A Key Opening Mysterious Texts of Scripture

CHRIST HIS LASTING MONUMENT, A Sermon preached on Maundy Thursday, THE LXVI. SERMON.

WHen our Savior was lifted up from the earth to draw all to him, and his arms were stretched out at full length to compass in and embrace all true believers: after he had bowed his head, as it were to take leave of the world, and so given up the ghost, a soldier with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out water and blood. Which was done to fulfill two prophecies, the one of Moses, A bone of him shall not be broken; the other of Zechariah, They shall look on him whom they pierced: as also to institute two Sacraments, the one in the water, the other in the blood that ran from him; the one to wash away the filth of original sin, the other to purge the guilt of all actual: The hole in Christ's side is the source and spring of both these Wells of salvation in the Church, which are continually filled with that which then issued out of our Lord's side. For albeit he died but once actu, yet he dieth continually virtute: and although his blood was shed but once really on the cross, yet it is shed figuratively and mystically both at the font, and at the Lord's board, when the dispenser of the sacred mysteries poureth water on the child, or wine into the chalice, and by consecrating the bread apart from the wine, severeth the blood of Christ from his body. In relation to which lively representation of his sufferings the Apostle affirmeth, that as oft as we eat of that bread, and drink of that cup, we show the Lord's death till he come.

In the Tabernacle there was sanctum, & sanctum sanctorum, a holy place, & a place most holy; so in the Church Calendar there is a holy time, all the time of Lent, and the most holy this week, wherein our blessed Savior made six steps to the Cross, and having in six days accomplished the works of man's redemption, as his Father in the like number of days had finished the works of creation, the seventh day kept his Sabbaths rest in the grave. Now above all the days of this holiest week, this hath one privilege, that in it Christ made his last will and testament, and instituted the sacrament of the Eucharist, and administered it in his own person, delivering both the consecrated bread and cup of blessing to his Apostles with his own hand. Which mysterious actions of his were presidents in all succeeding ages, and rules for the administration of that sacrament to the worlds end. For, Primum in unoquoque genere mensura est reliquorum, the first action in any sacred or civil institution in respect of those that succeed, is like the original to all after- draughts, and the copy to all that write by it. Such was the first institution of marriage in Paradise, of circumcision in Abraham's family, of the passover in Egypt, of all the other types and figures of the Law on Mount Sinai, and of the Lord's Supper in this upper room; wherein all Christ's speeches and actions may not unfitly be termed Rubrics, to direct the Christian Church in these mysterious rites. For before the end of the next day they were all coloured in blood. What was done now in effigie, was then done in personâ: he that now took bread, was taken himself: he that brake it, was broken on the cross: he that gave it to his Disciples, was given up for our sins: he who took the cup, received from his Father a cup of trembling: he who poured out the wine, shed his own blood; in memory of which real effusion thereof unto death, we celebrate this sacramental effusion unto life. For so he commanded us, saying, Do this in remembrance of me: and his faithful Apostle fully declareth his meaning in the words of my Text, As often, &c. As Christ came to us not by water only, but by water and blood; so we must come to him not by water only, the water of regeneration in baptism, but also by the blood of redemption, which is drunk by us in this sacrament, in obedience to his commandment, and in acknowledgement of his love to us even to death, and in death it self. As a man taking a long journie, leaveth a pledge with his friend, that whensoever he looketh upon it, he should think upon him in his absence; so Christ being to depart out of this world, left these sacred elements of bread and wine with his Church, to the end that as often as she seeth them, she should think of him and his sufferings for her. When Aeneas plucked a twig of the tree under which Polydorus was buried, the bough dropped blood:

so as soon as we pluck but a twig of the tree of Christ's cross, it will bleed a fresh in our thoughts, showing us to be guilty of the death of the Lord of life. For though we never consulted with the chief Priests, nor drave the bargain with Judas, nor pronounced sentence against him with Pilate, nor touched his hand or foot with a nail: yet since he was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities, and the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and the Lord laid on him the sins of us all, we cannot plead not guilty, inasmuch as our sins were the causes of all his sufferings. The Passover by the Law was to be eaten with sour herbs: and in like manner the Christian passover, which we are now met to eat, must be eaten with sour herbs, that is, pensive thoughts, and a sad remembrance both of our sinful actions, and our Savior's bloody passion. For as oft as ye eat, &c.

The coherence, or rather consequence of this verse to the former, is like to that of the Echo to the voice: the words of institution rehearsed in the former verses are as the voice, the inference of the Apostle in this verse as the Echo. For as the Echo soundeth out the last words of the voice, so the Apostle here repeateth the last words of Christ's institution, Do this in remembrance of me: and in effect explaineth them, saying, to do it in remembrance of Christ, that is, as oft as ye do it, ye show forth his death.

1. We are but once born, and therefore but once receive the sacrament of Baptism, which is the seal of our regeneration; but we feed often, & consequently are often to receive the sacrament, which is the seal of our spiritual nourishment & growth in Christ: and therefore the Apostle saith, As often as.

2. Whensoever we communicate we must make an entire meal and refection thereof: therefore he addeth, Ye eat and drink.

3. In making this spiritual refection, we must think upon Christ his bloody passion, and declare it to others: therefore he addeth, Ye show the Lord's death.

4. This commemoration of his death must continue till he hath fully revenged his death, and abolished death it self in all his mystical members: therefore he addeth, Till he come.

As oft as ye are bid to the Lord's Table, and come prepared, eat of this bread; and as oft as ye eat of this bread, drink of this cup: and when ye eat and drink, show forth the Lord's death; and let this annuntiation continue till he come. If ye take away this band of connection, the parts falling asunder will be these:

• 1. The time when.
• 2. The manner how.
• 3. The end why.
• 4. The term how long we are to celebrate this supper.

• 1. The time frequent, As often.
• 2. The manner entire, Eate and drink.
• 3. The end demonstrative, Shew forth.
• 4. The term perpetual, Till he come, that is, to the end of the world.

As often. We never read of any (saith Calvin ) that were blamed for drawing too much water out of the Wells of salvation: neither do we find ever any taxed for too often, but for too seldom communicating; which is utterly a fault among many at this day, who are bid (shall I say) thrice, nay twelve times, every month once, before they come to the Lord's Table; and then they come (it is to be feared) more out of fear of the Law, than love of the Gospel. Surely as when the appetite of the stomach to wholesome meat faileth, as in the disease called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the body pines, and there is a sensible decay in all parts; so it falleth out in the spiritual 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , when the soul hath no appetite to this bread of life, and food of Angels, the inward man pineth away, and all the graces of the spirit sensibly decay in us. This malady the Apostle suspected not to be in his Corinthians: and therefore he imposeth not here a law of often receiving, but supposeth they did so: for he imagined not that any would be so careless of their life & safety, as not often to exemplify the copy of their pardon. He conceived that he needed not to bid any to drink freely of the wine that maketh glad the heart of every communicant, or to eat frequently of the food that perisheth not: therefore taking that for granted, he prescribeth the manner how, and the end why they were often to celebrate this sacrament, saying, As oft

As ye eat. There are three kinds of eating:

• 1. Spiritually only.
• 2. Sacramentally only.
• 3. Sacramentally and spiritually.

1. They eat Christ spiritually only who believe the incarnation & passion of our Lord and Savior, yet die before they are called to his Table.

2. They eat sacramentally only, who are bid to the marriage feast, and come thither also and eat of the Brides cake, & drink of her wine, but have not on the wedding garment: such were the Jews, who ate manna in the wilderness, and died in their sins: and Judas at Christ's last supper, and all infidels and hypocrites, who receive at the Sacrament panem Domini, not panem Dominum, the Lord's bread, but not the Lord himself, who is that bread of life.

3. They eat Christ both sacramentally and spiritually, who believing in Christ's incarnation and passion, according to his command, come with preparation unto this Table, and with their mouth feed upon the outward element: which may be considered three ways,

• 1. In substance, so it is bread, or wine.
• 2. In use, so it is a sacrament.
• 3. In significancy and efficacy to all believers, so it is the body and blood of Christ.

And drink. It is worth your observation, that our adversaries the Papists, who are so much against a figure in the words used in the consecration of the bread, This is my body, yet are forced to admit of a double figure in the words used in the consecration of the cup, This is the New Testament in my blood. If they cast not here a double figure, they are lost: for first, there is continens pro contento, the cup put for the liquor contained in it. Secondly, in those words, as likewise in the words of my Text, they must digest a Metonymy, or swallow down flagons and cups.

This cup. The sacrament is called a cup in a double respect:

• 1. Quia potus, drink to nourish and refresh the soul.
• 2. Quia potio, because a medicinal potion to purge the conscience.

Gorran findeth out four sorts of cups, and engraveth upon each of them a several poesie.

1. The material or ordinary cup, which (saith he) ought to be taken sparingly, but given liberally.

2. The sacramental, which ought to be taken innocently, and touched reverently.

3. The spiritual, which ought to be taken willingly, and borne joyfully.

4. The abominable and execrable cup, which ought to be refused absolutely, or shed wholly.

But although this fourth cup be mentioned ( Apoc. 17.4.) yet we will content ourselves at this time with these three cups:

• 1. Calix consolationis, the cup of mirth and spiritual consolation.
• 2. Calix afflictionis, the cup of affliction.
• 3. Calix benedictionis, the cup of blessing.
  • Of the first David drank freely.
  • Of the second Jeremy sorrowfully.
  • Of the third the Corinthians holily.

If this cup in my text be calix benedictionis, the cup of blessing, then certainly the Romish Priests deserve calicem maledictionis, a cup of cursing, who deprive the laity of this cup. They cannot say in their congregation to the people, As oft as ye drink of this cup; for they never drink of it. To whom belongeth the commandment of eating, Take, eat? to the Priests only? Why then do the Laity among them eat? To the Laity also? Why then do they not drink, since it is most evident in the text that Christ said, Drink ye all of this, to whom before he gave the bread, saying, Take, eat? Those things which God hath joined together let no man put asunder. If the cup were not needful, why did Christ add it to his Supper? If it were needful, why do they take it away? Doubtless as half a meal is no meal, nor half a hand a hand, nor half a ship a ship; so neither is their half communion a Sacrament: si dividis perdis. This is the cup of the New Testament, saith Christ, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. Are these many only Priests? Had the Laity no sins, or no remission of sins by Christ's blood? If they have, as they all profess, why do they forbid them that which Christ expressly commandeth them? Drink ye all of this, for it is shed for you, and for many. But to go no farther than this chapter: when St. Paul requireth, ver. 28. Let a man examine himself, I would willingly examine our Adversaries, whether this precept concerneth the lay people or no? They will say it doth especially, because they most need examination, that they may confess their sins, and receive absolution for them, before they presume to come to the Lord's Table: let them then read what followeth in the same verse, and so let them eat of that bread and drink of that cup.

Ye do show the Lord's death. The Apostle doth not hereby exclude other ends of receiving the Sacrament, but showeth this to be the chiefest. God never set so many remarkable accidents upon anything as on his Sons death, at which the Sun was eclipsed, the rocks were cloven, the veil of the Temple rent from the top to the bottom, the graves opened, and the dead arose. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints, but most precious the death of his holy One: for this Sacrament was principally instituted to keep in remembrance that his precious death. We show forth Christ's death three manner of ways;

• 1 In verbo.
• 2 In signo.
• 3 In opere.

• 1 By commemoration of the history of his passion.
• 2 By representation thereof in the sacred Symboles.
• 3 By expression thereof in our death to sin.

And as it is more to show forth Christ's death in signo, by administering or participating the Sacrament thereof, than in verbo, by discoursing of his passion: so it is much more to show it forth in opere, in mortifying our members upon earth, and crucifying the lusts of the flesh, than in verbo or signo. After these three ways we must all show forth the Lord's death

Till he come. To wit, either to each particular man at the hour of his death, or to all men and the whole Church on earth at the day of judgment. This Sacrament is called by the ancient Fathers viaticum morientium, the dying man's provision for the long journey he is to take. Every faithful Christian therefore is to communicate as long as he is able, and can worthily prepare himself, even to the day of his dissolution; and all congregations professing the Christian religion, must continue the celebration of this holy Sacrament till the day of the worlds consummation.

As often. The seldomer we come to the table of some men the welcomer we are: but on the contrary, we are the better welcome the oftener we come to the Lord's Table with due preparation. There are two reasons especially why we ought oft to eat of this bread, and drink of this cup; the first is drawn from God and his glory: the second from ourselves and our benefit. The oftener we partake of these holy mysteries, being qualified thereunto, the more we illustrate God's glory, and confirm our faith. If any demand further how oft ye ought to communicate, I answer

1. In general, as oft as ye need it, and are fit for it. The Martyrs in the Primitive Church received every day, because looking every hour to be called to sign the truth of their religion with their blood, they held it needful by communicating to arm themselves against the fear of death. Others in the time of peace received either daily, or at least every Lord's day. The former Saint Augustine neither liketh nor disliketh, the latter he exhorteth all unto.

2. I answer in particular out of Fabianus, the Synod of Agatha, and the Rubric of our Communion book, that everyone at least ought to communicate thrice a year, at Christmas, Easter, and Whitsuntide: howbeit we are not so much to regard the season of the year, as the disposition of our mind in going forward, or drawing back from this holy Table. The sacrament is fit for us at all times, but we are not fit for it: wherefore let every man examine his own conscience, how he standeth in favor with God, and peace with men: how it is with him in his spiritual estate, whether he groweth or decayeth in grace: whether the Flesh get the hand of the Spirit, or the Spirt of the Flesh; whether our ghostly strength against all temptations be increased or diminished; and accordingly (as the Spirit of God shall incline our hearts) let us either out of sense of our own unworthiness, and reverence to this most holy ordinance forbear, or with due preparation and renewed faith and repentance approach to this Table, either to receive a supply of those graces we want, or an increase of those we have; and when we come, let us

Eate of this bread, and drink of this cup. For as both eyes are requisite to the perfection of sight, so both Elements to the perfection of the Sacrament. This the Schools roundly confess: Two things (saith Aquinas) concur to the integrity of the Sacrament, viz. spiritual meat and drink: and again, It is requisite in regard of the Sacrament that we receive both kinds, the body and the blood, because in both consisteth the perfection of the Sacrament. And Bonaventure, A perfect refection or repast is not in bread only, but in bread and drink: therefore Christ is not perfectly signified as feeding our souls in one kind, but in both. And Soto, The Sacrament, as concerning the entire signification thereof, is not perfect but in both kinds. Doubtless, if the Sacrament be a banquet or a supper, there must be drink in it as well as meat. The Popish communion, be it what it may be, to the Laity cannot be a supper in which the Laity sup nothing; neither can they fulfill the precept of the Apostle of showing forth the Lord's death: for the effusion of the wine representeth the shedding of Christ's blood out of the veins, and the parting of his soul from his body. If we should grant unto our adversaries, which they can never evict, that the blood of Christ might be received in the bread, yet by such receiving Christ's death by the effusion of his blood for us, could in no wise be represented or shown forth; which the Apostle here teacheth to be the principal end of receiving this Sacrament: As oft, saith he, as ye eat of this bread and drink of this cup

Ye show forth Christ's death. In Christ's death all Christianity is briefly summed: for in it we may observe the justice of God satisfied, the love of Christ manifested, the power of Satan vanquished, the liberty of man from the slavery of sin and death purchased, all figures of the Old Testament verified, all promises of the New ratified, all prophecies fulfilled, all debts discharged, all things requisite for the redemption of mankind, and to the worlds restoration accomplished. Therein we have a pattern of obedience to the last breath, of humility descending as low as hell, of meekness putting up insufferable wrongs, of patience enduring merciless torments; compassion weeping and praying for bloody persecutors; constancy holding out to the end: to which virtues of his person, if ye lay the benefits of his passion redounding to his Church, which he hath comforted by his agony, quit by his taking, justified by his condemnation, healed by his stripes, cleansed by his blood, quickened by his death, and crowned by his cross; if you take a full sight of all the virtues wherewith his cross is beset as with so many jewels, I make no doubt but that you will resolve with the Apostle, to desire to know nothing but Jesus Christ, and him crucified. Let Israel hope in the Lord (saith the Psalmist) for with the Lord there is mecrcy, and with him is plenteous redemption. Plenteous, for what store of blood shed he in his agony, in his crowning with thorns, in his whipping, in his nailing, and lastly in the piercing of his side! whereas one drop of his blood, in regard of the infinite dignity of his person, might have served for the ransom of many worlds: one drop of his blood was more worth than all the precious things in the world. As Pliny writeth of the herb Scorpius, that it is a remedy against the poison of a Scorpion; so Christ's death and cross is a sovereign remedy against all manner of deaths and crosses. For all such crosses make a true believer conformable to his Redeemers image, and every conformity to him is a perfection, and every such perfection shall add a jewel to his crown of glory. This death of Christ so precious, so sovereign, we show forth in shadow as it were and adumbration, when either we discourse of the history of Christ's passion, or administer the Sacrament of his death; but to the life, when as Saint Francis is said to have had the print of Christ's five wounds on his body, so we have the print of them in our souls: when we express his death in our mortification, when we tie ourselves to our good behavior, and restrain our desires and affections, as he was nailed to the cross: when we thirst after righteousness, as he thirsted on the cross for our salvation: when we are pierced with godly sorrow, as his soul was heavy unto death; and when as his flesh, so our carnal lusts are crucified: when as he commended his soul to his Father, so we in our greatest extremities commit our souls to God, as our faithful Creator. Cui, &c.

THE SIGNE AT THE HEART. A Sermon preached on the first Sunday in Lent. THE LXVII. SERMON.

SInnes for repentance to work upon, and repentance for sin, take up in a manner our whole life. Not only the wicked (in their endless mazes) in the rode to hell, but even the godly, who endeavor to make the streightest steps they can to heaven, Ambulant in circuitu, walk in a kind of circuit. From fasting to feasting, and from feasting again to fasting; from Mount Gerizin to Mount Hebal, and from Mount Hebal to Mount Gerizin; from sins to repentance, and from repentance back again, though against their will, to sin. It is true, that grace in the regenerate never quits the field, but groweth more and more upon corrupt nature, and in the end conquereth her: yet so conquereth her (as Lucullus and other Roman Captains did Mithridates ) that nature still ruleth in the members, and often putteth the mind to the worst, always to much trouble. Wherefore as the Sea-mew that maketh her nest on the sea shore, is forced daily to repair it, because every day the violent assault of the sea waves moulter away some part thereof; so the regenerate and sanctified soul hath need to renew the inward man daily, and repair the conscience by repentance, because every day, nay almost every hour, by the violent assaults of temptation and sins, as they are termed, of ordinary incursion, some breach or other is made into it.

Now albeit private repentance hath no day set, nor time prefixed to it, but is always in season: yet now is the peculiar season of public, when the practice of the primitive, and the sanction of the present Church calls us to watching and fasting, to weeping and mourning, to sackcloth and ashes, to humiliation and contrition; when in a manner the whole Christian world (I except only some few Heteroclites) accordeth with us in our groans, and consorteth with our sighs, and keepeth stroke with us in the beating our breasts, and setteth open the sluices to make a flood of tears, and carry away the filth of the whole year past. Abyssus abyssum invocet, let this flood carry away the former deluge. Verily such is the overflowing of iniquity, and inundation of impurity in this last and worst age of the world, that the most righteous among us can hardly keep up their head, and hold out their hands above water, to call to God for mercy for themselves & others: hath not then the Church of God great reason to oppose the Eves, Embers, & Lent fasts, as so many flood-gates, if not quite to stay, yet somewhat to stop the current of sin? Anselm, sometimes Archbishop of Canterbury, whom the Church of Rome hath inserted into the Canon of Saints, (but he ranketh himself among the Apocrypha of sinners) recounting with hearts grief and sorrow the whole course of his life, and finding the infancy of sin in the sins of his infancy, the youth and growth of sin in the sins of his youth, and the maturity and ripeness of all sin in the sins of his ripe and perfect age, breaketh forth into this passionate speech, Quid restat tibi, O peccator, nisi ut totâ vitâ deploret totam vitam? What remains for thee, wretched man, but that thou spend the remainder of thy whole life in bewailing thy whole life? What should we (Beloved) in a manner do else, considering that even when we pray against sin, we sin in praying: when we have made holy vows against sin, our vows by the breach of them turn into sin: after we have repented of our sins, we repent of our repentance, and thereby increase our sin? In which consideration, if all the time that is given us should be a Lent of discipline, if all weeks Embers, if all days of the week Ashwednesdayes, how much more ought we to keep Lent in Lent now, at least continually to call upon the name of God for our continual blaspheming it? Now to fast for our sins in feasting, now to weep and mourn for our sins in laughing, sporting, and rioting in sinful pleasures: to this end our tender mother the Spouse of Christ debarreth us of all other delights, that we should make God's statutes our delights: for this cause she subtracteth our bodily refection, that we may feast our souls: therefore she taketh away or diminisheth our portion in the comforts of this life, that with holy David we should take God for our portion. This is a time, as the name importeth, Lent of God to examine our accounts, and clear them: a holy tenth of the year to be offered to him: the sacred Eve and Vigils to the great feast of our Chris •• an passover. Your humbling your bodies by watching and fasting, your sou • es by weeping and mourning, your rending your hearts with sighs, the resolving your eyes into tears, your continual prostration before the throne of grace, & offering up prayers with strong cries, are at this time not only kind fruits of your devotion, special exercises of your mortification, necessary parts of contrition, but also testimonies of obedience to the Law, and duties of conformity to Christ's sufferings, and of preparation to our most public and solemn Communions at Easter.

To prick you on forward in this most necessary duty, of pricking your hearts with godly sorrow for your sins, I have made choice of this verse, wherein the Evangelist S. Luke relateth the effects of S. Peters Sermon in all his auditors.

• 1. Inward impression, they were pricked in heart.
• 2. Outward expression, men and brethren, what shall we do?

What Eupolis sometimes spake of Pericles, that after his oration made to the people of Athens, he left certain needles and stings in their minds, may be more truly affirmed of this Sermon of the Apostle, which when the Jews heard they were pricked at heart, and not able to endure the pain, cry out men and brethren, what shall we do? The ancient painters, to set forth the power of eloquence, drew Hercules Celticus with an infinite number of chains coming out of his mouth, and reaching to the ears of great multitudes: much after which manner S. Luke describeth S. Peter in my text, with his words, as it were so many golden chains, fastened first upon the ears, and after upon the hearts of three thousand, and drawing them up at once in the drag-net of the Gospel. Now our blessed Savior made good his promise to him, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , thou shalt catch live men; and this access of souls to the Church, and happy success in his ministerial function, seemeth to have been fore-shown to him by that great draught of fish taken after Christ's resurrection, the draught was an hundred fifty and three great fishes; and for all there were so many, yet, saith the text, the net was not broken. The truth always exceedeth the type, for here were three thousand great and small taken, and yet the net was not broken; there was no schism nor rupture thereby: for all the converts were of one mind, they were all affected with the same malady, they feel the same pain at the heart, and seek for ease and help at the hands of the same Physicians, Peter and the rest of the Apostles, saying, Men and brethren, what shall we do?

Now when they heard these things they were pricked. Why, what touched them so near? no doubt those words, Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and fore-knowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain, whom God hath raised up, having loosened the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should be holden of it. This could not but touch the quickest veins in their heart, that they should be the death of the Lord of life, that they should slay their Messiah, that they should destroy the Savior of the world. Of all sins murder crieth the loudest in the ears of God and men; of all murders, the murder of an only begotten son most enrageth a loving father, and extimulateth him unto revenge: in what woeful case then might they well suppose themselves to be, who after S. Peter had opened their eyes, saw that their hands 〈◊〉 been deep in the blood of the Son of God? Now their blasphemous words which they spake against him, are sharp swords wounding deeply their souls; the thorns wherewith they pricked his head, and the nails wherewith they pierced his hands and feet, pricked and pierced their very heart.

They were pricked in heart: That is, they were pierced though row with sorrow, they took on most grievously. Here lest we mistake phrases of like sound, though not of like sense, we must distinguish of spiritus compunctionis, and compunctio spiritus, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a spirit of compunction reproved in the unbelieving Jews, and compunction of spirit, or of the heart, here noted by S. Luke: the former phrase signifieth slumber, stupidity, or obstinacy in sin, this latter hearty sorrow for it: the former is a malady for the most part incurable, the latter is the cure of all our spiritual maladies. Now godly sorrow is termed compunction of the heart for three reasons, as Lorinus conceiveth.

• 1. Because thereby the corruption of the heart is discovered, as an aposteme is opened by the prick of a sharp instrument.
• 2. Because thereby, like the Spouse in the Canticles, we become sick of love, as the least prick at the heart causeth a present fit of sickness.
• 3. Because thereby the Devil is, as it were, wounded with indignation and envy. When they heard these things they were pricked in heart: when they were pricked in heart

They said. As the strokes in music answer the notes that are pricked in the rules: so the words of the mouth answer to the motions and affections of the heart. The Anatomists teach, that the heart & tongue hang upon one string. And hence it is, that as in a clock or watch, when the first wheel is moved the hammer striketh: so when the heart is moved with any passion or perturbation, the hammer beats upon the bell, and the mouth soundeth: as we heard from David, My heart is enditing a good matter, and my tongue is the pen of a ready writer. And from S. Paul: With the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the tongue confession is made unto salvation. And from our Savior: A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth evil things; for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. Many among us complain that they are tongue-tied, that when they are at their private devotions, their words stick in their mouths, and they cannot freely pour out their souls into the bosom of their Redeemer; but they look not into the cause of it, they have not got a stock of heavenly knowledge, and sanctified forms of words, their hearts are not filled with the holy spirit: for were they full, they would easily vent themselves. They cannot freely bring forth, because they have laid up nothing in the treasury of their hearts.

To Peter and the rest of the Apostles. As those that were wounded with the darts of Achilles, could no otherwise be cured than by his salves and plasters: so the Jews who were wounded by S. Peters sharp reprehension, could be by no other means cured, than by his own salves and receipts which he prescribeth afterwards. Here our adversaries, who will not let the least tittle fall to the ground that may serve any way to advance the title and dignity of the Bishop of Rome, will have us take special notice, that here and elsewhere Peter is named before the rest of the Apostles: and that ye may know that all is fish that comes to Peters net, Bellarmine will tell you that the Popes monarchy is proclaimed in those words in the Acts, Rise up Peter, kill and eat, (Acts 11.7.) I know not with what perspective the Cardinal readeth the Scriptures; but sure I am he seeth more in this vision, than any of the ancient or later Commentators ever discerned; yet Baronius seeth more than he: Those were healed (saith he) who came but within the shadow of Peter. Acts 5.15. They brought forth the sick into the streets, and laid them on beds or couches, that at the least the shadow of Peter passing by, might over-shadow them. The same virtue is given to the shadow of Peter, which is given to his body, that we might know that such store of grace was given to Peter, that God would have the same gifts derived to his successors, who represent his person. Thus as ye see, the Papists as men in danger of drowning, catch at every rotten stake to support their faith in the Popes supremacy. Lorinus catcheth at the placing of a word, Bellarmine at a mystical apparition, and Baronius at a shadow. What serveth this shadow to illustrate or confirm the Popes or Peters supremacy? It pleased God, for the manifestation of his power, and the performance of Christ's promise to his disciples, that they in his name should work greater miracles than some of those that he had done, to heal the sick by Paul's handkerchiefes, and Peters shadow: Ergo, Peter was chief of all the Apostles, and the Pope the Monarch of the visible Church. Neither is there any clearer evidence in that vision which S. Peter saw of a sheet let down from heaven, in which there were four-footed beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air. And he heard a voice saying unto him; Arise Peter, slay and eat. At manducare est capitis, saith the Cardinal: but it is the head that eateth, the Pope therefore is the head. He should better have concluded, the Popes are the teeth: for S. Peter himself made no other interpretation of this vision, than that the Gentiles, whose hearts God had purified by faith, were not to be accounted unclean; and therefore he alledgeth this apparition in his apology for going unto the uncircumcised, and eating with them. As little maketh the setting of Peters name before the rest, for his authority over them. For here was a special reason why the Jews directed their speech to Peter in the first place: because it was he who charged them so deep, he put them in this perplexity; and therefore to him they addressed themselves for counsel and comfort. Elsewhere, where there is not the like occasion, others are named before him, as James, and Andrew, and the Disciples. Here I demand of Lorinus, doth the naming of Andrew before Peter, or of James, or the Disciples, prove that any of these were superiors to Peter? If they were, what becomes of Peters supremacy? If they were not, what maketh the naming him before them for it? Without all question, if the setting of Peter after the rest of the Apostles & Disciples in the texts above alleged, maketh not against; the setting him here before them, maketh not for his supremacy.

Men and brethren what shall we do? Seneca saith, Levis dolor est qui consilium capit, It is a light grief which admitteth of consultation: but we may say more truly, Sanus dolor est qui consilium capit; It is an healthful malady and an happy grief, which drives us to our spiritual Physician, and exciteth us to a careful use of the means of salvation. S. Paul rejoiced at this symptom in his patients at Corinth: Now I rejoice not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance: for behold this self same thing that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, &c.

What shall we do to satisfy the Father for the death of his Son, to ease our burdened consciences, to wash away the guilt of the effusion of innocent blood? Behold here the effects of soul-ravishing eloquence, attention, compunction, and a solicitous enquiry after the means of everlasting salvation: or if ye like better of an allegorical partition, see here,

• 1. The weapon wherewith they were wounded, the Word preached, when they heard, &c.
• 2. The wound, which was a prick at the heart.
• 3. The cure, not words but deeds, they said, what shall we do?

Here ye have a pattern, both of a faithful teacher and religious hearers; a faithful teacher tickleth not the ears, but pricketh the heart; his words are not like bodkins to curle the hair, but like goads and nails that prick the heart; though the goads go not so deep that pierce but the skin, the nails go farther, for they are driven to the very heart of the auditors up to the head. The religious hearer, when he is reproved for his sin, spurneth not at the Minister of God, but receiving the words with meekness, communeth with his own heart whether the reproof were just or no, and finding it just, confesseth his sin, and seeketh for pardon and forgiveness. The Jews here when they were charged by S. Peter with the murder of the son of God, say not, Quid hic? sed quid nos? not what hath this man to meddle with us? but who can give us good counsel? not what shall we say? but what shall we do? for words are too light a recompense for deeds.

1. A word of the duty of faithful teachers, that with the cock, by clapping my wings upon my breast, I may awake myself as well as others. The salvation of the hearers much dependeth upon the gifts of the Preacher, and the gifts of the Preacher much depend upon his sincere intention, not to gain profit or applause to himself, but souls to God: not to tickle their ears, but to prick their hearts. Such a Preacher S. Bernard ever wished to hear, at whose Sermon the people hemmed not, but sighed; clapped not their hands as at a play, but knocked their breasts as at a funeral. According to which pattern S. Jerome endeavoreth to frame Nepotian his scholar, When thou teachest in the Church (saith he) let there be heard no shouts of admiration, but sobs of contrition: let the fluencie of thy eloquence be seen in the cheeks of thy hearers. This is not done by ostentation of art, but by evidence of the spirit. A painted fire heateth not, nor do the gestures and motions of an artificial man, destitute of soul and life, any whit move our affections: 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , they are the graces of sanctification shining in the countenance, gesture, & life of the Preacher (and not the beauty and ornaments of speech) which insinuate into the heart, and multiply themselves there: without which, though we speak with the tongues of men and Angels, we are but like sounding brass or tinkling cymbals: except the Lord touch the heart and the tongue of the Preacher with a coal from his Altar, all the luster of rhetorical arguments, and blaze of words, will yield no more warmth to the conscience than a glow-worm. Ye have heard briefly of the duty of Pastors, reserve (I pray you) one ear to listen to your own duty as hearers.

2. It was the manner of the Jews to bore thorough the ears of those servants that meant not to leave them till death: and if ye desire to be in the lists of God's servants, ye must have your ears bored, and the pearls of the Gospel hanging at them. All shepherds set a mark upon their sheep; and so doth the good Shepherd that gave his life for his sheep: and this mark is in the ear, My sheep hear my voice. There is no doctrine in the word we hear of more often, than of hearing the word and keeping it. We hear that we ought to hear the Father; Hear O heaven, and hearken O earth, for the Lord hath spoken: we hear that we ought to hear the Son; He that hath ears to hear let him hear: and, This is my well-beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, hear ye him: we hear that we ought to hear the Spirit; Let him that hath an ear to hear, hear what the Spirit saith to the Churches. All the venturers in the great ship called Argonavis, bound for Colchis to fetch the golden fleece, when they were assaulted by the Sirens, endeavoring to enchant them with their songs, found no such help in anything against them, as in Orpheus his pipe: we are all venturers for a golden crown in heaven, and as the Grecians, so we are way-laid by Sirens, evil spirits, and their incantations, from which we cannot be safe, but by listening to the Preachers of the Gospel, who when they pipe unto us out of the word, our hearts dance for joy. In that golden chain of the Apostle, the first link is hung at the ear, Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. How shall they call on him, on whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him, of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a Preacher? Do we think that God will hear us in our prayers, if we hear not him speaking to us in his Word? The Prophet Zechariah assureth us he will not: When I cried they would not hear, so they cried and I would not hear them, saith the Lord of hosts. If ye desire with S. Paul to hear in heaven, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the words that cannot be uttered, ye must on earth be attentive hearers to the words uttered by our Peters and Paul's. None was cured with more difficulty (as it seemeth) than the man that had a deaf and dumb spirit: such are our obstinate Recusants and Separationists, who have not an ear to hear what God speaketh to them by the Ministers of the Word. Religion is not unfitly compared to the Weasell, which, as Adrianus Junius writeth, conceiveth at the ear, and brings forth her young ones at her mouth: for the seed of God's word is cast in at the ear, and there having conceived divine thoughts and meditations, she bringeth forth the fruit of devotion at her mouth, praises and thanksgivings, godly admonitions, exhortations, reprehensions and consolations. Mark your Jaylers, they often suffer their prisoners to have their hands and feet free; neither are they in any fear that they will make an escape, so long as the prison doors and gates are sure locked and fast barred: so dealeth Satan with those whom he holdeth in captivity, he letteth them sometimes have their hands at liberty to reach out an alms to the poor, and sometimes their feet to go to Church to hear prayers; but he will be sure to keep the ears, which are the gates and doors of their soul, fast: which he locks up with these or the like suggestions. Christ saith that his house is Domus orationis, not orationum, an house of prayer, not of sermons. Few there are but know enough, the greatest defect is in the practice of religious duties: What can they hear which they have not often heard before, which no sooner entereth in at one ear, but runneth out at the other? Give me leave a little to lift these Adders from the ground, whereby they stop the right ear, and pluck their tail from the head, whereby they stop the left, that they may be charmed both by the word and by the voice of reason it self.

Christ saith his house is an house of prayer: but where spake he this? spake he it not in the Temple? and were not these very words part of a sermon which he preached to the buyers and sellers there? He hath but little skill in the language of Canaan, who knoweth not that prayer and invocation of God's name, is in Scripture by a Synecdoche taken for the whole worship of God: yet admit that our Savior should in that place take prayers strictly, for that part of God's worship which consisteth in lifting up our hands, to prefer our petitions and supplications unto him; S. Paul furnisheth us with a direct answer to this objection, even by those questions he propoundeth, How then shall they call on him, on whom they have not beleveed? how shall they believe on him, of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? As there is no powerful preaching without prayer to God for a blessing upon it: so no good prayer without preaching, to direct both in the matter and form, and to enflame our hearts with zeal. There being three parts of prayer, humble confession, confident invocation, and hearty thanksgiving; how can they make a full confession of their sins, who learn not what are sins from the mouth of the Preacher? How can they be humbled in such sort as they ought, before whom the Preacher out of the word setteth not God his terrible name, glorious Majesty, all-seeing eye, infinite purity, strict justice, fierce wrath against sin, together with man his vileness, wretchedness, sinfulness, wants and infirmities? How can they call upon God with confidence, who are not persuaded out of the Word by the Preacher, of God his love to man, mercy and longsuffering, gracious promises, omnipotent goodness; as also of Christ his perfect obedience, plenary satisfaction, and perpetual intercession? How can they recount God's blessings, both spiritual and temporal, who never have been told them by the Preacher?

Yea but they will say they know enough of these things: nihil est dictum quod non sit dictum prius. This very objection of theirs bewrays their ignorance and want of knowledge in divine things. For were they rightly instructed as they ought to be, they could not but know that the Scripture is like a plentiful mine, in which the deeper we dignity, the vein of heavenly truths proves still the richer; they would know that all the Saints of God in all ages have complained of, and confessed their ignorance, and continually prayed with David, Doce me viam statutorum tuorum, O teach me the way of thy statutes, and open mine eyes, that I may see the wonderful things of thy law. Lastly, that it is the duty of every good Christian to improve his talent of wisdom and spiritual understanding, to meditate on those things he readeth and heareth, that his profiting may appear unto all; and to grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Admit they should learn no new thing in divers Sermons, yet will not this any way excuse their neglect of this duty of hearing; neither ought it to be any cause at all to keep them from Sermons: because instruction of ignorance is not the only end of preaching, there are many others; as, to glorify God, to countenance the ministry of his word by their presence, to encourage others to the diligent and constant hearing of the word by their example, who perhaps may more need instruction than themselves; to testify their obedience to God's ordinance, who commandeth all his servants, as well to hear him when he speaketh to them in his Word, as to speak unto him in their prayers; to have religious affections stirred up in them, sometimes hope, sometimes fear, sometimes godly sorrow, sometimes spiritual joy, always zeal for God's glory, fervor in their devotion, and watchfulness over all their ways: to be put in mind of those things which indeed they knew before, but either forgot, or made as little use of them as if they had never known them: to be awaked out of their spiritual lethargy: to be admonished of divers dangers they are like to incur: to be convinced of divers errors which they count to be none till the powerful ministry of the Word hath demonstrated them to be such: to reprove them of the sins they daily commit, as well of ignorance as against their conscience: and to prick their hearts deep with godly compunction, that with weeping eyes and bleeding hearts they may seek to God in time for pardon. Lastly, to prepare them to perform all religious duties in a better manner, that they may for the future receive more comfort in their private devotions, and more benefit by the public ministry of the Word and Sacraments. The grand enemy of our souls, partly by immediate suggestions and thoughts ingested into our minds, and partly by the mouths or pens of Atheists, Infidels, Heretics and Schismatics, layeth new batteries against our most holy faith: and is it not then most needful to learn from the most able and experienced Soldiers of Christ how to beat them off, and fortify against them? And if their memory be so brittle and pertuse, as they pretend, that it will hold nothing, there is a greater necessity for them to hear oftener than others, that the frequent inculcation of the same doctrine may imprint that in their minds which others receive by the first hearing. And to answer them in their own metaphor; albeit the bucket be so full of holes that all the water they take up in it runneth out, yet certainly the often dipping it into the Well, and filling it with water, will make it moister than otherwise it would have been. And so I pass from the ear mark of Christ's sheep, to the mark in their heart.

They were pricked in heart. This prick in the heart may be considered two manner of ways:

• 1 In a reference to the cause, and so it is an effect.
• 2 In a reference to the subject, and so it is an affection.

If we consider it as an effect, it showeth unto us the efficacy of God's Word in the mind of the hearers, which is far greater than any force of human art or eloquence. Art and human eloquence may move affection, but it is the powerful preaching of the Word only that can remove corruption; as we read, Lex Jehovae convertens animas, The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The word of man my tickle the ear, but it is the word of God only which pricketh deep the heart. Hence it is compared to a goad, or nail fastened by the masters of the assemblies: nay to a two-edged sword, piercing to the dividing asunder of soul, and spirit, and joints, and marrow: nay to thunder, which breaketh the bones, not hurting the yielding flesh; at the sound whereof Satan falls like lightening from heaven. This efficacy of the word of God proves the Divinity thereof: as it could not be divine, but it must needs be effectual; so it could not be so effectual as it is, if it were not divine. As the demolishing the walls of Jericho proved that there was something more in the sounding of the Rams horns, than the violent expulsion or percussion of the air; so the conquering all the eloquence, and power, and wealth, and wisdom of the world, and subduing it to the Gospel by the preaching of the Apostles, poor, simple, and illiterate men, of no more account (in comparison of the Orators and Philosophers of the heathen) than the Rams horns in comparison of silver trumpets, demonstrateth that their words were not the words of men, but the words of God. Zabarel treating of nutrition in the stomach, and perfect concoction, propoundeth this question; How cometh it to pass, that heat being but an accident and a simple quality, can digest our meat, sever the thicker parts from the thinner, turn the chylus into chymus, and chymus into blood, and disperse this blood into all parts? resolveth it thus, that Heat may be considered two ways; either as it is a mere quality and accident, and so it hath but one simple operation; or as it is an instrument of the soul, and so it produceth all the effects above mentioned. In like manner, if it be demanded how the word preached instructeth, correcteth, and comforteth, and maketh the man of God perfect, and thoroughly furnished to every good work: how it frameth and mouldeth the heart, how it printeth it like a stamp, melteth it like fire, bruizeth it like a hammer, pricketh it like a nail, and cutteth it asunder like a sword: the ready answer is, that it produceth these effects, Non ut sonus, sed ut instrumentum Dei; not as it is a sound or a collision of the air, but as it is an instrument of God: Or, to use the phrase of the Apostle, as it is the power of God unto salvation, to everyone that believeth. This power we may easily believe to be in the whole, when we see such efficacy in one text. Junius was reclaimed from Atheism by casting his eye on the New Testament lying open in his study, and reading the first words of S. Johns Gospel; In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. These words which struck such a reverence in the hearts of the heathenish Platonics, that they wrote them in golden letters in their Churches, so amazed him with the strange majesty of the style, and profoundnesse of the mysteries therein contained, that he never after entertained the least thought of his former atheistical conceit. As Antony passing in his journey, and coming to a Chapel, heard the Priest read those words in the Gospel, If thou wilt be perfect, go sell all that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: he took the words as spoken to himself in particular, and fulfilling the precept of Christ accordingly, of a covetous worldling became a most holy recluse. What should I speak of S. Augustine, who was strangely converted by hearing a voice, saying; Tolle, lege: & fastening his eyes upon the first passage of Scripture he lighted upon, which was this, Let us walk honestly as in the day, not in gluttony and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying; but put ye on the Lord Jesus, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof. No sooner was the verse read, than the work of his conversion was finished, and a pious resolution for amendment of life settled in him. Alypius certified hereof, desireth to peruse the place, and falleth upon the verse immediately following; Him that is weak in the faith receive you, (Rom. 14.1.) which he applying to himself, besought S. Augustine to strengthen him in the truth, according to the command of Christ to Peter, Luke 22.32. Tu conversus, confirma fratres, When thou art converted, confirm thy brethren: which task he so well performed, that with a little travel, in a short space two twins were brought forth to Christ at one birth. To fasten the truth of this observation, concerning the efficacy of Scripture texts seasonably applied, I will borrow a golden nail from S. Chrysostom: It is not so in the Church where the Word is powerfully taught, as it was in the Ark of Noah: for there the beast that entered into the Ark, received no change nor alteration at all by the imbarking there during the deluge: if they were clean at their coming in, they were so at their going out; if they came in unclean, they went out unclean; if they came in wild, they went out wild: but it is not so here: we come in unclean, but we go out clean; we come in wild, we go out tame; we come in wolves, we go out lambs; we come in lions, we go out deer; we come in vultures, we go out doves; we come in beasts, we go out men; or, to speak more properly, regenerate Christians. And thus much concerning compunction in reference to the cause, as it is an effect of the word preached: now let us consider it in a reference to the subject, as it is an affection in the sinner.

The locusts are described by S. John with faces like men, but stings in their tails like scorpions: not to disparage any mystical interpretation, a moral may be this: Sins, especially of pleasure, like these locusts, have beautiful faces, and a delightful appearance at the first: but those that deal and dally with them, shall find that they have stings in their tails, and leave pricks and venomous wounds in the conscience in the end; for after the act of sin is committed, there is felt in all that have not seared consciences, remorse, sorrow, fear, and shame: sorrow for the loss of God's favor, & the jewels of his grace, & the comforts of the Spirit; fear for the guilt of sin, and shame for the filthiness and turpitude thereof. Of these three consisteth compunction; which S. Isidore defineth to be a dejection of the mind, with tears caused by the remembrance of sin, and fear of judgment. By S. Gregory thus, A dejection of the mind full of anxiety, between fear and hope, annihilating or destroying sin. For as the worm which breedeth in the wood consumeth it, so (saith S ^t Chrysostom) the sorrow which ariseth from sin consumeth and destroyeth it. Pia proles hoc ipso quod devoret matrem, An happy issue in this only, that it eateth out the heart of the parent.

Thus I have pricked you out (to use the phrase of the Musicians) a lesson of compunction; which though it be a sad pavin to the outward man, yet it is a merry galliard to the inward. The physic which kindly worketh, and maketh the patient heart-sick for the present, yet much comforteth him out of assured hope, that the present pain will bring future ease & help. The smarting plaster is the most wholesome: such is that I have spread by the amplification of my Text, and now I am to lay it to by the application thereof. If compunction of the heart be the true mark of a penitent, let the eye of our soul look into our heart, and see whether we can find it there. If we find it, we may take comfort in it; if we find it not, we may be sure we are no true converts. There is no virtue in the physic, if it pain us not: no force in the plaster, if it smart not: the dis-located bone is not brought to his place, if we felt no pain in the setting it. As the colors and shapes which are burnt in glass, cannot be obliterated unless the glass be broken all to pieces; so neither can the ugly shapes of vices & images of Satan be razed out of the soul, unless the heart be broken with true contrition. Spices when they are bruised and pownded in a mortar yield a most fragrant smell: O then let us bruise our hearts with true contrition, that our zealous meditations may be like fragrant spices in the nostrils of God. If the Jews were pricked in heart at the remembrance of Christ's suffering, if their hearts bled for once crucifying the Lord of life, how much more ought ours for crucifying him daily? O think upon this (dearly beloved) seriously both in the day and in the night, and let it make your beds to swim with tears. As often as ye swear by the wounds of Christ, ye tear them wider: as often as ye belch out blasphemy against God, ye spit upon your Savior's face: as often as ye distemper yourselves with strong wines, ye give him vinegar to drink: as often as ye grieve the holy spirit, ye prick his very heart: as often as ye unworthily receive the sacrament, ye tread his blood under your feet. Me thinks I hear you sobbing and sighing out the words of the Jews in my Text: If these things are so, if those sins are so heinous and grievous which we have made so light of, Men and brethren, what shall we do? I answer you in the words of Saint Peter following: Repent, and be baptized everyone of you; not in the font of sweet water in the Church, but in the salt water of your tears: let your sorrow be answerable to your sinful pleasures, and bring forth fruits meet for repentance. The wound is deep, thrust the tent to the bottom of it; your sins have been many and grievous, let your tears be abundant, and your sighs many. Ye have had a long time of sinning, give not over presently your exercises of mortification: hold on your strict abstinence, your devout prayers, your frequent watchings, your humble confessions, and sad meditations, the whole time which the Church hath prescribed you: by your sorrow here, prevent eternal lamentations and woe: by your remorse of conscience here, prevent weeping and gnashing of teeth hereafter: by your temporal affliction in this world, prevent eternal malediction and endless torments of body and soul in hell: the less you spare yourselves in this kind, God will spare you so much the more, and so much the sooner and easier be reconciled unto you. To whom, &c.

CHRISTIAN BROTHER-HOOD. A Sermon preached on the second Sunday in Lent. THE LXVIII. SERMON.

MAny of the ancients write, that S. Luke was an excellent limmer, and drew the blessed Virgin to the life: how true it is that he took the picture of the mother of God, I know not (for the first relaters were Apocryphal writers) but sure I am, in this text as a table he setteth forth the children of God in their colors, and describeth them by their proper marks: which are three;

• 1. In the ear.
• 2. In the heart.
• 3. In the hand.

• 1. The ear-mark is careful attention, when they heard.
• 2. The heart-mark is deep compunction, they were pricked in heart.
• 3. The hand-mark is solicitous action, Men and brethren, what shall we do?

We have already viewed the ears of these converts, and found them bored thorough for the perpetual service of God, and hung with the jewels of the Gospel: next we searched into their hearts, and found them pierced with sorrow for being some way accessory (at least by consent) to the death of the Lord of life: and now we are to look to their hands, and see what they will do, or rather what they will not be willing to do, to make their peace with God, and wash away the guilt of spilling his Sons blood.

Men and brethren, what shall we do? Ye hear (men and brethren) in this close of the verse

• 1. A courteous compellation, which savoreth of
  • 1. Humanity, Men. Now they hold the Apostles men, whom a little before they esteemed no better of than drunken beasts.
  • 2. Charity, Brethren. Not aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel, not strangers.
• 2. An important question, which is a question of
  • 1. Fear, What shall we do to escape the wrath to come for that we have done?
  • 2. Care, What shall we do to make some part of amends for our crimson sin, in shedding the blood of that righteous and holy One?
  • 3. Piety, What shall we do that we may reap benefit by his death, whom ignorantly we slew with wicked hands?

Thus have I chalked unto you the way of my present and future discourses upon this Scripture, wherein I entreat your attention and devotion to go along with me, that I and you may first know in the speculative part what we are to do, and then in the practicke do what we know to be necessary for the obtaining the remission of our sins.

Men. Is there not a Pleonasmus or redundancy in the words Men and Brethren? Is not this appellative men rather a burden than an ornament to the sentence? Are there any brethren that are not men? Yes, if we will believe the Legend of Saint Francis: for he found a new alliance and brotherhood amongst beasts, ordinarily saluting them in this manner when he met them, Brother Ox, brother Bear, brother Wolf (and it is marvel that the chronicles of his life related not that some of them resaluted him again by the title of brother Ass for his labor.) But this is a note beneath Gammoth, and a degree below lowliness it self: for humility will admit none to be of her kindred and brotherhood, that bear not the image of God our Father. The beasts of the field are indeed fellow-creatures with us, but they are our juments and servants, no way our brethren. Was then the word men added to intimate that such is the inhumanity or unmanlinesse of many, that a man may meet with many brethren by blood, by alliance, by profession, by country, who yet deserve not the style of men, because brethren without all humanity, and so no men: without heart or courage, and so no men: effeminate in their speech, habit, carriage, trim and dress, and so no men? Neither can this be the meaning of the words. For the Jews were not now in a Satirical vein, but like men that had been newly let blood by a deep incision, they speak faintly, and in an humble manner beseech their Physicians to prescribe what they must do to recover their health. We are therefore to understand that in the original there is no pleonasme, nor bitter sarcasme, but an elegancy and an emphasis in our tongue: there is but one name for men of the better sort & inferior rank: but in Greek there are two, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 the word here used, and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , and they differ as much as air and earth, or crystal and glass, or pearl and stone: for 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 signifieth an ordinary man of the vulgar sort, but 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 a man of parts, a man of worth, a man of note, a man full of humanity, pity, and compassion: and herein they secretly couch an argument, to induce the Apostles to take some care of their souls; as if they should say, Though ye are men of God, yet ye are men as we are: the divine graces in you bereave you not of human passions. Suffer then not men as you are to be cast away, bring not the blood of this righteous man upon us, pity us in this our perplexity, pray to God for us, advise us what we are to do, stretch a hand of charity to us, to pluck us out of the chops of Satan, and flames of hell fire.

Me thinks I should pass this note in so Christian an auditory, and not stand to prove that we ought to be men, not like beasts without reason, not like monsters without all bowels, without natural affection and compassion: yet were many that call themselves brethren men, could they grind the faces of the poor as they do? could they not only tondere, but deglubere, not only sheare, but flea Christ's sheep? were they men, would they use men like beasts? would they make themselves beasts, and express the condition of the worst of beasts, by returning with the dog to their vomit, and with the sow to their wallowing in the mire? are they men, who take greatest delight in drowning their reason, and extinguishing that light of understanding in them which maketh them men? are they men? have they hearts of flesh? have they eyes consisting of an aqueous humor, who suffer men made after God's image to pine away before their eyes for want of a crumb of their store, a grain of their magazine, a drop of their ocean, a mite of their treasury, a cluster of grapes of their vintage, a gleaning of their harvest? are they men, that never remember the affliction of Joseph, that never think of the besieged in Rochelle, of the persecuted in Bohemia and the Palatinate, and almost all parts of Germany, as good men as themselves, and better Christians, who endure either the violence of oppression, or the shame of infamy, or the servitude of captivity, or the insolency of tyranny, or the griping of famine, or the terrors of sundry kinds of death? It grieved the Orator to proclaim 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , O my friends, there is no true friend among you: but it much more grieveth those that are to give an account of your souls, to be enforced to complain, Men and brethren, there are few men or brethren among you, but few that deserve the name of men, and fewer of

Brethren. They call the Apostles brethren, either in a kind of correspondency of courtesy, because the Apostles so styled them before (Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the Patriarch David) or to insinuate themselves into their love; 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 quasi 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , co-uterini, sprigs issuing out of the same root, men issuing out of the same womb,

• 1. Either of flesh, as brothers that have the same mother.
• 2. Or of the Church, as all that are new borne in it.
• 3. Or of the earth, as all men.

Some who delight more in the sound of words than soundness of matter, make their cimbals thus tinckle in our ears: There are brethren (say they) of three sorts, either by race, as all of the same linage: or by place, as all of the same country or city: or by grace, as all of the same religion. But I like better of St. Jeromes distinction of brethren: 1. by nature or blood: 2. by cognation or affinity: 3. by nation or country: 4. by love & affection: 1. common, to all men, the sons of Adam our father: 2. special, to all Christians, the sons of the same mother the Church.

• 1. Nature made Jacob and Esau brethren.
• 2. Affinity our Lord and James brethren.
• 3. Nation or country Peter and the Jews brethren.
• 4. Affection and obligation
  • 1. Spiritual, all Christians,
  • 2. Carnal and common, all men brethren.

Thus the significations of brother in Scripture, like the circles made by a stone cast into the water, not only multiply, but much enlarge themselves: the first is a narrow circle about the stone, the next fetcheth a bigger compass, the third a greater & more capacious than it, the fourth so large that it toucheth the banks of the river: in like manner, the first signification of brethren is confined to one house, nay to one bed and womb, the second extendeth it self to all of one family or linage, the third to the whole nation or country, the fourth and last to the utmost bounds of the earth. No name so frequently occurreth in Scripture as this of brethren, no love more often enforced than brotherly. We need not go far for emblems thereof, Plutarch hath found many in our body: for we have two eyes, two ears, two nostrils, two hands, two feet, which are, as he termeth them, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , brethren and twinne members, formed out of like matter, being of one shape, one bigness, and serving to one and the self same use. Nature her self kindleth the fire of brotherly love in our hearts, and God by the blasts of his Spirit, and the breath of his Ministers bloweth it continually: yet in many it waxeth cold, and in some it seemeth to be quite extinguished. Saint Paul prayed that the Philippians love might abound more and more. He exhorteth the Hebrews, Let brotherly love continue: but we need now-adaies to cast our exhortation into a new mold, and say, Let brotherly love begin in you. For were it begun, so many quarrels, so many factions, so many sects, so many broils, so many law-suites would not be begun as we see every day, set on foot. Did we look upon the badge of our livery, which is mutual love, we would cry shame of ourselves for that which we see and hear every day, such out-cries, such railing, such cursing, such threatening, such banding opprobrious speeches, such challenges into the field, and spilling the blood of those for whom Christ shed his most precious blood. Is it not strange that they should fall foul one upon another, who have been both washed in the same laver of regeneration? that they should thirst after one another's blood, who drink of the same cup of benediction? that they should lift their hands up one against another, for whom Christ spread his hands upon the cross? Let there be no falling out between me and thee (saith Abraham to Lot) for we are brethren. Let me press you further, & touch you nearer to the quick▪ Let there be no strife among you; for you are members one of another: nay, which is more, Ye are all members of Christ Jesus. What? members of Christ, and spurn one at another? members of Christ, and buffet one another? members of Christ, and supplant one another? members of Christ, and devour one another? members of Christ, and destroy one another? It is true as Plutarch observeth, that the nearer the tie is the fouler the breach. As bodies that are but glued together, if they be severed or rent asunder, they may be glued as fast as ever they were; but corpora continua, as flesh and sinews, if any cut or rupture be made in them, they cannot be so joined together again, but a scar will remain: so those who are only glued together by some civil respects, may fall out and fall in again, without any great impeachment to their reputation or former friendship; but they who are tied together by nerves and sinews of natural or spiritual obligation, and made one flesh or spirit together, if there fall any breach between them, it cannot be so fairly made up, but that like the putting a new piece of cloth into an old garment, the going about to piece or reconcile them maketh the rent worse. When Tully understood of a suit in law commenced between Quintus and M. Fabius, he earnestly wrote to Papirius to take up the matter: Suffer not (saith he) brethren to implead one another. For though suits about title of lands seem to be the fairest of any, yet even these are foul among brethren: wherefore (my beloved brethren) let us

1. Prevent all occasions of difference: let there be no tindar of malice in our hearts ready to take fire upon the flying of the least spark into it: let us so root and ground ourselves in love, that no small offense may stir us: let us endeavor by all friendly offices so to endear ourselves to our brethren, and so fasten all natural and civil ties by religious obligations, that we always keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

2. If it cannot be but that offenses will come and distract us, if the Devil or his agents cast a fire-brand among us, let us all run presently to quench it: let us imitate wise Mariners, who as soon as they spy a leak spring in the ship, stop it with all speed, before it grow wider, and endanger the drowning of the vessel.

3. After the breach is made up, and the wound closed and healed, let us not rub upon the old sore, according to the rule of Pythagoras, Ignem gladio ne fodias, let us not rake into the ashes or embers of the fire of contention lately put out. As we pray that God may cast our sins, so let us cast our brothers trespasses against us into the bottom of the sea. The Athenians (as Plutarch writeth) took one day from the month of May, and razed it out of all their Calenders, because on that day Neptune and Minerva fell out one with another; even so let us Christians much more bury those days in perpetual oblivion, & strike them out of our Almanacs, in which any bloody fray or bitter contention hath fallen among us. For our Father is the God of peace: our Savior is the Prince of peace: our Comforter is the Spirit of peace and love. God who is love, and of his love hath begot us, loveth nothing more in the children of his love, than the mutual love of his children one to another. Ye are all brethren: love therefore as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous, not rendering evil for evil, nor railing for railing; but contrariwise blessing, knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing. As beams of the same sun, let us meet in the center of light: as rivelets of the same spring, join in the source of grace: as sprigs on the same root, or twins on the same stalk, stick always together. Such was the love of the Saints of God in old time, that their hearts were knit one to the other: yea, which is more, All the believers had but one heart. But such love is not now to be found in our books, much less in our conversations: we hardly believe there can be such love in believers; we seem not to be of their race, we seem rather to be descended many of us from Coelius, who could not be quiet if he were not in quarrels; who was angry if he were not provoked to anger: whose motto was, Dic aliquid, ut duo simus; Say or do something, that we may be two: or from Sylla, of whom Valerius Maximus writeth, that it was a great question whether he or his malice first expired: for he died railing, and railed dying: or of Eteocles and Polynices, who as they warred all their life, so after a sort they expressed their discord and dissention after their death: for at their funerals the flame of the dead corpses parted asunder when they were burned. When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth (saith our Savior?) I fear we may demand rather, shall he find charity on the earth? All the true family of love may seem to be extinct: for the greater part of men, as if they had been baptized in the waters of strife, from the font to their tomb-stone are in continual frettings, vexings, quarrels, schism and faction.

But let these Salamanders, which live perpetually in the fire of contention, take heed, lest without speedy repentance they be cast into the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone forever. If blessed are the peace-makers, for they shall be called the children of God; cursed are all make-bates, for they shall be called the children of the wicked one. If the fruits of righteousness are sown in peace of them that make peace, certainly the fruits of iniquity are sown in contention by them that stir up strife and contention. If they that sow discord among brethren are an abomination to the Lord, they that plant love and set concord are his chief delight. What Silenus spake of the life of man, The best thing was not to be borne, the next to die as soon as might be, may be fitly applied to all quarrels and contentions among Christian brethren; it is the happiest thing of all that such dissensions never see light: the next is, if they arise and come into the Christian world, that they die suddenly after their birth; at the most let them be but like those 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , small creatures Aristotle speaketh of, whose life exceedeth not a summers day. Let not the sun go down upon our wrath. How can we long be at odds and distance, if we consider that we are all brethren by both sides? For as we call one God our Father, so we acknowledge one Church our Mother: we have all sucked the same breasts, the Old and New Testaments: we are all bred up in the same school, the school of the cross: we are all fed at the same table, the Lord's board: we are all incorporated into one society, the communion of Saints; and made joint-heirs with our elder brother Christ Jesus of one Kingdom in Heaven. If these and the like considerations cannot knit our hearts together in love, which is the bond of perfection, the Heathen shall rise up in judgment and condemn us. Martial writeth of two brothers, between whom there was never any contention but this, who should die one for the other:

The speech also of Pollux to Castor his brother is remarkable,

I cannot let pass Antiochus, who when he heard that his brother Seleuchus, who had been up in arms against him, died at Galata, commanded all the Court to mourn for him; but when afterwards he was more certainly informed that he was alive, and levied a great army against him, he commanded all his Commanders and chief Captains to sacrifice to their gods, & crown themselves with garlands for joy that his brother was alive. But above all, Euclid shown in himself the true symptoms of brotherly affection, who when his brother in his rage made a rash vow, Let me not live if I be not revenged of my brother, Euclid turns the speech the contrary way, Nay, let me not live if I be not reconciled to my brother; let me not live if we be not made as good friends as ever before. Shall nature be stronger than grace? bonds of flesh tie surer than the bonds of the spirit? one tie knit hearts together faster than many? The Orator saith, Omnes omnium charitates patria complectitur; but we may say more truly, Omnes omnium charitates Christus complectitur, all bonds of love, friendship, affinity and consanguinity, all nearness and dearness, all that can make increase or continue love, is in Christ Jesus, into whose spirit we are all baptized, into whose body we are incorporated, who in his love sacrificed himself to his Fathers justice for us, who giveth his body and blood to us in this sacrament to nourish Christian love in us. For therefore we all eat of one bread, that we may be made one bread; therefore we are made partakers of his natural body, that we may be all made one mystical body, and all quickened with one spirit, that spirit which raised up our head Christ Jesus from the dead. Cui, cum Patre, &c.

THE PERPLEXED SOULES QUAERE. A Sermon preached on the third Sunday in Lent. THE LXIX. SERMON.

THe words of the wise (saith Solomon the mirror of wisdom) are like to goads, and to nails fastened by the masters of the assemblies, which are given from one shepherd. Mark, I beseech you, what he saith, and the Lord give you a right understanding in all things: he saith not, verba sapientum sunt calamistri, but stimuli: not lenocinia, sed remedia; not sweet powders, but medicines: not crisping pins to curle the locks, or set the hairs in equipage, but like goads piercing through the thick skin, and like nails pricking the live flesh, yea the very heart root, and drawing from thence tears, sanguinem animae, the blood of the wounded soul. Such were the words of Saint Peter in this Sermon, wherewith he tickleth not the ears of the Jews with numerous elocution, but pricked their hearts with godly compunction. Which effects of his divine and soul-ravishing eloquence, Saint Luke punctually noteth (as M ^r Calvin judiciously hath observed) that we might not think that the holy Ghost, which came down upon the Apostles in the likeness of fiery tongues, and enabled them to speak divers languages which they had never learned, resided in the tongue, but descended lower into the heart, and wrought there a wonderful alteration, of stony making them fleshy; of obdurate, relenting; of 〈1 page duplicate〉 〈1 page duplicate〉 obstinate, yielding; of frozen, melting. Tully doth but flatter his mistress eloquence in proclaiming her flexanimam, Queen regent of the affections of the mind. That style is due to the power of the word and the grace of the spirit, which boweth and bendeth, frameth and moldeth the heart at pleasure. It is the sword of the spirit which is mighty in operation, & carnem mortificat, & Deo in sacrificium offert; killeth the flesh in us, and sacrificeth it unto God. It is the point of this sword which openeth the Aposteme of corrupt nature, and letteth out all the impure matter of lust and luxury, by pricking the quickest veins in the heart. Wherefore that wanton and crank dame, who blushed not to profess that she was more moved at a play than at a Sermon, either by that profane speech of hers bewrayed that she played at Sermons, & never fastened her ears to the Preacher, that he might fasten his goads and nails in her heart; or intus apparens prohibuit extraneum, the evil spirit had before taken up her heart, as he did a like gallants in Rome, who, as Tertullian writeth, when he was adjured by a Saint of God, and demanded how he durst seize upon any that professed the Christian faith, answered, In meo reperi, I caught her in my own ground, I found her at the Theater, she came within my walk, and therefore I took her as a lawful prize: or lastly, she never came prepared to the hearing of the Word as she ought, she never laid her heart asoake in tears to make it tender, she never prayed to God to direct the penknife in the hand of the spiritual Chirurgian, to prick the right vein by a seasonable reprehension like to this of Saint Peters in my text, which when the Jews heard,

They were pricked in heart, &c. See (saith Saint Chrysostom) what meekness is, and how it pierceth the heart deeper than rigor and severity of reproof. It is not the storm of hail and rain that rattleth upon the tiles, and maketh such a noise, but the still kind shower that sinketh deep into the earth; the soft drops pierce the hard stones.

The Surgeon who intends to prick a vein deep, first strokes the flesh, and gently rubbeth it to make the vein swell. He that maketh an incision in the body of a patient that hath tough and hard flesh, putteth him to little or no pain at all: but if he mollify the flesh first, and then apply his sharp instrument unto it, the party shrinketh at it: even so saith the skillful Surgeon of the mind sores, If we would do good upon our patients, we must first make the heart tender, and then prick it: now that which mollifieth the heart, and maketh it tender, is not rage, nor heat of passion, nor vehement accusation, much less bitter taunts and reproaches, but the spirit of meekness; in which Saint Peter sought to restore his countrymen the Jews. For though they had murdered his and our Lord and Master, and much injured his fellow servants the Apostles, yet he speaketh unto them as a father or a careful master; he telleth them indeed of their fault, yet aggravateth it not, that he might not drive them to desperate courses; but excusing it by their ignorance, he offereth them grace and pardon upon very easy terms, that grieving for their sins of a deeper die, they would look upon him by faith whom they had pierced, and with wicked hands nailed to a tree. By which sweet insinuation, though he brought them not so far as to justifying faith and repentance unto life, yet they came on a good way; for they were pricked with remorse for that they had done, and they express a desire to make amends, if it might be, and refer themselves to the Apostles farther direction and instruction, saying, Men and brethren

What shall we do?

I may say of this question, as Tully of Brutus his laconicall epistle, quàm multa quàm paucis? how much in how little? but two words in the original, yet issuing from three affections, fear, sorrow, and hope.

• 1 Fear saith, What shall we do to fly from the wrath to come?
• 2 Sorrow saith, What shall we do to undo that we have done?
• 3 Hope saith, What shall we do to purchase a pardon for our bloody minds, if not hands, and to obtain the promise that you tell us is made to us, and to our children?

First of these words as they are a question of fear. The tree of forbidden sin beareth three fruits, and all bitter,

• 1 Guilt.
• 2 Loss.
• 3 Turpitude.

And these fruits breed in the stomach of the soul three maladies,

• 1 Shame.
• 2 Sorrow.
• 3 Fear.

• 1 The turpitude in it or deformity breedeth shame.
• 2 The loss by it breedeth hearts-grief and sorrow.
• 3 The guilt of it breedeth terrors and fears.

Peradventure some man may be found so armed with proof of impudency, that he cannot be wounded with shame: and we see many so intoxicated with the present delight of sin, and so insensible of the loss by it, that they take no grief or thought for it. But I never yet read or heard of any that sinned with a high hand, but his own heart smote him with fear. For where sin is of a deep die, not washed out with penitent tears, there is guilt; where guilt is, there must needs be an expectation of condign punishment; and where this expectation is, continual fear. The sinners conscience tells him that his fact is unjust, and God is just, and therefore in justice will give injustice his just reward, either in this life, or in that which is to come. As Antipho through a disease in his eye, thought that he had his own Image always before him: so he that hath charged his conscience with any abominable, or very foul and bloody crime, seeth always before him the ugly image of his sin, and hideous shape of his deserved punishment. Hae sunt impiis assiduae domesticaeque furiae: these are the ghosts that haunt wicked men, these are the furies that follow them with torches, and scorch them with flashes of hell fire: these suffer them not, non modo sine cura quiescere, sed ne spirare quidem sine metu: these make them fly when no man pursueth them, cry when no man smiteth-them, quake when no man threateneth them, languish in a cold sweat when no fit is upon them.

When they are alone and quiet, out of all other noise, they hear their sin cry for vengeance. At which huy and cry they are so startled, that though many be sometimes free from the cause of their fear, yet they are never free from fear of danger. Every shadow they take for a man, every man for a spy, every spy for an accuser. As in a fever, the greater the fit is, the more vehement the shaking: so the more horrid the sin is, the more horrible the dread. The sin of the Jews in giving consent to the saving of a murderer and the murder of the Savior, is beyond comparison, and therefore their fear beyond measure. As a child that hath committed some great fault, and expecteth to be flayed for it, crieth to his master, What shall I do? Or a passenger suddenly benighted, when he perceiveth that he is riding down a steep rock, crieth to all within hearing, Oh what shall I do? Or a patient that is in a desperate case feeleth unsufferable pain, and apprehendeth no means of ease, crieth to his physician, What shall I do? Or a seafaring man in a storm in the night, when he heareth the water roar, and feareth every moment to be swallowed up in the sea, crieth to the Pilot, What shall we do? In this perplexity, in this fright, in this agony are the Jews in my text; and from hence is this speech of distracted men, What shall we do?

This their fear ought to strike a terror in us all, who have our part in their guilt; for we by our sins have and do provoke the Father, grieve the Spirit, and even crucify again the Son: how can we then but fear when we hear God's threats against sin? when we see daily his judgments upon sin? when we remember our Savior's sufferings to satisfy God's justice for sin? How dare we draw iniquity with cords, and sin with cart-ropes? How dare we kick against the pricks? How dare we make a covenant with death, and league with hell? How dare we hatch the cockatrice egg? How dare we lie at the mouth of the Lions den? Let no man say in his heart when he plotteth wickedness, or committeth filthiness in the dark, no eye seeth me, and therefore what need I fear? for he that hath eyes like a flame of fire, pierceth the thickest darkness, and discovereth every hidden room in thy house, and corner in thy heart: he seeth thee in secret, and will reward thee openly, if thou by smiting thine own heart prevent not his blows, as the Jews did in my text, saying, What shall we do? This interrogation riseth from three springs or heads:

• 1 Fear of punishment.
• 2 Sorrow for sin.
• 3 Hope of pardon.

A man in fear driven to an exigent, being now at his wits end saith with himself, What shall I do? likewise, a man overwhelmed with cares, and ready to be drowned in sorrow, as he is sinking cries, Oh! what shall I do, or what will become of me? The fruit of sin is sweet in the mouth, but bitter in the stomach: like poison given in a sugared cup it goeth down sweetly, but it kindleth a fire in the bowels: it tickleth the heart in the beginning, but it pricks it in the end: it is pleasure in doing, it is sorrow when it is done. Saint Bernard speaketh feelingly, Sin after it is perpetrated leaves in the soul a sad farewell: amara & foeda vestigia, where the devil hath set his foot there remains after he is gone a foul print, and a stinking sent. Though the sinner use all means to dead the flesh of his heart, though he make it as hard as flint, or the nether millstone, yet conscience writeth in it, as with the point of a Diamond, this sentence of the eternal Judge of quick and dead, Tribulation and anguish upon every soul that sinneth. They that stabbed Caesar, afterwards turned the point of the same dagger upon themselves: so it is certain that no man by sin grieveth God's Spirit, but he woundeth himself with sorrow. If the sprayning a vein, or dis-locating a bone, or putting a member out of joint, or distempering the blood, be a pain to the body: how much more is the distorting the will, the disordering the affections, the quenching the light of reason by sin, a torment to the soul? There is no man that hath not lost his senses, but hath sense of great losses: & what loss comparable to the loss of God's favor and love, the comforts of the spirit, and the treasures of his grace? Though a sinner should gain the whole world by his sin, yet would he be a loser: for at the present he hazzardeth, and without mature repentance he loseth his own soul. To speak nothing of loss of time by idleness, of wit by drunkenness, of strength by incontinency, of health by intemperance, of estate by prodigality, of credit and reputation by lewdness and dishonesty: besides the guilt of sin, and loss by it, there is great folly in it, which vexeth the mind, and discontenteth the spirit of a man: his thoughts perpetually accusing him in this manner:

Yea, but ye may object, Are sin and sorrow such individual companions? is there no sorrow but for sin, and the effects of it? no sin without sorrow? What say you then to them that have their conscience seared as with an hot iron? they surely feel no pain. What sense have they of the guilt of sin, of God's wrath, who are cast into a reprobate sense? I would the case were as rare as the answer unto it is easy and expedite. Admit a seared conscience feeleth no pain, was not the searing of it think you a pain? The heart that is like the anvil, and now hardened for the purpose, felt many a blow, and endured many fearful strokes before it came to be so. Although Mithridates in the end felt little hurt or pain by drinking poison: yet before he brought his body to that temper, he never took any draught of poison, but it was both painful and perilous to him. A man must needs have many conflicts within him, many terrors and unsufferable troubles of mind, before he be utterly deprived of all sense by the frequency and vehemency of his torments: and though those that are cast into a reprobate sense never after come to repentance, yet God oftentimes restoreth them to their sense of sorrow, and sight of the ugliness of their sin, and horror of their punishment, that even in this life they might taste of eternal death. As he did to Nero, when in a fit of desperation he cried out, Have I no friend nor enemy to rid me out of my pain? And Julian the Apostate, who tare his bowels, and flung them into the air, saying, Vicisti Galilee. Brutus his malus genius, the ghost that haunted him at Rome, though for the present it left him, yet it met with him again at Philippi a little before his death. So those terrors and consternations of mind which possessed the wicked before their consciences were seared, though for many years they leave them, yet a little before, or at the time of their death they return again in more violent manner, and so they pass from death to death, from sorrow to sorrow: nay, I may say truly, from hell to hell.

But why do I stand so long upon this sorrow, which may be without repentance? because repentance cannot be without it? Compunction doth not always end in godly sorrow, but godly ever begins in it. This compunction of pricking the heart deep, is like the digging the earth to set the seeds of faith and repentance, and all the slips of the flowers of Paradise: or the needles making a hole in the cloth or stuff; the needle fills not up the bracke or rent, but the thread or silk, but only it maketh entrance for them. So the pricking the heart with the needle of compunction maketh way for the graces of faith and true repentance, which make up the rent and mend our lives. Beloved, if ye are pricked in heart for your sins, I cannot say it is well with you; but if ye have never been pricked for them, I must say it is very ill with you. The Philosophers distinguish of a double heat,

• 1 Inward and natural, which preserveth life.
• 2 Outward or ambient, which disposeth mist bodies to putrefaction by drawing the other heat out of them.

In like manner there is a double sorrow for sin.

• 1 A sorrow arising from an inward cause, the consideration of the goodness of God, and the malignancy of sin: the equity of the law, the iniquity of our transgressions: and this is a seed of, or degree unto repentance unto life.
• 2 A sorrow for sin arising from an outward cause, the expectation of dreadful punishments for sin, both in this life, and the life to come, both temporal and eternal: and this, if it be not asswaged with some hope disposeth a sinner to desperation, as we see in Cain, Esau, and Judas, whose sorrows were not any way medicinal, but penal.

No means to prevent, but rather to assure hellish torments, being a kind of earnest of them. Cain was pricked in heart for the murder of his brother Abel, in such sort that he filled the air wheresoever he fled with this lamentable cry, My punishment is greater than I can bear. Esau would have redeemed his birthright with a large cup of tears, which he sold for a small mess of pottage: but his tears were spilled upon the ground, not put into the Lord's bottle. Judas had sorrow enough, if that would have helped him; for to stifle his hearts grief he strangled himself: and no doubt he long swelled with pain before he burst asunder in the midst, and his bowels gushed out. Wherefore as the Apostle Saint Paul in another case exhorteth the Thessalonians, so let me exhort you, to weep for your sins, but not as those that have no hope. Sorrow for your sinful joys, humble yourselves for your pride, fast for your luxury, watch for your drowsiness, howl and cry for your crying sins; yet not as those that are without hope. For if the Jews here, who spilled the blood of the Son of God, were quickened by it, how much more shall they that wash Christ's wounds and their own with their tears, find in his blood the balm of Gilead to cure their pricked hearts, and wounded consciences?

But then, as the Jews here, they must be solicitous after the means. They must inquire of the Apostles or their successors, Quid faciemus? What shall we do? if not to undo what we have done, yet to make some part of amends, so much as we can, and which through God's goodness shall so be taken of us, that our sins shall not be imputed to us. And they said,

What shall we do? Saint Chrysostom well observeth, that they ask not, How shall we be saved? but, What shall we do? It is presumptuous folly to inquire of, or hope for the end if we neglect the means. If a man might go to heaven with a sigh, many a Balaam would be found there, for he fetched a deep sigh, saying, Let me die the death of the righteous. If crying, The Temple of the Lord, or saying, Lord, Lord, almost at every word, would without anymore ado make a man free of the heavenly Jerusalem, all the Pharisees among the Jews, and hypocrites among Christians should be denisons there. But Christ himself assureth us to the contrary, not everyone that saith Lord, Lord, shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, but he that doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven. Doing and life, working and salvation, running and obtaining, winning and wearing, overcoming and reigning, in holy Scripture follow one the other. Wherefore the young man puts the question to our Savior, What thing shall I do that I may attain evelasting life? and the people likewise, and the Publicans, and the Soldiers to S. John, and the keepers of the prison to Saint Paul, and the Jews in my text to Saint Peter, and the rest of the Apostles, What shall we do? not, What shall we say? or, What shall we believe? but, What shall we do? This is the tenor of the Law, Do this and thou shalt live. Whosoever doth these things shall never fall. And the Gospel also carrieth the same tune full: If ye know these things happy are ye of ye do them. He that heareth and doeth buildeth upon a rock. Not the hearers, but the doers of the Law shall be justified. Why are the Cherubims described with the hands of a man under their wings, but to teach us that none shall see God, who under the wings of faith and hope (whereby they fl • e to heaven) have not the hand of charity to do good works? As Darius used the Macedonian soldiers, whom he took prisoners; so the devil doth those over whom he hath any power: he cutts off their hands that they may be able to do no service. The heathen Philosopher observed, that of three of the best things in the world, through the wickedness of men, three of the worst things proceeded and grew:

• 1 Of virtue, envy.
• 2 Of truth, hatred.
• 3 Of familiarity, contempt.

We Christians may add a fourth, viz. of the doctrine of free justification carnal liberty. The catholic doctrine of justification by faith alone is the true Nectar of the soul, so called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , because it keepeth from death: yet this sweetest Wine in the Spouses Flagons proves no better than Vinegar, or rather poison in their stomachs, who turn grace into wantonness, and liberty into license.

But let no man adulterate the truth nor impose upon Christ's mercy what it will not bear; nor endeavor to sever faith from good works, lest he sever his soul from life. For though faith justify our works before God; yet our works justify our faith before men: though the just shall live by his faith, yet this his faith must live by charity: as never man any died with a living faith, so never any man lived by a dead faith. I grant, when we have all done we may, nay we must say, We are unprofitable servants: yet while we have time we must do good unto all, especially to those of the household of faith. None may trust in their own righteousness; but on the contrary, all ought to pray that they may be found in Christ, not having their own righteousness: yet their righteousness must exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, or else they shall never enter into the kingdom of heaven. It is evident unto all, except they be blind, that the eye alone seeth in the body, yet the eye which seeth, is not alone in the body without the other senses: the forefinger alone pointeth, yet that finger is not alone on the hand: the hammer alone striketh the bell, yet the hammer which striketh is not alone in the clock: the heat alone in the fire burneth, and not the light, yet that heat is not alone without light: the helm alone guideth the ship, and not the tackling, yet the helm is not alone, nor without the tackling: in a compound electuarie Rubarb alone purgeth choler, yet the Rubarb is not alone there without other ingredients. Thus we are to conceive, that though faith alone doth justify, yet that faith which justifieth is not alone, but joined with charity and good works. Many please themselves with a resemblance of Castor and Pollux, two lights appearing on ships, sometimes severally, sometimes jointly. If either appeareth by it self, it presageth a storm; if both together, a sudden calm: yet (with their good leave be it spoken) this their simile is dissimile. For those lights may be severed & actually are often, but justifying faith cannot be severed from charity, nor charity from it. Thus far only it holdeth, that unless we have a sense and feeling of both in our souls, we may well fear a storm. S. Bernard's distinction of via regni, and causa regnandi, cleareth the truth in this point: Though good works are not the cause why God crowneth us, yet we must take them in our way to heaven, or else we shall never come there. It is as impious to deny the necessity, as to maintain the merit of good works.

The time calleth me off: and therefore that it may not exclude me, I will conclude with it. In this holy time of Lent three duties are required, Prayer, Fasting, and Alms: prayer is the bird of Paradise; fasting and alms are her two wings, the lighter is fasting, but the stronger is alms; use both to carry your prayers to heaven, that you may bring from thence a blessing upon you, through the merits and intercession of Jesus Christ. Cui, &c.

THE LAST OFFER OF PEACE. A Sermon preached at a public Fast. THE LXX. SERMON.

WHen the Romans fought a pitched field, after the ranks of their prime Leaders and chief Soldiers (which they called Principes ) had charged valiantly, if the enemy still kept his ground, the Triarii (containing the whole shock of the army) put on, and upon their prowess and valor depended the fortune of the day and chance (if I may so speak) of the bloody die of war. Whereupon it grew to be a proverb, Res rediit ad Triarios, it now stands upon the Triarii: as if you would say, it is now put to the last plunge. And is it not so now, my Christian brethren? We have taken to us the proper weapons of Christians, fasting, prayers, and tears, to fight against the fearful combinations of powerful & vigilant enemies. The rank of our Principes, the King himself, the Princes, Nobles, and Peers have already watered this field with their tears, and put on with all their force of zealous prayers: how far they have prevailed, God only knows. Jam ad Triarios res rediit, now the whole shock of the army, and the main battle is to advance, and upon the sincerity of the humiliation, and fervency of devotion, and strength of our united prayers & sighs this day, dependeth much the safety and life of our State, and in it of our Church, and in it of our true and incorrupt Religion.

Let no man go about with Mercuries enchanted rod to close the eyes of our Argus 's; let no man sow pillows under the elbows of our true Patriots, to make them sleep in security, lest destruction steal upon us at unawares. It is certain our enemies sleep not, and it is most certain that our crying sins have awaked God's justice: it standeth us therefore upon to watch and pray. Judgment is already begun at the house of God, the Angel hath poured out his vial of red wine upon the Churches of Bohemia, and their fields are thick sown with the blood of Martyrs: the same Angel hath emptied another vial upon the Churches in the Palatinate, and the sweet Rhenish grape yields in a manner now no liquor but blood: a third vial runneth out at this hour upon the reformed Churches in France, and our sins as it were holloe to him to stretch his hand over the narrow sea, and cast the dregs of it on us, who have been long settled upon our lees: and undoubtedly this will be our potion to drink, if we stretch not our hands to heaven, that God may command his Angel to stay his hand. If he have already turned his vial, and we see drops of blood hanging in the air; yet the strong wind of our prayers may blow them away and dispel them, in such sort that they shall not fall upon us: a gale of our sighs may clear the sky. Moses prayers manacled the hands of Almighty God, and shall not the united devotions of this whole Land either stay or turn his Angels hand? Away with all confidence in the arm of flesh, away with all hope in man, away with all cloaks of sin, and vizzards of hypocrisy, there is no dissembling with God, no fighting against him. Albeit our land be compassed with the sea as with a moat, and environed with ships furnished with ordnance, as with brazen and iron walls: though the most puissant Princes on earth should send us innumerable troupes to succor and aide us, yet we have no fence: for 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 we lie open to heaven, we are naked to the arrows of the Almighty, and no carnal weapons for succors can stand us in any stead; only the helmet of salvation, and the buckler of faith, and the powder of a contrite heart, and the shot of pious ejaculations may do us some good. It is our pride (Beloved) that hath thrown us down, and it is humility which must raise us: our divisions have weakened us, and it is union that can strengthen us: our luxury hath imbezelled us, and now nothing but fasting and abstinence can recover us: our sins have made a breach, and nothing but repentance can make it up: our profane oaths, our sinful pleasures, our carnal security and sensuality hath driven away the Spirit of grace and comfort from us, and nothing can woo him to return back again but our vows of amendment, unfeigned tears and sorrowful sighs. Let us therefore ply sighs and prayers: for these are the spiritual weapons we alone can trust to, through the intercession of Christ's blood, which speaketh better things for us than the blood of Abel. These weapons our Lord himself made trial of in my Text, and sanctified them to our use, viz. passionate tears, and compassionate prayers.

When he drew near to Jerusalem, and fore-saw in spirit that she drew near to her ruin, his eyes melted with tears (he beheld the City, and wept ) and his heart breaketh out into sighs (Oh that thou knewest.) Tears trickle not down in order, neither are sighs fetched by method. Expect not therefore from me any accurate division, or methodical handling of this passionate Text: only in the first place fasten the eye of your observation upon the eyes of our Savior, and you shall discern in them,

• 1. Beams of love, He beheld.
• 2. Tears of compassion, He wept over it.

In the next place bow the ears of your religious attention towards his mouth, and ye shall hear from him,

• 1. Sighes of desire, Oh (or if) that thou knewest.
• 2. Plaints of sorrow, But now they are hid from thine eyes.

I have pitched (as you see) upon a moist plat, or fenny ground; wherein that your devotion may walk more steadily, I have laid out for you five knolls or steps to rest upon and pause.

• 1. Venit, He came.
• 2. Vidit, He beheld.
• 3. Flevit, He wept.
• 4. Ingemuit, He sighed.
• 5. Oravit, He prayed.

1. Venit or appropinquavit, he drew near. The end of our Savior's life here was the sacrifice of his death: he was borne that he might die for us, and by one oblation of himself on the cross, satisfy for the sins of the whole world. Now all sacrifices by the Law were to be offered at Jerusalem; to Jerusalem therefore he comes up to finish the work of our redemption: and he maketh the more haste, because Easter was near at hand, when he was to eat the Paschal Lamb with his Disciples, and to be eaten of them in the mysterious rite of the Sacrament: to kill the passover in the type, but to be killed himself in the truth. Oh, how far hath our Savior left us behind him in his love? He came with a swift foot to us, we return with a slow foot to him: he made more haste to give himself, than we make to receive him. After he received the commandment from his Father to lay down his life for his sheep, he rode more cheerfully into Jerusalem, and was led more willingly to the altar of the cross, where he lost his life, than we repair to his holy table, there to be partakers of the bread of eternal life. He came near to the City, that he might view it: he viewed it, that he might weep over it: he wept over it, that he might testify a threefold truth,

• 1. Naturae, of his Nature,
• 2. Amoris, of his Love,
• 3. Doctrinae. of his Doctrine or prophesy.

1. Veritatem naturae, the truth of his human nature. He must needs be a true man, who out of compassion sheds tears, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , sic fatur lachrymans. Cold stone or metal relenteth not, a phantasme grieves not, a picture weepeth not: these tears then of our Savior may serve as hail-shot to wound all such Heretics as imagined that Christ had but an imaginary body.

2. Veritatem amoris, the truth of his love. It is true love which resolveth it self into tears upon the sight or apprehension of another's loss, grief, or danger. When Jesus wept at the grave of Lazarus, the Jews said, Behold how he loved him: and when the Disciples and whole multitude saw Christ weep as soon as he came in sight of Jerusalem, they could not but say within themselves, Behold how he loveth this city.

3. Veritatem prophetiae, the truth of his prophecy concerning the destruction of Jerusalem, and all the calamities that shortly after befell the Jewish nation: they must needs be true evils and judgments certainly to come upon the city, which the Son of God foretelleth with wet eyes.

Quum appropinquavit, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , when he came near. If Christ in his human body could have been present in many places at once, as the Trent Fathers teach, and our Romanists set their faith upon the tenters to believe; he then might have spared many a wearisome journey, he needed not to have travelled as he did from country to country, and city to city: all the progresses which he made through Judea, and Galilee, and Samaria, and the coasts of Tyrus and Sidon, might have been saved. For without stirring his foot, by this doctrine, he might have presented himself at the same time in Nazareth, and Bethlehem, and Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum, and Nain, and Jerusalem: as, if we may believe Aelian, Pythagoras at the same time was seen in divers cities, and there shown his golden thigh (a fit miracle for aurea legenda, the golden legend) sed quia non legimus non credimus, but because we find no such thing in Scripture we believe it not. We are so far from finding it there that we find the direct contrary: He is not here, for he is risen. If there be any force at all in this reason of the Angel, the human body of Christ cannot be in more places at once: for could it be in more places at once, it might have been in the grave and risen out of it at the same time, which the Angels for supposeth to be impossible.

In this battle against the Trent faith we have men and Angels on our side; for as the Angel argueth here from the impossibility of the existence of Christ's body in more places at once, so do the ancient fathers. Vigilius, Christ's body, when it was upon earth, was not at the same time in heaven: and now because 〈◊〉 is in heaven, it is not therefore upon earth: and Saint Augustine, When ye Manichees teach that Christ was at the same time in the Sun and in the Moon, & upon the Cross, what mean ye by presence? his divine & spiritual? that is nothing to your purpose; for according to that he could not suffer. Do you mean corporal? according to that he could not be together in more places, and consequently not (as ye suppose) in the sun, and in the moon, and upon the cross at once. As the Poets fain of Hercules, that in his cradle, with one grasp of his hand he killed two serpents: so by the handling of this one circumstance (if the time, and this present occasion would permit me) I might kill two monsters of heresies, the former of transubstantiation, which you see lieth half dead before you; the latter of consubstantiation: the former holdeth a multi-presence, and the latter an omnipresence, or ubiquity of Christ's body. The word appropinquavit, he came near, reacheth a blow home to both these. For coming near a place is a local motion. Now every local motion must have a terminus à quo, and a terminus ad quem; a place or point to be left, and another to be got: which cannot be verified in a body, which in the same time is in utroque termino, in the term from which, and the term to which it is to move: much less can an infinite or omnipresent body move locally: because such a body, according to their supposition, filleth all places, and consequently cannot go from one to another: i • •• nnot lose any place it had, or acquire any it had not. This coming here then of our Savior to Jerusalem, proveth that the Lutherans and all ubiquitaries are as far out of the way (in this point) as Papists: they that hold this error, must blot out all Christ's gests recorded by the Evangelists, and reverse all his progresses from Judea to Galilee, and from Galilee to Judea: from Jerusalem to Nazareth, and from Nazareth to Jerusalem: from land to sea, and from sea to land. Moreover, to entitle a creature to ubiquity is to defy it, and to attribute this incommunicable property of the deity to the human nature of Christ, is to confound his two natures. Thus heresies unnaturally engender, the later with the former, and Lutheranism begets Eutychianisme: at which monstrous error, though the Romanists are startled; yet the heresy of transubstantiation which they foster at this day is of the same cast. Admit once that Christ's body may be at the same time in heaven at the right hand of his Father, & on the Altar in the right hand of the Priest: why may it not be in milions of places? if it may be wheresoever masses are said, why may it not also by divine power be where they are not said? why not then everywhere? if it may stand with the unity of an individual body to be in two distinct and distant places at once, it may as well be in two hundred places; and if in two hundred, in two thousand; and if in two thousand, everywhere. The nature of an individual body, which is to be indivisum in se, & divisum â caeteris omnibus, is as well destroyed by putting it in two places at once, as in two millions. Wherefore, as wood cleavers drive out one wedge by another, and conjurers cast out one spirit by another as bad; and as Plato took down Diogenes, trampling upon his rich carpet, and saying, I tread Plato's pride under my feet: Calcas fastum, sed alio fastu; thou treadest upon my pride (saith he) but out of as great or greater pride: so our adversaries the Papists may be justly taxed for exterminating one error, the error of consubstantiation, by bringing in another as bad, the error of transubstantiation, which putteth accidents without subjects, quantity without dimensions, bodies without place, and what not? Caligula wished that all his enemies had but one neck, that he might cut them all off at one blow: the three heresies now mentioned have all but one neck, I will therefore smite off all their heads at once with the sword of the Spirit. Christ was like unto us in all things, sin only excepted: if so, then was he circumscribed with quantity, and confined to one place at once: then not in many places, as the Papists teach; and much less in all places, as the Eutychians and Lutherans bear us in hand he is.

But to leave the confutation of these heresies, and draw near unto our present occasion. Christ never came to any place but he left behind him some print of his Majesty, or pledge of his love: he touched nowhere, but he wrought some miracle, or shown some mercy. If the presence of the Ark, which was but a type or shadow, brought a blessing to Obed Edom: how much more shall the presence of the body, & the truth himself, make the place happy wheresoever he resideth? Jesus never cometh without salvation with him: and therefore when he entered into the house of Zacchaeus, he laid, Hodie huic domui salus contigit, this day salvation is come to this house. The approach of the Sun is the spring and joy of the year: even so the approach of Christ is the blo •• oming of the trees, and opening the flowers of Paradise: it crowneth • oth the Church and Commonwealth with spiritual and temporal blessings, as it were garlands, one upon the other.

Yea, but how may his approach be obtained? who can entreat him to come near us? what load-stone can draw his love to us? I answer, Our love, our faith, our hope, our devotion.

Draw near unto God, and he will draw near unto you. Draw near unto him by faith, accedit qui credit, faith layeth hold on him. Draw near unto him by hope, hope relieth upon him: Draw near unto him by love, love embraceth him, and adhereth to him: Draw near unto him with your lips by prayer, with your ears by listening to his Word: draw near with your whole body by presenting yourselves at his table, and worthily participating the holy Sacrament. Thus if ye draw near to him, he will draw near to you, and coming near to you as he did to Jerusalem, he will fixe his eyes on you. And so I pass to the second step:

2. Vidit, he beheld it. There is comfort when the Physician cometh to visit his patient: there is hope when an expert Chirurgeon vieweth a dangerous wound. David thought it enough to say, Look upon mine affliction and misery: and, Look upon the face of thine anointed: and, Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us. God never casteth his eye upon any, but he settleth his affection upon him: and he never settleth affection upon any without an intention of blessing them. As Christ cured men's bodies with a word, so their souls with a look. He looked upon Peter, and presently he repented: he looked upon Zacchaeus, and presently he was justified: he looked upon Saint Matthew, and presently he was called: Why then was Jerusalem no better for this gracious aspect? because she shut her eyes against the true light. When Christ looked to her, she turned away from him: when he wept for her, she laughed at him: when he sought to save her, she plotted his death and destruction. Yet were not the beams of Christ's eye cast in vain upon this City; for the spiritual Jerusalem, as Saint Origen telleth us, that is, the faithful in Jerusalem were the better for them: for they observed our Savior's eye, and kept his tears in a bottle, and laid up his words in their heart; and being fully persuaded of the truth of his prediction concerning the destruction of the City and Temple, when forty years after Titus began to lay siege to it, they left it, and fled to Pella, and thereby escaped all those miseries and troubles which our Savior could not foretell with dry eyes. The Philosophers and Physicians are not yet agreed utrum visio fiat extramittendo vel intromittendo, whether in the act of seeing the eye casteth out beams upon the object, or receiveth species from it. The question is easily resolved here: for Christ both cast out a beam of his affection out of his eye on the City, and received also the species or image of it into his eye: at once he looked upon her with a twofold eye,

• 1 The eye of sense.
• 2 The eye of Prophesy.

To the eye of sense Jerusalem appeared most beautiful, glorious, and happy, environed with strong walls, adorned with magnificent buildings, stored with people abounding in wealth, and furnished with all sort of munition: but to the eye of prophesy she appeared in another hiew, with her walls sacked, her houses burnt, her turrets demolished, her young men slain, her virgins deflowered, her priests sacrificed, her streets piled with carcasses, and her channels running with gore blood.

This most lamentable spectacle, though a far off, drew tears from our Savior's eyes. And so I pass to the third step, which is the wettest of all:

3. Flevit super eam. He wept over it. In the water of Christ's tears we may see after a sort the face both of his human and divine nature. In that they were tears issuing from the troubled fountain of sorrow in his heart, they prove him to be a true man: but in that they represented the weeping and mourning that should ensue after his death in Jerusalem, they demonstrate him to be true God: for argumentum divinitatis veritas divinationis, the certainty of divination is an argument of divinity. Neither were these tears only indices naturae, evidences of his nature, but pledges of his love, and (as Origen noteth) instances of his doctrine touching the blessedness of mourners. Christ exemplified every point of his doctrine in himself: he taught that the poor in spirit are blessed, and none so humble in heart as he: he taught that peace-makers were blessed, & who so great a peace-maker as he, who is our peace, and reconciled heaven and earth? he taught, blessed are they that suffer for righteousness sake, and none ever suffered so much as he: he taught, blessed are they that mourn, and he wept himself, sanctifying thereby tears, and assuring all godly mourners here, of comforts hereafter. Gorran observed that Christ shed tears four times, first at his birth, next in the raising of Lazarus, a third time in his surveigh of Jerusalem, and a fourth time on the cross: and these four, saith he, are spiritually the four rivers of Paradise, which serve 1. to purge: 2. to cool and refresh: 3. to water and make fruitful: 4. to quench the thirst of the world of believers. Notwithstanding I find in the Gospel but two leaves only wet with our Savior's tears, Joh. 11. and here. It is likely he cried at his birth after the manner of other children; and it is certain that he offered up prayers upon the cross with strong cries: yet we read not of any tears shed by him but here on Mount Olivet, and at Lazarus his grave, and both tears were tears of compassion, and both also funeral tears. There he wept for the death of Lazarus, and here for the final period, and, if I may so speak, funerals of Jerusalem, to be solemnized with desolation, and exceeding great mourning, like that of Hadradrimmon in the valley of Megiddo, within a few years after his passion. It was the manner of the Prophets, when they fore-told the calamities that were to fall upon any people or nation, to express them as well by signs as by words, to make a deeper impression in their hearers. Ahiah cut Jeroboams cloak, Jeremy breaketh his bottle, Ezekiel shaveth his beard, Agabus bindeth himself. In like manner, Christ prophesying the final overthrow of the City and Temple, representeth the great sorrow, mourning and lamentation of the inhabitants of Jerusalem by his own tears. Theodoret yieldeth another reason: Alii flent ex passion, Christus ex compassione: Others weep (saith he) out of passion, Christ out of compassion: Ut ostenderet qualia haberet erga ingrates viscera; to show what bowels he had toward the ungrateful though they least deserve tears, who have no sense at all of their own misery, yet they most of all need them. It grieveth me (saith S. Cyprian) that thou grievest not for thyself: mine eyes are wet because thine are always dry: I have little comfort, because there is little or no hope of grace in thee. Ea fletus majoris causa est, cùm rideant qui flere debeant; we have the greater cause to mourn, when they laugh who ought to weep. Jerusalem was now in a fit of frenzy, she laughed, and feasted, and reveled, even now when she was near utter ruin and confusion: and this more opened the salt springs in our Savior's eyes; he shed tears the more abundantly by reason of the carnal security, obstinacy, and senseless stupidity of the Jews his Countrymen, and especially the inhabitants of Jerusalem, who killed the Prophets, and stoned them who were sent unto them to fore-warn them of God's fearful judgments hanging over their heads.

I told you before that this was a wet step, and many here have slipped: For this objection offereth itself to every man's conceit: Was not Christ God, and consequently omnipotent? could not he have prevented their final overthrow? could not he have given those Jews believing and relenting hearts? could he not have converted them all miraculously by a vision from heaven, as he did St. Paul, who before that powerful change wrought in him, was as much enraged against the professors of the Gospel as any of these? nay more? Did not Christ foresee and decree the destruction of Jerusalem? how then doth he bemoan it with tears? Calvin reacheth us a hand to help us off of this wet knoll: As (saith he) Christ descended from heaven clad with human flesh, that he might be a witness and minister of divine salvation, he truly put upon him also human affections, so far as it was requisite for the discharge of his function: therefore as being sent as a minister for the salvation of that people, in the faithful execution of his office he forewarned them of their danger, and bewailed their overthrow, which could not but ensue upon their obstinacy and impenitency. He was God I acknowledge, and most certainly fore-saw what would befall the City, according to his eternal decree; but whilst he performed the office of a teacher, the deity rested as it were, and hid it self. That ye may take faster hold upon this stay, which this learned Interpreter reacheth unto you, ye are to consider Christ three manner of ways:

• 1. As God,
• 2. As man,
• 3. As Mediator between God and man.

As God he most justly sentenced that bloody City to utter ruin and desolation; as man he could not but be touched with grief and sorrow for those heavy judgments which hung over the city and people, they taking no course at all to prevent or avert them; as Mediator betwixt God and man, he might and ought ex officio, both bewail what he fore-told, and fore-tell what he now bewailed: and that most seriously. For pro quibus nunc lachrymas, postea effudit sanguinem; for he shed his blood for those for whom he now shed tears: and it was their own fault, that this death was not effectual to them for their redemption and salvation. An all-sufficient remedy was tendered unto them, but they would none of it; and even this also, as it aggravated their sin, and consequently their punishment, so it increased their spiritual Physicians grief, and drew more tears from his eyes: Utinam, Domine, ut verbum caro factum est, sic cor meum carneum fiat; Oh that as the word was made flesh, so my heart were made fleshly and tender, to receive a deep impression of my brethren's grief. Such a heart was Jeremiah's, which evaporated into these sighs, Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes fountains of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people. Such was Saint Paul's, Besides those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the Churches: who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not? Of the same temper was Saint Cyprian, I sympathize and condole with you for those of our brethren, whom the cruelty of persecution hath overthrown, and laid upon their backs: the wounds which they have received no less pain me, than if part of my bowels had been plucked out of my body. And again, I mourn with them that mourn, and weep with them that weep, and am cast down with them that are fallen. This sympathy is a more noble work of mercy and charity towards our afflicted brethren, than bounty it self: he that spendeth his affection upon his brother in his distress, doth more than he that reacheth unto him an alms: for the one giveth somewhat out of his purse, the other out of his bowels: on the contrary, want of natural affection is ranked with the worst of all vices, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, debate, back-biters, haters of God, disobedient to parents, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful. Doubtless they are monsters in nature that want bowels: nothing more provoked God, in Salvianus his judgment, to double his strokes upon the French, when the Goths came in upon them, than that they had no sense or feeling of their brethren's calamities. The voice of the dying could hardly be distinguished from the clamours of those that were drunk; at the same time when the people without the City cried out for fear of the enemy, the people within the City shouted at their sports. It is not safe for any to feast, when God calleth to fast; to sing, when God calleth to sigh; to brave it in gorgeous apparel, when God calleth to sackcloth. Whose heart quaketh not at that thunder-clap in the Prophet Isaiah? And in that day did the Lord God of hosts call to weeping, and mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth. And behold joy and gladness, slaying oxen, and killing sheep, eating flesh, and drinking wine. And it was revealed in my ears by the Lord of hosts; surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till you die. The sin wherewith God charged the old world before it was over-flown with a deluge of water, and Christ in the Gospel chargeth the new, which shall be over-flown with a deluge of fire, is the same wherewith he here chargeth the Jews, that they knew not, that is, took not notice of the time of their visitation: As it was in the days of Noah: so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, ntill the day that Noah entered into the Ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot, they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all: Even so shall it be in the day when the Son of man shall be revealed. The meaning is, they went on in the ordinary tract of their business, as if there had been no judgment toward, as also did the inhabitants of Jerusalem at this time, whom when Jesus saw so near the brink of destruction, and yet so careless, he wept; 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , when he considered what he was to suffer for that City, and what that City afterwards was to suffer because of him, his grief ran over the natural banks his eyes.

The same organ is ordained for seeing and weeping, to teach us, that weeping should not be without seeing, nor sorrowing without understanding. The cause why we weep not for the desolation of our Jerusalem near at hand (if this our present fasting and repenting in dust and ashes remove it not) is, because we see not the evils that hang over our heads: we see them not, because we put them far from us, or hide them from our eyes. The infant, while it lieth in the dark prison of the mothers womb, never quatcheth nor weepeth; but as soon as ever it cometh out of the womb into the light, it knits the brows, and wrings the eyes, and cries, & taketh on: even so the child of God, whilst he is yet kept in the dark of ignorance, in his unregenerate estate, never crieth to his Father, nor weepeth for his sin; but as soon as the light of grace shineth upon him, he bewaileth his grievous misery, and never thinketh that he hath filled his cup of tears full enough. The spouts will not run currently, if we pump not deep. If then we would have the spouts which nature hath placed in our heads run abundantly with tears of repentance, we must pump deep, we must dive deep into the springs of godly sorrow, which are the consideration of our own sins, and the afflictions of God's people. Were Jesus now upon earth in his mortal body, and should behold this Kingdom as he did the City of Jerusalem, and take a survey of all the evils we do, and are like to suffer, could he (think you) refrain from tears? would he not second his tears with groans? And so I pass to the fourth step:

4. Ingemuit, he sighed, saying, If thou knewest, or, Oh that thou hadst known. The Greeks in their Proverb give it for a character of a good man, that he is much subject to sighing, and free of his tears:

I am sure the best man that ever was, as he wept more than once, so he sighed often. When he opened the ears of the deaf and dumb, and when the Pharisees seeking of him a sign tempted him, he sighed deeply in his spirit: and when he raised Lazarus stinking in the grave; and again in my Text. And this he doth not as God (for immunity from passion is a prerogative of the divine nature) but, as Calvin teacheth, quia minister huic populo in salutem datus, as a minister of salvation to this people. Here then I cannot but reflect upon mine own calling, and preach to Preachers and all Ministers of the Gospel, that by the example of our Lord and Master, the high Priest and Bishop of our souls, we take chiefly and in a special manner to heart the calamities of God's people, and ruin of his Church. The eyes of our Savior here, as likewise of Isaiah, Jeremy, and Ezra, glazed with tears, are looking-glasses, wherein we may see the duty enjoined to us by the Prophet Joel, Let the Priests, the Ministers of God, weep between the porch and the altar. For in the spoiling of the country, and demolishing the Churches, and the houses of Prophets and Prophets children, God's honor suffereth, whereof we ought to be most jealous: the souls of men are in no less danger than their bodies and estates, whereof we are to render an account; and as we are God's mouth to the people, to declare his will to them, so we are their mouth to God, to present their supplications to him. All the measures of the Sanctuary were double to the common. As the measure of our knowledge is greater, so the measure of our g • iefe and sorrow in the affliction of God's people ought to be corresponding. The same proportion holds in sorrow and joy. And therefore as in the common joy Saint Cyprian allotteth the Bishop a greater portion; so also in the common grief our portion must needs be the greatest. We stand upon the watch-towers of Zion, and the people take notice of dangers from the fiering of our beacons: we are as the praecentores chori, to give them the tune: we are as Trumpeters in God's army; and if the Trumpet be cracked, or give an uncertain sound, how shall the soldiers prepare themselves to fight the Lord's battles? If we (like Epaminondas ) ought to fast, that the people may feast the more securely: watch, that they may sleep with more safety: weep, that they may rejoice more freely; how much more ought we, being the Asaphs in this sad quire, accord with you in your groans and cries, when we are struck with the same griefs and fears, when the enemy aimeth not so much at the Common-wealth as at the Church, and not so much at the body as at the soul of the Church, the Religion we profess, and our most holy faith? O ubi estis fontes lachrymarum! O where are you fountains of tears! where are gales of such sighs! such as love and devotion, and sympathy breathes out in my Text, If thou knewest. And so I pass to the last step:

5. Oravit, he prayed, saying, O that thou knewest, or, If thou knewest. In this prayer of our Savior, our thoughts may find themselves holy employment, in seriously considering,

• 1. The manner or form of speech, which is
  • 1. Figurative,
  • 2. Abrupt,
  • 3. Passionate.
• 2. The matter, which presenteth to our spiritual view
  • 1. The intimation of a desire, O that, or, If.
  • 2. The exprobration of Ignorance, Thou knewest.
  • 3. The aggravation upon the person, Thou, even thou.
  • 4. The designation of a time, In this thy day.

The sentence riseth by degrees, and Christ in every word groweth more and more upon Jerusalem. It is sin and shame to be ignorant, most of all for Jerusalem, and that in the day of her visitation, especially of those things that belong to her peace. If other Cities might plead ignorance, yet not thou: if thou mightest plead ignorance at another time, yet not in this thy day: if in this thy day thou mightest plead ignorance of other things, yet not of those things that belong to thy peace.

To begin with the form and manner, which the more imperfect it is, the more perfectly it expresseth the passion, or rather compassion of the speaker. As a cracked pipe or bell giveth a harsh or uncertain sound, so a broken heart for the most part uttereth broken speeches, interrupted with sighs. Constantine kissed the empty holes where Paphnutius eyes were plucked out; and we cannot but reverence the seeming emptiness and vacuity in Scripture sentences, where the omission of something is more significant than the supply (if the speech had been filled up) would have been. Those which have been transported with passion, utter half sentences, and faulter in the midst of a period, as the father in the Poet, who lost his only son, beginning to vent his grief, and saying, Filius meus pollens ingenio, My son of rare parts, my son of great hope, there stops, and before he could say mortuus est, is dead, became himself speechless. Christ was here seized on by a double passion,

• 1. Of Commiseration,
• 2. Of Indignation.

Commiseration out of the apprehension of the overthrow of Jerusalem, the Queen of all Cities, and the Sanctuary of the whole earth.

Indignation at the obstinacy, ingratitude and blood-thirsty cruelty, and desperate madness of the present inhabitants, who willfully refusing the means of their salvation, run headlong to their own perdition. I have been the briefer in handling the form, that I might enlarge myself in the matter.

Thou knewest. Ignorance of God's judgments draweth them upon a state: for the Lord hath a controversy with the land (saith Hosea) because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land: My people perish for lack of knowledge. The Schools rightly distinguish of a double ignorance:

• 1. Facti, of the fact.
• 2. Juris, of the Law.

Ignorance of the fact in some case excuseth, but not of the law, which all are bound to take notice of: for Lex datur vigilantibus, non dormientibus; The law is given to men that are awake, and may and ought to hear it, not to men when they are asleep. The law, for the violation whereof the greatest part are condemned, is written in the tables of their hearts, to exclude all plea of ignorance: and certainly of all the errors of Popery, one of the grossest is their entitling ignorance the mother of devotion: for so far is ignorance from being the mother of any virtue, that it is both

• 1. Peccatum,
• 2. Mater peccati,
• 3. Poena peccati.

It is sin, and the punishment of sin, and the parent of sin. First it is sin; for God in the Law appointed a sacrifice for a trespass by ignorance: and the servant in the Gospel, which knew not his Masters will, and therefore did it not, shall be beaten with fewer stripes indeed than the other, who knew his Masters will, and did it not, yet with some. Secondly, it is the parent of sin, viz. of many errors in matter of faith, which, are sins: This people (saith God) hath erred in their heart, because they have not known my ways. And Christ imputeth the gross error of the Pharisees concerning the resurrection to their ignorance of the Scriptures: Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God. And it is also the punishment of sin, as we read, Because they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate sense, and their foolish heart was darkened. Even this is a sin of ignorance, not to know that ignorance is a sin. I speak not only of ignorantia pravae dispositionis, of willful ignorance, but also of nescience, which they call simple ignorance: why else doth the Prophet pray, Effunde aestum tuum in gentes quae te ignorant; Pour down thine indignation upon the nations that know thee not, and upon the people that call not upon thy Name? Why doth the Apostle threaten flaming fire to all that know not God? I would S. Augustine's censure might upon good ground from Scripture be qualified, where he passeth the sentence of damnation to eternal fire, even upon those who never had knowledge of the means of salvation, and not only upon those who might have known them if they would.

Yea, but we have all knowledge, our ignorance will not cast us, the clearest beams of the Gospel have for these many years shined in our climate; we should be most unthankful to him that dwelleth in an unaccessible light, if we should not acknowledge as much. It is most true in these parts, as in the part of heaven over our heads, we see continually many goodly stars, yea many constellations of stars; but as about the South pole, so in divers remote parts of this Kingdom there is scarce any star to be discerned, or if any, but a blinking star of the sixth magnitude. Yet to yield us a greater knowledge than other nations, I fear that this plea will rather hurt us than help us; if we could say truly we were blind, we should not have so much to answer for: but now, because we say we see, our sin remaineth, if we so perfectly know our Masters will, and do it so imperfectly, a few stripes will not serve our turn: Do ye think (saith Salvianus) that the heathen so much dishonor God when they forswear themselves by their false gods, as you when you forswear yourselves by the true? Do you think a Jew, or a Pagan, or a Papist by his profane or loose life causeth the truth to be so evil spoken of, as we that have the word taught among us most purely, yet live impurely, who know better, yet do worse? As we presume of our knowledge, so did Jerusalem, which is by interpretation the vision of peace, much more; yet our Savior upbraideth her with ignorance, saying,

Thou, even thou. Our Savior strikes twice upon the same string, he rubbeth again and again upon the same sore: Thou, even thou. Thou which carriest peace in thy name, thinkest not thou of those things that belong to thy peace? Jerusalem was once the light of the world, and yet behold she is darkness. From Moses to the days of John the Baptist, and from the days of John the Baptist till this present she was instructed by Seers sent from God, and directed to the way of peace, yet she seeth it not. Let those who assume to themselves most knowledge, take heed lest they be like Pentheus, Sapientes in omnibus praeterquam in iis in quibus sapientem esse convenit; wise in all things save those where wisdom might stead them. He is not to be accounted a wise man (saith the wise Poet) who knoweth simply most things, but who knoweth things of most use. Is Jerusalem ignorant of the main point of all, of the coming of the Messias, notwithstanding all the light she might have taken from the Law of Moses, & from the visions of the Prophets, & from the doctrine and miracles of our Savior? how gross then is that error of all the rest in the Romish Church, by which she maintaineth and holdeth, that she cannot err? Was Jerusalem seated upon so high a hill, so near heaven, obscured with the fumes arising from the bottomless pit? and may not the City situated on seven hills have a thick mist cast over her? What can she plead for her immunity from error in matter of faith more than Jerusalem could? that faith was planted in her by S. Peter? the Christian faith was planted in Jerusalem by Christ himself: that it was watered in her with the blood of the Apostles? Jerusalem was watered with the blood of Christ himself. If Rome can allege any one promise made to her, Jerusalem can many. But to leave Rome, and come with a Nathan's application to ourselves, me thinks, I hear Christ saying to us and our Church:

At least in this thy day, that is, the day of thy visitation, the day of grace, a day given thee for this end, to provide for thy peace, to call thyself to an account, to consider how deeply thou hast engaged God's justice to pour down the vials of his vengeance upon thee, for thy rebellion against his ordinances, thy corporal and spiritual fornication, thy resisting the spirit of grace, thy peremptory refusing of the means of salvation, thy persecuting the truth, even to the death, and imbruing thy hands in the blood of God's dearest servants sent to thee early and late for thy peace.

Jerusalem had a day, and every City, every Nation, every Church, every congregation, every man hath a day of grace, if he have grace to take notice of it; hath an accepted time, if he accept of it: and he may find God, if he seek him in time. It was day at Jerusalem in Christ's time, at Ephesus in S. Johns time, at Corinth, Philippi, &c. in S. Paul's time, at Crete in Titus time, at Alexandria in S. Markes time, at Smyrna in Polycarps time, at Pergamos in Antipas time, at Antiochia in Evodius and Ignatius time, at Constantinople in S. Andrew and Chrysostom's time, at Hippo in Saint Augustine's time; now in most of these it is night, it is yet day with us: O let us work out our salvation with fear and trembling, whilst it is called today; if the Sun of righteousness go down upon us, we must look for nothing but perpetual darkness, and the shadow of death. Although Ninevehs day lasted forty days, and Jerusalem's forty years, and the old worlds 120. years, and although God should prolong our days to many hundred years, yet we should find our day short enough to finish our intricate accounts. That day in the language of the holy Ghost is called our day, wherein we either do our own will and pleasure, or which God giveth us of special grace to clear our accounts, and make our peace with him; but that is called the Lord's day, either which he challengeth to himself for his special service, or which he hath appointed for all men to appear before his Tribunal, to give an account of their own works. A wicked man maketh God's day his own, by following his own pleasures, and doing his own will upon it, and living wholly to himself, and not to God; but the godly maketh his own days God's days, by employing them in God's service, and devoting them as far as his necessary occasion will permit wholly to him. Wherefore it is just with God to take away from the wicked part of his own days, by shortening his life upon earth, and to give to the godly part of his day, which is eternity in heaven.

I noted before a flaw and breach in the sentence, as it were a bracke in a rich cloth of Tissu. If thou knewest in this thy day: what then? thou wouldst weep, saith S. Gregory: thou wouldest not neglect so great salvation, saith Euthyrtius: it would be better with thee, saith Titus Bostrensis: thou wouldst repent in sackcloth and ashes, saith Brugensis. But I will not presume to add a line to a draugh • from which such a workman hath taken off his pensill, and for the print I should make after the pattern in my Text, and now in the application lay it close to your devout affections, I may spare my farther labor and your trouble: for it is made by authority, which hath commanded us to take notice of those things that belong to our peace, viz. to walk humbly with our God by fasting and prayer: wherefore jungamus fletibus fletus, lachrymas lachrymis misceamus; let us conspire in our sighs, let us accord in our groans, let us mingle our tears, let us send up our joint prayers as a vollie of shot to batter the walls of heaven: let all our hearts consort with our tongues, and our souls with our bodies: what we do or suffer in our humiliation, let it be willingly, and not by constrant; & let our prayers and strong cries in public be ecchoed by the voice of our weeping in private: who knoweth whether God may not send us an issue out of our present troubles by means unexpected? who knoweth not whether he may not have calicem benedictionis, a cup of blessing in store for those his servants beyond the sea, who have drank deep of the cup of trembling? Christ his bowels are not streightened, but our sins are enlarged, else it would be otherwise with them and with us. I have given you a general prescription, will ye yet have more particular recipe's? take then an electuary of four simples:

The first I gather from our Savior's garden, Let your loins be girt, and your lamps in your hands. Let your loins be girt, that is, your lusts be curbed & restrained; and your lamps burning, that is, your devotions enflamed. Gird up your loins by mortification & discipline, and have your lamps burning, both the light of faith in your hearts, and of good works in your hands.

The second I gather from S. John Baptists garden, Bring forth fruits meet for repentance, or worthy amendment of life: let your sorrows be answerable to your sinful joys, let the fruit of your repentance equal, if not exceed the forbidden fruit of your sin; wherein ye have most displeased God, seek most to please him. Have ye offended him in your tongue by oaths? please him now by lauding and praising his dreadful name, and reproving swearing in others. Have ye offended in your eyes by beholding vanity and casting lascivious glances upon fading beauty enticing to folly? make a covenant from henceforth with your eyes, that they cast not a look upon the world, or the flesh's baits, employ them especially from henceforth in reading holy Scriptures, and weeping for your sins. Have ye offended in thought? sanctify now all your meditations unto him. Have ye offended in your sports? let now your delight be in the Law of God, let the Scriptures be your delicacies with S. Augustine, meditate upon them day and night, make the Lord's holy-day your delight, Isaiah 58.15. and honor him thereon, not following your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words.

The third I gather from S. James his garden, Cast down yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. The Lion contenteth himself with casting down a man: if he couch under him, and make no resistance, he offereth no more violence.

It is most true, if we speak of the Lion of the Tribe of Judah: for he will not break a bruised reed, much less grind to powder a contrite heart. If Ahab's outward humiliation (who notwithstanding had sold himself to work wickedness ) in some degree appeased God's wrath: how much will inward & outward humiliation of the redeemed of God prevail with him to remove his heavy judgments from us, which he inflicteth on us, especially to humble us? and if he find us humbled already, he will doubtless lay no more load upon us.

The last I gather from King David's garden: Kiss the Son. God hath a controversy with us as he had with the Israelites in the days of Hosea, and no man can plead for us, but our Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. We have so far provoked the Almighty, some by profaneness, some by superstition, some by indifferency in point of Religion, some by covetousness and extortion, some by fraud and falsehood, some by quarrelling and contention, some by swearing and blaspheming, some by gluttony and drunkenness, some by chambering and wantonness, that he hath already taken hold of his glittering sword, and who in heaven or in earth can or dare treat for our peace, but Christ our peace-maker, who hath signed a league of amity between God & all believers with his own blood? Wherefore, as Themistocles, understanding that King Admetus was highly displeased with him, took up his young son into his arms, and treated with the father holding that his darling in his bosom, and thereby appeased the Kings wrath; so let us come to the Father, with Christ in our arms: let us present our suites by him, He is our eye with which we see God, our hand by which we offer to him, he is our mouth by which we speak to him. By this eye we look upon thee, O thou that dwellest in the heavens; by this hand we offer unto thee the incense of our zealous affections; by this mouth we send up our prayers with our sighs unto thee.