A Key Opening Mysterious Texts of Scripture

THE EMBLEME OF THE CHURCH MILITANT. A Sermon preached in Mercers Chapel. THE XXIII. SERMON.

THe Naturalists write of a precious stone called Ceraunias, that it is found only in a day of thunder, glistering when the sky is overcast with darkness. With these gems the Spouse of Christ is adorned, whose faith, constancy and patience shine most brightly in time of adversity and persecution, when all the earth is full of darkness and cruel habitations. As the fountain of the sun in the country of the Troglodytes is cold or lukewarm at mid-day, but most extreme hot at mid-night; such is the nature of zeal: in the day of prosperity, and high noon of temporal glory it is cold, or at the best lukewarm: but in the night of adversity, and dead time of persecution it is most fervent and flagrant. Then the sincere professors open their hearts most freely in prayer to God, and their bowels of Christian charity and compassion to their afflicted brethren: the fear of their enemies husheth their private differences: their loss of goods and lands is an inducement to them to contemn the world, and (as having little or no comfort in this life) to set their hearts wholly upon Heaven. On the contrary, peace usually breeds carnal security, abundance luxury, wealth pride, honor ambition, power oppression, pleasure sensuality, and earthly contentments worldliness the bane of Religion. In which consideration especially we may conceive it is, that our blessed Lord the Husband of the Church, who loveth her more than all the world besides (which he preserveth only for her sake) yet seldom crowneth her in this world with worldly happiness and eminent greatness; but exerciseth her now under the cross, as he did under the bondage of Egypt; and captivity of Babylon before his coming into the flesh; and after his death, first under the fury of the Heathen, next the cruelty of the Arian Emperors, and since that, under the insolency of the Turk in the East, and tyranny of Antichrist in the West. As he is termed by the Prophet Isaiah, Vir dolorum, a man of sorrows; so we find her Uxorem lachrymarum, a wife of tears; as he was crowned with thorns, so she lieth in the briars: as he was laid in wait for at his birth, so she at her new birth: as he fled from Herod into Egypt, so she from the Dragon into the wilderness: as he was tempted once, so she is always: as he bare his cross to Golgotha, so she hath borne hers in all parts and ages of the world. Indeed sometimes she hath had lucida intervalla, times of lightsomeness and joy, when Kings have been her nursing fathers, and Queens her nursing mothers: but for the most part she sitteth in darkness, as a close mourner, yet solacing her self with hope of better times. Hence it is, that all the pictures that are drawn of her in Scripture, are either taken from a child-bearing woman frighted by a Dragon gaping to devour her babe, or a widow making lamentation for her husband, or a mother weeping for her children, or a pilgrim passing from country to country, or an hermite lodged in the wilderness, as here in my Text. The Saints of God are described in holy Scripture clad in three suits of apparel different in color:

• 1. Black.
• 2. Red.
• 3. White.

• Black is their mourning weed.
• Red their military ornament.
• White their wedding garment.

They mourn in black for their sins and grievous afflictions: They fight in red against their bloody persecutors: They triumph and sit at the marriage feast of the Lamb in white. Two of their suits they are well known by on earth, the third is reserved in God's Wardrob, and shall be given them in Heaven. The two former may be called their working day apparel, but the last their Holy-day or Sunday. For they wear it not but upon their everlasting Sabbath in Heaven. Their red and black vests do not so much cover their bodies, as discover their state and condition in this world; where they always either stand, and fight with their bodily and ghostly enemies, or sit down and weep for their irrecoverable losses and incurable wounds. Their life is a continual warfare upon earth; three potent enemies continually bid them battle:

• 1 The World, Without.
• 2 The Flesh, Within.
• 3 The Devil, Both within and without.

The Devil never ceaseth to suggest wicked thoughts, the World to present dangerous baits, the Flesh to ingender noisome lusts. The Devil mainly assaulteth their faith, the World their hope, the Flesh their love: and they fight with three special weapons;

• 1 Temptations.
• 2 Heresies.
• 3 Persecutions.

Temptations I call all vicious provocations: heresies, all false doctrines in matter of faith and salvation: persecutions all outward afflictions. Temptations properly lay at the will, heresies at the understanding, persecutions at the whole person: which though the Church of Christ for the most part in her noble members courageously endureth, and therefore is fitly compared to the Pyrausts, which are nourished in the fire; and to the Phoenix, because she riseth again out of the ashes of the burnt bodies of Martyrs: yet sometimes, especially in her weak and more feeble members, to escape this fire she flies into some wilderness, or remote or obscure place, where God always provideth for her.

And the woman, there is the frailty of her nature; fled, there is the uncertainty of her state; into the wilderness, there is the place of her retiredness; where she is nourished by God, there is the staff of her comfort; a thousand two hundred and threescore days, there is the term of her obscurity, and the period of all her troubles.

And the woman, &c. Though all the prophecies of this book are darkened with much obscurity, yet by illustrating the vision set down through this whole chapter, and hanging it, as it were a great light, in the most eminent part of it, we shall easily discover what divine truth lieth hid in every corner thereof. The holy Apostle, and the Evangelist S. John, in a divine rapture saw a most fair and glorious woman in travel, and an ugly red Dragon with seven heads and ten horns, standing before her with open mouth, ready to devour her child; of which she was no sooner delivered, but her son was taken up to the Throne of God, and she carried with the wings of an Eagle into the Wilderness: the Dragon thus deceived of his prey, after which his mouth watered, cast out of his mouth water as a flood after her to drown her. Such was the vision; mark now, I beseech you, the interpretation thereof. By the woman all that have dived deep into the profound mysteries of this book understand the Church, whose beauty and glory is illustrated by the Sun clothing her, and the Moon supporting her, and the Stars crowning her. The Sun either signifieth the knowledge of God's Word, which enlighteneth the Church throughout; or Christ the Sun of righteousness, who clothes her with the robes of his righteousness, and exalteth her to his throne of glory above the Moon, on which she standeth; and thereby showeth her contempt of this uncertain and mutable world, ruled by the Moon, and subject to as many changes as that planet. Thus it seemeth clear what is meant by the Sun and Moon; but what shall we make of the crown of twelve stars set upon her head? It seemeth to represent either the number of the twelve Patriarchs the Crown of the Jewish, or the twelve Apostles the Crown of the Christian Church. The man child which this woman had no sooner brought forth, but he was caught up unto God in his Throne, and was to rule all Nations with a rod of Iron, is undoubtedly our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ; as by comparing the fifth verse of this chapter with Psal. 2. v. 9. and Apoc. 2.27. and 19.15. appeareth most evidently. As for the Dragon, he is so set out in his colors, v. 9. that any may know him: there he is called the old Serpent, the Devil and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world. The waters which he casteth out of his mouth, are multitudes of people which he stirreth up to persecute the Church. He is described with seven heads and ten horns, like to the woman, whereby the Roman Empire or Church is meant, called Babylon, the Mother of fornications, and abominations on the earth, ver. 5. because the Dragon employed the seven heads, and ten horns, that is, the policy and strength of the Roman State especially, to suppress the true Religion, and overthrow the Church. Other Kingdoms and States have been stained with the blood of Christians, but Rome is that Whore of Babylon, which hath died her garments scarlet red with the blood of Saints and Martyrs of Jesus Christ: others have licked or tasted thereof, but she, in regard of her barbarous cruelty in this kind, is said to be drunk with their blood.

The vision thus cleared, the meaning of my text, and the special points of observation in each word therein may easily be discerned. The first 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the woman figureth unto us the Church her

• 1 Original.
• 2 Fruitfulness.
• 3 Tendernesse.
• 4 Weakenesse.
• 5 Frailtie.

1 First her Original. As the first Adam being cast into a slumber, the woman was formed of a rib taken out of his side; so when the second Adam fell into a dead sleep on the Cross, his side was opened, and thence issued this woman here in my text, Christ's dearest Spouse.

2 Her fruitfulness. The honor of women is their childbearing. For therefore was Heva called the mother of the living, because all save Adam came from her: such is the Church, a most indulgent and fruitful mother; Heva mater viventium, the mother of all that live by faith. And as St. Cyprian concluded against all the Schismatikes in his time, we may resolve against all the Separatists in our days; they cannot have God to their Father, who acknowledge not the Church for their Mother.

3 Her tenderness. Mulier, saith Varro, quasi mollior, women take their name in latin from tenderness or softness, because they are usually of a softer temper than men, and much more subject to passions, especially of fear, grief, love, and longing: their fear is almost perpetual, their grief immoderate, their love ardent, and their longing most vehement: such is the temper of the militant Church, in fear always, weeping continually for her children, never out of trouble in one place or other, sick for love of her husband Christ Jesus, and ever longing for his second coming.

4 Her weakness or impotency. Women are the weaker vessels, they have no strength in comparison of men; they are able to make small or no resistance: and in this also the militant Church resembleth a woman; for howsoever she be always strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might, and albeit for a short time, when she had Kings and Princes for her Champions, as in the days of David, Solomon, Hezekiah, Josiah, and other Kings of Judah: and in the reign of Constantine, Theodosius, Martianus, Justinian, and other Emperors of Rome, by the temporal sword she put her enemies to the worst, and had a great hand over them: yet in other ages, as well before Christ's incarnation as after, she hath been destitute of the arm of flesh, and hath had no other than women's weapons to defend herself, viz. prayers and tears. These alone St. Ambrose took up for his defense against the Arian Emperor; We bow down before thee, we rise not up against thee, our dread Lord. For my own part I can sorrow, I can sigh, I can weep; by other means I neither may nor can resist.

5 Her frailty. Women are not only weaker in body than men, and less able to resist violence; but also weaker in mind, and less able to hold out in temptations: and therefore the Devil first set upon the woman, as conceiving it a matter of more facility to supplant her than the man. I would the militant Church were not in this also too like the weaker sex. Faire she is I grant, but fair as the Moon, in which there are dark and black spots: Or, as St. Origen noteth, pulchra inter mulieres, not perfectly fair, but fair among women: her brightest colors are somewhat stained, her graces clouded, her beauty Sun-burnt. Let the Pelagians and Papists stand never so much upon the perfection of inherent righteousness, they shall never be able to wash clean the menstruous cloths, and filthy rags the Prophet Isaiah speaketh of. St. Austin, who was more inward to the servants of God in his time, and better acquainted with their thoughts than any Heretics could be, telleth us, that if all the Saints from the beginning of the world were together upon earth, and should join in one prayer, it would be this or the like, Lord enter not into judgment with thy servant, for in thy sight shall no man living be justified. Nothing is so easy as to slip whilst we walk upon a sea of glass. For this reason it is that our Savior teacheth us to pray, lead us not into temptation; because there is not any temptation so weak, that putteth not our frailty to the worse: and albeit it overcome not our faith, yet it maketh our sinews so shrink (as Jacob's did after he wrestled with the Angel) that by it we are lamed in holy duties. All those usual similitudes whereby the Scripture setteth the Church militant before our eyes, show her frailty and imbecility. She is a vine, a lilly, a dove, a flock of sheep in the midst of ravening wolves. What tree so subject to take hurt as a vine, which is so weak, that it needeth continual binding and supporting; so tender, that if it be pricked deep, it bleedeth to death? No flower so soft and without all defense or shelter as a lilly; no fowl so harmless as the dove that hath no gallat all; no cattle so oft in danger as sheep and lambes in the midst of wolves. Yet neither the weak vine, nor the soft lilly, nor the fearful dove, nor the harmless sheep, so lively expresseth the infirmity and danger of the wayfaring or rather warfaring Church, as the travelling woman in this vision. What more pitiful object or lamentable spectacle can present it self to our eyes, than a woman great with child, scared with a fiery serpent ready to devour her child, and driven to fly away with her heavy burden with which she is scarce able to wag? This and worse, if worse may be, is the case of Christ's Spouse, the true Inheritrix of his Cross, which he bequeathed her at his death, having indeed little else to leave her: for his soul he was to surrender to God his Father, his body Joseph of Arimathea begged of Pilate, his clothes the soldiers parted among them; only his cross, and nails, and crown of thorns remained to dispose of for his dearest Spouse; which she continually beareth about with her, and in this vision carried with her into the wilderness, whither she fled to save her life. And the woman

Fled. This picture might have been taken of the Church as she fled from Pharaoh into the wilderness; or as she fled into Egypt from Herod; or as she fled into all parts of the earth in the time of the ten first persecutions from heathen Emperors; or in the succeeding ages from the Arian Emperors; and last of all from Antichrist and his instruments: in all which her trials and troubles she gained more than she lost. For as Justine Martyr rightly observed, persecution is that to the Church which pruning is to the vine, whereby it is made more fruitful: with whom Tertullian accordeth, thus jeering at the Gentiles, who made full account by their barbarous cruelty to exhaust the whole Church, and extinguish the name of Christians: What gain you by your exquisite cruelty and studied torments which you inflict upon us? they are no scar-crows to fright, but rather baits and lures to draw men to our profession: we ever grow faster and thicker after we are mowed by you: the shedding the blood of Christians is the sowing the seed of the Gospel. And St. Leo; The Church of God is not diminished by persecutions, but increased rather; the Lord's field is clothed with a richer crop whilst the seed or grains which fall one by one, after they are dead in the earth rise up again in great numbers. Moreover, whilst in the chief Cities those who are called by God to depose for his truth win many thousands to the Christian faith, other servants of Christ, to whom he hath vouchsafed means to escape, by dispersing themselves into all parts of the world, propagate the doctrine of the Gospel, and plant new Churches. Upon this flight of the woman in my text, many of the learned Interpreters take occasion to handle that great case of conscience, whether it be lawful to fly in time of persecution, or whether all zealous Christians are not bound to stand to their tackling, and strive for the truth, even to the effusion of their blood. Tertullian in his book professedly written of this subject is altogether against flight, grounding his judgment upon the words of our Savior, John 10.11. &c. I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the Wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: the hireling flieth, because he is an hireling, &c. And Mark 8.35, 38. Whosoever will save his life shall lose it, and whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the Gospels, the same shall save it. Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me, and of my words, in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him also shall the son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy Angels. But Saint Austin and others allow of flight in some case, and they bring very good warrant for it, Christ's express command, Matth. 10.23. When they persecute you in this city, flee into another. And Matth. 24.15, 16. When you see the abomination of desolation stand in the holy place, then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains. And to the end we should count it no shame to fly in this case, they bring noble presidents for it, and show us the footsteps in Scripture of Jacob when he fled from Esau: and Moses, when he fled from Pharaoh: and Elijah, when he fled from Ahab and Jezebel: and David, when he fled from Saul: and Joseph and Mary when they fled from Herod. They add also, that by this flight of many in time of persecution the Church reapeth a double benefit: first, hereby many worthy Doctors and eminent Professors reserve themselves for better times: next, they in their flight scatter the seeds of the Gospel, whereby the great Husbandman gathereth a plentiful crop. If the Apostles had not been scattered by the persecution of Herod, and the primitive Christians by the persecutions of the Heathen Emperors, and the true Professors in later times by the persecution of Antichrist, many countries in all likelihood had not been sown with the pure seed of the Word. The resolution of this question may be taken from my Text: in such a case as the woman's was here we may fly; that is, when there is no safety in staying, and God offereth us Eagles wings, that is, a fair and certain means to escape danger. Yea, but Christian courage will rise up against this, and object, Is not Martyrdom a garland of red Roses? is not the blood of Saints the best watering of God's field? can we show more love to Christ than to sign the Gospel with our blood? will you persuade Christian soldiers to fly from their colors, nay from their crown? God forbid. I answer, all are not appointed by God to be Martyrs, nor qualified for so noble and eminent service. To a Martyr two things are required:

• 1. A special calling.
• 2. An extraordinary spirit.

2. That they leave not the Church destitute. For Christ giveth it for one of the characters of an hireling, to fly when he seeth the Wolf coming, and look to his own safety, taking little care what becometh of his flock.

3. They must not use any indirect means to fly, they may not betray God's truth or their brethren to save their own life: he that saveth his life upon such terms shall lose it, and he that loseth his life in God's cause shall find it. You will say peradventure, how may this be? I answer, as that which is lost in Alpheus, after a certain time is undoubtedly found again in Arethusa: so that which is lost on earth shall be found in Heaven. He that loseth his life for Christ's sake in this vale of tears, shall find it at the last day in the river of pleasures, springing at the right hand of God for evermore. When the Stars set here, they rise in the other hemisphere; so when Confessors and Martyrs set here, they rise in heaven, and shall never set again. Therefore as Christ spake of Virginity, we may say of Martyrdom: what he spake of the garland of white roses, we may of the garland of red; Qui potest capere, capiat; He that is able to receive it, let him receive it; he that is not able, let him trace the footsteps of the woman here that fled

Into the wilderness. Not by change of place, saith Pareus, but change of state and condition. I see no reason of such a restraint; the Church may, and sometimes doth fly two manner of ways:

1. Openly, when being persecuted in one country, she posteth into another.

2. Secretly, when she abideth where she was, but keepeth her self close, and shunneth the eye of the world, and worshippeth God in secret, mourning for the abominations and public profanations of true Religion. Thus then we may expound the words, the woman fled into the wilderness, that is, she withdrew her self from public view, kept her exercises of Religion in private, held her meetings in cryptis (hidden places) as vaults under ground, dens and caves in the earth: or if persecution raged above measure, and without end, removed from country to country, and from city to wilderness for safety. By wilderness, some learned Expositors understand remote countries, inhabited by Paynims and Gentiles, where yet the fire of persecution is not kindled. For, say they, though such places be never so well peopled, yet they may be termed deserts; because never manured by God's husbandry, never sown with the seed of the Word, never set with plants of Paradise, never watered with the dew of heavenly grace. And if the Church had not removed into such wildernesses, she had never visited us in England, severed after a sort from the whole world.

But such hath been God's goodness to these Islands, that the woman in my text was carried with her Eagles wings into these parts, before the Roman Eagles were brought in here: our Country submitted it self to the Cross of Christ before it stooped to the Roman scepter. Howbeit, I take not this to be the meaning of this Scripture. For the propagation of the Church, and the extending her bounds to the remotest regions of the world, maketh her catholic, and by it she becometh glorious: whereas the Spirit speaketh here of her as in some eclipse. The wilderness therefore here meant, must needs be some obscure place or region, to which she fled to hide her self. If you demand particularly when this prophecy was fulfilled; I answer, partly in those Hebrews of whom St. Paul writeth, that they lay in wildernesses, and dens, and caves of the earth: partly in those Disciples that were in Jerusalem in the time of the siege, and a little before, who mindful of our Savior's commandment fled into the mountains, and were miraculously preserved in Pella, as Eusebius writeth: partly in those Christians, who in the days of Maximinus and Dioclesian fled so far that they never returned back again into any City, but were the fathers of them that live in woods and deserts, as Hermits; or enclosed within four walls, as Recluses and Anchorites: partly in those Orthodox believers, who in the reign of the Arian Emperors took deserts and caves under ground for sanctuary; of whom St. Hilary writeth saying, The Church rather lurked in holes and vaults under ground in those days, than shown her self openly in the chief Cities: partly in those professors of the Gospel, whoever since the man of sin was revealed, have been by him put to great straits, and driven to lie hid for many years in solitary and obscure places: in all which persecutions of the Church, God prepared for her not only a place to lodge in, but a table also that they should

Feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days. Some referring this prophesy to the Jews abode in Pella, find the time to be precisely three years and an half: others by days understanding years, reckon from the declining age of Constantine, till the great reformation in our age, near upon a thousand two hundred and threescore years: in all which time the true Church hath played least in sight, and been in a manner buried in oblivion. But neither is this calculation exact, neither (as I conceive) doth St. John speak of one flight only, nor of any particular place, nor definite number of years; but after the manner of Prophets putteth a definite number for an indefinite, and foreshoweth that the true Church must for a long time lie hid, and withdraw her self out of the worlds eye, as it is afterwards expressed, a time, times, and half a time: a time under the heathen Emperors, times under several Heretics, and last of all, half a time in that last and greatest tribulation immediately before the utter overthrow of Antichrist. For that persecution shall be shortened, as our Savior intimateth, for the Elects sake, lest all flesh should perish.

You have here (as before I shown you) the Church of Christ drawn as it were with a coal, and expressed with three dark and sad marks:

• 1 Frailty: A woman.
• 2 Perplexity: Fled.
• 3 Obscurity: To the wilderness.

• Her nature is frailty: The woman.
• Her state is uncertainty: Fled.
• Her glory obscurity: remained in the wilderness a thousand two hundred and threescore days.

From the frailty of her nature let us learn a lecture of sober watchfulness; from the unsettledness of her estate, a lecture of prudent moderation; from her obscurity or latencie, a lecture of modest humility.

1 If the mother be frail, the daughter is like to be weak. They who are subject to slip and fall must carefully avoid high and narrow ridges, as also slippery places, and precipices or downfalls. We scarce stand sure upon dry, firm, and plain ground; therefore let us beware with all diligence how we come nigh high ridges with the ambitious, or slippery places with the voluptuous, or downfalls with the presumptuous sinner: let us pray to God

• 1 To make his way plain before us.
• 2 To order our steps in the plain path.
• 3 To support us continually with his right hand.

2 If the Spouse of Christ be a pilgrim, and flieth from place to place, from City to City, from Kingdom to Kingdom; let us learn by her example, and from the Apostle's mouth, that we have here no continuing City, but seek one to come. St. James by an elegant metaphor calleth the affairs of this world 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the course of nature, a noun derived from a verb signifying to run; because the world runneth upon wheels. As in triumphs and pompous shows we see towers, and rocks, and castles, but enpassant, carried in procession, not staying anywhere: such is the glory of this world. The portable Ark in the Old Testament, and the flying woman in the New, are images of the militant Church in this world; the one was drawn by beasts from place to place, the other was carried with the wings of an Eagle from Country to Country: neither of them was fixed. When two Noble men strived about a fish pond, and could by no means be brought to an agreement, Gregorius Thaumaturgus by miracle suddenly dried it up: so God in wisdom taketh away from us the things of this life, if we too much strive for them. Wherefore let us not build upon the sails of a wind-mill, let us not cast the anchor of our hope on the earth, for there is nothing to hold by: riches get themselves wings, possessions change their Lord's, great houses, according to Diogenes his apophthegme, vomit and cast up their owners. The favors of men are like vanes on the top of houses and steeples, which turn with the wind. The Church in many respects is compared to the moon, she receiveth her light from the Sun of righteousness, she hath her waxing and waning, is never without spots, is often eclipsed by the interposition of the shadow of the earth, I mean the shadows of earthly vanities. Those who profess the art of turning baser metals into gold, first begin with abstractio terrestrietatis à materia, the abstraction or drawing away of earthliness from the matter of their metal: in like manner, if we desire to be turned as it were into fine gold, and serve as vessels of honor in God house, our earthly dregs and dross must be drawn out of us by the fire of the Spirit; that is, our earthly cares, our earthly desires, our earthly hopes, our earthly affections. Hercules could never conquer Anteus, donec à terra matre eum levasset, till he had lifted him up above the earth his mother: no more can the Spirit of grace subdue and conquer us to the obedience of the Gospel, till he hath lifted up our hearts from the earth with these levers, especially the consideration of

• 1 The vanity of earthly delights.
• 2 The verity of heavenly comforts.
• 3 The excellency of our soul.
• 4 The high price of our redemption.

Can we imagine that so incomparable a jewel as is the soul of man was made to be set as it were in a ring on a swine's snout, to dig and root in the earth? Did God breathe into us spirit and life, nay, did Christ breathe out his immortal spirit for this end, to purchase us the happiness of a mucke-worm, that breedeth and feedeth, liveth and dieth in the dung? or at the best the happiness of an Indian Emmet, that glistereth with gold dust about her? St. Austin hath long ago christened the contentments of this world in the font of tears, by the names of solacia miserorum, non gaudia beatorum; solaces of wretched, not joys of blessed ones: at the best they are but reliefes of natural necessities. For what is wealth but the relief of want? food, but the relief of hunger? clothing, but the relief of nakedness? sleep, but the relief of watching? company, but the relief of solitariness? sports and pastimes, but the taking off the plaster, and giving our wounds a little air, and ourselves a little ease from our continual labor and pains? Like the gnats in Plutarch we run continually round in the circle of our business till we fall down dead, traversing the same thoughts, and repeating the same actions perpetually; and what happiness can be in this? The more we gild over the vanities of this world with the title of honors, pleasures and riches, the more we make them like the golden apples which hung at Tantalus his lips, which were snatched away from him when he offered to bite at them. For the world passeth away, and the lust thereof. Albeit the earth abideth, and shall till the end of the world, which cannot be now far off; yet all Monarchs, Kingdoms, States, Common-wealths, Families, Houses, pass. There is written upon them what Balthasar saw, the hand writing upon the walls of his Palace, Mene, mene, tekel upharsin. Admit they abide for a large time, yet we are removed from them by persecution, invasion, peregrination, ejection, and death. Albeit our Lawyers speak of indefeisable estates, and large terms of years to have and to hold lands on earth, yet they speak without book; for no man can have a better estate than the rich man in the Gospel, to whom it was said, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee, and then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided? so is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich towards God. Wherefore if ever we look to arrive at the fair haven, we must cast anchor in heaven, and not trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God: who here provided for the woman both a lodging and a table in the wilderness. Wherefore let us cast the burden of our care upon the providence of our heavenly Father, who feedeth the young ravens that call upon him, and undoubtedly will never suffer his children to starve. There is nothing more choketh the seed of faith, and dampeth the light of the spirit, and troubleth the peace of conscience than worldly cares, especially when they are immoderate, inordinate, and distrustful: immoderate in the measure, inordinate in the means, and distrustful in the cause: when we say in our hearts, What shall we eat, and what shall we drink, or wherewithal shall we be clothed? We have but a little oil in our cruse, and a little meal in our pot; and when that is spent what shall become of us? The cure of these worldly cares is threefold, by

• 1 Diversion.
• 2 Devotion.
• 3 Deposition of them.

1 By diversion, when we withdraw our mind from these carking cares and vexing thoughts, to other more pleasant cogitations of God's former mercies to us, and the present blessings we enjoy. As Painters, when their eyes be dazzled through long poring upon over-bright objects, recover them again by looking upon green glass, or some darker colors, which congregate radios visuales, the sight beams: or as husbandmen, when their ground is overflown with much water, make ditches and water furrows to carry it away; so if our minds be overflown with the cares of this world, there is no better means to draine them, than by making another passage for them, and diverting them to the contemplation of a better subject, as David did his: Princes did sit and speak against me: but thy servant did meditate in thy statutes. Thy Testimonies are my delight and Counselors.

2 By devotion and prayer to Almighty God, as Hanna did:

3 By deposition, when being at a stand in our deliberations, and having used all means to little purpose to relieve our necessities, we in the end lay down our burden of cares, and wholly rely upon God's promises. Trust in the Lord and do good, and verily thou shalt be fed. Commit thy way unto the Lord, trust also in him, and he shall bring it to pass. And, O fear the Lord ye his Saints, for there is no want to them that fear him. And, ( I will never leave thee nor forsake thee: ) Casting all our care upon him who careth for us; assuring ourselves, that he who prepared Zoar to save Lot in the burning of Sodom, and Goshen to preserve the Israelites from the plagues of Egypt, and Pella to rescue his Disciples in the siege of Jerusalem; he who provided a fountain of water to refresh Hagar in extremity of thirst, and a cake of dough to satisfy Elias in extremity of hunger, and the shadow of a gourd to cool Jonas in extremity of heat, and an Angel from heaven to comfort our Savior in the extremity of his agony, will never leave us utterly destitute in our greatest perplexities. The woman in my text was fain to fly into the wilderness, from savage men to savage beasts, unprovided of a place to lie in, or any manner of food to sustain life; yet God on the sudden prepared for her both lodging and diet. So did he for the Israelites, brought to a like exigent: They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way, they found no City to dwell in: hungry and thirsty; their souls fainted in them: then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distress. Take no thought therefore, saith our Savior, for your life, what you shall eat, and what you shall drink, or wherewithal you shall be clothed: for your heavenly Father knoweth that you have need of all these things. He that clotheth the lilies, and feedeth the fowls of heaven, will he leave his children unprovided of things necessary? No, if ordinary means fail, he will lay an unusual imposition upon all creatures to relieve his chosen. The air shall serve-in Manna for corn, the hard rock shall gush out with streams of water, the dry cruse shall spring with oil, the Lions jaws shall drop with honey, the fowls of heaven shall bring in meat in their bills, and the fish of the sea bring money in their mouths to supply their several wants, and defray their necessary charges. Therefore trouble not yourselves overmuch with the cares of this life, but when you have done your utmost endeavors, ease yourselves by relying upon God's providence; and be confident, that he who feedeth you with the bread of life, will not fail to give you your daily bread; he that offereth you the cup of salvation full of the price of your redemption, and the grace of sanctification, will not suffer you to die for thirst; he that clotheth your souls with the robes of his righteousness, and deckes them with the jewels of his grace, will undoubtedly provide a covering for your bodies.

3 If the Church be truly represented by a woman flying into the wilderness, and there continuing for a long season, certainly outward pomp, and temporal felicity, and perpetual visibility, are no certain notes of her, but rather of the malignant Church. For so is the Whore of Babylon described: A woman set upon a scarlet coloured beast, arrayed in purple, decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand, full of abominations. And ver. 15. The waters which thou sawest where the whore sitteth, are people's, and nations, and multitudes, and tongues. The dark foil setteth off the Diamond, and the Church when she is most obscure outwardly is most glorious within. Albeit temporal felicity giveth her some luster, and furnisheth her with means to encourage Proselytes, and erect stately monuments of piety and charity; yet withal it ministereth matter of luxury and pride, it breedeth faction and schism, it withdraweth the mind from celestial contemplation, it abateth her longing desire after the second coming of Christ: on the contrary, the Cross is like a file that brighteneth all her spiritual graces, quickeneth her zeal, putteth her noblest virtues to the test; wisdom by dangers, faith by conflicts, courage by terrors, patience by torments, and perseverance by perpetual assaults. Witness the prime age wherein she warmed her zeal at the embers of the Martyrs sepulchers, when she had no Churches but caves under ground, no wealth but grace, no exercises but sufferings, no crown but of martyrdom: yet then she thrived best, then she spread farthest, then she kept her purity in doctrine and conversation, then she convinced the Jews, then she converted the Gentiles, then she subdued Kingdoms: whence I infer three corollaries;

1 That the Roman Church cannot be the true Church of Christ. For the true Church of Christ, as she is described in the holy Scriptures, hath for long time lien hid, been often obscured and eclipsed by bloody persecutions: but the Roman or Papal Church hath never been so; her advocates plead for her, that she hath been always not only visible, but conspicuous; not only known, but notorious. And among the many plausible arguments of persuasion, and deceiveable shows of reason, wherewith they amuse and abuse the world, none prevaileth so much with the common sort and unskillful multitude, as the outward pomp and glory of the Papal See. For since most men are led by sense, and judge according to outward appearance, the Church of Rome, which maketh so goodly a show, and hath born so great sway in the world for many ages, easily induceth them to believe that she is that City whereof the Prophet speaks: Glorious things are spoken of thee thou City of God. What more glorious and glittering to the eye than the Popes triple crown, and the Cardinals hats, and their Archbishops Palls, and their Bishops miters and crozures, their shining images, their beautiful pictures, their rich hangings, their gilt rood lofts, their crosses and relics covered in gold, and beset with all sorts of precious stones? These with their brightness and resplendency dazzle the eyes of the multitude: and verily if the Queens daughters glory were all without, and the kingdom of Christ of this world, and his Church triumphant upon earth; all the known Churches in the Christian world must give place to the See of Rome, which hath borne up her head, when theirs have been under water; hath sat as Queen, when they have kneeled as captives; hath braved it in purple, when they have mourned in sackcloth and ashes. But beloved, faith cometh not by sight, but by hearing; and we are not to search the Church in the map of the world, but in the Scriptures of God; where we find her a pilgrim in Genesis, a bondwoman in Exodus, a prisoner in Judges, a captive in the book of Kings, a widow in the Prophets, and here in my text a woman laboring with child, flying from a red Dragon into the wilderness. I grant that Christ promiseth her a kingdom, but not of this world; and peace, but it is the peace of God; and joy, but it is in the Holy Ghost; and great glory, but it is within: The Kings daughter is all glorious within, &c.

2 That none ought to despise the Churches beyond the seas under the Cross, but, according to the command of the blessed Apostle, Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them that suffer adversity, as heing ourselves also in the body. Their turn of sorrow is now, ours may be hereafter: God hath begun to them in a cup of trembling, it is to be feared it will not pass us, but we and all the reformed Churches shall drink of it. Our Church in Queen Mary's days resembled this woman in my text, theirs now doth: both never a whit the less, but rather the more the true Churches of Christ, because they wear his red livery, and bear his Cross.

3 That we ought not to look for great things in this world, but having food and raiment, as the woman had here in my text, to be therewith contented: and as she withdrew herself from the eye of the world, so ought we to retire ourselves into our closets, there to have private conference with God, to examine our spiritual estate, to make up the breaches in our conscience, to pour out our souls in tears of compunction for our sins, of compassion for the calamities of our brethren, of an ardent desire and longing affection for the second coming of our Lord, when he shall put an end, as to all sin and temptation, so to all sorrow and fear. Amen. Even so come Lord Jesu. To whom, &c.

THE SAINTS VEST. A Sermon preached on All-Saints day at Lincolns-Inn for Doctor Preston. THE XXIV. SERMON.

THe question which the Elder moved to Saint John in the precedent verse to my Text, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ; what are these? me thinks I hear some put to me at this present, saying, What are these holy ones whose feast ye keep? what mean these devotions? what do these festivities intend? what speak these solemnities? what Saints are they, Virgins, Confessors, or Martyrs, whose memory by the anniversary return of this day you eternize? 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ; whence came they? or rather how came they to be thus honored and canonized in our Kalendar? My direct answer hereunto is my Text (These are they, &c.) and the exemplification thereof shall be my Sermon. The palms they bear are ensigns of their victory: the robes they wear are emblems of their glory: the blood wherein they died their robes representeth the object of their faith: the white and bright color of them, their joy: and the length of them the continuance thereof. Yea but these holy ones (you may object) at least the chief of them had their days apart; the blessed Virgin hers apart, and the Innocents apart, the Apostles apart, and the Evangelists apart: how come they now to be repeated? why committeth the Church a tautology in her menologie? what needeth this sacred 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 or congeries of feasts, blending of devotions, thrusting all Saints into one day, and that a short one in the rubricke? It is that men may see by that which we do what we believe in that Article of our Creed, the communion of Saints. We join them all in one collect, we remember them all upon one day, because they are all united into one body, admitted into one society, naturalized into one Kingdom, made free Denizens of one City, and partakers of one inheritance of the Saints in light. In a word, we keep one feast for them all upon earth, because they all keep one everlasting feast in heaven, the marriage supper of the Lamb. The Romans, beside several Temples dedicated to several deities, had their Pantheon, or all-gods temple. See we not in the sky here single stars glistering by themselves, there constellations, or a concourse of many heavenly lamps joining their lights? do we not hear with exceeding delight in the singing of our Church Anthems, first single voices answering one the other, and after the whole Choir joining in one, as it were tracing the same musical steps? hath not nature drawn with her pensill a perfect grass green in the Emrald, a sky color in the Sapphire, the glowing of fire in the Carbuncle, the sanguine complexion in the Ruby, and the twinkling of the stars in the Diamond, and all these together in the Opall, which hath in it the luster and beautiful colors of all these precious stones, incredibili misturâ lucentes? Such is this feast of all holy ones: it is the Churches 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the Kalendars pandect, as it were a constellation not of many, but of all the stars in the sky: in it as in the Opall shine the beautiful colors and resplendency of all those precious stones which are laid in the foundation, and shine in the gates and walls of the heavenly Jerusalem. Upon it we celebrate the chastity of all Virgins, the simplicity of all Innocents, the zeal and courage of all Confessors, the patience of all Martyrs, the holiness of all Saints. Upon this day the Church militant religiously complementeth with the Church triumphant, and all Saints on earth keep the feast, and express the joy, and acknowledge the happiness, and celebrate the memory, and embrace the love, and set forth the virtues of all Saints in heaven. Which are principally three, shadowed by the allegory in my Text:

• 1. Patience in tribulation, They came out.
• 2. Purity in conversation, And washed their garments.
• 3. Faith in Christ's death and passion, Made them white in &c.

The better to distinguish them, you may if you please term them three marks:

• 1. A black or blewish mark made with the stroke or flail, Tribulation.
• 2. A white made by washing their garments, and whiting them.
• 3. A red, by dying them in the blood of the Lamb.

1. First of the black or blew mark, They came out of great tribulation. The beloved Apostle and divine Evangelist Saint John, who lay in the bosom of our Savior, and pryed into the very secrets of his heart, in the time of his exile in Patmos had a glimpse of his and our country that is above; and was there present in spirit at a solemn investiture or installation of many millions of God's Saints into their state of glory, and order of dignity about the Lamb in his celestial court. The rite and ceremony of it was thus, The twelve Tribes of Israel were called in order, and of every Tribe twelve thousand were sealed in the forehead by an Angel keeper of the broad Seal of the living God (Ver. 2.) After this signature; Loe a great multitude, which no man can number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the Throne, and before the Lamb, and they had long white robes put upon them, and palms given them in their hands in token of victory, and they marched on in triumph singing with a loud voice, Salvation from or to our God that sitteth upon the Throne, and to the Lamb: at which words all the Angels that stood round about the Throne, and the Elders, and the four living creatures full of eyes fell before the Throne on their faces, and worshipped God, saying, Amen: Praise, and glory, and wisdom, and thanks, and honor, and power, and might be unto our God forever and ever, Amen. This glorious representation of the triumphant Church so overcame and took away the senses of the ravished Apostle, that though he desired nothing more than to learn who they were that he had seen thus honourably installed, yet he had not the power to ask the question of any that assisted in the action, till one of the Elders rose from his seat to entertain him, and demanded that of him which he knew the Apostle knew not, but most of all desired to know, and would have inquired after, if his heart had served him: viz. who they were, and whence they came that were admitted into the order of the white robe in Heaven. The answer of which question when the Apostle had modestly put from himself to the Elder, saying, Lord thou knowest, the Elder courteously resolveth it, and informeth him particularly concerning them, saying: These are they that are come out of great tribulation, &c.

Blessed, thrice blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake, for great is their reward in heaven. The heavier their cross is, the weightier their crown shall be: their present sorrows shall free them from all future sorrows; their troubles here shall save them from all trouble hereafter; their temporal pains through his merits for whom they suffer, shall acquit them from eternal torments; and the death of their body, through faith in his blood, shall redeem them from death of body and soul, and exempt them from all danger, misery and fear. Which privileges the spirit sealeth unto them in the verses following, They are before the Throne of God, and serve him day and night in his Temple: and he that sitteth on the Throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore, neither shall the Sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the Throne shall feed them, and shall lead them into living fountains of waters, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.

These are they that came out of great tribulation. Great tribulation in the judgment of Marlorat is a periphrasis of the last persecution of the Church by Antichrist, which shall be the hottest service the soldiers of Christ shall ever be put to. As the last endeavor of nature before death putteth the patient to most pain, and the last assault of Pharaoh put the Israelites to the greatest extremity; so the last persecution of the Church by Antichrist shall exceed all the former. For then the sun (that is, the knowledge of the truth, or the light of God's countenance) shall be darkened: and the moon (that is, the beauty of the Church) shall be obscured & turned into blood; (that is, deformed by bloody persecutions:) and the stars shall fall from heaven, (that is, the greatest lights of the Church shall fall from it) and there shall be such perplexity and distress of nations as never was before: then, as St. Augustine inferreth, the Church shall have no outward appearance, wicked men raging and cruelly persecuting her above measure.

But I see no reason why we should restrain tribulation to persecution, or persecution to that of Antichrist. For every great affliction and heavy cross which the faithful bear in this world, be it loss of goods, or of friends, banishment, imprisonment, infamy, torture of body, or vexation of mind, is great tribulation, through which any elect child of God may enter into heaven. Albeit we yield Martyrs a precedency amongst Saints, yet they alone enter not into their masters joy. Let their garlands have a red rose added unto it, and their crown a rubie above the rest; yet assuredly all other that are faithful unto death shall receive the crown of life: all that fight a good fight, and keep the faith, after they have finished their course shall receive a crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give at that day to all that love his appearing. The article 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 therefore is not 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , but 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 : not demonstrative, pointing to any singular persecution; but intensive, intimating that many and very great tribulations abide the faithful servants of God, and they must through them enter into the kingdom of heaven: their life is nothing else but a race of patience through many tribulations, and a battle of faith against all kind of temptations. A Christian is never without an enemy to persecute him inwardly or outwardly: even this is a temptation of the Devil, to think that we are at any time free from all temptation. For either we are in war with the World, Flesh, and the Devil, or God will fight against us: either we are afflicted for our sins, or afflicted with our sins: and if God for a long time spare us, even this afflicteth us that we are not afflicted. For since God afflicteth them whom he affecteth, we have just cause to fear, because we are not under his rod we are out of his care; and that therefore he chasteneth us not here, because he reserveth us to eternal torments. If any demand why God carrieth a more severe hand over his children than over the wicked that deserve less favor; I answer by propounding them the like questions: Why doth a father when he seeth two boys fighting in the street correct his son and not the other? Why doth the Schoolmaster take a stricter account of the Scholar he best affecteth than of others, whom he suffereth often to play the trewants? Why doth the husbandman let unfruitful and unsavory trees grow out at length without any cutting or pruning, but pruneth the fragrant roses, and pricketh the fruitful vines till they bleed? Why doth the Physician when he seeth his patient desperate, give order to them that are about him to deny him nothing that he hath a mind unto? but if he hath any hope of recovery of any patient of his, he keepeth him in diet, forbiddeth him such things as he most desireth, and prescribeth for him many meats, drinks, and potions which go against his stomach. Lastly, why doth a Captain set the best Soldiers in the forefront of a battle, and appointeth them to enter at a breach, with apparent hazard of their lives?

To the first question they will answer, that a wise father taketh up his son sharply, and correcteth him for his misdemeanor, and not the other, because he hath a special care of his sons behavior, and not of the other: thus let them think of the Father of Spirits his dealing with his children, who chasteneth those faults in them which he seemeth to wink at in others, because he beareth a singular affection to his own, and hath a special care of their nurture.

To the second they will answer, that a good schoolmaster taketh a more strict account of his best scholar, and more often plyeth him with the rod or feruler than any other, because he most desireth his profit: let them think so of our heavenly Teacher, that he holds a stricter hand over those in Christ's school who outstrip others, that they may more profit by him.

To the third they will answer, that an understanding husbandman letteth other trees grow to their full length without cutting or pruning them, because they are good for nothing but for fire wood; but he pruneth the roses to make them more savoury, and the vines to make them more fruitful: let them thus conceive of themselves, that they are like vines that run into luxuriant stemmes, and roses apt to grow wild: therefore God the Father, who is an husbandman, pruneth them to make them more savory in their prayers and meditations, and more fruitful in good works.

To the fourth they will answer, that the Physician doth according to his art to cure the body; and God doth the like in wisdom to cure the soul: they whom he ordereth not, setting them in a course of physic, but letteth them do what they will, and have what they call for, are in a desperate case.

To the last they will answer, that the experienced Captain setteth the most valiant soldiers in places of greatest danger, that they may get the greater honor; so doth God set the most valiant Christian upon the most dangerous service, that thereby he may gain greater honor, and a more massy crown of glory. Moreover, sin taketh us oftentimes after the nature of a falling sickness, out of which our heavenly Father awaketh us by the stroke of his rod. Whereby also he beateth down the pride of our flesh, and keepeth us always in awe, and constraineth us to cry aloud unto him in our prayers: he maketh us sensible of our sins, and compassionate of our brethren's misery, and conformable to the image of his Son. He weaneth us from this world, and breedeth in us a longing desire to exchange this vale of tears with the river of pleasures springing at his right hand in Heaven. If God should not send us sometimes crosses and afflictions, and sauce our joys with sorrows, we would often surfeit of them, we would take too great liking to this world, and say with Peter, It is good being here, let us pitch our tents, and take up our rest here.

This might suffice for the clearing of the first doctrine of this Text, but that I fore-see an objection that may be made against it. How say I tribulation or afflictions are marks of God's children, since we see the wickedest men that breath sometimes full of them? Are not notorious malefactors often apprehended, cast in prison, scourged to death, tortured upon the rack, broken upon the wheel, and executed with other most exquisite torments? Do not all the plagues threatened in the Law fall upon some of God's enemies in this life? Are not the very dregs of his vials of vengeance poured upon them?

For your full satisfaction herein, I propound these ensuing observations to your serious thoughts.

1. Albeit the judgments of God fall heavily in this life upon some notorious, obstinate and impenitent sinners; yet for the most part the rod of God falleth to the lot of the righteous: more of them are afflicted, and they more afflicted than usually the wicked are, who with Dives take their pleasure here, because, as the Psalmist speaketh, their portion is in this life.

2. Though afflictions in some sort are common to all sorts of men, yet chastisements and corrections (meant by the word tribulation in my Text) are proper to the godly. The calamities and afflictions that befall the ungodly are punishments for their sins, not chastisements for their good; effects of God's justice, not tokens of his love: they are sent to them for their ruin and destruction, not for their amendment and instruction.

3. Afflictions taken by themselves are not notes or marks of God's children, but afflictions with patience, and tribulation with joy: crosses heavier or lighter are laid upon all men, but none bear them cheerfully save God's children. The wicked when they feel the hand of God upon them, rise up against him, but the godly submit themselves under his mighty hand, and commit their souls to him as their faithful Creator: the wicked gnaw their tongues and curse, but the godly bless and praise God: the wicked have little or no sense of the wrath of God or their sin, but of their punishment; but the godly are much more grieved at the wrath of God and their sin than their punishment: the wicked have always their eyes upon their wounds, stripes and sores, but the godly on the hand that smiteth them; which when they see to be the hand of their heavenly Father, they compose themselves to patience, they humble themselves before him, and confess their sin, they open all their wounds and sores, crying with that religious Father, hic ure, hic seca, here burn, here lance, here prick my veins, here feed me with the bread of affliction, here give me my full draught of the cup of tears, that all tears may be wiped from my eyes hereafter; chasten and judge me here, that I be not condemned with the world. This holy Father elsewhere lively expresseth the difference between the godly in their sufferings, and the wicked, by the similitude of the same flayle that striketh the corn out of the ear, but bruiseth the stubble; the same fire that purgeth the gold, but consumeth the dross; the same motion that causeth an ointment to send forth a most fragrant smell, but a sink to exhale a most noisome savor. The godly are whole under the flayle of tribulation; their faith like gold shineth in that fire, in which the hypocrites smoke like chaff; their devotion sendeth forth a most sweet savor, when they pour out their souls before God, but the wicked's consciences being troubled, like sinks that are stirred, exhale most pestilent airs, breathing out blasphemies and execrations. In a word, the wicked and godly come out of great tribulation, but the godly come out of it clean, the wicked foul; the one with their garments soyled and rayed, the other with their garments washed and made white.

They washed their garments and made them white. Thus having descried all holy ones by their blew mark, let us now view the white; they have washed, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . Pareus acutely notes, that it is not here said that the Saints do wash, but have or had washed their garments. For indeed there is no washing in heaven, because there can no impure thing enter there: he that is unclean at his death remains unclean still. For, as St. Cyprian truly informeth Demetrian, After we are gone from hence there is no place for repentance, no effect of satisfaction; here eternal life is got or lost. Here one drop from our eyes can fetch out that spot which an ocean cannot do hereafter. Let us seek God therefore while he may be found, strive to enter in before the gate of mercy be locked up, work while we have day, wash while we have water and soape, do good while we have time, break off our sins, and wash our polluted consciences with our penitent tears, and purge them with hyssop dipt in Christ's blood, before we hear that dreadful order read in our ears; He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he that is filthy, let him be filthy still: behold I come, and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his works shall be. The whiteness here of the garments of them whom Saint John saw invested, signifieth the candor and purity of their life, without spot of foul sin, or stain of infamy. This is a conspicuous note of God's children, who shine as lights in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, holding forth the word of life. It is not enough to have a clear conscience within us, we must see that our works so shine before men, that they may see them, and glorify our Father that is in heaven. To represent this outward purity and integrity of the Saints to the wife of the Lamb, it was granted, that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen, saith St. John, is the righteousness of Saints. As virtue in Aristotle's time was the character of a Grecian, and vice of a Barbarian; so in the first and best ages of the Church a Christian was distinguished from a Heathen by his innocence and charity: they suffered all, they offered no wrong; they visited the sick how infectious soever the disease was, they defended the fatherless and the widow, and kept themselves unspotted of the world: the light of their good works so dazzled the eyes of the Infidels, that even malice it self confessed them to be good men. Gaius is an honest man, he hath but one fault, that he is a Christian: I could love Seius with all my heart, setting aside his religion. Such speeches Tertullian over-heard the Gentiles use concerning those innocent lambes in his days, which were daily sacrificed by the Roman Emperors. Doubtless, as the purer blood in the veins causeth a better color and complexion in the outward parts; so the purer the faith and religion is, it begetteth always in all the sincere professors thereof a holier life and conversation.

You will object, that as when a law was made among the Romans that chaste Matrons should wear a kind of girdle to distinguish them from Curtizans, that all the Curtizans in Rome, though never so dissolute, got on those girdles: so that if outward conformity and purity in conversation be given for a note of a Saint, that many Hypocrites, Heretics, and Schismatikes will lay a fair claim to sanctity. For Priscillian was of a most strict life, Novatus outstripped most catholic Bishops in outward appearance and semblance of holiness, John of Constantinople, who first usurped the title of universal Bishop, for his continual fasting and praying was surnamed 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Jejunator, the Faster: but

I answer with Lodovicus Vives, Paint a fire most artificially, yet it will not burn; it may deceive the sight, but not the touch. Cut the proportion of a Lion in marble, or carve it in wood, and lay live colors upon it; yet be confident this wooden or marble Lion will never roar, much less devour. The grapes w ^ch Zeuxis painted had the color, but not the taste of grapes: a glow worm hath the light, but not the heat of fire: a counterfeit stone hath the luster, but not the virtue of a precious stone: hypocrisy, heresy, and schism have the vizard, but not the face of holiness: their outward conformity, and seeming sanctity, differeth from theirs who are holy ones indeed, in three things:

• 1 It is not sincere.
• 2 Not entire.
• 3 It is not permanent or constant.

1 It is not sincere: pone in pectore dextram, nil calet: though their veins swell, and their faces be as red as blood, as if they were all fire and made of zeal; yet if you could put your hand into their bowels, you should find their heart either but key cold or luke warm, like a false gemme in which the light is in the outside only, and not in the body of the stone. Such is their zeal and precise purity, in which they will strain at the gnat of a ceremony and harmless custom in public, and yet swallow a Camel of ugly heresy, or beastly sensuality, or biting usury, or abominable sacrilege in private. They are a generation pure in their own eyes, but yet are not washed from their filthiness: they, as St. Gregory speaketh, may seem in the eyes of men to be clothed with holiness, but in God's eyes they are stark naked.

2 It is not entire: if they are forward in the duties of the first table, you shall take them tardy in the duties of the second: if they are strict one way, you shall find them loose enough another way: like Numa they have a Nymph Aegeria in a corner, some private sin which they hug in their bosom, either of covetousness, as Seneca; or of ambition, as John the Faster; or wantonness, as Montanus; or fraudulent lying and cozening, as Priscillian; or spiritual pride and uncharitable censuring of others, as Novatus.

3 It is not constant: their sanctity is like painted beauty, which is washed away with a storm, or drops over a fire: they are true Ephraimites, Their goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away: their over hot zeal soon slaketh, and their charity in time waxeth cold. Fained things, saith the Orator, like blossoms soon fall, or are blown away with a puff of wind; true virtue taketh root and propagateth it self. The experience of all times maketh it good, that those things which have had but a show of appearance, have had but a thought of continuance.

We have discerned the Saints by two marks, their blew and their white: there remains yet one more, their red mark. They have died their garments

In the blood of the Lamb; that is, their own innocent blood, saith Saint Austin: but herein venerable Beda shooteth nearer to the mark: They washed their garments, and made them white in the blood of Christ, who is the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world. Saint Austin indeed draws a fine line, but without the rules of the text: The Martyrs, saith he, washed their robes in blood when they cleansed their members from all contagion by their blood shed for Christ, wherewith in the eyes of fools they seemed to defile and deform their bodies. But neither is it said here they washed their robes in sanguine agnino, or sanguine suo, but sanguine 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , which Beza well rendereth agni illius: they washed not their garments in their own blood, or lambes blood simply, but the blood of that lamb, who, ver. 17. shall feed them and lead them unto living fountains of waters. Neither is it the blood which we shed for Christ, but the blood which Christ shed for us, that cleanseth us from all sin. It is true, that the blood of Martyrs shed for the testimony of the Gospel, is a most acceptable sacrifice unto God; yet not propitiatory for their or our sins. Blood spilled for Christ is no stain but an ornament; it doth no way deform the body of a Martyr, as the foolish heathen imagined, whom Saint Austin there justly taxeth, but maketh them more lovely in the eyes of God and all his Saints: yet because their blood is some way defiled, it cannot cleanse or purge, much less make white their, or our robes. These are the three privileges of the clean and pure blood of the immaculate Lamb Christ Jesus, which

• Washeth.
• Cleanseth.
• Whiteth.

It washeth us in our regeneration, cleanseth us in our justification, and whiteth us in our glorification: it washeth away the filth of sin in our regeneration, it cleanseth us from the guilt of sin in our justification, and maketh us white, that is, perfectly just and righteous, not by imputation only, but by inhesion; or, as the schools speak, inherent righteousness in our glorification. They washed

Their robes. Not their robe in the singular, but their robes in the plural number; because as every guest at the Kings supper had his peculiar wedding garment, so here every Saint hath his robe of glory: all are long and down to the feet, yet some longer than other, according to their stature that ware them. For the proportion of glory in heaven answereth the proportion of grace here. Some strain the letter farther, and from hence infer, that all Saints have a double robe given unto them; one in this life, another in the life to come: the one washed indeed, but yet not without some spots cast upon it through carnal frailty, which are covered by Christ; the other is whited, and without any spot or stain, and this is reserved for us in the wardrob of heaven. But I rather infer from hence, that if there be such virtue in Christ's blood, that it not only washeth the Saints robes, but maketh them perfectly white: if it can change the color & hiew of any sin of the deepest die, and though it be as red as scarlet, make it as white as wool; that there is no need at all of Romish holy water, or Mary's milk, or the soape of Saints merits. If Christ's blood purgeth us from all sin, and all dross is sin, what remains for Purgatory fire to work upon, but the gold of their purses that have faith in those imaginary flames? St. Bernard truly observeth, that the blood of the Lamb is most pure and delicate blood, it will endure no mixture with any other thing. All things by the law were purified by the blood of sacrifices, and in the Gospel by the sacrifice of Christ's blood.

Yea, but it is said, Faith purifieth the heart; how then is it here said, that their robes were washed and made white with Christ's blood? I answer, that Christ's blood whiteth as the soape or nitre, but faith as the hand of the Laundresse. Christ's blood healeth us as the plaster, faith as the finger of the Apothecary applying it. Christ's merits and death acquit and free us as the ransom tendered for our redemption, faith is as the hand that receiveth this sum from Christ, and tendereth it to the Father for the redeeming of our souls. When the Temple of Jerusalem was on fire, nothing could quench the flame but the blood of the slain: in like manner, when God's wrath is kindled against his servants, which are living Temples of the Holy Ghost, nothing can quench the flame, but the blood of the immaculate Lamb, that was slain from the beginning of the world.

Secondly, from hence I would infer for the comfort of all affrighted consciences, that if they have renewed their covenant in Christ's blood, and purified their hearts by faith before their death, they need not fear to come into the presence of God. For though his eyes are most pure, and they full of sores and corruption; yet they need not any way be dismayed, because there shall be long white robes given unto them, to cover all from the sight of God. Mary Magdalene washed Christ's feet with her tears, but Christ washeth not only our feet, but our hands, head, and whole body with his own blood; and thereby fetches out all the stains of our consciences, and makes our souls appear most fair and lovely in the eyes of Almighty God. O royal bath! O the true Mare rubrum, or red Sea, in which the spiritual Pharaoh and all his host are destroyed, and through which we pass not, as the Jews did, into the wilderness, but into Paradise! In this royal bath, or rather indeed red Sea of Christ's blood, I will drown my discourse at this present, and shut up all with that Epiphonema of St. John: To him that loved us, and washed our sins in his own blood, and hath made us Kings and Priests to God and his Father: to him be glory and dominion forever, Amen.

THE CHRISTIAN VICTORIE. THE XXV. SERMON.

MEdals and small pictures that are shown us under the cover of a crystal glass are most delightful to the eye: such are the images of divine truth, and heads of heavenly doctrine, whereof you have a glimpse in my text, through the mirror of an elegant allegory. The glass of art giveth both light to the pictures, and delight to the beholders. Notwithstanding for your more exact view, and my particular handling of them, I will open the Crystal cover, and take them out one by one in order as they are set in the letter; wherein

• 1 A condition is propounded, to him that overcometh.
• 2 A promise upon condition is made, I will give.
• 3 Three gifts upon promise are specified;
  • 1 Hidden Manna (which some make) a type of election.
  • 2 A white stone, an emblem of justification.
  • 3 A new name, an imprese of glorification.

In the review of the words mark, I beseech you, the connection of 〈1 page duplicate〉 〈1 page duplicate〉 the doctrinal points which stand as it were out of the words.

1 No man knoweth the new name, save he that receiveth it.

• 2 No man receiveth it, but he that hath the white stone.
• 3 No man hath the white stone, but he that eateth the Manna.
• 4 No man eateth the hidden Manna, but he to whom it is given.
• 5 It is given to none to eat thereof, but to him that overcometh the Devil by his faith, the World by his hope, the Flesh by his charity, all baits and allurements by his abstinence, all crosses and afflictions by his patience, all conflicts and assaults of temptations by his constant perseverance unto the end.

1 It is said to him that overcometh, to include our labor and industry: yet it is added, I will give, to exclude merit.

2 It is said 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 to him, that is, to everyone, (for an indefinite propofition in materiâ necessariâ, is equivalent to an universal) to teach us, that the promises of the Gospel are general: yet to the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 is added 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , to him that overcometh, to show us that this generality is conditional.

3 The Spirit saith not to him that fighteth, but to him that overcometh. All virtues adorn a Christian, but perseverance alone crowneth him.

4 To him that overcometh the Spirit saith not I will give to see, but to eat of the hidden Manna, and receive the white stone, with the new name. Our eternal happiness consisteth not in the bare contemplation, but fruition of the hidden Manna, the white stone, and the new name.

5 It is not Manna simply, but the hidden Manna: nor a stone, but a white stone: nor a name, but a new name: every subject hath here his adjunct, every face his shadow, every letter his flourish, every diamond his foil, every kind his quality. All Manna is not the hidden: what is this hidden Manna? All precious stones are not the white: what is this white stone? All names are not new names: what is this new name?

[Obser. 1] The prophecies in the Old and New Testament like the Cherubims in the Ark look one upon the other:

You shall hardly light upon any vision or revelation in this book concerning the succeeding estate of the Church, which hath not some kind of reference to the predictions of the ancient Prophets of things already accomplished. God, to whom all things past and future are eternally present, in his infinite wisdom hath so fitted latter events to former presidents, that the same perspectives of Prophetical visions, for the most part, in which holy men under the law saw things now long past, serve St. John to represent unto him the image of the last times, even till our Lord's second coming. For brevity sake at this time I will instance only in my text, where every word is a relative. The first, vincenti, referreth you to Job 7.1. Is not the life of man a warfare upon earth? The second, Dabo, I will give, to Luke 12.32. It is your Fathers pleasure to give you a kingdom. The third, Manna absconditum, the hidden Manna, to Exod. 16.33. Take a pot, and put an Omer full of Manna therein, and lay it up before the Lord, to be kept for your generations. The fourth, Calculum candidum, the white stone, to Isaiah 28.16. Behold, I lay in Zion a tried stone, a precious stone. The fifth, novum Nomen, a new name, to Isaiah 62.2. And thou shalt be called by a new name. Christ who hath overcome the world, under these metaphors looking to foregoing prophesies and promises, encourageth all Christians like valiant Soldiers to follow him, setting before them all spiritual delicacies, implied in the hidden Manna, all treasures in the white stone, all true honor in the new name. To him that overcometh pleasure, and abstains from sinful delights, I will give hidden Manna. To him that overcometh covetousness, and esteemeth not of worldly wealth and earthly treasure, I will give a white stone. To him that overcometh ambition, and seeketh not for a name upon earth, I will give a new name, written in heaven. In many other texts the letter is easy, but the spiritual meaning difficult: but on the contrary, in this the spiritual meaning is facile, and out of question, but the letter is much controverted. For some contend, that the metaphor is here taken from the manner of feasting great Personages, wherein the Prince, Ambassador, or great States-man is entertained with rare and reserved dainties, served in under covered dishes; and after the last course hath a medall, or a stone with his name engraven in it, and a posy given unto him; which, because he carrieth away with him, and keepeth it as a memorial of his honorable entertainment, the Greeks call 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 : this is Alcasar his conceit. Others place the Scene, if I may so speak, in a Green, where he that out-runneth the rest, receiveth a white stone: this is Aretus his guess. A third sort of Expositors run upon a pitched field, which he that wan had his victory with his name entered into the Roman Fasti with a white stone: this is Sixtus Senensis his interpretation. But the most of our later Commentatours imagine, that Christ had an eye to the Roman Judicial proceedings in their Courts, in which he that overcame his accuser, and had the better of the cause, was absolved by the Judges casting white stones into an urne or pitcher.

But since we have the Jewell, let us not much trouble ourselves about the casket: let us not contend about the shell, but rather taste the kernel.

[Obser. 2] To him, that is, to everyone. As Dido at the building of Carthage offered like privileges to the Tyrians and Trojans, saying, Tros, Tyrius{que} mihi nullo discrimine agetur: so Christ in the building of the spiritual Jerusalem, which is his Church, putteth no difference between Jew and Gentile, but propoundeth salvation upon like conditions of repentance and faith unto all. At his incarnation he took not upon him the singular person of any man, but the common nature of all men, and accordingly offered himself a surety for all mankind, laying down a sufficient ransom for all, and inviting all by the hand of faith to take so much as may serve to free themselves, and satisfy for their debt. Ho, everyone that thirsteth, saith the Prophet, come ye to the waters; and he that hath no money: come ye, buy ye wine and milk without money, and without price. If any man thirst, saith our Savior, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him. In the law of Moses there is a great difference between the Jew and the Gentile; but in Christ there is none at all: we who were sometimes far off, are made nigh by his blood. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us. Through him we have an access by one Spirit unto the Father. Now therefore we are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow Citizens with the Saints, and of the household of God: Fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of God his promise in Christ by the Gospel. Now as there is one shepherd, so but one sheepfold: and for this very cause Christ is called Lapis angularis, the corner stone; because the Gentiles and Jews, like two sides of a wall, join in him, and are built up to make a holy Temple unto the Lord, which is his visible Church. Neither are the Gentiles only admitted into the terrestrial Jerusalem and Church militant, but also into the celestial and Church triumphant. For so we read, that after there were sealed an hundredth and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel, Loe, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands. Before Christ came into the flesh, there was as it were a small wicket open in heaven for the Gentiles, at which some few entered one by one; as Jethro, and Job, and Melchizedek, and the King of Nineveh, and the Queen of the South, and some other: but since the death, resurrection, and ascension of our Lord, we read of a great door opened in heaven, at which great multitudes may enter together. Even from the beginning of Christ's coming into the flesh the Gentiles went in equipage with the Jews. For when the Angel preached the incarnation of Christ to the Jews, a new Star preached it to the heathen Sages, that all men might know, according to Simeon his prophesy, that he was no less a light to lighten the Gentiles, than the glory of his people Israel. For this cause we may conceive it was, that he was borne in an Inn, not in a private house; and baptized in the river Jordan, not in a peculiar font; and suffered without the walls of the City, to make it manifest unto us, that the benefit of his incarnation, baptism, death and passion, is not impropriated to any sort of people, nor enclosed within the pale of Palestine, but like the beams of the Sun diffused through the whole world. Thus far we all teach universal grace, that is, the grace and favor of God, offered unto all by the preaching of the Gospel; not the grace (they call sufficient) conferred upon all since Adam's fall. This secret belongeth unto God, to whom he will make this offer of grace effectual; but that which he hath revealed belongeth to us and our children, that The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men, teaching us, that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearance of the great God, and our Savior Jesus Christ. The foundation of God remaineth firm, having this seal, God knoweth who are his, not we. We therefore who are dispensers of the mysteries of salvation, must be open handed unto all, and indifferently tender unto them the precious pearl which the rich Merchant man sold all that he had to buy.

First, because it is Christ's express command that we should do so: Go, saith Christ, preach to all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Or as we find his words related by Saint Mark; Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature. He that believeth, and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned.

2 Next, Because the Elect could not be called by us who cannot discern them from the reprobate, if we preached not the Gospel to all without exception. Howsoever therefore our preaching to the reprobate doth them little good, proving no better unto them than a savor of death unto death; yet our labor is not in vain in the Lord, because in every assembly we may piously hope there may be some if not many of the Elect, to whom the Word will prove a savor of life unto life.

3. Lastly, By thus propounding conditions of peace, and a desire of reconciliation on God's part through Christ unto all, the reprobate are debarred of that excuse which otherwise they might use, (viz.) that they would have embraced Christ if he had been offered unto them, and have walked in the light of the Gospel if it had shined upon them.

Tully speaketh of a Panchrestum medicamentum, a remedy for all diseases; and Pliny of Panaches, a salve for every sore. Such a catholic medicine, such an universal salve is the death and passion of Christ, not only sufficient for all, but also sovereign and effectual unto all: but then this potion must be taken, this salve must be applied.

[Obser. 2] And so I fall upon my second note, that though the promises of the Gospel are general without exception; yet they are not absolute without condition. The hidden Manna, and the white stone, and the new name are promised to everyone that is so qualified. The promises of the Gospel are general, that none should despair; but yet conditional, that none should presume. Eternal life by the ministry of the Gospel is offered unto all, but upon condition of faith: God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son: that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have life everlasting. Pardon and remission of sins is promised unto all, but upon condition of repentance and new obedience: If the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die. All his transgressions that he hath committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him; in his righteousness that he hath done, he shall live. Rest is offered unto all, but upon condition of submission to Christ's yoke: Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart: and you shall find rest unto your souls. Salvation is offered unto all, but upon condition of perseverance: he that shall endure to the end, the same shall be saved. An incorruptible crown is promised unto all, but upon condition of faithfulness: Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee the crown of life. Fishermen in their draw-nets use both lead and corke; lead to pull down some part of it under water, corke to keep the other above. As Fishermen, so likewise the Fishers of men in the draw-net of the Gospel make use both of corke and lead; the general promises like corke bear us up (in hope) the conditions like lead keep us down (in fear.) These conditions cannot be performed without grace; therefore all must implore divine aide: yet grace performeth them not without the concurrence of our will. We must therefore exercise our natural faculties, we must seek the Kingdom of God, we must strive to enter in at the narrow gate, we must search for wisdom as for treasure, we must labor for the meat that perisheth not, we must stir up the graces of God in us, we must work out our salvation with fear and trembling. Lepidus lying all along upon the grass, cried out, Utinam hoc esset laborare, O that this were to labor and get the mastery; so many stretching themselves upon their ivory beds, and living at ease in Zion, say within themselves, Utinam hoc esset militare, O that this were to go in warfare, and fight under the cross: but let them not deceive themselves, heaven is not got with a wish, nor paradise with a song, nor pardon with a sigh, nor victory with a breath, it will cost us many a blow and wound too before we overcome.

[Observ. 3] There can be no conquest without a fight, nor fight without an enemy: who are then our enemies? nay rather who are not? evil angels, men, the creatures, and ourselves: angels by suggestions, men by seduction and persecution, the creatures by presenting baits and provocations, and ourselves by carnal imaginations, lusts, and affections fight against the spirit of grace, and kingdom of Christ in us: Omnes necessarii, omnes adversarii. Against all these enemies of our peace with God we hang up a flag of defiance in our crisme, and lift up our ensign when we are crossed in the forehead, and proclaim a war under Christ's banner, (in our renouncing the Devil and all his works) which beginneth at the Font, and endeth at our Grave. Philip graced his war against the Phocenses, and our Ancestors their exploits against the Saracens for Palestine with the title of Bellum sacrum, the holy War: but neither of their expeditions and martial attempts so properly deserved that appellation, as this I am now to describe unto you. Those wars were for Religion in truth or pretence; but this war is Religion and true Christianity: and the weapons of this warfare are no other than holy duties and divine virtues, which by some are reduced to three:

• 1. Prayer,
• 2. Fasting,
• 3. Alms-deeds.

• 1. Pride,
• 2. Luxury,
• 3. Avarice.

Now our strongest weapon

• 1 Against pride, is humble prayer.
• 2 Against luxury, frequent fasting.
• 3 Against avarice, charitable alms.

• 1 Externa, foreign.
• 2 Civilia, civil.
• 3 Servilia, servile.

• Forreine against other States.
• Civil against seditious Citizens.
• Servile against mutinous slaves.

• A foreign, in respect of Satan and his band.
• A civil, in respect of the world.
• A servile, in respect of the flesh and slavish lusts that war against the Spirit.

In other wars some are exempted by their calling, as Priests; some by their sex, as women; some by their years, as old men and children; some by their indisposition of body or mind, as sick and impotent persons not able to bear arms: but in this war it is otherwise; none can challenge any privilege. Not Priests, for they blow the trumpet, and give the onset; not children, for as soon as they are borne they are enrolled in the Captains book, and are cross-signed for this service in baptism: and it may be said of many of them as Damianus spake of St. Victor the confessor, He conquered before he could know what it was to conquer: and St. Cyprian of martyred infants for Christ in his days, The age which was not yet fit for war was found worthy to receive a crown. Not women, for they fight daily the good fight of faith, and many of them are crowned in heaven with white and red garlands; white, consisting of lilies, in token of their chastity and innocent purity; red, consisting of roses, in testimony of their blood shed for the name of Christ. Not aged and infirm persons, for like Saint Paul, when they are weak then they are strong, nay when they are weakest then they are strongest; when they are weakest in body, they are strongest in spirit; when they lie on their death-bed, and are not able to stir hand nor foot, they grapple with the roaring Lion (that runneth about seeking whom he may devour) and conquer him by their faith. In other wars though the fight last many hours, yet in the end either the night, or the weather, or the victory, or the flight on one side parteth the armies, and oftentimes necessity enforceth on both sides a truce for a time: but this war admitteth no intermission, abideth no peace or truce; all yielding is death, and treaties of peace mortal. In all other battles he that killeth conquereth, and he that is slain is conquered; but in this the persecutors who slay are conquered; and the Martyrs who are slain, and breath out their souls with a triumphant Io Paean in the flames of fire, are the conquerors. Pareus expoundeth this riddle, The servants of Christ who seal the truth with their blood, are in their bodies mastered, but in their souls undaunted, and much more unconquered; whilst notwithstanding all the tortures and torments which the malice of man or devil can put them to, they persist in the profession of the true faith unto death: For this is the victory of the world, even our faith. In that famous battle at Leuctrum, where the Thebans got a signal victory, but their Captain Epaminondas his deaths wound; Plutarch writeth of him that he demanded whether his buckler had been taken by the enemy, and when he understood that it was safe, and that they had not laid hands on it, he died most willingly and cheerfully. Such is the resolution of a valiant soldier of Christ Jesus, when he is wounded even unto death, he hath an eye to his shield of faith, and finding that out of the enemies danger, his soul marcheth out of this world, singing Saint Paul's triumphant ditty; I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth is laid up for me a crown of righteousness.

To clear the sum which I have been all this while in casting;

First, it is a prerogative of the regenerate: for none but those that are borne of God overcome the world.

Secondly, this prerogative is purchased unto them by Christ, and therefore the Apostle ascribeth the glory of it to his grace: Thanks be unto God who giveth us victory through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Thirdly, this victory is not in one kind of fight, but in all, whether Satan, the world, or the Devil assault us; whether they lay at our understanding by sophistical arguments, or at our will by sinful persuasions, or at our senses by unlawful delights: whether our profession be oppugned by heresy, or our unity by schism, or our zeal by worldly policy, or our temperance by abundance, or our confidence in God by wants, or our constancy by persecution, or our watchfulness by carnal security, or our perseverance by continual batteries of temptations; in all we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. What, or who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? (as it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long, we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter;) Nay in all these things we are more than conquerors, &c.

[Obser. 6] None can overcome who fighteth not valiantly; none can fight valiantly unless they be trained up in Martial affairs, and provided of good and fit armor both for offense and defense: this spiritual armor is got by instant and constant prayer, and reading and meditating on God's word; and we put it on by due application of what we read and hear; and we use it by the exercise of those divine virtues above mentioned, from whence the several pieces of our armor take their names. Moreover, that a man may conquer his enemy, three things are most requisite,

• 1 Exasperation.
• 2 Courage.
• 3 Constancy.

Exasperation setteth him on, Courage giveth him strength, and Constancy holdeth out to the end. Exasperation is necessary, because anger (as Aristotle teacheth) is the goad or spurr of fortitude: neither indeed can any man maintain a hot fight in cold blood. And this is the cause why we are so often put to the worst in our spiritual conflicts, because we fight like her in the Poet, Tanquam quae vincere nollet; we fight not in earnest against our corruptions, but either in show only, dallying, or faintly without any earnest desire of revenge. Saint Augustine before his thorough conversion prayed against fleshly lusts, but (as he confesseth with great anguish & sorrow of heart for his insincerity) so aukwardly, & against his will, that secretly he desired that his lust should rather be accomplished than extinguished. As it was then with him, so it is with too many that take upon them the profession of Christians, and would think it foul scorn to be taken for other than true converts. When the voluptuous person offereth a formal prayer to God, to extinguish the impure flame of lust rising out of the cindars of original sin, Satan setteth before his fancy the picture of his beautiful Mistress; and as the Calor ambiens, or outward heat in a body disposed to putrefaction, draweth out the natural heat; so this impure heat of lust draweth out all the spiritual heat of devotion, and so his faint prayer against sin is turned into sin. In like manner while the covetous man prayeth against that base affection in his soul, which ever desireth that wherewith it is never satisfied, Mammon representeth unto him the rising up of his heaps, and swelling of his bags by his use-money, whereby his heart is tickled, and so his prayer also turneth into sin. Thus all sinners that are not brought to a perfect hatred and detestation of their bosom sin, even whilst they pray against the forbidden fruit, hold it under their tongue, and their carnal delights suffocate their godly sorrow.

Spiritual courage is most necessary, that is, confidence in God and in the power of his might. This confidence is the immediate effect of a lively faith, which S. John calleth the victory of the world. When Christ bad Peter come to him walking on the sea, upon the rising of a storm Peters faith began to fail, and no sooner his heart sank in his body, but his feet also sank in the water; even so when any storm of persecution ariseth for the word, when we see ourselves encompassed on every side with dangers and terrors, and our faith faileth, we presently sink in despair, if Christ stretch not out his hand presently to support us, and establish our heart in his promises.

3 Thirdly, constant perseverance is most needful; for though all virtues run in the race of a Christian life, yet perseverance alone obtaineth the garland. Suppose a ship to be fraught with rich merchandise, to have held a prosperous course all the way, and escaped both rocks and Pirates, yet if it be cast away in the haven, the owner is nothing the better for it, but loseth his goods, freight, and hope also. For this cause it is that in all the promises in these letters of the hidden Manna, the white Stone, the water of Life, the tree of Life, the crown of Life, &c. the only condition that is expressed is perseverance. To him that overcometh I will give, &c. for without it faith is not faith, but a wavering opinion; hope is not hope, but a golden dream; zeal is not zeal, but a sudden heat; joy but a flash, love but a passion, temperance but a physic diet for a time, valor but a bravado, patience but weak armor notable to hold out. All therefore who expect to eat of the hidden Manna, and receive the white stone with the new name, must get unto themselves, and put on the whole armor of God, and be daily trained in Christ's school; and when they are called to join battle, out of an exasperated hatred against the enemies of their soul, with great confidence and courage fight against Satan and his temptations; the world and all the sinful allurements in it; the flesh and the noisome lusts thereof, strenuously, valiantly, and constantly, never putting off their armor till they put off their bodies, nor quitting the field till they enter into the celestial Canaan, whereof the terrestrial was a type; and what title the Jews had to the one, we have to the other, not by purchase, but by promise: yet as the recovery of that Land cost the Jews, so the recovery of this costeth the Saints of God much sweat, and blood too sometimes; but neither that sweat nor that blood is the price of the Land of Promise, but the blood of the immaculate Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world. In which regard the Prophet Hosea, having exhorted the people to sow in righteousness, varieth the phrase, and saith not ye shall reap in righteousness, but, ye shall reap in mercy. Why not reap in righteousness as well as sow in righteousness? because man's righteousness is not answerable to God's, and therefore he must plead for his reward at the throne of mercy, not at the bar of justice. For though the wages of sin is death, yet eternal life is the gift of God by Jesus Christ: to whom be ascribed, &c.

THE HIDDEN MANNA. THE XXVI. SERMON.

IN the Old Testament we hear, Sic ait Jehovah, So saith the Lord, God the Father; in the Gospel, Thus spake Jesus; but in this book for the most part, Thus writeth the Spirit; as in this verse. Wherein you are to observe,

• 1 Literam Spiritus, The letter of the Spirit.
• 2 Spiritum Literae, The Spirit of the letter.

• 1 The golden Pot, the elegant and figurative expression.
• 2 The hidden Manna, the abstruse and spiritual meaning.

To him that overcometh. He who biddeth us stand upon the highest stair, consequently commandeth us to run up all the rest; so he that would have us to overcome, implicitly comandeth us, 1. To have our names enrolled in our Captains book: 2. To be trained in military exercise: 3 To follow our General into the field: 4. To endure hardness, and inure ourselves to difficult labor: 5. When battle is joined to stand to our tacklings, and acquit ourselves like men; never giving over till we have, 1. repelled, next chased, lastly discomfited and utterly destroyed our ghostly enemies: and when we are in the hottest brunt, and most dreadful conflict of all, by faith to look upon Christ holding out a crown from heaven unto us; and after we have overcome in some great temptation, and seem to be at rest, to look upon the labell of this crown, and there we shall find it written, Vincenti dabo, To him that overcometh indefinitely, not in one, but in all assaults of temptation; not in one, but in all spiritual conflicts, till he have overcome the last enemy, which is death. There are many, too many, in the militant Church, who drink wine in bowles, and sing to the pipe and violl, and never listen to Christ's alarm: others there are who hearing the alarm, desire to be entertained in his service, and give their names unto him, but are not like Timothy trained up in Martial discipline: a third sort like of training well where there is little danger, but when they are to put themselves into the field, like the children of Ephraim, turn back in the day of battle: lastly, many like the ancient Gauls, begin furiously, but end cowardly; in the first assault they are more than men, in the second less than women. None of these shall taste of the hidden Manna, nor handle the white stone, nor read the new name, but they who by a timely resolution give their names to Christ, by private mortification, fasting, watching, and prayer, are trained for this service, by faith grapple with their ghostly enemies, and by constancy hold out to the end. For as Hannibal spake sometime to his soldiers, Qui hostem vicerit mihi erit Carthaginensis, he that conquereth his enemy, what country man soever he be, he shall be unto me a Carthaginian, that is, I will hold him for such, and give him the privilege of such an one: so Christ speaketh here to all that serve in his wars, He that overcometh his enemy, of what country or nation soever he be, I will make him free of the celestial Jerusalem, I will naturalize him in my kingdom in heaven. In other kingdoms there are several orders of Knights, as of Malta, of the Garter, of the Golden Fleece, of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Saint Savior, of Saint James, of the holy Ghost, and divers others: but in the kingdom of Christ we find but one only sort, viz. the order of Saint Vincents. In all other orders some have been found 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , white-livered soldiers, or carpet-Knights, that either never drew sword, nor saw battle, or basely fled from their colors: but of this order never any either fled from his colors, or returned from battle without the spoils of his ghostly enemies. He therefore that will be of this order must be of good strength and courage, well armed continually, exercised in Martial discipline, vigilant to take all advantages, inured to endure all hardness: to strength he must add skill, to skill valor, to valor industry, to industry patience, to patience constancy, and to all, humility; not to challenge the rewards here proposed as due to his service, but only by virtue of the promise of him who here saith, To him that overcometh

I will give. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , not 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , I will render or repay: for it is not so in this war as in others, wherein the soldier who carrieth himself valiantly in war, and ventureth his life for his Prince and country, may challenge his pay of desert; because we bear not our own armor, nor fight by our own strength, nor conquer by our own valor, nor have any color for our service on earth to pretend to a crown in heaven. In which regard though we may expect, yet not challenge; look for, yet not sue for; desire, yet not require as due the reward here promised. Fear not little flock, saith our Savior, for it is your fathers pleasure to give you a kingdom; it is not his bargain to sell you it. Albeit the wages of sin is death, and there we may plead merit: yet the Apostle teacheth us that eternal life is the gift of God. Upon which words Saint Augustine's observation is very remarkable; Whereas the Apostle might have continued his Metaphor, and said, the wages of righteousness is eternal life, because eternal life is the reward of righteousness, as death is of sin, yet he purposely put the word gift instead of wages, that we might learn this most wholesome lesson, that God hath predestinated and called us to eternal life, not for our merits, but of his mercy, according to those words of the Psalmist, He crowneth thee in compassion. If there be any merit, in S. Bernard's judgment, it is in denying all merit; Sufficit ad meritum scire quod non sufficiant merita. And verily had the Church of Rome all faith, as her proselytes suppose that she hath all the good works, yet her standing upon terms with God, & pleading merit, would mar all her merit, and justly fasten upon her the ill name of Meretrix Babylonica, the whore of Babylon. For Meretrix, saith Calepine, à merendo sic dicta est, hath her name from meriting. When we have done all that we can, Christ teacheth us to say, we are unprofitable servants, we have done but that which was our duty to do. Nay, have we done so much as we ought to do? Venerable Bede, to check our pride who are apt to take upon us for the least good work we do, telleth us no; quod debuimus facere, non fecimus; we have not done what was our duty to do: and if the best of us have not done what was our duty to do, we merit nothing at our Masters hands but many stripes. Yet the Church of Rome blusheth not to define it as a doctrine of faith in her conventicle at Trent, that our good works do truly merit eternal life. In which assertion, as Tertullian spake of venomous flowers, quot colores tot dolores, so many colors so many dolours or mischiefs to man; so we may of the terms of this proposition, quot verba tot heresies, so many words so many heresies: for

First, it is faith which intituleth us to heaven, not works, by grace we are saved through faith, and that not of ourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast. Fides impetrat quod lex imperat, Faith obtaineth that which the Law commandeth.

Secondly, if works had any share in our justification, yet we could not merit by them, because as they are ours they are not good, as they are good they are not ours but God's, who worketh in us both the will and the deed: it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure: for we are not sufficient of ourselves to think anything, as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God. Whence St. Austin strongly inferreth against all plea of man's merit, If thy works are good they are God's gifts, if they are evil God crowneth them not; if therefore God crowneth thy works, he crowns them not as thy merits, but as his own gifts.

Thirdly, the works that may challenge a reward as due unto them in strict justice must be exactly and perfectly good, but such are not ours. For if we say that we have no sin, or that our best works are not some way tainted, we deceive ourselves, and there is no truth in us. Woe (saith St. Augustine) to the commendable life of men, if thou examine it in rigor without mercy. In which passionate strain he seemeth to take the note from David: If thou Lord shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord who should stand? and he from Job; How should man be just before God? if he contend with him he cannot answer one of a thousand.

Fourthly, were our works free from all aspersion of impurity and suspicion of hypocrisy, yet could they not merit at God's hands anything, to whom we owe all that we can or are, Dei omne est quod possumus, quod sumus. The greatest Champion of merit Vasques the Jesuit, here yields the bucklers, because we can give nothing to God which he may not exact of us by the right of his dominion: we cannot merit anything at his hand by way of justice. For no man can demand anything as his due for merely discharging his debt, no not so much as thanks. Luke 17.9. Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I trow not.

Fifthly, might our works taken at the best, merit something at God's hands, yet not eternal life. For there is no proportion between our finite works and such an infinite reward: no finite thing, be it never so great, can weigh down that which is infinite.

That our works may bear scale in the Sanctuary, and poise the reward, five grains must be added to them:

• 1 Propriety.
• 2 Liberty.
• 3 Utility.
• 4 Perfection.
• 5 Proportion.

First, propriety: we can merit by nothing that is not our own work, no more than we can oblige a man to us by repaying him his own coin. Certainly that which is not our work is not our merit.

Secondly, liberty: we can challenge nothing by way of merit for a work, which we are engaged by duty to perform, no more than oblige a man to us for discharging a bond, which we were bound under a great penalty by a precise day to satisfy.

Thirdly, utility or profit: if that we do to another no way advantage him, if he be no whit the better by it, what color have we to exact, or reason to expect a reward from him for such a work?

Fourthly, perfection: unless a work be done sufficiently, the laborer cannot in justice demand his hire, nor the workman require his price.

Fifthly, proportion: no labor or work can merit more than in true estimation it is worth: the laborer deserveth his hire, such a hire as is correspondent to his pains, but no other. He that labors but a day, deserveth not two days, much less a week, or a months hire.

If the plea of merit is overthrown by the defect of any one of these conditions, how much more by the defect of all? 1. If we have no interest in the work, be it never so meritorious in it self, we cannot merit by it, because it is not ours. 2. Let it be ours, and meritorious in another that were not bound to perform it, yet weee cannot merit by it if we are any way obliged in duty to perform it, because it is not free. 3. Let the work be free, yet if what we do no way redound to his benefit from whom we expect a reward, we cannot justly demand any recompense from him, because our work is not profitable to him. 4. Let the work be profitable, yet if it be not done as it should be in every circumstance, we cannot sue for the price agreed upon, because the work is not perfect. 5. Let the work be perfect and exact, yet we can exact no more for it than the skill, or the pains together with the materials deserve. Press we each of these circumstances, and much more if we press them all together, they will yield the doctrine of Saint Basil upon the 114. Psalm: There remains a rest eternal for them who here strive lawfully, not according to the merit of works, but according to the grace of our most bountiful God. Let us once more squeze them.

First, a meritorious act must be our own, if we have any expectance for it; these we call ours are not so: By the grace of God, saith the Apostle, I am that I am: and his grace in me was not in vain: But I labored more than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. And this the Propht Isaiah professeth in his prayer to God; Lord thou wilt ordain peace for us: for thou also hast wrought all our works in us. If these texts are not clear enough, the Apostles question is able to non-plus all the Pelagians in the world: Who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou hast not received? There is no good work which is not comprised within the will or the deed, and both, as we heard before, are the work of grace in us. Upon this firm ground Saint Augustine buildeth a strong fort for grace against man's merit: If thou renderest anything to God of thine own, thou renderest sin; for all the good thou hast, thou hast received from God: thou hast nothing which thou mayest call thine own but sin: And elsewhere when the Apostle saith, It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that hath mercy; we are thus to understand him, That we ought to ascribe the whole unto God, who both prepareth the will of man to be helped, and helpeth it being prepared.

Secondly, a meritorious act must be free, in our power, and at our choice to do or leave undone; our works are not so: for when we have done all that we can, we are commanded to say we are unprofitable servants, we have done that which it was our duty do. This wedge Marcus the Hermit driveth in forcibly: The Lord, saith he, willing to show that all the commandments are of duty to be performed, and that the adoption of children is freely given to man by his blood, saith, when ye have done all things that are commanded you, say, we are unprofitable servants, &c. therefore the kingdom of heaven is not the hire of works, but a gift of the Lord prepared for his faithful servants.

Thirdly, a meritorious work must be of use, and some way beneficial to him of whom a reward in strict justice is demanded; ours are not so: for our goodness extendeth not unto God, he is far above it. This nail Saint Augustine excellently fasteneth: If we serve and worship God as we ought, the whole benefit thereof accrueth to ourselves, and not unto God: for no man will say that the fountain gaineth anything by our drinking of it, &c.

Fourthly, a meritorious act must be complete, perfect, and without exception; ours are not so: for we cannot pray as we ought, and our very best actions are so stained, that the Prophet Isaiah calleth them no better than filthy rags or menstruous clouts. This arrow Saint Gregory drives to the head: Our very righteousness, if it be scanned by the rule of divine justice, will prove injustice; and that will appear foul and sordid in the strict scanning of the Judge, which shineth and seemeth most beautiful in the eye of the worker.

Fifthly, a meritorious work must hold some good correspondency and equivalence with the reward; ours do not so: for if we might offer to put any work in the balance, certainly our sufferings for Christ's sake; but these are too light, yea so far too light, that they are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. Upon this anvil Saint Chrysostom formeth a steel weapon; No man showeth such a conversation of life that he may be worthy of the kingdom, but this is wholly of the gift of God; and although we should do innumerable good • deeds, it is of God's pity and mercy that we are heard; although we should come to the very top of virtue, it is of mercy that we are saved: And Anselm steepeth it in oil; If a man should serve God most devoutly a thousand years, he should not deserve to be half a day in heaven. What have our adversaries to say to these things? what doth the learned Cardinal, whose name breathes Wars, Arms, and Threats? here he turns Penelope, texit telam & retexit, he does and undoes, he sewes and ravels: after many large books written for merit, in the end

To eat. The sight of Manna, which the Psalmist calleth Angels food, especially of the hidden Manna, which by God's appointment was reserved in a golden pot, had been a singular favor; but the taste thereof is a far greater. The contemplation of celestial objects is delightful, but the fruition of them much more. Even of earthly beauties the sight is not so great contentment as the enjoying, neither is any man so affected with delight at the view of a rich cabinet of jewels, as at the receiving any one of them for his own. Now so it is in celestial treasures & delights; through God's bounty & abundant goodness unto us we own what we see, & we taste what we touch, and we feel what we believed, and we possess what we have heard, and our heart entereth into those joys in heaven, which never entered into the heart of man on earth. In which respect the Psalmist breaketh out into that passionate invitation; O taste and see how gracious the Lord is: and S. Paul into that fervent prayer; And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all sense, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 : and Saint Augustine in that heavenly meditation; O let me enjoy thee, the light, the sound, the food, the love and embracement of my inward man; thou art light to the eye, music to the ear, sweet meats to the taste, and most delightful embracings to the touch of my soul: in thee that shineth to my soul which no place comprehendeth; and that soundeth which no time measureth, or snatcheth away; and that smelleth which no blast dissipateth; and that relisheth which no feeding upon diminisheth; and that adhereth which no satiety can pluck away. When therefore the ancients define celestial happiness to be the beatifical vision of God, grounding themselves especially upon these texts of scripture: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God, and seek his face evermore. My heart said unto thee, thy face Lord will I seek; and, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness. And, Now we see through a glass, darkly, but then face to face; we are to understand these speeches by a figure called Synecdoche, wherein a part is put for the whole: for certainly there is a heaven in the will and in the affections, as well as in the understanding. God hath enriched the soul with many faculties, and in all of them hath kindled manifold desires; the heat whereof, though it may be allayed for a time with the delights and comforts which this life affordeth, yet it can never be quenched but by himself who made the hearth, and kindled these fires in it. As the contemplation of God is the understandings happiness, so the adhering to him is the wills; the recounting of his blessings, the memories; the embracing him, the affections; and generally the fruition of him in all parts and faculties, the felicity of the whole man. To apply this observation to the words in my text: When the dispensers of the mysteries of salvation open the scriptures, they set before us heavenly treasure, they point unto, and show us the golden pots of Manna: but when by the hand of faith we receive God's promises, and are enriched by the graces of the spirit, then we own the pearls of the Gospel. To hear one who hath the tongue of the learned discourse of the work of grace, enlightening the mind, regenerating the heart, rectifying the will, moderating the desires, quieting the affections, and filling the soul with unspeakable joy, is a great delight to us; yet nothing to that we take when we feel grace working upon our souls, and producing all these divine effects within us. When we read in holy Scriptures what are the privileges of the sons of God, we see the hidden Manna; but when the Spirit testifieth to our spirit that we are the sons of God; and if sons then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ: then we eat

The hidden Manna. Some take the hidden Manna in my text for the mysteries of the Gospel, others for the secret virtues of the Sacraments. Primasius for Christ himself, who, as he saith, was made man that man might eat Manna the food of Angels: Pererius for incomparable sweetness in the contemplation of heavenly things: Cornelius à Lapide for spiritual comforts after temptations: all in general speak to good purpose. But if you demand of me in particular, what is this hidden Manna; I must answer as Cato did when one asked him what he carried so fast locked up in a chest: It is locked up (saith he) that thou shouldest not look into it nor know. I cannot tell you what it is, because it is hidden: only this is open and manifest in the Scriptures, that in the Word, the Sacraments, Prayer and Meditation, the Elect of God find hidden Manna, that spiritual sweetness which may be compared unto, or rather preferred before the relish of Manna to the corporal taste. And what St. Cyprian speaketh of the work of grace in our conversion, Sentitur priusquam dicitur, it is felt before it can be uttered, may be applied to this hidden Manna, gustatur priusquam dicitur, no tongue can speak of it worthily that hath not tasted it: as David did, who preferreth it before the honey and the honey-comb. And St. Augustine, O what pleasure took I in abandoning all worldly pleasure! for thou, O Lord, enteredst into me for them sweeter than any pleasure. And St. Jerome, who calleth God to witness that sometimes he found heaven upon earth, and in his spiritual elevations and raptures thought that he communed with quieres of Angels. And St. Ephraim, who was so over-filled with joy in the Holy Ghost that he made a strange prayer; O Lord for a little while depart from me, and restrain the influence of spiritual joy, lest the vessel break. And St. Tiburtius, whose inward joys and spiritual raptures so drowned his bodily tortures, that when he trod upon live coals he cried out, saying, These live coals seem to me no other than red roses. The scholars of Pythagoras believed that the celestial bodies by their regular motions caused an harmonicall sound, and made admirable music, though neither he nor any other ever heard it: and shall not we believe that there is hidden Manna, though we never tasted it, if not upon the report of these Saints who spake of their own sense and experience, yet upon the credit of him who both promiseth to give this hidden Manna, and is it himself? I am the living bread which came down from heaven.

Christ and his word retain not only the name of Manna, but the chief qualities and properties thereof.

First, Manna rained from the skies; Christ and his word came from heaven.

Secondly, Manna had a most sweet yet a new and strange taste, so hath the word; it is sweeter than honey to the spiritual taste, though the carnal man like better of the flesh pots of Egypt than of it.

Thirdly, Manna relished according to the stomachs of them that ate it, and answered all appetites: so the word of God is milk to children, and strong meat to men.

Fourthly, Manna erat cibus reficiens & nunquam deficiens, the children of Israel fed on Manna in the wilderness till they entered into the earthly Canaan: in like manner the Word and Sacraments are our spiritual food till we arrive at the celestial Canaan.

Fifthly, Manna was eaten by it self without any other meat or sauce added to it: the word of God must not be mingled with human traditions and inventions. They who go about to sweeten it with such spices mar the taste of it, and may more justly be taxed than that King of Persia was by Antalcidas, who by pouring ointment upon a garland of roses corrupted the natural smell and fragrancie thereof by the adulterors sophistication of art.

Sixthly, some portion of the Manna was laid up in the Ark, and kept in a golden pot for after-times; and part of the mysteries of holy Scripture are reserved for us till we come to heaven: and in regard of such truths as are not ordinarily revealed in this life, some conceive the word to be here termed

Hidden Manna. Howbeit, we need not restrain the words to those abstruse mysteries, the declaration whereof shall be a part of our celestial happiness: for the whole doctrine of the Gospel may in a true sense be called hidden Manna, because it containeth in it Sapientiam Dei in mysterio, the wisdom of God hidden in a mystery. For albeit the sound of the word is gone into all the world, yet the harmony in it is not observed by all. The chapters and verses of the Scripture are generally known, but not all the contents. He that saw the outside of Solomon's tents could not guess at the royalty of that Prince: but he that entered in, and took a particular view and inventory of his precious furniture, rich hangings, massy plate, full coffers, orient jewels, and glittering apparel, might make a good estimate thereof. A blind man from his birth, though he may hear of the Sun, and discourse of his golden rays from the mouth of others, yet can he not possibly conceive what delight the seeing eye taketh in beholding that glorious brouch of heaven, and Prince of the stars. When we hear the last will of a rich man read unto us, which we believe little concerneth us, though it be never so well penned or copied out, it little affecteth us: but if we have certain notice that by it some great legacy in lands or money is bequeathed unto us, then we hearken to it with thirsty ears, and as curiously observe every line and syllable therein as Jewellers do every carrat in a Diamond. Such is the difference between the carnal and the spiritual man's apprehension and affection in the reading and hearing of the written word: the letters and points are not hidden to any that can read, but the treasures of wisdom and knowledge laid up in it, the power and efficacy of it, the price and value of it is hidden to all those whose heart God openeth not as he did the heart of Lidia. And if the Manna of the word be thus hidden, how much more the Manna of the Spirit, I mean the inward comforts and joys of the bidden man of the heart? Diogenes the Philosopher bid every day holy in a good man's calendar: turn Diogenes his good man into a regenerate Christian, and his Philosophy will prove good Divinity. For to a sanctified soul every day is holy, on which he keepeth a great feast, the feast of a good conscience; at which the principal service is the hidden Manna in my text. In the fields of Enna in Sicily there is a continual spring, and flowers all the year: so are there in the mind of a faithful Christian, it is spring there all the year: and though he hath not always the sense and smelling, because sometimes his spiritual nostrils are stuffed with earthly cares and worldly comforts, yet he hath always within him the sent of the flowers of Paradise. I grant there is a time to rejoice, and a time also to weep: and I acknowledge that the devoutest man upon earth, who is most ravished with divine contemplation, yet doth not always actually rejoice, that is, apprehend or express his joy: yet as St. Prosper soundly argueth, He can never be without joy and comfort, whose joy is Christ, because the fuel of this sacred flame is eternal. Though the earth be sometimes, as now it is beyond the seas, full of darkness and cruel habitations, yet there is still light in Goshen, in the conscience of a righteous man.

Light is as it were the joy of the sky, and joy is the light of the mind: now as lights, so joys are of two sorts:

• 1 Purer and finer:
• 2 Impurer and grosser.

The purer lights burn clearer, last longer, and leave a sweeter savor behind them: the grosser and impurer burn dimly, spend fast, running into gutters, and go out with an ill favor. You may observe the like difference between carnal and spiritual joys; carnal delights that are fed with impure matter, such as are the lusts of the flesh, and the lusts of the eye,

1. Burn dimly, they yield no clear light of comfort to the mind, they are mixed joys, and insincere; Medio de fonte leporum surgit amarum aliquid.

2. They spend fast, and are quickly over. Seneca rightly observeth, That pleasure is quenched in the kindling of it, much like dry thorns under a pot, which make a blaze, & suddenly are turned into ashes. In which regard the Romans set up the image of Angerona the goddess of anguish and sorrow, in the Temple of Volupia, the Goddess of pleasure, to show that pain treadeth upon the heel of pleasure, and anguish of mirth.

3. They go out with a stink; they leave behind them amara & foeda vestigia, as Saint Bernard speaketh, a bitter fume, and noisome stench in our consciences, and a foul print upon our name. But spiritual joys on the contrary,

1. Burn clearly, send forth a bright flame; for these joys are sincere, exceeding unspeakable and glorious.

2. They last long; for they are, as Saint Augustine calleth them, fortes delitiae, & solida gaudia, during delights, and solid joys.

3. They leave a sweet savor behind them; a good report in the world, and a sweet contentment in the soul. For they are Solomon's Dulcedo animae, David's Oleum laetitiae, Saint Paul's Odor suavitatis, and S. Johns Manna reconditum, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones, the oil of gladness, the savor of life, the hidden Manna: O felix & paucis nota voluptas! The world is all set upon a merry pin, though God knows there is little cause; we are all for pleasure, but it is a pain to a righteous soul to think what pleasure, it is grief to name what joy. In Pontus there is a flower called Rodo-dendrum, of which the honey that is made is rank poison; such is the sensual delight that is taken in the use, or rather the abuse of worldly pleasures; it distempereth the taste, and poisoneth the soul. Not to forsake the Metaphor in my text; all inordinate pleasures, immoderate joys, and impure delights are like the Manna that was gathered on the Sabbath day, which corrupted suddenly, and became full of worms: but pure and spiritual joys are like that Manna, which Moses by God's appointment laid up in a golden pot, which corrupted not, but preserved it self from putrefaction, and the gold also from rust; the lid or cover of which pot I will endeavor to open a little wider, that you may have yet a fuller sight and quicker taste of the hidden Manna.

There are three kinds of the hidden Manna:

• 1 Of the Word:
• 2 Of the Sacrament:
• 3 Of the Spirit.

1 The Manna of the Word is that delight which is taken by the hearers in the opening the mysteries of holy Scripture, and applying the sweet comforts of the Gospel to the conscience: and this Damasus conceived to be the greatest happiness in the world.

2. The Manna of the Sacrament is that comfort which the worthy receivers feel in themselves, after the sanctified use of the elements, by growth in grace, and increase of spiritual strength: and of this Saint Cyprian was as it were in travel, till he was delivered of it in his Epistle to Cornelius.

3. The Manna of the Spirit is that unspeakable joy, wherewith the heart is filled, and even leapeth and danceth within us, when we hear the Spirit testifying unto our spirits that we are the sons of God. Pretious metals are digged out of the bowels of the earth, and pearls are found in the bottom of the sea; and truly seldom shall we fall upon this treasure of spiritual joy, and pearl of the Gospel, but in the depth of godly sorrow, and bottom and lowest point of our humiliation before God.

1. The first taste we have of the hidden Manna of the Spirit, is in the beginning of our conversion, and nonage of our spiritual life; when after unutterable remorse, sorrow, and fear, arising from the apprehension of the corruption, and guilt of our natural estate, and a dreadful expectation of wrath laid up for us against the day of wrath, and everlasting weeping, howling, and gnashing of teeth with the damned in hell; we on the sudden see a glimpse of God's countenance shining on us, and by faith, though yet weak, hope for a perfect reconciliation to him.

2. A second taste we have, when we sensibly perceive the Spirit of grace working upon our heart, thawing it, as it were, and melting it into godly sorrow, and after enflaming it with an everlasting love of him, who by his infinite torments and inconceivable sorrows, hath purchased unto us eternal joys.

3. A third taste we have of it, when after a long fight with our natural corruptions, we meet with the Devils Lieutenant, the sin that reigneth in us, which the Scripture calleth the plague of the heart; that vice to which either the temper of our body, or our age, or condition of life inclineth us unto; our bosom abomination, to which for a long time we have enthralled ourselves, and having perfectly discovered it by employing the whole armor of God against it, in the end we get the victory of it.

4. A fourth taste we have after some heavy cross, or long sickness, when God delivereth us above hope, and sanctifieth our affliction unto us, and by his Spirit calleth to our remembrance all his goodness to us from our childhood, and annointeth our eyes with eye-salve, that we may see the manifold fruits of the cross, and find in ourselves with David, that it was good for us thus to be afflicted.

5. A fifth taste we have at some extafie in our life, or a trance at our death, when we are wrapped up, as it were, into the third heaven with St. Paul, and see those things that eye never saw, and hear words that cannot be uttered. Thus have I opened unto you five springs of the waters of comfort; in which after you have stripped yourselves of worldly cares, and earthly delights, you may bathe your souls: in the bottom whereof you may see the white stone, which Christ promiseth to him that overcometh, saying, To him that overcometh I will give to eat of the hidden Manna: To whom, &c.

THE WHITE STONE. THE XXVII. SERMON.

IT was the manner of the Thracians to reckon up all the happy days of their life, and mark them in a book or table with a white stone: whereunto the Poet alluding saith,

May it please God by his Spirit to imprint those mysteries in your hearts, which are engraven upon this stone, I doubt not but this day, in which I am to describe unto you the nature of it, will prove so happy, that it shall deserve to be scored up with the like stone. For this white stone is a certain token and pledge of present remission of sins, and future admission into Christ's kingdom. Whereof through divine assistance, by your wonted patience, I will speak at large; after I have refreshed the characters in your memory of my former observations upon this Scripture, which setteth before all that overcome in the threefold Christian war,

• 1 Forraine, against Satan.
• 2 Civil, against the world.
• 3 Servile, against fleshly lusts; three boones or special gifts:
  • 1 Hidden Manna, a type of spiritual consolation.
  • 2 A white stone, the emblem of justification.
  • 3 A new name, the imprese of glorification.

There is

• 1 Sweetness in the hidden Manna.
• 2 Comfort in the white stone.
• 3 Glory in the new name.

The sweetness of the hidden Manna we tasted,

• 1 In the mystical meaning of the Word.
• 2 In the secret power of the Sacrament.
• 3 In the unutterable comfort of the Spirit. And now I am to deliver unto you in the next place the white stone.

In the handling whereof, I will level at those three scientificall questions mentioned by Aristotle in his books of demonstration.

• 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , An sit, aut quod sit.
• 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Quid sit.
• 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Propter quod sit.

First, whether there be any such white stone.

Secondly, what it is.

Thirdly, to what end it is given, and what use we are to make of it for our instruction, correction, or comfort.

First, of the An sit, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , whether there be any such stone or no. There hath been for many ages, a great question De lapide Philosophico, of the Philosophers stone, to which they ascribe a rare virtue to turn baser metals into gold: but there is no question at all among the sincere professors of the Gospel, De lapide theologico, of the divine stone in my text, which yet is far more worth, and of greater virtue than that. For that (if we have any faith in Alchymy) after much labor, and infinite cost, will turn base metal into gold; but this will undoubtedly turn penitent tears into pearl, and drops of blood shed for the testimony of the Gospel, into rubies and hematites to beset our crown of glory. With this stone, as a special love-token, Christ assureth his dearest spouse, that all things shall turn to her good, and work together for her endless happiness. He that hath this white stone, shall by the eye of faith see it suddenly turn all temporal losses into spiritual advantages, all crosses into blessings, all afflictions into comforts. What though some heretics or profane persons have no belief of this white stone, no more than they have of that pearl of great price, which the Merchant sold all that he had to buy? What though some have been abused by counterfeit stones like to this? shall we not therefore regard this, or seek after it? This were all one as if an expert Gold-smith should refuse to look after pure gold, because some ignorant Merchant hath been cheated with sophisticated alchymie stuff for gold: or if a skillful Jeweller should offer nothing for an orient Diamond, because an unskillful Lapidary hath been corisened with a Cornish or Bristow stone instead of it. The mistaking of any other man should not take off the edge of our desires to gain an invaluable jewel, but whet our diligence the more, to observe more accurately the notes of difference between the true and counterfeit stone, upon which I shall touch anon, after I have convinced our Romish sceptickes, by evidence from the nature of faith, the profession of God's Saints, the testimony of the Spirit, and undeniable signs and effects, that all that are called by the word effectually, have this white stone in my text given unto them, whereby they are assured of their present estate of grace, and future of glory.

[Doct. 1] The faith of God's Elect is not a bare assent to supernatural verities revealed in Scripture, which may be in a Reprobate, and is in the Devils themselves: Thou believest there is one God, thou doest well, the Devils also believe and tremble: but a divine grace, whereby being fully assured of God's favor to us, we trust him with our souls, and wholly rely on him for salvation, through the merits of his son. The sure promises of the Gospel are like a strong cable, let down to a man in a deep pit or dungeon, on which he doth not only lay hand by faith, but hangeth and resteth himself upon it, and thereby is drawn out of darkness, to see and possess the inheritance of the Saints in light. To believe the communion of Saints, is not only to be persuaded that there is a communion of Saints in the world, remission of sins in the Church, resurrection of the flesh at the last day, and life everlasting in heaven: but to be assured by faith, that we have an interest in this communion, benefit by this remission, and shall partake the glory of this resurrection, and the happiness of life everlasting. They who had been stung by fiery serpents, and were healed by looking upon the brazen serpent, did not only believe that it had cured many, but that it would cure them. Here the Logicians rule holdeth, Medicina curat Socratem, non hominem; physic is not given to man's nature to cure the species, but to every man in individuo to heal his person: and to every sick soul that applieth unto it self the promises of the Gospel, Christ saith, Be it unto thee as thou believest, thy faith hath made thee whole, go in peace. Hereupon Saint Bernard bringeth in the three divine graces, Faith, Hope, and Charity, singing as it were a catch, and taking the word one from another; Faith beginneth, saying, everlasting treasures are laid up in heaven; Hope followeth, saying, they are laid up for me; Charity concludeth, I will seek after them. And verily no man by a general Romish credulity, but by a special faith in Christ, can say with Job, My redeemer; with David, My salvation; with the Spouse, My beloved, with the blessed Virgin, My Savior; with Thomas, My Lord and my God: much less can he warrant these possessives with a scio; I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that I shall see him stand up at the last day upon the earth: and though after my skin, worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh I shall see God: whom I shall see for myself. And, I know that thou favourest me, thou upholdest me in my integrity, and fettest me before thy face forever. And, We know that all things work for the best to them that love God. We know that when our earthly tabernacle is dissolved, we shall have an eternal in the heavens. We know that we are translated from death to life, because we love the brethren. Opinion and science, a conjectural hope and an assured belief, as much differ as a shaken reed and a well grown oak, which no wind can stir.

To know anything, saith Aristotle, is to know the cause, and that this cause is the cause of such an effect, and that the thing it self cannot be otherwise than we conceive of it: in which regard the Greek Etymologist deriveth 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , because opinion waggeth and inclineth the mind by probabilities on both sides; but science fasteneth it, and maketh it stand immovable.

With these texts of scripture, attributing knowledge of salvation to all believers, our Trent Merchants are manifestly gravelled, and stick in the mud: yet they endeavor to boy up their sunk vessel by a distinction of a double knowledge,

• 1 By common faith.
• 2 By special revelation.

• 1 Earnests.
• 2 Seals.
• 3 Witnesses.

First, to secure sums of money or bargains we take earnests of men, or some pledge: behold this security given us by God, even the earnest of his Spirit in our hearts. On which words St. Chrysostom thus plainly glosseth, He saith not the Spirit, but the earnest of the Spirit, that thou mayst be every way confident: for if he meant not to give thee the whole, he would never have given this earnest in present. For this had been to lose his earnest, and cast it away in vain.

Secondly, to confirm all grants, licences, bonds, leases, testaments and conveyances, seals are required: behold this confirmation also, Ephes. 1.13. In whom ye are sealed by that holy Spirit of promise. and 4.30. And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed to the day of redemption. Whether we speak of the seal sealing, or the seal sealed, we have both. For we are sealed by the Spirit of grace as by the seal sealing, and by the grace of the Spirit as the seal sealed, that is, printed upon us. In reference to which place Daniel Chamierus rightly noteth, that there are seals put to things for their confirmation, and certain signs or badges answerable to seals given to persons at their investiture, as a collar of S's, and a blew ribbon, with a George, to the knights of the Garter, &c. We have both these seals, sigillum rei by the Sacrament, and sigillum personae by the Spirit, which sealeth us to the day of our redemption.

Thirdly, to prove any matter of fact in Courts of justice, witnesses are produced: behold this proof of our right and title to a kingdom in heaven; proof (I say) by witnesses beyond exception, the holy Spirit and our renewed consciences: The Spirit it self beareth witness with our Spirit, that we are the children of God, Rom. 8.16. On which words St. Chrysostom thus enlargeth himself, If a man, or an Angel, or an Archangel had promised thee this honor to be the Son of God, thou mightest peradventure have made some doubt of it: but now when God himself giveth thee this title, commanding thee to call him Abba, Father, who dare question thy title? If the King himself prick a Sheriff, or send him the Garter, or the Seal, what subject dare gainsay it?

Lastly, as the Planets are known by their influence, and the Diamond by his luster, and the Balsamum by his medicinal virtue, and the soul by her vital operations: so the gift here promised is most sensibly known by the effects:

• 1 Exceeding love.
• 2 Secure peace.
• 3 Unspeakable joy.
• 4 Invincible courage.

He that is not certain that he hath or ever shall receive any benefit by another, or comfort in him, loveth but a little. He that was condemned to die, and cannot tell whether he hath a pardon for his life or no, can be at no peace: he that heareth glad tidings, but giveth little credit to them, rejoiceth but faintly: he who hath no assurance of a better life, will be advised how he parteth with this. But the Saints of God and Martyrs of Jesus Christ are exceedingly enflamed with the love of their Redeemer, in comparison whereof they esteem all things as dung: they enjoy peace that passeth all understanding, they are ravished with spiritual joy, they so little pass for this present life, that they are ready not only to be bound but to die for the Lord Jesu; they rejoice in their sufferings, they sing in the midst of the flames, they lie as contentedly upon the rack as upon a bed of down, they prove masteries with all sorts of evil, they weary both tortures and tormentors, and in all are more than Conquerors: therefore they know assuredly how they stand in the Court of heaven; they feel within them what Christ hath done for them; they have received already the first fruits of heavenly joys, and doubt not of the whole crop; they have received the earnest, and doubt not of their full pay; they have received the seals, and doubt not of the deeds of their salvation; they have received the testimony of the Spirit, and doubt not of their adoption; they have received the white stone in my text, and doubt not of their absolution from death, and election to a kingdom in heaven.

What do their dying speeches, that ought to live in perpetual memory, import less?

Secondly of Ignatius. When he heard the Lions roar for hunger, to whom he was suddenly to be cast as a prey: O that I were with the beasts that are prepared for me, whom I desire quickly to make an end of me: if they refuse to touch my body (as through fear they have abstained from the bodies of other Saints) I will urge and provoke them to fall upon me: Pardon me, children, I know what is good for me, now I begin to be Christ's disciple, desiring none of those things which are seen: that I may find Jesus Christ, welcome fire, cross, beasts, teeth, breaking of my bones, tearing asunder of my members, grinding to powder of my whole body; let all the torments which the Devil can devise come upon me, to the end, or so that I may enjoy Jesus my love. I am Christ's corn, and presently I shall be ground with the teeth of wild beasts, that I may be served in as fine manchet at my Lord's table.

Thirdly, of Babylas: Return to thy rest, O my soul, for the Lord hath rewarded thee: I shall now walk before the Lord in the land of the living.

Fourthly, of Constantine the great: Now I know myself to be truly happy, I have now attained the true light, and none but myself understandeth, or can apprehend what happiness I am made partaker of.

Fifthly, of Saint Bernard: My Lord hath a double right to the kingdom of heaven; by inheritance, and by purchase; by inheritance of his Father, and purchase of his own blood: with the former right himself is contented, the latter he hath given unto me: I am not worthy, I confess, neither can I by mine own merits obtain the kingdom of heaven, but rest upon that interest which I have in the merit of Christ's passion.

Sixthly, of Luther: Receive my soul, Lord Jesu; though I be taken from this life, and this body of mine be laid down, yet I know certainly that I shall remain with thee forever, neither shall any be able to pull me out of thy hand.

Seventhly, of Jewel: A crown of righteousness is laid up for me; Christ is my righteousness, this is my day, this day let me quickly come unto thee, this day let me see thee Lord Jesu.

You have heard what we are to say in answer to the first question, An sit? whether there be any such white stone? The second scientificall question is, Quid sit? what this white stone is? And because the Logicians distinguish of,

• 1 Quid nominis.
• 2 Quid rei:

Some by it understand corpus glorificatum, a glorified body: and therein note four properties,

• 1 Solidity.
• 2 Candour.
• 3 Rotundity.
• 4 Splendour.

The solidity in the white stone, say they, representeth the impassibility: the candour, the clarity and beauty: the roundness, the agility: the luster or splendor, the subtility and glory of the Saints bodies raised from the dust. Thus Aquinas, who taketh his hint from Rupertus, and he from Beda.

Others understand by the white stone, the grace of the spirit, which reneweth our minds, making them pure and white, that is, innocent before God: so Junius, Aretius, Chytreus, Piscator, and Mathesius.

Others interpret claritatem nominis, an illustrious name, or the honor and title of a conqueror; either because, as Sixtus Senensis noteth, the days in which the Romans gained any signal victory, were entered into their Fasti or registers with a white stone: or because they who overcame, and had the better in the Olympicke games or races, received for their guerdon a white shining stone.

Vegus goeth a way by himself, taking this white stone for a white counter, and yieldeth this reason of his interpretation: Because God, saith he, casteth all men's salvation by Christ's works and merits; and all that hope to clear with him for the infinite debts of their sins, must reckon upon them, or else they will fall short in their accounts. Behold Saul prophesieth, Balaam blesseth, and a Jesuit delivereth Protestant doctrine.

Primasius and Victorinus will have this white stone to be alba ge •• a, a white gemme, or glistering jewel or pearl, like that in the Gospel, which the rich Merchant man sold all that he had to buy: but the word in the original is not 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , or 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , but 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a stone used in 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 in giving sentences, or making decrees. The Judges among the Romans, when they acquitted any man, cast in a white stone into an urne or pot, according to that of the Poet:

And likewise the Citizens of Rome in choosing their Magistrates, wrote his name to whom they gave their voice, in a white stone. By allusion to which two customs, I conceive the Spirit in this place promiseth to everyone that shall overcome the lusts of the flesh, by the Spirit; the assaults of the Devil, by faith; and the persecutions and troubles of the world, by his constancy, calculum absolutorium, & suffragatorium, an infallible token of his absolution from death, and election to a crown of life; an assurance of present justification, and future glorification.

Thus I take the Quid nominis to be clear: the greatest controversy is about the Quid rei; what that gift or grace is; what that sign or token, what that proof or testimony, whereby our present estate of grace, and future of glory are secured unto us.

Some guess not far off the truth; That it is testimonium renovatae conscientiae, the testimony of a renewed conscience. For as the eye in a glass by reflection seeth it self looking; so the conscience by a reflection upon it self, knoweth that it knoweth God, and believeth that it believeth in Christ, and feeleth that it hath a new feeling, sense, and life. The eye of faith in the regenerate seeth himself sealed to the day of redemption, and observeth the print of the seal in himself, and the image of the heavenly which it beareth. I shall speak nothing to disparage this testimony of conscience, which affordeth to every true believer singular contentment in life, and comfort in death. The nearer the voice is, the briefer and more certainly we hear it; and therefore we cannot but distinctly take that deposition for us, which conscience speaketh in the ear of the heart. And yet we have a nearer and surer voice to settle our heart in the knowledge of our spiritual estate, the testimony of God's Spirit, which is nearer and more inward to our souls, than our souls to our bodies: and the witness thereof may be as great, or a greater joy to us, than if God had sent an Angel to us, as he did to Daniel, to show unto us that we were beloved of him: or an Archangel, as he did to the Virgin Mary, to salute us, Hail thou that art highly favored of God. If any demand, as she did, not out of any doubt, but out of a desire of farther information, quomodo? that is, how doth the Spirit testify to our spirits that we are the sons of God? To speak nothing of elevations of Spirit, and raptures, and special revelations, which are not now so frequent, and so certain as in former ages; I answer, The Spirit testifieth this unto us two manner of ways, by

• Motions, or Words.
• Effects, or Deeds.

By words; so are the express words of Saint Cyprian, As when lightning breaketh the cloud, and the sudden splendor thereof doth not so much enlighten as dazzle the eyes: so sometimes thou art touched with I know not what motion, and feelest thyself to be touched, and yet seest not him that toucheth thee; there are inwardly spoken unto thee certain secret words, so as thou canst not doubt that he is near thee, even within thee, who doth solicit thee; yet doth he not let thee see him as he is. These secret words Saint Bernard uttereth, This is the testimony or record which the Spirit beareth unto thee; Thy sins are forgiven thee. I take it the meaning of the words of these Fathers is not that the holy Ghost doth sound these formal words in our bodily ears, but that as God once spake in a still small voice, so in it still he speaketh to the faithful, by the Spirit, verbis mentalibus, by mental words or notions: by which he continually inciteth us to good, restrains us from evil, forewarneth us of danger, and comforteth us in trouble. And whilst we listen to these notions, or rather motions of the spirit within us, we hear this testimony often and distinctly. But when we give ear to the motions of the evil Spirit, and entertain him, and delight in his society, and thereby grieve and despite the Spirit of grace; he being thus grieved by us, speaketh no more words of comfort in us, but withdraws his gracious presence, and leaveth us in horror of conscience, and darkness of mind. In this time of spiritual desertion, we think we have lost this white stone, though indeed we have not lost it, but it is hid from us for a while: for afterwards we shall find it, having first felt the Spirit moving upon the waters of our penitent tears; and in our pouring out our souls before God, assisting us with sighs and groans that cannot be expressed: then after we renewing our covenant with him, our sins are blown away like a thick mist: and light from heaven breaketh in again upon us, and with this light assurance, and with assurance peace, and with peace joy in the holy Ghost.

Yea, but a weak Christian may yet demand, How may I be assured that my stone is not a counterfeit? that my gold is not alchymy? that my pearl is not glass? that my Edenis not a fools Paradise? that this testimony in my soul is not a suggestion of Satan to tempt me to presumption, and thereby drown me in perdition? The Spirit of God commanding me to Try the Spirits whether they are of God or no, implieth that there are Spirits which are not of God: how then may I certainly know that this motion within me is from the good, and not rather from the evil Spirit? By this, if it accord with the word, and the testimony of thine own conscience: but if it vary from either, thou hast just cause to suspect it. If any Spirit shall tell thee that thou art locked in the arms of God's mercy, and canst not fall from him, though thou huggest some vice in thy bosom, and lettest loose the reins to some evil concupiscence; give that Spirit the lie, because it accordeth not with the word of God, testifying expressly, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, which it an Idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of God, and of Christ. For the grace of God that bringeth salvation, hath appeared unto all men, teaching us, that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. Again, if any Spirit tell thee that thou art rich in spiritual graces, and lackest nothing, when thine own Spirit testifieth within thee, that thou art blind, and naked, and miserable, and poor, believe not that Spirit. For the Spirit of God is a contest with our spirit, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , He beareth witness with our spirit that we are the sons of God: and when they both sweetly accord, we may without presumption conclude with Saint Augustine; The truth promiseth, whosoever believeth in me hath eternal life: I have heard the words of the Lord, I have believed; whereas I was before an Infidel, I am now made faithful, and according to his promise, have passed from death to life, and shall come into no condemnation. It is no presumption to ground assured confidence upon Christ's promise. Hereunto let us add the testimony of the effects of saving grace. As the testimony of the Spirit confirmeth the testimony of the Word, so the effects of saving grace confirm both unto us. These Saint Bernard reckoneth to be,

• Hatred of sin.
• Contempt of the world.
• Desire of heaven.

Hatred of our unregenerate estate past, contempt of present vanities, desire of future felicity.

And doubtless if our hatred of sin be universal, our contempt of worldly vanities constant, and our desire of heavenly joys fervent, we may build upon them a strong persuasion, that we are in the favor of God, because we hate all evil; that we are espoused to Christ, because we are divorced from the world; and that heaven belongeth unto us, because we long for it. Howbeit these seem to be rather characters of Christian perfection, than common works of an effectual vocation. Though we arrive not to so high a degree of Angelical, rather than human perfection, yet through God's mercy we may be assured of our election by other more easy and common works of the Spirit in us, I mean, true faith, sincere love of goodness in ourselves and others, hungering and thirsting after righteousness, striving against our fleshly corruptions, godly sorrow, filial fear, comfortable patience, and continual growth in grace and godliness. Tully writeth of Syracuse, That there is no day through the whole year so stormy and tempestuous, in which they have not some glimpse of the sun: neither undoubtedly after the travels of our new birth are past, is there any day so overcast with the clouds of temptation, in the soul of a Christian, in which the Sun of righteousness doth not shine upon him, and some of these graces appear in him. For if he decay in one grace, he may increase in another; if he find not in himself sensible growing in any grace, he may feel in himself an unfeigned desire of such growth, and godly sorrow for want of it; and though he conquer not all sin, yet he alloweth not himself in any sin; and though he may have lost the sense, yet not the essence of faith; and though he be not assured in his own apprehension of remission of sins, yet he may be sure of his adhesion to God, and relying upon him for the forgiveness of them, with a resolution like that of Job, Though he kill me, yet will I put my trust in him. And this is the sum and effect of what our Christian casuists answer to the second question, Quid sit, what is the white stone, whereby, as a certain pledge, grace and glory are secured unto us.