Exposition of the Apostles Creed

1. Pone me. Set me.

Since God here desires to be set upon the heart, considered it would be, whether, or how far, and which way it is in our power to yield to this request. For it were but in vain to call for the Duty, which no man hath any power to perform.

That grace is necessary to this work, I know not any man denies: For the natural man perceives not the things of God; he discerns them not, he relisheth them not; and what reason perceives not, assents not to, approves not, that the will can never choose, and be delighted with. If ever there b • • ny such motion in it, it must come from an higher cause, which because without any motive in us, it proceeds freely from it, we call grace, which is the special assistance of the Spirit moving, preventing, exciting, and so powerfully working upon the will of man that it may yield; discern first that what is proposed is true, and then freely elect it, because it is good.

Whether this action of the Spirit be Proper, immediate, Physical; or whether it be Metaphorical and Moral only, by which God doth dispose and persuade the heart to yield, let others determine. Thus much must be confessed, that God offers no violence to the will of man, but sweetly moves by external and internal means.

1. Before that a man can yield to the motions of the Spirit, there is ab extra, without, ordinarily the Word and the Gospel propounded unto him by the Ministry of the Church, in which there is contained many Threats, Promises, Exhortations, Reproofs, Punishments, Rewards: For God doth not use by I know not what Enthusiasms, and strange Raptures, to convert men, and make them set him as a Seal upon their heart. His u • ual course is to do it by the pub • ication of his Will; and therefore Saint Paul, who was a spiritual Father to the Corinthians, puts them in mind, that he had begotten them, but tha • it was through the Gospel; the preaching of the Gospel was the means he used to do it.

2. Now certain inward effects there are, which often follow upon the outward means well prepared, and truly applied, such as are Illumination, or a light of knowledge in the understanding which was not there before; a certainty of that knowledge; to which there succeeds a smiting of the heart, a remorse of conscience, a fear of punishment, and yet some hope of pardon: Which, where the grace of God is effectual, persuade to Mortification, to Renovation, to Sanctification; to come out of the Kingdom of darkness, and to be translated into the Kingdom of his dear Son: For the Word of God is quick and lively, and stirs in the heart of man not yet justified, striking him even with fear and sorrow. They who were present at Peters Sermon, were pricked to the heart. And when Saint Paul preached before Felix, he trembled.

Man then is to be considered in a twofold instant. The first is, when the Spirit of God by the foresaid means begins this work, sets upon the heart, and stirs it to Faith and Repentance. The other instant is, when there is an actual conversion, a new heart created; when men being born again, are engrafted into Christ, and brought into the number of Justified Persons.

Let man be considered in the first instant of his uprising, and most certain it is that his very wisdom is enmity to God. His wisdom, his best thoughts are so far from yielding, that they incline him another way; they are not only contrary, but enmity: For Christ Jesus is a stumbling block to the Jews, and foolishness to the Gentiles: Natural reason of itself will never teach a man to be a Christian.

But now let a man be again considered in another instant, when he hath laid to heart what hath been proposed; when he is warmed with • he Word, turned from an heart of stone, to a heart of flesh, melted, and made tender: and then it receives a new condition, that it both can, and will co-operate with God's Spirit, and freely move itself to those works which are acceptable to him. Thus have I heard an instrument of Music set first in tune, answer unto the melodious touch of a skillful hand, filling the ear with a pleasing Air, which before the just extension of the strings by an ungrateful dissonancy did very much displease.

I know not any sound Divine, who doth so conceive of the will of man, as if it were Inanime Organon, a senseless Block: For non corrumpitur quoad radicem agendi, but quoad terminum. The principle of action lies yet in the root, and the power to will in it is not lost, but the Application of it to this supernatural object. In wh • t comes within the compass of reason it is free, and hath, being assisted by a general grace, abil • ty to desire it, and apply itself to it. As for that which is of a higher pitch, when it is once raised by a special grace (as it is where the means are powerfully propounded) it may desire: Then petit terminum, then it alms at the right end, and freely wills the means that conduce to that end; like unto a Clock, it may be out of tune; or as a disordered compass point upon any Rumbe: But when some cunning Workman hath mended the wheels of the one, or else some knowing Pilot hath touched anew the Needle of the other; that gives a true notice of the hour, this of the Pole. Thus it is with the will of man, before God hath by the foresaid means mended it; omne bonum salutare est ultra spharam activitatis; all that good which tends to his eternal salvation and happiness, is beyond his sphere and power of activity; but when this Divine hand hath touched it, and set it in order, the fault is our own, if we point not right to heaven. Else how should God jud • e the world in righteousness, justly reward some for making right use of his Talents, and as justly condemn others for wrapping up, and hiding his money in a Napkin! Omnes nos causamur nobis deesse gratiam, sed justius forsitan gratia queratur de nobis. Usual it is with men to complain that they want grace, but I fear that the grace of God hath more just reason to complain of men; for would they but answer to the outward and inward calls of grace, Lo, here I am, What wilt thou have me to do? find they should, that the grace of God would assist and help them on to attain the end. Even the very Heathens have this grace offered them, that by the things which they see, they may beh • ld his Eternal Power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse: So that if they would inquire farther, and improve this grace, they might come to a farther knowledge, glorify him as God; and learn, since they do it not, he must needs be offended with them, and then again must be pacified and reconciled. This consideration would set them upon an enquiry how this were to be done, and at last finding that all their invented means were notable to do it, they would fix upon that which alone could; and Christian Religion alone teacheth the merits of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ; And this grace upon whose heart it works powerfully,

1. First, Ex nolente facit volentem; of a stubbo • n, rebellious person, it makes him one of his willing people; for God judges no man worthy of salvation, whom he hath not made formerly willing to accept of it upon those conditions he hath propounded it. To which so long as man remains a stubborn, willful, and perverse beast, he is unapt; therefore the grace of God removes this great impediment of unwillingness, and stirs him up willingly and freely to desire it.

2. For this grace of God offers no force to the will of man; but it makes it move in its natural course, and co-operate with it. Hence the Spouse in the Canticles prays in this form, Draw me, and we will run after thee; as if she had said, I will not, I cannot run alone; but I desire that thou O Lord wouldst vouchsafe to run along with me, then we will run both all • ng together. Thou first giving me strength to run, moving and directing every step I take, and I willingly consenting to be drawn along, and moving with thee: This Saint Paul expresseth in himself most evidently; By the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace in me was not in vain, for I labored more than they all; yet not I, but the grace of God in me. He acknowledgeth that it was the grace of God that drew him; of a stubborn Persecutor, made him • willing Apostle; that stir'd him up, he followed, he labored, he ran along; but he ran not alone, nor labored alone, but both ran together; the grace of God with him: So that that happens to a man raised by grace, that fell out to Ezekiel's Cherubims and Wheels; They went everyone strait forward; whe • her the Spirit was to go, they went: And th • Wheels were lifted up over against them; for the spirit of the living creatures was in the Wheels; when those went, these went; and when those stood still, these stood still; and when those were l • fted up from the Earth, the Wheels were lifted up over against them. The motion of Cherubs and Wheels was from the Spirit; but being moved, then they move and go both together sweetly, kindly, freely.

When then the Spouse desires to be drawn, she desires not to be compel'd; she begs not that such a force be offered her, that may take away the liberty of her will; but only that there might be impressed in her a vehement inclination, a supernatural ability, by which she might be strongly, but yet kindly drawn; for trahit sua quem{que} voluptas; a man is said to be drawn to that, to which in desire, and with content he inclines. A father holds forth an Apple to his child; or a Shepherd a great Bough to a sheep, and by it draws him unto him; which yet is done without any violence at all, because the desire of both incline to it: So Christ and his Promises draw us unto him; not upon any co-action, not by any necessity; but with great content, and delight, and pleasure; and if there be a • y violence, or constraint at all in it, it is not offered to the will, first moved by God, but to the Devil, to the World, to the Flesh, to our Pleasures, to our Profits, which labor to turn us from God, and hinder us to run together with his Spirit; which is the sense of that speech of our Savior, the Kingd • m of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force: For they are not called violent, because against their wills they suffer violence; but because willingly, and out of election, they offer violence to their sins, and to all that might entice them to those sins, which might hinder them from their Crown in heaven.

Out of that which hath been said, easy it is to collect why God useth so many Exhortations, so many Suits to that man, that he may be heard and admitted; as in this place, Set me as a Seal. For,

1. The Almighty by these requests or injunctions, would affect man with the sense of his duty, that he himself is the great Lord that may command, and Man his Servant and Vassal that ought to be commanded, however since he is pleased so far to condescend, as to request, that he be not denied, especially giving such reasons for it, which will melt any ingenuous heart.

2. That since his heart without this impression or seal, is but a counterfeit, and the hand a fist of iniquity, that he would not resist the means to better both; but that when he speaks outwardly by his Word, he may be heard; and when inwardly by his Spirit, by sweet, secret, and gentle motions, he be not delayed, and put off: Two things are necessary, doceri & juvari, to be taught, to be helpit; God hath done both; taught us by his Word, helpit us by his Spirit; nor externally, nor internally is he wanting to us; to consent lies in us.

Take these Exhortations then as spoken to those who are not yet effectually called, and so they are necessary to teach them their debt and duty; what they are by nature, and what God desires they should be. By nature without any seal of goodness at all, and now God desires they would receive his image; but take them as spoken to men already sealed, and so it is good advice, that they grieve not his Spirit, when he comes to set his Seal upon them; but that they be content he be set upon their heart as an undelible Character and Seal, that may not at any time be defaced or broken.

I shall yet more fully open unto you my meaning. You see here he brings the Seal, as ready to do his office; Grace he offers, if you will. Let not us then refuse, or be unwilling to be sealed; it were our part to invite him; now that he is come, and makes a request to us, it were a base ingratitude to delay him, or shift him off. An argument rather it were of an honest heart to dispose ourselves, and work out souls as wax against his coming. If your heart be hard and obdurate, as good offer him a flint to seal, which can take no print. If your hand be wicked, as good offer him a Deed to seal that is sealed already, and therefore incapaple of this holy impression. A willing, a soft heart, and an honest hand is the matter alone upon which he desires to be set. Refuse him in these, and you offer unto him an indignity.

Shall I but mind you of that Seal which he hath set upon you already? the very Natural Law which he stamped in yours and all men's hearts, is the inscription of this Seal, Do as you would be done to. Ask not then, as they in the Psalm, Who will show us any good; for signatum est, the light of his countenance is sealed upon us. For Moral actions we have light enough from the Lamp of Reason, provided we can but keep this print fair; 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the things of the Law may be done by virtue of this Seal. And a shame it is, that most heathens preserve this Seal fairer than many Christians.

Again, on the hand we have a Seal of his also. For there is in every man a Natural dexrerity to this or that profession; in one to the plough, in another to the book, in him to the sword, in that man to the shop, which the Lacedemonians were wont to try in their children by putting several sorts of instruments into their hands, and look what the child made choice of, to that profession they put him.

Would men then but follow ducem Naturam, men would be better skillful in all professions Arts and Trades. For this profession and ingenuity in Nature is a Seal of the Spirit. And well it were that parents would observe it, and as their children are bent and inclined, so to endeavor to have it set upon the hand. There would much disorder in the life of man, and many inconveniencies be amended by it.

This by the way. For there be higher matters he calls for by his Pone me. It is your Sanctification, it is your Conversion, which because it cannot be done without him, let everyone of us pray Veni Creator, Come holy Ghost; Oh thou sweet breath of God, breath upon my heart, that I may be able to fulfil this thy desire. It was the desire of the Spouse, and we shall do well to join with her, Arise O North, and come O South, and blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow forth. All those inward pangs, all godly meditations, all grave exhortations, all pathetical Sermons, all good books that ever ye looked into, are but sweet gales of this wind, by which ye drive on gently toward heaven. You never saw a dropping eye, or a bedew'd cheek for him, but when the wind sat in this corner. First, there was a flavit Spiritus, then a flevit Maria. The Spirit first blew, and the blast begot this shower.

And after this shower how sweet God's garden smells! fluunt aromata ejus, the spices thereof flow forth; Not a tree which is not loaden with its fruits, nor a root which shoots not into a flower, as ambitious to send a sweet savor into the nostrils of the Almighty. The 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , or strong savor of sin ascends no more to offend him, but instead thereof sweet words and good works always follow upon this wind, this shower.

Even in the most hopeful garden till this wind blow, the plants seem to be dead and withered as in the down-look of winter, the herb Grace of Charity, Faith, Humility, Obedience, put not forth one whit. But upon the rising of this gracious gale, the fruits of the spirit begin to knit; and if it blow long, and continue, you shall see Ver erit aeternum, the garden will be in its prime and glory. Faith loaden with good works, humility pressed to the earth with her burden of patience, obedience and charity bear their expected fruits, not one enspired virtue sterile or barren.

But thus it befalls them alone who are diligent to observe when this wind blows. For the Spirit, that stirs up in thee good motions today, will not always strive with thee. This wind bloweth when and where it listeth, and therefore it is uncertain whether thou shalt have the like impressions. Or if they be granted, it will be with more difficulty; for as God hath called, and thou hast not answered, so shalt thou call and cry and not be heard.

Willingly then, thankfully receive the blasts of this wind; suffer no inspiration to pass without some special notice taken of it, and then thou shalt change thy strength, humanam in divinam, that of a man into a divine power. For these helps of divine grace are the enabling of our natural faculties, sent by God for that purpose, that we may more easily prosecute all religious acts. That light of God's will sealed upon our understanding, is but the beginning of Faith, Meditation, Contemplation, by which the mind being moved, with content believes, meditates, contemplates divine Mysteries. The breath of the holy Ghost into the will, is an introduction of our hope and love, devotion and desires, with which the Will being exceedingly delighted, never rests till they be in a light flame. The Embers satisfy not, till the fire burn out.

As in a Choir, the Chaunter begins the Te Deum, We praise thee O God, and then the whole Choir comes in, and joins with him: So when we make melody to God in our hearts, it is God by his Spirit and his holy inspirations, that begins these religious acts; but yet it is done to that end, that we should join with him, and continue in these praises to the God of Jacob.

The more too blame they then, that lay all the work upon God, and put not their own shoulder to the wheel, as if the Spirit of Christ were to do all, and they nothing at all. His part he hath done, when he hath outwardly called you by his Word, inwardly spoke to you by his Spirit. Refuse him not then in his motions. Go on cheerfully and steadily in in your devotions, rise with his name in your mouths, work with his name engraven upon your hands, close up your day with his name in your lips, lie down with his name on your hearts, so shall you show that in some part you have yielded to his request, and are ready to yield to the rest; which was it is, I shall now acquaint you, by occasion of this Pronoun Me.

It was well observed by a quick-sighted man, that there was much Divinity couched in Pronounes. Without doubt it is so here, for the weight of the sentence lies upon it. For let Heart or Hand have what seal they will, never so specious, never so learned, if He and his Character be not stamped th • re, it will not be accepted. Accepted said I? nay it will be odious.

The God's of the Heathens were good fellows, they would easily endure to entercommune with each other in their Sacrifices. One Saliar verse would content Mars and Hercules. The same Temple was dedicated to the Dioscuri. The Eleusinian Mysteries were sacred to Bacchus and Ceres. Not to trouble you with more examples, we read of an Altar erected Diis Deabusque omnibus, To all the God's and Goddess • s without distinction. But with the God we serve it is not so: He • s a jealous God, he will have the soul that becomes his, to be sealed to his use, and his alone. No other may challenge any property in it, and therefore he calls to you here, Set me.

A • d there is great justice and equity in this request; for whose image and superscription b • re your heart at first? was it not God's? was it not first stamped with righteousness and holiness? As therefore our Savior replied to the Pharisees that shown him Caesar's Coyne that bore his image and superscription, Give to Caesar the things that belong to Caesar: so also I can as easily satisfy any man that should doubt why he should set God upon his heart, that in common justice and equity he is bound to do it: For whose image and superscription doth it now bear, if he be a Christian? Is it not God's? Let then God have the things that belong to God, no less than Caesar the things that belong to Caesar. This Argument I am sure was good at the first coynage, when the heart was first Minted; and if it be weak now, 'tis our shame that have blurred out the image of God from our hearts, and set upon them some other counterfeit impression, as if on purpose he should not claim his own. The Bu • lion indeed is God's, but many among us have Coyned it in the Devils Name; otherwise how comes it to pass that so many Atheists, and profane persons, so many Sacrilegists, and false and blasphemous Swearers, &c. labor daily at the Mint?

But of you Brethren I hope better things, and that you will readily yield to this request, that you will set him on your hearts and hands; which when you do, you must remember to set him in his Law and his Gospel too; for in these his face appears most gloriously in righteousness and true holiness; and therefore he commands by Solomon, that these be bound upon thy fingers, and written upon the Table of thy heart. Upon thy fingers to work by, and upon the Table of thy heart to love by; nothing is to come into thy heart and hand, which is not consonant and agreeable to this Law; for as all money receives estimation and value from the Kings Seal that is upon it; so all our works receive their worth and respect from that conformity which they carry to the Law of God.

And when you are persuaded to set God's Law there, set it as a Seal: Writing may do much, but Sealing is far better. Any Writing that is framed by pen and ink, is done by succession of parts, and many instants of time; letter is written after letter, line after line; now a little, and then a little; and possible it is that a Writing be cancel'd, and the letters razed out; but a Seal sets the whole print in the self-same instant, all's done at once, and with the same hand; a man is not long about it; and being done, it remains in the Wax. And thus the Law of God should be stamped upon us, readily, universally, totally, constantly. All the Law, without omission of any part; for a man must not give himself a Dispensation, or seek for an indulgence for any precept. The will to obey, must be total together at once, as a Seal impressed upon the heart, and ready as occasion requires: For in respect of execution it is written by parcels, or piece-meal, the precepts being to be fulfilled as particular occurrences require; but as the impression of a Seal is durable, and lasts long; so the obedience to the Law must be constant; walk we must in it all the days of our life.

And if our consciences can truly testify that thus we have set him, we have an assurance that we are sealed by his Spirit, because this ready, universal, and constant obedience flows not from any principle of the flesh; of which we ought to be ambitious ind • ed, since this is the Seal that makes up all, and without which nothing is to us Authentical; for except the Spirit of God testifies with our spirit, the ransom, the redemption, the purchase that Christ made for us, is but like a Deed fair drawn without a Seal, which you know till the Seal be added, is of no validity.

Necessary then it is, that we set, or to speak more properly, suffer the Holy Ghost to be set on our hearts and hands, if we mean comfortab •• to enjoy the promises of God, and benefits of Christ. His Person we cannot set there, but his graces we may: Charity and Goodness are in him as in the Prototype and Original Seal, and ought to be in us as in the Wax; increated in him, created in us; and yet so in us, as if they carried a lively impression of that stamp by which they were framed; whence, saith the Apostle, the love of God is shed abroad in your hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us.

To collect all, the sum is, that we set the Father, Son and Holy Ghost upon our hearts; that we set him there, and him alone, and no other God; that we set his Law and his Gospel there as a Seal readily, totally, constantly, which will be assurances that we have the benefits of Christ conveyed to us under Hand and Seal. 'It is his desire that it should be so; not set any way, or in a slight manner, as a face in water-colors; but as a Signet impressed, put case in hard Wax which is lasting; his request is, which sets me on the next point,

3. Set me as a Seal.

There be four Uses or Ends of a Seal or Signet.

• 1. It serves for Propriety.
• 2. For difference.
• 3. For Memory.
• 4. For Security. All which ways we ought to set Christ as a Seal upon us.

1. For Propriety, that thereby we may be known to be his. We sign with our Seal, and mark those things we call our's, and in which we will not have another man to claim an interest. Shop-men seal their Wares, Sheep-masters their own Flock; and it was an old custom to mark their slaves with their own Signet; the servan • that would not leave his Master, must be bored through the ear. Those Jews who did over-weakly renounce their God by the irreligious Edict of the Egyptian King, were by his command to be signed with an Ivy Branch, burnit into their bodies, in the honor of god Bacchus, to whose Protection and Worship they by their revolt had yielded: For it was the custom of the Heathen, either with a hot Iron to burn into their bodies, or else with a Needles point to punch into their flesh the Names or Pictures of those Deities to whose Devotions, and Heathenish Ceremonies they were addicted.

Whether this were not the manner that Baal 's Priests cut themselves with Knives and Launcers, let others judge. What should I tell you that the R • man Soldiers had the Names of the Emperors burned into their hands; In allusion to which the Golden-mouthed father, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , &c. As the Mark and Seal is put upon the Soldiers, so the Holy Ghost is put upon the Faithful; that so if you desert your Rank, you may be discovered, and noted by all.

Certain it is, that the Soldiers who were to fight under the God of heaven, and the God of this world, and the Beast, received the mark of the Beast in their right hand, and in their foreheads; The other, the Seal of the living God, which was his Name written in their foreheads.

To what purpose you'le say is all this? Attend, and you shall now hear. Whether we acknowledge God for our Shepherd, as good sheep; or take him for our Master, as good servants; or give up our Names to him, as sincere Worshippers; or Lastly, fight on his side, as valiant Soldiers; fit it is we, should carry his Mark, and bear his Seal. By this we shall be known to be hi • ; by it, he to be ours; the world may take notice that we are in it, not of it; the flesh, though we dwell with it, yet we owe it no servicc; the Devil, that we fight not for him, but against him; for we have given up our Names to another General, taken his Seal upon us, by which we are become his.

2. For in the next place, this Seal serves for a difference; we never were more like white paper, than when we were wrapped in our first Clouts; at that time it pleased God to make us his by Baptism, and set his Seal upon us; by which th • n three no table differences were made of a Christian from another man: For then he professed his Faith, by which he is distinguished from an Infidel; then he renounced the Devil, the World, the Flesh, by which he is distinguished from a profane person; then he became a child of God, by which he is distinct from a child of wrath. 'It is the desire then of our Savior, that we being born again, profess the true Faith, whereby we shall be of the Orthodox; be regenerate, and born anew of water, and of the Spirit, by which we shall be heirs of the Kingdom; briefly sanctified throughout, by which we shall be known from common men. This Seal then set upon us, will make a plain distinction of an honest and true Christian from an Infidel, Heretic, Atheist, Hypocrite, Lewd Liver, a Reprobate Person.

3. Now least we should forget our Profession, and with it our Duty; the Seal will serve to call to remembrance what we promised, when we became his. For the Holy Ghost, who sets the Seal, will be our Remembrancer; as our Master promised, He shall bring all things to your remembrance: Anciently some did engrave upon a Seal the Portraicture of their best Beloved. Ecce video amicam tuam Callidore. Call. Ubi ea est? Pseud. In Cera cubat. And Epicurus 's Scholars were wont to bear their Masters Picture enchased in a Signet. Others by pricking the skin with Needles, and rubbing it over with the Juice of some Herb, whose Tincture will never out, did brand their arms to keep in memory each other. A custom much used among the Mores and Arabs to this day; but among both as an Antidote against Oblivion.

Wise men have thought it always a strong Bar against sin, to have always in our memory some man, whose imaginary presence might keep us in awe. Take Cato; or if he be too harsh and stern, choose one of a sober metal, whose gravity of life and speech thou lovest; his mind and countenance carry with thee, set him always before thine eyes, either as a pattern, or a witness. If fancied remembrances of other men's eyes be so available to awake shamefastness, that so the boldness of sin may be stayed ere it look abroad; of what force should the memory of him whom we profess to love, by whose Name we glory to be called, whose eyes without slumbering or slee • ing watch over us; lastly, by whose Spirit we are sealed to the day of Redemption, be to with-hold us from unworthy actions? set therefore Christ upon thy heart to remember him; and good reason, for he bears the Seals of his love to thy soul in his side, and on his hands still; every minute he looks upon the marks, that those sharp Nails, and Spear delv'd into his innocent body; forget him not then, because he forgets not thee; remember him in the same way he remembers thee; as he did, and doth keep the Seals of his love upon his heart, and his hands; so do thou again set him by thy love, as a Seal upon thine, which keeps the stamp that is once engraven upon it.

4. For certainty; thou shalt gain by it; for erit in Custodiam; he will protect thee under his Wings, and thou shalt be safe under his feathers, safer than Chickens under the Wings of the Hen. We seal up our Letters, Caskets Closets, Jewels, which we would secure from others eyes and fingers: Quae pretiosa sunt non uno sigillo obsignamus. The malicious Jews, that they might make sure work as they thought, with our Savior's body, importuned Pilate to seal the stone. And Daniel's Accusers never thought they had him safe enough, till they pr • cured the King to s • all with his own Signet the Den of Lions. Yea, I read, that the more miserable Romans were wont to seal up their Bottles of choice Wine from their liquorish servants with an Iron Seal, contrived with a Key, which they wore always for that purpose.

There's nothing in the World needs more wary keeping than man's heart; 'tis God's richest and choicest Magazine: Here the inestimable treasure of Faith is stored; in it is the gold of patience laid up, which being tried in the fire of affliction, admis of no dross; here are all those Jewels of the Holy Ghost treasured, Joy, Peace, Love, Long-suffering, Gentleness, Go • dness, Meekness, Temperance; nay, Christ himself, and the Holy Ghost, are said to dwell in our hearts; into which Closet that old Thief, the Devil, sometimes by violence, sometimes by cunning, endeavors to break in; fain he would be fingring some of God's Treasure, and longs to rob us of one virtue or other. How necessary then is it, that our hearts be sealed with our Masters Seal, that is the Magazine of so great riches, that is threatened to be robbed by so potent an enemy! For to what purpose were it to lay up so great Treasure, and leave the door wide open? Lock it up then, and all's too little; seal it too; the Devil will be afraid to make his assaults, when he shall see God's Seal, his Law, his Gospel, his Son, his Spirit upon it; when the Devil found Judas unsealed, He put into the heart of the Traytour to betray his Master.

Whether therefore we desire that God should lay any just claim or title to us, or else to be differenced from the Vessels of wrath, or to keep a continual Commemoration of God's goodness to us; or Lastly, to preserve entire, and untouched, the riches of God's grace with which he hath entrusted us, let us be sure to set him as a Seal, and that

4. Upon the H • art, upon the Arm.

Those are the places we are to receive his seal; poni vult intus & foris; set he must be inwardly and outwardly; upon the heart within, and the arm without; upon the heart by affection, upon the arm by operation; upon the heart by meditation, upon the arm by execution; upon the heart by holiness, upon the arm by righteousness; upon the heart by faith, upon the arm by good works, that so the whole man may be God's; that so whatsoever is within us, or whatsoever proceeds from us, may have God's Seal upon it. This request then in sense is the same with the great Commandment, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God; that's for the heart: Thou shalt love thy Neighbor as thyself; that's for the arm or hand.

1. Upon thy heart.

Yet when the day of sealing comes, be sure to proceed by a right method, and set him on the heart first; for that's the part about us he most loves; he requires it of every child of his: My son, give me thy heart; thence the arm must receive the impression: For the seal pleaseth not, which is set upon the arm alone; if it proceed not from the stamp of the heart, then Gregory's Rule will be true, Probatio dil • ctionis exhibitio est operis; the work will prove our love, not else: For the work may be fair and splendid, as it was in the Pharisees Al • es and Prayers, and the heart an hypo • rite.

The h •• rt then must needs be first s • all'd; because without it be so, not any impress upon the hand will please God: He is α and ω the first and the last; the Original of life and motion, and expects from us that part which •• rst lives, and last dies; as if his intent were, or at least we may make that construction of it, that from th • α, the first instant of our lives, to the ω, or last period of them, our heart receive his Seal, and be wholly dedicated to him, to him; and to him alone.

For if it fall out otherwise, complain he will, as sometimes he did by the Prophet, their heart is divided; that is, th • ir heart is not whole with God; for one part they re • erve for his service, the other for somewhat else. But as the same Wax is in vain stamped with different impressions, because the stamp of the one will exceedi • gly deface the impress of the other; so likewise the heart of man is not capable at the same time of diverse Forms; set God there, there will be no room for the World; set the World there, and presently you blur God's image. The Ark and Dagon, God and Mammon, Jehovah and Baal cannot co-hab • t in one heart; that little Thalamus of the heart is too narrow to receive two such great Princes at once, as the King of heaven, and the god of this World; the Author of Goodness, and that great Ingeneer of Mischief. Whence the Spouse with the chaste heart tells her Beloved, Q • aesivi te in Lectulo, I sought thee! in Lectulo, in a little Pallet, rath • r than in Lecto, a great Bed. Me • hinks in the Phrase there's a kind of Coarctation, and narrowing of the Room, as if the Church (like a good wife) were so scanted for lodging, that she could entertain no other, but her husband in Thalamo cordis, in the Bed-chamber of her heart; let him come and welcome, her heart was enlarged: But if any other, the Bed was strait, that it could not suffice; and the Covering narrow, that one could not wrap himself.

But what if a Friend come, nay an enemy, must he go without lodging? Doth God so take up our hearts, that our Kings, our Parents, our Children, our Neighbors must find no love, no entertainment? no such matter; he that would have us lodge him there, commands us to lodge them too; yea, the more hearty entertainment we give these, the more welcome we make God.

At the rising of the Sun those lesser Lamps of heaven are presently obscured; removed they are not from their stations, nor deprived of their light, but only hid from us by a more glorious body; at Night they take their course, and shine again. Thus it is with the love of God sealed upon our heart; the luster of it ought to be so em • nent, that it seems to obscure and hide the love of man quite; and indeed when these two come in competition, it must shine alone: But after God, then the love of man succeeds, and must shine in good works, as the stars take their turn, and shine when the Sun is set.

Dispose of God first we must; lodge him in the best Chamber, and then after provide for the rest, as attenders, and servitors upon him; if either Neighbor or Friend; or Brother or Sister; or Father or Mother; yea, or the King himself be so ambitious as to thrust into God's Room, and thrust him out, then they must be ejected as Intruders, and commanded to look for a lodging somewhere else. With God they may come, and be welcome; marry if they be so saucy as to come without him, the door must be shut against them.

To this there be many pretenders, and none so forward to boast of the Seal, as those that have it least; on their backs you shall find the clothing of the sheep, in th • ir mouths, Lord, Lord, the words of servants; their ways are so close, so subtle, so specious, that without a narrow view, 'tis not easy to discern them from such as are truly sealed; their hearts you cannot see, their hands you may; have an eye then that way, and found it will be by a diligent observation, that though the voice be Jacob's voice, yet the hands of Esau, and by that you shall know them: For God enjoins all his to set him as a Seal, not only on their hearts, but on their hands also, which hypocrites will not do; or if they seem to do at first, that thereby they may get esteem, belief, and authority; yet their end being obtained, the Seal will quickly be wiped off, and their hand will become a fist of iniquity; constant they will not be in well-doing, as God expects in all those that bear his Seal, to be perpetually such outwardly, as they are inwardly, and therefore it is here added,

2. Set me as a Seal upon thy Arm.

I read in Scripture of three parts especially upon which he desires to be set; upon the forehead, heart and hand; upon the fore-head, that we should not be ashamed to confess him; in the heart, that we love him; on the arm or hand, that we be doing good for his sake; to omit the two first, the last is that which God expects here, that we employ the strength of our arm to glorify him. The Rabbin said well, that God requires two things concerning his Law, Custody and Work; Custody in the heart, Work in the hand; for without this latter, we have only a show of godliness; we act Religion, not practice it.

Now the Practice of Piety is the Book we should all study; for without it our profession is vain, our love feigned; hence Divines define Theology to be a prudential virtue, that is affective, not speculative; practical, and not only contemplative, which warms first the heart, and after moves the arm; in a word, by which we are taught to live to God; in which life, they require not so much the happiness which we shall enjoy in another life, as our honest and virtuous Conversation in this: For he is the best Student in Divinity, qui verba vertit in opera, is not only a Learner, but a Practiser; not so ready to lend his ear to a Sermon, as his hand to act what he hath heard in a Sermon.

And now O all ye that have dedicated yourselves to God's service, examine your lives whether you have set God upon your hearts or no? It were a wrong to me to enter into your bosoms, and knock at those secret Cabinets open only to God and yourselves; but if I should, I assure myself it were a hard matter to find a man whose answer would not be, that he had an honest heart to God: But as Samuel replied to Saul, upon his forward answer, I have fulfilled the command of the Lord; What then means the bleating of the Sheep and Oxen in my ears? So I may say to the most of men, whose hearts are so ready for God; if your hearts stand so upright to Godward, whence proceeds those evil thoughts, Murders, Adulteries, Fornications, Thefts, false Testimonies, Slanders that are so rise among you? Do not all these come from within, and defile the man? Would you put out the eyes of God's Seers, and make them beileve your hearts are dedicated to God, when your hands are thus defiled! Good old meaning Isaac might be gull'd with Jacob's voice, and Esau's hands; but never think that the eye of God, which never slumbers nor sleeps, will give a blessing to a smooth tongue, and rough hands. If his Name be not engraven upon your hands, as well as pretended to be upon your hearts, ye shall have what Jacob feared, a Curse instead of a Blessing.

The question of the young man was to our Savior, Good Master what must I do to inherit eternal life? and of the Jailor to Paul and Silas, Sirs, What must I do to be saved? They still were for action; they knew well that the Fig-tree which bore green leave • , and no fruit, was in the end deprived of life and leaves too.

For however in Christian Religion faith be the first and principal foundation that must be laid in the heart, whereupon all the rest is stayed and grounded; yet as in other material buildings after the foundation is laid, there remains the greatest cost, care, art, diligence, time and labor in raising of the Walls, disposing of the Rooms, ordering the Lights, setting on the Roof, beautifying and furnishing the Fabric; even so is it in this spiritual house, in making the man of God perfect and absolute; the foundation and grand work of Faith is quickly laid in the heart; some small time of our life will serve for the learning of the principles of Religion; the greatest part of our days and labor must be spent in directing of the hand, and in erecting the whole frame of this spiritual Edifice, and with the furnishing of it with all Christian virtues, and diligent observation of God's Commandments; without which, our faith is to no more purpose than a foundation without a building, or a Stock or Tree that bears no fruit.

This then is the end of all our Sermons, of all our Exhortations, that you furnish the inner man with all Christian Virtues, and be abundant in the fruits of the Spirit. We can teach, you can learn no more but this, Set God on thy heart, set him on thy hand; this is the sum of the whole Law; for if thou love God, thou wilt give him thy heart; if thou love thy Neighbor, thou wilt lend him thy hand; the end of our Adoption and Redemption is no other: For therefore Christ freed us from our enemies, and gave us a faculty to become the sons of God, that we should serve him in righteousness and holiness, have holy hearts, and righteous hands. This is the end of our hope; for the reward in heaven shall be bestowed pro tecto, pro vest, pro frigidâ; because out of the hearty love we have born to God, we have stretched forth our hand to house the stranger, to clothe the naked, to give drink to the thirsty.

God grant therefore that we may so set God upon our hearts by pious meditations, fervor, love; and on our hands by outward Works, and charitable Deeds, that we may receive that blessing that shall one day be pronounced to the Doers of the Law: Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom of God pr • pared for you. Amen.

1. T • e Word that Isaiah the son of Amo • saw.

The Word is here put for that which Isaiah saw, the Vision, or that which was revealed unto the Prophet; and it is not improbable, that it might be adumbrated, or presented unto him, that he saw the Gentiles, and heard their words, saying one to another, Come, let us go up; it being usual with God, to confirm his promises by Types, and outward Signs. Thus in the Sacraments under visible signs he is pleased to represent unto us his passion, and to impart life and saving grace to such as are capable thereof; for since God is in himself invisible; therefore when it seems good to his Wisdom that men should take notice of his approaches, he gives them some plain and sensible token whereby to know that which they cannot see; as in the motion of the waters at the Po • l of Bethesda; or in the descent of fiery tongues upon the Apostles. Now that which he saw here, was the rejection of the Jew • s, and the calling or admission of the Gentiles into the Church; the rejectio • of them in the following part of the Chapter; the calling of the Gentil • s in this former; where we first meet with the time when this was to be fulfilled.

2. It shall come to pass in the last days.

Futurum est, It shall come to pass, that was out of all question, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. Now if any should doubt, and ask, when should this be? he assigns the time, The last days; to wit, that time when the Law of Ceremonies was to be abolished, and the Gospel begun to be preached by Christ, after pub • ished to the whole world, which is called the last time in the Old Testament here, in Micah 4.1. Joel 2.29. And in the New, Act. 2.17. 1 Pet. 1.11. Heb. 1.2.

Now this is called the last time, not ration temporis, sed ration status. Not in respect of time, as if so soon as this prophecy should begin to be fulfilled, the last day must presently come. But that these should be the last days to the Jewish state and policy, that now the Scepter was to depart from Judah, Shil • h was to come, and a new form of government to succeed in the Church, which was to be fixed, firm, stable, and lasting, till time should be no more; and therefore this Policy might well be called the last, there being no other to succeed and come after it. The Law of Nature went before, the Law of Moses succeed. Novissime, now in the last days he hath spoken by his Son; and by any other he will not speak. His blood is the blood of the last and eternal Testament.

Three ages then we may reckon of the world. The first is as it were the child-hood and youth of the world, under which men were Tutoured by the Law of Reason. The second, as it were the manhood, when the Jews were brought up under Moses and the Prophets. The third, as it were the worlds old age, lasting from Christ's coming in humility, till his appearing in glory, in which men are taught by the Gospel, and which must last till all things which are written must be fulfi • l'd.

But as th • Old age of m • n may perhaps last longer in number of years than both the other, which yet because it succeeds the other, is called the last age of man: So also may this, should it exceed both the former Ages, be called the last Age, because none is to follow it. For it is not called the last, as if it were not to continue after it began many days. But, that after Christ appeared in the flesh, no other Messiah was to be expected, no other Gospel, no other Sacraments, no other Church-government to be looked for; what he ordained, was to stand fast and continue to the worlds end. For as our Prophet assures us

3. The Mountain of the Lord's House shall be established.

That is, the Church, as Expositors unanimously agree; and the cause of the Trope, is, First, because the Temple to which the Jews repaired for God's service, was built on a Hill; and next it was the custom of Idolaters, to seat their Altars, Groves, and Houses of their gods, on high places. Whether this were done in imitation of the Temple so seated, I know not; or whether by it they would put all men in mind to ascend in their thoughts, when they were about any Religious worship.

And those properties which in Scripture we read attributed to Mountains, will well agree to the Church.

1. Abundance, Fertility, and Plenty; His vineyard was planted in a very fruitful hill: As the hill of Bashan, so is God's hill; 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . Sep • . a hill of fat things, in it no want of anything for the nourishment of a spiritual life.

2. Wholesomnesse of air. And in the Church there be no mists and fogs of error; the doctrine of it • s sound and wholesome doctrine; sound words, that cure and preserve the health of a soul, and never infect it.

3. Eminency and height. For Mountains are higher than other places, and so is the Church; it hath the preeminence of all other governments. All Sc • pters must yield to it, and Kings with their Crowns, submit before it.

4. Security and safety. Fly to the Mountain, saith the Angel to Lot. And if there be security or safety anywhere to be found, it is in this Mountain: For it is the Mountain of God. This is God's hill in which it pleaseth him to dwell f r ever. And if there can be protection anywhere, it must be in his house, under his wings, under his feathers.

5. Here he will dwell: So that he hath not taken it up as a place to stay, rest, or lodge in for a night or so, as men use in an Inn, but as a House to dwell and abide in it forever. In which respect it may well be called a Mountain, than which no parts of the earth are more firm, more lasting, more durable: Are they not for this called The Everlasting Hills? The violence of waters removes not these out of their places; Time though it wear them, yet it annihilates them not. And such is the Church of God a Mountain immovable; It hath, it doth, it shall continue unto the end of the world; and therefore our Prophet here puts us in mind, that

4. It is the Mountain of the Lord's House established.

A house it is, built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief Corner-stone. This Corner-stone is put either in the bottom of the building, upon whose firmness and stability the weight of the whole doth rely; or sometime again in the top, to knit together two Walls. This Rock was Christ; and other foundation can no man lay; and Christ also was this upper stone, who knit together the two Walls, Jews and Gentiles, into this one House his Church. And being thus knit, so the house must stand; For the Gates of Hell shall not be able to prevail against it.

Persecutors, Heretics, Schismatics, profane persons, are these gates of Hell. They that sit in the gates, and have power in their hands, and counsel in their heads, crying with Edom, Exanite, exan • te, us{que} ad fundamenta, Down with it, down with it, even to the ground, are the strength of the bottomless pit; but their strength is to sit still, for the Mountain of the Lord's House shall be established; when they are able to remove the Cornerstone that is laid in the foundation, or that knits the walls, then they may hope to cast down and ruin the House; but since that is immovable, and beyond their power, all their endeavor is like that of the Giants, who labored to remove Mountains to their own ruin.

Confessed it must be, that the rain hath descended, and the floods came, and the winds have blown high, and have fallen upon this house; irruerunt, sed non prevaluerunt; the storms have been many and great, but it was never stormed, for it was and is built upon a Rock. We have a strong City, salvation will God appoint for walls and Bulwarks. And as we have heard, so have we seen in the City of our God, that God upholds the same for Ever.

Pharaoh works wisely to destroy the Israelites, but they multi • lie; The Babylonians oppress the C • ptive Jews, but they return many more thousands than were carried into bondage. Herod seeks the life of our Savior, but Christ lives. The High Priests and Elders seek to suppress the Apostles, but the Word in their mouths took effect to the conversion of the world. What should I say, that Sanguis Martyrum was semen ecclesiae, the blood of Martyrs was the seed of the Church? So true is that of Hilary, Ec lesia dum persequuta est, floret; dum opprimitur, crescit; dum contemnitur, proficit; dum laeditur, vincit; dum arguitur, intelligit; tum deni{que} stat, cum superari videtur. That which mists, fogs, and clouds, are able to do against the light and beams of the Sun; the same may force, fraud or falsehood do against the Church; hide they may the glory thereof for a time, wholly suppress the beams and light they never can; for it is a City built upon a Hill, the Founder is God, Christ the Foundation, the Elect the living stones, the Spirit of Love and Truth the cement that joins them; so that the gates of Hell shall never be able to prevail against it. Oppugnare possunt, expugnare non possunt; Oppose they may, and will, but utterly overthrow they never shall: Be it that God bring a heavy destruction upon any people, among whom his Church doth sojourn, so that a man may take up the Prophets words, Houle O Gate, cry O City, thou whole Palestine art dissolved, for there shall come from the North a smok • : What shall one then answer the Messengers of the Nations? what shall be said to them that ask in such a general deluge, What shall become of the Church? This, saith the Prophet, Say, that the Lord hath founded Zion, and the poor of his people • shall trust in it. These are the remnant of his people, for whom there shall be an high-way to escape, as it was for Israel in the day when he came out of Egypt. When the Cities shall be wasted, in it there shall be a tenth, a part Sacred and dedicated to God, and it shall return. This shall be like a Teile tree, and as an Oak whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves; so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof. As in the Autumn trees cast their leaves, whose substance and life preserved in the root, shows itself the next Spring: so is it with the people of God; despoyl'd they may be in the Winter of affliction of all their beauty, but the substance still remains in the Holy seed. And so long as life remains in the seed, the species and things themselves can never be said to be extinguished. And from this seed, in despite of all opposition, many other Holy branches will shoot up.

Now if you ask the reason, I can give no other than th • s, The zeal of the Lord of Hosts shall do this; 'tis his love, 'tis his mercy to his Church; for he hath writ her in the palms of his hands, he hath loved her with an everlasting love, he hath espoused her to himself forever. He hath built her upon a Rock, he hath founded her as a Mountain, a Mountain prepared by him, established by his Decree. And then 'tis but in vain for Devils or men to go about to move it, much less to remove it. 'It is the true Hill of Zion that stands fast forever.

And yet this gives no security to any particular Churches, but they may be broken off. The promise is made to the whole, and not to any part. 'It is the Mountain of the Lord's House that is established, and must stand, not every particular stone, or parcel of that Mountain. For as we see by the injury of time, or violence of torrents, many eminent parts of a Mountain to be broken off, and divers great stones to be tumbled down, when yet the whole remains firm upon its basis and foundation: So is it with the Church of God; many fair and goodly pieces have been broken off, as Jerusalem, Corinth, the seven Churches of Asia, that at Colossi, Philippi, &c. And yet the Church built on the Mountain, remains still, and shall remain so long as the sun and moon endureth.

The Lesson that we are to learn from it, is that of St. Paul, Be not high-minded, but fear; and I cannot use a more powerful argument than he doth, drawn from the example of the Jew; For if God spared no • the natural branches, take heed lest he spare not thee. Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God; on them which fell severity, but towards thee goodness, if thou continue in his goodness; otherwise thou also shalt be cut off. These last words sound in the ear like a clap of Thunder, Thou also shalt be cut off; whom will it not startle! Spoken it is to whole Nations, spoken it is to all particular Churches, spoken to every single man in any particular Church; and can they then do less than fear? What was once done, may be done again; the Jew degenerated and was cut off, take heed lest the same befall not thee, if thou prove an unprofitable branch.

As God is good, so is he also severe. The sight is offended with too much light, and by too little hindered. So the comfort of God's promises is much abated by the view of too much mercy, or none at all; that causeth despair, this presumption. The cure for both, is, the remembrance of God's 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 here, his excision of the Jew, it will secure from presumption. Remember also his incision of the Gentile, and it will keep from despair. And yet that no Nation engraffed into the Vine or Olive in place of the Jew be high-minded, that shall befall the Gentile that befell the Jew, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , if he continue not, he shall be cut off, stocked up; become in a worse case than the Jew; for he hath a promise to be engraffed again; but to any particular Church of the Gentiles, I find none such made.

Continue then, and persevere to the end. This is a necessary condition of faith; for faith saveth that is kept to the end: Flowers fresh and sweet please, but fading are cast away. If Jerusalem the faithful City become an Harlot, if Corinth rent with divisions continue carnal, if Ephesus leave her first. Love, if Laodicea be not hot nor cold; nay, if Rome herself become the Scarlet whore, she also shall be broken off. Think not to say with the Jews, We have Abraham for our father; for God is able even out of these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Presume not upon The Temple of the Lord, The Temple of the Lord, for any particular Temple may fall to the ground, and yet his House be established. His promise is not made to any National Church, it is to the Catholic; This is the Mountain of the Lord's House, and it shall be established in the tops of the Mountains, and shall be exalted above all hills.

5. Established in the tops of the Mountains, and exalted above all Hills.

Our Prophet still continues in the Metaphor; and as by the Mountain he intimated the stability, continuance, and firmness of Christ's Church, so also in this he fore-tells the glory and eminency of it. Far more glorious it shall be than any other Temple, either Jewish, or Heathenish; and the Truth professed by them who resort to it, as far exceeding all other Religions, Sects, and impieties, as a Mountain that over-tops all the Hillocks round about it. You see the reason of the Trope, and it justifies our Savior's words, That it is a City set upon a Hill, whence it will follow, that it cannot be hid; and thence we may as easily gather, that it must be Visible. Which doctrine we constantly maintain, though our Adversaries of Rome are pleased to defame us: And defended it must be; for how else should all Nations flow unto it? how should they call one to another, venite ascendamus, Come, let us ascend to the Hill of the Lord, if this Mountain, if this House did not appear? This is it then we say, that existent always it is, but not in an equal glory. The question then being not of the essence of the Church, but of the existence only, evident it is, that the distinction of a visible and invisible Church is but modal, which never makes a new thing, but intimates that the adjuncts of the same thing are to be considered at one time in this manner, and at another time in another. You shall understand my meaning by familiar instances: I pull in, I put forth; I clinch, I open my hand; will any man say my hand is not the same it was before? A man retires himself out of this Congregation, and anon he appears again; is he not therefore the same man? The like may be said of the Church; in the time of trouble and persecution it hath retired; under the protection and favor of Princes, it hath come forth again; contracted it hath been by sin and heresy; dilated and opened by the gracious motions of the Spirit; and yet all the while but the same Church.

But that you may the better apprehend this point, for a main matter depends upon it, I will show you how far we grant the Church visible; how far, and in what sense invisible.

1. If the Catholic Church be taken in its full latitude, as it takes in Christ the Head, and whole society of Saints, partly Triumphant in Heaven, partly Militant here on earth, so it is invisible. For neither is Christ the Head now an object of our eye; nor yet from Ab • l to this day, any one, as a member of that society, seen by us.

2. For next, we say, that let the Church be taken for the true, proper, and univocal parts thereof, wrestling with flesh and blood, now here on earth, who are truly members of Christ's mystical body, and these are wholly invisible. All men knew Nathanael to be an Israelite, but that he was a true Israelite, in whom there was no guile, was no object to sense, but known only to God, to whose eye the heart is clear and manifest. As men are Christians they may be seen; but that they, are elected, that his Spirit unites them to Christ, that they have faith unfeigned, that their works proceed from a pure heart, and a good conscience, who can pronounce, saving only the searcher of all men's hearts, who only intuitively doth know in this kind, who are his? We can see the men, and by their fruits hope they are God's elect; but to speak precisely, no mortal eye can discern them to be God's Elect, but God alone: because Hypocrites and the Reprobate do many times resemble them in show and profession. And thus much a Papist dares not deny.

3. The whole question lies only upon the outward state and condition of the Church. And of this the Learned of Rome affirm, that the company of Professors must be so illustrious, that it may be known to all men, living at all times, that the Church is so visible, that it is palpable, that it is as co • spicuous as any earthly kingdom, that it may be discerned, and as it were pointed out with the finger. This their error lies in the excess. With them then though we agree that the Church even in the external face and profession hath been and shall be always known, being a Society distinct from Jews and Infidels; Yet we content ourselves with a lower degree of visibility: For we say, That this Society is not always alike eminent, but sometimes clouded, obscured, covered, darkened, as a house on the top of a Mountain envelop'd with a mist or a thick Fogg. This company is descended from Abraham, of whose posterity God said, that it should be • ike the Stars of Heaven, and the Sands of the Sea; sometimes then as those lights of heaven, shining in their glory, at other times are darkened or eclipsed; at one time as those sands apparent to any eye, but at another covered with waves of tribulation and temptation. And this is evident to any man that is conversant, either in Scripture or story.

For first, The number may be small: Was it not so in the time of Elijah? Doth he not complain, I only am left alone? Seven thousand indeed there were, but Elijah saw them not; a seed, a remnant, a substance in the root which every eye cannot discern; if the Church be so conspicuous, as the Romanists tell us for the number, why do they place it in the V rgin Mary alone at our Savior's passion? certainly it was not very glorious, when those one hundred and twenty were shut up, and concealed in an upper Chamber.

2. The external Government thereof may come to decay; Pastors driven from their Flocks, and the outward exercise of Religion suspended. In the Jewish Church it was so in the seventy years captivity; and by the confession of our Adversaries, it shall be so in those three years and a half of Antichrists Reign; for they agree to that of Hippolitus, that then the holy houses of God shall be like a Co •• age; the precious body of Ch • ist and his blood shall not be extant; the Liturgy shall be extinguished; the singing of Psalms shall cease; the reading of the Scriptures shall not be heard: A • d therefore the Church is well compared in the Revelation to a Woman, which at one time is as visible as anything can be, clothed with the Sun, and having the Moon under her feet, and upon her head a Crown of twelve stars; and yet at another time she is driven into the Wilderness out of the sight of men; yea, her child taken up into heaven, there to abide a thousand two hundred and threescore days.

3. The most and greatest may be carried into Error; the Pastors becoming Wolves in Sheeps clothing, and the people receiving the mark of the Beast; so that some few, and they such as are most unlikely to defend the Truth, are remaining: Multitude, Authority, and Reputation defendi • g the one side; and Paucity, and Meanness, discountenancing the other. Thus it fell out in the time of Arius, when the whole world groaned, & miratus est se factum A • rianum, and wondered how on a sudden it became Arian; Athanasius only, and a few that were banished with him, excepted; whose hand was against every man, and every man's hand against him.

4. Lastly, Yet we affirm that there have been, and evermore shall be some Pastors and People, more or less, who even to the view of men have professed the substance and essential parts of Religion, and have openly taught the prime, necessary, fundamental Articles of saving truth, though in some secondary points carried by the stream and darkness of the Times, they might have failed and erred; yea such, who have reproved the gross Errors which Time-servers, and false Teachers brought in. This they have done, either Agendo, or Patiendo; either by their tongues or by their lives; by preaching the Truth, or dying for the Truth; so that Historians have taken notice of them.

The doubt then betwixt Rome and Us, ought not to be of the Visibility of the Church, but only of the manner of the Visibility: For we both affirm it visible, but not in the same degree. They tell us of a Ro • all, Pompous, and Glorious Estate, such as is the outward face of Earthly Dominions and Monarchies; and this we deny to be always necessary to the Church of God; for we make it an external, no proper accident of the Church, and such is separable: And instead thereof we put another Visibility, to wit, a company of Pastors and Pe •• le, however reproved, disgraced, persecuted, that either in the view of the W • rld in General, or in the presence of any part thereof, do teach saving Truth i • the Main and Capital Articl • s of Religion, which we say is sufficient to make the Church visible, and is inseparable from it.

These things being premised, easy it is to answer unto that scornful demand of those who flowt, and ask, Where was our Religion? Where was our Church before Luther arose? In what hole of the Earth it lurked? where for so many years it lay asleep? Foolish men! as if Luther, or any other Reformer ever went about to erect a new Church, or a new Religion: No, no, the Church of Christ never was but one, the same from the beginning to the end. If their Church then was visible, ours is also visible, because theirs and ours are both but parts of the Catholic; theirs indeed unsound, ours recovered of that unsoundness which it had contracted so long as it was remaining among them: As therefore Naaman, sick of his leprosy, was the same Naaman that he was, being cured, visibly the same man; so also are we yet visibly the same Church, of the same society of Christians, among them leprous, but gone from their company healed. When then was our Church visible before Luther? Why in the bosom of Rome; but unsound, and unhealthy; where is it now? in the Western Church still, visibly healed and bettered.

The state of the Church under the Roman obedience, and that part which is Reformed, is very fitly resembled to a Field over-grown with Weeds, Tares, and Cockle: Some part whereof is weeded and cleansed, some part whereof remains as it was before; which makes such a vast difference to the eye, as if it were not the same Corn: But being well considered, it will appear, that the whole difference is from the Weeds which remain there, and are here taken away. Those laborious husbandmen, that in the last hundreds of years have taken pains in plucking up those rank Weeds out of the Lord's Field, cannot be rightly said in doing this, either to have brought in another piece of ground, or to have changed the old seed; the Field is the same, but weeded now, and unweeded then; the Grain the same, but winnowed n • w, and unwinnowed then; and this appears, because we both hold fast still the same fundamental points, the same Creed, the same Rule of Obedience, the same Rule of Prayer, the same Sacraments, the same Canon of Scripture.

It doth not then beseem men of learning and ingenuity to object in scorn to us an Aery and Mathematical Church, consisting of certain imaginary invisibilities; for our Church is no more Aery and invisible than their own, being in Essence the same with theirs, as the blind man, who had recovered his sight, was the same in substance he was before; no other man, but no blind man. That which we confess, is this, That the number who opposed their innovations, was in comparison of the opposite party, small, their authority little, and their power less; so that in regard of the prevailing Faction, which like some swelling Torrent carried all before it, they were scarce a considerable party. A party yet they were, who with Elijah, and his 7000. never bowed to Baal; and because they were but a small party, it gave occasion to some Divines to say our Church was invisible. The parts of this Church, whether visible, or invisible, in the sense before belongs to the Catholic Church, of which we have an evident prediction in this place, because our Prophet adds,

6. That all Nations shall flow unto it.

Such was to be the latitude of this Mountain, such the amplitude of this House; the Catholic Church and Faith was to fill so many places, that it might be said to be planted everywhere. Other Nations had their Mountains, that is, their Groves, their Temples, their Altars; but there was not an universal concourse of all people to any one of them. In Judea also the Mountain of the Lord was very glorious, but not a Jew dare say, that the glory of their Temple, or hill of Zion consisted in this, that all people came to Jerusalem to worship. In Jewry indeed God was known, and his Name was great in Israel; at Salem was his Tabernacle, and his dwelling in Zion.

B • t all this while the Gentiles in general were set by, they had not the knowledge of his Laws; as they cared not to perform any honor to God, so God called upon them for no special duties. In one Country or other he might perhaps cast a favorable eye upon this or that man, and call a Job, a Naaman, a Jethro, or an Eunuch to do him service; but for the gene • ality of men, he suffered them to wander in their own ways, though then he le • t them no without excuse, because he gave them rain, and fruitful seas • ns: But when these last days came that our Prophet speaks of, this Mountain was exalted above all Hills, and all Nations did flow unto it. Whilst it was yet confined at Jerusalem, there were of all Nations converted by S • int Peters Sermon, and soon after the noise of the Apostles Trumpets, sound • d over all the World, thousands in all places resorted to this Mountain. About one hundred and forty years after our Savior's birth, so great was the confluence of people, that an Ancient Father was not afraid to say, that there was no People, no Nation so barbarous amongst whom by the crucified Jesus supplications and thanksgiving are not made to the Creator of all things. In Libya, Egypt, the East, there were many Languages, but one Faith; Christians then filled the Islands, the Castles, the Cities, the Palaces, • he Senate, the Court of the Roman Empire: Parthians, Medes, Ela •• tes, M r • s, Gauls, Spaniards, Britons, Sarmatians, Germans, Scythians did render themselves Subjects to Christ and his Law.

Daniel saith, that he saw a stone; i. e. Christ cut from the Mountain; i. e. Mary, without hands; that is, the help of man's seed; and that this stone became a Mountain, which filled all the earth. How grew this stone to be so great? how to fill the whole earth? not in his Natural body, but in his Mystical, which is the Catholic Church, filling the whole Woe • ld; to which Saint Augustine alludes in this manner, What is there so manif • st as a H • ll? But yet there be many Hi • ls unknown, because they are but in one place of the Earth; but so it can never be said of this Hill, because it shall be an Hill erected in the top of H lls, and all Nations shall flow unto it. In the mult • tude of a people is the glory of a King. How glorious then was this Empire to be, in which there was not an accession of one Nation, or one people, but every Tongue, every Nation, were annexed to his Crown, and the uttermost par • s of the earth given to Christ for his inheritance!

This was the honor reserved to the Son of God; he was to be the Catholic King, and King of Catholics; his Church is Catholic, his Power is Catholic, his Laws are Catholic, and are made known to all▪ that they might be observed by all; to that end he gave a Catholic Commission to his Disciples, Go and teach all Nations; for now Peters observation is found true; In every Nation he that fears God, and doth righteousness, is accepted of him.

Now this is a point that serves for Reproof and Comfort.

1. It casts shame into the face of the Romanists, that ingross Christ to their seven Hills. God saith, all Nations, no say they; none b • t they who shall be built upon the Popes Rock; none but who must have depe • dance on St. Peters Chair. Uncharitable men, that when Christ hath given liberty for all Nations to flow to his Church, do so restrain and confine the limits of it, that none shall come thither, till he come to Rome first; the rest may be excluded for Heretics, Schismatics, Infidels, and I know not what; if this be not Donatism, let the World judge: But with these I will not enter the Lists at this time.

2. That which I intend, is to leave a deep impression in your hearts of this mercy; for give me leave to bespeak you in Moses words, Rejoice O ye Nations with his people. Before we were a Deodate given to Christ by God, shut we were out of the Covenant, enemies, strangers, without God in the World; but now we are admitted into the League, made friends, taken into the Family, and incorporated to be Fellow-Citizens with the Saints. Before we were children of wrath; but now beloved in him, who was, and is the Beloved. Before banished from the inheritance of heaven; but now estated in an inheritance uncorrupt, undefiled, that fades not away, reserved for us. Before we were dispersed over the World; but now gathered as Sheep into one Fold, under on • Shepherd. Before we sat in the darkness and shadow of death; but now light is risen up to us. Our Savior's words are made good, Many from the East and West, from the North, and from the South, shall come and sit down in the Kingdom of God: God hath persuaded Japheth to live and dwell in the Tents of Shem.

That Task which the Apostle puts upon us for this mercy, is, that we praise God. Praise the Lord all ye Gentiles, and laud him all ye people. The Lord hath healed the broken-hearted, and given sight to the blind. Lost Sheep we all were, and God hath gone after us in the Wilderness, and brought us home on his own shoulders to the Fold. The time was, when we lay as the wounded man, and no eye pitied us; the Priest and the Levite passed by without compassion; nor so much as a Mosaical sacrifice was to be offered for us; Then came the good Samaritan, he poured in wine and oil, and brought us to his Inn, his Church, where he bound up our sores, and cured our wounds; and shall not we l • ud him, and praise him for this? Good words do well, but good works do far better; this last is a Real Praise, the other but Verbal; neither will the offering of the lips please him, without the sacrifice of the life, proceeding from an honest heart. And therefore so often as you call to mind this benefit, this insition, this engraffing in his Church, toti laudate; cantet Uox, cantet Spiritus, cantent facta; let tongue and heart, and spirit, and life, and dealing, and conversation altogether set forth his praise; and for this you need not go far for a patte • n, or example, these people here may be your copy; for God's Mountain was no sooner exalted among them, but

• First, They flowed to it; see, their heart was ready.
• Secondly, Then they called to one another, Come, let us ascend; behold, they were not backward with their tongues.
• Thirdly, Lastly, They profess their obedience, that their life should be answerable to their profession; He shall teach, we will walk in his paths.

These are the Properties and Characters of God's people; the first of which is their readiness, their willingness, the joy, content, alacrity they take in God's service, intimated in this word,

1. Confluent, They shall flow unto it.

The waters are Peoples and Multitudes, and Nations, and Tongues. Now as waters rise from several Springs, and are conveyed by several Channels, till at last meeting in someone great River, they run together lovingly into the Sea: So the people of several parts take their ways and courses, but at last meet and agree sweetly, and continue undivided till they come to this Mountain: They flow in great multitudes, as waters; and they run apace, as waters; and derive themselves freely, read • lie, naturally, as waters; in this only lies the wonder; that whereas waters by the instinct of nature stream along to the lower places, these should ascend, and mount up to a Hill.

A wonder indeed, did we not know that they are moved by another principle than that of nature; for Spir • tus Domini incubabat aquis; it is the Spirit of the Lord that moves upon these waters; and this carries them upward, whither by their own disposition they would never incline. Of a rebellious and stubb • rn, it makes them an obedient and yielding people; of sullen, ready and quick; of an obstinate, slow, and refractory, a joyful, a nimble, and a willing Nation; so that they no sooner hear, but they obey; they no sooner are called, but they come; no sooner are moved, but they move, and run together to this Mountain of the Lord.

And if they meet with any obstacle or impediment in their way, that would divert or damme up their course, (as they meet with many) they have this also of water, that they make a stand, and collect their force, till they rise to that height and strength, that they overflow the Were, and then run with more courage and expedition than they did before.

Instances I need not give, 'tis known with what joy the Apostles withstood the Jews; the Martyrs their Persecutors; the Nations came flowing to this Mountain, though they knew of the Banks and Mounts cast up to hinder them. By the power of the Spirit there given, they were assured to be more than Conquerors; and this moved them thus readily, nimbly, willingly to flow together.

And thus it was foretold, Populus tuus Spontaneus, Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. In other worldly Kingdoms much is done by force, much for fear; as they are gotten by the Sword, so they are ordered, and kept by the Sword; and the Subjects are obedient out of constraint, seldom out of good will, submit and act with eye-service, not from the heart; in hypocrisy, but not in sincerity. But in this Kingdom it is otherwise; for Chr st hath a people collected not by the Sword, but by his Word and Spirit; therefore they no sooner hear of him, but they obey, freely without coaction; cheerfully, without compulsion; sincerely, without dissimulation; contentedly, without murmur or sullenness; for it is no by-end, covetous, ambitious desire, or hope of reward that moves them to it; but mere love, and their own choice: This, this is it that makes them flow together to this Mountain.

In other Kingdoms that of Thucydides is too true, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the present Government is always grievous; but in this jugum • uave, the yoke is sweet, and the burden light; and his people yield their necks to draw in it, and their shoulders to bear with great alacrity; weariness they find none, tediousness they find none under this yoke or burden.

Neither is it thus alone with this people in their actions, but in their passions also; they are as ready to kiss the Rod, as the golden Scepter; to bow to his hand plectenti, smiting them, as amplectenti, embracing them; they know it is the Lord, their Lord's hand that is upon them; the Lord that brings evil upon the City, and therefore they fume and fret not against him, nor go about to shake off his Government, but yield themselves to his will and wisdom. It is the Lord, let him do with me as seems good in his eyes.

Now this is a Note that would not be slightly considered; for there is not a greater evidence to the conscience, that a man is a true member of Christ's mystical body; nor a stronger Argument of a religious sincerity, than that those duties which a man performs to God, proceed from a willing, free, and cheerful heart. Every man's own conscience can be his witness, whether he comes to God's Mountain, or rather with what heart he comes; for of the first the eye of man may judge, but of the last the judgment must come from within. So that when a man's own soul assures him, that he praiseth G • d with joyful lips, he hath that which David prayed for, principalem Spiritum, God's chief principal free Spirit.

Before this penitent King had beg'd of God a right spirit, and a constant spirit, that he might be renewed and confirmed in grace; and a sanctifying spirit, that he might be enflamed to the performance of such actions as were agreeable with the Law of God; but this satisfied him not, till he came to have this principal spirit, which might so guide him in his counsels, actions, troubles, that he might freely and voluntarily obey his God, and never murmur against his Will and Providence.

This, this is truly the spirit of the Gospel, that makes men to be willing and obedient. Patience saith So it must be, because I cannot help it, and is therefore swayed by fear: A good will saith, So it is expedient, for it is moved by hope: But love which is enflamed by this principal spirit, saith neither sic oportet, nec sic expedit; it neither must be so, nor it is expedient it be so; but So I will have it, so I desire it should be done, because God hath so ordained it. My soul shall be filled as it were with marrow and fatness, when my mouth praiseth thee with joyful lips; even in that worship that ariseth from the spirit of the Law, and carnal justice, there is much reluctancy, much muttering, much rebellion, and backwardness against that which a man doth: For the sense of the flesh is enmity against God. The action is indeed done, but it is not kindly done, even then the flesh would fain have it otherwise: Upon the command to part with all, the young man in the Gospel went away heavy; and another called upon to follow Christ, would fain have it delayed, till he might bury his father: Whereas a man endued with this principal spirit, answers so soon as God calls, with Zacchaeus, Come down quickly, and freely parts with all; with Abraham, rejoiceth to see Christ's day; and no sooner is quick, as John in his Mothers womb, but 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , he leaps, and exults to hear of salutation from his Lord.

Now how contrary are all other motions in those who would be held to be, but are not truly religious to this! A certain artificial thing there is in Religion, called hypocrisy, which by certain gins and pins, (as in Clocks and Jacks) makes many motions; it is easy to discover them from the principle whence they arise, and from the end; the principle sometimes is fear; loath they are to incur displeasure, and that which will follow upon it, punishment: This make a Pharisee of fear, this causeth the statutes of Omri to be kept; the rod of God or man keeps the hypocrite in awe: As for the end, that is diverse; it may be Demetrius 's end to get a living; or Nimrod 's end to get a Name; or the Pharisees, to be seen of men; or Simeon and Levi 's end to be revenged. Many men serve God, to serve their own turn; How often are private respects covered over with the Cloak of a public good? Let malice intend the ruin of him she hates; let ambition aim at greatness and glory; let covetousness present some wedge of gold, or Babylonish Garment, commonly the pretence is a public good, greater l • berty to a people, more freedom of conscience: Thus the Church, the State shall be benefited by it, when indeed these godly people intend as much good to either, as Hamor did to the Shechemites, as the two Brethren did to Hamor.

However these ends move them to make a show of godliness, and because they are the Locusts in the Revelation, dant Locustarum saltus, they fetch the Locusts leap; they fetch a sudden spring, but presently they fall t the Earth: So these men will on a sudden rise to fast, and pray, and seek God; but return presently to smite with the fist of iniquity, and practice abominable uncleanness.

Behold the Israelites fetching the leap of the Grashoppers; when Moses had read to the people the book of the Covenant, they instantly answered, All that the Lord commands us, we will do. Here's a fair leap, a large promise; but incontinent, they made many shameful Apostasies, into Egypt they return in their hearts, they presently fall back to the Earth, and long for the Garlic and Oynions in Goshen; they murmur, they grudge, they dis • rust God. Thus it is with many Prof • ssours of the Gospel, religious they are by starts and fits; their goodness is like the morning dew, or like the seed that springs to the blade, but then withereth; they return with the Dog to the sin they vomited up, and with the Sow to the Mire they seemed to leave. Their motions in Religion are neither constant, nor uniform; and the reason is, because they are not ab intra, but ab extra; no natural, no kindly motions proceeding from this principal sp • rit of God; but from some outward motive or intention, as I but now said.

Such service as this, is but 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , away with it, it stinks in his Nostrils; for this Israel was cursed: All these curses shall be upon thee, and shall pursue thee, and overtake thee, &c. Because thou servedst not the Lord thy God with joyfulness and gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things: For God loves not that any duty be drawn from us, as verjuyce from a Crab, with much pumping, streining, and squeezing; nor that it be prop • er iram, for that's the servants motive; nor yet to serve an end, for so doth the Formalist. In the conscience he sits as Judge, considers what's done, and with what heart it is done; and when it comes freely and cheerfully from us, he will accept it, else 'tis as if we cut off a Dogs neck.

When then you have a mind to come to God's holy Mountain, be of the number of those people that are here likened to water, flow thither without compulsion, and perform your devotions with a ready and glad heart: For as God loves a cheerful Giver, so he loves a cheerful Worshipper; that the Tribute of honor we pay him, be offered with a willing mind. Thus did David and all Israel, They play • d before God with all their might and singing. Thus did the wise men at the sight of the star, They rejoiced with an exceeding great joy; and as God, so also David was pleased with it, that toward the building of the Temple, the P • inces, and the people brought their gifts, and offered them willingly; for these he takes notice of it, and repeats in one Chapter, and concludes thus: And now have I seen with • oy thy people that are present here to offer willingly unto thee. This is the fat of the Sacrifice, keep back that, and keep your Offering also; for God never re • ards q • id, what is your Offer; but quo animo, with what affection it is offered; that his Will be the Center from which, and his Glory the Circumference to which all our service is to be drawn, with which if the heart be dilate • and pleased in the tender of it, the Almighty will be pleased, accept, and reward it. Domine, Spiritus tuus voluntarius confirmet me; with which Petition I close this point, and come to the next.

2. Come ye, and let us go up to the Mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob.

The first property of God's people ye have heard, their delight, their content, their readiness, and alacrity they took to serve God. The next is their zeal, love, and charity to others. Alone they would not go, but they would take along with them all they could. To this end is their call, Come, l • t us ascend.

Their love to God was great, evident it is by their ready and cheerful confluence. But this their piety had not extinguished their charity to men; Nor indeed must it; for if a man love God, he will love his Neighbor also. In the things of the world men are allowed to be proprietaries; for many things there are which are so our own, that we need not call others to share with us. But in the things of God, one hath no more property than another; the price was paid for a •• ; of which he that hath his share, shall have never the less, though another partakes with him. And therefore it is a charitable and a pious deed to exhort, to call on, to incite others to take a part with us. And this mind you shall find to be in all good Christians, to draw as many to God as they possibly can. This desire was in Saint Paul, who thus wished for Agrippa and the whole company, I would to God, that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day, were not almost, but altogether such as I am, meaning Christians. This talk Christ lays upon Peter, And thou being converted, confirm thy brethren. This St. Paul presseth upon the Pastors of Galatia, If any man be fall • n, you which are spiritual restore such a man.

But because examples work far more powerfully than reasons, they content not themselves only with the bare call, but they press to have them along with them; glad they would be of their company. The more the merrier; the stronger their power to wrestle with God in their prayers, the more their Masters honor, the fuller his house is.

This is the cause that God's servants have called upon, and called up one another to the performance of pious duties. Come ye children to me, and I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Come let us go to the Seer. Come let us build the Wall. Come let us sing unto the Lord; come let us fall down, and worship, and kneel. Come let us return to the Lord. Come let us join ourselves to the Lord. To do any duty it is apparent they were loath without company; and therefore they, as it were, take others by the hand, and called to others to go along wi • h them. What should I say, that this zeal and affection was so fervent in the Woman of Samaria, who was scarce yet a Convert, that she invites her Neighbors to hear Christ? Come, saith she, and see the man, who hath taught me all things that ever I did.

Envy, especially in divine things, is odious to God; Communication, and Liberality, are grateful to him. What I have learned diligently, I do communicate liberally, and I do not hide the riches of Wisdom, saith Solomon. Were Wisdom given me, on that condition, that I should inclose her, and make a Monopoly of her, I would refuse it, said a wise man. I rejoice to learn, that I may teach; neither shall any knowledge delight, be it never so great, never so excellent, which I must possess alone. And this good mind hath been in God's servants, and to that end they make this motion, Come let us ascend.

Which is somewhat a strange motion if you mark it; for when men are ascending, they love no others to mount up with them. When James and John desired to ascend to the right and left hand, the rest of the College stomach'd it, and envied at them: For ambition is too proud to admit of a consort, It loves to live alone in • he earth.

But God's people are humble, and not proud; charitable, and not sullen and melancholy; loving, and not envious. Content they are not only to admit, but glad to take others in their company, and to that end they call, Come let us ascend. Come my Wife, come my Son, come my Kinsman, come my Servant, come my Neighbor, come all people, let us ascend to the Mountain of the Lord, to the House of the God of Jacob.

Good God, how far do the calls of the world and wicked men differ from this call! Come, saith one, let us make our father drink wine. Come let us slay our brother, Gen. 32.20. Come let us deal wisely, Exod. 1.10. Come thou and reign over us, Judges 9. Come and put your trust under my shadow, saith the Bramble. Come let us fight against Jerusalem. Come let us cut them off, that they may be no more a people, and take the houses of God in possession. Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us l • rk privily for the innocent without cause, &c. Come let us take our fill of Love. Come let us devise devices against Jeremy. Come let us smite hi • with the tongue. Come let us kill the heir, and seize his inheritance. Calls you find here, and calls for an association. But it was ab Ecclesia malignantium, by an Assembly of Malignants; you hear no motion made or combination for any good end, but to the clean contrary, the extremist evil.

Where's the charity of the first Christians? what's become of their zeal? into what Mountain hath it retired? or into what desert is it fled? Every whete a man may hear more than a good many crying and clamouring, Come let us drink, let us ki • l, let us steal, &c. Bu • the voice of him who will call to his Neighbor, Com • let us ascend to the Mountain of the Lord, is like the berry in the top of an Olive. What is this our progress we make in piety? this our zeal to increase Christ's Flock? this our study to enlarge his House? I cou d provoke you to anger with a foolish people, that compass sea and land to make a proselyte, whom yet they make twofold more a child of H • ll than themselves. But I spare you; this only I shall add, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 to shame you, that you do not oppose your Come to their Come; your ascendamus, to their descendamus. A shame it is, that the children of this world should be wiser than the childr • n of light; and get more company to their Mole-hill, than we to our Mountain; at least that in them there should be such a fury of zeal, and in us so much coldness.

Once more then I call upon you, that you call upon others; that you suffer not, whom you may warm and fire, to freeze in their wickedness, to freeze in their devotions, to freeze in their luke-warmness; but that first you heat yourselves, and then take others by the hand, and lead them along with you. That you say to all you can, Come let us ascend to the Mountain of the Lo • d. The benefit will recompense your labor; For he will teach you his ways, and you will walk in his path. He will be a good Master, and you shall be apt and good Scholars. He will direct, and you will obey.

2. But before I come to speak of that, take this Note moreover home with you, That the Church of God is but One. 'It is but one Mountain in the singular Number, and one House; and this House is the House of the God of Jacob. So that the Jews who were Jacob's seed, and the Gentiles who were graffed in, make up one Catholic Church, and are under one Pastor.

Now One the Church is said to be three ways especially.

1. Because it is from One beginning, which is the Holy Ghost, who as one soul quickens and moves all the members. There are diversities of graces, but one Spirit.

2. Next, in that it hath but One Head, which is Christ; under whom though there be divers guides, yet they ought to be taken as one Episcopacy and Office, compacted together by a sweet connection and coherence among themselves: Every Province acknowledging subjection and ordination to their own Primate, and he to Christ.

3. Lastly, In that it is but One Body, or One Society, participating the same means of salvation, which are the same Rule of Faith, the same Canon of Scriptures, the same Sacraments, the same rule of Prayer, the same rules of Obedience.

Cursed then be they who have made a Schism in this seamless Coat, of which those of Rome and the Sectaries are highly guilty. For if the fault must be laid upon him who hath given the cause, they cannot be excused; non fugimus, sed fugamur. Both are angry with they know not well what, and in their rage they have taken their staff and sword, and beaten us out of Doors.

As for us, resolved we are to continue in this Mountain, and save our souls. For as out of the Ark of Noah there was no safety from the flood; so out of this Mountain, i. e. the Catholic Church, there is no salvation to be hoped for: Out of this Mountain comes the Law: Out of this Mountain comes the Word of life; that Word without which, we should have perished in our trouble. In this Mountain we may learn how the creature is to be subject, acknowledge, and magnify its Creator. In this Mountain is the sound of that doctrine to be heard, than which there is not anymore certain to cheer up a sad and loaden conscience, and to se • tle in peace disquieted minds. Lastly, in this Mountain, as out of a Watch-Tower, there is hanged forth the light of Prophetical and Apostolical doctrine. To this Mountain we will ascend, being fully assured, that in this Mountain

3. He will teach us his Laws.

He Emphatically. He himself will in this his Mountain be the great Doctor of the Chair; ascend thither, and read a Lecture of his Law: So that all that belong to him, shall be 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 taught of God. This is a peculiar of the Gospel, and so the Apostle esteems it, and by it puts a manifest difference betwixt that and the Law, the Fathers, and we that live since. To them God spake 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , & 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , by piece-meal, and in divers fashions, and this was by the Prophets, by Visions, by Dreams, by Revelations, by Urim, by Thummim. But in novissimis diebus, this 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , this 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , was at an end. He speaks no more by his servants the Prophets, but he hath made his own Son the Teacher. He speaks, saith he, by his own Son. The Gospel then came not from men, nor by men, but was taught immediately from heaven.

His Son was a Teacher sent from God: The Angel of the Covenant: The Apostle of our Profession, Heb. 3.1. That Prophet. And he doth the Office of a Prophet, preacheth, teacheth, and instructs his people, perfectly revealing the Will of God about man's salvation. He taught upon what terms Blessedness was to be had, Redemption by his death and passion, Sanctification by his Spirit, Justification by his Blood, Reconciliation by his merits, and hope of life by his Resurrection: In a word, boldness to approach to the Throne of Grace by his Mediation and Intercession. And this was a great part of the Law, upon which he said he would preach, Psalm 2.7. and upo • which he did preach, taking his Text out of the Prophet Isaiah, Luke 4.18.

Besides, he taught, what was the full meaning of God in the Moral Law, purges it from divers corruptions, which the false glosses of the Pharisees had put upon it, and sets down an exact • r rule than ever any Law-giver thought of. Whence say these good people here, He shall teach us of his wa • e • .

And yet He, is not so to be taken, as if it were exclusive and of strength to sh • t out all other Teachers, for he hath in his School many undertakers, for to that end he ordained a Ministry to continue in his Church forever. Being as • ended up on high, he gave some to be Apostles, some Prophets, • om • Evangelists, some Pastors, some Teachers: And into their hands he hath given the Keys of the Kingdom of heav • n: and with them he hath promised to be to the end of the world, whom also we are commanded to hear, Luk • 16.29.

And yet you must know that it is ipse docebit. He shall teach for all this. Because they are taught of him what they teach you. The Law they teach is his, the Gospel they teach is his. His is the message, they only the Reporters and Messengers; and if any teach otherwise than he hath taught, let him be accursed.

Only there be two main differences betwixt ipse and • psi, him and all his under-teachers.

1. What he taught was in him super-eminently, habitually, actually, he was a treasury of all wisdom and knowledge. In him it was as light in the Sun: In them as light in the Air, subject to much obscurity. He was in the bosom of the Father, and knew all secrets, and could reveal; they no more, than he was pleased to reveal.

2. Then again he is able to put life into his words, and make them operative. He can make the dead to hear his voice. These people acknowledge so much: He will teach, and we will walk. But all that his Ambassadors can do, is but to declare his will and mind; they can effect nothing. Paul may plant, and Apo • loss may water, but it is God who must give the increase.

But there be that press these words, and the like Texts to a very ill purpose! A company of sick-brained men there are, who because • hey read here, He shall teach; and find a promise, They shall all be taught of God; and again, That the anointing which ye have •• ceived of him abideth in you, and ye need not any man should teach you, for the sam • anointing teacheth you of all things. Therefore they dream of an immediate teaching only; and now after Christ's coming they reject the whole external Mi • istry of the Word as superfluous, and rely merely upon Enthusiasms, and I know not on what Revelations.

These are of the number of those filthy Dream • rs of whom Saint Jude speaks, who wrest the Scripture to their destruction. And it is no hard matter to discover their error and madness. For who can conceive that it was the mind of Christ to teach all immediately by his Spirit, who himself ordained Apostles, Doctors, and Teachers, to inform the World? Why was it, that Saint Paul labor'd so diligently? Why did they whom he sent, go and preach to all Nations? Why was Titus left in Crete, Timoth • at Ephesus, with power to ordain Presbyters in every Church, if the mind of God had been to cashire at once the whole Ministry? Had God intended to have taught only by his own Spirit, he never certainly had sent forth his Apostles, they others, and given a charge to Timothy, and in him to all Bishops, that they lay hands suddenly on no man: And that this Commandment be kept until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Yea, but is it not here said, He will teach us? Yes; but that hinders not, but he may teach by his Ministers. No more, than in the days of the Prophets, he is said to have spoken, when it was yet the Prophet that spake. The words in their mouths are his, they only the voice that bring them to men's ears. And if the action of the instrument be to be refer'd to the prime Agent, what is done by them, is to be refer'd to him. He may be said to teach, when he teacheth by them.

But that I may remove all scruple, there is a double teaching: One Secundum intellectum, when a man is taught to know somewhat that he knew not before, though he never falls to practice what he knows; Now this information, no question, may be had from man: For a learned man, without doubt, may illuminate and inform the understanding. But another teaching there is, S • cundum affectum, when a man falls in love, is affected, and warmed to the heart with what he knows, and does the Lesson, that he learns; and this is a teaching that must be expected from God's Spirit alone; whence David prays, Teach me to do thy Will O Lord; Teach me the way of thy Statutes: Order my steps in thy Word. And that this is the teaching here meant, is evident, for they profess, He shall teach, and we will walk. This no man is able to do, but he who is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , taught of God. And his promise is, that all his shall be so taught. Not by force; not only by the illumination of the understanding, but by the motion of the will. To this purpose it is, that the Apostle alledgeth that place of Jermy, I will put my Laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts, &c. And they shall not teach every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for all shall know me from the least to the greatest.

For the Apostle speaks not here of a bare and naked knowledge, such as was in them, who when they knew God, glorified him not as God: Nor such as was in the Jews, who gloried and boasted of their deep knowledge of the Law. Nor yet of the knowledge of profound Mysteries, such as the Apostle spake among those who are perfect. But he speaks of that knowledge which is necessary to salvation, d • notitia vivâ, formatâ, affectiva, a lively, affective, working knowledge, by which God is so known, that the affection answers to our reason: God so known, that he is loved also; his Laws, that they be made choice of, and walkit in. Now he who comes to be such a Disciple, must have God for his Tutor and Teacher: For flesh and blood will never teach him any such Lesson. These promises then, They shall be all taught of God. And he shall teach. And they shall know me from the greatest to the least: do not belong to all men, no nor promiscuously to all Christians good and bad; but only to those who are sons of the promise; nor to these neither, as if they should have immediate illuminations and infusions of his Spirit; but that God only under the New Testament will give to his Children such a portion of his Spirit, of Grace, of Love, that they shall desire and delight to know, to love, to observe, and fulfill his Will.

As for that place of Saint John, But ye have an Unction, and need not that any man should teach you, &c. it so little makes for them, that being rightly understood, it makes expressly against them: For it is the intent of the Apostle, to give a Caveat to all good Christians, that they be not seduced by any Anti-Christian teachers, such as were then Cerinthus, Ebion, Simon Magus, &c. But that they continue in those things which they had learned from the Apostles; and why so? Because they had an Unction from the Holy One, verse. 20. And the anointing which you have received from him, abideth in you. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , He who did anoint, was the Father; 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the anoinied was Christ, called here the Holy One; The 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the Unction was the Holy Ghost, with all his gifts, especially that of the truth of R • l • gion, and this they had yet amongst them; and therefore he persuades, that they ab • d • in that which they had heard from the beginning; that is, from the beginning of their conversion, and the Gospel preached unto them. They need not turn away, and give ear to Ebion, Cerinthus, or any of that rabble, any new Teachers, any new Doctors; no need that any man, that is, any New Upstart Sectary, teach them: For they knew all things; that is, all the Truths of God necessary to salvation already. The Spirit who was 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the guide, had by the Apostles guided them into all Truth already; and as yet they had the same spiritual Unction among them. They had their B • shops, they had their Presbyters, by whose care and diligence their Churches were sufficiently instructed in all those things which do pertain to the Truth of Christian Doctrine. As yet • hey were not seduced by Heretics, but held fast what they had once been taught: And therefore they needed not a Teacher, as those who are Rude or Seduc'd. Rude and ignorant, that may learn, what they never knew: Seduced, that they may return to the Truth they had forsaken. But yet they were not absolute, and knew all things so well, but they might stand in need of a Teacher, by whose industry they might be retained in the Doctrine they had received, be fuller instructed in it, and be secured against all the errors and sophisms of false Teachers.

This is the genuine interpretation of these words, and the full scope of the Apostle; by which it is evident, that the collection of the Sectaries from hence, is strained, and absurd, viz. that the Holy Ghost doth so enlighten every Christian, that he needs no other Doctor, no external Ministry to teach him, that he knows all the mysteries and secrets of God. For the Unction mentioned here, belongs to the Catholic Church, and no farther to every particular man in this Church, than is necessary for his place and station in it, and to bring him to eternal life. When Sectaries by presuming upon, and confiding in the dictates of their private spirit, as these Impostors and Anti-christs here did, desert the Truth taught from the beginning by the Apostolical Church, they have lost their share of this Unction; and pretending to be the sole men of knowledge, they become the sons of pride and pitiful ignorance.

Were there not many other reasons to prove it, yet this one were enough, in that they are so much mistaken in the interpretation and application of these Texts. Had they the Unction they boast of, they would be better taught. This would teach them to be Scholars, before they take upon them to be Masters; and to sit down at Gamaliel's feet and learn, before they presume to teach Gamaliel. But what speak I of any one single Gamali • l? they would hear the whole Church, by whom God hath promised to teach, to which he hath promised the Spirit of Truth, to guide into all Truth, and not rely upon a private interpretation, which opposeth the scope and sense of the whole Scripture, and other Expositors. Omnes patres sic. It is overmuch pride then to say with the Lubber Abailardus, Ego non sic: And why so? Because Forsooth, if my sense be not heard, Ego must not be Ego; I must not be I per se I; I a gifted man must not be heard. The Church will take upon it to be the Interpreter, and God's voice to his people, and I, then poor I, whether shall I go? Whether? To the House from whence he came, as the devil returned into the man from which he was gone out. For such teachers may well be spared: The Spirit of Truth, which God hath promised and left in his Church, will be a flame of fire by night, and a pillar of a cloud by day, to teach us

4. His Ways. His Paths.

The ways of God are his Will, his Paths, his Commandments; and this way is simplex & multiplex, manifold; for there be many precepts, and yet but One; because they all meet in One way, which is Love. This is Uia regalis, his way; His signally; A way we have to, or rather ways of our own, but not like His. My ways, saith God, are not as your ways; Nothing like ours indeed; For ours are dark ways, and full of error; foul ways, and full of sin; devilish ways, and full of malice; broad ways, yet full of danger, and desperate ways that leads to destruction. But his ways are of another fashion as they are described to us; A certain way; he that follows it, shall not walk in darkness. A holy way, and a way of holiness, the unclean shall not pass through it. A plain way, the way-faring men, though fools, shall not err therein. A safe way, for there shall be no Lyon in it; I am sure not the roaring Lyon, for he hath nothing in Christ: Yea, and let men say what they will, it is a pleasant way; for the Redeemed pass through it with a Jubilee. This is the way which God hath promised to teach; and every good man desires to learn, not only that he may know it, but that he may go in it.

5. And we will walk in his Paths.

The end that any man comes to the Church of God, is, not only to learn his Will, but to frame his life, manners, and conversation by it. For he is the best Scholar, qui verba vertit in opera, and practiceth upon every Rule he learns. 'It is to no purpose that the Lesson still tink our ears, except the power be expressed in our lives. For as meat that is chew'd and taken down avails not, except it be concocted and turned into good blood: so we ought to know, that chirping and chewing of our Lesson will do us little good, except we convert the wholesome precepts into good manners. Vita consonet fidei dogmatis, & dogmata instituant vitam, Let the life be consonant to the Doctrines of our faith, and let those Doctrines have an influence upon the life. For though we keep close to the Doctrine, and way of truth, and neglect the way of Love and Charity, these Doctrines will do us very little good. For they are not the hearers of the Law shall be blessed, but the doers.

How many men have you of quick and great understanding, and that in this Doctrine too, which yet shall never be happy. Will the devils knowledge save him? Will the profound subtleties of Heretics and men of perverse minds bring them to Heaven? 'It is not the speculation of this doctrine that God regards; for those that have been taught, and know their Masters will, and do it not, shall be beaten with many stripes. It is the practical, experimental; affective knowledge, that sinks into the heart, and betters the man, that must make him happy. One saith well, that God's School is more upon affection, than understanding; for both Lessons do well; but for the first, the doctrine doth best, and is most necessary for this Age, in which there be many that pretend to knowledge, but I find little good-will. And he that hath much skill, and no affection, may do good to others by information of their ignorance, but little to himself. Since God is not used to cast away his love upon those, of whom he is known, and not loved. Of this point these good people were not ignorant; and therefore they profess, that after the God of Jacob had taught them of his ways, that then they would walk in his paths; in semitis, in the strictest, in the narrowest, in the least beaten of them.

To walk is an Hebraism, and it is a word much used by the Holy Ghost, being put in the Scripture for to begin a course of life, and to continue in it. Wicked men are said to walk, for they have their paths too, and their by-ways. They walk in the counsel of the ungodly, they walk in the lusts of the flesh, they walk in darkness: But good men give over these ways, their lives being of another fashion, They walk circumspectly, they look to their feet, and walk in the Law of God; they walk in the Spirit, they walk in the light, they go from strength to strength, till they app • ar before God in Zion.

Now walking imports two things, progredi, & perseverare, to proceed, and to continue; that which is any man's delight, and his constant course, that is said to be his Track, that his Walk. The undertaking then of these men sets us an example of a religious life, which w • are bound to prosecute with delight, and with constancy.

1. We are all but Travelers, to our Country we are not come, and then it is fit that we be going on; for standing still will never bring us to our journeys end: Walking every man knows, is motus prog • essivus, a progression in which the hinder foot removes, and overtakes, and out-steps the former. And in this way a progress there must be both in faith and in manners. In faith; for go we must from faith to faith; from one degree to another; from a weak, to a strong faith: And in manners; for we must go from virtue to virtue; or which is all one in the Apostles language, Walk in newness of l • fe.

What therefore God said to Elijah, A • ise and walk, for thou hast a great journey to go: That I say to every Christian, stand up on thy feet, and after stand not still, for the journey may be long, not finished, so long as thou hast a day to live. Requisite it is in a Traveler, that he loiter not, but proceed, never thinking how far he hath gone; but how far he hath to go, well knowing, that if he fail but of one or two steps, he shall never come to the place he expects; let no man then sing on Earth, Soul, take thy rest; fo • in heaven only are Mansions and resting pla • es. The graces of God must not only as flowers in a Garden be kept by us, but they must be succoured and cherished as it were, with fresh and fresh Earth, that they may improve. As Charles the Emperor took for his Mo • to, Ulterius; so should a good Christian take for his Superius, every day be taking a step on-ward and up-ward; every day learn a line, and be skillful in the Psalms of degrees; mount à temporalibus ad aeterna, à terrenis ad coelestia. Jacob's Ladder had its staves, upon which he saw not one Angel a • rest, all were in motion. This Ladder is Scala Coeli, in which a Christian by learning line after line, and precept after precept, here a little, and there a little, here a little, and there a little, will run on still in the Race, till he comes to the mark, the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

And because we are but Travelers, of Travelers we may learn many necessary things to help us forward in this our journey. First, Travelers be • ng ignorant of the way inquire the nearest and the straitest, and so must we. If we ask for the nearest, it is Christ's merits; therefore the Apostle directs us to walk in him. If for the straitest, it is the Law of God, which is the w • y • f holin • ss, and of obedience. Then Travelers in dangerous and unknown way • s seek a Guide: In our way, two there are which will offer themselves; a false and deceiving Guide, the Flesh; beware, follow it not; a true one, which is the Spirit, walk after it, He will teach us of his ways. Travelers again content themselves with unnecessary Viands, and exonerate themselves of all superfluous and unnecessary things. The cares of this World, Riches, Vices, Pleasures must be left behind, and provision made of such things especially which we cannot want in our journey. Farther, yet Travelers inquire for good company; Abraham took Lot along with him, a good and a godly man; and so must he place his delight with David, upon the Saints that dwell on the Earth, and on such as excel in virtue: For by enquiring of Saints which know the way, he shall grow the perfecter in this Saint-like way; and by conversing with those that excel in virtue, he will be the more skillful in the practic • of virtue: This from Drunkards, Swearers, Perjurers, Adulterers, Liars, &c. will never be learned. To go a step farther, Travelers if they hear of any danger in the way, provide themselves of Arms: In the way, we shall be sure to meet with the Devil, a Lyon, a Thief; Arm thyself then with the Sword of the Spirit, and above all, be sure to carry Faith along with thee; this will be an offensive weapon, by which if thou resist him, he will fly; this is a defensive weapon; for it is a Target and a Shield; nay, 'tis a Staff too; and an old or weak man will seldom go without his Staff; when Peter was fainting, and failing, it was this Staff of Faith that kept him up; it is good therefore that the heart, in this our way, be established by Faith. Lastly, when Travelers are to go a long way, they carry with them Cordials, and hot Waters. In this our way, Christ is the best Cordial, his merits the most comfortable Refection; be sure then you take him along with you, and the warm tears of Repentance will be instead of Aqua vitae, the best water to recover your fainting spirits; against which, these are most excellent Antidotes, none to these, none can keep you from fainting but these; were it not for these, we should all faint by the way, of which great care ought to be taken; because if we faint by the way, we shall fail of our end; the promise being, that in Due Time we shall reap if we faint not: You may remember that I told you, walking, puts us in mind of two things, Motum, & Progressionem, going on, and proceeding in the way, and perseverance, and constancy, which is the next point.

2. As a good man goes on his way with content, so he doth it with much patience and constancy; for he gives not over till he comes to his journeys end: He certainly is never said to walk in any way, who after some steps, is weary of his purpose, turns back, or sits down; a Walk is a path smooth'd and chosen for continual use: So can he never be said to walk in good works, in newness of life, in the way of holiness, who begins a good work, and leaves it so soon as it is begun: It is then the purpose of God, that we do not only begin, and for a time with joy proceed, but that we walk constantly in the study of a holy life all our days. The command to Abraham, was, Walk before me, and be thou perfect. Walk is the Act, Perfection is the Scope, the End; now perfection in anything will never be attained without continual practice and exercise.

Divers Reasons there are to move men to continue in the way, and walk forward; among which, these are some, and I shall only name them; as,

1. It is a disgrace, and scandal not to do it; 'tis not unknown what was said in the Gospel of the foolish Builder; all men that saw his undertakings and his performances, jeered at him, This man began to build. Lots Wife, the names of Demas, Judas, Julian, with infinite that wens in this way, and left it, are set up in the Church-book, as so many stones in the Highway, for Travelers to look upon with pity and fear; to this day their names are infamous, their failings notorious, their end desperate.

2. But be it that infamy moves not, though it will move any generous spirit, there is a worse matter in it yet: He that walks on well at first, and aft r looks back, is not 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , not fit for the Kingdom • f God; a miserable case this, that he should have no aptness or fitness to it: Now where there is no aptness or inclination, there the habit is never attained; to which there is no such remora, as is desuetude and disuse. Aristotle disputing de jucundis, teacheth us, That those things are pleasant to us, which are done according to nature, or that which is next to it, such things to which we are accustomed: For he conceives that there was no other difference betwixt nature and custom, but semper & plerum{que}; for that which is wrought by the power of nature, is perpetual, and always the same; that which is done by use and custom, is commonly the same; and therefore he gives his Scholars this wise counsel, to choose the walk of goodness even from their youth, which though it seems at first hard and difficult, will by use become very pleasant and delightful. We ought then to take heed, lest by turning out of the way, we grow out of love of the way, which when it fall • s out, 'twill be a very difficult thing to reclaim a lapsed Christian.

3. Lastly, The want of one step more, may make void all that went before. Per • unt praeterita, si quae coeperunt desinunt ess • p • rfecta: What labor is formerly taken in the way, is all lost, except that wh • ch is undertaken, be perfected. It is wittily observed by Bernard, That all the Christi n virtues run together in the Race; but not one of them is crowned, which is not attended by constancy; she sets the Garland upon the head of Faith, Hope, and Charity; she crowns our Repentance and Holiness: Be it that a man be endued with all these graces in the way, the inconstancy of one hour will make void the work of many years: The righteousness of the Back-slider shall not be remembered. That which God had to say against the Church of Ephesus, is, That she had left her first love.

Ambrose observes, That God in the beginning commended all his Works, that they were good, very good. All, except man; for he was prius probandus, quam laudandus; his perseverance to be tried, and then to be commended; of which, because he failed, he brought upon himself and the Earth, a Curse.

What then was spoken to L • t, and his Wife, suppose it spoken to thee: Look not behind thee, nor tarry in the Plain; being come out of S • dom, look no more back to it, stay not loitering, and passionately lamenting after it. Not a man of Israel that returned back to Egypt in their heart, ever set footing in the Land of Canaan: Patience and perseverance are fellow-partners in God's Harvest; and though the former bears all the burden, yet the latter only receives the blessing. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day; and the Apostle had great Reason to be confident upon it, because our Savior promiseth a Table in heaven; not to those who heard, nor those who followed; but to those who continued with him in his temptations.

Walk therefore strait on, turn not to the right hand, nor to the left; desist not, but go on; proceed from virtue to virtue, from grace to grace; circle every pious and devout action with constancy, and you shall be blessed, you shall be crowned; and carry this home with you, That there is nothing fit to be rewarded with Eternity, but Eternity.

1. Out of Zion, from Jerusalem.

Zion was first a Fort of the Jebusites, which David took from them, and therein erected a strong hold, and Solomon after built the Temple; so that it was both Sedes Regni & Sacrarii, as is evident by David's words, He, i. e. God refused the Tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not the Tribe of Ephraim; but chose the Tribe of Judah, the Mount Zion, which he loved, and there he built his Sanctuary, &c. Jerusalem was the City of God, and Zion was within the Walls; both are a type of the Church of Christ. And the Church is then likest to flourish, when the Word of the Lord comes out of Salem, the City of peace, and is guarded by Zion, a Watch-tower, on whose Forts the Prophets stand upon their Watch, and show quae sequenda, quae fugienda, What to fly, and what to follow.

These words of our Prophet were first true in the letter; for no Jew can deny that the Apostles were bound to stay at Jerusalem, till they had received power from on high to execute their Commission, Go and teach all Nations. There first they were to begin; there to preach Repentance, and Remission of sin; to be witnesses of Christ's Resurrection: First in Jerus • lem, then in all Judea, after in Samaria; and lastly, to the uttermost parts • f the Earth. This was the order which they were to observe in the publication of the Gospel, from which they varied not a hairs breath, as is evide it in the story of their Acts, written by St. Luke.

Upon Zion it was that Christ was to be set a King; there the Scepter, the Rod of power was to be put into his hand: And in that place he first executed this his power, to which many of the Jews stooped, and readily did him homage. So fu • lie even to the very letter is this of our Prophet fulfilled, Out of Zion sh • ll come forth a Law, and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

Veritas non quaerit Angulos; Truth seeks no Corners, it peeps not out of some obscure Hole, or close Conventicle; such dark recesses are fit for Error that is ashamed, before it hath got power to show its head; for it is a work of darkness, and loves to work in some dark back room; closely and secretly the whole practice must be carried, that it may steal into, and steal the heart of the simple unseen: Whereas Truth is as bold as a Lyon, it fears no face, it fears no Sun; it enters even the Metropolis of Judea, and will be first proclaimed in Zion. Here it was, that Christ was Unctus in Regem, Anointed or King; Here it was, where he would die and rise. Here it was, that he would send down the Holy Ghost; yea, and at the Feast of Pentecost, when there was the greatest concourse of people, that the work of man's Redemption, and the Apostles Commission to publish it, might be openly known; for indeed so great matters were not fit to be obscurely carried, stoll'n as it were, and done in a corner.

That Objection then of Celsus the Heathen against the Christian Religion, was ridiculous. If (saith he) your God intended this way you speak of, to deliver man from misery, Quid ita in unum Angulum misit istum, quem jactatis, Spiritum? Why did he send this Spirit, which you boast of, into one Corner? But what now is Zion become a Corner? Is Jerusalem, which was the glory of the whole Earth, a little Angle? Either sure the man wanted matter to object, or else was very ignorant, that could put no distinction betwixt Jerusalem, and a Corner: For here it was these things were done, and here they were fittest to be done; in such a place, to such a people; to whom all that was to be done, was foretold by the Prophets; that so, when what they expected, came to pass, they might the easilier be persuaded to believe; this is in effect the answer given by Origen to that virulent Caviler; and it is so true, and so full, that there needs no more to be added to it.

2. I leave then the letter, and come to the mystery; Zion and Jerusalem are confessed to be Types of the Catholic Church. In this Christ reigns as a King, and consequently having in his hands a Legislative power, he hath enacted Laws; for he commanded the Decalogue to be observed, he confirmed, explained, and perfected this Law; he decreed new Laws to be observed, so long as his Kingdom should continue; showed upon what conditions salvation was to be had; instituted new Sacraments; gave the power of the Keys; appointed Officers under him to use them; so that the exercise of the whole Church Law is in Zion, and the power to execute it, proceeds merely from him, which is King in Zion, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

3. And that we may take the better notice of it, and the more readily obey it; that which in the first Clause of this Verse, is called a Law, is the last Verbum Domini, the Woe • d of the Lord: The Gospel then came not from man, nor by man. Many Law-givers, that they might obtain the greater regard, and veneration to their Laws, were wont to tell the people that they received them from some God or other. Mynias, the Law-giver of the Egyptians, gave out, that he was taught his Laws from Mercury. Minos, of the Cretans, from Jupiter. Lycurgus, of the Lacedemonians, from Apollo. Solon of the Athenians, by Minerva; Zamolxis, of the Getes, by Vesta. Numa Pompilius, of the Romans, by Egena. All these were but Fictions; yet well it was, that they all agreed in this, that there was no Law so binding among men, as that which hath Divinity stamped upon it; and indeed all human Laws can call for obedience no farther than they are consonant to the Divine; this may, and doth; obedience it exacts in all things; for it is the Word of the Lord, that Lord which had absolute power to command.

And there is great Reason we yield him this power, this right, and title of a Law-giver; for else he having planted a Common-wealth, and Church; and if he had not had power to bind them by Law and Conscience to his Ordinances, his Subjects might refuse to obey; and so he had been inferior to other Princes, and more disorders and confusions be brought into his Church, than into any other Kingdom or Common-wealth; to prevent which, he hath left a Law in Zion, by which he will have his people governed; and that there be the greater Authority and Dignity in it, and the more awfulness and obedience in us unto it, every syllable in it, is Uerbum Domini; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. He will teach, say these people, and he hath taught us his ways.

In the Jewish polity he left them not without a Law; but that came from Mount Sinai, to which none but Moses and Aaron might ascend; but this out of Mount Zion, to which all Nations might have access; that Law gend • reth to bondage, it wrought an affection of fear, it begot only servants to God; but this Law from Zion, is the Law of liberty, it works an affection of love, and brings forth sons: That Law being not performed, left a man under the wrath of God, horror of conscience, guilt of sin and hell. This offers more grace, for being not punctually observed, but endeavored, and lamented, when broken, frees the penitent Offender from condemnation and punishment. Moses hands were heavy, and Magisterially commanded, Do this, and live; but Christ's yoke is easier by far, Believe, and live; Moses laid upon us his Law, and afforded no help; but Christ's with his Law, gives us of his Spirit, that we may serve him without fear. In Moses Law we hear of no pardon; in this of Christ's, Remission of sin. Blessed then be the day, when this Law came out of Mount Zion, since without it we had been in a most miserable condition, cast away and lost every mothers son of us; but now Jerusalem, which is above, is the Mother of us all: Jerusalem is a Type of the Catholic Church, of which in the Creed there be three Properties, and three Prerogatives. Her properties are holy, Catholic, knit in a Communion: Her Prerogatives are forgiveness of sin, resurrection of the body, life everlasting. The word above in St. Paul doth intimate she is holy; Jerusalem, and Mother, that she is knit in a Communion; in that she is mother of us all, it shows her to be Catholic; in that a free-woman, and her children heirs, implies forgiveness of sins, resurrection of the body, and life everlasting.

[Use 1] 1. But what tell you us of Law? say some Novelists. We live under the Gospel, and is it possible the Gospel should have any Law-points in it? At the very name of the Law they look thus strangely, and are offended with those who preach it. They forsooth are not under the Law, but under Grace; they are led by the Spirit; and where th • Spirit of God is, there is liberty; and being called to liberty, under the Law they are not. Thus, as A • onijah, though guilty of Treason against Solomon, yet as if he had been very religious, fled to the Horns of the Altar; so do these Antimonians, who have Gospel'd it so long, till they have evacuated the whole Christian law; though they conspire against the Truth, yet fly to the Truth of the Gospel, for protection of their Villany; besetting their Foxes Head with these precious Pearls.

The Christian is not indeed under the Law, that is, so under it that he expects Justification by it, that must be had by grace offered in the Gospel; What then? Is he not under it, to obey it? God forbid, saith the Apostle. A Christian is led by the Spirit, taught by the Spirit, to do his whole duty as a son by love, not as a slave fo • fear; and consequently not under the terror and penalty of the Law; but wi • l • t hence follow, that he is not under it to observe and keep it? A Christ an is called to liberty; is a free-man, liber quod liberatus free, because freed by Christ, freed from the dominion of sin, freed from the condemnation of the Law; will it fol ow thereof • re, that he is freed from the Obligation? because he is freed fr • m the penal part of the L • w, that therefore he is freed from the directive? that he may live as he list, and perform no obedience to God or man? From Hell this opinion first came, and thither let it return, which hath been the bane of all good works, the corruption of manners, the mother of Rebellion and Disobedience, and the eternal shame of Christianity.

The Apostle was impatient to hear of such a thought, and therefore he doth abominate the very conceit; What, saith he, though I have proved, that man cannot be justified by the Law? do we therefore make void the Law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the Law. And this was consonant to the Commission our Savior gave his Disciples, when he sent them to preach, Go and preach the Gospel to all Nations, teaching them to observe the things that I have commanded you. Lo here is Commandments to be preached, and here is observing required. So the Gospel consists not only of certain Articles to be believed, but of certain commands also to be observed.

The Ceremonial Law is abrogated and vanished; for it was a shadow only of good things to come; and the substance of all those Sacrifices and Rites being exhibited, 'twere to no purpose to retain it. From this Law we are free, and to require it, is in effect to affirm, that the Messiah is not come. Against those who pressed the necessary observatio • of it under the Gospel, Sain • Paul be • ds his forces in the Epistle to the Galatians: This is the liberty he principally means.

The Judicials, as they contain certain principals which agree with the Law of Nature, so they may be taken up again by any Nation if they please, but are not of necessity to be required.

But the Moral Law, is that Law of Nature expressed and written by the finger of God in • he two Tables of Stone, that teacheth what is to be done, what left undone by all men. This requires absolute, entire, eterna • obedience. This is a part of the Gospel, that Law which came out of Zion, and it must be declared. This is • b • ogated and done away so far, that the breach thereof sh • ll not be • ble to condemn any man that is in Christ. But if any man • udge that he is not bound to observe it, and keep it, he is a deceiver, and is dece • v'd; he is no better than an Anti-christ. For the words of Christ are y • t extant, If thou wilt enter into life, keep the Commandments. And, that we be not to seek what Commandments he means, they are extant in that place. And again, Th • Son of man came not to d • stroy the Law, but 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , to fill it up. And adds, Verily I say unto you, till heaven and • arth pass, one • ot and one tittle shall in no wise pass from the Law, till all be fulfill d; and after in the same Chapter interprets the Law, and imposeth it upon the hearts of all his in this solemn form, Amen, ego dico, Verily I say un • o you.

This is the rule of our lives. This is the rule of all justice. This shows us our miserable condition. It accuseth. It wounds and mortifieth. It shames, and makes sad. It excites to obedience. And therefore the sound of the Law ought still to come out of Zion. The Covenant for salvation runs thus, That being saved, we serve; and that can never be, except the Law be preached. Sick souls men have, and healed they will never be without repentance; and repent they cannot, till they be convicted for sinners; and what so proper to convict men as the Law? The good Samaritan, that cured the wounded man, poured in wine and oil; wine to search, and oil to heal. Both these must be used in the recovery of a sinner. Oil only, the oil of the Gospel, will heal and skin too fast; corrupt and dead flesh there is, and the wine, the sharp wine of the Law, much search and eat out that, or else there never will be a perfect cure. It is a great madness for men to conceive, that the Gospel is only Lex fidei, the Law of Faith; there is in it Lex factorum, the Law of Works also; and though these may not be heard to speak in the Court of Justification, yet in the Court of Sanctification they bear a great sway, and the Plea there admitted being brought into the Court of Justice, shall be heard; and be so powerful, that no man shall be acquitted before he bring with him this Testimonial of his Holiness and Saint-ship. Do we then make void the Law? or the works that the Law requires? God forbid that any man should think so, or say so. Let then the sick-brain Antinomian run his Wildgoose chase, let the foul-mouthed Campian and Kellison say their pleasure, Calvin and Luther, and the Reformed Churches acknowledge Christ the Lord our Law-giver, and enjoin, and will endeavor to keep the Law that came out of Zion as strictly as any Romanist.

[Use 2] 2. But when we preach the Law, may we read out of it what Lectures we please? Not so neither: For we must remember the Law that we are to preach on, is, Verbum Domini here, The Word of the Lord. And therefore we must keep ourselves to the words of our Commission, I have not spoken of myself, saith our Savior; he which sent me, he gave me a Commandment what I should say, and what I should speak; whatsoever therefore I speak, even as the Father said to me so I speak.