit; If the vision be but a comparison, if there were no such thing as a resurrection, the comparison did not hold. De nullo par abola non convenit, saies he, and truly; If there were no resurrection to which that Parable might have relation, it were no Parable. All that is true; but there was a resurrection alwaies knowne to them, alwaies beleeved by them, and that made their present resurrection from that ca∣lamity, the more easie, the more intelligible, the more credible, the more discernable to them.

Let therefore Gods method, be thy method; fixe thy self firmly upon that beliefe of the penerall resurrection, and thou wilt never doubt of either of the particular resurrecti∣ons, either from sin, by Gods grace, or from worldly calamities, by Gods power. For that last resurrection is the ground of all. By that Verévicta mors, saies Irenaeus, this Last enemy, death, is truly destroyed, because his last spoile, the body, is taken out of his hands. The same body, eadem ovis, (as the same Father notes) Christ did not fetch another sheep to the flock, in the place of that which was lost, but the same sheep: God shall not give me another, abetter body at the resurrection, but the same body made better; for Sinon haberet caro salvari, neutiquam verbum Dei caro factum fuisset, If the flesh of man were not to be saved, the Anchor of salvation would never have taken the flesh of man upon him.

The punishment that God laid upon Adam, In dolore & in sudore, In sweat, and in sor∣row sbalt thou eate thy bread, is but Donecreverteris, till man returne to dust: but when Man is returned to dust, God returnes to the remembrance of that promise, Awake and sing yethat dwell in the dust. A mercy already exhibited to us, in the person of our Saviour Christ Jesus, in whom, Per primitias benedixit campo, (saies S. Chrysostome) as God by taking a handfull for the first Fruits, gave ablessing to the wholw field; so he hath sealed the bodies of all mankind to his glory, by pre-assuming the body of Christ to that glory. For by that there is now Commercium inter Coelum & terram; there is a Trade driven, a Staple established betweene Heaven and earth; Ibi caronostra, hic Spiritus ejus; Thither have we sent our flest, and hither hath he sent his Spirti.

This is the last abolition of this enemy, Death; for after this, the bodies of the Saints he cannot touch, the bodes of the damned he cannot kill, and if he could, hee were not therein their enemy, but their friend. This is that blessed and glorious State, of which, when all the Apostles met to make the Creed, they could say no more, but Credo Re∣surrectionem, I heleeve the Resurrection of the body; and when those two Reverend Fathers, to whom it belongs, shall come to speake of it, upon the day proper for it, in this place, and if all the Bishops, that ever met in Councels should meet them here, they could but second the Apostles Credo, with their Anathema, We beleeve, and woe be unto them that doe not beleeve the Resurrection of the body; but in gong about to expresse it, the lips of an Angell would be uncircumcised lips, and the tongue of an Archangell would stammer. I offer not therefore at it: but in respect of, and with relation to that blessed State, according to the doctrine, and practise of our Church, we doe pray for the dead; for the militant Church upon earth, and the trimphant Church in Heaven, and the whole Catholique Church in Heaveen, and earth; we doe pray that God will be pleased to hasten that Kingdome, that we with all others departed in the true Faith of his holy Name, may have this perfect consummation, both of body and soule, in his everlasting glory, Amen.

SERMON XVI. preached at VVhite-hall, the first Friday in Lent. 1622.

JOHN 11.35.

Iesus wept.

I Am now but upon the Compassion of Christ. There is much difference between his Compassion and his Passion, as much as between the men that are to handle them here. But Lacryma pass, ionis Chrisi est vicaria: A great personage may speake of his Passion, of his blood; My vicargae is to speake of his Compassion and his teares. Let me chafe the wax, and melt your soules in a bath of his Teares now, Let him set to the great Seale of his effectuall passion, in his blood, then. It is a Common place I know to speake of teares: I would you knew as well, it were a common practise, to shed them. Though it be not so, yet bring S. Bernards, patience, Libenter audiam, qui non sibi plausum, sed mihi planctum moveat; be willing to heare him, that seeks not your acclamation to himselfe, but your humiliation to his and your God; not to make you praise with them that praise, but to make you weepe with them that weepe, And Iesus wept.

The Masorites (the Masorites are the Critiques upon the Hebrew Bible, the Old Te∣stament) cnnot tell us, who divided the Chapters of the Old Testament into verses; Neither can any other tell us, who did it in the New Testament. Whoever did it seemes to have stopped in an amazement in this Text, and by making an intire verse of these two words, Iesus wept, and no more, to intimate that there needs no more for the exalting of our devotion to a competent heighth, then to consider, how, and where, and when, and why Iesus wept. There is not a shorter verse in the Bible, not a larger Text. There is ano∣ther as short; Semper gaudete, Rejoyce evermore, and of that holy Joy, I may have leave to speake here hereafter, more seasonably, in a more Festivall time, by my ordinary ser∣vice. This is the season of generall Compunction, of generall Mortification, and no man priviledged, for Iesus wept.

In that Letter which Lentulus in said to have written to the Senate of Rome, in which he gives some Characters of Christ, he saies, That Christ was never seene to laugh, but to weepe often. Now in what number he limits his often, or upon what testimony he grounds him number, we know not. We take knowledgethat he wept thrice. Hee wept here, when he mourned with them that mourned for Lazarus; He wept againe, when he drew neare to Jerusalem, and looked upon that City; And he wept a third time in his Passion. There is but one Euangelist, but this, S. Iohn, that tells us of these first teares, the rest say nothing of them; There is but one Euangelist, S. Luke, that tells us of his se∣cond teares, the rest speake not of those; There is no Euangelist, but there is an Apostle that tells us of his third teares, S. Paul saies, That in the daies of his flesh, be offered up pray∣ers with strong cries, and teares; And those teares, Expositors of all sides referre to his Passion, though some to his Agony in the Garden, some to his Passion on the Corsse; and these in my opinion most fitly; because those words of S. Paul belong to the declara∣tion of the Priesthood, and of the Sacrifice of Christ; and for that function of his, the Crosse was the Altar; and therefore to the Crosse we fixe those third teares. The first were Humane teares, the second were Propheticall, the third were Pontificall, apper∣taining to the Sarifice. The first were shed in a Condolency of a humane and naturall calamity fallen upon one family; Lazarus was dead: The second were shed in Contem∣plation of future calamitie upon a Nation; Jerusalem was to be destroyed: The third, in Contemplation of sin, and the everlasting punishments due to sin, and to such sinners, as would make no benefit of that Sacrifice, which he offered in offering himselfe. His friend was dead, and then Jesus wept; He justified naturail affectins and such offices of piety:

Jerusalem was tobe destroyed, and then Jesus wept; He commiserated publique and na∣tionall calamities, though a private person: His very giving of himselfe for sin, was to become to a great many ineffectuall; and then Jsus wept; He declared how indelible the naturall staine of sin is, that not such sweat as hi, such teares, such blood as his could absolutely wash it out of mans nature. The teares of the text are as a Spring, a Well. be∣longing to onehoushold the Sisters of Lazarus: The teares over Jerusalem, are as a Ri∣ver belonging to a whole Country: The teares upon the Crosse, are as the Sea belonging to all the world; and though literally there fall no more into our text, then the Spring, yet because the Spring flowes into the River, and the River into the Sea, and that whereso∣ever we find that Jesus wept, we find our Text, (for our Text is but that, Iisus wept) there∣fore by the leave and light of his blessed Spirit, we shall looke upon those lovely, those heavenly eye, through this glasse of his owne teares, in all these three lines, as he wept here over Lazarus, as he wept there over Jerusalem, as he wept upon the Crosse over all us. For so often Jesus wept.

Fitst then, Jesus wept Hum••nitus, he tooke a necessary occasion to shew that he was true Man. He was now in hand with the greatest Miracle that ever he did, the raising of Lazarus, so long dead. Could we but do so in our spirituall raising, what a blessed harvest were that? What a comfort to finde one man here to day, raised from his spirituall death, this day twelve-month? Christ did it every yeare, and every yeare he improved his Miracle, In the first yeare, he raised the Governours Daughter: se was newly dead, and as yetin the house. In the beginning of sin, and whilst in the house, in the house of God, in the Church, in a glad obedience to Gods Ordinances and Institutions there, for the reparation and resuscitation of dead soules, the worke is not so hard. In his second yeare, Christ raised the Widows Son; and him he found without, ready to be buried. In a man growne cold and stiffe in sin, impenetrable, inflexible by denouncing the Judge∣ments of God, almost buried in a stupidity, and insensiblenesse of his being dead, there is more difficultie. But in his third yeare, Christ raised this Lazarus; he had been long dead, and buried, and in probability, puttrified after foure daies.

This Miracle Christ meant to make a pregnant proofe of the Resurrection, which was his principall intention therein. For, the greatest arguments against the Resurrection, being for the most part of this kinde, when a Fish eates a man, and another man eates that fish, or when one man eates another, how shall both these men rise againe? when a body is resolv'd in the grave to the first principles, or is passed into other substances, the case is somewhat neere the same; and therefore Christ would worke upon a body neare that state, abody putrified. And truly, in our srirituall raising of the dead, to raise a sinner pu∣trified in his owne earth, resolv'd in his owne dung, especially that hath passed many transformations, from shape to shape, from sin to sin, (hi hath beene a Salamander and lived in the fire, in the fire successvely, in the fire of lust in his youth, and in his age in the fire of Ambition; and then he hath beene a Serpent, a Fish, and lived in the waters. , in the water successively, in the troubled water of sedition in his youth, and in his age in the cold waters of indevotion) how shall we raise this Salamander and this Serpent, when this Serpent and this Salamander is all one person, and must have contrary musique to charme him, contrary physick to cure him? To raise a man resolv'd into diverse sub∣stances, scattered into diverse formes of severall sinnes, is the greatest worke. And there. fore this Miracle (which implied that) S. Basil calls Miraculum in Miraculo, a pregnant, a double Miracle. For here is Mortuus redivivus, A dead man lives; that had been done before; but Alligatus ambulat, saies Basil; he that is settered, and manacled, and tyed with many difficulties, he walks.

And therfore as this Miracle raised him most estmation, so (for they ever accompany one another) it raised him most envy: Envy that extended beyond him, to Lazarus him∣selfe, who had done nothing; and yet, The chiefe Priests consulted how they might put Li∣zarus to death, because by reason of him, many beleeved in Iesus. A disease, a distemper, a danger which no time shall ever be free from, that whereforer there is a coldnesse, a dis∣affection to Gods Cause, those who are any way occasionally instrumenta of Gods glory, sahll finde cold affection. If they killed Lazarus, had not Christ done enough to let them see that he could raise him againe? for Caeca sevitia, sialiud videtur mertuus, aliud occisus; It was a blinde malice, if they thought, that Christ could raise a man na∣turally dead, and could not if he were violently killed. This then being his greatest Mi∣racle,

preparing the hardest Article of the Creed, the Resurrection of the body, as the Mirracle it selfe declared sufficiently his Divinity, that nature, so in this declaration that he was God, he would declare that he was man too, and therefore Iesus wept.

He wept as man doth weepe, and he wept as a man may weepe; for these teares were Testes naturae, non Indices diffidentiae, They declared him to be true man, but no distrust∣full, no inordinate man. In Iob there is a question ask'd of God, Hast thou eyes of flesh, and doest thou see, as man sees? Let this question be directed to God manifested in Christ, and Christ will weepe out an answer to that question, I have eyes of flesh, and I do weep as man weepes. Not as sinfull man, not as s man, that had het fall his bridle, by which he should trune his horse: Not as a man that were cast from the rudder, by which he should steere his Ship: Not as a man that had lost his interest and power in his affections, and passions: Christ wept not so. Christ mingt goe farther that way, then any other man: Christ might ungirt himselfe, and give more scope and liberty to his passions, then any other man: both because he had no Originall sin within, to drive him, no inordinate love without to draw him, when his affections were moved; which all other men have.

God sayes to the Jews, That they had wept in his eares; God had heard them weep: but for what, and how? they wept for flesh. There was a tincture, there was a deep dye of murmuring in their tears. Christ goes as far in the passion, in his agony, and he comes to a passionate deprecation, in his Tristis anima, and in the Si possibile, and in the Transeat calix. But as all these passions were sanctified in the roote, from which no bitter leafe, no crooked twig could spring, so they were instantly washed with his Veruntamen, a pre∣sent and a full submitting of all to Gods pleasure, Yet not my will O Father, but thine be done. It will not be safe for any man to come so neare an excesse of passions, as he may finde some good men in the Scriptures to have done: That because he heares Moses say to God, Dele me, Blot my name out of the book of life, Therefore he may say, God damne me, or I renounce God. It is not safe for a man to expose himself to a tentation, because he hath seen another passe through it. Every man may know his own Byas, and to what sin that diverts him: The beauty of the person, the opportunity of the place, the impor∣tunity of the party, being his Mistresse, could not shake Iosephs constancy. There is one such example, of one that resisted a strong tentation: But then there are in one place, two men together, that sinned upon their own bodies, Her and Onan, then when no tentation was offered, nay when a remedy against tentation was ministred to them.

Some man may be chaster in the Stews, then another in the Church; and some man will sin more in his dreams, then another in his discourse. Every man must know how much water his own vessell draws, and not to think to saile over, wheresoever he hath seen anothe (he knows not with how much labour) shove over: No nor to adventure so far, as he may have reason to be confident in his own strength: For thugh he may be safe in himself, yet he may sinin anogher, if by his indiscreete, and improvident example, another be scandalized. Christ was alwayes safe; He was led ofthe Spirit: of what spi∣rit? his own Spirit: Led willingly into the wildernesse, to be tempted of the devill. No o∣ther man might do that; but he who was able to say to the Sun, Siste sol, was able to say to Satan, Siste Lucifer. Christ in another place gave such scope to his affections, and to others interpretations of his actions, that his frineds and kinsfolds thught him mad, be∣sides himself: But all this while, Christ had his own actions, and passions, and their in∣terpretations in his own power: he could do what he would. Here in our Text, Jesus was troubled, and he groaned; and vehemently, and often, his affections were stirred: but as in a clan glasse, if water be stirred and troubled, though it may conceive a little light froth, yet it contracts no foulenesse in that clean galsse, the affections of Christ were moved, but so: in that holy vessell they would contract no foulenesse, no declination to∣wards inordinatenesse. But then every Christian is not a Christ; and therefore as he that would fast forty dayes, as Christ did, might starve; and he that would whip Merchants out of the Temple, as Christ did, might be knockt downe in the Temple; So he knowing his owne inclinations, or but the generall ill inclination of all mankind, as he is infected with Originall sin, should converse so much with publicans and sinners, might participate of their sins. The rule is, we must avoid inordinatenesse of affections; but when we come to examples of that rule, our selves well understood by our selves, must be our owne exaples; for it is not alwaies good to go too far, as some good men have gone before.

Now though Christ were farre from both, yet he came nearer to an excesse of passi∣on, then to an Indolencie, to a senselesnesse, to a privation of naturall affections. Inordi∣natenesse of affections may sometimes make some men like some beasts; but indolencie, absence, emptinesse, privation of affections, makes any man at all times, like stones, like dirt. In novissimis, saith S. Peter, In the last, that is, in the worst dayes, in the dregs, and lees, and tartar of sin, then shall come men, lovers of themselves; and that is ill enough in man; for that is an affection peculiar to God, to love himselfe. Non speciale vitium, sed radix omnium vitiorum, saies the Schoole in the mouth of Aquinas: selfe. love cannot be called a distinct sin, but the roote of all sins. It is true that Iustin Martyr saies, Philoso∣phanti finis est Deo assimilari, The end of Christian Philosophy is to be wise like God; but not in this, to love our selves; for the greatest sin that ever was, and that upon which even the blood of Christ Jesus hath not wrought, the sin of Angels was that, Similis ero Altissimo, to be like God. To love our selves, to be satisfied in our selves, to finde an omni∣sufficiency in our selves, is an intrusion, an usurpation upon God: And even God him∣selfe who had that omni-sufficiency in himselfe, conceived a conveniency for his glory, to draw a Circumference about that Center, Creatures about himselfe, and to shed forth lines of love upon all them, and not to love himselfe alone. Selfe-love in man sinks deep: but yet you see, the Apostle in his order, casts the other sin lower, that is, into a worse place, To be without naturall affections.

S. Augustine extends these naturall affections, to Religious affections, because they are naturall to a supernaturall man, to a regenerate man, who naturally loves those, that are of the houshold of the faithfull, that professe the same truth of Religion: and not to be affected with their distresses, when Religion it selfe is distressed, in them, is impietie. He extends these affections to Morall affections; the love of Eminent and Heroicall ver∣tues in any man: we ought to be affected with the fall of such men. And he extends them to civill affections, the love of friends; not to be moved in their behalfe, is argu∣ment enough that we doe not much love them.

For our case in the Text, These men whom Jesus found weeping, and wept with them, were none of his kindred: They were Neighbours, and Christ had had a conver∣sation, and contracted a friendship in that Family; He loved Martha, and her sister, and La∣zarus, saies the Storie: and he would let the world see that he loved them: for so the Jewes argued that saw him weepe, Behold how he loved them; without outward declarati∣ons, who can conclude an inward love? to assure that, Iesus wept.

To an inordinatenesse of affections it never came; to a naturall tendernesse it did; and so far as to teares; and then who needs be ashamed of weeping? Look away far from me, for I will weep bitterly, sayes Hierusalem in Esay. But look upon me, sayes Christ in the Lamentations, Behold and see if ever there were any sorrow, any teares like mine: Not like his in value, but in the roote as they proceeded from naturall affection, they were teares of imitation, and we may, we must weepe teares like his teares. They scourged him, they crowned him, they nailed him, they pierced him, and then blood came; but he shed teares voluntarily, and without violence: The blood came from their ill, but the teares from his owne good nature: The blood was drawne, the teares were given. We call it a childish thing to weepe, and a womanish; and perchance we meane worse in that then in the childish; for therein we may meane falshood to be mingled with weaknesse. Christ made it an argument of his being man, to weepe, for though the lineaments of mans bodie, eyes and eares, hands and feet, be ascribed to God in the Scriptures, though the affections of mans mind be ascribed to him, (even sorrow, nay Repentance it selfe, is at∣tributed to God) I doe not remember that ever God is said to have wept: It is for man. And when God shall come to that last Act in the glorifying of Man, when he promi∣ses, to wipe all teares from his eyes, what shall God have to doe with that eye that never wept?

He wept out of a nuturall tendernesse in generall; and he wept now out of a particular occasion. What was that? Quia mortuus, because Lazarus was dead. We stride over many steps at once; waive many such considerable circumstances as these; Lazarus his friend was dead, therefore he wept, Lazarus, the staffe and sustentatio of that fa∣mily was dead, he upon whom his Sisters relied, was dead, therefore he wept. But I stop onely upon this one step, Quia mortuus, that he was dead. Now a good man is not the worse for dying, that is true and capable of a good sense, because he is established in a

better world: but yet when he is gone out of this world he is none of us, he is no longer a man. The stronger opinion in the Schoole, is, That Christ himselfe, when he lay dead in the grave, was no man. Though the God head never departed from the Carcasse, (there was no divorce of that Hypostaticall union) yet because the Humane soule was departed from it, he was no man. Hugo de S. Victor. who thinks otherwise, that Christ was a man then, thinkes so upon a weak ground: He thinkes, that because the soule is the form of man, the soul is man; and that therefore the soul remaining, the man re∣maines. But it is not the soule, but the union of the soul, that makes the man. The Ma∣ster of the Sentences, Peter Lombard, that thinks so too, that Christ was then a man, thinkes so upon as weak a ground: He thinkes that it is enough to constitute a man, that there be a soul and body, though that soul and body be not united; but still it is the uni∣on that makes the man: And therefore when he is disunited, dead, he is none of us, he is no man; and therefore we weep how well soever he be. Abraham was loath to let go his wife, though the King had her: A man hath a naturall lothnesse to let go his friend, though God take him to him.

S. Augustine sayes, that he knew well enough, that his mother was in heaven; and S. Ambrose, that he knew wel enough that his master Theodosius the emperor was in heaven, but because they saw not in what state they were, they thought that something might be asked at Gods hands in their behalf; and so out of a humane and pious officiousnesse, in a devotion perchance indigested, uncocted, and retaining yet some crudities, some ir∣resolutions, they strayed into prayers for them after they were dead. Lazarus his sisters made no doubt of their brothers salvation; they beleeved his soul to be in a good estate: And for his body, they told Christ, Lord we know that he shall rise at the last day: And yet they wept.

Here, in this world, we who stay, lack those who are gone out of it: we know they shall never come to us; and when we shall go to them, whether we shall know them or no, we dispute. They who think that it conduces to the perfection of happinesse in hea∣ven, that we should know one another, think piously if they think we shall. For, as for the maintenance of publique peace, States, and Churches, may think diversly in points of Religion, that are not fundamentall, and yet both be true and Orthodoxall Churches; so for the exaltation of private devotion in points that are not fundamentall, divers men may think diversly, and both be equally good Christians. Whether we shall know them there, or no, is problematicall and equall; that we shall not till then, is dogmaticall and certain: Therefore we weep. I know there are Philosophers that will not let us weep, nor lament the death of any: And I know that in the Scriptures there are rules, and that there are instructions convayed in that example, that David left mourning as soon as the childe was dead; And I know that there are Authors of a middle nature, a∣bove the Philosophers, and below the Scriptures, the Apocryphall books, and I know it is said there, Comfort thy selfe, for thou-shalt do him no good that is dead, Et teipsum pessimabis (as the vulgat reads it) thou shalt make thy self worse and worse, in the worst degree. But yet all this is but of inordinate lamentation; for in the same place, the same Wise man sayes, My Son, let thy tears fall down over the dead; weep bitterly and make great moane, as he is worthy. When our Saviour Christ had uttered his consummatum est, all was finished, and their rage could do him no more harm, when he had uttered his In manus tuas, he had delivered and God had received his soul, yet how did the whole frame of nature mourn in Eclipses, and tremble in earth-quakes, and dissolve and shed in pieces in the opening of the Temple, Quia mortuus, because he was dead.

Truly, to see the hand of a great and mighty Monarch, that hand that hath govern∣ed the civill sword, the sword of Justice at home, and drawn and sheathed the forraigne sword, the sword of war abroad, to see that hand lie dead, and not be able to nip or fil∣lip away one of his own wormes (and then Quis homo, what man, though he be one of those men, of whom God hath said, Ye are gods, yet Quis homo, what man is there that lives, and shall not see death?) To see the brain of a great and religious Counsellor (and God blesse all from making, all from calling any great that is not religious) to see that brain that produced means to becalme gusts at Councell tables, stormes in Parliaments, tempests in popular commotions, to see that brain produce nothing but swarmes of wormes and no Proclamation to disperse them; To see a reverend Prelate that hath re∣sisted Heretiques & Schismatiques all his life, fall like one of them by death, & perchance

be called one of them when he is dead. To re-collect all, to see great men made no men, to be sure that they shall never come to us, not to be sure, that we shall know them when we come to them, to see the Lieutenants and Images of God, Kings, the sinews of the State, religious Counsellors, the spirit of the Church, zealous Prelates, And then to see vulgar, lgnorant, wicked, and facinorous men thrown all by one hand of death, into one Cart, into one common Tide-boate, one Hospitall, one Almeshouse, one Prison, the grave, in whose dust no man can say, This is the King, this is the Slave, this is the Bishop, this is the Heretique, this is the Counsellor, this is the Foole, even this miserable equali∣ty of so unequall persons, by so foule a hand, is the subject of this lamentation, even Quia mortuus, because Lazarus was dead, Iesus wept.

He wept even in that respect, Quia mortuus, and he wept in this respect too, Quia non adhibita media, because those means which in appearance might have saved his life, by his default were not used, for when he came to the house, one sister, Martha sayes to him, Lord if thou hadst been here, my brother had not dyed; and then the other sister, Mary sayes so too, Lord if thou hadst been here, my brother had not dyed: They all cry out, that he who only, only by comming, might have saved his life, would not come. Our Saviour knew in himself that he abstained to better purpose, and to the farther glory of God: for when he heard of his death, he said to his Disciples, I am glad for your sakes that I was not there. Christ had certain reserved purposes which conduced to a better establishing of their faith, and to a better advancing of Gods Kingdome, the working of that miracle. But yet because others were able to say to him, it was in you to have saved him, and he did not, even this Quia non adhibita media, affected him; and Iesus wept.

He wept, Etsi quatriduanus, though they said unto him, He hath been foure dayes dead, and stinkes. Christ doth not say, there is no such matter, he doth not stink; but though he do, my friend shall not lack my help. Good friends, usefull friends though they may commit some errors, and though for some misbehaviours they may stink in our nostrils, must not be derelicted, abandoned to themselves. Many a son, many a good heire, findes an ill ayre from his Father; his Fathers life stinkes in the nostrils of all the world, and he heares every where exclamations upon his Fathers usury, and extortion, and oppression: yet it becomes him by a betterlife, and by all other means to rectifie and redeem his Fa∣thers fame. Quatriduanus est, is no plea for my negligence in my family; to say, My son, or my servant hath proceeded so far in ill courses, that now it is to no purpose to go about to reform him, because Quatriduanus est. Quatriduanus est, is no plea in my pastorall charge, to say that seducers, and practisers, and perswaders, and sollicitors for supersti∣tion, enter so boldly into every family, that now it is to no purpose to preach religious warinesse, religious discretion, religious constancy. Quatriduanus est, is no plea for my Usury, for my Simony; to say, I do but as all the world doth, and hath used to do a long time. To preach there where reprehension of growing sin is acceptable, is to preach in season; where it is not acceptable, it is out of season; but yet we must preach in season, and out of season too. And when men are so refractary, as that they forbeare to heare, or heare and resist our preaching, we must pray; and where they dispise or forbid our praying, we must lament them, we must weep: Quatriduanus erat, Lazarus was far spent, yet Iesus wept.

He wept, Though he knew that Lazarus were to be restored, and raised to life again. for as he meant to declare a great good will to him at last, so he would utter some by the way; he would do a great miracle for him, as he was a mighty God; but he would weep for him too, as he was a good natured man. Truly it is no very charitable disposition, if I give all at my death to others, if I keep all all my life to my self. For how many families have we seen shaked, ruined by this distemper, that though the Fa∣ther mean to alien nothing of the inheritance from the Son at his death, yet because he affords him not a competent maintenance in his life, he submits his Son to an encum∣bring of his fame with ignominious shiftings, and an encumbring of the estare with irre∣coverable debts. I may mean to feast a man plentifully at Christmas, and that man may starve before in Lent: Great persons may think it in their power to give life to persons and actions by their benefits, when they will, and before that will be up and ready, both may become incapable of their benefits. Jesus would not give this family, whom hee pretended to love, occasion of jealousie, of suspition, that he neglected them; and therefore though he came not presently to that great worke, which hee in∣tended

tended at last, yet hee left them not comfortlesse by the way, Iesus wept.

And so (that we may reserve some minutes for the rest) we end this part, applying to every man that blessed exclamation of S. Ambrose, Ad monumentum hoc digner is accede∣re Domine Iesu, Lord Jesus be pleased to come to this grave, to weep over this dead La∣zarus, this soule in this body: And though I come not to a present rising, a present deli∣verance from the power of all sin, yet if I can feele the dew of thy teares upon me, if I can discern the eye of the compassion bent towards me, I have comfort all the way, and that comfort will flow into an infallibility in the end.

And be this the end of this part, to which we are come by these steps. Iesus wept, That as he shewed himself to be God, he might appeare to be man too: he wept not in ordinately; but he came nearer excesse then indolency: He wept because he was dead; and because all means for life had not been used; he wept, though he were far spent; and he wept, though he meant to raise him again.

We passe now from his humane to his propheticall teares, from Jesus weeping in con∣templation of a naturall calamity fallen upon one family, Lazarus was dead, to his weep∣ing in contemplation of a Nationall calamity foreseen upon a whole people; Jerusalem was to be destroyed. His former teares had sOme of the spirit of prophecy in them; for therefore sayes Epiphanius, Christ wept there, because he foresaw how little use the Jews would make of that miracle, his humane teares were propheticall, and his prophe∣ticall teares are humane too, they rise from good affections to that people. And there∣fore the same Author sayes, That because they thought it an uncomely thing for Christ to weep for any temporall thing, some men have expunged and removed that verse out of S. Lukes Gospell, That Jesus when he saw that City, wept: But he is willing to be proposed, and to stand for ever for an example of weeping in contemplation of pub∣lique calamities; Therefore Iesuswept.

He wept first, Inter acclamationes, in the midst of the congratulations and acclamati∣ons of the people, then when the whole multitude of his Disciples cried out, Vivat Rex, Blessed be the King, that comes in the name of the Lord, Jesus wept. When Herod tooke to himselfe the name of the Lord, when he admitted that grosse flattery, It is a God and not a man that speakes, It was no wonder that present occasion of lamentation fell upon him. But in the best times, and under the best Prince, (first, such is the naturall mutability of all worldly things; and then (and that especially) such is the infinitenesse, and enormous∣nesse of our rebellious sin) then is ever just occasion of feare of worse, and so of teares. Every man is but a spunge, and but a spunge filled with teares: and whether you lay your right hand or your left upon a full spunge, it will weep. Whether God lay his left hand, temporall calamities, or his right hand, temporall prosperity; even that temporall pro∣sperity comes alwaies accompanied with so much anxiety in our selves, so much uncer∣tainty in it selfe, and so much envy in others, as that that man who abounds most, that spunge shall weep.

Jesus wept, Inter acclamationes, when all went wee enough with him; to shew the slipperinesse of worldly happinesse, and then he wept Inter judicia; then when himselfe was in the act of denouncing judgements upon them, Jesus wept, To shew with how ill a will he inflicted those judgements, and that themselves, and not he, had drawne those judgements upon them. How often doe the Prophets repeat that phrase, Onus visionis, O the burden of the judgements that I have seene upon this, and this people! It was a burden that pressed teares from the Prophet Esay, I will water thee with my teares, O Heshbon: when he must pronounce judgements upon her, he could not but weep over her. No Prophet so tender as Christ, nor so compassionate; and therefore he never takes rod into his hand, but with teares in his eyes. Alas, did God lack a footstoole, that he should make man only to tread and trample upon? Did God lack glory, and could have it no other way, but by creating man therefore, to afflict him temporally here, and eter∣nally hereafter? whatsoever Christ weeps for in the way of his mercy, it is likely he was displeased with it in the way of his Justice: If he weep for it, he had rather it were not so. If then those judgements upon Jerusalem were only from his owne primary, and posi∣tive, and absolute Decree, without any respect to their sins, could he be displeased with his owneact, or weep and lament that which onely himselfe had done? would God ask rael? if God lay open to that answer, We die therefore, because you have killed us; Jeru∣salem

salem would not judge her selfe, therefore Christ judged her; Jerusalem would not weep for her self, and therefore Jesus wept; but in those teares of his, he shewed, that he had ra∣ther her own teares had averted, and washed away those judgements.

He wept, cum appropinquavit, sayes the Text there, when Iesus came near the City and saw it then he wept; not till then. If we will not come neare the miseries of our brethren, if we will not see them, we will never weep over them, never be affected towards them. It was cum ille, not cumilli, when Christ himselfe, not when his Disciples, his followers, who could doe Jerusalem no good, tooke knowledge of it. It was not cum illi, nor it was not cum illa, not when those judgements drew neare; It is not said so; neither is there any time limited in the Text, when those judgements were to fall upon Jerusalem; it is onely said generally, indefinitely, these dayes shall come upon her. And yet Christ did not ease himselfe upon that, that those calamities were remote and farre off, but though they were so, and not to fall till after his death, yet he lamented future calamities then, then Jesus wept. Many such little Brookes as these fall into this River, the consideration of Christs Propheticall teares; but let it be enough to have sprinkled these drops out of the River; That Jesus, though a private person, wept in contemplation of publique calami∣ties; That he wept in the best times, fore-seeing worse; That he wept in their mise∣ries, because he was no Author of them: That he wept not till he tooke their miseries into his consideration: And he did weep a good time, before those miseries fell upon them. There remaine yet his third teares, his pontificall teares, which accompany his sa∣crifice; Those teares we called the Sea, but a Sea which must now be bounded with a very little sand.

To saile apace through this Sea; these teares, the teares of his Crosse, were expressed by that inestimable waight, the sinnes of all the world. If all the body were eye, argues the Apostle in another place; why, here all the body was eye; every pore of his body made an eye by teares of blood, and every inch of his body made an eye by their bloody scourges. And if Christs looking upon Peter, made Peter weep, shall not his looking upon us here, with teares in his eyes, such teares in such eyes, springs of teares, rivers of teares, seas of teares make us weep too? Peter who wept under the waight of his parti∣cular sin, wept bitterly: how bitterly wept Christ under the waight of all the sins of all the world? In the first teares. Christ humane teares (those we called a spring) we fetched water at one house, we condoled a private calamity in another; Lazarus was dead. In his second teares, his Propheticall teares, wee went to the condoling of a whole Nation; and those we called a River. In these third teares, his pontificall teares, teares for sin, for all sins (those we call a Sea) here is Mare liberum, a Sea free and open to all; Every man may saile home, home to himselfe, and lament his own sins there.

I am farre ftom concluding all to be impenitent, that doe not actually weep and shed teares; I know there are constitutions, complexions, that doe not afford them. And yet the worst Epithet, which the best Poet could fixe upon Pluto himselfe, was to call him Illachrymabilis, a person that could not weep. But to weep for other things, and not to weep for sin, or if not to teares, yet not to come to that tendernesse, to that melting, to that thawing, that resolving of the bowels which good soules feele; this is a spunge (I said before, every man is a spunge) this is a spunge dried up into a Pumice stone; the light∣nesse, the hollownesse of a spunge is there still, but (as the Pumice is) dried the Aet∣naes of lust, of ambition, of other flames in this world.

I have but three words to say of these teares of this weeping. What it is, what it is for, what it does; the nature, the use, the benefit of these teares, is all. And in the first, I forbeare to insist upon S. Basils Metaphor, Lachrymae sudor animi male sani; Sin is my sicknesse, the blood of Christ Jesus is my Bezar, teares is the sweat that that produceth. I forbeare Greg. Nyssens metaphor too, Lachryma sanguis cordis defoecatus; Teares are out best blood, so agitated, so ventilated, so purified, so rarified into spirits, as that thereby I become Idem spiritus, one spirit with my God. That is large enough, and imbraces all, which S. Gregory sayes, That man weeps truly, that soul sheds true teares, that considers seriously, first, ubi fuit in innocentia, the blessed state which man was in, in his integrity at first, ubifuit; and then considers, ubi est in tentationibus, the weak estate that man is in now, in the midst of tentations, where, if he had no more, himself were tentation too much, ubi est; and yet considers farther, ubi erit, in gehenna, the insupportable, and for all that, the inevitable, theirreparable, and for all that, undeterminable torments of hell,

ubi erit; and lastly, ubi non erit, in coelis, the unexpressible joy and glory which he loses in heaven, ubi non erit, where he shall never be. These foure to consider seriously, where man was, where he is, where he shall be, where he shall never be, are foure such Rivers, as constitute a Paradise. And as a ground may be a weeping ground, though it have no running River, no constant spring, no gathering of waters in it; so a soule that can poure out it self into these religious considerations, may be a weeping soule, though it have a dry eye: This weeping then is but a true sorrow, (that was our first) and then, what this true sorrow is given us for, and that is our next Consideration.

As water is in nature a thing indifferent, in may give life, (so the first livin things that were, were in the water) and it may destroy life, (so all things living upon the earth, were destroyed in the water) but yet though water may, though it have done good and bad, yet water does now one good office, which no ill quality that is in it can equall, it wa∣shes our soules in Bap?isme; so though there be good teares and bad teares, teares that wash away sin, and teares that are sin, yet all teares have this degree of good in them, that they are all some kinde of argument of good nature, of a tender heart; and the Holy Ghost loves to work in Waxe, and not in Marble. I hope that is but meerly Poeticall which the Poet saies, Discunt lachrymare decenter; that some study to weep with a good grace; Quo{que} volunt plorant empore, quo{que}mode, they make use and advantage of their teares, and weep when they will. But of those who weep not when they would, but when they would not, do half imploy their teares upon thatfor which God hath given them that sacrifice upon sin. God made the Firmament, which he called Heaven, after it had divided the waters: After we have distinguished our teares, naturall from spirituall, worldly from heavenly, then there is a Firmament established in us, then there is a hea∣ven opened to us: and truly, to cast Pearles before Swine, will scarce be better resem∣bled, then to shed teares which resemble pearles for worldly losses.

Are there examples of menopassionately enamored upon age? or if upon age, upon deformity? If there be example of that, are they not examples of scorn too? doe not all others laugh at their teares? and yet such is our passionate doting upon this world. Mun∣di facies, sayes S. Augustine, (and even S. Augustine himselfe hath scarce said any thing more pathetically) tanta rerani labe contrita, ut etiam speciem seductionis amiserit: The face of the whold world is so defaced, so wrinkled, so ruined, so deformed, as that man might be trusted with this world, and there is no jealousie, no suspition that this world should be able to minister any occasion of tentation to man: Speciem seductionis amisit. And yet, Qui in seipso aruit, in nobis floret, sayes S. Gregory, as wittily as S. Augustine, (as it is easie to be witty, easie to extend an Epigram to a Satyre, and a Satyre to an Invective, in declaiming against this world) that world which findes it selfe truly in an Autumne, in it selfe, findes it selfe in a spring, in our imaginations. Labenti haeremus, sayes that Father; Et cum labentem sistere non possumus, cum ipso labimur; The world passes away, and yet wee cleave to it; and when wee cannot stay it from passing away, wee passe away with it.

To mourne passionately for the love of this world, which is decrepit, and upon the deathbed, or imoderately for the death of any that is passed out of this world, is not the right use of teares. That hath good use which Chrysologus notes, that when Christ was told of Lazarus death, he said he was glad; when he came to raise him to life, then hee wept: for though his Disciples gained by it, (they were confirmed by a Miracle) though the family gained by it, (they had their Lazarus againe) yet Lazarus himselfe lost by it, by being re-imprisoned, re-committed, re-submitted to the manifold incommodities of this world. When our Saviour Christ forbad the women to weepe for him, it was be∣causethere was nothing in him, for teares to worke upon; no sin: Ordinem flendi docuit, saies S. Bernard, Christ did not absolutely forbid teares, but regulate and order their teares, that they might weepe in the right place; first for sin. David wept for Absolon; He might imagine, that he died in sin, he wept not for the Child by Bathsheba, he could not suspect so much danger in that. Exitus aquarum, saies David, Rivers of waters ran downe from mine eyes, why? Quia illi, Because they, who are they? not other men, as it is ordi∣narily taken; but Quia illi, Because mine owne eyes (so Hilary, and Ambrose, and August take it) have not kept thy Lawes: As the calamities of others, so the sins of others may, but our owne sins must be the object of our sorrow. Thou shalt offer to me, saies God, the first of thy ripe fruits, and of thy liquors, as our Translation hath it: The word in the Ori∣ginall

ginall is Vedingnacha, lachrymarum, and of thy teares: Thy first teares must be to God for sin: The second and third may be to nature and civility, and such secular offices. But Liquore ad lippitudinem apto quisquamne ad pedes lavandos abutetur? It is S. Chrysostomes exclamation and admiration, will and wash his feet in water for sore eyes? will any man embalme the Carcasse of the world, which he treads under foote, with those teares which should embalme his soule? Did Ioseph of Arimathea bestow any of his perfumes (though he brought a superfluous quantity, a hundred pound waight for one body) yet did he bestow any upon the body of either of the Thieves? Teares are true sorrow, that you heard before; True sorrow is for sin, that you have heard now; All that remaines is how this sorrow works, what is does.

The Fathers have infinitely delighted themselves in this descant, the blessed effect of holy teares. He amongst them that reemembers us, that in the old Law all Sacrifices were washed, he meanes, That our best sacrifice, even prayer it selfe, receives an improve∣ment, a dignity, by being washed in teares. He that remembers us, that if any roome of out house be on fire, we run for water, meanes that in all tentations, we should have re∣course to teares. He that tels us, that money being put into a bason, is seene at a farther distance, if there be water in the bason, then if it be emptie, meanes also, that our most pretious devotions receive an addition, a multiplication by holy teares. S. Bernard meanes all that they all meane in that, Cor lachrymas nesciens durum, impurum, A hard heart is a foule heart. Would you shut up the devill in his owne channell, his channell of brim∣stone, and make that worse? S. hierom tels the way, Plus tua lachryma, &c. Thy teares tor∣ment him more then the fires of hell; will you needs have holy water? truly, true teares are the holiest water. And for Purgatory, it is liberally confessed by a Jesuit, Non minùs efficax, &c. One teare will doe thee as much good, as all the flames of Purgatory. We have said more then once, that man is a spunge; And in Codice scripta, all our sins are written in Gods Booke, saies S. ChrysOstome: If there I can fill my spunge with teares, and so wipe out all my sins out of that Book, it is a blessed use of the Spunge.

I might stand upon this, the manifold benefits of godly teares, long: so long, as till you wept, and wept for sin; and that might be very long. I contract all to this one, which is all: To how many blessednesses must these teares, this godly sorrow reach by the way, when as it reaches to the very extreme, to that which is opposed to it, to Joy? for godlie sorrow is Joy. The words in Iob are in the Vulgat, Dimitte meut plang am dolorem meum: Lord spare me a while that I may lament my lamentable estate: and so ordinarily the Expo∣sitors that follow that Translation, make their use of them. But yet it is in the Originall, Lord spare me a while, that I may take comfort: That which one cals lamenting, the other calls rejoycing: To conceive true sorrow and true joy, are things not onely contiguous, but continuall; they doe not onely touch and follow one another in a certaine succession, Joy assuredly after sorrow, but they consist together, they are all one, Joy and Sorrow. My teares have beene my meat day and night, saies David: not that he had no other meate, but that none relisht so well. It is a Grammaticall note of a Jesuit, (I doe not tell you it is true; I have almost tole you that it is not true, by telling you whose it is, but that it is but a Grammaticall note) That when it is said Tempus cantus, The time offinging is come, it might as well be rendred out of the Hebrew, Tempus plorationis, The time of weeping is come; And when it is said, Nomini tuo cantabo, Lord I will sing unto thy Name, it might be as well rendred out of the Hebrew, Plorabo, I will weepe, I will sacrifice my teares unto thy Name. So equall, so indifferent a thing is it, when we come to godly sorrow, whe∣ther we call it sorrow or joy, weeping or singing.

To end all, to weep for sin is not a damp of melancholy, to sigh for sin, is not a vapour of the spleene, but as Monicaes Confessor said still unto her, in the behalfe of her Son S. Augustine, filius istarum lachrymarum, the son of these teares cnnot perish; so wash thy selfe in these three examplar bathes of Christs teares, in his humane teares, and be tenderly affected with humane accidents, in his Propheticall teares, and avert as much as in thee lieth, the calamities imminent upon others, but especially in his pontificall teares, teares for sin, and I am thy Confessor, non ego, sed Dominus; not I, but the spirit of God himself is thy Confessor, and he absolves thee, filius istarum lachrymarum, the soule ba∣thed in these teares cannot perish: for this is trina immer sio, that threefold dipping which was used in the Primitive Church in baptisme. And in this baptisme, thou takest a new Christian name, thou who wast but a Christian, art now a regenerate Christian; and as

Naaman the Leper came cleaner out of Jordan, then he was before his leprosie, (for his flesh came as the flesh of a child) so there shall be better evidence in this baptisme of thy repentance, then in thy first baptisme; better in thy self, for then thou hadst no sense of thy own estate, in this thou hast: And thou shalt have better evidence from others too; for howsoever some others will dispute, whether all children which dye after Bap∣tisme, be certainly saved or no, it never fell into doubt or disputation, whether all that die truely repentant, be saved or no. Weep these teares truly, and God shall performe to thee, first that promise which he makes in Esay, The Lord shall wipe all teares from thy face, all that are fallen by any occasion of calamity here, in the militant Church; and he shall performe that promise which he makes in the Revelation, The Lord shall wipe all teares from thine eyes, that is, dry up the fountaine of teares; remove all occasion of teares here∣after, in the triumphant Church.

SERMON XVII. Preached at VVhite-hall, March 4. 1624.

MAT. 19.17.

And he said unto him, Why callest thou me Good? There is none Good but One; that is, God.

THat which God commanded by his Word, to be done at some times (that we should humble our soules by fasting) the same God tommands by his Church, to be done now: In the Scriptures you have Praeceptum, The thing it self, What; In the Church, you have the Nunt, The time, When. The Scriptures are Gods Voyce; The Church is his Eccho; a redoubling, a repeating of some particular syllables, and accents of the same voice. And as we harken with some earnestnesse, and some admiration at an Eccho, when perchance we doe not understand the voice that occasioned that Eccho; so doe the obedient children of God apply themselves to the Eccho of his Church, when perchance otherwise, they would lesse understand the voice of God, in his Scriptures, if that voice were not so redoubled unto them. This fasting then, thus enjoyned by God, for the generall, in his Word, and thus limited to this Time, for the particular, in his Church, is indeed but a continuation of a great Feast: Where, the first course (that which we begin to serve in now) is Manna, food of Angels, plentifull, frequent preaching; but the second course, is the very body and blood of Christ Jesus, shed for us, and given to us, in that blessed Sacrament, of which himselfe makes us worthy receivers at that time. Now, as the end of all bodily eating, is Assimilation, that after all other concoctions, that meat may be made Idem cor∣pus, the same body that I am; so the end of all spirituall eating, is Assimilation too, That after all Hearing, and all Receiving, I may be made Idem spiritus cum Domino, the same spirit, that my God is: for, though it be good to Heare, good to Receive, good to Me∣ditate, yet, (if we speake effectually, and consummatively) why call we these good? there is nothing good but One, that is, Assimilation to God; In which perfect and con∣summative sense, Christ saies to this Man, in this Text, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is God.

The words are part of a Dialogue, of a Conference, betweene Christ, and a man who proposed a question to him; to whom Christ makes an answer by way of another que∣stion, Why callest thou me good, &c. In the words, and by occasion of them, we consider the Text, the Context, and the Pretext: Not as three equall parts of the Building; but the Context, as the situation and Prospect of the house, The Pretext, as the Accesse and entrance to the house, And then the Text it selfe, as the House it selfe, as the body of the building: In a word, In the Text, the Words; In the Context, the Occasion of the words; In the Pretext, the Pretence, the purpose, the disposition of him who gave the occasion.

We begin with the Context; the situation, the prospect; how it stands, how it is but∣ted, how it is bounded; to what it relates, with what it is connected. And in that, we are no farther curious, but onely to note this, that the Text stands in that Story, where a man comes to Christ, inquires the way to Heaven, beleeves himselfe to be in that way already, and (when he heares of nothing, but keeping the Commandements) beleeves himselfe to be fargone in that way; But when he is told also, that there belongs to it a departing with his Riches, his beloved Riches, he breakes off the conference, he sepa∣rates himselfe from Christ; for, (saies the Story) This Man had great possessions. And to this purpose, (to separate us from Christ) the poorest amongst us, hath great possessions. He corners of the streets, as well as he that sits upon carpets, in the Region of perfumes, he that is ground and trod to durt, with obloquie, and contempt, as well as he that is built up every day, a story and story higher with additions of Honour, Every man hath some such possessions as possesse him, some such affections as weigh downe Christ Jesus, and separate him from Him, rather then from those affections, those possessions. Scarce any sinner but comes sometimes to Christ, in the language of the man in this Text, Good Ma∣ster what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternall life? And if Christ would go no far∣ther with such men, but to say to the Adulterer, Do not thou give thy money to usury; no more to the penurious Usurer, but, Do not thou wast thy selfe in superfluous and ex∣pensive feasting; If Christ would proceed no farther, but to say to the needy person, that had no money, Do not thou buy preferment; or to the ambitious person that soares up after all, Do not thou forsake thy selfe, deject thy selfe, undervalue thy selfe, In all these cases, the Adulterer and the Usurer, The needy and the ambitious man, would all say with the man in the Text, All these things have we done from our youth. But when Christ proceeds to a Vade, & vende, to depart with their possessions, that which they possesse, that which possesses them, this changes the case.

There are some sins so rooted, so riveted in men, so incorporated, so consubstantiated in the soule, by habituall custome, as that those sins have contracted the nature of An∣cient possessions. As men call Manners by their names, so sins have taken names from men, and from places; Simon Magus gave the name to a sin, and so did gehazi, and Sodom did so: There are sins that run in Names, in Families, in Blood; Hereditary sins, entailed sins; and men do almost prove their Gentry by those sins, and are scarce beleeved to be rightly borne, if they have not those sins; These are great possessions, and men do much more easily part with Christ, then with these sins. But then there are lesse sins, light sins, vanities; and yet even these come to possesse us, and separate us from Christ. How many men negiect this ordinary meanes of their Salvation, the comming to these Exercises, not because their undoing lyes on it, or their discountenancing; but meerely out of levity, of vanity, of nothing; they know not what to do else, and yet do not this. You heare of one man that was drowned in a vessell of Wine; but how many thousands in ordinary water? And he was no more drowned in that precious liquor, then they in that common water. A gad of steele does no more choake a man, then a feather, then a haire; Men perish with whispering sins, nay with silent sins, sins that never tell the conscience they are sins, as often as with crying sins: And in hell there shall meet as many men, that never thought what was sin, as that spent all their thoughts in the compassing of sin; as many, who in a slack in consideration, never cast a thought upon that place, as that by searing their conscience, overcame the sense and feare of the place. Great sins are great possessions; but levities and vanities possesse us too; and men had rather part with Christ, then with any possessions; which is all we will note out of this first part, The Context, the situation, and prospect of the house, the coherence and connexion of the Text.

The second part, is the pretext; that is the pretense, the purpose, the disposition of him that moved this question to Christ, and occasioned this answer. Upon which we make this stop, because it hath been variously apprehended by the Expositors; for some think he came in an humble disposition to learn of Christ, and others think he came in a Phari∣saicall confidence in himself, with which Epiphanius first, and then S. Ierome charge him. But in such doubtful cases in other mens actions, when it appeares not evidently, whether it were well, or ill done, where the balance is eaven, alwayes put you in your charity, and that will turne the scale the best way. Things which are in themselves, but mis-interpre∣table, doe not you presently mis-interpret, you allow some graines to your gold, before

you call it light: allow some infirmities to any man, before you call him ill. For this man in the Text, venit, sayes this Euangelist, he came to Christ, he came of himselfe. S. Peter himself came not so. S. Peter came not, till his brother Andrew brought him: none of the twelve Apostles came to Christ so, they came not, till Christ called them: Here, we heare of no calling, no inviting, no mention of any motion towards him, no intimati∣on of any intimation to him, and yet he came. Blessed are they that come to Christ Jesus, before any collaterall respects draw them, before the Laws compell them, before calamities drive them to him: He onely comes hither, that comes voluntarily, and is glad he is here; He that comes so, as that he had rather he were away, is not here. Ve∣nit, sayes our Euangelist, of this man: And then, sayes S. Mark, handling the same sto∣ry, Venit procurrens, He came running. nicodemus came not so, Nicodemus durst not avow his comming; and therefore he came creeping, and he came softly, and he came seldome, and he came by night.

Blessed are they who make haste to Christ, and publish their zeale to the encourage∣ment of others: For, let no man promise himself a religious constancy in the time of his triall, that doth not his part in establishing the religious constancy of other men. Of all proofes, Demonstration is the powerfullest: when I have just reason to think my superi∣ous would have it thus, this is Musique to my soul; When I heare them say they would have it thus, this is Rhetorique to my soule; When I see their Laws enjoyne it to be thus, this is Logick to my soul; but when I see them actually, really, clearely, constant∣ly do thus, this is a Demonstration to my soule, and Demonstration is the powerfullest proofe: The eloquence of inferiours is in words, the eloquence of superiours is in action.

He came to Christ; hee ran to him; and when he was come, as S. Mark relates it, He fell upon his knees to Christ. He stood not then Pharisaically upon his own legs, his own merits, though he had been a diligent observer of the Commandements before. Blessed are they, who bring the testimony of a forme zeale to Gods service, and yet make that no excuse for their present, or future slacknesst; The benefit of our former goodnesse is, that that enables us to be the better still: for, as all example is powerfull upon us, so our own example most of all; in this case we are most immediately bound by ourselves; still to be so good, as we our selves have been before: There was a time when I was nothing; but there shall never be any time, when I shall be nothing; and therefore I am most to respect the future. The good services that a man hath done to God by pen, or sword, are wings, and they exalt him if he would go forward; but they are waights and depresse him, and aggravate his condemnation, if his presumption upon the merit of those former services, retard him for the future. This man had done well, but he stood not upon that; he kneeled to Christ, and he said to him, Magister bone, Good master. He was no ignorant man, and yet he acknowledged that he had somewhat more to learn of Christ, then he knew yet. Blessed are they that inanimate all their know∣ledge, consummate all in Christ Jesus. The University is a Paradise, Rivers of know∣ledge are there, Arts and Sciences flow from thence. Counsell Tables are Horti conclusi, (as it is said in the Canticles) Gardens that are walled in, and they are Fontes signati, Wells that are sealed up; bottomlesse depths of unsearchable Counsels there. But those Aquae quietudinum, which the Prophet speaks of, The waters of rest, they flow à magistro bono, from this good master, and flow into him again; All knowledge that begins not, and ends not with his glory, is but a giddy, but a vertiginous circle, but an elaborate and ex∣quisite ignorance. He would learn of him, and what? Quid boni faciam, What good thing shall I do? Blessed are they that bring their knowledge into practise; and blessed again, that crown their former practise with future perseverance.

This was his disposition that came; His, though he were a youn man; (for so he is said to be, in the 22. ver.) and yong men are not ofter so forward in such wayes. I re∣member one of the Panegyriques celebrates & magnifies one of the Romane Emperors for? is, that he would marry when he was yong; that he would so soon confine and limit his pleasures, so soon determine his affections in one person. When a young man comes to Christ, Christ receives him with an extraordinary welcome; well intimated though he were yong; and he came though he wre Vnus è principibus, (for so he is qualified in S. Luke) A principall man, a great man; as we translate it, One of the Rulers:

for so he is a reall and a personall answer and instance to that scornfull question of the Pharisees, Nunquid è principibus, Do any of the Rulers, any great men, beleeve in Christ? It is true that the Holy Ghost doth say, Non multi nobiles, few noble men come to hea∣ven. Not out of Panigorola, the Bishop of Asti, his reason, Pauci quia pauci, There can∣not come many noble men to heaven, because there are not many upon earth; for many times there are many. In calme and peaceable times, the large favours of indulgent Princes, in active and stirring times, the merit and the fortune of forward men, do often enlarge the number. But such is often the corrupt inordinatenesse of greatnesse, that it only carries them so much beyond other men, but not so much nearer to God; It only sets men at a farther, not God at a nearer distance to them; but because they are come to be called gods, they think they have no farther to go to God, but to themselves. But God is the God of the Mountains, as well as of the Valleyes: Great and small are equall, and equally nothing in his sight: for, when all the world is In pugillo, in Gods fist, (as the Pro∣phet speaks) who can say then, This is the Ant, this is the Elephant? Our conversati∣on should be in heaven; and if we look upon the men of this world, as from heaven, as if we looked upon this world it self, from thence, the hils would be no hils, but all one flat and equall plain; so are all men, one kinde of dust. Records of nobility are only from the book of Life, and your preferment is your interest in a place at the right hand of God. But yet, when those men whom God hath raised in this world, take him in their armes, and raise him too, though God cannot be exalted above himself, yet he is content to call this a raising, and to thank them for it. Therefore when this man, a man of this rank came to him, Iesus beheld him, sayes the Gospell, and he loved him, and he said, one thing thou lackest; God knows, he lacked many things; but because he had that one, zeale to him, Christ doth not reproach to him his other defects: God pardons great men ma∣ny errors, for that one good affection, a generall zeale to his glory, and his cause.

His disposition then, (though it have seemed suspitious, and questionable to some) was so good, as that it hath afforded us these good considerations. If it were not so good as these circumstances promise, yet it affords us another as good consideration, That how bad soever it were, Christ Jesus refused him not, when he came to him. When he en∣quired of Christ after salvation, Christ doth not say, There is no salvation for thee, thou Viper, thou Hypocrite, thou Pharisee, I have locked an iron doore of predestination be∣tween salvation and thee; when he enquired of him, what he should do to be sure of heaven, Christ doth not say, There is no such art, no such way, no such assurance here; but you must look into the eternall decree of Election first, and see whether that stand for you or no: But Christ teaches him the true method of this art: for, when he sayes to him, Why callest thou me good? There is none good but God, he only directs him in the way to that end, which he did indeed, or pretended to seek. And this direction of his, this method is our third part; In which, (having already seen in the first, the Context) the situation and prospect of the house, that is, the coherence and occasion of the words, And in the second, (the Pretext) the accesse and entrance to the house, that is, the pre∣tense and purpose of him that occasioned the words, you may now be pleased to look farther into the house it self, and to see how that is built; that is, by what method Christ builds up, and edifies this new disciple of his; which is the principall scope and intenti∣on of the Text, and that, to which all the rest did somewhat necessarily prepare the way.

Our Saviour Christ thus undertaking the farther rectifying of this thus disposed disci∣ple, by a faire method leads him to the true end; Good ends, and by good wayes, con∣summate goodnesse. Now Christs answer to this man is diversly read: We reade it, (as you have heard) why callest thou me good? The vulgat Edition in the Romane Church, reads it thus, Quid me interrogas de bono? Why dost thou question me concerning goodnesse? Which is true? That which answers the Originall; and it can admit no question, but that ours doth so. But yet, Origen, to be sure, in his eighth Tractate upon this Gospell, reads it both wayes: And S. Augustine, in his 63. Chap. of the second book De consensu Evangelist arum, thinks it may very well be beleeved, that Christ did say both: That when this man called him good master, Christ said then, There was none good but God; and that when this man asked him, what good thing he should do, then Christ said, Why dost thou ask me, me whom thou thinkest to be but a meere man, what is goodnesse? There is none good but God; If thou look to understand goodnesse from man, thou must look out such a man as is God too. So that this was Christs method, by these holy in∣sinuations,

by these approaches, and degrees, to bring this man to a knowledge, that he was very God, and so the Messias that was expected. Nihil est falsitas, nisi cum esse puta∣tur, quod non est: All error consists in this, that we take things to be lesse or more, other then they are. Christ was pleased to redeem this man from this error, and bring him to know truly what he was, that he was God. Christ therefore doth not rebuke this man, by any denying that he himself was good; for Christ doth assume that addition to him∣self, I am the good Shepheard. Neither doth God forbid, that those good parts which are in men, should be celebrated with condigne praise. We see that God, as soon as he saw that any thing was good, he said so, he uttered it, he declared it, first of the Light, and then of other creatures: God would be no author, no example of smothering the due praise of good actions. For, surely that man hath no zeale to goodnesse in himself, that affords no praise to goodnesse in other men.

But Christs purpose was also, that this praise, this recognition, this testimony of his goodnesse, might be carried higher, and referred to the only true author of it, to God. So the Priests and the Elders come to Iudith, and they say to her, Thou art the exaltation of Jerusalem, thou art the great glory of Israel, thou art the rejoycing of our Nation, thou hast done all these things by thy hand; And all this was true of Iudith, and due to Iudith; and such recognitions, and such acclamations God requires of such people, as have received such benefits by such instruments: For as there is Treason, and petty-trea∣son, so there is Sacriledge, and petty-sacriledge; and petty-sacriledge is to rob Princes and great persons of their just praise. But then, as we must confer this upon them, so must they, and we, and all transfer all upon God: for so Iudith proceeds there, with her Priests and Elders, Begin unto my God, with Timbrels, sing unto the Lord with Cym∣bals, exalt him, and call upon his name. So likewise Elizabeth magnifies the blessed Virgin Mary, Blessed art thou amongst women: And this was true of her, and due to her; and she takes it to her self, when she sayes there, From henceforth all Generations shall call me blessed; but first, she had carried it higher, to the highest, My soule doth magnifie the Lord, and my spirit doth rejoyce in God my Saviour. In a word, Christ forbids not this man to call him good, but he directs him to know in what capacity that attribute of good∣nesse belonged to him, as he was God: That when this man beleeved before that Christ was good, and learnt from him now, that none was good but God, he might by a farther concoction, a farther rumination, a farther meditation of this, come in due time to know that Christ was God; And this was his Method.

Now this leads us into two rich and fragrant fields; this sets us upon the two Hemi∣spheares of the world; the Western Hemispheare, the land of Gold, and Treasure, and the Eastern Hemispheare, the land of Spices and Perfumes; for this puts us upon both these considerations, first, That nothing is Essentially good, but God, (and there is the land of Gold, centricall Gold, viscerall Gold, gremiall Gold, Gold in the Matrice and womb of God, that is, Essentiall goodnesse in God himself) and then upon this conside∣ration too, That this Essentiall goodnesse of God is so diffusive, so spreading, as that there is nothing in the world, that doth not participate of that goodnesse; and there is the land of Spices and Perfumes, the dilatation of Gods goodnesse. So that now both these propositions are true, First, That there is nothing in this world good, and then this also, That there is nothing ill: As, amongst the Fathers, it is in a good sense, as truly said, De∣us non est Ens, Deus non est substantia, God is no Essence, God is no substance, (for feare of imprisoning God in a predicament) as it is said by others of the Fathers, that there is no other Essence, no other Substance but God.

First then, there is nothing good but God: neither can I conceive any thing in God, that concerns me so much as his goodnesse; for, by that I know him, and for that I love him. I know him by that, for, as Damascen sayes, primarium Dei nomen, Bonitas; Gods first name, that is, the first way by which God notified him self to man, was Goodness; for out of his goodnesse he made him. His name of Jehova we admire with a reverence; but we cannot expresse that name: not only not in the signification of it, but not considently, not assuredly in the sound thereof; we are not sure that we should call it Jehova; not sure that any man did call it Jehova a hundred yeares agoe. But, ineffabili dulcedine teneor cum audio, Bonus Dominus; I am, not transported with astonishment, as at his name of Je∣hova, but replenished with all sweetnesse, established with all soundnesse, when I hear of my God in that name, my good God. By that I know him, and for that I love him: For,

the object of my understanding is truth; but the object of my love, my affection, my de∣sire, is goodnesse. If my understanding be defective, in many cases, faith will supply it; if I beleeve it, I am as well satisfied, as if I knew it; but nothing supplies, nor fills, nor satis∣fies the desire of man, on this side of God; Every man hath something to love, and de∣sire, till he determine it in God; because God only hath Imminuibi lem bonitatem, as they render Dyonisius the Areopagite, an inexhaustible goodnesse; a sea that no land can suck in, a land that no sea can swallow up, a forrest that no fire can waste, a fire that no water can quench. He is so good, goodnesse so, as that he is Causa bonorum, & quae in nos, & quae in nobis, the cause of all good either received by us, or conceived in us; of all, either pre∣pared externally for us, or produced internally in us. In a word, he is Bonum caetera bona colorans, & amabilia reddens, it is his goodnesse, that gilds and enamels all the good per∣sons, or good actions in this world. There is none good but God; and quale bonum ille, sayes that Father, what kinde of goodnesse God is, this doth sufficiently declare, Quòd nulli ab co recedenti bene sit, That no man that ever went from him, went by good way, or came to good end; There is none good but God; there is centricall, viscerall, gremiall gold, goodnesse in the roote, in the tree of goodnesse, God.

Now, Arbor bona, bonos fructus, sayes Christ; If the tree be good, the fruit is good too. The tree is God; What are the fruits of this tree? What are the off-spring of God? S. Ambr. tells us, Angeli & homines, & virtutes eorum; Angels and men, and the good parts, and good actions of Angels and men, are the fruit of this tree, they grow from God. Angels, as they fell, Adam, as he fell, the sins of Angels and men, are not fruits of this tree, they grow not radically, not primarily from God. Nihil in se habet Deus semi-plenum, saies Da∣mascen: God is no half-god, no fragmentary God; he is an intire God, and not made of remnants; not good only so, as that he hath no roome for ill in himself, but good so too, as that he hath no roome for any ill will towards any man; no mans damnation, no mans sin, growes radically from this tree. When God had made all, sayes Tertullian, he blessed all; Maledicere non norat, quia nec malefacere, saies he: God could no more meane ill, then doe ill; God can no more make me sin, then sin himself. It is the foole that saies, There is no God, saies David; And it is the other foole, sayes S. Basil, that saies, God pro∣duces any ill; par precii scelus, quia negat Deum bonum; It is as impiously done, to deny God to be intirely good, as to deny him to be God. For, we see the Manichees, and the Marcionites, and such other Heretiques in the Primitive Church, would rather admit, and constitute two Gods, a good God, and a bad God, then be drawn to think, that he that was the good God indeed, could produce any ill of himself, or meane any ill to any man, that had done none.

And therefore even from Plato himself, some Christians might learn more moderation in expressing themselves in this point; Plato sayes, Creavit quia bonus, therefore did God create us, that he might be good to us; and then he addes, Bono nunquam inest invidia, certainly that God, that made us out of his goodnesse, does not now envy us that good∣nesse which he hath communicated to us; certainly he does not wish us worse, that so he might more justly damne us, and therefore compell us, by any positive decree, to sin, to ju∣stifie his desire of damning us: Much lesse did this good God hate us, or meane ill to us, before he made us, and made us only therefore, that he might have glory in our destru∣ction. There is nothing good but God, there is nothing but goodnesse in God.

How abusively then doe men call the things of this world, Goods? They may as well call them (so they do in their hearts) Gods, as Goods; for there is none good but God. But how much more abusively do they force the world, that call them Bona quia beant, Goods be∣cause they make us good, blessed, happy? In which sense, Seneca uses the word shrewdly, Insolens malum beata uxor, a good wife, a blessed wife, sayes he, that is, a wife that brings a great estate, is an insolent mischiefe. If we doe but cast our eye upon that title in the Law, Bonorum, and De bonis, of Goods, we shall easily see, what poor things they make shift to cal Goods. And if we consider (if it deserve a consideration) how great a difference their Lawyers make (Baldus makes that, and others with him) between Bonorum possessio, and possessio bonorum, that one should amount to a right and propriety in the goods, and the other but to a sequestration of such goods, we may easily see, that they can scarce tell what to call, or where to place such Goods. Health, and strength, and stature, and comelinesse, must be called Goods, though but of the body; The body it self is in the substance it self, but dust; these are but the accidents of that dust, and yet they must be Goods. Land, and

Money, & honor must be called Goods, though but of fortune; Fortune her self, is but such an Idol, as that S. Aug. was ashamed ever to have named her in his works, and therefore repents it in his Retractations; her self is but an Idol, and an Idol is nothing these, but the ac∣cidents of that nothing, and yet they must be Goods. Are they such Goods, as make him necessarily good that hath them? Or such, as no man can be good, that is without them? How many men make themselves miserable, because they want these Goods? And how many men have been made miserable by others, because they had them? Except thou see the face of God upon all thy money, as well as the face of the King, the hand of God to all thy Patents, as well as the hand of the King, Gods Amen, as well as the Kings fiat, to all thy creatiōs, all these reach not to the title of Goods, for there is none good but God.

Nothing in this world; not if thou couldst have it all; carry it higher, to the highest, to heaven; heaven it self were not good, without God. For, in the Schoole, very many and very great men, have thought and taught, That the humane nature of Christ, though united Hypostatically to the Divine Nature, was not meerly by that Union, impeccable, but might have sinned, if besides that Union, God had not infused, and super-induced other graces, of which other graces, the Beatificall vision, the present sight of the face and Essence of God, was one: Because, (say they) Christ had from his Conception, in his Humane Nature, that Beatificall Vision of God, which we shall have in the state of Glo∣ry, therefore he could not sin. This Beatificall Vision, say they, which Christ had here, and which, (as they suppose, and not improbably, in the problematicall way of the Schoole) God, of his absolute power, might have with-held, and yet the Hypostaticall Union have remained perfect; (for, say they, the two Natures, Humane & Divine, might have been so united, and yet the Humane not have so seen the Divine) This Beatificall Vision, this sight of God, was the Cause, or Seal, or Consummation of Christs Perfecti∣on, and impeccability in his Humane Nature. Much more is this Beatificall Vision, this sight of God in Heaven, the Cause or Consummation of all the joyes and glory which we shall receive in that place: for howsoever they dispute, whether that kinde of Blessed∣nesse consist in seeing God, formaliter, or causaliter, that is, whether I shall see all things in God, as in a glasse, in which the species of all things are, or whether I shall see all things, by God, as by the benefit of a light, which shall discover all things to me, yet they all agree, (though they differ de modo, of the manner, how) that howsoever it be, the sub∣stance of the Blessednesse is in this, that I shall see God: Blessed are the pure in heart, sayes Christ, for they shall see God; If they should not see God, they were not blessed. And there∣fore they who place children that die unbaptised, in a roome, where though they feele no torment, yet they shall never see God, durst never call that roome a part of heaven, but of hell rather; Though there be no torment, yet, if they see not God, it is hell. There is nothing good in this life, nothing in the next, without God, that is, without sight and fruition of the face, and presence of God; which is that, which S. Augustine intends, when he sayes, Secutio Dei est appetitus Beatitatis, consecutio Beatitas; our looking towards God, is the way to Blessednesse, but Blessednesse it self is only the sight of God himself.

That therefore thou maist begin thy heaven here, put thy self in the sight of God, put God in thy sight, in every particular action. We cannot come to the body of the Sun, but we can use the light of the Sun many waies: we cannot come to God himself here, but yet here we can see him by many manifestations: so many, as that S. Augustine, in his 20. Chapt. De moribus Ecclesiae Catholicae, hath collected aright places of Scripture, where every one of our senses is called a Seeing; there is a Gustate & videte, and audite, and palpate; tasting, and hearing, and feeling, and all, to this purpose, are called seeing; In all our senses, in our faculties, we may see God if we will: God sees us at midnight; he sees us, then, when we had rather he looked off. If we see him so, it is a blessed interview. How would he that were come abroad at mid-night, to doe a mischiefe, sneak away, if he saw the watch? what a damp must it necessarily cast upon any sinner, in the nearest approach to his sin, if he can see God? See him before thou sinnest; then he looks lovingly: After the sin, remember how fain Adam would have hid himself from God: He that goes one step out of Gods sight, is loath to come into it againe: If you will sit at the right hand of God hereafter, you must walk with God here; So Abraham, so Enoch walked with God, and God took him. God knowes, God takes not every man that dies: God sayes to the rich secure man, Foole, this night they shall fetch away thy soule; but he does not tell him who. That then you be no strangers to God then, see him now; and remember, that his

last judgement is expressed in that word, Nescio vos, I know you not; not to be known by God, is damnation; and God knows no man there, with whom he was not acquainted here. There is none good but God; the fruition of that God, is in seeing him; The way to see him there, is to look towards him here. And so we have gone as far as the first of our two propositions carried us, That in this world there is nothing good.

The other that remains, is, That there is nothing ill; that this goodnesse of God is so spread over all, (all actions, all persons) as that there is nothing ill. Seneca, whom Tertul∣lian calls still Senecam nostram, our Seneca, that is, that Christian Seneca, as though he had read that of S Paul, (between whom and him, it hath been thought, there passed Epistles) Quid habes, quod non accepisti? what hast thou, that thou hast not received from God? and meant to say more then that, sayes quid non dedit? what is there, that were good for thee, that God hath not given thee? And he, whom they call so often Platonem Hebraeorum, the Jews Plato, that is, Philo Iudaeus, sayes well, Nihil boni sterile creavit Deus; God hath made nothing, in which he hath not imprinted, and from which he hath not produced some good: He follows it so far, (and justly) as to say, that God does good, where that good does no good: He takes his examples from Gods raining in the Sea; that rain does no good in the Sea: And from Gods producing fresh springs in the desart Land, where, not only no beasts come to drink, but where the very salt tide overflows the fresh spring. He might have added an example from Paradise, that God would plant such a garden, for so few houres; that God would provide man such a dwelling, when he knew he would not dwell a day in it. And he might have added an example from the Light too; That God would create light, and say it was good, then when it could be good for no∣thing, for there was nothing made to see it, nor to be seen by it: so forward, so early was God, in diffusing his goodnesse. Of every particular thing. God said it was good, and of all together, that it was very good; there was, there is nothing ill. For, when it is ordinari∣ly inquired in the Schoole, whether any thing be essentially good, it is safely answered there, that if by essentially we mean independantly, so good as that it can subsist of it self, without dependance upon, or relation to any other thing, so there is nothing essentially good: But if by essentially good, we mean that whose essence, and beeing is good, so every thing is essentially good. And therefore when the Manichees pressed S. August. with that, Vnde malum? If there be not an ill God, as wel as a good, unde malum, from whom, or from whence proceed all that ill that is in the world? S. Aug. saies, Vnde malum? Quid malum? From whence comes evill? Why, what is there, that you can call evill? I know no such thing; so that, if there be such a God, that God hath no creature. For, as poisons conduce to Physick, and discord to Musick, so those two kinds of evill, into which we contract all others, are of good use, that is, malum poenae, the evill of punishment, affliction, adversity, and malum culpae, even sin it selfe, from which, the punishment flowes.

Be pleased to stop a little, upon each of these. First, malum poenae, affliction, poverty, sick∣nesse, imprisonment, banishment, and such, are not evill. The blood of Christ Jesus only is my cordiall; that restores me, repaires me; but affliction is my Physick; that purges, that cleanses me. Hostiliter se opponit medicus, saies Tertullian, The Physitian comes in like an enemy, with a knife to launce, with fire to cauterize, but opponit se morbo, he is but an ene∣my to the disease, he means the patient no harm; no more does God to me, in all his me∣dicinall corrections. But how if these afflictions hang long upon me? If they do so, that is Aegrotantium animarum diaeta; God enters into another course of Physick, and finds it bet∣ter for me to spend my disease by a diet; and long sicknesses are such diets: God will reco∣ver my soul by a consumption of the body, and establish everlasting health, by long sick∣nesse. Howsoever, let Gods corrections go as high as they can go in this world, Etsi novum videtur, quod dicere volo, saies Origen, dicam tamen; Though it be strange that I will say, I wil say it, Etiam bonitas Dei est, qui dicitur faror ejus; That which we cal the anger of God, the wrath of God, the fury of God, is the goodnesse of God. Correct me not O Lord, in thy wrath, saies David; but, rather then leave me uncorrected, correct me any way. We call God, Just, and we call him Mercifull, according to our present taste of God, and use of God, Cum unicam habeat affectionem Deus, nempe bonitatem, when as God hath but one af∣fection in himself, that is, goodnesse, nor but one purpose upon us, that is, to doe us good.

So then, this which we call Malum poenae, Affliction, Adversity, is not evill; That which occasions this, Malum culpae, sin it self, is not evill; not evill so, as that it should make us incapable of this diffusive goodnesse of God. You know, I presume, in what

sense we say in the Schoole, Malum nihil, and Peccatum nihil, that evill is nothing, sin is nothing; that is, it hath no reality, it is no created substance, it is but a privation, as a shadow is, as sicknesse is; so it is nothing. It is wittily argued by Boethius, God can do all things; God cannot sin; Therefore sin is nothing. But it is strongly argued by S. Augustin, If there be any thing naturally evill, it must necessarily be contrary to that which is natu∣rally good; and that is God. Now, Contraria aequalia, saies he; whatsoever things are contrary to one another, are equall to one another; so, if we make any thing naturally evill, we shall slide into the Manichees error, to make an Evill God. So farre doth the Schoole follow this, as that there, one Archbishop of Canterbury, out of another, that is, Bradwardin out of Anselme, pronounces it Haereticum esse dicere, Malum esse aliquid, To say that any thing is naturally evill, is an heresie.

But if I cannot finde a foundation for my comfort, in this subtilty of the Schoole, That sin is nothing, (no such thing as was created or induced by God, much lesse forced upon me by him, in any coactive Decree) yet I can raise a second step for my consolation in this, that be sin what it will in the nature thereof, yet my sin shall conduce and coope∣rate to my good. So Ioseph saies to his Brethren, You thought evill against me, but God meant it unto good: which is not onely good to Ioseph, who was no partaker in the evill, but good even to them, who meant nothing but evill. And therefore, as Origen said, Etsi novum, Though it be strangely said, yet I say it, That Gods anger is good; so saies S. Augustine, Audeo dicere, Though it be boldly said, yet I must say it, Vtile esse cadere in aliquod manifestum peccatum, Many sinners would never have beene saved, if they had not committed some greater sin at last, then before; for, the punishment of that sin, hath brought them to a remorse of all their other sins formerly neglected. If neither of these will serve my turne, neither that sin is nothing in it selfe, and therefore not put upon me by God, nor that my sin, having occasioned my repentance, hath done me good, and established me in a better state with God, then I was in before that sin, yet this shall fully rectifie me, and assure my consolation, that in a pious sense I may say, Christ Jesus is the sinner, and not I. For, though in the two and twentieth Session of the Councell of Basil, that proposition were condemned as scandalous, in the mouth of a Bishop of Nazareth, Augustinus de Roma, Christus quotidie peccat, That Christ does sin every day, yet Gregory Nazianzen expresses the same intention, in equivalent termes, when he saies, Quamdiu inobediens ego, tamdiu, quantum ad me attinet, inobediens Christus: As long as I sin, for so much as concernes me, me, who am incorporated in Christ, me, who by my true repen∣tance have discharged my selfe upon Christ, Christ is the sinner, even in the sight, and justice of his Father, and not I.

And as this consideration, That the goodnesse of God, in Christ, is thus spread upon all persons, and all actions, takes me off from my aptnesse to mis-interpret other mens actions, not to be hasty to call indifferent things, sins, not to call hardnesse of accesse in great Persons, pride, not to call sociablenesse of conversation in women, prostitution, not to call accommodation of Civill businesses in States, prevarication, or dereliction and abandoning of God, and toleration of Religion; as it takes me off from this mis-inter∣preting of others; so, for my selfe, it puts me upon an ability, to chide, and yet to cheare my soule, with those words of David, O my Soule, why art thou so sad? why art thou so dis∣quieted within me? Since sin is nothing, no such thing as is forced upon thee by God, by which thy damnation should be inevitable, or thy reconciliation impossible, since of what nature soever sin be in it selfe, thy sins being truly repented, have advanced, and emproved thy state in the favour of God, since thy sin, being by that repentance dis∣charged upon Christ, Christ is now the sinner, and not thou, O my Soule, why art thou so sad? why art thou disquieted within me? And this consideration of Gods goodnesse, thus derived upon me, and made mine in Christ, ratifies and establishes such a holy confi∣dence in me, as that all the morall constancy in the world, is but a bulrush, to this bul∣wark; and therefore, we end all, with that historicall, but yet usefull note, That that Duke of Burgundy, who was sirnamed Carolus Audax, Charles the Bold, was Son to that Duke, who was sirnamed Bonus, The Good Duke; A Good one produced a Bold one: True confidence proceeds onely out of true Goodnesse: for, The wicked shall flye, when no man pursueth, but the righteous are bold as a Lion. This constancy, and this confidence, and upon this ground, Holy courage in a holy feare of him, Almighty God infuse and imprint in you all, for his Son Christ Jesus sake. And to this glorious Son of God, &c.

Notes

• v. 2.
• v. 3.
• Ezek. 37.2.
• 1. Part.
• Luk. 13.4.
• V. 4.
• Manus.
• Job 9.20.
• Job 7.2.
• Job. 27.6.
• Ephes. 4.24.
• Job 9.30.
• Oratio.
• Oratio mea.
• Pura.
• Psal. 141.2. Exed. 17.11.
• 2 Part.
• Esay 1.15. Psal. 51.14.
• Ezech 7.23.
• Hosea 4.2.
• Clamor.
• Esay 5.7.
• 3 Part.
• Levit. 5.1.
• Gen. 31.47.
• Quia in Coelis.
• Psal. 〈◊〉〈◊〉 Acts. 〈◊〉〈◊〉
• Psal. 113.5.
• Testis.
• Psal. 28.1. Psal. 1••••.1.
• Testis meus.
• 〈◊〉〈◊〉 29.22.
• Job 10.27.
• 1 Iohn 3.20
• Rom. 8.1.
• Iude••.
• V. 5.
• Acts 10 42. Iohn 5.22.
• Prov. 9.8.
• Amos 7.10.
• Amos 23.
• Apoc. 8.13.
• Esay 1.4.
• Ezek. 24••.
• Ezek. 44.6. Ios. 24.15.
• Esay 28.1.
• Esay 8.2••.
• Ezek. 23.3. Ier. 23.1.
• Prov. 23.19. 1 Cor. 9.16.
• 1 Part.
• Lam. 4.7.
• Hos. 3.4.
• Jer. 12.
• Esay 5.18.
• 2 Pet. 3.4.
• Ezek. 12.22.
• Esay 20.15.
• Ier. 3••.7.
• Jer 28.16.
• Ier. 17.16.
• 2 Part.
• Gal. 1.10.
• Job 8.16.
• 1 Tim. 6.16.
• Mat. 8.12.
• Apoc. 22.5.
• Rom. 13.12.
• Iohn 3.
• 3. Part.
• Iob. 7.1.
• Greg.
• Eph 63.
• 2 Tim. 2.5.
• Mat. 26.38.
• Iohn 10.18.
• Scribanius.
• Baron. Marty∣r••••. 29. De∣cemb.
• Conclusion.
• Psal. 119.17.
• Divisio.
• Vestig. 1. Quia desunt Corpora.
• Dan. 2.31.
• Gal. 6.17.
• Vestig. 2. Pax & bel∣lum.
• Luke 2.14. Colos. 1.20.
• Iohn 14.27.
• Esay 7.23.
• Esay 13.13.
• Esay 13.19.
• 2 Sam. 24.13.
• Esay 42.2.
• Vest. 3. Quia Hostis.
• Mors. Jer. 18.2.
• Sencea.
• Jer. 9.21.
• Novisssns••s hostis.
• Abolebieur.
• Esay 25.8.
• 1. A calami∣tate.
• Job 19.25.
• John 11.24.
• Heb. 11.35.
• Mat. 10.39.
• Psal. 2.4.
• 2. Apeecatis.
• Apoe. 20.6. John 5.25.
• Esay 45.5
• Col. 3.5.
• 2 Cor. 4.10.
• 1 Tim. 5.6.
• Mat. 2.20.
• Irenaeus.
• 3. A morte.
• Idem.
• Gen. 3.17.
• Esay 26.19.
• Bernard.
• August.
• 1 Thes. 5.16.
• Divisi••.
• Luke 19.41. Hcb. 5.7.
• 1 Part. Humanitus.
• Mat. 9.25.
• Luke 7.15.
• Iohn 12.10
• August.
• Noninor∣dinaté. Bernard. Iob 10.4.
• Numb. 11.18.
• Gen. 46.••2.
• Mat. 4.1.
• Non A∣pathes.
• V. 5.
• V. 36.
• Laerymae.
• Ecclus. 38.6.
• Quia non abhibita me∣dia.
• Etsi quatri∣duanus.
• Etsisusci∣tandus.
• 2 Part.
• Inter accla. mationes. Luke 19.38.
• Inter judicia.
• Esay 16.9.
• Cum appro∣pinquavit.
• Non cumilli.
• 3. Part.
• Ad quid.
• Psal. 119.136.
• Exod. 22.19.
• Quid ope∣rantur.
• Mend eza. in 1. Sam.
• Iob 10.20.
• Psal. 42.3.
• Mendoza.
• Cant. 2.12.
• 2 Sam. 22.50.
• Esay 25.
• Revel. 7.17.
• Divisio.
• 1 Part. Context.
• 2 Part. Pretext.
• Mark. 10.17.
• Luke 18.18.
• 1 Cor. 1.26.
• 1 King. 20.28. Esay 40.12.
• Mar. 10.21.
• 3. Part.
• August.
• Judith 15.8.
• Luke 1.42.
• August.
• Aug.
• Idem.
• Gen. 5.25.
• Clem. Alex.
• Civil. Alex.
• Gen. 51.20.
• Prov. 28.1.