Works

THE FIRST TREATISE FOR AN AFFLICTED CONSCIENCE UPON THIS SCRIPTVRE.

T His Scripture is not only worthy to be graven in steel with the pen of an Adamāt, & to be writ̄ in letters of gold: but also to be laid up and registered by the finger of God's spirit in the tables of our hearts. Which sentence briefly speaketh thus much unto us, that what trouble befaleth a man (his mind being vnappalled) he will indifferently bear it out: but if the spirit of a man be once troubled and dismayed, he cannot tell how to be delivered. And no marvel: for if the mind of man be the fountain of consolation, which ministereth comfort unto him in all other troubles; if that become comfortless, what shall comfort it? If it be void of help, how shall it be holpen? If the eye which is the light of the body be darkness, how great is that darkness? If the salt which savoreth all things be unsavory, for what is it good? If the mind which sustaineth all troubles be troubled, how intolerable is that trouble? To show this the better, I will first declare how great a punishment of God this wound of conscience is. Secondly, I will teach how this trouble of mind may be prevented and avoided. Lastly, I will set down how God's children falling in some measure into this affliction of spirit, may be recovered out of it.

For the first, the grievousness of this malady is seen, either by some due consideration of the persons that have felt it, or by some wise comparison made between this grief of mind, and other outward griefs incident unto man.

The persons in whom we may consider this wound of spirit, are either merely natural men, or such as be renewed by the spirit of God. The men merely natural, are either the Heathen, such as never knew God in Christ, or carnal professors, such as have not professed Christianity aright. If we look among the Heathen, how many of them have willingly gone under all poverty, & have been content to vnburthen themselves of all worldly treasures? How some of them (whilst their minds were not dejected) have suffered imprisonment, exile, & extreme tortures of body, rather then they would betray their countries? How many of them have devoured many injuries, and borne outward troubles, with some ease, and with no resistance, whilst their minds were at liberty? And yet look not into the meanest, but the best and most excellent men among them, even their wise Philosophers, sweet Orators, and exquisite Poets, who in bearing and forbearing, thought the chiefest point of virtue to consist; and ye shall see when once some great distress of mind did wound them, some would make an end of it by preparing a cup of deadly poison: some would violently and voluntarily run on the enemies pikes: some would throw down themselves from high Mountains: some would not stick to stab most monstrously their own bodies with daggers, or such like instruments of death: all which men would seem to have great courage in sustaining man • e harms, so long as their minds were not over-mastered. But when the divine and supreme Essence (which they acknowledged to be God) did by his power cross and overturn their witty deu • ses and head-stron • attempts, so as without hope of remedy they were hampered in pensiuenesse and sorrow of mind: Then not being • ble to turn themselves under so he • ie a burden shrunk down, and by violent death would •• d themselves of that disquietness and impatience of their troubled minds.

But let us come nearer; and whether we behold the Papists, or the Family of Love, or the common •• rt of Christians, we shall see they will pass quietly through many afflictions, whether for that they have a spirit of slum bring and nu •• ess • cast upon them, or whether because they have brawned themselves through some senseless blockishness, as men hewn ou • of hard O • kes, or graven out of marble stones • know not: But yet when the Lord shall let loose the co • rd of their consciences, and sh • ll set before their faces their sins committed; see what fearful e • des they have, whilst some of them by hanging themselves, some by casting thenselves into the water▪ some by cutting their own throats, have rid themselves out of these intolerable gr • s. Now wherein is the difference that some die so senselessly, and some dispatch themselves so violen • lie? Surely the one feeling no sin, depart like brutish Swine; the other surcharged with sin, die like harking dogs.

But let us come to the children of God, who have in some degree felt this wound of mind; and it will appear both in the members and in the head, of all burdens to be a thing most intolerable, to sustain a wounded conscience. And to beg ••• e, let us set in the first rank I • b, that man of God commended unto us by the hol •• Ghost, for a mirror of patience: who although for h • s riches he was the wealthiest man in the land of H • z; for his authority, might have made afraid a great multitude; and for his substance, was the greatest of all the men in the East: yet when the S • be • ns came violently and took away his Catt • ll; when the fire of God falling from heaven, burnt up his sheep and his Servants: when the Chaldee • ns had taken away his Camels, when a great wind smo • e down his house upon his children, although indeed he rent his garments, which was not so much for impatiency, as to show that he was not senseless in these evils: yet it is said that he worshipping, blessed the Name of the Lord, saying: N • ked came I out of my mothers womb and ••• ed shall I return again: The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away, blessed • ee the Name of the Lord. But behold, when at the strange conference of his comfortless friends, his mind began to be agast, which was not so in all his former trial; when his conscience began to be troubled, when he saw the Lord fasten in him sharp arrows, and to set him up as a B •• te to shoot at; when he thought God caused him to possess the sins of his youth: this glorious pattern of patience could not bear his grief; he was heavy, and now • ani • commend the image of a wounded spirit, to all that come after. David, a man chosen according to the Lord's own heart: Eze ••• h, a pure worshipper of God, and careful restoret of true religion: Jeremiah, the Prophet of the Lord, sanctified and ordained to that office, before he was formed in his mothers womb, were rate and singular in the graces and favor of God: yet when they sel • this wound, piercing them with gri • fe of heart, they were as Sparrowes mourning, as Cranes chattering, as Pellicans casting out fearful cries, they thought themselves as in the g • aue, they wished to have dwelt solitary, they were as bottles parched in the smoke, they were as Doves mourning, not able without sighs and groans to utter their words, their harts clave to the dust, and their tongues to the roo • e of their mouths.

But above all, (if these were not sufficient to persuade us in this doctrine) there remaineth one example, whom we affirm to be the perfect anatomie of an afflicted mind. This is the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the image of the Father, the head of the body, the mirror-of all graces, the wisdom, righteousness, holiness, and redemption of all the Saints, who sustained the cross even from his youth upward: and besides poverty, baseness, hunger, did willingly go under the great trouble of contempt and reproach, and that among them, where he should have had a right deserved honor, in respect of the doctrine he taught them, & in regard of the manifold miracles he wrought among them; as the healing of the sick, the giving of sight to the blind, the restoring of life to the dead: this unkindness nevertheless did not so much strike into him. But at what time he was set as a sacrifice for all, when he was to bear our infirmities, and carry our sorrows, at what time he was plagued and smitten of God, humbled and wounded for our transgressions, when he should be broken for our iniquities, and the chastisement of our peace was upon him; then he cried out, My soul is heavy even unto the death: Then he prayeth, Lord if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. But how prayeth he? even with sweating: how sweateth h • ? even drops of blood: How long prayeth he? three times: When ends his agony? not until he was dead: What said he being ready to depart? My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Was this for his human death, as some have imagined? No, no, wicked men have died without complaint, whose patience then might seem to exceed his; it was his suffering in his human spirit, which encountered with the wrath of God, his God-head suppressing it self for a while: he suffered indeed many torments in body, but much more heavily did the wrath of God lie upon his soul.

If this consideration of an afflicted spirit in these examples do not sufficiently show, what a grievous thing it is to sustain a wounded conscience: let us proceed to the comparing of this with other evils which fall into the nature of man. There is no sickness, but Physic provideth for it a remedy; there is no sore, but Chirurgerie will afford it a salve; friendship helpeth poverty; there is no imprisonment, but there is hope of liberty; Suite and favor recover a man from banishment: authority and time wear away reproach. But what Physic cureth? what Chirurgerie salueth? what riches ransometh what countenance beareth out? what authority asswageth? what favor relieueth a troubled conscience? all these banded together in league (though they would conspire a confederacy) cannot help this one distress of a troubled mind: and yet this one comfort of a quiet mind doth wonderfully cure, and comfortably asswage all other griefs whatsoever. For if our assistance were as an host of armed soldiers; if our friends were the Princes and the Governors of the earth; • f our possessions were as large as between the East and the West; if our meat were as Manna from heaven; if our apparel were as costly as the Ephod of Aaron; if every day were as glorious as the day of Christ's resurrection: yet if our minds be appalled with the judgments of God, these things would little comfort us. Let experience speak: If a troubled mind impaireth not health, drieth not up the blood, wasteth not the marrow, pineth not away the flesh, consumeth not the bones, if it maketh not all pleasures painful, and shortneth not this life: sure no wisdom can counsel it, no counsel can advise it, no advice can asswage it, no asswagement can cure it, no eloquence can persuade it, no power can overcome it, no scepter will affray it, no enchanter can harm it. And yet on the contrary, if a man languish in sickness, so his heart be whole, and is persuaded of the health of his soul, his sickness doth not grieve him: If a man be reproached, so he be precious in the sight of God and his Angels, what loss hath he? If a man be banished, and yet doubteth not that heaven is his country, and that he is a cittizen among the Saints, it doth not appall him: If a man be in trouble, and findeth peace of conscience, he will quietly digest his trouble. But if the mind be troubled, who dare meet with the wrath of the Lord of hosts? who can put to silence the voice of desperation? who will step out and make agreement with the helles to spare us? who dare make a covenant with the devil, that he would lay no claim unto us? if then a good conscience helpeth all evils, and all other benefits in this life, in themselves cannot help a troubled conscience; we see it true in proof, which here is in proverb, The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity: but a wounded spirit who can bear it?

Again, in all other afflictions we may have some comfort against sin; this is ever accompanied with the accusation of sin. A man may be sick, reproached, impoverished, imprisoned, and banished; and yet in all these have a clear conscience; his own heart telling him that there is no special cause of these cro •• es in him, but that he may • uffer them for the trial of his faith, or for righteousness sake and well doing. But when the spirit is wounded, there is still a guiltiness of sin, and when a man's spirit is trou • led, he suspecteth all his ways, he feareth all his sins, he knows not what sin to begin with; it breeds such hurlyburlies in him, that when it is day he wisheth for night; when it is night he would have it day: his meat doth not nourish him, his dreams are fearful to him, his sleep oft times forsaketh him: if he speaketh, he is little eased: if he keepeth silence, he boileth in disquietness of heart; the light doth not comfort him, the darkness doth terrify him.

To prosecute our comparisons: where all other evils are the more tolerable, because they be temporal, and pursue us but to death: this not being cured, endeth not in death but becometh eternal. For even the heathen men thought that death was the end of all misery: the perswas • ion whereof made them (being in some misery) to make an ende of themselves, and hasten their own death; as Satan doth make many nowadays to do, who are ignorant of the hells, which is a place of far greater pains than any they can suffer in this world whatsoever: for a tormented conscience, if before it was begun, is now continued; or i • it was not before, now beginneth, and never endeth world without ende. For though true it is, that sickness, poverty, imprisonment or banishment have ended their term in death; yet a wounded heart which was temporal in this life, is now eternal after this life; that which before death was in hope recoverable, is after death made incurable and irrecoverable. It is good therefore to consider, if even in this life the torment of conscience be so fearful; how much more grievous is it to sustain it in hell, where that is infinite, which here is finite: where that is immeasurable, which here is measurable; where is the sea of sorrow, whereof this is but a drop; where is the flame of that fire, whereof this is less than a spark?

But to shut up this argument: Some there have been who throughout all their life time, have been free from all other troubles, so as either they felt them not at all, or else in very small measure, and by that means never knew what outward trouble meant. As for example, some men there have been, who for sickness never knew the headache, for poverty, never knew what want meant; who for discredit, were never evil spoken of; whoever put far from them the evil day of the Lord; who made a league with death as it were, and a covenant with hell; who though they could crucify every cross, rather than come under any cross: yet they could never escape a wounded conscience, either in this life, or in the life to come. True it is, that God's children by faith and repentance do often escape it, but the wicked, and such as are borne unto it, as to their sure inheritance, the more they fly from it, the more it pursueth them. If we have transgressed the Civil Iawes, the Judge by bribes may be corrupted; if a man have committed some capital offense, by flying his Country he may escape the Magistrates hands: but our consciences telling us that we have sinned against God, what bribe shall we offer? or whither shall we fly? whither shall we go from his spirit? or whither shall we go from his presence? If we ascend into heaven, is not he there? If we lie down in hell, is he not there? If we fly to the utmost parts of the sea, is he not there also? There needeth no apparitor to summon us, there needs no Bayly arrant to fetch us, there needs no accuser to give in against us; sin will arrest us, and lieth at the door, our own consciences will impannall a Quest against us, our own hearts will give in sufficient evidence, and our own iniquities will plead guilty to our own faces. Thus we see both by the experience of them that have suffered the wound of the spirit, and by the comparing of it with other evils, what a weight most grievous, and burden intolerable it is to have a tormented conscience.

Now let us show how we may prevent, and by what means God's children falling into some degrees of it (for if it rage in extremity, it is an evil most dangerous) may safely and quietly be delivered from it. And here a just complaint is to be taken up, and it is a wonder to be marked that we see many so careful and watchful to avoid other troubles, and so few or none take any pains to escape the trouble of mind which is so grievous. We see men loving health and loathing sickness, in diet temperate, in sleep moderate, in Physic expert, skillful to purge, and to avoid such corrupt humors, which in time may breed (though presently they do not bring forth) some dangerous sickness: yet to avoid the diseases of the soul, no man abateth his sleep, no man abridgeth his diet, no man prepareth Physic for it, no man knoweth when to be full, and when to be empty, how to want and how to abound. Others carried away with the love of riches, and very sly to fall into poverty, will not stick to rise early, and take sleep lately, to fare hardly, to tear and taw their flesh in labor by land and by water, in fair and foul weather, by rocks and by sands, from far and from near: and yet to fall into spiritual decays, to avoid the poverty of conscience, no man taketh such pains; as though salvation and peace of mind, were not a thing worthy the laboring for. Some ambitiously hunting after honor, and not easily digesting reproaches, behave themselves neither sluggishly nor sleepily; but are active in every attempt, by love and by counsel, by prudence and prowess, by wit and by practice, by labor and learning, by cunning and diligence to become famous, and to shun a civil reproach: yet to be glorious in the sight of God and his Angels, to fall before the heavens, & in the presence of the Almighty to be covered with shame and confusion of conscience, we make none account, as they, who neither use any means to obtain the one, nor avoid those occasions which may bring the other.

Others unwilling to come within the reach and danger of the law, that they may escape imprisonment of body, or confiscation of goods, will be painful in penal Statutes, skillful in every branch of the civil law, and especially will labor to keep themselves from treasons, murders, felonies, and such like offenses deserving the punishment of death: yet when the Lord God threateneth the seizure both of soul and body, the attaching of our spirits, the confiscating of our consciences, the banishing of us from heaven, the hanging of us in hell, the suspending of our salvation, the adiudging of us to condemnation for the breach of his commandments, no man searcheth his eternal law, no man careth for the Gospel, neither the sentence of everlasting divorcement from the Lord, neither the covenant of reconciliation is esteemed of us.

And to reach our complaint one degree further. Behold, the more we seek outward pleasures and to avoid the inward trouble of mind, the more we haste and run into it, and suddenly plunge our selves in a wounded spirit ere we be aware. Who posteth more to become rich, who hopeth less to become poor, than the merchant man? who aduentureth great treasures, who hazardeth his goods, who putteth in jeopardy his life; and yet suddenly he either rusheth upon the rock of hardness of heart, or else is swallowed up of the gulf of a despairing mind: from which afterwards he cannot be delivered with a ship full of gold. Woeful proof hath confirmed, how some men (wholly set on pleasures, such as could not away to be sad, and to be hedged up always of godly sorrow) have had their tables made snares, and even their excess of pleasures hath brought excess of sorrows, and whilst they labored to put the evil day far from them, they have used such follies, as have bred them most bitter and terrible torments of their fearful and trembling consciences.

There be some of another sort, who never dreaming of a troubled mind, have had their hearts set on nothing, but how they might get some great fame and renown: and therefore have slipped into such vain-glorious attempts, and foul flatteries, as they have not only lost the peace of their consciences, but also fallen most deeply into reproachful shame, which they sought to shun. Now as the peace of conscience & joy of mind is such a treasure, as the eye hath not seen, the ear hath not heard, nor the tongue expressed, but passeth all understanding: so the wounded spirit is such as the eye hath not seen it, the ear hath not heard it, nor the tongue uttered; but passeth all understanding. And as they only know what the peace of mind meaneth, that feel it: so they alone can in truth speak of a troubled mind, that have tasted of it by experience.

But let us show what way is to be used to keep us from this wound of the spirit. It is the use of Physic, as to cure us of diseases when we are fallen into them; so to preserve us from sickness before it hath taken hold of us: it is the power of the word, as to asswage the trouble of conscience, when it doth once press us; so to prevent it before it hath overtaken us. It is a chief point of worldly wisdom not to tarie for the use of Physic until we be deadly sick; but to be acquainted with God's merciful preseruations to defend us from it: likewise it is a chief policy of a godly Christian, not only to seek comfort when the agony is vpō him, but also to use all good helps to meet with it before it comes. And we condemn them of folly, who will not as well labor to keep themselves out of debt, as to pay the debt when they owe it: so it is a madness not to be as circumspect to avoid all occasions, which may bring trouble of mind upon us, as we would be provident to enter every good way which may draw us out of this trouble, when we have once entered into it.

The remedies preservative, are first the searching of our sins, and then the examining of our faith.

The searching of our sins, is the way to the due acknowledging of our sins, and to the true sense and feeling of our sins. The acknowledging of our sins, is either of those that be past, whether we have unfeignedly repented us of them: or of those which be present, whether we be truly grieved for them.

Thirdly, of those secret corruptions, which in the course of our life are likely to come, whether we are reverently afraid of them, and resolve to suppress them with all our endeavor.

Concerning sins past, we must call to mind the sins done of old, in our youth, in our middle age, in our old age; that we judging our selves, may not be judged of the Lord: that accusing of our selves, Satan have no occasion to accuse us; and throwing down our selves before the Lord, he may lift us up. For many going quietly away, and sleeping in carnal security (notwithstanding the sins of their youth) and neglecting to make conscience of their sins done long ago; suddenly have fallen into such horror of mind, that (the violent remembrance of all their sins surcharging them) they have been overwhelmed.

This examination doth then rightly proceed, when it reacheth to the errors of this life, and to the sins of our youth; because many men (even from their childhood, by a civil righteous life) having escaped gross sins, wherewith the world could never charge them, have notwithstanding carried the burden of their secret sins done in their youth, David (Psal. 25. 7.) prayeth the Lord, not to remember the sins of his youth: Job (23. 6. the man of God) confesseth that the Lord writing bitter things against him, made him to possess the iniquities of his youth. What, shall we think, that David or Job were given to notorious wickedness in their youth? No, they knew they were subject to youthful wantonness and unstaidness of their affections; which though it did not burst out, yet it made them less careful to glorifice God; which looseness, the way to lewdness; which weakness, the way to strange vanities; which wantonness, the way to open wickedness, is even in the best of God's children in the days of their youth: which being afterwards in the time of their regeneration, brought (as it were) to judgment, and laid before their consciences, doth cause them to repent.

But here is a thing to be blushed at, which maketh men's ears to tingle when they hear it; that many men (far no doubt from this true repentance) can largely indeed discourse of the things done in their youth: but with such a bravery, with such boastings, and pleasing of themselves in the remembrance of them, as besides that they provoke others to sin in the like, and set themselves a flat back▪ bias against repentance, and this Christian examination; they seem to renew the decayed colors of their old sins, with the fresh suite of their second pleasures therein. But alas, what pleasure have they in those things, whereof they have no profit? what profit have they of those things whereof they should be ashamed? Neither in this strain can we forget the madness of them, who may seem to step one degree farther towards this examination of sin than did the former; by thinking that the leaving of sin, and repenting of sin is all one. Against these both daily experience and the word of God doth sufficiently decline. Joseph▪ brethren ( Jacob his sons) who devised evil against their brother, put him into the pit, and sold him unto strangers; did cease from this cruelty: but yet they are not read to have remembered their sins with any remorse, until thirteen years after the sin was committed; as we may see in the process of the history. David had left his sins of murder and adultery (as thinking all quiet and well) the space of a whole year; after which time (being admonished by the Prophet • athan ) he repented of it. And experience hath tried in many, that have had some working of God in them, that though they left their sins many years ago, yet because they repented not truly for them, they have rebounded upon them with terrible sights and fearful visions, to humble them, and to bring them to a serious examination of them, being done and left long since. Examples whereof we need not fetch from far, seeing so many preachers as are acqauinted with fearful spirits, will give witness hereof. The fruit of which amazed minds for sins already left, is ours, to beware of sins which are to come. And that other men's harms may teach us blessed wisdom, let us labor not only to leave sin, which one may do for profit, for fear, for praise, or for weariso • nesse: but also to repent of it for conscience sake.

This examination of our sins past, must be partly of those that we committed before our calling, & partly of those which were done after our calling. Every man (especially having his reason reformed by the word of God) will grant an examination of the life, before our true knowledge of God in Christ, to be most needful. But it may be, some will think that we need not to be so precise in the searching of those sins, which were after our knowledge. But seeing of all other sins these bite forest, and pierce deepest, for that they are aggravated with all the mercies of God going before, and sin is then most sinful, when after we know the truth, after we have been delivered from sin, after we have been enlightened with the grace of God, we have fallen into it: I think that an examination most specially ought to be had of these sins. Wherefore to iterate our former examples in a new matter, as we may see the former kind of examining of our sins before our calling, in the sons of Jacob: so we have a pattern of the latter in the practice of the Prophet David, who at the hearing of his sins was so troubled in his spirit, that he could not rest in the Prophets speech, telling him that his sin was forgiven him, but still was disquieted, as one utterly forsaken of God, and could find no comfort of God's spirit in him. For as it fareth often with sores, it cometh to pass in sins, we are loath to have our wounds often grated upon, we cannot so well away to have our sores rifled, feared, and lanced; but fed with healing salves: so we are hardly brought to have our consciences ground, or our sins ransacked, sifted, searched, and ripped up; but would still have them plastered with sweet promises, and bathed in the mercies of God: whereas it is far safer before incarnatiue and healing medicines, to use corrosiue and mundifying waters, without which though some sores may seem to close and skin up apace, yet they prove worse, and being rotten still at the core; they have above a thin skin, and underneath dead flesh. In like manner, we would cloak, we would hide and cover our sins, as it were with a curtain: but it is more sound Chirurgerie to prick & pierce our consciences with the burning iron of the Law, and to cleanse the wound of the soul by sharp threatenings, least that a skin pulled over the conscience for a while, we leave the rotten corruption uncured underneath, and so we be constrained to cry out of our sins openly. As it is a folly then to dissemble our sores whilst they be curable, and after to make them known when they be grown incurable: so it is as great folly to dissemble our sins whilst they may be remedied, & so after be constrained with shame to blaze them abroad, when thou mayest think them remediles. But of this by the way, because we shall more largely touch it in the last part to come.

It is sufficient to commit sin before knowledge, but after some good light of the spirit to sin breedeth either hardness of heart, or a troubled spirit; both which we shall avoid if in truth we be careful to watch over our affections, and beware that after our delivery we fall not into sin again.

Seuerall men, subject to several sins, have their several checks in their consciences: some are overcome with wrath, and yet after the moodie fit they can tell that the wrath of man doth not accomplish the righteousness of God: some are subject to lust, and afterwards they say, it profiteth them nothing: some are given to a continual course of vanity, who notwithstanding can say, that man's life hath another ende: some slip deeply into worldliness, & yet they be often weakened with most terrible checks of conscience. Well, blessed are they, whose hearts be truly grieved; and let them beware that make daliance with sin: for either hardness of heart will overtake them, or a troubled conscience will confound them. Wherefore it comes to pass, that many spending their bodies on lust, lament that ever they so abused their strength: many given too much to the pleasure of this life, had grief come upon them, to remember how they have spent God's graces, lauished his good gifts, and misspent their time; or else, if they have not this grief, they fall into voluptuousness, and draw such a thick skin upon their hearts, as will cause the strongest denouncings of God's judgments to rebound, be they driven on never so hard. And sure, it is the sin of this world, that men being controlled in their consciences, whilst they are a praying, and feel a secret charge laid against them, to beware of guile in buying and selling; either have these checks less and less, and so they grow to be profane; or else afterward they are wonderfully wounded, that they have been • o worldly, so greedily pursuing earthly things; so coldly procuring heavenly things. Thus even our privy thoughts (not profited by) are breeders of farther trouble.

Now the remedy against this trouble is, willingly and wi • tingly not to cherish sin, to wish that the Minister should touch our most privy and secret sins, to be glad privately to be admonished, to profit by our enemies when they do reproach us: and rather to desire (in such a case) to be humbled, than to suffer our selves to be flattered. This trying of ourselves must yet stretch it self further, not only to the committing of evil, but also to the omitting of good. As when (after some good working and feeling of the spirit) we begin to fight and conflict with our own consciences, saying: though I must pray, I must have time also to provide for my family: if I go to hear the word of God, surely I shall be in danger to loose this profit: if I thus attend upon the exercises of religion, I shall be cut short in the use of my pleasures. Wherefore it shall be good to search our harts, not only in the careless not using of the means; but also in the negligent watching over the fruits of the means: saying to ourselves in this manner: I have heard a Sermon, but (alas) without any feeling or working upon my affections; I have been praying, but with no power of the spirit; I have received the sacrament, but without those joys glorious and unspeakable, which I was wont to taste of; I saw the discipline of the Church executed, but without any fear of sin at all in myself, or compassion to the member censured.

And here I dare for my own observation assuredly affirm, that outward sins have not been at sometime so grievous to God's children, as that they have sometimes used the means with little reverence and with less fruit. And no marvel, we shall see many men at sometimes, not so much grieved for their sickness it self, as for that they have either willingly neglected the means which might have preserved their health, or that they have abused the Physic that might have restored their health to them again. In like manner (I say) it fareth with them, who either unreverantly have refused the means, which should keep their souls from surfeiting: or else unthankfully have abused those helps, which might have recovered them again. From hence it cometh, that some men are as much grieved for not using their good gifts to the benefit of God's Church, as others are troubled for pestering the Church with unprofitable corruptions: or as we shall see a rich man sometimes as much humbled for not giving money to the poor, which he might have done, as for heaping up riches falsely, which he ought not to have done. And thus many (having received good gifts and graces from the Lord) are seasoned & sanctified by afflictions; whereby they are taught to put their gifts in ure, and to offer their service to Christ, and others are forced to hide their gifts, which cannot be without some decay of God's glory, without offense to the weak, without the loss of many souls, which otherwise might be won to the Gospel, and without strengthening the hand of the adversary to slander our dark and dumb profession. All which things will in the ende bring terror of mind; because if the Lord cannot work upon us by taking away goods, friends, credit, wife, children, or such like, to bring us to repentance; he will surely whip our naked consciences, he will enter even into our very entrails, and pierce our secret bowels. As we must examine our selves thus for sins of time past, and present, so must we use this practice in sin to come▪ and this is very needful. For were it so, that our life and conversation were such, as neither before nor after our calling, man could justly accuse it: yet the hidden corruption of our nature, may threaten some heinous downfall in time to come, which hath made men of very good report & conversation to hang down their heads, and fear their secret hypocrisy, as that which may break forth to the shame of all their former life, in time to come.

But because we forget to speak of them, that in the examining of their lives past, are much grieved for the want of sincerity, and for privy vain-glory in themselves; let us before we go to the searching of our hearts in sin to come, speak somewhat of this. Men troubled for this privy pride are either touched, or not touched. If the veil of sin was so great in them, that it hid Christ from them; it is the good will of God, that by this sight of their secret sins they should come to see the righteousness that is in Christ Jesus, and so they shall the better be kept from being iusticiarie Pharisees. For when being a long time well brought up, and leading a civil life, the devil would persuade us of some inherent righteousness in us; it is the wisdom of our God to touch us with the conscience of most hidden corruptions, as also to certify and make known unto us, that even from our birth there was a secret seed of sin in us, which (without the Lord watching over us) would surely have broken forth to his dishonor. As for them which have had some working in them, and yet are often plunged with sore distresses, this trouble cometh to them for two especial causes, either for some hypocrisy, that they did more in show than in truth: wherefore the Lord bringeth them back again to see their corrupt proceedings, and that they may know all their religion to be but hypocrisy, and all their righteousness to be but unrighteousness: or for the abusing of their knowledge, in that they made it but a mask to iuggle in, and that they made their affections to fight with their own judgments. We must remedy this, by not thinking of our selves above that which is meet, and by laboring to embrace the truth in truth. And here let us note, that many of God's children accuse themselves of hypocrisy, when indeed they offend not in it, (for the most righteous persons are their own greatest accusers) and yet the accusation doth justly arise from some fault on their parts: for though they have done things in truth, yet because with truth they labored not to see their secret corruptions, in some other matters, they sustain this trouble of mind. So that there is nothing harder than to si • t and search our hearts to the bottom, whether we respect our sins past, or our sins present, whether we look to our privy pride, hidden wants, or secret corruptions.

And to return from whence we digressed, to the examination of our hearts, in sin to come: let us observe that in God's children there is such a jealousy, as they tremble at the very first motions, and quake at the least occasion of sin, although because vice will sit in residēce very near unto virtue, there may be in them sometime too much scrupulousnes. This fear causeth the dearest of the Saints of God to reason on this sort: O Lord, I see how many excellent in gifts, and constant in profession for a long time, whose ende hath not answered their beginnings, whose deaths were not like to their lives. This is true, whether we look into the word or into the world: and it is a thing that may much humble us. For though we may remember what we have been, and know what we are; yet who can tell what may come unto him hereafter.

Oh that the serious meditation hereof would dwell long upon our consciences: that with an holy jealousy we might prevent the sin that is to come. But alas, there be some venturous knights, which think it no mastery to offer themselves to masking, minstrelsie and dancing, nor to run into quarrels, braules and contentions, as though they had their ears, their eyes, their hands, and their feet in their own power, and at commandment to use and govern as themselves list. Howbeit, God's children better fenced with his grace, than those bold bayards, are afraid of these occasions: as knowing full well, that their eyes may soon be provoked to lust, their ears may quickly listen unto unchaste delights, their hands may suddenly strike a deadly blow, and their feet may easily be s • ared in carnal pleasures. Beware O man, be circumspect O woman, that thou prostitute not thyself to too much liberty: for although in coming to such lascivious and contentious places thou diddest purpose none evil: yet for thy ventring without warrant, thou mayest be over thy shoes in sin, and plunged in some wicked attempt over head and ears, ere thou beest aware. And because vice is so confine unto virtue, beware also of superstition: for still the enemy laboreth either to make thee too hardie in sin, or else he will cause thee to be too fearful and superstitious; either he will puff thee up with presumption, or assault thee with desperation. To these temptations our nature is very pliable: first to presumption, as may appear by our common speech; • ush, the preacher is but a man as I am, I am sure he hath infirmities as others have; we are no Angels, our nature is corrupt, we are but flesh, I am sure you would not have us God's. Thus the devil cometh to tempt; but he apparrelleth himself in another suit when he cometh to accuse, and then of a fly he makes an Elephant; of the very smallest prick of a pin, a globe of the whole earth; of a molehill a mountain: and presseth silly souls with fears and terrors, that they know not how to wind out themselves. If he cannot bring them to make no conscience, where they should make conscience, he will labor to bring them to make conscience where they need make no conscience. He careth not whether thou wilt be remiss or superstitious, so thou be one of them. If he cannot get you to follow the Epicureanism of the world, as Libertines in diet and apparel; he will make you so precise, as to think it a heinous sin, to eat one bit of meat, or to wear one rag of clothe more than for necessity. How needful therefore it is to sails with an even course, we may conjecture by other things which will bewray the corruption of our nature.

In the time of a plague we shall see some will be so bold, that without any lawful calling or godly warrant, they will rush into places infected; and then falling sick, their conscience pricks them for their tempting of God by an unadvised boldness, in the hour of their death.

Others plunged as deeply in a quite contrary extremity, are too fearful when they do but hear of the sickness; and for very fear have been brought to deaths door, only by imagining thenselves to have been infected, when they have been most free, who oftentimes have even died, and that without any natural cause that ever could be known, but only through immoderate fear, and the judgment of God coming upon them for their infidelity and unbelief. Thus it is with us in Christianity, in that as well the oppressing our selves with too much fear to be overcome, as the carnal security, in not fearing to be overcome, may bring sin upon us: God his children must labor for a measure, and that must be sought for in the word, which will teach them how they shall neither decline on the right hand, nor on the left; but will guide them in the narrow way, showing in everything what is virtue, what is vice; what is the mean, what is the extreme.

Among many examples, let us consider of zeal, a most precious virtue in Christianity, so long as it is free from the extremities. Otherwise if we be cold in zeal, it is a sin on the left hand: if we be zealous without knowledge, it is preposterous, and becometh a sin on the right hand.

But can we not come to some perfection? No, if you understand it for an absolute vnspottednes; albeit to that perfection which the Scripture taketh for soundness, truth, and sincerity of heart, which is void of careless remisnes, we may come. Neither doth the Lord deal with us after our sins, nor reward us after our iniquities: in whose eyes the most glorious actions of men, are but as waters flowing purely from the Conduit, but defiled by passing through a filthy channel. Wherefore having these imperfections, let us not seek to be more righteous than we can be, saying for every error of this life; Oh, I am none of God his sons, I am none of his daughters: for I cannot find that perfection in me which is to be required. But let us comfort our selves in the truth of our hearts, and singleness of our desires to serve God, because he is God; and so we shall be accepted of God.

I speak this to this end, that poor souls might have comfort, and know that if they abhor sin as sin, if they examine themselves for it, if they groan under it, if they mislike themselves for it, if they fear to fall into it; the Lord will not pursue them with the rigor of his law, but will give them the sweetness of his promises; they are no more under the curse, but under grace.

But further to enforce our exhortation, to avoid too scrupulous a fear, which hindereth the true examination of our hearts: let us think that it happeneth in the spiritual conflict as in civil wars. We read that many cities lying in great security, have suddenly both been assaulted and overthrown; as also how some Countries (too much negligent in the means) through an excessive fearfulness, have encouraged their enemies with more greedy violence to pray upon them. With which kind of stratagems our adversary me devil being well acquainted, doth often practice this policy. If he see us without all fear too quietly to rest in our selves, he thinketh his assault must needs be the stronger, because our resistance is the weaker. Again, if he descrieth in us a cowardly fear and fainting of heart, before we once begin to join battle with him; he will set upon our immoderate fear, and as villainously as suddenly stab us to the heart, and make a present spoil of us.

Common practice doth further teach us, that when we can hear the word without all trembling at God his judgments, when we can pray without all fear before the Majesty of God, when we can come to the discipline of the Church without all reverence of the ordinance of the Lord; all is in vain. Again, let us hear with too much trembling, and we shall learn nothing; let us pray with too servile a fear, and our worshipping of God will be without all comfort and vncheerefull. Thus if we neither lessen sin, that is sin indeed, neither make sin of that which is not sin in truth, it is good to proceed to this three-fold examination, & to lay the edge of this doctrine more near our affections, because many will be sound in this ripeness of knowledge and barrenness of conscience, to speak, dispute and declaim of all these things very skillfully, which flickring in the circumference of the brain, and not sitting at the ground of the heart, do seal up a more just sentence of condemnation against them. To help this evil, we must meditate deeply of the Law and of the Gospel, together with the appurtenances of them both, that finding ourselves far from God's blessings promised to the keepers of the law, and seeing our selves near to the curses due to the breakers of the law, we may raise up some sense of sin in our selves. Yet herein we must not stay our foot, but give a further stride: for whereas many by a diligent view of the law, have come to the sense of sin in themselves, and saw plainly their own condemnation: yet because they labored not to see the guiltiness aquitted by the remission of sin in Christ, they plunged themselves into a bottomless sea of sorrows. Others having passed these degrees, and hitherto made these steps to avoid the wound of conscience, have come also too short, and missed of the mark: when because besides the sense of sin pardoned by the death of Christ, they felt not also the virtue of his passion crucifying sin in them, but saw that with the remission of sin was not joined the mortification of sin; they feared that there was no forgiveness for them, but still languishing with sorrow, they thought themselves to stand charged with their former guiltiness. Yea, and which is more, for that such men have not truly been instructed, nor surely have been grounded in the doctrine of Christ's death and resurrection, that is, for that they saw not as well power flowing from his death to slay sin in them, as virtue to pardon sin in them▪ for that they felt not as well strength to sanctification, streaming from the rising again of Christ, as they were persuaded of justification & righteousness therein: they have lien still bleeding at the heart, in such sort, as the wound of grief could hardly or never be stayed and stanched. Wherefore let us strengthen our weak souls with this six-fold cord of consolation, against these bitter assaults▪ Let us first labor to know sin, then to sorrow for sin, after to feel our sins in Christ forgiven, further to look for power to crucify the same, then to lay hold on justification by his resurrection: and lastly, hope for strength to proceed from thence, to further us in sanctification and holiness of life, even unto the end. And thus much briefly for the second thing which we matched in company with the examination of sin, even the trial of faith: both which rightly used, shall in some measure sauegard us from the trouble of an afflicted mind.

Now let us hasten to the third part of our division, to show how God's children being fallen into this wound of spirit, may be helped out of it: which (God willing) we will also perform, after we have answered a necessary objection, which (in the former part) might seem to encounter against us. There is no man but will grant, that David, Job, and others of the Saints of God, had a sight of their sins, a sorrow for their sins, and a taste of the remission of their sins: how then cometh it to pass, that these men were so troubled in mind? To this I answer, that their trouble so befell them, either for failing in some of these former things; or else they were rather afflicted for trial of their faith, than for punishing of sin in them. And therefore be it always provided, that we think not every conflict of conscience, continually and chiefly to be for the pursuing of our sins: but sometimes and principally, that it cometh for the trial of our faith: and yet secondarily, or less principally, for the scourging of sin, as we may see in Job. Whereupon let all men be admonished, when they see good men thus humbled & thrown down in mind, to lay their hands on their mouths from saying; Surely these men are but hypocrites, doubtless these men be great sinners, the Lord hath found out their hypocrisy. For good reason there is, that such silence should be used: for that the Lord may as well make trial of their faith, as take punishment on their sins. For if such affliction should always and chiefly be sent for sin, then it should follow that all others as they exceeded them in sin, should also exceed them in the punishment of sin.

But now coming to the saluing of this sore, I shall seem very strange in my cure: and so much the more be wondered at, by how much in manner of proceeding I differ from the most sort of men herein, I am not ignorant, that many visiting afflicted consciences, cry still; Oh comfort them, oh speak joyful things unto them. Yea, there be some, and those of the most learned, who in such cases are full of these and such like speeches. Why are you so heavy my brother? why are you so cast down my sister? Be of good cheer: take it not so grievously. What is there that you should fear? God is merciful, Christ is a Savior. These be speeches of love indeed: but they often do the poor souls as much good herein, as if they should pour cold water into their bosoms; when as without further searching of their sores, they may as well minister a malady as a medicine. For as nutritive and cordial medicines are not good for every sick person, especially when the body needeth rather a strong purgation, than a matter restorative; and as incarnatiue medicines may for the time allay the pain of the patient, but after the grief becometh more grievous: so the comfortable applying of God's promises are not so profitable for everyone that is humbled, especially when their souls are rather further to be cast down, than as yet to be raised up: so those s • gred consolations may for a while over-heal the conscience, and abate some present grief; but so as afterwards the smart may be the sorer, and the grief may grow the greater: hereof ensueth this effect, that comfort seemeth to cure for a while, but for want of wisdom in the right discerning of the cause, men minister one medicine for another; and so for want of skill, the latter fit grindeth them sorer than the former. Some there be, who without all precept and practice will be their own Physicians: and these, so soon as the fit cometh upon them, think it the best to chastise and to chase away their sorrow, by drinking at taverns, by minstrelsie, in merry company, by purging melancholy in taking Physic: all which may seem to wear away the pain for a while, but yet after it biteth more deeply, when the burning fever of their spirits shaketh them with a second recourse: and for that before they were not truly searched, purged, • eared and lanced, it cometh to pass, that the second relapse is more dangerous than the first impression.

To come to our purpose, we must know that all griefs are either confused or distinct: and sure it is, that the mind is appalled either for some cause known to us as certain▪ o • for something unknown to us and uncertain. To them which are troubled with such blind griefs, whereof they can see no reason, as often it happeneth to God's children in secret providence, who either never knew God, or else had but a general knowledge of him: I answer, that as I deny not Physic to be ministered, if it in part proceed from a natural cause: so I require the word especially to show the principal and original cause to begin in the soul▪ And this I do the rather, because I would have wisdom both in considering the state of the body if need so require; & in looking chiefly to the soul, which so few think of. If a man troubled in conscience come to a Minister, it may be he will look all to the soul and nothing to the body: if he come to a Physician, he only considereth of the body and neglecteth the soul. For my part, I would never have the Physicians counsel severed, nor the Ministers labor neglected; because the soul and body dwelling together, it is convenient, that as the soul should be cured by the word, by prayer, by fasting, by threatening, or by comforting; so the body also should be brought into some temperature by Physic, by purging, by diet, by restoring, by music, and by such like means; providing always that it be done so in the sear of God, and wisdom of his spirit, as we think not by these ordinary means to smoother or smoke out our troubles; but as purposing to use them as preparatives, whereby both our souls and bodies may be made more capable of the spiritual means to follow after.

As we require these things to be the matter of our Ministry in such a perplexity: so we would wish the persons ministering to be men learned and of sound judgment, wise, and of godly experience, meek and of most iouing spirits. For when the troubled patient shall be well persuaded of our knowledge and discretion, and there withal shall perceive us to come in tender and loving affection, I think an entrance is made, and all prejudice is taken away, so as we may the more freely work upon the conscience; first bringing them to the sight of sin, as to some cause of their trouble. Herein we must labor to put away all confusion and blindness of sorrow, endeavoring by wisdom to bring the parties wounded to some certain object and matter of their trouble; and so draw out of them the confession of some several, especial, & secret sin; I say several and secret sin, because I know, how many (through a palpable blindness or disordered discerning of sin) talk of nothing so much as of sin; and yet they either cannot des • ry (several sins, or they will not be brought to acknowledge their secret sins: whereof the one proceedeth of the ignorance of the law of God, and the other of self-love, which maketh us l •• t •• e even in our travel of mind, to shame our selves.

Now that the confession of particular sins is requisite, it may appear by the two and thirtieth Psalm, wherein (being a Psalm of instruction, concerning the forgiveness of sins) the Prophet (by his own experience) teacheth us, that he could find no relief of his sickness, until he had remembered, and made confession of his sins.

What? shall we think that the Prophet of God (taught so wonderfully by the word and by the spirit) did not see his sins before? Be it far from us. Rather let us know that he had not severally & particularly ripped up his sins before the Lord, in a several confession of them. Which though the Lord knoweth far better than we our selves: yet such kind of sacrifice is most acceptable unto him.

Now if in this trouble the persons humbled cannot come to the particular sight of sin in themselves; it is good to use the help of others, unto whom they may offer their harts to be gaged and searched, and their lives to be examined more deeply, by hearing the several Articles of the Law laid open before them; whereby they may try the whole course of their actions. For (as we said before) the grossest hypocrites will generally complain of sin; and yet deal with them in particular pointes of the particular precepts, and prove them in the applying of things to be done or not done to their own consciences; and we shall see many of these poor souls tossed to and fro, now floating in joys, now plunged in sorrows, not able to distinguish one sin from another.

Now when we shall see the wound of the spirit to arise of any certain and known sin, it is either for some sin already commit • ed, wherein we lie; or else for some sin as yet not committed, but whereunto we are tempted. For the former; it pleaseth God oftentimes to bring old sins to mind, when we had not thoroughly repented of them before; that so (as it were) representing them to us afresh, we might fall into a more misliking of them. And yet herein is not all, to mislike our selves for some particulars, although it be good to be occupied about some special sins: for as it is not sufficient for the avoiding of hypocrisy, to see sin generally: so it is not enough to eschew the deceiueablenes of the heart, ever to be poring busily in one particular, and to be forgetful of our great and general sins. But let us learn by the particulars to pass to the generals. When any such one sin then doth pursue thee, rest not only therein, but say thus rather to thyself; Oh Lord, is this one sin so grievous? and doth my God punish this one sin so sorely? How great then should be my punishment, if thou shouldest (O Lord) so deal with me for all my other sins. Let us labor to have a sense both of general and of particular sins, least in time our grief pass away without fruit, whilst that not being displeased as well with one sin, as with another, we either look too superficially to generals, and not to particulars; or else too superstitiously observe particulars, and not the generals.

Concerning those sins whereunto we are tempted, as when a man is moved to think blasphemously of God the father, or to doubt whether there be a Christ or no, or to imagine grossly of the holy Ghost, or to deny God, or to doubt of the Trinity, or to be moved to murder, adultery, or such like: in which temptations he feeleth God's spirit to check him for thē, so as he knoweth not in this case what to do: for that on the one side he dares not listen willingly to these fearful and monstrous temptations; and on the other side, he feareth least in time by long suite, he might fall into them; or at the least for that he se • th not how to be delivered from them: I suppose these motions are not so much to be disputed with, a • we by them are to be provoked to more instant and extraordinary zeal of prayer.

Surely these are dangerous temptations, and therefore are not to be kept close, which our nature will easily incline unto: but particularly are to be confessed of us. For the devil will come sometime to thee, to keep thee still in a general acknowledging of sin, and urge thee on this manner: Surely thou must needs do this sin, thou seest thou canst have no • ase, until thou hast consented, thou art ordained to it: the reason why thou art thus incessantly tempted, is because thou doest not thus take thy pleasure. Go to deny God, believe not his word: it is but a policy to keep men in awe • ; Religion is no such matter as men take it. Thus for fear of yielding on the one hand, and for shame of disclosing the temptations on the other hand, many men have pined away, and almost have been overcome by them. If we should disclose this (say these men) what would people say of us? They would count us Atheists, they would think us the wickedest men in the world. Well, for our instruction and consolation herein, let us learn that these kinds of temptations, are either corrections for some sins past, or punishments for some sin present, or forewarners of some sin to come. We shall see many tempted to adultery, who (no doubt) cannot be brought to commit it; and yet because in their youth they have committed it, and not repented of it, it comes to them again. The like may be observed in theft, in gluttony, and in other temptations, which are not so much sent unto us, presently to overcome us, as to put us in mind, that sometime heretofore we having been overcome with them, should now repent for them. Sometime a man shall lie in some sin, whereof when he will not be admonished, neither by the public nor private means, then some other strange temptation shall fall upon him, differing from that wherein he presently lieth, to admonish him of that other sin. As when a worldling shall be tempted to adultery, a thing which he hath no desire to do; yet it is to make him look to his worldliness, whereof he hath so strong and thorough a liking: wherewith if then he will not be awaked, he may suddenly fall into that too, and so by the punishment of God, in punishing one sin with another, both his sins shall be to his great shame laid open, and one sin shall make known another. Sometime also it cometh to pass, that one shall be tempted with such a sin, as neither heretofore, nor presently he hath given any liking or entertainment unto; and yet the Lord by it may forewarn him how he may fall into it hereafter, as also to show that he hath stood all his former life, rather by the grace of God, than by the strength of flesh and blood. Wherefore when thou art moved to doubt of God, of Christ, of the word, or of justification, do not so much stand wondering at these strange temptations, as think with thyself that it is the mercy of God by them, to cause thee better to discern of those temptations in others: when thou shalt have observed with fear and trembling how they make their first entry into a man's heart, how they gather strength, how they agree with our corrupt nature, in what degrees they come to some groweth, how the spirit of God doth resist thē, what be the means best to prevail against them. And thus if thou make thy profit by them, thou shalt so wonderfully search and descry by several veins, the body, age and • light of these temptations in others, by an holy experience which God hath taught thee in thyself, that besides that thou shalt lay forth men's secret corruptions, as if thou werst in their bosoms; thou shalt be able also by the seed of sorrow in thyself, to beget an unspeakable joy in others, who in time may be tempted as thou now art.

Think moreover and besides, that such is the efficacy of sin, that they who are now no Papists, Heretics, Adulterers, or Thieves, may for their secure contemning & foolish passing over of these temptations sent unto them, suddenly, shortly after fall into them; because they would not seek to make some use of them, nor confess before the Lord both their proneness and worthiness to fall into them. But if we will humble our selves in such temptations, & learn by them meekly to discern the corruptions of our harts, we shall not only presently deliver our selves from peril, but be also further enabled to assist others hereafter, in the like danger.

But some will oppose against these things which we have delivered: Do you think it a remedy to cast down them that are already humbled? This is rather to be a butcher than a builder of a man's conscience. To whom I answer, that I desire preachers to be builders, and not butchers; and it is one thing generally to apply, and another particularly to lay the medicine unto the wound. It is good to begin with searching first, and to purge the sore by the vinegar of the Law, & after to supple it with the oil of the Gospel. Both which must be done in wisdom, using them to some in greater, to some in lesser measure. For as some having nothing but a decay of nature, & no mortal humor, need rather restorative, than purging medicines: so some rather troubled for some spiritual wants, than for grosser sins, need not so much the sharp threatenings of the Law, as the sweet promises of the Gospel. As the body, through some extraordinary repletion, having gotten some great surfeit, not so much to the weakening of nature, as to the threatening of imminent death, and therefore requireth rather some strong purgation, than comfortable and cordial medicines: even so the soul brought almost to deaths door with some extraordinary sin, is rather to be bored and pierced with the denouncing of God's judgments than otherwise. But because we would deal more plainly and less confusedly, it is good in our access to afflicted consciences, to lay these two grounds. First, we must persuade the persons humbled, that their sins are pardonable, & their sores curable. And after, that this visitation is not so much a sign of God's wrath and anger, as a seal of his mercy and favor, in that it is not either blind or barren, but plentiful in good effects, and fruitful in godly issues. The former how needful it is, the experience of so many almost as have been thrown down, is a sufficient witness: who have had this as a tagge tied to their temptations, that never any were so plagued as they, none ever had the like temptations, the Lord will surely make an end of them in some strange and unknown temptation. Wherein they are not unlike unto men fallen into some dangerous disease, who thinking them selves to be without the fathom of the Physicians skill, & not to be within the compass of things recoverable, add a second and sorer grief unto their former.

Wherefore as these men seem to be half healed, when any man of knowledge can be brought, who by experience hath cured the like malady in like degrees in others: so these sorrowful souls are not a little by hope refreshed & strengthened to look for some ease, when they see none other temptation to have overtaken them, than such as having fallen into the nature of man, have found mercy at the hands of God, that he might be feared. This ground work framed, it is good (to build up & repair the decayed joy of the mind) partly by the law, to make a preparative for these joys, if the mind not truly humbled, be not fit to be truly comforted: & partly by the Gospel, if the conscience kindly thrown down, is become a fit subject to apply the sweet promises of God in Jesus Christ unto it. And here again to answer them that deny the law wholly or at all to be used, when we would breed comfort in one: I demand whether if it be necessary to maintain the righteousness of Christ, it be not also as necessary to preserve the righteousness of the law? Seeing the righteousness of the law, of us not fulfilled, will draw us unto the righteousness of Christ to us imputed: & since the righteousness of Christ to us imputed, is never thoroughly and truly esteemed, until we see the righteousness of the law of us to be unperformed. Again, if our Savior Christ did foreshow his Disciples, that the first work of the holy Ghost at his coming, should be to convict the world of sin, to make men know, that without Jesus Christ there is nothing but sin, & then, that he should rebuke the world of righteousness, that they might see how Christ died not for his own sins, but for the sins of others: I see not why it should not be very convenient, first to lay open the righteousness of the law that men may see their sins; and then the righteousness of Christ, that men may see their sins discharged in him. Besides, where the Lord saith by his Prophet: At what time soeu • r a sinner doth repent of his sins from the bottom of his heart, I will put all his wickedness out of my remembrance: it may well be gathered, that there must be first a sound sorrow for sin; and then a true joy of sins pardoned, may more freely by virtue of his promise be both hoped for, and looked for afterward. Moreover, seeing all the promises of God in the Gospel are commended unto us under the title & tenor of restoring sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, strength to the lame, health to the sick, and life to the dead; it is manifest, not only that there is no disease of the soul which Christ cannot heal▪ but also that we must first find our selves blind, deaf, dumb, lame, sick & dead, before he will meddle with us; because they that are whole need not the Physician, and he came to call sinners, not the righteous to repentance. Now, to do this in wisdom, by neither pressing the conscience too severely, nor releasing the conscience more unadvisedly, it shall be a safe way, to use the well tempered speech of the Apostle to the sorcerer: Repent, that if it be possible, thy sin may be forgiven thee. Where he doth not wholly discourage him, because it may be his sin may be pardoned; neither yet too boldly encourage him, in that without repentance, he showeth it to be altogether impossible to be pardoned.

And that we be not too preposterous in our consolation, let us be warned by the blasphemous speech of that detestable Arriā, who of late years was put to death at Norwich. This hellish heretic, a little before he should be executed, afforded a few whorish tears, asking whether he might be saved in Christ or no? When one told him, that if he truly repented, he should surely not perish: he brake out most monstrously into this speech: Nay, is your Christ so easily to be entreated indeed, as you say? then I defy him, and care not for him. Oh how good a thing had it been not to have cast this precious stone to this swine? Oh how safe had it been to have dealt more bitterly, and to have dwelt more vehemently on the conscience of this cai • ife?

Now to attain some discretion in curing this wounded spirit, we must learn wisely to judge, both of the person afflicted, and of the nature of his affliction. First, we may note whether it be a man or a woman, because we may urge more fearfully the use of the law to a man, as being the stronger vessel. And as Satan knew the woman to be most easy and framable to be wrought upon, at his first temptation: so is he not ignorant that she is the weaker party to sustain any temptation now. Then let us consider, whether they that are thus humbled have knowledge or no? Because, if they have no knowledge, they think trouble of mind to be so strange a thing, as never any before had it: if they have knowledge, then Satan is ready to accuse them of the sin against the holy Ghost, as though every sin done against knowledge, were a sin of presumption. Further, we are to inquire, how strong or weak they are, that if they be sorely stricken, we cease to humble them any further: if they be not sufficiently wounded, then to touch them with some deeper sense of sin. Also we must be circumspect, to find out whether by nature they are fearful and melancholic or no: as also, whether they be usual sinners, or have fallen once of infirmity; that so upon their disposition and inclination, we may build our speeches the better. To these it is good to add the consideration of the persons age, estate and ability: as if the party be troubled for worldliness, whether he be not a great house holder: if he complain of uncleanness, whether he be not a young man & unmarried: if he be humbled with covetousness, whether he be not old: because diverse countries, callings, ages, conditions and estates of men, have their diverse and peculiar sins, which we must rightly discern. Howbeit, of what sex soever they are men or women, of what complexion soever they are, of what knowledge to discern sin, of what degree of committing sin; of what age, authority, wealth, estate, or condition soever they are, it is good to mark that there be many who are more troubled for the vexation and disquietness of their mind being distempered, than for the vileness and horriblenes of their sin committed; who are wounded more with the fear of shame, with the fear of being mad, or with the fear of running out of their wits, than with the conscience of sin. Which thing if we find in them, it is our part to travel with them, that they make a less matter of the outward shame, and more conscience of the inward sin. Neither must we here forget to make a distinction between our speeches used to the humbled, in the very time of their extreme agony & burning ague of their troubles, and those speeches which we use to them the fit being past; because the one and former requireth more consolation and less exhortation; the other and latter would have us more abundant in admonishing, and more sparing in comforting, when we may wisely admonish them to beware of sin, which so procured their own woe. In this breathing time, it is also expedient to exhort them, that for some season until they shall find greater power of regeneration, they would tie themselves to some holy orders, and godly vows, whereby they may either be furthered in mortifying some special sin; which for that they could find no power against it, did most grieve them, or strengthened in some special grace, the want where of did also wound them.

But before we launch deeper into this sea of particular temptations, and begin to sound the dangerous passages of natural corruption, and original sin, the troublesome froth whereof doth almost overwhelm many poor pilgrims, it shall be good to give this caution, that both in these and in the former troubles, men would be still again admonished, patiently to bear with a wounded spirit, albeit it fall out so, that they be somewhat pettish, seeing the holy Ghost speaketh so favorably of them, saying: A wounded spirit who can bear? And surely our practice in other things, by the law of equity, may urge this at our hands. For if men by the light of reason can see it to be a duty convenient, not furiously to control, but meekly to suffer, and wisely to put up the unadvised speeches of a man distempered in brain, by reason of some burning ague, or such like violent and vehement sickness: we may easily gather even by the same rule of reason, not so severely to censure the impatiēt speeches of him, who by reason of some parching fever of the spirit, is disquieted in all parts of his mind, & hath all the veins of his heart (as it were in a spiritual agony) vexed. Wherefore both unsavory for want of godly wisdom, & uncharitable for want of Christian love, are their murmuring obtrectations which say, what? Is this the godly man? Is this he that is so troubled for his sins? Why, see how pettish he is, nothing can please him, nobody can satisfy him. Consider, O man, if thou canst bear with a • rail body, that thou must much more bear with a frail mind. Consider, O man, that this his pettishnes doth more wound him to the heart, than any injury thou couldest press him with. And therefore seeing he afflicteth his own soul for it, thou needest not add anything to his affliction, and to exasperate his grievous smart. Consider that it is a blessed thing mercifully to bethink us of the estate of the needy, and that to rub a fresh wound, and to strain a bleeding sore, is nothing else, but with Job's friends to bring a new torment, where there is no need of it. As the wise father doth rather pity thā rebuke his child, whenby reason of sickness the appetite is not easily pleased: so, if we purpose to do any good with an afflicted mind, we must not be austere in reprehēding every infirmity, but p • tiful in considering of the tender frailty of it. Neither do I speak this to nourish pe ••• shnes in any, but would have them to labor for patience, and to seek for peace: which though they find not at the first, yet by prayer they must wait on the Lord, and say: Lord because there is mercy that thou mayest be feared, I will wait upon thee, as the eye of the servant wai • ••• upon the hand of his master. I will condemn myself of folly, and say, Oh my soul, why art though • o so h • a •• e? Why art thou so cast down within me? Still trust in the Lord, for he is thy health and thy salvation.

THE SECOND TREATISE, BELONGING TO THE COMFORT OF AN AFFLICTED CONSCIENCE.

I N all afflictions God's children must look unto the end: they are to desire to profit by them, and in them to seek • he way of sound comfort and consolation: which that they may find, they must know that the afflictions of the godly last but a while, they serve them but for salves and medicines, the end of them is always happy. In them they are not only preserved, and purified from many sins: but also much beautified with the image of Jesus Christ, who is the eldest son in the house of God. Again, the cross of true Christians is the sweet and amiable call of God unto repentance, in that he putteth us in mind thereby to bethink us of our debts: because we are given to think the day of payment is yet far off: yea, we fall asleep until our turn be ended, and whilst God lengtheneth our days waiting for our repentance, we never think of our sins, until the hour come wherein we perish with shame. The best meeting then with the Lord's visitation, is without delay, and in sincerity to pray for our sins to be pardoned. For therefore doth the Lord oftentimes shackle us the more with the chains of his chastisements, because we are more careful to be unburdened of our sickness, than to be freed from our sin: which we the rather are loath to confess, because we would not be espied to be in the wrath of God. Others there be that hearing of their sins in the time of their afflictions, will acknowledge indeed their infirmities to be the mother of such a brood: yet they have no true remorse to restrain themselves from sin, because they have but a confused conceit thereof: and though their ship be never so much tossed and turmoiled, yet think they not that God holdeth the stern▪ These men, if God bear with them, do as it were settle in their lees, and are as it were soked in their sins. For prosperity is a drunkenness, to cast our selves into a dead sleep, and when the Lord letteth us alone, we cease not to soothe up ourselves, bearing our selves in hand, that we are in God's favor, and that he loveth us, because he scourgeth us not. And thus retchles we are whilst we measure God's love according to our sense and humor. Wherein we bewray our ignorance of the exercise of the cross, in that affliction is the mother of humility, humility breedeth repentance, and repentance obtaineth mercy. Some also there are, who usually whilst the fearful judgment of God is before their eyes, either in themselves or in others, have a few glancing motions, and starting cogitations of their sins, and of Christ his passion: yet at all other times their minds are so clasped up from thinking of temptations, and their hearts so locked up from foreseeing or forethinking of judgments, that they feel no godly sorrow. They mock the mourning days of the elect, as of them that be of melancholy nature; they make a sport of sin, as little remembering the sting which will either prick them to the heart blood most fearfully in the hour of death, or meet them with griping agonies in the day of their visitation more speedily. But happily they think they have given good testimony & word of their repentance and remembrance of God, when they give one deep sigh and away, and pass over God's heavy indignatiō as over burning coals. So that whilst the Lord in prosperity affordeth large peniworths of his love unto them, they dally with his Majesty, & make a sport of his mercy. Al which imperfections may be better corrected, if in our deepest rest with a reverent & humble fear of God's judgments, we did wait for the day of our trial, and prepare our selves to the Lord's visitations: for the feeling of God's mercy must come from the sight of our misery by sin; which being pardoned, we shall soon have our infirmities healed. Wherefore let us first learn to cleanse our souls from sin▪ & then to sustain the sores of our body. Sure it is, that if we have suffered our hearts to be harrowed with the rake of God's judgments (as occasion from the Lord hath been given) that we are become soft and well exercised in the fear of God: we shall come to the feeling of our sins, the sense whereof, if it bring as it were a sickness to the body, and a corsey to the soul, it is an undoubted earnest of our regeneration, and happy are we if we find our selves so diseased and troubled with our sins. True it is, that we can hardly (being in the skirmish and agony) make any difference between the motions to any evil, and the consent unto the same: for oftentimes evil motions do so possess the souls of God's children sincking down so deeply in them, that though they weep, pray, and meditate (which be the last means & remedies to ease and cure them) though they feel them with irkesomenesse and loathsomeness, as we feel sickness in our bodies: yet those motions will be continually in them without diminishing, the delight only excepted. Wherefore for our comfort herein, we are not to martyr our selves with disquietness of mind, because we are so pestered and thronged with wicked motions and assaults, but rather let us quiet our selves, and not suffer our selves to be hindered with sickness either of body or mind: by means whereof we should become more unprofitable to our selves & the whole Church of God. For the godly shall not be so freed from sin, but that they shall be assaulted with evil motions, suspicions, delusions, vain fantasies and imaginations; the body of sin shall never be from us so long as we live. For the scum thereof is almost continually boiling and wallopping in us, foaming out such filthly froth & stinking savor into our minds, that it is not only detestable to the mind regenerate and renewed by the spirit of God, but also it would make abashed the very natural man, to look into so loathsome a sty of sin, and sinkehole of iniquity. Yea it maketh us often to quail, and if it were possible, it would corrupt the very part regenerate. For mighty is the power, and raging is the strength of sin: Neither for all this must we cease to sorrow for our sins, nor despair on the other side, although our sorrow be but small. For if we be sorrowful for the hardness of our hearts, if we can be grieved for that we are no more grieved for our sins, if we can but sigh & groan because we feel our iniquities; it is so much a greater comfort unto us, as it is a greater testimony that our hearts are not altogether hardened: so that if we feel sorrow indeed, although we weep not, yet we may gather comfort, considering that this sorrow is for sin with a love and hunger after righteousness: yea if our assaults be distrust, pride, arrogancy, ambition, envy, concupiscence, as hot as the fire in the furnace all our days, and though Satan layeth out oil in great measure and out of measure, that it is the wonderful mercy of the Lord that we stand; and though our prayers be dull and full of wear • somnesse, if the striving and straining of our selves to goodness be so hard, that we know not whether we strive for fear of punishment or for love of so good a Father: yet if we feel this in our selves, that we would fain love the Lord, and be better, and being wearied and tired with our sins, long gladly to enjoy the peace of righteousness, and desire to please God in a simple obedience of faith; then let us comfort our selves; there is no time too late to repent in. For he cometh quickly to Christ (although in the hour of death) that cometh willingly, and in a desire of a better life: howsoever sin and Satan at that time would especially persuade him. For as the hūming Be having lost her st •• g in another, doth still notwithstanding make a fearful and grievous noise by her often buzzing about us, but is nothing able to hurt us: so sin & death, having lost their stings in Christ Jesus, do not cease at all, even in the height of the parching heat of our consciences, to make a murmuring: and with furious storms of temptations to terrify us and our consciences, albeit they never sting us. Wherefore if Satan charge our consciences with sin (if we can feel the things a little before mentioned in our consciences) let us bid him not tell us what we have been, but what we would be. For such we are by imputation, as we be in affection, and he is now no sinner, who for the love he beareth to righteousness, would be no sinner. Such as we be in desire and purpose, such we be in reckoning and account with God, who giveth that true desire and holy purpose to none but to his children whom he justifieth. Neither undoubtedly can the guiltiness of sin break the peace of our conscience, seeing it is the work of another who hath commended us as righteous before God, and saved us. It must indeed be confessed, that our own works will do nothing in the matter of justification, which from Christ, and in Christ is freely given unto us: it must be granted, that in our selves we are weaker, than that we can resist the least sin, so far off is it, that we can encounter with the law, sin, death, hell, and Satan: and yet in Christ we are more than conquerors over them all. When the law accuseth thee because thou hast not observed it, send it to Christ, and say; there is a man that hath fulfilled the law: to him I cleave, he hath fulfilled it for me, and hath given the fulfilling of it unto me; I have nothing to do with thee, I have another law which striketh thee down, even the law of liberty, which through Christ hath set me free. For my conscience which henceforth serveth the law of grace, is a glorious Prince to triumph over thee. If sin come and would have thee by the throat, send it to Christ, and say; as much as thou mayst do against him, so much right thou shalt have against me. For I am in him, and he in me: wherefore (O sin) I am righteous through my Christ, which is become sin, to free me which have been a condemned sinner. If death creep upon thee and attempt to devour thee, say unto it; Christ hath overcome thee, and opened unto me the gates of everlasting life: thou wouldest have killed him with the sting of sin, but the same being of no force, thy purpose (O death) hath failed, and he being my life, is become thy death. If Satan summon thee to answer for thy debts, send him also to Christ, and say; that the wife is not suable, but the husband: enter thine action against Christ mine husband, and he will make thee sufficient answer: who then shall condemn us? or what judge shall daunt us? since God is our Judge and acquitteth us? and Christ was condemned, and justifieth us? he is our judge, that willeth not the death of a sinner; he is our man of law, who to excuse us, suffered himself to be accused for us. O gluttonous hell, where is thy defense? O cruel sin, where is thy tyrannous power? O ravening death, where is thy bloody sting? O roaring lion, why doest thou fret and fume? Christ my Law fighteth against thee, O law, & is my liberty; Christ fighteth against thee, O sin, and is my righteousness: Christ fighteth against thee O devil, & is my Savior: Christ fighteth against thee O death, and is my life. Thou didst desire to pave my way to the burning lake of the damned: but contrary to thy will, thou art constrained to lift up the ladder whereby I must ascend into the new Jerusalem. Wherefore if we shall find our selves forsaken of God, so as we perceive nothing but matter of despair, let us still hold our own, & in the certainty of our faith stay our selves, since Christ is given us of God, that he might extinguish sin, triumph over the law, vāquish death, overcome the devil, & destroy hell, for our only comfort and consolation. But peradventure some will say, my faith is weak and cold, and my conscience is as a flaming lamp and burning furnace: I fear the Lord will still pursue me with his wrathful indignation: Thou doest well to fear; but fear and sin not.

For fear which subdueth the security of the flesh is in all most requisite, in that the weaker we are in our selves, the stronger we are in God. But that fear is dangerous, which hindereth the certainty of faith, in that it encourageth our enemy more fiercely to set vpō us; when we (coming into the campe) will cast away our armor especially which should defend us. Comfort thyself, the Lord will not quench the smoking flax, nor break the bruised reed, he looketh not on the quātitle, but on the quality of our faith. For as a good mother doth not reject her child because through some infirmity it is weak, feeble, and not able to go alone, but rather doth pity and supporte it, least peradventure it should fall, and recompenseth that with motherly affection, which in her child is wanting by occasion: in like manner the Lord God our most gracious father doth not cast us off, because through our imperfections we are unable or afraid to draw nearer to the throne of grace; but rather pitieth us, and seeing us a far off desirous to come unto him, meeteth us by the way, and by grace and strength of his own hand, directeth our steppes unto his kingdom. And as he which freely purposeth to give a wedge of gold, will not withdraw his gift because the hand of him that should receive it, is weak, troubled with the gout, palsy, or leprosy, so that by any means, though in great weakness, he be able to hold it; even so the Lord purposing in free mercy to bestow on us an immortal weight of glory, will not deprive us of it, though many filthy blemishes have polluted and weakened our faith, so that in any small measure we be able to take hold of his promises: neither are we to look for the perfection of faith, because we never believe as we ought; but rather on that which the Gospel offereth and giveth, and on God's mercy and peace in Christ: in whose lap if we can lay our heads with Saint John, then we are in felicity, security, and perfect quietness. Contrariwise there be some, who (notwithstanding that a tormented conscience is a stinging Serpent, that it were much better that all the creatures rose up against us, everyone bringing their bane; then once to come before the dreadful face of God) are so blockish that they are wholly resolved into hardness. If they be pricked with sickness, they cry alas; if they be pinched with poverty, they can complain: but as for the torment of mind they cannot skill of it: And even to talk of a bruised, contrite and broken heart, is a strange language. For proof whereof our consciences are rocked asleep, so that not one amongst a thousand knoweth what it is to be pressed and harrowed with the rake of God's judgments. But blessed are they that to their own salvation feel this in their bodies, whilst sin may be both punished and purged. For though God spare us for a time, yet we know what he keepeth for our ende. Wherefore it is the best for us to run to the Lord in this life with a troubled mind, least we tarry till the Lord have locked us up with the heavy fetters of desperation, when he shall summon us to the bar of his judgment in the sight of his Angels, and impanelling the great inquest of his Saints against us, shall denounce our fearful and final sentence of eternal condemnation; for we see many that have been careless & have made good cheare all their life long, yea, and when men have labored to make them feel the judgment of God, they have turned all to mockery, but their iolity the Lord hath so abated when they draw towards death, that instead of resting & sporting (whereunto they had been given) they have felt the terror of death, hell, and damnation, and lapping up their joys in final desperation, have forced out cursings against their filthy pleasures. Wherefore if we in the tempest of our temptations will sails a right course, neither shrinking nor slipping into the gulf of desperation, neither battering our bark against the rock of presumption; let us in a contrite spirit cry unto the Lord: Have mercy upon me, heal my soul, for I have sinned against thee, forgive all mine iniquities, and heal all mine infirmities. Thou healest those that are broken in heart, and bindest up their soars▪ why art thou cast down my soul, and why art thou disquieted within me, wait on God, for I will yet give him thanks, he is my present help, and my God. Yet my soul keep thou silence before God, of him cometh my salvation, he is my strength, therefore I shall not much be moved. His mightines is enough to give me courage, yea and shall be even when I am forlorn, I know that the diminishing of my body, goods, friends, or any other thing is a calling of me to that which never shall diminish nor decay, I believe that my Lord and my God allureth me daily thither; that I might not doubt that when my body is laid in the grave, and there consumed as it were to nothing, yet notwithstanding my soul resting in the bosom of the Lord, shall return unto me and shall rise to glory: even as it (resting in this life, in the mercies of Christ) did rise to grace: verily I see, & that with joy, that my flesh must go to decay: for look what freshness soever was in it, it diminished day by day. And I need not go far to seek for death, for I feel not so small an infirmity in my body, but the same is unto me a messenger of dissolution. Yet for all this I shall see my God, and when I am covered in the belly of the grave with mouldes, I am assured, that he will reach me his hand to lift me up again to the beauty of his inheritance: so that this small cottage and shed of leaves, being brought to the grave, shall be carried into an incorruptible tabernacle. Thus communing with our own harts, and being still in the peace of a good conscience, concerning our outward sufferings, we shall find that the Lord by his fatherly & loving chastisements, intendeth nothing more than to prove our obedience, as good reason it is that he should, and to confirm our faith, as also is most necessary. How be it still as I said, he useth a fatherly correction, that is, in mercy, measure, and judgment. For as he striketh us down in anger for our sins with the one hand, so he raiseth us up again in love for our salvation with the other hand. For albeit his corrections be wear • some wounds to flesh and blood, yet are they sovereign medicines to the soul and conscience, especially when the Lord giveth us that privilege of his children, that by his holy spirit he doth ouermaster us, least that finally we should be his judge, and he not ours. And for this cause the Lord is often times provoked to put on (as it were) a contrary face, and to lock us up in a prison of adversity, to restrain us from the liberty of our sins, which Satan fain would make us violently to rush into. And surely though the wisdom of the flesh persuadeth us that nothing is better than to be spared, and not to be espied when the Lord calleth us to reckoning; yet the spirit showing our desperate estate, without the sieue of affliction, and boulter of adversity, teacheth us that we cannot of all the blessings of God sufficiently esteem this, being the mother of humility, and nurce of true repentance. Again, the Lord often by inward temptations and outward crosses, draweth us from the stake of security and untowardness to good works; least in time we should loose the experience of our knowledge and faith in Christ, and seek some easier kind of life for flesh and blood. Neither can we truly repent, until by some cross we know this world to be a place of sorrow, and not of mirth and delight. For so long as we make our prosperity a bulwark to beat down all harms, we are to look for adversity to beat down the high sails of our proud hearts, whereby we gad after our own lusts, and leave the anchor of peace, which is our trust in God. Let us learn then, when the world beginneth to favor us, and we have as it were an hundredth thousand soldiers, to bear us up, not to be secure; for there is nothing more easy for a man, than for to make himself believe that he shall always continue in happy estate, and think he shall die in the nest. But we must be as birds on a bough, to remove at God's pleasure, and that without resistance when the Lord shall visit us. And because we are given too much to think that we have the things in our own right, which we hold of the free goodness of God: we are taught in affliction how heinous unthankfulness it were to bind the Lord continually to entertain us in this life at so full charge and cost, without respect of his free and undeserved gifts: or to hold plea against, and sue him, as it were, by an obligation, at whose hands we ought to beg daily; and at whose gate we receive all our maintenance: or to make a rent charge of all that which he giveth of his free liberality. Thus in the ende we challenge God's gifts as our own, and make account to have their company to the grave, whereby we provoke the Lord often to prove to our faces, that all that we have is but lent and borrowed. Let us then have such an eye to every blow, that whensoever the Lord shall lay any cross upon us, we be ready to receive it, and to yield up our bonds unto him, the condition whereof is, that we be ready to remove whensoever he pleaseth, knowing that God's providence forceth us always to the best, and as most may make for the hastening of our souls to our everlasting in heritance. Let us learn not to reckon without our host, and that we hold our prosperity of the Lord not in fee simple, but as tenants at will, that is, from day today, resigning to God the sovereignty of revoking us when it pleaseth him. Thus it becometh the Lord to change our estate, that we become not snared in the gifts of prosperity, and become so foolish as not to keep on our way to the heavenly life. Our natural inclination is to forget that we are on earth as pilgrims; to leap up into the clouds, and to promise unto our selves the whole course of our lives to be in prosperity: and so long as God letteth us alone at our case, we take our selves (as it were) to be petty God's. But when we see our selves shut up, and know not what will be the ende of our misery, finding our selves to be entertained in this life but as journey men, waged for the present day, but not knowing what will become of us the day following: we desire to take our rest in the bosom of God's providence, and so much we strike our sails the lower, when the Lord proclaimeth war with our secure prosperity: which persuadeth us that we shall live forever, and driveth us from bethinking us of our miseries and frailties. Wherefore let us cut out our prosperity by the pattern of humility, and in our best estate, put our selves in readiness to suffer adversity, and when we are well, to look for worse, and keep a good watch when God handleth us most gently, that in abounding we may foresee our wants, in health our sickness, and in prosperity our calamity: for concerning things of this life the faithful are to stand in a doubt, that that which they hold with one hand, may be taken away with the other. We must not think that we shall ever enjoy our liberty, & that we shall see no cross: but we must lay open our selves to receive stripes from the Lord, knowing that our least cries will stay his greatest scourges. Let us look to be assaulted, but not unmeasurably, because God will assist us. Let us look to fall, but on our knees, because God's hand doth hold us up Let us look to be humbled, but in mercy, because the Lord sustaineth us, & as we are assured, where mercy hemmeth us about on every side, it is our part continually to confess before the Lord, that we ever give new occasions, that he should follow us with new punishments, and that our sins do often shake off the wings of God's mercy, under the which we have been long comforted. For God's children acknowledge themselves without ceasing, that God hath rods in a readiness (though they see no present evil) to beat them from their sins: & bend all their care, how they may rather suffer adversity to God's glory, than to sleep securely in prosperity unto their own pleasure. Now when the Lord doth, as it were hold us on the rack for these causes before named, we must pray unto him, that howsoever he keepeth us in the press) we may have a breathing while to consider our days spent in pleasure, and to examine our unthankfulness, which shutteth up the door of God's mercy from us. And because our afflictions are the sorer when they come the nearer to the soul, we may with our selves conclude to hold on the way of our thorough-fair: & though we see nothing but thorns of temptations, and briers of evil affections, so as we must be fain to leap over hedges, rocks & ditches; yet must we not cease to continue in God's service. For if that were not, what trial & examination of our faith should there be, were we as in a fair meadow, that we might run on along by the water side in a shade, and that there might be nothing but pleasure and joy all our life time, who could vaunt that he had served God with good affection? But when God doth send us things clean contrary to our desires, that we must be fain one while to enter into a quagmire, and another while to march upon ragged rocks and stones; then we shall have the use of a well exercised mind in prayer, in repentance, and in contempt of this life. And why doth the Lord sometime suffer us to pine away, and to languish in continuance of grief, seeing that he could clean rid us at the first? doubtless to this end, that we might confess his mercy more freely, and bite of his justice more sharply. Let us now learn to hold all the passions of impatiency in bondage, both by comparing our evils with the wonderful mercies of God, and our small sufferings with the intolerable conflicts of our forefathers. For there is no greater cause of our disparing under the cross, thā when Satan persuadeth us, that never any were handled so roughly: or else would bear us in hand, that although God afflicted the faithful that have been before us, yet they were not so weak as we. But let us remember that God hath so pinched his servants, even them whom he loved, and whose welfare was dear and precious in his sight, and hath often brought them to such extremities, as they were not able to look up anymore, nor wist how to speak, nor how to hold their peace. Wherefore least our infirmities should ouermaster us, and when temptations are fierce upon us, we know not where to become: let us call to mind the Saints of God, who were constrained with sighs and groans to stoop under the hand of God; whose martyrs and tormented children ought to be our looking glasses, to the end that by them we may learn, that according as God dealeth forth the gifts of the spirit, thereafter doth he send greater afflictions, both to make them the more esteemed, and also to cause a more plentiful fruit of their faith. How did God deal with Abraham, not a common man, but rather an Angel, the tenth part of whose sufferings would make a stout heart to quail? How was David the servant of God exercised in God's school, who felt all God's darts, and had all his arrows shot at him? Thus it is requisite, that God's graces should not be idle in his children, but set on work by afflictions, whereby they may be known in due time and place. How did God play the Lion with Hezekiah, who (as with paws and teeth) bruised and crushed his bones; not that we may accuse God of cruelty, but that we may see with what anguish the Lord doth sometimes exercise his holy servants, and with what patience he doth arm them: who notwithstanding his vehement trials, do stay themselves upon God, accusing themselves, saying: I will bear the wrath of the Lord, because I have sinned against him: and excusing the Lord with all humbleness with David, Psal. 114. I know O Lord that thy judgments are right, and that thou hast afflicted me justly, &c▪ It is much available to mortification and Christian patience also, to occupy our hearts in the house of mourning, even in our greatest banqueting, and to betake our selves unto some serious meditation of adversity, when present pleasures would most divorce us from the remembrance thereof. So though we have much in possession, we shall have little in affection: and when God doth most advance us, we shall fear our wants of humility: and then especially be ransacking our infirmities, when the Lord for our trial enricheth us most with his benefits. For if the Lord God by multiplying his mercies increaseth our account; we are often to suspect, to call to judgment, and to arraign our selves for the using of God's creatures; who often giveth that in judgment, which he might deny us in mercy: and often waineth us from some things in his love, which he might give unto us in his anger.

THE MARKES OF A RIGHTEOVS MAN.

T He righteous man hath three privileges. First, that he shall never perish, though he be oftentimes afflicted: yea if there be a number of them, the Lord will spare the habitation of their place for their sake. Secondly, if the Lord be minded to bring destruction upon a land o • country: he will first deliver the righteous eitner by death, or by conveying them to some other place: as here he doth L • t and is the children of Israel, when Pharaoh was overthrown. Thirdly, the Lord will not so much punish for the wicked, as favor for the go • lie sake; and if they fall into the same temporal punishments, even thereby shall the righteous be brought nearer to heaven, but the godless shall be thrown down to hell, even as with the same flail is beaten ch • ff • to be burnt, and pure corn to be preserved.

Some think that there be none righteous: which cometh to pass either through ignorance, or because they see the sins and loose righteousness of others: but then the Scriptures should be false which calleth some righteous. Then Christ should have died in vain, and there should be no salvation, because none are s • ued but the righteous.

Some think that righteousness is an inherent quality, & that through works we may be perfectly righteous, as of old the Pelagians, & Puritans, and now Papists, and Family of love. But the testimonies of Scriptures which affirm that all our righteousness is as a stained clothe, and that we are not able to answer one of a thousand, &c. and also the sins of those who in the word are counted righteous, do prove the contrary: for Abraham sinned after he had been pronounced righteous, in distrusting God's providence, in going in unto his maid, in lying himself, and causing his wife to sin: so Lot in departing from Abraham, to whom the covenant was made, and without a just cause, in being loath to depart from Sodom; in lying with his daughters: so David, Job, Zechariah, Noah, Peter, and the Publican sinned, who were all justified by saith as Abraham was, who believed in God.

Some as a mean between these, do magnify the righteousness which is by faith without works, but in the mean while live vngedly: but these have imagined a kind of righteousness common to the dissolute Protestants, which shall better be discovered, when it is set down what a righteous man is.

True righteousness is by imputation: for the obtaining whereof, we must first feel and acknowledge our selves void of all righteousness, & full of all unrighteousness, by reason of our sins. And this caused Paul to count all his former righteousness as dung.

Secondly, that we feeling the weight of our sins, desire to leave them, and be freed from the punishment due unto them.

Thirdly, that by faith we fly unto Christ, seeking to have his righteousness imputed unto us, and our sins not imputed, but clean forgiven us. So was the Publican, and Abraham: so is Christ sent a Mediator unto us, when we are wounded, by the sword of the word. Now, although being thus justified in Christ, there do yet sin remain in us: for all that it must not reign in our mortal bodies: but we must do the work of our father Abraham, walking in uprightness of heart before the Lord, as it was required of Abraham: in which sense David saith, In whose spirit there is no guile: as if he should say, his sins did still remain, if he walked not uprightly. This uprightness of heart may be tried by four special notes: first, that we love all good things as well as one, and hate all sins as well as one, and that both in our selves and others: so that although we cannot perform all, yet we will have respect unto all the Commandments, Psalm. 119. 6. Whereof Saint James giveth a reason when he saith, that he that commanded the one, commanded the other: whereby he discovereth the hypocrisy of those, which had religion in respect of persons, and such is the religion of Papists, and of the Family of love.

Such was the religion of Herod, and of the young man that would follow Christ: but when the one was reproved of his whoredom, and the other bidden sell all that he had, they would be Disciples no longer, although before they would do many things gladly, and be great professors.

Such is the state of many Protestants, who will condemn whoredom, & yet be covetous, yea they will do great things, but will not be brought to glorify God in their callings: which showeth their religion to be vain, & their hearts full of hypocrisy. And yet this rule may have exceptions: for we do neither know all good nor all evil at the first, much less love the one and hate the other, as we ought: yea, we see many sins which as yet we cannot come out of as we should. Again, there may be sins of frailty, although not of presumption: but yet if we be not grieved for these, and displeased with our selves, when by any one we are overtaken, and hate sin, and love goodness, when the Lord doth reueile it unto us; we keep an evil conscience, and our corruption shall be discovered: for in that measure we like of sin, in that measure is hypocrisy in us: and if the oftener we sin the more we be grieved, it is a sign of uprightness, and then there is hope to recover the fall, for this worketh a care and strife to come our of sin, and at the last a recovery: but in the hypocrite contrary.

The second note is, that we have a single care to please and glorify God in all our doings, and to approve our selves unto him without hope of reward, though trouble do come upon us for it, and that only because we would please God and glorify his Name, and for the same cause eschew evil.

The want of this caused Christ to reprove the Scribes and Pharisees, for fasting and prayer, because they did it to be seen of men. The want hereof condemneth the Papists and Family of love in all their works, because they do them, that thereby they may be righteous. When justification was given to works, then men would build Churches, Abbeys, &c. and these things were greatly praised of men: but now, when good works are commanded, not to merit, but for God's glory, as to be signs and seals of righteousness, few are brought to do them, which is a sign that there are but a few righteous men upon earth.

This rule also hath his exceptions, for we shall see much rebellion in our flesh, and hypocrisy withal: but we must note what is our chiefest drift, and what beareth the chiefest sway within us, and of that shall we be named, as is the use in other things, as to be of this or that complexion, because that or this is the principal, and it is called leavened bread, though water be mixed with it: so that if our consciences do witness with us that our chief care is to please God, then is our heart upright with God, though hypocrisy be joined with it. For it is one thing to do a thing for hypocrisy, & another thing mixed with hypocrisy: one thing for vain glory, and another thing mixed with vain glory. If we could see nothing by our selves, yet herein must we not justify our selves: and when we see infirmities joined with our special care, we must have care to leave them, & strive thereunto, so that we yield not our selves to them, but rather they lead us away captives, and whensoever we see them, to behold Satan in them, and therefore hate them, and though they buffet us, yet still pray, and arm our selves against them, as Paul did.

The third note is, that we never content our selves in our selves, nor in the things that we have done, but still go forward to leave sin, and draw near to God. And this may be seen in Abraham▪ and is set down in the Proverbs. And Paul saith, As many as are perfect are thus minded. Here then are disclosed those that either stay in the beginnings, or else slide back when they are gone somewhat forward. For if we have tasted once of the good grace of God, and then turn back from it, it is impossible to be renewed by repentance, whereof there are two causes: first, because they are always learning and never the better, Isaiah. 28. where the Prophet rebuketh, saying: Line upon line, and precept upon precept. Secondly, because that if they attain to knowledge: yet do they not build themselves thereupon to keep a good conscience: & thus experience teacheth in those that become heretics. This is so fearful to the godly, that they had rather fall into all the miseries of Job than into this Apostasy. We must then go on still, giving God praise that we have done something, and yet not so much to be puffed up thereby, as sorrowful that we have not done so much as we ought, so that we look upon our sins to humble us, & upon that good which the Lord hath wrought in us, to be thankful▪ But yet sometimes the children of God see they go not forward, but as it were linger, yea they sometimes fall into gross sins: for the first, if we strive not against it, mislike not our selves for it▪ nor mourn because it is so with us, we are in danger that the Lord will bar us out. And if he punish those that go not forward thus, what shall be to those that fall back? But if we mislike our selves for our sins, & mourn striving against them, we may take sound comfort therein. And for the second, the Lord turneth the falls of his children to their faster going forward and growing up: for so they see their corruption more, wherewith being humbled, (though it be a very fearful thing for Christians to fall into any gross sin) they fly faster unto Christ. And again, their fall maketh them more wary, and also to run forward the faster, as they that run in a race, or travel in a journey, being letted either by fall or by company, do afterward make more speed least that they should not obtain their purpose. David after his fall brought to see his original corruption, craved more earnestly for the spirit to be renewed in him. The children of God then fall, but the Lord revealeth it and they rise again: but the hypocrites and wicked continue still, and go from evil to worse, because salvation is given to none but to those that love it.

The fourth note is, that we love righteous men, and righteous things, as well in others as in our selves. Righteous men, that is, either such as are afore us, our equals, or inferiors. We must love them that are afore us, that we may follow them, and be like unto them, and not to please our selves in our selves, and therefore must we be desirous to keep their company, whether they be preachers or professors: for those that love learning, will delight in the company of those that are learned: and if we love good men because they are so, it is a good sign we do much more love God who is goodness itself; as if the father love the schoolmaster for the sons sake, it is a sign he loveth his son much more. And if this be so, it will restrain us that we neither envy, nor yet despise the gifts we see in others: but rather give God the glory for them, and seek to profit by them: contrary to • ll this is the unrighteous and vain-glorious man.

That we might the rather do this, Christ hath promised a reward, He that receiveth a Prophet, &c. Yea, we see that worldly men have been blessed for the godly's sake, as Laban for Jacob: Putiphar for Joseph: and Nebuchadnezzar for Dani • ls sake; much more are the godly blessed; as Abraham and L • t received Angels in shape of men, had the plague revealed to them and escaped. So Ebed-Melech and Baruch, had their life for a prey, because of Jeremiah the Prophet; So did the Shunamitish woman receive singular blessings for entertaining Elijah. Contrariwise, the man that heareth not instruction, nor loveth righteous men, but contemneth his betters, is high in his own eyes, he hath no righteousness in him. This hath also a punishment, as hath been seen upon the Jews, who killed the Prophets, but their children have built their sepulchers: So we can think well of many when they are gone, but when they are present with us, & we might receive some profit by them, we cannot digest them. But we must think better of others then of our selves, yet approving our selves both to God and to others also, as Paul doth.

We must love our equals, both to confirm them, and by them to be confirmed our selves. The true sensible feeling of our own wants will move us to this duty, that we may have the like of them.

We must love our inferiors, to instruct them, and draw them forward. And because our callings will not suffer us to do this to all, we must first begin with them that are nearest us, as Fathers, their wives & children: Masters, their servants: Princes, their subjects. Thus did Abraham teach his Family, otherwise he could not have looked for the performance of the covenant, whereof one ende was this, that he should teach his family. This belongeth to us, and all Christians, who being righteous have the covenant made to them and their seed: and therefore must they be taught and instructed, that they may keep God's ordinances and observe his laws. The small practice of this showeth, that few men have the warrant of salvation in themselves. This love goeth further abroad to others, as to kinsfolks: for the wicked take great pains to make many like themselves, which may be a shame to Christians, if they strive not daily to win some. And that we may do this, there is a reward: He that converteth sinner shall shine as the stars. But if he be condemned that spilleth the body, and suffereth the very A • le to fall, how much more shall he be that loseth a soul? We must love all righteous things in others, as in our selves. We must take heed of unrighteous men, and separate our selves from them: but this must be in respect of their sins and corruption, whereby GOD is dishonored; not in respect of their person which God hath made, which after this sort may be tried. If we do not brute abroad their faults, but even mourn for them, and their salvation. So did Lot mourn, and those are marked out which wept for the iniquity of the time, and were preserved. In respect of God's glory to be angry, but in respect of men to lament: this is a true zeal. And so CHRIST was angry▪ and wept over Jerusalem. Yet here must be considered, the manner of offending; for some sin of malice, and some sin of infirmity. Thus must we hate all unrighteous things, and mourn for them, and not only for them, but also for the abuse of those things, which in their own nature are lawful.

SWEETE AND SVRE SIGNES OF ELECTION, TO THEM THAT ARE BROVGHT LOW.

• 1 A Cleering of judgment, conceiving of the truth, and true meaning of the Scriptures, making for us, or against us.
• 2. A rebuking of sin inwardly, a poverty of spirit from thence, and a mourning therefore, Matth: 5. 3. 4.
• 3. A meekness of spirit, to cast our selves down at Christ's feet, Matth: 5. 4.
• 4 An hungering after the righteousness which is in CHRIST, and a pricing and esteeming it above all earthly things. Philip: 3. 8. 9.
• 5. A musing upon, and a desire to think and speak of heavenly things.
• 6. A conflict of the flesh and spirit, and therein, by practice, the power of the spirit geting the upper hand, Rom: 7. 23.
• 7. A sowing to the spirit, by the use of the means, as of the word, prayer, &c.
• 8. A purpose unfeigned, upon strength received, of vowing ones self wholly to the glory of God, and good of our brethren.
• 9. A resignation of our selves into God's hands.
• 10. An expecting of the daily increase of our souls health, & our bodies resurrection.
• 11. The forgiving of our enemies.
• 12. An acknowledging of our offenses, with a purpose truly to leave them.
• 13. A delight in God's Saints.
• 14. A desire that after our death the Church of God may flourish and have all peace.
• 15 A spirit without guile: that is, an unfeigned purpose always to do well, howsoever our infirmities put us by it.

These are sure notes of our election: wherein if any be short, yet let him but see into his heart, if he desire and long after these graces, and remember, Nehem, 11. Psalm. 10 • ▪ 18. Psalm. 119 6. 40. 37.

A TREATISE OF A CONTRACT BEFORE MARIAGE.

After prayer he spake as followeth.

T Hat none of us might doubt whether there be just occasion of this manner of our meeting or no; we are to call to mind even from the Heathen, that the light of nature taught them, that there was a solemn promise to be made of the parties that should be married, before they were to be joined in marriage, and that was called the espousage: and therefore we were the more to be blamed, if we should neglect so good a custom, especially being commended to the chosen people of God, as we may gather of his words: for we read that the Lord God made a law concerning the espoused persons, that if they were unfaithful of their bodies, they should be condemned as adulterers, even as well as the married parties. Mary also was affianced unto Joseph, before the solemnising of their marriage. And the use of the Church standeth with good reason: for that the neglect of it is an occasion that many are disappointed of their purposed marriages, because some of them through inconstancy go back. It is very meet also, that they should have some instructions given them concerning the graces and duties that are required in that estate, that they may pray unto the Lord, and so be prepared and made fit to be publicly presented to the congregation afterwards.

Now further as concerning the nature of this contract and espousage, although it be a degree under marriage, yet it is more than a determined purpose, yea more than a simple promise. For even as he which delivereth up the estate of his lands in writing (all conditions agreed upon) is more bound to the performance of his bargain, than he that hath purposed, yea or made promise thereof by word of mouth, although the writings be not yet sealed: even so there is a greater necessity of standing to this contract of marriage, than there is of any other purpose or promise made privately by the parties. These things observed, I purpose (as God shall give me grace) to give some lessons, how you must prepare yourselves to live in the estate of marriage. I will for the help of your memory deal in this sort and order: first briefly going through the Articles of your faith, and then through the Commandments, noting some especial duties fit for this purpose.

As concerning your belief in God the Father, you know (brethren) you must believe in him, as being creator of all things, and also the governor and preserver of the same: you must also understand that he created man according to his own image, and gave him the preeminence & government of the woman, for the help of the man, that he might be furthered in the service of his God. So you must much more look that you be not hindered from the Lord by your wife: for there are many whilst they desire marriage, so long as their hope is deferred they are careful in the discharge of their duty: but afterward once enjoying those things they looked for, they wax more negligent than they were before, greatly dishonoring God by their unthankfulness. And it may be the only fault of man, if he be not helped by his wife to grow in godliness: for I think that even Eve in moning her husband Adam to eat of the forbidden fruit, had been an helper unto him, to bring him acquainted with the malicious enmity of Satan against them both, if according to the great measure of graces he had received from the Lord, he had been more faithful in obeying the will of God, and had wisely rebuked his wife. And again, although the woman was the occasion of sin: yet the force of sin to the corruption of mankind came into the world by the sin of the man. For so the Apostle saith, Rom, 5. As by one man (meaning Adam) sin entered into the world, and death by sin: and so death went over all men, for as much as all men have sinned. So much more the grace of God, and the gift of grace, which is by one man Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. And in the 3. of Genesis we read, that the eyes of the woman were not opened until the man had eaten of the fruit: but so soon as he had eaten, the eyes of them both were opened, & they knew that they had sinned. Therefore I gather thus much, that rebuke should have prevailed more to convert her, than her moving of him to transgress, should have been able to pervert him. I speak not to excuse the woman, for I know the Lord was displeased with her, and for that cause hath laid a special punishment vpō her, in the painful bringing forth of children.

But that I might show the great charge that lieth upon the man, to stay the corruptions of the woman, by reason of the authority which the Lord hath given him over her▪ which I would have you (brother) diligently to consider of. And you my sister must take profit, by calling to mind, that this was one end of your creation, that you should glorify God in being an helper to your husband: therefore take heed that you be not a hinderer unto him, to trouble him or to vex his heart, whereby he should be less f • uitfull in his calling: but be you cheerful towards him, so that although he should have little comfort in all other things, yet he may find great cause to rejoice in you. And this you must know, that as it is required of your husband to seek for wisdom to be able to govern you: so the Lord requireth of you to be subject unto him, remembering also that as God hath enjoined you silence in the congregation, so you must seek for instruction at his mouth in your private chamber.

Another thing I would have you both to consider of in this point of your belief, is faith in God's providence. And mark that well I shall say unto you: for it is a special thing, and I know it shall do you good, if God bless it unto you: for if you be assured in your hearts that it was the Lord who in his gracious providence brought you thus together, you shall be comforted against all troubles and hindrances that shall by any means be raised up against you. For this is the nature of Satan to bring men and women to this doubt: and when they once yield unto it, what trouble and what strife doth he work betwixt them? For whereupon ariseth that impatiency of spirit that we see to be in many, in murmuring, in chiding, in cursed speeches, & much like unquietness? doth it not come of this, because they have not a reverend persuasion that the Lord in his providence as by his own hand joined them in that near bond and conjunction together? Therefore my good brother and sister, as you would continue and increase in much love and peace one towards another, mark (I say) this point diligently: for it shall be a very comfortable stay unto you both, whatsoever should fall out afterwards, contrary to that you looked for: as if there should be any disagreement in your seu • rall dispositions and natures: or if you should fall into sicknesses, into any diseases, or such like trials, you remembering that this was the Lord's doing, you may be more assured that yet for all this, it shall be well in the end, if you be constant in prayer, calling vpō God the Father through faith in Jesus Christ. Now that you may prove unto your own harts that the Lord hath knit you thus together, you must consider that it must needs be the Lord who hath moved the harts of your Christian parents to give their lawful consents unto you in the same, and God in mercy shall give you greater assurance of it, if you mark his dealings with you from time to time.

Now as touching your faith in Jesus Christ, understand that marriage is holy unto them only, whose hearts are sanctified by faith in his name. And although God will always approve his own ordinance, yet it must needs prove hurtful in the end unto them, who call not for his blessing upon the same: and without repentance will turn to their further condemnation. Therefore you are both to examine yourselves diligently herein: & you brother. A. must learn hereby so to love your wife, as Christ Jesus loved his Spouse, his Church: that is to say, even as our Savior Christ is very patient towards it, and by little and little purgeth, wash • h, and cleanseth away the corruption of it: so you must in like manner in all wisdom use the means, and with a patient mind wait for the amendment of anything that you shall find to be amiss in your wife, & that the graces of God's spirit may daily increase in her. Therefore I charge you in the sight of God & his Angels, and as you will answer unto me and the parents of this my sister, before the judgment seat of Christ, that as you receive her a virgin from her parents, so you neglect no duty, whereby her salvation may be furthered, that you may present her pure & blameless, as much as in you lieth, unto Jesus Christ, when he shall call you to account. And do not think that this is a harder charge, thā is meet: for seeing that God hath promised a blessing unto those husbands that are faithful to the converting of their unbelieving wives, how much more then shall you prevail with a Christian daughter, and one (I hope) that hath received the faith as well as yourself? And you my sister, must likewise take heed, that you refuse not to obey your husband, in all things agreeable to God's most holy word. For you must by his ordinance be subject unto him, even as the Church is subject unto Jesus Christ. And as the Church should be but a strumpet, and be unworthy of Christ, and those blessings which he bringeth with him for her, if she should not receive and acknowledge him as her head: so could you not look for any benefit from your husband, unless you should submit yourself unto him, according to the commandment of God. Neither do I thus charge you with any obedience but in the Lord: for if he should require any such thing of you, as should cause you to depart from Christ, I would have you in any case remember that you are principally espoused unto Christ. And herein also you must consider, that there will be special araces of obedience, and modesti • , and goodness looked for of you: not only in respect of your good education, but also because of that help which is now offered unto you. And when the holy Ghost in the Scriptures telleth you, that the believing wife may (through his blessing) win the vnbeli • uing Husband, if so be she walk christianlie in godly conversation with modesty and scare before him: let this encourage you to hope for better success, by all means of dealing towards one that is faithful, and I trust will be willing in all good things to comfort you.

Now thirdly, in that you are taught to believe in God the holy Ghost, it admonisheth you to pray for his teaching, that you may by him be led into all truth, and be further instructed & drawn unto every Christian duty frō time to time. The duties are very many to be gathered out of every article, as also out of the several Commandments: but I will only give you a taste, and touch o • ely someone duty, required of you in everyone of them. In that you believe that there is an universal Church and Communion of Saints, you must be diligent to approve yourselves one to each other, that you are parts and members thereof: and further the gra • es that God hath bestowed upon either of you, must be common in the use thereof to each other: so again, you must sustain the infirmities one of another. Finallie, you must provoke and st • re up o • e another, that your Faith may be strengthened, and yourselves comforted against all other gri • fes, by the assurance you shall have wrought in you concerning the forgiveness of sins, wherein your happiness doth consist: as also in the hope of the resurrection of your bodies, and the continual meditation of eternal life.

We will come now to the Commandments: and first, for the first commandment, which requireth all spiritual service of you that is due unto the Lord, that you steadfastly belie • e in him, love him with all your hearts, and with fear and reverence to call upon his Name, in all things giving thanks, as to him which is the author & giver of every good and perfect gift unto you. You must make the profit of this commandment, that if you will look in truth of heart, to be faithful, loving, and dutiful one to the other, these graces must spring from the other, as being the fountain and well-spring of all life and truth unto them▪ For contrariwise, if you be unmindful of God, he will not suffer you to find the benefits of thes • ▪ one by the other.

The second Commandment, which requireth of you to worship God after the true manner, that he appointeth in his word, teacheth you thus much, that you must nourish your l • e in this estate, by the practice of things whereby he is worshipped and honored of us▪ n • mely, by hearing, and reading of his holy word, and by the use of the Sacraments. For that same that is s • irred up and nourished by this means, is most pure and will longest endure, whe • f ••• thly love soon vanisheth and fadeth away.

In the third Commandment, as you are trusted with the glory of God: so you are charged (b • o • h • r) tha • you abuse not his Name, if you be faithful unto the Lord in seeking his glo • ie, and the advancement of his truth, and of the kingdom of Jesus Christ, preferring it in all things as is meet; then surely will the Lord bless you, and prosper your ways: but if you fall away and slide into any heresy, and so dishonor his Majesty; then will God certainly plague you in his wrath, and he will make that which you desire to have greatest comfort in, turn into a curse upon you. And I would have you remember to this ende, how God the Lord dealt with wicked Amaziah, who for the profaning of God's glory and worship, had the heart of his wife drawn from him, and so to his great reproach became a notorious whore. So likewise my sister, that you dishonor not God, as being a means of withdrawing your husbands heart from the duties of his calling, but nourishing Faith and a good conscience in all things with him: so will the Lord for his own Names sake bless you together. For you shall find it true which he hath spoken: Them that honor me I will honor▪ and them that despise me shall be despised; But beware (I say) that you give no occasion of falling away, or back sliding unto your husband, least God also bring shame upon you by him, by giving him over to some sin. I speak not this, as though I doubted these things, in either of you both: for I hope of better things of you: but in speaking to you, I admonish myself, wishing that we all take heed, that we fall not as the wicked and sinners into the hand of God: for he will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

I will spe • ke nothing of the fourth Commandment, only referring you to that I taught publicly this day, concerning the conscience we ought to have, in the true and spiritual keeping of the same.

The fifth Commandment teacheth you to be obedient, and to relieve and obey your husband. And mark this (Sister) I shall now say unto you: if you had never so many gifts, if you had the wisdom of Ab • gael, and all other graces which are in any woman; yet if you wanted obedience to your Husband, I tell you true that you are nothing worth, and you could have no part in Jesus Christ: who denieth himself to be the governor of any, that will not acknowledge their Husband to be their head. Therefore (Sister) let others do as they list, but be you in the number of those that do fear GOD, and as the daughter of Sara by doing well, who yielded reverence to Abraham, and is commended in the Scripture, for her dutiful speech she always used unto him, calling him Lord, or Sir. Now (Brother) remember that you must so govern, as you must give account of the manner of your government, even unto GOD himself. Besides, where there is greater dignity, there must you know that there are greater graces required: and in ruling well, there are many special duties to be performed. Therefore you must behave yourself wi • ely, least you dishonor yourself, by abusing your authority: for it is a daughter of Israel that is committed unto you, and one that is fellow-hei • e of the same grace in JESUS CHRIST with you. Again, you must consider that a woman is a very frail creature, and may soon be discouraged; when as there ought to be more constancy, and stayednes on your part.

Therefore in the sixth Commandment, God forbiddeth all churlish behavior, all lumpishnes, and all unkindness and discurreous speeches; charging you also to bear with many weaknesses, to the ende they may be most quietly reformed. And you (Sister) are forbidden all fullennesse, and that you also for your part take heed of all bitter speeches, and of naughty names which we hear thrown out, of some women of unquiet spirits: and if you will have your infirmity cured by gentleness, then deal you in like manner towards your husbands. For it cannot be but occasions of unquietness will sometimes be offered on either part: and therefore in many things, you must willingly bear each others burden. Besides this (Sister) there is a duty required in this Commandment, that you take care of the health of your Husband, in dressing meats wholesome for him. And this shall be a means that his heart shall be more bent in all loving affection towards you.

In the seventh Commandment there are many things to be noted, but I can but touch someone or two at this present for want of time: the special use and substance of it is this much: that you live chastely in this estate, and that you keep the marriage bed undefiled; and let me give you both this warning, that you take heed in the beginning, mark what I say, least that which ought to be a means to further chastity, should turn to the hindrance of you. Therefore pray to God to give you grace that you may be soberly affected in all things, and namely, in the use of marriage: and repent of that which is past, if you have any way offended the Lord in this behalf. For many failing in repentance for their former sins, fall afterward unto their uncleanness again. As for you Brother, true love towards your wife, will be a notable stay from all corruptions: this we read of Isaac, Gen: 24. 67. because he loved Rebecca very dearly, he had no more wives but her; albeit in those days (it was a grievous sin) even amongst many of the faithful, they had at once more wives than one. Therefore when you are from her abroad, make a covenant with your eyes, and let not your heart wander after any other, but think upon your own wife, and delight your heart in her continually, and pray earnestly unto God for her, and so will the Lord increase your love unto her, and move her heart also to delight and long after you. So must you sister, that the same blessings may overtake you: as surely if you embrace his fear, and walk in his ways, he will bless you as well in bearing of children, as in other his manifold graces which he hath in store to bestow upon you.

Here also I must by the way admonish you of one other thing, which I had forgotten before, and that is this; your love must spring from that reverence & fear that you must yield unto your husband: for true love is mixed as it were with these two: and this is a special duty, & often repeated in the Scripture, that the wife must fear the Husband. So that you see (Sister) that you must not look to have your Husband at your beck for your love: but you must render due benevolence unto each other. For as the body of the Husband is not his own, but his wives: so is not the woman's her own, but her husbands: for they are both one flesh, as the Scripture doth teach.

Now, if any do object, that this is the way to bring women into bondage, and to be as drudges to their Husbands, if they should in this manner be subject unto them. No, no, it is not so, but the most readiest way to procure unto themselves grace, peace of conscience, and more sweet liberty; whilst they live in obedience to God, and his holy ordinances. And therefore the spirit of God admonisheth all women, that they be not afraid of any such vain terror.

Now further my Brother and Sister, that you may keep your bodies pure and chaste, one for the other, I would counsel you to beware of being alone with any, when there is fear of temptation unto evil: but be careful, that you may always have witness of your Christian behavior: and in keeping company convenient, choose unto yourself such as be most sober and faithful. Well, although there be many more duties, yet I will content myself to go one thing further, that is, that as you seek for continuance and increase of love, so you take heed of jealousy: for although that true love is very earnest, and mixed with godly jealousy; yet there is a wicked jealousy, and that causeth causeless suspicions, which worketh great woe unto such as give credit unto them. Take heed therefore, my Brother and Sister of this, yea though there should seem just cause, yet give not too speedy credit unto them. Now, if you desire to know in your heart, which are ungodly suspicions, know them by this token: for they will make you more negligent in praying one for another, and more slack in performing all other duties of love, one to another,

In the eight Commandment you are charged (Brother) to use all lawful means to provide for the maintenance of your wife in honest estate: else were you worse then an Infidel. But I charge you to take heed, least through distrust in the providence of God, you make shipshracke of a good conscience, using any unjust or unlawful means. And you (Sister) are commanded to be a good housewife, and to keep those things together which you have, and so increase them, as you may from time to time be helpful unto others. For if you should consume and waste things vnprofitablie, you should grieve and trouble the mind of your Husband, who ought to be cased of that care by you. And further, if it should please God to call either of you to suffer persecution in time of trial, the weaker must (for the Lord's cause) give place to the stronger, and desire the Lord to give greater strength: for we must labor for grace, that we may be willing for the Gospel, to forsake all things whatsoever we have.

Out of the ninth Commandment I will give you this rule, that neither of you blaze abroad the infirmities of each other: it is a great enemy to pure love. But if there be need of counsel and help in any matter, then choose a faithful friend with consent, that may be an indifferent judge betwixt you. And again, in any case tell the truth one to another: for it is a thing diligently to be regarded in these our days, when as men and women are so full of policies and subtle fetches, that there is almost no simplicity to be found in any.

In the last commandment, which concerneth wicked motions and thoughts, although there be no consent given unto them, you are to consider that your nature will never be freed from them in this life: therefore you must prepare to prayer, and other heavenly exercises of Faith, to strive continually against them.

Thus I will end, beseeching God for Christ Jesus sake to give you of his spirit, that may teach you in these things, and enable you to further duties agreeable to his helic w • ll, to the glory of his name, and your everlasting comfort.

O Lord God dear Father, for thy well-beloved Son our Saviors s • ke, make us thankful for this thy gracious providence towards us. Oh Lord forgive all our sins, and keep us pure both in soul & body: for thine own Names sake write these instructions in our hearts, and give us grace to make practice of them in the whole course of our liu • s: • uide us in all things dear Father, by the grace of thy good spirit, and let the merciful eye of thy fatherly providence watch over us continually, that we may be comforted in thy ways, and quickened always to give thee immortal praise, and that through thy dear Son Jesus Christ our Lord and only Savior. Amen.

After the exhortation and prayer, he asked the parties to be contracted, these two questions.

1, Of their consents of parents.

After their answer of their parents consent, to make a faithful promise of marriage one to another, at such time as their parents could agree upon it, they were charged to keep themselves chasle, until the marriage be sanctified by the public prayers of the Church: for otherwise many marriages have been punished of the Lord, for the uncleanness that hath been committed betwixt the contract and the marriage.

2. Whether they ever were precontracted?

Then he charged them, saying: I charge you, as by authority from Jesus Christ, in whom you look to be saved, that having the consent of your parents, and received these precepts, that (I say) ye labor to grow in knowledge, and in the fear of God. And now as in the sig • t of God (with all such le • itie as of others is used) you must make before the Lord a contract, which is far more then a promise: and that on this manner their hands being joined. • . R. do promise to thee F. that I will be thine husband, which I will confirm by public marriage, in pledge whereof I give thee mine hand. In like manner doth the woman to the man. Then after the prayer the parties are dismissed.

A TREATISE OF THE SABBATH.

I T is written Exod. 20. 8. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it • olie, &c: Dearely bel • ued in the Lord, there is no Commandment of God's part more urged, and of ou • parts less observed, then this one of the Sabbath: wherefore with zeal to God's glory, and love unfeigned unto yourselves, I have endeavored in that measure and manner that God hath enabled me to entreat of this argument. The necessary use whereof we shall more plainly perceive, if we do wisely consider either the lamentable inconveniences which accompany the want of the pure understanding thereof: or the manifold commodities, which ensue the right embracing of the same.

The inconveniences are partly to be observed in the wicked, and partly to be noted in the children of God. In the wicked who either are seduced by false doctrine, or else which are careless of true doctrine. They that are deceived by false religion, be either Papists on the one side, the Families of love with such like heretics on the other side: whereof the one, that is the Papists, make the Sabbath day but an ordinance, and ceremony of the Church, and therefore observe it, but as a thing taken up and retained by the Church of Rome: as also they do many other holy days in the year. The other seeing no further into it, than as it is an ordinance and ceremony, and thinking it to contain nothing moral, cry out against it, as willing to have it wholly abrogated, seeing all ceremonies have had their end in Christ: alleging, though nothing to the purpose, that God is a spirit, and will be worshipped in spirit and in truth: and therefore the observation of a day is nothing available to his worship. Again, what credit it hath in them that are careless of religion, all men may see. Tush (say these men) the Sabbath is too • ewish and full of superstition: and therefore unto them it is all one with other common holy days, saving that peradventure they had rather have it, than want it; not for any love of religion, but for easing of their flesh, and the more in-glutting themselves with carnal pleasure▪ by means whereof they make it a day of the world, not a day of the Church; a time rather dedicated to the pampering of the flesh, than sincerely consecrated to the building up of the soul and spirit. In the children of God otherwise well instructed, have also arisen many scruples concerning this matter, how it is ceremonious, & how it is not: which kind of men keep the Sabbath not as gross heretics, and yet not as careful observers, by reason that they are not thoroughly taught in it, nor fully persuaded of it. Wherefore we may see how needful this doctrine is, yea although we had no care of them, that are not in the Church; yet in respect of them of whom we have most care, being in the Church of God with us. And this necessity we shall also observe, if in truth we mark the several commodities, which proceed from the right understanding hereof. For seeing the Sabbath day is the school day, the fair day, the market day, the feeding day of the soul, when men purely knowing the use of it, separate it wholly from other days, they shall see how they may recover themselves from sins already past▪ arm themselves against sin to come, grow in knowledge, increase in faith, and how much they shall be strengthened in the inner man. Wherefore in the book of God, when the Lord will urge the observation of the whole law, he often doth it under this one word of keeping the Sabbath. Again, when the Prophets sharply rebuke the people for their sins, they particularly lay before them, how the Sabbaths of the Lord are broken. And to speak the truth, how can a man lie long in the liking of sin, who embraceth this doctrine in conscience, who willingly would have his sins discovered, his conscience vnripped, the judgments of God against his sins threatened, whereby he might come to a loathing, & grow to a further misliking of his sins daily? Sure it is indeed, that as in other things, so in this, the ceremonial use little availeth. Howbeit, if for the ceremonial use of the Sabbath, because many so use it, therefore we should leave it, we might as well by the same reason put out of the doors of the Church the administration of the Sacraments, the making of prayer, the preaching of the word, because the most part of men use these things for a fashion: neither is it the question which we have in hand, what men do, but what they ought to do in the observation of the Sabbath. In the setting down whereof, this order doth offer it self to be observed: first to speak of the commandment it self, and then of the reasons thereof. The commandment as we see, is delivered both affirmatively and negatively, whereas all other the commandments are but either affirmatively, or negatively expressed: so that where it is said, the Sabbath day keep holy, the holy use of the Sabbath is flatly and straightly urged: where it is added, in it thou shalt not do any work, the irreligious breach of the same is plainly restrained. The reasons be in number four. The first is included in the word remember, and is drawn from the end, which is thus much in effect: Wilt thou worship me purely, and love thy neighbor unfeignedly? then observe this one thing, which I have therefore placed indifferently between those commandments which concern mine own honor, and the comfort of thy brethren. The second reason is derived from the authority of the lawgiver, whereby the Lord urgeth our obedience, and is expressed in these words, the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. The third is inferred of the equity of this law: wherein the Lord dealeth with men as it were by conference, and disputeth by plain reason, that justly we cannot deny him the seventh for his own glory, who hath not denied us six days to travel in our own affairs. And this is gathered when he saith, Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work: but the seventh day, &c. The fourth and last reason is borrowed from proportion of the Lord's own example, that as in six days he made all things, and in the seventh ceased from creating, though not from preserving them: so in six days we may have a natural use of the creatures of God, but on the seventh day we ought to have a spiritual use of them. Under these may be couched another reason derived from the time, wherein the Lord first commanded the Sabbath, which was in man's innocence: so that if before transgression it was an effectual means to keep out sin, then after man's fall it must needs be of force to withstand sin. It may seem the best way to some, first to entreat of the commandment it self, and then of the reasons. Howbeit, because the Lord his wisdom sometime prefixeth the reason, as in the first commandment, and seeing it is a thing of small effect to urge the use to them who are not grounded on the doctrine, and it is hard to overmatch the affection until judgment be convinced: we will first arm the matter with reasons, and then show both how this law is kept, and how it is broken. This order is commended unto us by the holy Ghost, 2. Timoth. 2. 16. and for want of this order, many excellent Sermons have little effect: for where judgment, by the truth is not convinced, there many exhortations fall to the ground: for which cause also the holy use of the Sabbath so little prevaileth with many, in that they are not grounded with judgment in the true knowledge of the same.

But before we come to the particular discourse of the reasons, generally let us consider why this commandment is in words larger, in reasons fuller, than any other commandment. If we take a view of the whole law, we may observe how the Lord hath set down six precepts in many words, and four nakedly in bare words, as the 6. the 7. the 8. and the 9. why then are the first five commandments so appareled with reasons, and the last so dilated by a special amplification; the other four being so brief and so naked? Certainly the Lord and law-giver foresaw, that unto these four, men would easily be brought to yield: and we see how the very Heathen have freely granted them, the Philosophers have fruitfully written of them, all civil righteous men do earnestly maintain them: and to be brief, common honesty counteth him no man that will murder, he is thought beastlike that defileth his body, outward civility condemneth a these, and the common sort of men mislike a backbiter and slanderer. Again, he knew in his eternal wisdom, how the first five would neither in reason so soon be admitted, nor in affection so easily embraced: and therefore to meet with the subtlety of man's nature, and corruption of man's heart, they are set down more piercingly. This we shall see in the first and last commandments of the second table. In the first, when the Lord had commanded honor to be given to parents, he enforceth his commandment with annexing a promise of long life, and why? even judgment herein is much corrupted. For many there are who granting the inconueniencie and vileness of murder, adultery, and false witness bearing, yet deny the necessity & the excellency of Magistracy. Yea, and albeit in judgment many men yield to the reason thereof: yet is not the equity thereof so soon in affection embraced: for experience of all ages proveth, that the corrupt nature of man is most hardly brought to be subject, and these last miserable days can witness the same more especially, wherein men are grown to be without natural affection. Not without cause therefore is this precept fenced with reason.

In the last (where God layeth a more precise rule & straighter charge to the conscience of man, than flesh and blood would willingly bear, because men think it some rigorous dealing to have their least affections arraigned, and their secret thoughts condemned, as willing to have their thoughts not to be called into any court, to hold up their hand at the bar of judgment) he is constrained as it were by particular branches and several articles to set down the law, that we might not find some starting holes to creep out at, and to wring our selves out of the precincts of the same. Yet more evidently doth this appear in all the commandments of the first table, because they are more contrary to the judgment of man merely natural, although he be otherwise never so wise, and the word of truth must only try them: for in the first commandment, the reason is prefixed; in the second, third, and fourth commandments, the reasons are annexed. But here may arise this question, • o wit, why the second and fourth Precepts, are so amplified in words, and strengthened with more reasons than any of the other? Surely herein the Lord declareth, how he plainly foresaw, how amongst the rest these two commandments would find lea •• entertainment, and most be refused. But what shall we say of the Papists, Familists, and Heretics among us in these days: and other men also otherwise of sound judgment, which affirm, that as well the second as the fourth Commandment, is ceremonial: whereof the one would bring into the Church Images, the other profaneness? Wherefore the Lord in his wisdom foreseeing these cavilling wits, prevented their purposes: so that if either they yield not, or make resistance to the truth so manifest, they oppose themselves to the known and open truth, and so make themselves the more inexcusable. We see to acknowledge that there is a God, to honor Father and Mother, to abstain from blood, not to defile our flesh, not wrongfully to oppress, not to be a notorious slanderer; every Papist and natural man guided but by the light of reason, will easily grant. For the wonderful order of the heavens, the continual course of the Sun, Moon, and stars, the outgoings of the mornings and euenings declare there is a God. Reason persuadeth, how the things in the world must needs be governed, and that we owe love unto him by whom they be guided. Nature teacheth that men's lives must be maintained: common civility abhorreth adultery, oppression and backbiting. But if ye ask how this God is to be worshipped, and what times we must sanctify to that use: we shall see how many Countries, so many religions; how many men, so many devises. Thus we see how necessary it was that the Lord should provide for his own glory, and captivate all man's inventions, se • ing all these Commandments do most fight against the reason of man, and by reason have most been oppugned. So in the pure observing of these, consisteth the sincere keeping of the rest of them. For how shall we know how to walk in pure worship with an upright heart before the Lord? how shall we give him the honor due unto his glorious name? how shall we be instructed rightly and reverently to deal with the dignity of our brethren, faithfully with their lives, purely with their bodies, righteously with their goods, or tenderly with their credit; but by those ways and rules which the Lord hath prescribed in his word? and when should we learn those rules, but at such times as he himself hath appointed and sanctified for that purpose? Again where these two commandments are not rightly understood, there true Religion goeth to wrack. For admit that we should not carefully follow the word of God, how many religions would then start up? Let this be granted, that every man should have what day he would for the worship of God, and then see how many days men would bestow on the Lord.

But let us come to the reasons, whereof the first is drawn from the end of the law, and is partly signified by this word remember, and partly by this word sanctify; Remember the Sabbath day to sanctify it. For this word remember, which is here prefixed, is set down this word observe, in Deuteronomy: wherein we are forewarned to watch the more diligently, and attend more carefully upon this Commandment. In which point we may observe, that whereas all other commandments are simply set down and directly propounded, this alone hath a preface prefixed, which is thus much in effect▪ Wilt thou learn sincerely to worship me according to that substance, manner, and end, which I have prescribed? and wilt thou truly try thy love to me, by exercising the duties of love to thy brethren? then forget not to keep holy the Sabbath, wherein I shall teach thee both how thou shalt walk uprightly in the worship due unto me, and also live obediently in duties concerning man. Again, the nature of the word remember, importeth thus much, that this law was not only graven in the hearts of our forefathers, as were all the other: but also in express words enjoined unto Adam and Eve in Paradise, and manifestly practiced of the Israelites in the wilderness. Exod. 16. and that therefore in this common promulgating of the Law, they should especially remember this, which is not newly given, as are the rest, but rather renewed as being given out before. True it is, that before this solemn publishing of the Law in mount Sinai, this, and all other Commandments were written in the hearts of our fore-Fathers, as we may see in the book of Genes. For the first, we read how the Lord said unto Abraham, Gen. 17. I am GOD all-sufficient, walk before me, and be upright. Concerning the second, Gen. 31. 19. Rachel is said to steal her Fathers Idols. Genes. 35. 2. Jacob reformed his household, and cleanseth it from Idolatry. For the third, we may see how religious they were in swearing. Concerning the fifth, what authority exercised Jacob towards his children? what duties they yield to him both in life and death? How they hated murder, it is manifest in that history. Both Joseph's continency, and the punishment threatened to Abimelech declare, how heinous a thing adultery was unto them. Concerning theft, Laban his quarrelling with Jacob: and Joseph his accusing of the brethrē, do show that it was a thing unlawful. Lastly, Abimelech the king reprehendeth both Abraham, Genes. 20. and Isaac Genes. 26. for bearing false witness, in denying their wives.

Thus we see what efficacy is couched in this preface, in that it showeth both by the precept, and practice given and yielded of our first fathers, how this commandment alone was given in express words: as also that this one precept is the school of all the other Commandments. But to what end? to keep it as ceremonial? No, to sanctify it as moral; for the end of the Sabbath consisteth in these two things: first in the moral: secondly, in the figurative, ceremonial, or shadowish observation of it: as we take the word shadow here for a figure, because a ceremony is more then a shadow. That I call moral, which doth inform men's manners, either concerning their religion to God, or their duties unto man: that I mean figurative, which is added for a time in some respect, to some persons, for an help to that which is moral, as Deut: 5. 15. Remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt. Howbeit, that this first moral ende is here understood, the first words declare, where it is said, Sanctify the Sabbath day. For where mention is made of the ceremony, it is said keep, and not sanctify the Sabbath. Now what is it to sanctify the Sabbath day, but to put it apart from all other days, for a peculiar use of God's worship▪ for otherwise we must know, that all other days are sanctified: so that to sanctify it, is to do that thing on the Sabbath for which it was commanded: but of this we shall speak more largely, by the grace of God in the last reason. In the mean time let us briefly observe this, that as our first parents did sanctify the Sabbath in viewing the creatures of God, for to praise him: so we sanctify it in using the means which he hath appointed for his worship. So that first we using the exercises of religion, whereby we may be sanctified, and then joining with them the spiritual use of the creatures, whereby we may be furthered in our sanctification, should after use the exercises of love, whereby we may show that we are sanctified. Our first Fathers needed not ordinarily the ministry of the Word, but had the great books of God's works. We have need of the Word, both public and private, and therefore must learn it, that having learned it, we might the better exercise the duties of love: So then, that which was first to Adam, is now the last to us, to wit, the beholding of God in his creatures, and the praising of him for the same. In the Psalm 92. which was appointed to be sung of the Church on the Sabbath, is set down as the chiefest use thereof, the singing of God's mercy, the showing of his righteous judgments, in rewarding the godly, though afflicted, in punishing the ungodly, though here they be advanced, as also in learning to know God in his worship and in his works.

Again, Psal: 95. we shall not see any ceremonial use of the Sabbath: but that it should be used in praying to God, in praising of God, and hearing of his Word. This is confirmed, Exod. 31. 13. Speak unto the children of Israel and say, Notwithstanding keep my Sabbaths; for it is a sign between me & you in your generation, that ye may know, that I the Lord do sanctify you. As also Deuteron. 5. 12. Keep the Sabbath day to sanctify it, as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee. And Ezekiel, 20. verse. 12. I gave them my Sabbaths to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them. In which places, as the reason is adjoined of keeping the Sabbath: So we must understand, that where it is called a sign, it is meant a document, and not a figure (for every figure is a sign, but every sign is not a figure) as we may see in the sacraments, which are not figures or shadows of things to come: So that, in that the Lord saith, My Sabbath is a sign between me and you, it is as much in effect, as if he should say: my Sabbath is a common instruction between you and me; of me as the Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier; of you, as created, redeemed, and sanctified: so that the Sabbath is a document & pledge of God's will, whereby we should know, what he is unto us, and wherein we should learn what we should do to him. In which respect this commandment is no more ceremonial then the first, where the Lord propoundeth what he is to us, and secretly includeth what we should be to him.

but a mean to keep them in innocence, in that notwithstanding their excellent creation, they were subject to falling: therefore this ende must be the chiefest. This was not only given to the posterity of Abraham, but to the whole posterity of Adam: and therefore it was not proper to the Jews, being first begun in Paradise, and then afterward renewed in Mount Sinai. So that this moral ende was the first ende, and common ende: and although as the Jews had a more special cause of worshipping God, in that they had received a more peculiar deliverance, when they could have no rest in Egypt, they on this day did remember their rest: yet nevertheless this was not the ende, but rather a reason why they did keep the Sabbath: as we may see also, Exod. 23. 12. where the Lord commandeth the seventh day to rest, adding as a reason, not as an end, that thine Ox and thine Ass may rest, & the son of thy Mayde, and the stranger may be refreshed. Where this sparing of the beasts is added, as a reason drawn from that humanity, which is in the Law, not as a thing for this special end in this precept commanded, which is proper rather to the sixth Commandment, and but accessory unto this. For which cause this ceremony being but accessory, cannot take away the principal, and being the latter, it cannot take away the former. It is no good reason, that the accessory being taken away, the principal should also be abrogated: but rather on the contrary, the accessory removed, the principal may remain, the appertinance being past, the more general substance may continue: and though the latter be disanulled, the former may be vnabolished. Wherefore though the ceremonial ende, which was but an accessory, and added afterward as a thing peculiar to the Jews, is gone with them, to whom this law was made: yet the moral ende which was the principal, and first given out as a thing general to all, appertaineth still unto us. Lastly, whatsoever seuereth either God from man, or man from man, the same is abrogated: the law Moral (which is free from all ceremonies, and through Christ requireth nothing but a sincere, though imperfect obedience, as being void of all rigor, and exempted from the curse) doth not sever God from man, nor man from man: Therefore the Law moral is not abrogated. For nothing is disanulled, but the rigor and curse of the Law, which made a divorcement between God and man, and the ceremony of the Law, which made a separation between man and man, that is, between the Jew and the Gentile, as we may gather, Coloss: 2. and Galat. 4. Wherefore we affirm, that as it was peculiar to the Jews, as concerning their deliverance, that ende of the Sabbath is ceased: but as it is common to us with them, and all others, to be preserved in the means of true worship, the Sabbath is to be observed: So that not the doctrine and sincere obedience of the Sabbath, but the curse of the Law, and rigorous keeping of the Sabbath is abrogated. When one thing hath diverse ends, if one ende be removed, the other may remain. For as the Sacraments in the time of the law had two ends: the one to foreshow that Christ should come; the other to assure them, what they should have in Christ when he came: and in that they did foreshow Christ to come, they are gone; as they assured us what we have in Christ, they remain still with us. And as for one example we may see in the Sacrament of Circumcision two ends; the one a sign of the circumcision of the flesh, which is now ceased; the other a seal of Repentance and Faith: and so it is unto us remaining a token of imitation, though not in the same manner of administration that is in circumcision, yet in the same matter to that effect, to wit, in Baptism: so likewise the Sabbath having two ends, the one moral, the other ceremonial. As it was ceremonial, and was given to the Jews, as they were Jews, it was proper to the Jews; but as it was moral, not given to the Jews alone, but to our first fathers before the Jews, and to the Gentiles after the Jews, it remaineth no less to all men, after the Jews ceased to be a peculiar people, then the coming together to one place doth yet appertain unto us. For although in that the Jews came together to one place, as it represented the Church of God, it is taken away, because God is present with us in all places: yet as they had it to establish them in their worship, and we need as necessary helps for religion as ever they needed, the same remaineth with us.

Now, if the Sabbath were but a sign of spiritual rest (as some have phantasticallie thought) and not rather an holy school, to teach us the worship of God, we would grant it ceremonial: but sceing this is according to the first institution, and that ceremony but in time, and for a time, was added unto it, though we have not their day, yet we have a resting day, as though we have not their seals, yet we have seals, and though the accessory be gone and ended with them, yet the principal continueth to us, and remaineth after them. Wherefore we conclude this first reason, that as the Sabbath is moral, we must keep it in truth, though in weakness, knowing that the rigor of the Law being gone with the curse and ceremony, we have a promise to have our weakness and defects herein forgiven us in Christ, as we have in all other things.

Now let us come to the second reason, drawn (as we have shown) from the equity of the law, and contained in these words: Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: but the seventh day, &c. This appeareth to be no hard law, nor burthensome, but easy, and such a one as all may yield unto it. For seeing the Lord hath given us six days for our calling, then let us not think it strange or straight, that he hath reserved and taken up the seventh day to himself: who, if he had commanded one day to work, and another to be bestowed in his worship, for the glorious profession of his Name, might justly have challenged it. This reason then is such, that for justice and equity cannot bu • provoke our obedience, and more forcibly chargeth us, if we be disobedient. This kind of argument is usual in the book of God, as Genes▪ 3. 2. 3. where our mother Eve frameth this reason to the Serpent very well, had she stood to it: We eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, &c. Wherein, as she commendeth the mercy of God in giving them so largely the use of all the trees, excepted only one: so from the law of equity she exaggerateth their sin, if having so boun •• full an use of many trees lawful, they should eat of the one tree that was forbidden. The same reason allegeth Joseph, to restrain his Mistress of her lewd and loath some purpose, Genes 39. 8 9. Behold (saith he) my Master knoweth not what he hath in the house with m • but hath committed all that he hath to mine hand, there is no man greater in his house then I: ••• there hath he kept anything in his house, but only thee, because thou art his wise: how then can I d • this great wickedness▪ &c? In which place, as he on the one side commendeth his Masters liberality • : so on the other side he showeth, how his sin should even by the rule of justice be more • ainous and horrible, if not contenting himself with his Masters courtesy, he should intrude himself into his own possession. Again, from hence Job reproveth his wife, and showeth her blasphemy, Job. 5. 10. Thou speakest (said Job) like a foolish woman: what? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and not receive evil? Thus by the square of righteousness the man of God proveth her offense to be the greater, in that having received so many blessings, she could not away once to taste of the cross, Out of the mouths of these two or three witnesses we may gather, how heinous an evil it is, that not contenting out selves with the large measure of six days travail; we should be so bold, as to invade the Lord his seventh day reserved for himself.

Thus we see how the Lord granteth us six days for our bodies, and the seventh day for our souls: not that we must think, that other days are to be separated from this use, but that this day must be wholly severed from other for that use. For, if it were possible, or could be convenient, either in respect of our calling, or the places where we dwell, twice to meet every week day, as it is yet used in some places, though more of custom and fashion, then in faith and of conscience in most of those places, it were nothing but equal. For look what proportion is from six days to the seventh, the same may be gathered from nine, or rather twelve hours to the tenth: whereby the tithe at the least may be afforded for the Lord▪ And herein is the only difference between the six days and the seventh, that the worship of God must in the six days be used at such seasons, as in wisdom are so separated and divided to that end, without any hindrance of our lawful and necessary callings, as it doth not take up the principal, but shrede • and overplus of our vocation: but on the seventh day we must make such a separation from other days, that what we did but in part, in the week, or working days, we may do in whole on the seventh and Sabbath day. True it is, that this equity of twice meeting every day, is more convenient for Cities and populous towns, where many dwell together, than in other places and situations, which for distance of place have not the congregation so dwelling together.

Here our common distinction of calling the week days working days, and the Sabbath days holy days, taketh away their frivolous assertion, who think that every day should be our Sabbath day, as though we should confound and shuffle together our working days and resting days.

Now if the permission of the six days appertain to us, is not the sanctifying of the Sabbath day also commanded to us? And if those things be permitted us, which concern our calling; are not much more those things commanded, which respect our sanctification? Wherefore if any say, the commandment is ceremonial, may not the same say the permission is ceremonial? For who so affirmeth the one, may affirm the other: but both falsely. If we should admit these days were to be restrained in some respects, and for some special causes, we affirm this restraining must be for a time, but not continual: & that when the reasons of the exceptions should cease, then the exceptions themselves should cease also. But some will say: what will you not allow some day of rest for humbling & fasting, or allowing some days for humbling, will you not allow one also for thanksgiving & rejoicing? To this I answer, that concerning fasting when there is a special need of a day appointed, this is no commandment of man, or of the Church, but of God himself, who as he hath laid upon us the need of the remedy: so hath he also commanded us to use the remedy. And as for the day of rejoicing, I think it may be put on the Sabbath, which we make our days of thanksgiving. For as the Jews used the Sabbath as a day to remember with thanksgiving their creation: so we may use that day for a thankful remembrance of our redemption, because in it we may meditate of all those benefits, which our Savior Christ by his nativity, circumcision, passion, resurrection & ascension, hath purchased for us. But if any man object, that this is too niggardly and sparingly, because as God is extraordinary in mercy, so we should be extraordinary in thanksgiving: I grant that Christian Magistrates may for necessary occasion, in wisdom of the spirit, alter the times, and appoint some seasons for that purpose: so it be done for a while, and continue not as perpetual: for in six days, as we taught before, we must chiefly labor in our callings, and bestow some part of time in God his worship: and on the Sabbath day we must chiefly wait on God his worship, and bestow no time on other things, but upon necessity, because we are no less charged on the Sabbath to worship God, than we are permitted on the other days to follow our ordinary callings.

Now let us proceed to the third reason, taken from the Law-giver, or author of the commandments. For it thus followeth, Exod. 20 verse. 6. But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God, &c. This argument we know to be used severely in the three precepts going before. In the first it goeth before the commandment: in the second it cometh after: in the third it is more nearly adjoined. And here it is called the Lord's Sabbath: which proveth that therefore it must be wholly spent upon the Lord. Now were it ceremonial, then it should follow that there were but nine commandments, seeing, (Deutr. 4. 13.) Moses affirmeth, that the covenant which the Lord commanded his people to do, were ten commandments: where we see, that not the Church, but the word of God setteth down this computation. And albeit the ceremonies be also the commandments of the Lord, nevertheless we must wisely distinguish between the one and the other. The commandments were immediately given out by the Lord himself, the ceremonies were given immediately to Moses from the Lord: but mediately from God to his people by the ministry of Moses. For it is said, Deutero. 5. 22. These words the Lord spake unto all your multitude in the mount out of the midst of the fire, the clouds, and the darkness with a great voice, and added no more thereto In which place the man of God speaketh of the ten commandments, which a little before he had repeated, as they were published, generally to all by the Lord himself, which therefore are prepetuall to all people, nations and languages, not only to the Jews, but also to the Gentiles. The ceremonies, as we know, were not universal, but beginning with the Jews they ended with them: neither were they perpetual, but in Christ his coming were abrogated. This difference is yet more plainly set down, Deutero. 4. 13. 14. Then the Lord declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to do, even the ten Commandments, and wrote them upon two tables of stone. And the Lord commanded me the same time, that I should teach you ordinances and laws, which ye should observe in the land, whither ye go to possess it. Where Moses maketh a flat difference of those laws, which God gave in his own person, and them which were given by his ministry. By this word ordinances, which is in this verse, are signified, as some affirm, those laws, whereby the Jews did differ from other people. Thus we see how Moses was the minister of the ceremonial law, which was given but unto some, and lasted but for a season: but the moral law which appertaineth to all men, and is in virtue forever, the Lord himself did give it forth. Now as we answer the Papists, in defending against them the second precept as moral, and not ceremonial: so we likewise stand against them in this. For look what straying and vnstaied minds were in the Jews concerning the worship of God, the same also is in us by nature: and what helps soever they needed therein, either to be put in mind of their creation, or to the viewing of God his works, or sacrificing to the Lord; the same are as needful for us to help us in our sacrifices: for we need a perfect rule as well as the Jews, to preserve us from idolatry and heresy. Again, seeing we have as great need of a solemn time for these things, wherein we may give our selves wholly to hearing, praying, and receiving of the Sacraments, as they had for their worship: we are subject to as great distractions of mind in our callings, as they were, and being with them of a finite nature, can no more than they do infinite things. It is as requisite for us as for them to have a law, as well for the time, as for the manner of worship: wherein laying aside our ordinary works, we should chiefly and principally wholly give our selves to those exercises of Religion, and duties of love, which only in part we did before, and so more freely espy our sins past, eschew our sins present, and strengthen our selves against the sins to come. Wherefore to shut up this argument, we affirm against the wicked heretics of our time, that so long as we stand in need of corporal means, as meat, drink, apparel, and sleep, for the continuing of our corporal estate: so long we shall also need the spiritual means, as the word, the Sacraments and prayer for the continuing of our souls. And as it is not ceremonial for these considerations to use these means: so it is moral to have a time commanded and observed, wherein these things should be practiced.

It remaineth to speak of the fourth & last reason, drawn from the proportion of God his own example, as may appear in these words, Exod. 20. 11. For in six days the Lord made the heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. Wherein we have thus much in effect, as the Lord made the creatures in six days: so we in six should have a natural use of them. And as he sanctified, that is, put a part the seventh day to his own worship, and blessed it with a peculiar blessing given to his worship appointed: so we also setting this day apart, from the ordinary works of our calling, should wholly and only consecrate it to the worship of God. So that as God made all things in six days: so we may use them six days, as Adam did in the garden: and as the Lord rested from his works of creation, though not from his work of providence and administration, so must we set a part this day, to look for a special blessing and special benediction of God his worship, because of his own promise and institution. Why did the Lord this to our first father? he beheld the works of every day, and blessed every day? We must note, that he gave a special blessing above the other days, unto this day. Now therefore admit that a man should grant this much to an heretic, that we should be as perfect as Adam in his innocence: (which is a manifest heresy) yet they must grant, that we stood in need of the word and Sacraments, (the use whereof they deny) seeing Adam had need of the use of all these things, being yet without sin. We therefore oppose thus much unto them, that so long as they will acknowledge a need of corporal helps, by calling for meat, sleep, apparel: so long their souls stand in need of spiritual means, as of the word, Sacraments and prayer, because their souls must as well be preserved, as their bodies nourished. Our first father then had a Sabbath to be put in mind of the Creator, and that without distraction he might the better be put in mind of the glorious kingdom to come, that more freely he might give himself to meditation, and that he might the better glorify God in six days. As the heretics then deny the necessity of the word, prayer and Sacraments: so we look for a new heaven, and a new earth, and then we hope and acknowledge, that we shall keep a continual Sabbath But in the mean time, seeing the Sabbath which we now have, was before sin, we, since sin came into the world, have much more need of it, because that which was needful to continue Adam in innocence, is also as needful to recover us, and to continue us in our recovery. The Lord then having sanctified this day, it is not our day, but the Lord his own day.

But some will say: How? is God better served on the Sabbath, than on any other day? I answer, not that we put religion in that day, as it is a day, more than in any other: but that on that day we are freer from distractions, and set at more liberty to the worshipping of God, than we are on the other six days, wherein we are bound to our ordinary and lawful calling. Wherefore as we put on holiness in the creatures of water, bread and wine in the Sacraments; but acknowledge all inward grace to proceed from God his blessing and institution: so we promise unto our selves on the Lord his day a greater blessing, not for anything in the day it self, but by reason of God his own ordinance, and promise of a blessing to the same. And as we deny not a blessing from the Lord on private prayer, reading and conference, but acknowledge a greater blessing to be due even by the Lord his own promise, to these exercises public in comparison of the other: so we deny not the grace of God to be upon those hours redeemed from our outward callings, and consecrated to the Lord: but confess a more special blessing from God to belong to that whole day, which the Lord hath taken up to himself alone, and that for his own promise sake unto all them, which come with simple hearts to obey his holy commandment.

Now having gone through these reasons, which prove the Sabbath day to be moral, and that this commandment is no less to be observed, than the other nine: before we enter into the exposition of the law it self, it shall be convenient to meet with such reasons, as some men bring to preludice the truth of that, which hath been already spoken: which being done, by God his grace we will come to the other. The reasons against the Sabbath may briefly be reduced into such, as either seem to be drawn out of the express words of the Scriptures: or else by some consequence to be gathered from the Scriptures. The arguments borrowed from the written word, are either out of the old Testament, or out of the new: they which are contained in the old, are taken either out of the law, or out of the Prophets. Out of the law, they make much a do about that which is written, Exod. 31. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. where the Lord faith this unto Moses: Speak thou unto the children of Israel, and say, Notwithstanding keep ye my Sabbaths: for it is a sign between me and you in your generations, that ye may know that I the Lord do sanctify you, Ye shall therefore keep the Sabbath: for it is holy unto you: he that defileth it, shall die the death: therefore whosoever worketh therein, the same person shall be even cut off from among his people. Six days shall men work, but in the seventh day is the Sabbath of the holy rest to the Lord: whosoever doth any work on the Sabbath day, shall die the death. Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, that they may observe the rest throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever: for in six days the Lord made the heaven and the earth, and in the seventh day he ceased and rested. Out of these words they snatch these three reasons. First they triumph before the conquest, and say, it is manifest that it is a sign: and therefore as they please to conclude, it is a figure. True it is, that it is here called a sign, verse. 13. as also Ezech. 20. 12▪ it is plain: howbeit this is no good reason, that seeing the Sabbath is a sign, therefore it is a figure or shadow. For although every figure and shadow be a sign; yet every sign is not a figure or shadow. A figure foreshoweth a truth afterwards to be revealed: a shadow betokeneth a body hereafter to be exhibited: but a sign as it doth sometimes signify a thing afterwards to be looked for; so it doth sometimes assure us of a thing already performed. The figure ceaseth when the truth cometh: there is no use of the shadow when the body is present: but the sign and the thing signified may be joined together, and both of them serve for a present use. Again, they gather out of the 16. verse of the chapter, which we have in hand, where it is said, The children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, that they may observe the rest through their generations for an everlasting covenant: that because the Sabbath of God is his covenant forever, that is, until Christ, it is ceremonial. True it is, that the law admitteth this phrase of speech sundry times, to say forever, that is, until Christ, in whom all things, are fulfilled.

Where, if it had been said, they shall observe the rest for an everlasting covenant, because they were brought out of Egypt, I would have granted it to have been peculiar to the Jews: but seeing this is the reason, the Lord rested, which is▪ common, not to the posterity of Abraham alone, but to the whole posterity of Adam, the commandment must be granted general both to Jew and Gentile. For it is a common instruction to all men in all ages to labor six days, wherein the Lord made the heaven and the earth, and to cease from labor the seventh day, because in it the Lord rested. The plain sense then of this place is briefly this, as if the Lord should say: I made this law in the beginning of the world, and it shall last to the end of the world: I made it to Adam the father of all generations, and it shall endure to the last of all his posterity from generation to generation: I made this law to ease myself after my great pains taken in the creating of the world in six days, and you shall keep it to ease your minds, which are fraught with many distractions, by reason of your ordinary callings in those days. Neither would I have any to think, that the Lord had need of any refreshing, who being infinite, cannot be subject to distractions or weariness: but we must know, that where the Lord is said, that he refreshed himself, by taking view of his creatures, he commendeth his love to us ward, in showing rather what ought to be in us, than what was in him. For such alacrity and diligence should we use in our callings, as we should be glad when the Lord's day cometh, that in it we shall recover our selves, and ease our minds of those distractions, which burden us in our outward calling, and so refresh our selves with spiritual pleasures in the pure worship of God, and thankful beholding of his works. We see how these reasons make rather flatly with us, than against us. And thus much for their proofs out of the prescript words of the law: now let us consider what they allege out of the Prophets.

Their reasons out of the Prophets be taken either out of Isaiah, or out of Ezekiel. Out of Isaiah they use these places, Isaiah. 56. 1. 2. and 58. 13. 14. and 66. 13. The words of the Prophet, chap. 56. verse. 1. 2 are these: Thus saith the Lord, keep judgment and do justice: for my salvation is at hand to come, and my righteousness is to be revealed. Blessed is the man that doth this, and the son of man which layeth hold on it: he that keepeth the Sabbath, and polluteth it not, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil. See, say they, here is the Sabbath commended as a resting from sin. I deny it not, but our controversy is about the ground of the Sabbath. For why doth the Lord so call on his people by the Prophets for keeping the Sabbath, and crieth so much against the breach of the same, but because it was the especial means of God his worship and their salvation: which being contemned, they contemned God his worship, and their own welfare? And because in this horrible contempt of the holy school of the Lord, where they should have learned both their religion towards God, and duties to their brethren, they gave a manifest token of carelessness in them both, they are worthily threatened by the Prophet. And concerning the pure interpretation of this place, by keeping the Sabbath, is meant the observation of the first table; by keeping their hands from doing any evil, is understood the obedience of the second table: so that the thing in this place chiefly urged, is this, that they should keep the Sabbath, which might nourish them in the worship of God, and in duties to their brethren. But, say they, the Sabbath is here joined with ceremonies, as may appear in the verses following: therefore it is a ceremony. This is no sound argument. For in the law is set down the moral law, which teacheth the common duties of all God's people, wherein be also the ceremonies, which describe the duties peculiar to the Jews: whereupon we must not conclude, that therefore the moral law is ceremonial. Again, these ceremonies contain not only certain truths of spiritual things, which should be accomplished in Christ, but also of other means which should succeed in their places. True it is, that if they had only contained truths of spiritual things in Christ, it had been somewhat, that they affirm: but seeing they have also in them such means, which though not in the same manner, yet more effectually are afterward to be used, the reason is not good. Wherefore we reason against them thus: that, albeit we have not the manner of their sacrifices, yet we have our sacrifices and means of God's worship succeeding them. For though we have not, as they had, Priests to offer for us, and such slain sacrifices as the Priests did offer for them: yet we have the Ministers of the word of God, which cut up men's consciences, by whom the secrets of men's hearts are made manifest: 1. Cor. 14. 25. By the preaching of the Gospel and word of God: which being mighty in operation, and sharper than a two edged sword, entereth thorough, even to the dividing asunder of the soul and spirit, and of the joints and the marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts, and intents of the hearts. Heb. 4. verse. 12. And whereby Christ is as it were freshly crucified unto us, and that by so much the more profitably, than if we were present at the thing it self, as beside the describing of the manner thereof, the fruit of it is more effectually preached. And certainly we may affirm, that then the dumb sacrifices of the blind Papists came in, when this glorious sacrifice of preaching ceased. And where the word is administered in any power and sincerity, there doubtless the preaching of the law striketh us, and the preaching of the Gospel bringeth us to Christ.

Herein is the difference between the Jews and us, that they in all their Sacraments and sacrifices represented Christ, that was to come, and shown that their sins in him should be taken away, being yet to come: we manifestly in our sacrifices witness, that he is already come, and that our sins in his death are fully pardoned. Besides, to those forenamed sacrifices we have the sacrifices of prayer, and thanksgiving: whereof the Prophet speaketh, Psalm. 141. 2. Let my prayer be directed in thy sight as incense, and the lifting up of mine hands as an evening sacrifice. As also Psalm 119. part. 14. verse. 108. O Lord, I beseech, thee accept the free offerings of my mouth, and teach me thy judgments. Of these sacrifices is mention, Malac. 1. Hose. 14. 2. Mat. 24. John. Heb. 13. 15. Now in that it followeth, Isaiah. 56. 7. that the Lord will bring them to his house of prayer: I grant, in that they had but one house of prayer, which represented to them the Church to be one, it was ceremonial: yet I also confess, that in the same was this common truth, that it should be a mean to worship God. Wherefore in this place the Lord commandeth and commendeth holy assemblies even to us, to whom they be as needful as to the Jews. For though it be not now necessary, nor required, that we should go up to Jerusalem to worship after the manner of the Jews: yet besides our private houses, wherein we may worship the Lord, we have need of one public and common place to meet in: whereunto the Lord in his Gospel hath made this promise, that where two or three shall be gathered in his name, he will be in the midst of them. This also is commended unto us by the example of the holy Apostles, who met together, and besides their several houses it is said, Acts. 2. 46. They continued with one accord in the Temple: so that they had one place, where the Word, the Sacraments, Prayer, &c were used. And though we now have not the same offerings, places, and sacrifices which the Jews had; yet we have these things more effectually than they: and though we have not their Sabbath, yet we have a Sabbath. The words, Isaiah. 58. 13. be these: If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy will on mine holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, to consecrate is, as glorious to the Lord, and shalt honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor seeking thine own will, nor speaking a vain word: 14. Then shalt thou delight in the Lord, and I will cause thee to mount upon the high places of the earth. &c. This is spoken to the present estate of the Jews, as then they were, and not properly to the Gentiles, but as they may see their estate in the Jews, in which respect it may be profitably applied to the Gentiles, but evident it is, that here properly it was spoken to the Jews. For in this place the Prophet sharply reprehendeth them, because they kept not their fastings and holy days aright. Howbeit, they did not stick to complain among themselves, that they had fasted, that they humbled themselves, and used all the means which their fathers before them had done: but all in vain, in that they felt not the like effects, which their fathers did. Wherefore the Lord by his Prophet answereth them in this sort: True it is, that ye fast indeed, but therewithal ye lie and live still in your sins: ye fast, but without repentance: and so far are ye from true forsaking of your sins, that on your fasting days, howsoever like hypocrites ye use the outward action, ye exercise cruelty, oppression, debate and strife: and do ye look, that this holy hypocrisy should be acceptable unto me? No: If ye will please me with your fasting, repent ye of your sins, show forth your sorrow by the fruits of love, in exercising the works of mercy and compassion: which things when I shall behold in you with an upright heart then I will accept your offering, and be pleased with your fasting. Again, do not think, that I will look upon your holidaies, so long as ye use them but upon custom & in hypocrisy, making them unprofitable for my worship, and your salvation and repentance, until such time as ye endeavor a better and more holy use of them, both concerning the pure honoring of my name, and the furthering of your own salvation. Behold here (say they) the Sabbath is abrogated, than which they can affirm nothing more contrary out of this place. For here is no abrogating of the Sabbath, but an establishing of the true celebrating of the Sabbath, with a sharp reprehending of their corrupt and present estate. And as he speaketh against their corrupt Sabbath, so he taxeth them for their hypocritical fasting: so that if they will have the Sabbath to be abrogated, much more must they drive fasting out of the doors of the Church, against which he is most earnest, and telling them that their fasts are not in truth, the Lord showeth them, with what fasting he is pleased. Again, say they, see, here it is manifest, that to cease from sin in our Sabbath, which we must keep. I answer, it is the fruit of the Sabbath, which we must keep: and therefore, because where the means are used without any effect or fruit, there the means are nothing, the Lord rather urgeth them to the effects and keeping of the Sabbath with fruit, then disanulleth the Sabbath. And it is usual in the word of God, to use the effect for the cause, and the fruit for the means, as we may see I am. 1. 27. Pure religion and undefiled before God, even the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their adversity, and to keep himself unspotted of the world. Which briefly is, as if the Apostle should say, this is the effect of true religion, when faith doth purely show it self in the works of love. Again, John 6. 47. 48. He that believeth in me, hath everlasting life: I am the bread of life. Where our Savior Christ showeth, that the effect of faith is the eating of Christ his flesh, and drinking of his blood. So that, to use the means without the effect is hypocrisy: as also to look for the effect without using of the means, is foolish presumption. Wherefore we affirm, & that from the mouth of the Lord by his holy Prophet, that to rest in fasting and in the Sabbath, an outward mean is of no value, being separated from good works, the issue and the effect of the same, that if we would, God should be merciful to us, we should also show our selves merciful to others. So then the Lord taketh not here away the one, but showeth the one to be fruitless without the other, and is so far from taking away the Sabbath, that rather he goeth about to inform them in the true use of the Sabbath. The meaning therefore of the Prophet his word, is this: If thou wilt not rest in the bare ceremony of thy holy days, but wilt do thy holy service to me, and duties of love to thy brethren: then shalt thou show thyself to take true pleasure in God and his worship. Where we must learn so to delight our selves with the means of our salvation, that seeing we can but i • part give our selves unto them in the week days, we should greatly rejoice when the Sabbath day cometh, contrary to the practice of the people •• Amos his time, who would say, Amos 8. 5. When will the new month be gone, that we may •••• corn? and the Sabbath that we may let forth wheat, and make the Ephah small, and the shek •• great, and falsify the weights by d ••• it? Wherefore we conclude, that here is not the abrogating, but the pure celebrating of the Sabbath, which appeareth by effect, when it draweth us nearer to God, and causeth us to take greater pleasure in his ways.

There remaineth that, which is Isaiah. 66. 23. And from month to month, and from Sabbath to Sabbath shall all flesh come to worship before me saith the Lord Where it is said, from Sabbath to Sabbath, behold (say they) here is set down a continual Sabbath to be observed every day in the kingdom of Christ, and therefore there ought not to be one prescript day only in the whole week. But the reason is most weak, and containeth a manifest absurdity. For if every day should be a Sabbath, and we in the Sabbath are commanded to do no manner of work; when should we travel in our ordinary callings, whereunto the Lord himself hath permitted us six days? Thus we see the six days of our ordinary callings should be pulled away If they say, that a man may follow his calling, and yet worship God sufficiently, and as becometh the holy Sabbath, then they must grant, that we may do our ordinary works on the Sabbath, as also they suspect the Lord of want of wisdom. But if we should look narrowly into these men's lives, we should find, that whilst they cry out to keep every day a Sabbath, they in truth in the mean time observe no Sabbath at all. Besides, in that there needeth one particular day wholly to be given to the Lord, it is certain, that the dearest children of God, who upon the other days redeem time to God's worship, earnestly desire this.

Now concerning the place it self, which they seem much to misconstrue, we must understand two things. First, it is not simply to be taken, but in the way of comparison: secondly, it is meant of the kingdom of glory, and of the second coming of Christ. In the way of comparison it is understood thus: that the people of God should not content themselves to worship him on the Sabbath only, but also in the other six days it should be lawful for them to have holy assemblies and Christian meetings: which though they now should do but in part, by reason of their ordinary calling, hereafter they should do it both continually and perfectly in the kingdom of heaven. Which thing was performed even of the Apostles, who, although they observed one solemn day, yet had they their godly assemblies for holy exercises on other days also. True it is, that the Family of love pretends a show of the kingdom of God in this life by rising from sin, saying, that we here sit in heavenly places. But the scriptures in this case speak of the beginning, not of the consummation of God his children in glory. For in this life we possess but in hope that, which perfectly we shall enjoy. We be here admitted but into the entry of this kingdom, we here take up our hold, we receive our deeds, our lease and evidence are given us in this world to assure us, that hereafter we shall have the full fruition & perfect possession. Wherefore another Prophet saith, Ierem. 31. 33. 34. This shall be the covenant that I shall make with the house of Israel. After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, &c. 34. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor and every man his brother, saying, I know the Lord: for they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest, saith the Lord. Where we may see, that though the full accomplishment of our glory and knowledge is in heaven: yet true it is, that here it is begun, and shall be finished hereafter, when we shall perfectly know God, whom now we know but in part, and as it were in a mirror. For everyone, as it is Hebr. 5. 12. concerning these times, should be able through God his spirit to teach others according to that calling, wherein the Lord hath placed him. And as that place reacheth not, that all should be Doctors, but that there should be knowledge in all, though in greater measure in some: so our Prophet meaneth not, that every day should be a Sabbath, but that Christians in every day of the week should provide for the worship of God in some measure, though more fully and more solemnly on the Sabbath. So we see the force of this to be in the way of a comparison, that Christians should not satisfy themselves concerning the worship of God with the Sabbath: but that also, as their calling would permit, they should worship from Sabbath to Sabbath.

As for the second answer: to prove against the maintainers of a continual Sabbath, that this place is meant of the Church triumphant, and not of the Church militant, it shall easily appear, if we consider diligently what goeth before, & what cometh after: which rule is worthily to be followed in sifting out the true sense of the places in the Scriptures. Now in the verse going before, mention is made of the new heavens, and the new earth: whereby he meaneth not the first appearing of Christ in humility, but his second coming in glory, as may appear, 2. Pet. 3. 13. where the Apostle repeateth the same words, saying, We look for new he • uens, and a new earth, according to his promise, wherein dwelleth righteousness: Surely if the Prophet had meant this to have been in Christ his coming in the flesh, it is most like it should have been in the flourishing estate of the Church and glorious times of the Apostles: but that it was not so, it is manifest by the Apostle his own words, We look for new heavens, &c. In the verse following, the Prophet speaketh of the worm that shall not die, and of the fire that shall not be quenched: which undoubtedly is understood of the hells, whereinto the wicked shall be cast at the last judgment day, as may be gathered by our Savior Christ his words, Mark. 9. 43. 44. where he maketh mention of hell, Where the worm dieth not, and the fire never goeth out. Wherefore by the premises and sequel, we conclude with the learned, that the Sabbath here mentioned, must be kept in the kingdom of heaven. And therefore their continual Sabbath, which they should have in this life, is a devise of their own brain, and not gathered out of this place. And thus much of the reasons, which seemed to prove the Sabbath ceremonial, taken out of the prescript words of the old Testament. As for that which we alleged out of Ezekiel chap. 20. it is already answered sufficiently in confuting their first reason, which was drawn out of Exod. 32.

Now it remaineth in like manner to consider of their arguments, which they take out of the New Testament, and that either out of the history of Christ, or from the writings of his holy Apostles. And because the four Evangelists agree in one harmony, we will briefly reduce all their reasons into one or two principal places, namely, Matth. 12. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Mark 2. 27. In Matth. 12. it is said: At that time Jesus went on a Sabbath day through the corn, and his Disciples were hungry, and began to pluck the ear of corn and to eat. 2. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto him, Behold thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the Sabbath. 3. But he said unto them; Have ye not heard what David did when he was an hungered, and they that were with him? 4. How he entered into the house of God and eat the show bread, which was not lawful for him to eat, neither for them which were with him, but only for the Priests? 5. Or have ye not read in the Law, how that on the Sabbath days, the Priests in the Temple brake the Sabbath and are blameless? 6. But I say unto you, that here is one greater than the Temple. 7. Wherefore if ye knew what this is, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the innocents. 8. For the son of man is Lord, even of the Sabbath. The occasion of this doctrine of Christ is, that he going abroad to preach with his Disciples, they for hunger pulled the ears of corn. Hereof arose by the Pharisees this Controuersie, who accused the Disciples for traveling on the Sabbath day, as though they had done a work on the Sabbath, which was not lawful to de done, because the Law said, that no man should travail on that day. Our Savior Christ hearing this accusation, defendeth his Disciples: whereof some conclude, that our Savior here abrogated the Sabbath. But what could they have forged more untrue? For if, as they say, he now had abrogated the Sabbath, then our Savior Christ did not obey every part of the ceremonies unto death: which to affirm, let them tell the danger of it. Nay rather according to the judgment of the better learned we affirm, that Christ is so far off from speaking against the Sabbath in this place, that he setteth down the pure observation of the same against them, who peruersely and untruly did judge of it. And here we see the Pharisees deal very cunningly with them, For they might as well have accused the Disciples of theft, as of breaking the Sabbath, had they not known, that as the Law permitted a man to go into the vine-yard for to gather grapes, so he carried no clusters away: So they, to satisfy their hunger, might presently eat of the ears of corn, carrying none away with them. Howbeit, they could not see, that this their travel was not like their ordinary traveling on the other days, and that it was agreeable to the Sabbath, the Law permitting a Sabbath days journey. This some (curiously) have defined to be the space of a mile, some two, • ome three miles: unto whom as I do not deny the liberty of their judgment, so I think it to consist of that distance, as a man may conveniently travel for some holy purpose, without any hindrance of the ordinary exercise of that day, and without wearisomeness either to body or mind, whereby he should be the vnfitter for the Lord's worship, or his duties. And therefore they that dwelt but so far from Jerusalem, that they might o • that day conveniently go to the Sacrifices, and return home without any of the former hindrances, made a Sabbath days journey. And now in our times a man may lawfully go so far for the more comfortable or holy use of the day in hearing: so that neither his body be ouerwearied, nor any due time of hearing be pretermitted, and that without prejudice or breach of the Lord's day. Wherefore seeing our Savior CHRIST and his disciples traveled to so holy an ende, and no further then by a Sabbath days journey was lawful, the end of the journey, which ought to measure this and like actions, proveth, that herein there was no breach of the Sabbath. Neither is it likely that the Pharisees reproved and controlled the Disciples for traveling, seeing even they themselves with them were companions in the journey, but rather they did it for their plucking the ears of corn: whereby they shown, that the ceremony of resting was not the chief thing in the Sabbath, (as now a days some do think it) but rather▪ because they made provision for their bodies, contrary (as they imagined) to Exod. 16. 24▪ Well, it is most probable, that the Disciples being gone far from the place, from whence they did set out, (because if they had then fainted, they would there have recreated themselves) and far distant from ani • place where they might eat, (for if they had been near any place, they might rather have refreshed themselves with other things then with corn) they through fainting & for want of other necessaries, were constrained to satisfy their present necessity with these things, which if they had not done, they should not have been able to persist in their calling, which was agreeable to the Sabbath: the works whereof did never restrain from eating, which notwithstanding they might as justly have reprehended in the Disciples, as their plucking the ears of corn. The arguments whereby CHRIST doth answer them, may briefly be referred to five heads. The first is set down in these words, verse. 3. Have ye not heard what David did, when he was an hungered, and they that were with him? 4. How he entered into the house of God, & ate the show-bread, which was not lawful for him to eat, neither for them which were with him, but only for the Priests? Behold he speaketh here of the ceremony of show-bread, which was broken for the preservation of men's lives: whereby he showeth, that Ceremonies, as a thing of less importance, must give place for life's sake. So that this is spoken of the end, because the thing which is forbidden for a common end, is not brokē for a particular use. Wherefore David and his company did eat the show-bread to serve their necessity, and that without breach of the Law, how much more may my Disciples eat the ears of corn, to enable them the more to attend upon the ordinance of God? It is a rule in the civil law, that it is against civility too greedily to hunt after the syllables of their Maxims, and too carelessly to neglect and permit the true sense of the Law. In which thing our Savior trappeth the Pharisees, who were too severe censurers of the letter, and too severe observers of the matter of the Law. Our Savior therefore in effect meaneth thus much, that as it was not lawful to eat the show bread usually or ordinarily, and yet to eat it upon necessity it was not unlawful: so usually to gather corn on the Sabbath, even in time of Harvest, it was not lawful; and yet extraordinarilie, and upon necessity to gather it was not unlawful on the Sabbath, which permitted the works of necessity, whereby men might be the better enabled, and the less hindered to do the works of that day. And for this cause, seeing the Disciples without this help should have been vnfitter either to have preached to others, or heard our Savior, and by it were enabled the more to either of these things: it is evident, that they were so far off from breaking the Sabbath in so doing, that rather they should have broken it in not so doing. So that Christ doth only not abrogate the Sabbath in this place, but also reprehending the Pharisees for their misconstruing of the Law, and too strict taking it, without due consideration of the ende thereof: he setteth down a more pure observation of the same.

The second reason, which is drawn from the Law it self, and from the Priests own practice, may be gathered out of the fifth and sixth verses: Have ye not read in the Law, how that on the Sabbath days the Priests in the Temple brake the Sabbath, and are blameless? 6. But I say unto you here is one greater then the Temple. As if he should have said, Verilie ye misconstrue the Sabbath; ye must better consider, what kind of works the Sabbath forbiddeth, to wit, the works of men's ordinary callings, not being fit for the dignity of the Sabbath, and nothing tending to the worship of God: but if they beseem the dignity of that day, and are done for God his holy worship, they are not unlawful. Advise yourselves (I pray you) do not even your own Priests on the Sabbath-day slay their beasts to sacrifice? Do they not circumcise on that day? And do ye not carry your children to the Temple to be circumcised, which are works both in respect of your Priests and you; and yet in that in these things ye are made the fitter to serve God in his worship, ye think them not unlawful? Likewise know, that this plucking of the ears of corn in my Disciples, is no work of their ordinary callings, but to make them more able for the worship of God. In that he nameth the Priests, he showeth that he rather speaketh against the persons, than against the cause, and strangleth them in their own argument. For the answer in effect is this: If my Disciples profane the Sabbath, then did your own Priests the same. Under this we may couch the answer of our Savior Christ to the Jews, who accused him for healing of the sick man on the Sabbath day, John. 5. 17. My Father worketh hitherto, and I work: that is, as my Father ceased from the works of Creation, yet he ceased not from doing good on the Sabbath: so though I and my Disciples have ceased from our ordinary callings, yet cease we not after the Father his own example, to do the works of mercy on the Sabbath. For the works of God his providence are to be done every day. Seeing he then vouchsafeth to put us in his stead to do good things, we may lawfully do them, though with some bodily labor, as we may on that day resort to the imprisoned, visit the sick, relieve the needy, reconcile the uncharitable, and admonish the unruly; And why? we seek not herein our own profit, but the profit of our brethren: we desire not our own glory, but the glory of God. In which cases we are not forbidden, but commanded to do good on the Sabbath.

If we look narrowly into the history of our Savior CHRIST, we shall see it was most usual unto him to heal the sick, to restore sight to the blind, to open the mouths of the dumb, and to frequent like exercises on the Sabbath day. And for what cause? Because on other days men following their ordinary callings, could not so well follow him: but on the Sabbath day, their other business set apart, they attended on him willingly, and resorted together: so that, if he had done these things on the other days, he should have hindered the ordinary callings of men, by the concourse of people: or else he should have done them to the less glory to God; if no company nor concourse had been made. Wherefore as both the people on that day were fittest to come to Christ: so Christ was then most ready, when his works also might most make for God's glory. Besides, he did then these things rather, that▪ he might wean the Jews from their superstitious opinion of the Sabbath, and bring in the pure use thereof, in exercising the works of love. Now, if the outward rest of the day had been the chiefest thing therein, as the Pharisees then dreamed, and many now a days have thought: then how would Christ have done these things, who was to do and fulfill all things commanded in the moral Law, & left nothing undone in any one jot of the ceremonial Law, until the veil of the Temple of his body was rent? Thus we see how the chief ende was moral, and not ceremonial: and as it is moral given to all men to further them in the means of their salvation, it is as needful for us, as for the Jews. Again, Christ was asked of no one question more than of the Sabbath, and in all his answers he rather inveigheth against the perverting, thē intendeth the abrogating of the Sabbath. In like manner, he meaneth nothing less then the abrogating of the day in his Apology against the Pharisees▪ but rather layeth open their folly in proving to their faces, that they cavil too much for the perverting of the Sabbath, seeing they are driven to reprehend that in others, which they themselves do. The reason of his defense insinua • eth thus much: If ye think it an holy duty to cut the flesh of children on the Sabbath, because it is done in your Temple, which otherwise might seem a spice of murder and cruelty: Again, if ye think the Temple commands the work of slaying your beasts for sacrifice, which being done in the market-place were too butcherlike; then I give you to understand, that my disciples do nothing unbeseeming the Sabbath, so long as I am present with them, who am greater then the Temple.

The third reason is contained in the seventh verse: If ye know what this is, I will have mercy & not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the innocents Here our Savior Christ, as before he had defended his Disciples by testimonies out of the Law: so now excuseth them by the witness of the Prophets, and • iteth a place out of Hosea. chap. 6. 6. as if he should say: What works doth the Sabbath forbid? are they not the works of our ordinary calling? What works doth the Sabbath command? To sacrifice only? No: but to do the works of mercy also, which is the ende of all our sacrifices. Why then seeing the law doth not forbid the duties of love to be done, will ye deny this work of mercy to my Disciples, that when they faint, they might not be refreshed? That this place of the Prophet is thus to be construed, that the Lord will not have sacrifice alone, but mercy withal, we may prove it by other places of the scriptures, as 1. Cor. 1 17. Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the Gospel: where the Apostle meaneth, that he was not chiefly and only sent to baptize, but to preach also. So that the place is to be understood in the way of comparison, that when one of the things cannot be conveniently done without the other be undone; then mercy, which is better than sacrifice, must be preferred, as being the issue whither Sacrifice is referred. And in this respect, though simply in themselves considered, and in respect of the persons to whom they are performed; the first table of the Law, and the duties thereof are to be preferred before the second table, and the duties thereof: yet in comparison, when one of these must of necessity be left undone, because both cannot be done together: seeing the Lord most alloweth of our obedience, when testimony thereof is witnessed by practice to his Saints, and in the exercises of love, we perform that in truth, which otherwise we labor for but by means, the Lord desireth mercy, and not Sacrifice, and the knowledge of his will more then burnt offerings. So that herein the Disciples do not only not break, but keep the Sabbath. This argument Christ useth, Mark. 3. 4. where he being reproved, because on the Sabbath day he healed the man that had a withered hand, said to his accusers, Is it lawful to do a good deed on the Sabbath day, or to do evil? to save the life, or to kill? As also Luke where he on this manner answered the Pharisees, who watched him whilst he healed the man which had the dropsy: 5. Which of you shall have an Ass, or an Ox fallen into a pit, and will not straightway pull him out on the Sabbath day? As if he should say, why do ye watch to take me in this thing? Will ye permit the works of mercy to be done to beasts, and will ye deny them to be done to men? Why? will ye help your beasts being in peril, and may not I help this man being in such danger? Howbeit we must here note, that our Savior CHRIST in showing how in this law is humanity to creatures, giveth • o jot of liberty to worldly men, who under pretence of this obedience, seek rather their own private gain in rescuing from perils the creatures, then the glory of Almighty God, which may redound to him by the more cheerful & comfortable service of the creature being thus redeemed. Now, if any shall here further inquire, whether in seeding time, or the harvest season, when the times before have been and still are like to be unseasonable and intemperate, they may somewhat on the Sabbath give themselves to sowing, or gathering of their corn: I answer, No. For it is by special words expressly forbidden, Exod. 34. 21. Six days shalt thou work, and in the seventh day thou shalt rest: both in earing time, and in the harvest thou shalt rest. And surely of all times laboring in harvest seemeth most unlawful. First, if as God his benefits grow on us, we must grow in thankfulness, then reaping at that time, we ought to render most thanks, and not to think the worship of one day sufficient in seven, much less to cut it from the Lord in part or in whole. Secondly, seeing in the week going before we have even wearied both our own bodies by labor, and much more the bodies of our beasts in tra ••• le: besides that, in working on the Sabbath, we contemn the ordinance of God most unthankfully, which so well in his law in this case hath provided for us, we deal too unnaturally with our selves, and too injuriously with our cattle. Again, if we on this day make no conscience of the worship of God contemned by this worldly laboring, we manifestly bewray our want of faith in God's goodness, wisdom and providence: as though he either would not preserve that, which hitherto he nourished out of the earth: or that he having dealt so mercifully in many benefits before, should now •• one fail us: which undoubtedly he would not do, did not our sins provoke him thereunto. Wherefore if so it come to pass for our sins, we must rather in patience, repentance, and wisdom, submit our selves to the punishment, than profanely and obstinately to seek by such means to shake it off. True it is, as we have said before, that works of necessity be lawful on the Sabbath: but we must understand it of necessities present, and not of perils which are imminent, that is, which are like to come, but yet are not certain to come. For when the danger is present, as an house is on fire, bloodshed by reason of a fray is like speedily to be committed if help be not, or in such like cases, because the Lord hath as it were cast the remedy upon us, and put us in his own stead for ministering of help, then may we use our liberty: but whē it is to come, and it is still in the Lord his hand, we must cast the whole remedy upon him, if the danger f •• l • knowing that he in his providence and mercy will remove the evil, or else in sending it will punish our sins.

But to return from this to that, from which we a little digressed, the reason of Christ here used is yet pressed further, Luk. 13. 15 where he answereth the master of the Synagogue, who had indignation at him for healing on the Sabbath, Hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the Sabbath day loose his ox, or his asse from the stall, and lead him away to the water? 16- And ought not this daughter of Abraham, whom Satan had bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day? That is, will ye water your cattle on the Sabbath, which thing your Rabbins think not unlawful: and think ye that I break the Sabbath for helping a faithful believer? Is not this rather hypocrisy in you, than any new doctrine in me? But here some will object: Christ might have done this the day after to the woman, who in so short a time would no more have perished, than the ox, if he had not been led to the water until the day following. To this I answer, as the works which we do to God his creatures do not fight with the keeping of the Sabbath, because in respect that cattle by not attending on them, would be made less profitable to their owner, though thereby they should not utterly perish: so in respect that this womā should have remained more unfit for God his glory, & the keeping of the Sabbath, if she had not been helped, although it may be she should not utterly have perished, this work of our Savior Christ was nothing against the Sabbath, he not seeking his own glory and profit, but the glory of his father, and the profit of another.

Now followeth the fourth reason in the 8. verse. The Son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath: That is, God the Father making the Sabbath, is the Lord of the same: the Son of man is equal with the Father, therefore the Son of man is also Lord of the Sabbath. Again, as the Lord made a law for man, but none for himself: so ye are too presumptuous in the presence of the Lord to control my disciples. For, if I being the law-maker, give a special privilege to my Disciples, as indeed I may do, urging the law, where I list, and dispensing in the law to some, as I please; is it then meet that you should censure them, whom I do privilege? Wherefore seeing it is I that have appointed the Sabbath, and therefore best know who keep it, and who break it, I give you to understand, that these men, whom ye falsely accuse, because ye know not the pure keeping nor breaking of the Sabbath, have not broken it. Suffer me then, I pray you, being Lord of mine own ordinance, to dispose of it, as best seemeth to me.

The fifth argument may be borrowed from the second of Mark. verse. 27 the words whereof are these: The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. Many think this reason to make much for their purpose; but they are deceived in their own ignorance. For, saith Christ, this is the cause why my disciples have not rested so much, as ye think they should have done; the Sabbath, that is, the rest, was made for man's good and comfort, and not man for the rest alone, but for the sanctifying of the Sabbath: so that albeit they have not for some good cause observed the rest, which must give place to the profit & commodity of man, yet have they not brokē the sanctification of the day, which chiefly is required of them, in that, if they had not eaten this corn, they had fainted, and so have been made unfit for the hallowing of the same. We say, meat was made for man, that is, for the relief, sustenance, and comfort of man, not man for the meat, to wit, for the eating and consuming of meat: but that in enjoying the cōforr of God his creatures, he might praise the Lord the more freely. Neither can any man hereof justly gather, that therefore on this day he may fil himself with meat, as he lusteth: because that were rather to unable, than to enable him to keep holy the Sabbath. Again, we say in like manner, that labor, that is, the commodity that cometh by labor, was made for man, not man for the labor, but for the glory of God, which by labor in his lawful calling he may gain to the Lord. Wherefore seeing the rest was appointed only but as means, whereby man may the more fitly sanctify the Sabbath, and the disciples did eat this corn, that they might be the fitter thereunto, it is manifest they did not violate the sanctifying of the Sabbath. Besides, though no man can say, that the Sacraments are figurative: yet the Sacraments were made for man, not man for the Sacraments, that is, for the bare use of the elements: although it must needs be granted, that to use the word and Sacraments in pureness and holiness for the further strengthening of our faith, is one of the chiefest and most principal duties of man. How be it in respect they be but means, and are to give place to the end, to the which they are ordained, I am persuaded, that though the congregation were busy either in hearing the word preached, or in receiving the Sacraments ministered: yet if an house being on fire were in love to be helped, the former actions were to give place to the latter. For we read Act. 20. 10. where Paul being occupied in preaching, and espying a young man, who was in a dead sleep, fallen down dead, made no conscience to cease from speaking, to go down to lay himself upon the young man, & to embrace him, until his spirit returned into him, and afterward went up again and continued his preaching. Wherefore in all these reasons we may see how Christ did show unto the Jews, that they perversely did stand in the ceremony, and did not abrogate the Sabbath. Here then is a far contrary argument to that, which these men affirm. For seeing our Savior Christ might in one word have shown it to be a ceremony, if he had purposed any such thing, and not have so amplified the matter, we see he rather speaketh against their superstitious opinion and abuse of the Sabbath, than affirmeth any such thing, as these men do surmise. To these former reasons we may add that, which is Matth. 24. 20.