LXXX sermons preached at the parish-church of St. Mary Magdalene Milk-street, London whereof nine of them not till now published / by the late eminent and learned divine Anthony Farindon ... ; in two volumes, with a large table to both.

A SERMON Preached on Easter-Day.

REV. I. 18.

I am he that liveth, and was dead: and behold, I am alive for e∣vermore, Amen, and have the keyes of Hell and of Death.

WE do not ask, Of whom speaketh S. John this? or, Who is he that speaketh it? For we have his chara∣cter drawn out in lively colours in the verses going before my Text. The Divine calls him a voyce, ver. 12. when he meaneth the man who spake it; I turned to see the voyce that spoke with me; and in the next verse telleth us he was like to the Son of man in the midst of the seven golden Candlesticks, governing his Church,* 1.1 setting his Tabernacle amongst men, not abhorring to walk amongst them, and to be their God, that they might be his people. Will you see his robes and attire? Clothed he was with a garment down to the foot, v. 13. which was the garment of the High Priest:* 1.2 And his was an unchangeable Priesthood. He had also a golden girdle, or belt, as a King: For he is a King for ever, and of his kingdome there shall be no end. Luk. 1.33. Righ∣teousness shall be the girdle of his loyns, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins, Isa. 11.5. His head and his hairs were white as woll, and as white as snow, v. 14. his Judgment pure and uncorrupt, not byassed by outward respects, not tainted or corrupted by any turbulent affection, but smooth and even as waters are when no wind troubleth them. His eyes as a flame of fire, piercing the inward man, searching the secrets of the heart: nor is there any action, word, or thought, which is not manifest in his sight. His feet like unto fine brass, v. 15. sincere and constant, like unto himself in all his proceedings, in every part of his Oeconomy. His voyce as the sound of many waters, declaring his Fathers will with power and authori∣ty, sounding out the Gospel of peace to all the world. And last of all, out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, v. 16. not onely dividing asunder the soul and the spirit,* 1.3 but discerning the thoughts and intents of the heart, and taking vengeance on those who persecute his Church. His Majesty dazled every mortal eye; his countenance was as the Sun shineth in his strength. And now of him who walketh in the midst of his Church, whose Mercy is a large robe reaching down to the feet, who is girt with Power, and clothed with Justice, whose Wisdome pierceth even into

darkness it self, whose Word is heard from one end of the world to the other, whose Majesty displayeth its beams through every corner of it, we cannot but confess with Peter, This is Christ,* 1.4 the Son of the living God. And can the Saviour of the world, the Desire of all nations, the Glory of his Father, Beauty it self, appear in such a shape of terrour? Shall we draw out a merciful Redeemer with a warriours belt? with eyes of fire? with feet of brass? with a voyce of terrour? with a sharp two-edged sword in his mouth? Yes: Such a High Priest became us,* 1.5 who is not onely merciful, but just; not onely meek, but powerful; not only fair, but terrible; not onely clothed with the darkness of Humility, but with the shining robes of Majesty; who can dye, and can live again, and live for evermore; who suffered himself to be judged and condemned, and shall judge and condemn the world it self. S. John indeed was troubled at this sight, and fell down as dead; but Christ rouzeth him up, and bid∣deth him shake of that fear. For he is terrible to none but those who make him so, to Hereticks, and Hypocrites, and Persecutors of his Church; to those who would have him neither wise, nor just, nor power∣ful. Non accepimus iratum, sed fecimus: He is not angry till we force him. It is rather our sins that run back again upon us as Furies, than his wrath; These make him clothe himself with vengeance, and draw his sword. To S. John, to those that bow before him, he is all sweetness, all grace, all salvation; and upon these, as upon S. John, he layeth his right hand, quickneth and rouzeth them up: Fear not, v. 17. neither my gir∣dle of Justice, nor my eyes of fire, nor my feet of brass, nor my mighty voyce, nor my two-edged sword: for my Wisdom shall guide you, my Pow∣er shall defend you, my Majesty shall uphold you, and my Mercy shall crown you. Fear not; I am the first and the last; more humble than any, more powerful than any, scorned, whipped, crucified, and now highly exalted, and Lord of all the world. I am he that liveth, and was dead; and behold, I am alive for evermore, &c.

These words I may call, as Tertullian doth the Lord's Prayer, brevia∣rium Evangelii, the Breviary or Sum of the whole Gospel; or, with Au∣gustine, Symbolum abbreviatum, the Epitome or Abridgement of our Creed. And such a short Creed we find in Tertullian, which he calls Regulam veram, immobilem & irreformabilem, the sole, immutable and unalterable rule of Faith. And then the Articles or parts will be 1. The Death of Christ; I was dead. 2. The Resurrection of Christ, with the effect and power of it; I am he that liveth. 3. The Duration and con∣tinuance of his life: It is to all eternity; I am alive for evermore. 4. The Power of Christ, which he purchased by his death, the Power of the keyes; I have the keyes of Hell and of Death. And all these are 1. ushered in with an ECCE, Behold, that we may consider it; and 2. sealed and ratified with an AMEN, that we may believe it, that there be not in any of us, as the Apostle speaketh, an unbelieving heart, to depart from the living God, Hebr. 3.11. I am he that liveth, and was dead.

Of the Death of Christ we spake the last day:* 1.6 We shall onely now look upon it in reference to the Resurrection, and consider it as past: For it is FƲI MORTƲƲS, I was dead. And in this we may see the method and proceeding of our Saviour, which he drew out in his blood, which must sprinkle those who are to be saved, and make them nigh unto him to follow in the same method, à morte ad vitam, from suffering to glory, from death to life. Tota ecclesia cum Christo computatur ut una persona;* 1.7 Christ and his Church are in computation but one person. He ought to suffer, and they ought to suffer: They suffer in him, and he in them,* 1.8 to the end of the world. Nor is any other method answerable either to his

infinite Wisdome and Justice, which hath set it down in indeleble chara∣cters, or to our mortal and frail condition, which must be bruised before it can be healed, and be levelled with the ground before it can be raised up. Quicquid Deo convenit, homini prodest, saith Tertullian; that which is convenient for Christ, is profitable for us: That which becometh him, we must wear as an ornament of grace unto our head. There is an oportet set upon both:* 1.9 He ought, and we ought, first to suffer, and then to enter in∣to glory; to die first, that we may rise again.

First, it cannot consist with the Wisdome of God, that Christ should suffer and die, and that we might live as we please, and then reign with him, and so pass à deliciis in delicias, from one paradise to another; that he should overcome the Devil for those who will be his vassals, that he should foil him in his proud temptations for those who will not be hum∣ble, and beat off his sullen temptation for those who will distrust and murmure; that he should make his victorious death commeatum delin∣quendi, a licence and charter for all generations to fling away their wea∣pons, and not strike a stroke. If he should have done this, we could not have taken him for our Captain; and if we will not enter the lists, he will not take us for his Souldiers. Non novimus Christum, si non cre∣dimus; We do not know Christ, if we believe him not to be such a one as he is, a Captain that leadeth us, as Moses did the children of Israel, through a wilderness full of fiery Serpents, into Canaan; through the valley of death, into life.

Nor is it expedient for us, who are not born, but made Christians, (and a Christian is not made with a thought) whose lifting up supposeth some dungeon or prison in which we formerly were, whose rising looketh back into some grave. Tolle certamen, nè virtus quidem quicquam erit; Take away this combat with our spiritual enemies, with afflictions and tentati∣ons, and Religion it self will be but a bare name, and Christianity, as Leo the tenth is said to have called it, but a fable. What were my Patience, if no Pain did look towards it? What were my Faith, if there were no Doubt to assault it? What were my Hope, if there were no Scruple to shake it? What were my charity, if there were no Misery to urge it, no Malice to oppose it? What were my Day, if I had no Night? or what were my Resurrection, if I were never dead? I was dead, saith the Lord of life: And his speech is directed to us, who do but think we live, being indeed in our graves, entombed in this world (which we so love,) com∣passed about with enemies, covered with disgraces, raked up as it were in those evils that are those locusts which come out of the smoke of the bottomless pit.* 1.10 And when we hear this voice, and by the virtue and power of it look upon these, and make a way through them, we rise with Christ,* 1.11 our hope is lively, and our faith is that victory which overcomeh the world.

Nor need this method seem grievous unto us. For these very words, I was dead, may put life and light into it, and commend it, not onely as the truest, but as a plain and easie method. For by Christ's Death we must understand all those miseries that he suffered before, which were as the train and ceremony of his Death, as the officers of the High priest to lead him to it; as Poverty, Scorn and Contempt, the Burden of our sins, his Agony and bloody Sweat. These we must look upon as the principles of this heavenly Science, by which our best Master learned to succour us in our sufferings, to lift us up out of our graves, and to raise us from the dead. There is life in his death, and comfort in his sufferings. For we have not such an High priest who will not help us,* 1.12 but (which is one, and a chief end of his suffering and death) who is touched with the

feeling of our infirmities, and is merciful and faithful, hath not only pow∣er, (for that he may have, and not shew it) but will and propension al∣so, desire, and diligent care to hold up them who are ready to fall, and to bring them back who were even brought to the gates of death. Indeed Mercy without Power can beget but a good wish, S. James his comple∣mental charity; Be ye warmed; and, Be ye filled; and, Be ye comforted;* 1.13 which leaveth us cold and empty and comfortless. And Power without Mercy will neither strengthen a weak knee, nor heal a broken heart; It may as well strike us dead as revive us. But Mercy and Power, when they meet and kiss each other, will work a miracle, will uphold us when we fall, and raise us from the dead; will give eyes to the blind, and strength to the weak; will make a fiery furnace a bath, a rack a bed, and persecution a blessing; will call those sorrows that are, as if they were not. Such a virtue and force, such life there is in these three words, I was dead.

For though his Compassion and Mercy were coeternal with him as God, yet as Man he learnt them. He came into the world as into a school, and there learnt them by his sufferings and death.* 1.14 For the way to be sensible of anothers misery, is first to feel it our selves. It must be ours, or if it be not ours, we must make it ours, before our heart will melt. I must take my brother into my self, I must make my self as him, before I help him. I must be that Lazar that beggeth of me,* 1.15 and then I give. I must be that wounded man by the way-side, and then I powre my oyl and wine into his wounds, and take care of him. I must feel the Hell of sin in my self; before I can snatch my brother out of the fire. Compas∣sion is first learnt at home, and then it walketh abroad,* 1.16 and is eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame; and so healeth two at once, both the misera∣ble, and him that comforts him. They were both under the same disease, one as sick as the other. I was dead, and I suffered, are the main strength of our salvation. For though Christ could no more forget to be merci∣ful then he could leave off to be the Son of God, yet before he emptyed himself, and took upon him the form of a servant, sicut miseriam expertus non erat, ita nec misericordiam experimento novit, saith Hilary; as he had no experience of sorrow, so had he no experimental knowledge of mer∣cy and compassion. His own Hunger moved him to work that miracle of the Loaves: for it is said in the Text,* 1.17 He had compassion on the multi∣tude. His Poverty made him an Orator for the poor, and he beggeth with them to the end of the world. He had not a hole to hide his head; and his Compassion melted into tears at the sight of Jerusalem. When he be∣came a man of sorrows, he became also a man of compassion. And yet his experience of sorrow, in truth, added nothing to his knowledge, but ray∣seth up a confidence in us to approach neer unto him, who by his misera∣ble experience is brought so neer unto us,* 1.18 and hath reconciled us in the body of his flesh: For he that suffered for us, hath compassion on us, and suffer∣eth and is tempted with us, even to the end of the world; on the cross with S. Peter, on the block with S. Paul, in the fire with the Martyrs,* 1.19 de∣stitute, afflicted, tormented. Would you take a view of Christ looking towards us with a melting eye? You may see him in your own souls; take him in a groan, mark him in your sorrow, behold him walking in the clefts of a broken heart, bleeding in the gashes of a wounded spirit. Or, to make him an object more sensible, you may see him every day begging in your streets. When he telleth you, He was dead, he telleth you as much. In as much as the children are partakers of flesh and blood,* 1.20 he also himself likewise took part of the same, and in our flesh was hungry, was spet upon, was whipt, was nayld to the cross; which were as so many parts of that

discipline which taught him to be merciful; to be merciful to them who were tempted by hunger, because he was hungry; to be merciful to them who were tempted by poverty, because he was poor; to be merciful to those who tremble at disgrace, because he was whipt; to be merciful to them who will not, yet will suffer for him; who refuse and yet chuse, tremble and yet venture, are afraid, and yet dye for him; because as man he found it a bitter cup, and would have had it pass from him, who in the dayes of his flesh offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears for mortal men,* 1.21 for weak men, for sinners. Pertinacissimè durant quae discimus experientiâ. This experimental knowledge is so rooted and fixed in him that it cannot be removed now, no more then his natural knowledge. He can as soon be ignorant of our actions as of our suffer∣ings.* 1.22 Experience, saith the Philosopher, is a collection of many particulars registred in our memory. And this experience Christ had: and our Apo∣stle telleth us he learnt it; and the Prophet telleth us he was vir sciens infirmitatum, a man well read in sorrows, acquainted with grief, one who carryed it about with him from his cradle to his cross. And by his Fasting and Tentation, by his Agony and bloody sweat, by his precious Death and Bu∣rial he remembreth us in famine, in tentation, in our agony; he remem∣breth us in the hour of death, and in our grave (for he pitieth even our dust,) and will remember us in the day of judgment.

We have passed through the hardest part of this Method; and yet it is as necessary as the End: For there is no coming to the end without it; no peace without trouble, no life without death. Not that Life is the proper effect of Death: for this clear stream floweth from a higher and purer fountain, even from the Will of God, who is the fountain of life, which meeting with our Obedience (which is the conformity of our will to God's) maketh its way with power through fire and water, as the Psal∣mist speaketh, through poverty and contumelies, through every cloud and tempest, through darkness and death it self, and so carryeth it on to end and triumph in life. I was dead; that was his state of Humility: but I am alive; that is his state of Glory; and is in the next place to be con∣sidered.

I am he that liveth. Christ hath spoken it, who is Truth it self, and we may take his word for it. And if we will not believe him when he sayth it, neither should we believe if we should see him rising from the dead. And this his life and resurrection is most conveniently placed in that, Thou wilt not suffer thy Holy one to see corruption.* 1.23 For what stronger reason can there be found out in matters of faith then the Will and Pleasure of that God who bringeth mighty things to pass? To this end S. Paul citeth the second Psalm, and S. Peter the sixteenth. And in this the humble soul may rest, and behold the object in its glory, and so gather strength to rayse it self above the fading vanities of this world, and reach and rise to immortality. What fairer evidence then that of Scripture? What surer word then the word of Christ? He that cannot settle himself on this, is but as S. Jude's cloud,* 1.24 carryed about with every wind, wheeled and cir∣cled about from imagination to imagination; now raysed to a belief, and anon cast down into the midst of darkness; now assenting, anon doubting, and at last pressed down by his own unstableness into the pit of Infide∣lity. He that will not walk by that light which shineth upon him, whilst he seeketh for more, must needs stumble and fall at those stones of offence which himself hath laid in his own way.* 1.25 Why should it be thought a thing incredible, that God should raise the dead to life? If such a thought arise in a Christian,* 1.26 Reason never set it up. I verily thought with my self, saith S. Paul; but it was when he was under the Law. And he whose thoughts

are staggered here, is under a worse law, the law of his members, his lusts, by which his thoughts and actions are held up as by a law; he is such a one as studieth to be an Atheist, is ambitious to be like the beasts that perish, and having nothing in himself but that which is worse than no∣thing, is well content to be annihilated. For why should such a temp∣tation take any Christian? Why should he desire clearer evidence? Why should he seek for demonstration? or that the Resurrection of Christ should be made manifest to the eye? This is not to seek to confirm and establish, but to destroy our faith. For if these truths were as evident as it is that the Sun doth shine when it is day, the apprehension of them were not an act of our Faith, but of our Knowledge. Therefore Christ shew∣ed not himself openly to all the people at his resurrection,* 1.27 ut fides non me∣diocri praemio destinata, non nisi difficultate constaret, that faith, by which we are destined to a crown, might not consist without some difficulty, but commend it self by our obedience, the perfection and beauty where∣of is best seen in making its way through difficulties. And so Hilary, Ha∣bet non tam veniam quàm praemium, ignorare quod credis;* 1.28 Not perfectly to know what thou certainly believest, doth so little stand in need of pardon, that it is that alone which draweth on the reward. For what obedience can it be for me to assent to this, That the whole is greater then the part? that the Sun doth shine? or any of those truths which are vi∣sible to the eye? What obedience it is to assent to that which I cannot deny? But when the object is in part hidden, in part seen; when the truth we assent to hath more probability to establish it then can be brought to shake it, then our Saviour himself pronounceth,* 1.29 Blessed are they who have not seen, and yet have believed.

Besides, it were in vain he should afford us more light, who hath given us enough. For to him that will not rest in that which is enough, no∣thing is enough. When God had divided the Red sea, when he rained down Manna upon the Israelites, and wrought many wonders amongst them, the Text saith, For all this they sinned still,* 1.30 and believed not his won∣drous works. The Pharisees saw Christ's miracles, yet would have stoned him: They saw him raise Lazarus from the dead, and would have killed them both. The people said, He hath done all things well;* 1.31 yet these were they that crucified the Lord of life. Did any of the Pharisees be∣lieve in him? We might ask, Did any of his Disciples believe in him? Christ himself calleth them Fools and slow of heart to believe what the Pro∣phets had foretold.* 1.32 Their Fear had sullied the evidence that they could not see it: the Text sayth, they forsook him, and fled.* 1.33 And the reason of this is plain; For though Faith be an act of the Understanding, yet it de∣pendeth upon the Will; and men are incredulous, nor for want of those means which may raise a faith, but for want of will to follow that light which leadeth unto it: they do not believe because they will not, and so bear themselves strongly upon opinion preconceived, beyond the strength of all evidence whatsoever. When our affections and lusts are high and stand out against it, the evidence is put by and forgot, and the object, which calls for our eye and faith, begins to disappear and vanish, and at last is nothing. Quot voluntates, tot fides, saith Hilary: So many Wills, so many Creeds. For there is no man that believeth more than he will. To make this good, we may appeal to men of the slendrest obser∣vation and least experience; we may appeal to our very eye, which can∣not but see those uncertain and uneven motions in which men are carried on in the course of their life. For what else is that that turneth us a∣bout, like the hand of a Dial, from one point to another? from one per∣swasion to a contrary? How cometh it to pass that I now embrace what

anon I tremble at? What is the reason that our Belief shifteth so many scenes, and presenteth it self in so many several shapes? now in the in∣differency of a Laodicean, anon in the violence of a Zealot? now in the gaudiness of Superstition, anon in the proud and scornful slovenry of factious Profaneness? that many make so painful a peregrination through so many modes and forms of Religion, and at last end in Atheists? What reason is there? There can be none but this, the prevalency and victory of our Sensitive part over our Reason, and the mutability, yea, and stub∣bornness, of our Will, which cleaveth to that which it will soon forsake, but is strongly set against the Truth, which bringeth with it the fairest e∣vidence, but not so pleasing to the sense. This is it which maketh so many impressions in the mind. Self-love, and the Love of the world, these frame our Creeds, these plant and build, these root and pull down; build up a faith, and then beat it to the ground, and then set up another in its place.* 1.34 A double-minded man, saith S. James, is unstable in all his wayes. Remember, saith S. Paul, that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised up from the dead, according to my Gospel. That is a sure foun∣dation for our faith to build on; There we have 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, fair and certain pledges of faith, as it were a commentary upon EGO VIVO, or as so many beams of light to make it open and manifest to every eye, which give up so fair an evidence that the malice of the Jew cannot a∣void it.* 1.35 Let them say, His Disciples stole him away whilest their stout watchmen slept. What, stole him away? and, whilest they slept? It is a dream; and yet it is not a dream: it is a studied lye, and doth so little shake, that it confirmeth our faith; so transparent, that through it we may behold more clearly the face of Truth, which never shineth brighter than when a lye is drawn before it to vail and shadow it.* 1.36 He is not here, he is risen, if an Angel had not spoken it, yet the Earthquake, the Clothes, the Clothes so diligently wrapt up, the Grave it self did speak it. And where such strange impossibilities are brought in to colour and promote a lye, they help to confute it. Id negant quod ostendunt; They deny what they affirm: and Malice it self is made an argument for the truth.* 1.37 For it we have a better verdict given by Cephas, and the twelve; yea, we have a cloud of witnesses, above five hundred brethren at once, who would not make themselves the fathers of a lye to propogate that Gospel which either maketh our yea, yea, and nay, nay, or damneth us. Nor did they publish it to raise themselves in wealth and honour: For it teacheth them to contemn these matters, maketh Poverty a beatitude, and sheweth them a sword and persecution, which they were sure to meet with, and did afterwards in the prosecution of their office, and publi∣cation of that faith. Nor could they take any delight in such a lye as would gather so many clouds over their heads, which would at last dis∣solve in that bitterness that would make life it self a punishment, and at last take it away. And how could they hope that men would ever be∣lieve that which themselves knew to be a lye? These witnesses then are 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, many, and beyond exception. We have also the testi∣mony of Martyrs, who took their death on't, and when they could not live to publish it, laid down their life, and sealed it with their Blood. And therefore we, on whom the ends of the world are come, have no rea∣son to complain of distance, and that we are removed so many ages from the time wherein it was done. For now Christ risen is become a more obvious object than before: the diversity of mediums have increased and multiplyed it. We see him in his Word; we see him through the Blood of Martyrs; and we see him with the eye of faith. Christ is risen and alive,* 1.38 secundum scripturas, saith S. Paul; and he repeateth it twice in

the same chapter. Offenderunt Judaei in Christum lapidem (it is S. Augu∣stines; and let it pass for his sake) When the Jew stumbled at him, he pre∣sented but the bigness of a stone; but our Infidelity will find no excuse, if we see him not now when he appeareth as visible as a mountain.

There is more in this VIVO than a bare rising to life 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, He liveth, in as much as He giveth life. There is vertue and power in his Resurrection, a power, to abolish Death,* 1.39 and to bring life and immortali∣ty to light; a power to raise our vile bodies, and a power to raise our vi∣ler souls. He will raise them? nay, he hath done it already:* 1.40 We are ri∣sen together with him, and we live with him. We cannot think that he that made such haste out of his own grave, can be willing to see us rot∣ting in ours. From this VIVO it is that though we dye, yet we shall live again. Christ's Living breatheth life into us. In his Resurrection he cast the modell of ours. Idea est eorum quae fiunt exemplar aeternum, saith Seneca: And this is such a one, an eternal pattern. Plato's Idea, or common Form, by which he thought all things have their existence, is but a dream to this: This is a true and real, an efficacious and working pattern. For as an Artificer hath not lost his art when he hath finished one piece, no more did Christ lose his power when he had raised him∣self: but as he is, so it is everlasting, and worketh still to the end of the world. Perfectum est exemplar minùs perfecti: That which Christ wrought upon himself is most exact and perfect, a fit pattern of that which he meaneth to work on us, which will be like to his indeed, but not so glorious.

And now VIVO, I live, is as loud to raise our Hope as the last trump will be to raise our Bodies: And how shall they be able to hear the sound of the trump who will not hear the voice of their Saviour? Christ's life derives its vertue and influence on both Soul and Body: on the Bo∣dy, with that power which is requisite to raise a body now putrified and incinerated and well near annihilated; and on the Soul, with such a power as is fitted to a soul which hath both Understanding and Will, though drawn and carried away from their proper operations for which they were made. We do not read of any precept to bind us, or any counsel ••o perswade us to contribute any thing or put a hand to the resur∣rection of our bodies; nor can there be: it will be done whether we will or no: But to Awake from the pleasant sleep of sin, to be Renewed and raised in the inward man, to Die to sin, and Live to righteousness, we have line upon line and precept upon precept: And though this Life of Christ work in us both the will and the deed,* 1.41 yet a necessity and a law lieth upon us, and wo will be unto us, if we work not out our salvation. By his power we are raised in both, but not working after the same man∣ner. There will be a change in both: As the flesh at the second, so the soul at the first resurrection must be reformata & Angelificata, spiritualized, refined, and angelified; or rather Christificata, If I may so speak, Chri∣stified, drawing in no breath but Christs,* 1.42 having the same mind which was in Christ Jesus. Whilst our bed is in the darkness, whilst Corruption is our father, and the Worm our mother and sister, we cannot be said to be risen: and whilest all the alliance we have is with the World, and it is both Father and Mother and Sister to us; whilest we mind earthly things; we are still in our graves, nay in hell it self; Death hath do∣minion over us. For let us call the World what we please, our Ha∣bitation, our Delight, our Kingdome, where we would dwell for e∣ver; yet indeed it is but our Grave. If we receive any influence from Christ's life, we shall rise fairly; not with a mouth which is a sepulchre, but with a tongue which is our glory; not with a withred hand, but with

a hand stretched out to the needy; not with a gadding eye, but an eye shut up by covenant; not with an itching, but with an obedient ear; not with a heart of stone, but with a heart after Gods own heart. Our Life,* 1.43 saith the Apostle, is hid with Christ in God; and whilest we leave it thereby a continual meditation of his meritorious suffering, by a serious and practical application of his glorious resurrection, we hide it in the bosome of Majesty, and no dart of Satan can reach it. When we hide it in the minerals of the earth in the love of the world, the Devil, who is the Prince of the world, is there to seize on it; when we hide it in malicious and wanton thoughts, they are his baits to catch it; when we hide it in sloth and idleness, we hide it in a grave which he digged for us, we entomb our selves alive, and as much as in us lies bury the Resurrection it self. But when we hide it in Christ, we hide it in him who carrieth healing and life in his wings.* 1.44 When we worship God through Jesus Christ our Lord, and put our life in his hands,* 1.45 then the life of Jesus is made manifest in our mortal flesh, then we have put off the old man, yea in a manner put off our mortality, we are candidati aeternitatis, as Tertullian speaketh, Candidates for eternity, and stand for a place with Abraham and Isaac: for we have the same God; and he is not the God of the dead,* 1.46 but of the living.

We see now what virtue and power there is in this VIVO, in the Life of Christ. But we must rise yet higher, even as high as Eternity it self:* 1.47 For as he liveth, so behold, he is alive for evermore, a Priest for ever, and a King for ever, being made not after the law of a car∣nal commandment, after that law which was given to men, that one should succeed another, but after the power of an endless life, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, a life that cannot be dissolved, that cannot part from the body. And thus, as he liveth for evermore, so whatsoever issueth from him is like himself, everlasting; the beams as lasting as the light. His Word endureth for ever; his Law is eternal, his Intercession eternal, his Pu∣nishments eternal, and his Reward eternal. Not a Word which can fall to the ground, like ours, who fall after it, and within a while breathe out our souls, as we do our words, and speak no more. Not Laws which are framed and set to the times, and alter and change as they do, and at last end with them; but which shall stand fast for e∣ver,* 1.48 aeternae ab aeterno, eternal as he is eternal: He hath spoken once, and he will speak no more. Not an Intercession which may be silenced with power, but imprinted in him, and inseparable from him, and so never ceasing; an Intercession which Omnipotency it self cannot with∣stand. Not a a transitory Punishment, which time may mitigate or take away, but an everlasting Worm. Not a Reward which may be snatched out of our hands, but lasting as the heavens, nay as Christ him∣self. And they who would contract and shrink it up into one, and so make a temporary, perishing everlastingness, that shall last as long as it lasteth, do stretch beyond their line, which may reach the Right hand as well as the Left, and do put an end to the Reward, as they would do to the Punishment. For of the one as well as of the other it is said, that it shall be everlasting. All that floweth from Christ is like himself, yesterday,* 1.49 and to day, and the same for ever.

And such an High Priest became us, who was to live for ever. For what should we do with a mortal Saviour? or what could a mortal Saviour do for us? What could an arm of flesh, a withering, dying arm, avail us? Shadow us to day, and leave us to morrow; raise us up now, and within a while let us fall into the dust, and at last fall down and perish with us. Man is weak,* 1.50 and dieth; man giveth up the ghost, and where is he? Where

is (I will not say Alexander, or Caesar;) but, where is Moses, that led his people through the Red-Sea? where are his lawes? Where is David? S. Peter speaketh it freely, that he is both dead and buried,* 1.51 and that his Se∣pulchre was with them unto that day. But the son of David is ascended into heaven, is our Priest for ever, and liveth for evermore.

And this title of Eternity is wrought in his Girdle and Garment, may be seen in his Head and Eyes of fire, adorneth his burning Feet, is engraven on his Sword, may be read in his Countenance, and platted in his Crown, and doth well become his Power, his Wisdome, his Justice, his Goodness. For that which is not eternal is next to nothing. What Power is that which sinketh? What Wisdome is that which faileth? What Riches are they that perish? What Mercy is that which is as the morning dew, which soon falleth? and is as soon exhaled and dryed up again? Virtue were nothing, Religion were nothing, Faith it self were nothing, but in refe∣rence to Eternity. Heaven were nothing, if it were not eternal. Eter∣nity is that which maketh every thing something, maketh every thing better than it is, and addeth lustre to Light it self. I live evermore, gi∣veth life unto all things. Eternity is a fathomless Ocean, and carrieth with it Power and Wisdome and Goodness, an efficacious Activity, a gra∣cious and benevolent Power, a wise and provident Goodness. If Christ live for evermore, then is he independent; if independent, then most po∣werful; if most powerful, then blessed; and if blessed, then good. He is powerful, but good; good, but wise. And these, Goodness, and Power, and Wisdome, and a diligent Care for us meet in him who liveth for ever∣more, and worketh on us for our eternal salvation.

And first, as he liveth for evermore, so he intercedeth for us for ever∣more; and he can no more leave to entercede for us than he can to be Christ. His Priesthood must fail before his Intercession, because this power of helping us is everlastingly and inseparably inherent in him. St. Paul joyneth them together, his Sitting at the right of God, and his inter∣ceding for us, Rom. 8.34. So that to leave interceding were to leave the right hand of God, where he looketh down upon us, is present with us, and prepareth a place for us. His wounds are still open; his merits are still vocal; his sufferings are still importunate; his everlasting pre∣senting of himself before his Father is an everlasting prayer; Jesus at the right hand of the Father, is more powerful than the full vials, the incense, the prayers, the groans, the sighs, the roarings of all the Saints that have been, or shall be to the end of the world. If he sate not there, if he in∣terceded not, they were but noise, nay, they were sins: but his Interces∣sion sanctifieth them, and offereth them up, and by him they are power∣ful. By his power the sighs and breathings and desires of mortal men as∣cend the highest heavens, and draw down eternity. And this is a part of Christ's Priestly office, which he began here on earth, and continueth for us, maketh it compleat, holdeth it up to the the end of the world.

Again, this title of Eternity is annexed to his Regality, and is a flower of his Crown, not set in any but his. Thou art a King for ever, cannot be said to any mortal. Did he not live for evermore, he could not threaten eternal death. Nor promise everlasting life. For no mortal power can rage for ever, but passeth as lands do, from one Lord to another, lyeth heavy on them, and at last sinketh to the ground with them all: Nor can the hand that must wither and fall off reach forth a never-failing re∣ward, Infinitude cannot be the issue and product of that which is finite and bounded vvithin a determined period. And this might open a vvide and effectual door unto Sin, and but leave a sad and disconsolate entrance for Virtue and Piety, vvhich is so unsatisfying to flesh and blood, that the

perseverance in it requireth no less a povver than that vvhich Eternity bringeth along with it, to draw it on. How bold and daring would men be before the Sun and the People? What joy and delight vvould fill them, did not the thought of a future endless estate pierce sometimes through them, and so make some vent to let it out? When the evil that hangeth over is but a cloud vvhich vvill soon vanish, few men are so serious as to look about and seek for shelter.

—Post mortem nihil est, ipsá{que} mors nihil est,

There is nothing after death, and Death it self is nothing, setteth up a chair for the Atheist to set at ease in, from whence he looketh dovvn upon those vvho are such fools as to be virtuous, and smileth to see them toil and svveat in such rugged and unpleasing vvayes, carried on vvith a fear on the one side, and a hope on the other, of that which will never be. And indeed how weary, and how soon weary, would men be of doing good, if there were not a lasting recompense, if they were not half-per∣swaded (for a ful perswasion is but rare) that there were something laid up in everlasting habitations? Honour, Repute and Advantage, these may bring forth a Hypocrite, these may bind on the phylacteries on a Pharisee; but nothing can raise up a Saint but Eternity, nor can that which fleeteth and passeth away build us up in a holy faith. And then there would be no such ship as Faith, which might fear a wreck, 1 Tim. 1.19. no such an∣chor as Hope; but our faith would be vain, and our hope also vain, and we left to be tossed up and down on the waves of uncertainty, having no haven to thrust into but that which is as turbulent and uncertain as the sea it self, and with it ebbeth and floweth, and at last will ebb into nothing. But I am alive for evermore deriveth an Eternity to that which in it self is fading, maketh our actions, which end in the doing, and are quickly gone and past, eternal; our words, which are but wind, eternal; and our thoughts, which perish with us, eternal: We shall meet them again, and feel the effect of them to all eternity. It maketh Hell eternal, that we may fly from it; and Heaven eternal, that we may press towards it, and take it by violence. Christ's living for ever eternizeth his Threatnings, and maketh them terrible; his Promises, and maketh them perswasive and eloquent: eternizeth our Faith and Hope, eternizeth all that is praise-worthy, that they may be as a pass or letters commendatory to prevail and procure us admittance into his presence who only hath immortality, and can give eternal life. This is the virtue and operation of I am alive for evermore. For though a time will come that Christ shall not govern, nor intercede, yet the power of his Scepter and the virtue of his Interces∣sion is carried on along with joy and happiness of the Saints, as the Cause with the Effect, even to all eternity, shall have its operation in the midst of all our glorious ravishments, and shall tune our Halellujahs and Songs of thanksgiving to this our Priest and King that liveth for evermore. We pass now from the Duration and Continuance of his Life, to his Power; He hath the keys of Hell and of Death.

Habeo claves, I have the keyes, is a Metaphorical speech. And Meta∣phorae ferascissimae controversiarum, saith Martin Luther; Metaphors are a soyl wherein controversies will grow up thick, and twine and plat them∣selves one within the other, whilest every man manureth them, and sow∣eth upon them what seed he please, even that which may bring forth such fruit as may be most agreeable to his taste and humour. Lord, what a noise have these keyes made in the world? You would think they were not Keyes, but Bells, sounding terrour to some, and making others more bold and merry than they should be. Some have gilded them over; o∣thers have even worn and filed them quite away, put them into so many

hands that they have left none at all. For though they know not well what they are, yet every man taketh courage enough to handle them, and let in and let out whom they please. One faction turneth them a∣gainst another; the Lutherane against the Calvinist, and diabolifieth him; and the Calvinist against the Lutherane, and superdiabolifieth him. The Church of Rome made it a piece of wisdome to shut Us out, and all that will not bow unto her as subordinate and dependant on that Church; Which was but idle Physick, and did neither hurt nor good, but was as a dart sent after those who were gone out of reach; a Curse denounced a∣gainst those who heard it, and blest themselves in it; Indeed a point of ridiculously affected gravity, such as that Church hath many. For what prejudice could come to us by her shutting Us out, who had already put our selves out of her Communion? unless you will think the valour of that Souldier fit for Chronicle who cut of the head of a man who was dead before. I have the keyes, saith Christ; and it is most necessary he should keep them in his hands. For we see how dangerous it may prove to put them into the hand of a mortal man, subject to passions, and too often guided and commanded by them; and we know what tragedies the mi∣staking of the Keyes have raised in the world.

And yet he that hath these Keyes, this Power, hath delegated also a power to his Apostles, not only to preach the Gospel, but to correct those who disobey it. I would not attribute too much to the Pastours of the Church in this dull and iron, or rather in this wanton, age, where any thing, where nothing is thought too much for them; where all hath been Preaching, till all are Preachers: Yet I cannot but think they have more to do than to speak in publick, which, it is thought, every Christian may do. They are the Ambassadours of Christ,* 1.52 set apart on purpose in Christs stead to minister to his Church, yea, to rule and govern his Church;* 1.53 it is S. Pauls phrase: And they carry about with them his Commission, a power delegated from him to sever the Goats from the Sheep, even in this life, that they may become Sheep, to segregate them, to abstein or withhold them,* 1.54 to exauctorate them, to throw them out, to strike them with the pastoral rod, to anathematize them, &c. This was the language of the first and pu∣rest times. By degrees this power fell in its esteem through some abuse of it, it being drawn down from that most profitable and necessary end for which it was given. And this at last brought all Religion into dis∣grace. Nor indeed could it be otherwise. For if upon the abuse of a thing we must straight call for the beesome to sweep it away, what can stand long in its place? The Temple is prophaned; that must down to the ground. Liberality is abused; shut up your purse and your bowels together. Prayer is abused, and turned into babling; tack up your tongues to the roof of your mouth. Nay, every thing in the world is abused; therefore, if this argument be good, the world it self should long since have had its end. But such a power Christ did leave unto his Church, and the neglect of it on the one side, and the contempt of it on the other, hath brought in that lukewarmness and indifferency amongst the professours of Christianity, which if God prevent not, will at last shake and throw down the profession it self, and fill the world with A∣theists, which will learn by no Masters but such as instruct fools, nor ac∣knowledge any Keyes but those which may break their head.

But indeed we have had these Keyes too long in our hands. For though they concern us, yet are they not the keyes in the Text; nor had we lookt upon them, but that those of the Romish party, wheresoever they find keys mentioned, take them up and hang them on their Church. But we must observe a difference betwixt the keyes of the kingdome of hea∣ven,

* 1.55 which were given to Peter, and the keyes of Hell and of Death; al∣though with them, when the Keyes are seen, Heaven and Hell are all one. For the key of David,* 1.56 which openeth and no man shutteth; and shutteth and no man openeth, was not given to the Apostles, but is a regality and prero∣gative of Christ, who only hath power of Life and Death, over Hell and the Grave; who therefore calleth himself the first and the last, because, al∣though when he first publisht his Gospel, he died and was buried, yet he rose again to live for ever, so to perfect the great work of our salvation, and by his power to bind those in everlasting chains who stood out a∣gainst him, and to bring those that bow to his sceptre out of prison into liberty and everlasting life. The power is his alone; and he made it his by his sufferings.* 1.57 He was obedient to death; therefore God did highly exalt him:* 1.58 He became a Lord by putting on the form of a servant. But he hath delegated his power to his Apostles, and those that succeed them, to make us capable, and fit subjects for his power to work upon, which neverthe∣less will have its operation and effect, either let us out, or shut us up for ever under the power of Hell and of Death. Were not he alive, and to live for evermore, we had been shut up in darkness and oblivion for ever: But Christ living infuseth life into us, that the bands of Hell and of Death can no more hold us than they can him. There is such a place as Hell; but to the living members of Christ there is no such place: For it is im∣possible it should hold them. You may as well place Lucifer at the right hand of God as a true Christian in Hell. For how can Light dwell in Darkness? How can Purity mix with stench? How can Beauty stay with Horrour? If Nature could forget her course, and suffer contradictories to be drawn together and be both true, yet this is such a contradiction as, unless Christ could die again, (which is impossible) can never be recon∣ciled.* 1.59 Heaven and earth may pass away; but Christ liveth for evermore, and the power and virtue of his Life is as everlasting as Everlastingness it self.* 1.60 And again; There was a pale horse, and his name that sat on him was Death; and he had power to kill with the sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth: But now he doth not kill us; he doth but stagger us, and fling us down, that we may rise again, and tread him under our feet, and by the power of an everliving Saviour be the death of Death it self.* 1.61 Death was the King of terrors; and the fear of Death made us slaves,* 1.62 and kept us in servility and bondage all our life long, made our pleasures less delightful, and our virtues more tedious, made us tremble and shrink from those Heroick undertakings for the truth of God: But now they in whom Christ liveth and moveth and hath his being as in his own, dare look upon Death in all his horror, (expeditum morti genus, saith Tertullian) and are ready to meet him in his most dread∣ful march with all his army of Diseases, Racks and Tortures. Man be∣fore he sinned knew not what Death meant; then Eve familiarly conver∣sed with the Serpent: so do Christians with Death: Having that Di∣vine Image restored in them, they are secure, and fear it not. For what can that Tyrant take from them?* 1.63 Their life? That is hid with Christ in God.* 1.64 It cannot cut them off from pleasure; for their delight is in the Lord.* 1.65 It cannot rob them of their treasure; for that is laid up in heaven. It can take nothing from them but what themselves have already crucified,* 1.66 their Flesh. It cannot cut off one hope, one thought, one purpose; for all their thoughts, purposes and hopes were leveld not on this, but on ano∣ther, life. And now Christ hath his keyes in his hand, Death is but a name; it is nothing: or, if it be something, it is such a thing as troubled S Augu∣stine to define what it is. We call it a punishment, but indeed it is a be∣nefit, a favour, even such a favour, that Christ, who is as omnipotent as he

is everlasting, who can work all in all, though he abolished the Law of Moses, and of Ceremonies, yet would not abrogate the law by which we are bound over unto death, because it is so profitable and advantageous to us. It was indeed threatned; but it is now a promise, or the way unto it: for Death it is that letteth us into that which was promised. It was an end of all; it is now the beginning of all. It was that which cut off life; it is now that through which, as through a gate, we enter into it. We may say it is the first point and moment of our after-eternity; for it is so neer unto it that we can hardly sever them. We live, or rather labour and fight and strive with the World, and with Life it self, which is it self a temptation; and whilst by the power of our everliving Christ we hold up and make good this glorious contention, and fight, and conquer, and press forward towards the mark, either nature faileth, or is prest down with violence, and we dye; that is our language; but the Spirit speaketh after another manner; we sleep, we are dissolved, we fall in pieces, our bo∣dies from our souls, and we from our miseries and temptations: and this living, everliving Christ gathereth us together again, breatheth life and eternity into us, that we may live and reign with him for evermore. And so I have viewed all the parts of the Text, being the main articles of our Faith; 1 Christs Death; 2. his Life; 3. his eternal Life; and last of all, his Power of the Keyes, his Dominion over Hell and Death. We will but in a word fit the ECCE, the Behold, in the Text, to every part of it, and set the Seal Amen to it, and so conclude.

And first we place the ECCE, the Behold, on his Death. He suffered and dyed, that he might learn to have compassion on thy miseries and on thy dust, and raise thee from both: and wilt thou learn nothing from his com∣passion? Wilt thou not by him, and by thy own sins and miseries, which drew from him tears of blood, learn to pity thy self? Wilt thou still re∣joyce in that iniquity that troubled his spirit, and shed his blood, which he was willing should gush out of his heart, so it might melt thine, and work but this in thee, pity to thy self? We talk of a first Conversion, and a se∣cond; and I know not what Cycles and Epicycles we have found out to salve our irregular motion in our wayes to bliss: If we could once have com∣passion on our selves, the work were done: And, When were you conver∣ted? or, How were you converted? were no such hard questions to be an∣swered: For I may be sure I am converted, if I be sure that I truly pity my self. Shall Christ only have compassion on thy soul? But then again, shall he shed his blood for his Church, that it may be one with him, and at unity in it self; and canst thou not drop a tear when thou seest this his bo∣dy thus rent in pieces, as it is at this day? When thou seest the World, the Love of the world, break in and make such havock in the Church, (oh it is a sad contemplation!) will none but Christ weep over Jerusalem?* 1.67

Secondly, let us look upon him living, and not take our eye from off him, to fill and feed and delight it with the vanities of this world, with that which hath neither life nor spirit, with that which is so neer to no∣thing, with that which is but an idole. Behold, he liveth; that which thou so dotest on hath no life, nor can it prolong thy life a moment. Who would not cease from man, whose breath is in his nostrils?* 1.68 and then what madness is it to trust in that which hath no breath at all? Shall Christ present himself alive to us, and for us, and shall we lay hold on Corrupti∣on and Rottenness? And when Heaven openeth it self to receive us, shall we run from it into a Charnel-house, and so into Hell it self?

In the third place, Behold; he liveth for evermore, and let us not bound and imprison our thoughts within a span, and, when immortality is offer∣ed, affect no other life but that which is a vapour.* 1.69 Let us not raise that

swarm of thoughts which must perish, but build up those works upon our everliving Saviour which may follow us, follow us through the huge and unconceivable tract of eternity. Doth our Saviour live for evermore? and shall we have no spirit in us but that which delighteth to walk about the earth, and is content to vanish with it? Eternity is a powerful mo∣tive to those who never have such pensive thoughts as when they remem∣ber their frailty, and are sick even of health it self, and in a manner dead with life, when they consider it as that blessing which shall have an end. Eternity is in our desire, though it be beyond our apprehension. What he said of Time, is truer of Eternity: If you do not ask what it is, we know; but if you ask, we are not able to answer and resolve you, or tell you what it is. When we call it an infinite duration, we do but give it another name, two words for one, a short Paraphrase; but we do not define what it is. And indeed our first conceptions of it are the fairest: For when they are doubled and redoubled, they are lost in themselves; and the further they extend ••hemselves, the more weary they are, and at greater loss in every proffer, and must end and rest at last in this poor and unsatisfying thought, That we cannot think what it is. Yet there is in us a wild presage, an unhandsome acknowledgment of it: for we phansie it in those objects which vanish out of fight whilst we look upon them: we set it up in every desire; for our desires never have an end. Every purpose of ours, every action we do is Aeternitati sacrum, and we do it to eternity.* 1.70 We look upon Riches as if they had no wings, and think our habitations shall endure for ever. We look upon Honour as if it were not air, but some Angel confirmed, a thing bound up in eternity. We look upon Beauty, and it is our heaven; and we are fixt and dwell on it, as if it would never shrivel, and be gathered together as a scroul; and so in a manner make Mortality it self eternal. And therefore since our desires do so enlarge themselves, and our thoughts so multiply, that they never have an end, since we look after that which we cannot see, and reach after that which we cannot grasp, God hath set up that for an object to look on which is eternal indeed in the highest Heavens: and as he hath made us in his own image, so in Christ, who came to renew it in us, he hath shewed us a more excellent way unto it, and taught us to work out eternity even in this world, in this common shop of change; to work it out of that in which it is not, which is neer to nothing, which shall be nothing; to work it out of Riches, by not trusting them; out of Honour, by contemning it; out of the Pleasures of this world, by loathing them; out of the Flesh, by crucifying it; out of the World, by overcoming it; and out of the Devil himself, by treading him under our feet. For this is to be in Christ; and to be in Christ, is to be for ever∣more. Christ is the eternal Son of God, and he was dead, and liveth, and liveth for evermore; that we may dye, and live for evermore, and not only attain to the Resurrection of the dead, but to eternity.

Last of all, let us look upon the keyes in his hand, and knock hard, that he may open to us, and deliver our soul from hell, and make our grave not a prison, but a bed, to rise from to eternal life. If we be still shut in, we our selves have turned the key against our selves. Christ is ready with his Keyes to open to us; and we have our Keyes too, our key of Knowledge to discern between life and Death, and our key of Repen∣tance; and when we use these, Christ is ready to put his even into our hands, and will derive a power unto us mortals, unto us sinners, over Hell and Death.

And then, in the last place, we shall be able to set on the Seal, the A∣MEN, and be confirmed in the certainty of his Resurrection and Power;

by which we may raise those thoughts, and promote those actions, which may look beyond our threescore years and ten,* 1.71 through all successive ge∣nerations, to immortality, and that glory which shall never have an end. This is to shew and publish our faith by our works, as S. James speaketh;* 1.72 this is with the heart to believe, as S. Paul.* 1.73 For he that believeth from the heart, cannot but be obedient to the Gospel; unless we can imagine there can be any man that can so hate himself as deliberately to cast him∣self into hell, and run from happiness when it appeareth in so much glo∣ry. He cannot say Amen to Life, who killeth himself: For that which leaveth a soul in the grave is not Faith, but Phansie. When we are told that Honour cometh towards us, that some Golden shower is ready to fall into our laps, that Content and Pleasure will ever be near, and wait upon us, how loud and hearty is our Amen, how do we set up an Assurance-office to our selves? and yet that which seemeth to make its approach to∣wards us, is as uncertain as Uncertainty it self, and when we have it, pas∣seth from us, and (as the ruder people say of the Devil) leaveth a noy∣some and unsavoury sent behind it, and we look after it, and can see it no more: But when we are told that Christ liveth for evermore, and is co∣ming, is certainly coming with reward and punishment, vox faucibus hae∣ret, we can scarce say Amen, So be it. To the World and the pomp there∣of we can say Amen; but to Heaven and Eternity we cannot say Amen, or, if we do, we do but say it.

For conclusion then; The best way is to draw the Ecce and the Amen, the Behold and our Assurance, together; so to study the Death and the Life, the eternal Life and the Power, of our Saviour, that we may be such Proficients as to be able with S. Paul 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉,* 1.74 to meet the Resurrection, to look for and hasten the coming of the Lord, when his Life and Eternity and Power shall shine gloriously, to the terrour of those who persecute his Church, and to the comfort of those who suffer for Righteousness sake; when that Head which was a forge of mischief and cruelty, and that Hand which touched the Lords anointed,* 1.75 and did his Prophets harm, shall burn in hell for ever; when that Eye which would not look on vanity, shall be filled with glory; when that Ear which hearkned to his voice, shall hear nothing but Hallelujahs and the musick of Angels; when that Head which was ready to be laid down for this li∣ving, everling, powerful Lord, shall be lifted up, and crowned with glo∣ry and honour for evermore. Which God grant unto us for Christ's sake.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Lev. 26.11, 12.
• * 1.2

  Hebr. 7.24.
• * 1.3

  Hebr. 4.12.
• * 1.4

  Matth. 16.16. John 6.69. Hagg. 2.7.
• * 1.5

  Hebr. 7.26.
• * 1.6

  Par. 1.
• * 1.7

  Hebr. 2.10.
• * 1.8

  Luke 24.26.
• * 1.9

  Luke 24.26.
• * 1.10

  Rev. 9 3.
• * 1.11

  1 John 5.4.
• * 1.12

  Hebr. 4.15. & 2.17.
• * 1.13

  Jam. 2.16.
• * 1.14

  Hebr. 5.8.
• * 1.15

  Luke 16. Luke 10.30, 34.
• * 1.16

  Job 29.15.
• * 1.17

  Matth. 15.32.
• * 1.18

  Col. 1.21, 22.
• * 1.19

  Hebr. 11.37.
• * 1.20

  Hebr. 2.14.
• * 1.21

  Hebr. 5.7.
• * 1.22

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, Aristot. Anal. post l. 2. c. 19. Hebr. 5.8. Isa. 53.3.
• * 1.23

  Psal. 16.10.
• * 1.24

  Jude 14.
• * 1.25

  Acts 26.8.
• * 1.26

  — 9.
• * 1.27

  Tert. Apol.
• * 1.28

  Lib. 8. De Trin,
• * 1.29

  John 20.29.
• * 1.30

  Psal. 78.31.
• * 1.31

  Mar. 7.37. John 7.48.
• * 1.32

  Luke 24.25.
• * 1.33

  Matth. 26.56
• * 1.34

  James 1.8. 2 Tim. 2 8,
• * 1.35

  Matth. 28.13.
• * 1.36

  Matth. 28.6.
• * 1.37

  1 Cor. 15.5, 6.
• * 1.38

  1 Cor. 15.3, 4.
• * 1.39

  2 Tim. 1.10.
• * 1.40

  Col. 2.12. & 3.1.
• * 1.41

  Phil. 2.12. Phil. 2.13.
• * 1.42

  Phil. 2.5. Job 17.13, 14
• * 1.43

  Col. 3.3.
• * 1.44

  Mal. 4.2.
• * 1.45

  2 Cor. 4.11.
• * 1.46

  Matth. 21.32.
• * 1.47

  Hebr. 6.20. Hebr. 7.16.
• * 1.48

  Psal. 62.11.
• * 1.49

  Hebr. 13.8. Hebr. 7.26.
• * 1.50

  Job 14.10.
• * 1.51

  Acts 2.29.
• * 1.52

  2 Cor. 5.20.
• * 1.53

  1 Tim. 3.5. & 5.17.
• * 1.54

  Abstinere, Cypr. Segrega∣re, Exauctora∣re, Virgâ Pasto∣rali ferire, &c. Hieron.
• * 1.55

  Matth. 16.19.
• * 1.56

  Rev. 3.7.
• * 1.57

  Phil. 2.8, 9.
• * 1.58

  Phil. 2.7, 11.
• * 1.59

  Matth. 5.18.
• * 1.60

  Rev. 6.8.
• * 1.61

  Job 18.14.
• * 1.62

  Heb. 2.15.
• * 1.63

  Col. 3.3.
• * 1.64

  Psal. 37.4.
• * 1.65

  Matth. 6.20.
• * 1.66

  Gal. 5.24.
• * 1.67

  Luk. 19.41.
• * 1.68

  Isa. 2.22.
• * 1.69

  Jam. 4.14.
• * 1.70

  Prov. 23.5. Psal. 49.11.
• * 1.71

  Psal. 90.10.
• * 1.72

  Jam. 2.18.
• * 1.73

  Rom. 10.10.
• * 1.74

  Phil. 3.11.
• * 1.75

  Psal. 105.15.