A Key Opening Mysterious Texts of Scripture

THE NEW NAME. THE XXVIII. SERMON.

IN this close of a letter, endited by the Spirit, and endorsed to the Angel of the Church of Pergamos, our Emperor Christ Jesus his donatives to his victorious soldiers are set forth to the best advantage of art. To him, that is, to everyone whosoever he be, Jew or Gentile, bond or free, young or old, Captain or common soldier, that overcometh the flesh by subduing it, the world by despising it, the devil by defying him, and quenching all his fiery darts on the buckler of his faith dipt in Christ's blood; I will give out of my bounty, not for the merit of their service, the hidden Manna of consolation, the white stone of absolution, and the new name of adoption, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.

The hidden Manna I set before you, when I first entertained your religious attention with the mystical delicacies this text affordeth. The last time I delivered unto you the white stone: and now I am to spell and read unto you your new name, and both declare what it is, and why engraven in this white stone; as also, how so engraven that it can be read by none save him who owneth it. For my method, I will take it from Masters of Music and dancing: for as they first tune their instruments, then finger the streines of some exquisite lessons on it, & finally teach their scholars how to foot the dance accordingly: so the divine assistance concurring with your patience, I will first, by endeavoring to accord the several interpretations of the words, as it were, tune the strings: next, by delivering unto you the doctrines of this scripture, set to the lessons: and last of all, by applying them to your lives and conversations, direct you how you are to order your feet, according to the heavenly music pricked by the Spirit in the rules of my text.

But because it is very hard to read letters or characters engraven in brass or stone, if the brass or stone be covered with dirt, or blotted with ink; before I proceed to spell your name, I hold it requisite to rub out those spots, and wipe away those blots, which the ancient Pelagians, and late Pontificians have cast upon this white stone; I mean, our Protestant doctrine concerning the assurance of our salvation in particular.

[Object.] 1. They cast this blur upon it, That it hath no foundation in holy Scripture; for where read we, say they, thou William, or thou John, or thou Peter art assured of thy salvation?

2. They cast this blur upon it, That it hath no place in the Apostles Creed, and therefore in scorn and derision they term it the thirteenth article.

3. They allege against it, That it hath no footing at all in reason. For, say they, we ought continually to pray for the remission of our sins, which we need not to do if we were assured of our justification and salvation.

4. They article against it, That it crosseth all such texts of Scripture, wherein fear is commended unto us, as a special help and furtherance to eternal salvation. To what end doth David advise, Serve the Lord with fear: and Saint Paul admonish, Be not high minded, but fear: and, work out your salvation with fear and trembling: and Saint Peter exhort, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear; if all true believers are so assured of their salvation, that they are in no danger of forfeiting their estate of grace here, or losing their crown of glory hereafter?

5. They allege against it, That it dulleth the edge of industry, and cooleth the heat of zeal, and taketh away all care of walking exactly before God, and uprightly before men: care and watchfulness, in their judgment, are superfluous where salvation and eternal happiness is secured.

The first blot is thus wiped out. As all parts are contained in the whole body, so all particulars and singulars are virtually enclosed in generals and universals: and therefore as when we read, That all men are sinners; and, all men are deprived of the glory of God; and, in many things we offend all, every man layeth his hand upon his heart, and acknowledgeth himself to be of the number: and as when we read, We must all appear before the tribunal seat of Christ, every good Christian applieth it unto himself, and maketh full account one day to answer at that bar: so when peace of conscience, and joy in the holy Ghost, and assurance of eternal bliss are promised to all believers in Scripture, every faithful heart rejoiceth at them, as having special interest in them. I would fain know of our adversaries, when a Proclamation is published in the Kings name to all his loyal subjects, whether every particular man within his realms and dominions be not liable to the Kings high displeasure, in case he disobey this his Majesty's edict, though no man be therein particularly named. Now what are the Ministers of the Gospel, but God's Criers, to proclaim his good pleasure, concerning the receiving all penitent sinners and believers into grace and favor? Our adversaries themselves believe that this Pope Urban the eighth is Christ's Vicar, and cannot err in Cathedrâ; and that this Priest, viz. Fisher, or Musket, hath power to remit sins, and in the administration of the Sacrament, to turn the bread into Christ's body; yet let them turn over all the Bible, they shall nowhere find the name of Priest Musket, Father Fisher, or Pope Urban. Here if they fly to general promises, made to all the Apostles and their successors, they stifle the wind-pipe of their own objection, and confess consequently, so the general be in Scripture, we need not trouble ourselves with the particular. But the general I have proved at large out of Scripture, that assurance of salvation is a privilege granted to all the children of God, that hear the testimony of the Spirit, and see the infallible marks of God's chosen in themselves.

The second blot is thus rubbed out: This white stone, the assurance of a man's particular salvation, is comprised in the first words of the Creed, which according to the exposition of the Ancie •• s, importeth, I trust in God for salvation. For we say not, I believe there is a God, which is credere Deum; nor I believe God, which is credere Deo; but I believe in God, that is, I put my religious trust and confidence in him. Beside, the true meaning of that article, I believe the forgiveness of sins, is not only, I believe there is a remission of sins in the Church, which the devil himself doth, and yet is no whit the better for it; but I believe the remission of my own sins, as I do the resurrection of my own flesh. And if this be the true meaning of that Article, which Rome and Reims shall never be able to disprove, the assurance of our own justification and salvation is not, as they cavil, a thirteenth article of the Creed, but part of the tenth. To which Saint Augustine subscribed; The devout soul saith confidently, thou art my God, because God saith to the soul, I am thy salvation.

The third blot is thus wiped out: Prayer for remission of sins, and assurance thereof may well stand together. After the Prophet Nathan had said to David, The Lord hath taken away thy sin, David believed the remission thereof; yet he prayed most fervently for it: Purge me with Hyssop and I shall be clean, wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities, deliver me from blood guiltiness O God, thou God of my salvation. Our blessed Redeemer was assured that God would deliver him from the power of death and hell; yet in the days of his flesh he offered up prayers with strong cries to him that was able to save him. Saint Paul was assured by faith, that God would deliver him from every evil work, and preserve him to his heavenly kingdom; yet he ceased not to pray, Libera nos à malo; Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. To cut all the sinews of this objection at once, we distinguish of three sorts of Christians:

• 1 Incipients.
• 2 Proficients.
• 3 Perfect.

Incipients pray for the remission of their sins, and assurance thereof to their conscience: Proficients for greater assurance, and farther growth in grace: those that are perfect (so far as perfection may be attained in this life) for the abolishing of all power of sin in them, and their public acquitting at the last day: and all three for a pardon of course, at least for such sins of infirmity, as stick so close unto us that we cannot shake them off till we put off this earthly tabernacle. For albeit every true believer is firmly persuaded of the love of God, and the free pardon of all his sins in general; yet because no particular sin can be actually remitted before it be committed, neither is the remission of any promised, but upon condition of repentance, and confession to God of all known sins in special, and unknown in general: everyone that is careful of his salvation, and mindful of the command of Christ implied in the pattern of all prayer, will sue out a pardon for every new sin, which through the frailty of his nature he falleth into, by humble confession and prayer to God. Which prayer, because it cannot be acceptable to him without faith, he who prayeth for the remission of his sins, in the very instant when he prayeth believeth that God will hear him, and that he either hath, or will certainly pardon him. And so we see that this third objection either hath no edge at all, or if it hath any, woundeth the adversaries cause, if it be thus retorted against him.

• Whatsoever we pray to God for according to his will, we ought steadfastly to believe that we shall receive it.
• But every true believer prayeth for the remission of his sins, according to God's will and command.
• Therefore every true believer ought steadfastly to persuade himself that his sins are, or shall be certainly forgiven him.

The fourth blot is thus wiped out. Fear is twofold:

• 1 That which is opposed to carnal security.
• 2 That which is opposed to spiritual confidence.

The former is commanded in all the texts above alleged, and must stand with assurance of salvation; the latter is forbidden by Isaiah; Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel: I will help thee, saith the Lord, and thy Redeemer. Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name, thou art mine. And by Zacharias in his Hymn; Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, which hath visited and redeemed his people. And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David. That we being delivered from the hands of our enemies, might serve him without fear. And by St. Paul, Ye have not received the Spirit of bondage again to fear. And by Christ himself, Fear not little flock, for it is your Fathers pleasure to give you the kingdom. This latter fear, because it excludeth confidence in God, is excluded it self: but the former not only standeth with certainty of perseverance in grace, but mightily supporteth it. For even for this end God promiseth to put that fear in the hearts of all true believers, that they may not fall away from him. Whereupon Tertullian acutely inferreth, playing upon the double sense of the Latin word securus; He that is secure (that is, careless) of the means of his salvation, is not solicitous or watchful; but he that is solicitous or watchful may be secure, that is, free from all fear of unavoidable danger.

The last objection which our adversaries make against the doctrine delivered, is taken out of the worm-eaten evidence of the ancient Pelagians, as we may see in Saint Prosper: They (viz. the Pelagians) upbraid, that all care of rising out of sin is taken away from those that are lapsed; that to holy men is ministered an occasion of slackness in their devotion, or lukewarmness, inasmuch as the Elect (according to our doctrine) cannot fall away by any negligence, howsoever they behave themselves; & that consequently this doctrine taketh away all prayers, obsecrations, obtestations, exercise of mortification, & care of the means of renewing our covenant with God, and watchfulness over all our ways. But we answer with the ancient Fathers, that the certainty of the end no way derogateth from the necessity of the means of salvation, which on God's part are admonitions, threatenings, promises, commands, counsels, punishments and rewards: on our part, continual prayer, watchfulness, progress in godliness, & unfeigned desire of, and earnest striving for perfection. After Christ prayed for S. Peters faith, that it might not fail, Peter was assured of his perseverance; yet Christ commandeth him with the rest, to watch and pray lest they enter into temptation: watchfulness therefore and assurance are not incompatible. None ever had greater assurance of their salvation than the Apostles, after Christ cheered their hearts, In this rejoice, not that spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven: yet our Savior admonisheth them to stand with their loins girt about, and their lights burning; and to take heed to themselves lest at any time their hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon them at unawares. Questionlesse after Christ had given to Saint Paul the life of all them that were in the ship with him, he was assured of their safe arrival; yet when the shipmen were about to fly out of the ship, under color as though they would have cast anchor, Paul said to the Centurion, and to the soldiers, except these abide in the ship, you cannot be saved. None may otherwise receive or apply to themselves the promises of grace, and remission of sins, than they are tendered to them in holy Scripture: but in them they are propounded unto all upon condition of repentance, faith, holiness of life, new obedience, and perseverance in it to the end. To believe therefore the remission of sins, and to be assured of God's favor, notwithstanding we hold on our sinful courses, is not spiritual confidence, but carnal presumption.

Assurance of salvation is an effect of a lively faith, which worketh by love; and consequently all that have it, the more they are assured of God's love to them in Christ, the more their hearts are enflamed with love towards God, and their neighbor also for God's sake; the more zealous they will be of his glory, the more thankful for his mercy, the more desirous to please him, the more fearful to offend him, the more careful to obey him, the more wounded with godly sorrow for their incurring his displeasure, and the more ready to turn unto him by unfeigned repentance. Admit what they so much clamour against us for, that the adopted sons of God are in no fear or distrust that their heavenly Father will disinherit them; yet neither may they, nor can they presume hereupon willfully to provoke him; because they know that he hath many sharp rods to chasten them with besides; as temporal plagues, painful sickness, irrecoverable losses, terrors of conscience, and spiritual desertion. To conclude, the certainty of our belief that we shall undoubtedly arrive at the celestial Canaan, is no reason why we should flacke, but rather mend our pace thither.

Thus having wiped out the spots and blots, which the ancient and latter Pelagians have fast upon the white stone, we shall more easily be able to discern the characters engraven in it, and read

The new name. We receive many new things from our Savior:

• 1 A New Testament signed with his blood.
• 2 In this New Testament a new Covenant.
• 3 In this new Covenant a new Commandment.
• 4 To obey this new Commandment a new heart.
• 5 And answerable to this new Heart new Tongues.
• 6 And consonant to these new Tongues new Songs.

Behold, I make all things new, a new heaven and a new earth, and a new city, and in it new inhabitants, to whom the Spirit here promiseth a new name, upon which the Interpreters have many new conceits.

Alcazar the Jesuit, whose profound head the Pope lately graced with a Cardinals hat, in his prolixe commentaries upon the Apocalypse, falling upon the words of my text, will needs have this new name to be some derivative from Jesus, as Jesuitae or Jesuati, or the like. For this name Jesus (as out of Galatians he endeavoreth to prove) according to the true characters and points in the Hebrew, is novum nomen, a new name, never given to any but our Savior: & of this name above all other names it is most certain that no man knoweth the virtue thereof, but he that is partaker of it. In which interpretation the Jesuits affection seemeth to me to have over-swayed his judgment. For as Aristoxenus the Musician, out of an admiration of his own profession, defined the soul to be an harmony; so this expositour, out of a love to his own society, resolveth this new name can be no other than a denominative from Jesus. But he should have considered that this new name here promised to the Angel of Pergamos, is 1500. years elder than Ignatius their Patriarch; and is not promised to him only, but to all Christian conquerors in alleges; whereas the name Jesuit, before Layola in this age so christened his disloyal offspring, was never heard of in the world. Neither lieth there hid such a mystery in the name Jesuit, that no man knoweth it saving he that receiveth it: it is known well enough, not only to Romanists of other orders, but also to those of the reformed Church, who yet never received the badge of their profession, nor any mark of the beast.

Victorinus and some others with more probability guess the new name to be here meant Christianus, of which they understand those words of Isaiah, they shall be called by my new name.

Aretas giveth the same interpretation of the white stone, and the new name, by both which the conqueror in proving masteries was made known to the people.

Carthusian distinguishing of the essential and accidental rewards in heaven, and calling the former auream, the latter aureolam, conceiveth this white stone to be aureolam, a gemme added to the Saints crown of glory; & in it the name of Beatus engraven, which no man can know but he that receiveth it; because eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.

Illyricus and Osiander relating the custom of the Romans in the election of their chief Magistrates, to write his name to whom they gave their voice in a white stone, thus comment upon the words of my text: Him that overcometh I will entertain with hidden Manna, and I will declare him heir apparent to a crown in heaven, I will elect him to a kingdom.

Pareus expoundeth novum nomen, nomen dignitate praestans, a name of honor and renown.

Junius glosseth it, signum & indicium novitatis vitae, a sign and token of newness of life.

Lastly, Victor Pictabionensis, Sardus, Beda, Bulenger, Melo, Primasius, Rupertus, Pererius, and other expositors, generally concur upon Filius Dei; the new name; say they, written in the white stone, is the sun of God. Which their opinion they illustrate by other texts of Scripture; as namely, Rom. 8.15.16. and, 1 Joh. 3.1. and they back it with this reason; The new name here is such a one as no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it, and what can that name be but the title of the sons of God, which no man knoweth, saving he that receiveth the Spirit of adoption, whereby he crieth Abba Father; which Spirit testifieth to his spirit that he is the child of God? All other expositions may after a sort be reduced to this, for this is a blessed name, according to Carthusians interpretation: for the children of God are the children of the resurrection, and they are most happy. It is the name of Christian conquerors, according to Victorinus and Aretas his gloss; for everyone that is borne of God overcometh the world; and, this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. This is also a symbol and token of newness of life; for all the regenerate sons of God have put on the new man. This name indeed is a glorious name in Pareus his sense; for if it were an honor to David to be son-in-law to an earthly King, how much more honorable is it to be the adopted son of the King of heaven? Lastly, this name importeth, according to Illyricus and Osianders joint explication, haeredem vitae aeternae, heir of eternal life; for if sons, then heirs.

And thus, as you hear, the strings are tuned, and all interpretations accorded: now I set to the lessons, or doctrinal points, which are four;

• 1 The title of sons, novum nomen.
• 2 The assurance of this title, inscriptum calculo.
• 3 The knowledge of this assurance, novit qui recipit.
• 4 The propriety of this knowledge, nemo novit nisi qui recipit

The Roman Generals after their conquests of great countries and cities, had new names given unto them; as to Publius Scipio was given the surname of Africanus, to Lucius Scipio of Asiaticus, to Metellus of Numidicus, to Pompey of Hierosolymarius: in like manner our celestial Emperor promiseth to all that overcome their spiritual enemies, a new name, and eminent title of honor; even that which Alexander the conqueror of the whole world most triumphed in, when the Egyptian Priest saluted him, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Son of God. But why is this called a new name? Either because it is unknown to the world, and worldly men; or in opposition to our old name, which was, sons of Adam. That is the name of our nature, this of grace; that of our shame and misery, this of our glory and happiness; that is a name from the earth, earthly, this is a name from the Lord of heaven, heavenly. And it appertaineth to all the Saints of God in a threefold respect:

• 1 Of Regeneration.
• 2 Adoption.
• 3 Imitation.

• Regeneration maketh them sons of God:
• Adoption heirs with Christ:
• Imitation like both.

When the Astronomer that calculated the nativity of Reginaldus Polus was derided of all, because the disposition of the man was known to all to be contrary to those characters which he gave of him, Poole facetely excused the matter, saying, Such an one I was by my first nativity as he hath described me, but since that I was born again. This 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , or second birth, though Nicodemus at the first deemed a riddle, because it could not enter into his head, how a man could re-enter his Mothers womb, and be borne the second time; yet after our Savior ingeminated this doctrine unto him, Verily, verily I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God, he gave credit unto it, as all must do who look for the inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for them: for all those are begotten again to a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, not with corruptible seed, but with incorruptible: and after they are begotten they are born again of water and the Spirit, & as new born babes they desire the sincere milk of the word, that they may grow thereby; and as they grow the old man decayeth in them, and the inward man is renewed daily. Inregard of which great alteration and change wrought in them by the Spirit of regeneration was it, that the holy Father, when he was solicited by the Mistress of his affections in former times, claiming ancient familiarity with him, put her off, saying, Ego nunc non sum ego; I am not the man thou takest me for: thou art indeed thou, remaining still in thy unregenerate estate, but I am not I. And unless we all feel and observe in us a transformation by the renewing of our mind, that we may prove what is that good, that acceptable and perfect will of God, we cannot challenge to ourselves this new name, whereunto the Saints of God have yet a second right, by the Spirit of adoption.

Adoption, as Aquinas defineth it, is, by conformity to the image of the natural son of God; imperfectly by grace here, and perfectly by glory hereafter. But this great School-man, it seemeth, was no great Lawyer, nor dived deep into the nature of Adoption; which he here counfoundeth partly with sanctification, which is our conformity in part to Christ by grace; and partly with glorification, which is our perfect conformity to him, when our sanctification is consummate in heaven. In precise truth, adoption is not by our conformity to the image of Christ, but our conformity to the image of Christ is by the spirit of adoption. Adoption, saith Seneca, is a most sacred thing, containing in it an imitation of nature, civilly giving them sons, whom nature hath left childless; and it may be briefly defined, a legal supply of a natural defect, whereby they who can beget no children, yet make heirs, to propagate their names to posterity, ut sic abolita seculis nomina per successores novos fulgeant. According to which definition, God cannot be properly said to adopt any children, though he give them the titles of sons, and make them coheirs with Christ: for adoptio est fortunae remedium, is provided as a remedy and comfort of those who are destitute of children, and want heirs; God wanteth none, neither doth he adopt for his contentment, but for our solace and comfort. In civil adoption the son begotten is not adopted, the adopted is not begotten:

But in the divine adoption it is otherwise. For God adopteth no son by grace whom he regenerateth not by his Spirit. Moreover, in civil adoption the ground is either consanguinity or affinity, which moved Julius to adopt Octavius: or if neither, eminency of virtue and similitude of disposition, which induced Nerva to adopt Trajan. But in the divine adoption on the contrary, God adopteth not us because of any kindred or alliance in us to him antecedently; but he sent his son to take our nature upon him, and become kin to us, that for his sake he might have some occasion to adopt us. Men adopt those in whom they see worth, but God first loveth and giveth worth, that he may more worthily adopt: and they whom he so adopteth by the grace which he conferreth upon them, procure to themselves a third right to this title of sons by imitation of their father.

This imitation consisteth in walking after the Spirit, as he is a Spirit: in following after holiness, as he is most holy: in loving mercy, as his mercy is over all his works: in purifying our hearts and hands, as he is purity it self: in doing good to those that deserve ill of us, as he causeth his sun to rise upon the good and the bad, and his rain to fall upon the just and the unjust: lastly, to aspire to perfection, as he is perfection it self. In the holy language of Scripture rather expression of virtue than impression of feature maketh a son: all that through faith prevail with God are accounted of the seed of Israel, and all believers the sons of Abraham: and because the unbelieving Jews did not the works of Abraham, Christ denieth them to be his children. If ye were the children of Abraham, ye would do the works of Abraham. Whereupon Chrysologus inferreth, He that doth not the works of his Progenitors, in effect disclaimeth his linage. Constantine the great took not such joy in his son Constantius because he favored him in his countenance, as because he saw in his tender years an assay, and as it were the first draught of his own virtues. On the contrary, the Roman Censors took such a distaste at the son of Africanus for his debauched life, that they took a ring off his finger, in which the image of his father was engraven, because he so much degenerated from his fathers excellent virtues; they would not suffer him to wear his fathers picture in a ring, whose image he bare not in his mind: neither will God suffer any to bear his name, and be accounted his sons, who bear not his image, who resemble not his attributes in their virtues, his simplicity in their sincerity, his immutability in their constancy, his purity in their chastity, his goodness in their charity, his holiness in their piety, his justice in their integrity. Regeneration is wrought in the heart known to God only; adoption is an act sped in the court of heaven, which none knoweth on earth but he that receiveth an exemplification of it by the Spirit: but imitation of our heavenly Father, by a heavenly conversation, proclaimeth us to all the world to be his sons. The title thus cleared, the next point is the perpetuity thereof, represented unto us by the engraving the new name in the white stone: I will give him a white stone, and in it a new name written or engraven. When the Pharisees appeached the woman taken 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , in the foul act of adultery, it is there said, that our Savior stooping down wrote on the ground: but what he wrote the Evangelist writeth not. Saint Ambrose ghesseth that he wrote Earth accuseth earth: St. Augustine these words, He that among you is free from sin, let him cast the first stone. Others are of opinion that he wrote in the dust some private sins of the accusers; whose opinion hath thus far footing in Scripture, that God, whose mercy is over all his works, writeth the sins of men in dust, but his gifts and favors with a Diamond in precious gems; as we may see on Aaron's breastplate, and here in a solid white stone.

White stones, such as this in my text, were in great use among the Romans, and served

• 1 To declare the victor or conqueror in proving masteries.
• 2 To acquit the accused in courts of justice.
• 3 To deliver suffrages in the election of Magistrates.

Upon all these uses the allegory in my text toucheth. For this white stone is given in token of victory, Vincenti dabo: and before I demonstrated it to be an evidence of our justification; and now I shall show it to be an assurance of our election to a kingdom in heaven. As in the civil, so much more in the divine use, the act signified or done by it is altogether irrevocable. He to whom the white stone was given in the theater, or wheresoever the silver games were kept, or prizes plaid, was ever held Victor, and carried that title to his grave. He upon whom the Judges passed their sentence by casting white stones into an urne or pitcher, was forever acquitted of the crime laid to his charge. He who gave his voice to any man, by writing his name in a white stone, neither did nor could after vary: and shall we think that he to whom Christ giveth his white stone shall ever lose the benefit thereof? The names of the twelve tribes engraven upon the twelve precious stones on Aaron's breast-plate, continued for many hundreds of years, as you may read in Josephus, and may be in them still for ought we know; yet if they could be razed out, certainly their names cannot be blotted out which are written in heaven. The calling and gifts of God are without repentance, especially this of adoption in Saint Ambrose his judgment: What, saith he, can God the Father reverse his own grants? can he cast him out of his fatherly grace, whom he hath once adopted? by no means. For though a servant may cease to be a servant if his Master cashiere him; and a tenant to be a tenant if he have forfeited his estate, yet a son cannot cease to be a son; he that is borne, cannot but be borne; and if he be borne of God he cannot 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , though he may 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , he cannot do though he may suffer sin, that is, he cannot practice it, as a man doth his trade or profession, in a settled course, without check of conscience, or reluctancy, because the seed of God remaineth in him, which fighteth against the poison instilled by Satan, and will in the end conquer it, because it is incorruptible seed. When a child of God is at the worst, and hath received the greatest foil in temptation, he remaineth still the child of God quoad sigillum, though not quoad signum; according to the seal, though not according to the sign: lose he may the sign in himself, but God cannot lose his seal.

You will say peradventure, this assertion openeth a window to presumption, and carnal liberty: nay rather it shutteth the leaves against it, and fasteneth them with surest bolts and bars. For lay this for a ground, that he that hath received the Spirit of regeneration, and grace of adoption, cannot sin desperately, nor give absolute way to any corruption: the conclusion to be built upon it will be this (which necessarily checketh and choketh all presumptuous thoughts) That whosoever defileth his mouth with oaths or lies, his hand with bribes, his body with uncleanness, his conscience with any known sin, finding in himself no check with it, no struggling against it, no smiting of the heart after it, no earnest desire, and in the end effectual working out of it; was never a true convert, the sun of righteousness never rose on him, because he yet lieth frozen in the dregs of his natural corruption. Stay me with flagons, and comfort me with apples, for I am sick of love; the doctrine of the perpetuity of the regenerates estate is a cup of the strongest wine in those flagons, which must be given to none but such as amore languent, such as have been contracted to Christ, and have received from him many jewels of grace, and infallible tokens of special affection, though at the present by some fearful provocation, they have so far incurred his displeasure, that he will not look upon their tears, nor hearken to their sighs or groans, nor once turn his countenance towards them, which they infinitely value above their life. To these we are to minister this cordial; That Christ his contract with the soul is indissoluble, that the Covenant of his peace is immovable, that the seed of regeneration is immortal, that whom God loveth he loveth to the end, that they may have lost the sense, but they cannot the essence of true faith, that their new name is still written upon the white stone, though such a mist be cast before their eyes that they cannot read it now; but after a great defluxe of penitent tears, Christ will anoint them with the eye-salve of his Spirit, and then they shall clearly see and read it: for he that receiveth it knoweth it. And so I fall into the third point, the knowledge of this perpetuity:

He knoweth it who receiveth it. As the eye seeth either

1. Per radium rectum, a straight line drawn from the eye to the object: Or,

2. Per radium reflexum, a beam reflected from the object to the eye: so the soul hath a double knowledge; direct, of the object; and reflex, of her own acts. As when I look in a glass I look upon myself looking in it: when I touch my pulse I feel my feeling of it: in like manner the soul by reflexive knowledge apprehendeth her own apprehension, judgeth of her own judgment, and believeth her own faith and belief. How can there be any assurance by faith, if there be no assurance of faith it self? Saint Augustine is most express for this reflexive act of faith: Faith it self, saith he, is seen in the mind, though we believe those things by faith which we cannot see: and again, Faith is in the inward parts of the soul, neither can any man see it in another, but in himself he may. Could there be any doubt of this, I would evict it out of the express words of our Savior ( Joh. 14.20.) In that day you shall know that I am in the Father, and you in me, and I in you. And of Saint Paul: Examine yourselves whether you be in the faith or no. Know ye not yourselves that Christ is in you, except you be reprobates? And, I know whom I have believed. And, We have not received the Spirit of the World, but the Spirit of God, that we might know the things that are freely given us of God. Hang up a taper or a carbuncle in a dark room, and you shall perceive that first it discovereth it self by its own light, and then all things in the room. This taper or carbuncle is faith in the soul, which as it manifesteth all other graces, so most clearly also it self. The heat by the incident beam of the sun is but weak, the greatest is by the reflected: so is it in the act of faith, there is but small warmth of comfort from the direct act, whereby we believe the singular privileges of all true believers; the greatest comfort is by the reflexive, viz. that we are true believers, and share in those comforts. Without this reflexive knowledge there can be no 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , full persuasion in our minds, much less access with confidence. Which yet the ancient Fathers not only teach plainly out of the Apostle, but also show manifestly how it may be obtained. S. Basil putteth this case of conscience: How may the soul assuredly be persuaded that God hath forgiven unto her her sins? And he resolveth it thus: When she findeth in her self the like disposition and affection to his, that said, I hate iniquity, and all false ways I utterly abhor. Saint Ambrose thus: He that cleaveth to that leaven is made himself leaven, and thereby sure of his own salvation, and secure of gaining others to the faith. Saint Leo thus: If they find any of the fruits of charity in their conscience, let them not doubt but that God is in them. But we need not borrow torch light where the sun shineth so bright in holy scriptures. He that believeth in the son of God hath the testimony in himself: And, the Spirit testifieth to our spirit, that we are the sons of God; the Spirit of God warranteth the major, In whomsoever the marks of God's children, set down in scripture, are conspicuous, they are the sons of God: our Spirit testifieth the minor, that these marks are in us. Now because this assumption can be proved no otherwise than by experience, and our own inward sense, my fourth observation hence directly ensueth, That no man knoweth the new name save he that receiveth it: which is the last point now to be touched, and note to be quavered on in my close, viz. the propriety of this knowledge.

None knoweth save he that receiveth it. For no man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man that is in him. If this white stone were visible to the eye of the body, and it were given to us in presence of others, it could not be but that some should see and know it besides him that receiveth it. But this white stone is conspicuous only to the eye of faith, which is the evidence of things not seen, and it is given by the Spirit which is invisible, and received also by the inward faculties of our soul, which are likewise invisible. Were this knowledge only conjectural, and gathered from outward signs and tokens, others might have notice thereof as well as ourselves: but the Spirit saith here, No man knoweth save he that receiveth it. It must be therefore a special act of special faith whereby we are assured of our adoption by faith, and of faith by the Spirit. Ansbertus giveth good aim to the meaning of this text: Suppose two (saith he) commending honey, of whom the first discourseth out of his reading, the tongue of the second hath tasted that he speaketh of, such (saith he) is the knowledge of him who hath received the white stone. Others may know it in specie, but he in individuo: others contemplatively, but he experimentally. Sardus cometh nearer the mark, This name (saith he) is of such excellency, that no man knoweth it, that is, the value and worth of it, but he who is adopted by God. Rupertus hitteth it; Why (saith he) doth no man know this name saving he that receiveth it? Because this name cannot be known by any outward document, but by an inward experiment; not by external evidence, but by inward sense: therefore no man knoweth it saving he whom the Spirit by regeneration maketh the son of God, and by the same act maketh him know it. There is a great difference between a contemplative and an experimental knowledge of the privileges of God's children. A blind man from his birth may hear the theory of the Sun read unto him, but he can never conceive rightly of the beauty of that glorious lamp of heaven, or take the hundredth part of that delight which we do who see it. The discourse of the Jewish Rabbins concerning the delicacy of this Manna in my text is sweet, but nothing to the taste of it. The meditations of Divines upon the joys of heaven are able to ravish the soul with delight, yet are they nothing to St. Paul's rapture into the third heaven: so far experimental knowledge in particular exceedeth contemplative in general. Out of this experimental knowledge the Spouse testifieth, I have eaten my honey comb, with my honey. To this the Prophet David inviteth, O taste and see how gracious the Lord is. For this the Apostle prayeth, that the Philippians might abound in all spiritual wisdom and experience, or sense: and this is the knowledge here meant.

You have heard the lessons set in the lines of my text; what remaineth but that according to my proposed method I direct you to foot the spiritual dance accordingly?

1 And in the stone a new name. Mutatio nominis mutatio hominis, a new name should carry with it a new man. When God changed Jacob's name into Israel he changed his condition: and certainly Christ giveth this new name to none, to whom he giveth not withal a new nature. If therefore we expect that Christ should write this new name in a white stone, and give it us; let us give all diligence that the image of the new man may shine in our souls; otherwise, if the old Adam be young in us, if our old infirmities be strong in us, if the old leaven puffing us up with pride, and souring the whole lump of our nature is still in us; if our old corruptions, be they vicious, or ambitious, or a varitious, or superstitious, still master us, this white stone here mentioned will prove a black stone to us, and this new name written in it a hand-writing against us. For a holy and godly title in a wicked man improveth the guilt of his sin.

This new name is the title of the Son of God, which appellation should bind us to our good behavior, that we carry ourselves so in private towards God, so in public towards men, so holily in our devotion, so faithfully in our vocation, so uprightly in our conversation, that we may be

children not unworthy to be owned by such a Father, who hath adopted us in Christ. What a shame is it for a Prince, or the son of a Noble man to filch and cheat, and take base courses, and live sordidly? Tertullian strongly refuteth Montanus his prophecies by his personal infirmities; What? (saith he) a Prophet, and a Dicer? a Prophet, and an Usurer? a Prophet, and fleshly given? a Prophet, and distemper himself with drink? We may streigne this string higher, What? a Christian believer, and a Pagan liver? the Son of God, and do the works of the Devil? the child of light, and walk in darkness, in gluttony, chambering and wantonness, strife and envying? an heir of heaven, and all his mind and thoughts upon the mucke and dung of the earth? Why dost thou reproach thine own name? Why dost thou disgrace thy greatest honor? Why dost thou overthrow thine own title by thy deeds?

3 If Christ hath written our new name in a white stone, let us imprint his name in our hearts, as Ignatius did, and that so deeply, if we may believe the Legend, that the characters thereof were legible in it after his death: let us sing a new song to him that hath given us this new name.

4 If no man upon earth know to whom Christ hath given this white stone saving he that receiveth it, let us take heed how we suddenly write any man's name in a black stone, I mean pass the censure of Reprobates upon them. The Judge himself adviseth not to judge, lest we be judged. The foundation of God remaineth sure, having this seal, God knoweth who are his, not we: we ought to labor for the reformation, and pray for the conversion, and hope for the salvation of any to whom God, for ought we know, may give repentance unto life, as he hath given to us: They cannot be worse than we have been. Let no man arrogantly assume that to himself which the Father hath reserved to himself alone, viz. the fan to sever the wheat from the chaff in Christ's floor.

5 Lastly, if we desire to eat of the hidden Manna, let us loathe the fleshpots of Egypt; if we covet this white stone, let us value it above all precious stones; if we expect this new name, let us contemn the titles of the world: let us study less other men's titles and states on earth, and more our own state in God's promises, and title to heaven: let us view in the glass of holy Scripture the true marks of God's children, and seek to find them all in ourselves. So shall we be sure before death closeth up our eyes, to have a sight of this new name here, and after we remove hence to read it written in glorious characters in the gates and walls of the new Jerusalem, descending from God, whose streets are paved with gold, and the gates and foundations of the walls garnished with pearls and all sorts of precious stones: into which heavenly Mansions, when we are ready for them, God receive us for his sake, who is gone thither before to prepare them for us. To whom, &c.

SATANAE STRATAGEMATA. THE XXIX. SERMON.

SCaliger hath long since set forth an excellent work de emendatione temporum, but we need rather books de emendatione morum. For in this Chrisis of distempered humors, such is the condition of most hearers, that the Minister of God, though upon good warrant from his text, can hardly rebuke the public enemies of Church or State, but he shall procure private enemies to himself. Everyone is jealous that something is said or meant by our Paul's against his great Diana. If he stand for, or be inclinable unto the new, or newly taken up expressions of devotion, he suspects the Preacher glanceth at him under the name of a temporizer, or symbolizer with Papists. If he be averse from such customs and rites, he conceiveth himself to be taxed under the name of a refractary Non-conformitant. If he make any great show of religion, he thinks himself pointed at in the reproof of an Hypocrite; if little or no show, he feels himself galled in the reprehension of the profane worldling. If he relish the leaven of Arminius, he takes himself to be wounded through the Pelagians; if of Cartwright, through the Brownists; if of Cassander, or the Catholic Moderator, through the lukewarm Laodicean sides. Yet I have met with an enemy, through whose sides I am sure no man will hold himself wounded, whose part no man will take, whose quarrels no man will own, against whom it is lawful to cast not only fiery, but also poisoned darts,

whom to particularize is discretion; to stigmatize, moderation; to curse to the deep pit of hell, piety; to hate with a perfect hatred, the top of Christian charity: I mean the grand enemy of mankind, whose name and spiritual snares you hear of in the reading of my text; but through God's help shall see, and handle them, and pull them asunder in the explication and application thereof.

Chabryas was wont to say, that he was the best Commander in war who best understood his enemies. For knowing wherein their strength consisted, he could prepare against it; and being acquainted with the manner of their fight, he could discipline his soldiers accordingly; and having good intelligence what courses they meant to take, he could prevent them therein, and always work upon the advantage. As in all other sciences and arts, so in the military profession there are certain axioms, maxims, or general rules: whereof the first is, Whatsoever is good for our enemies is always hurtful to us; for his gain is our loss, his rise is our fall, his honor is our infamy, his help is our hindrance, his devices are our snares, his plots are our traps, his inventions are our circumventions. Wherefore it cannot but be a matter of great importance to all that fight under the banner of Christ's cross against Satan and all his infernal forces, to be informed out of Scripture, and the observations of the best experienced soldiers in our spiritual warfare, wherein our ghostly enemies strength lieth, after what manner he assaulteth us, and what are his usual stratagems whereby he most prevaileth; ut praemoniti, simus praemuniti, that being forewarned of them, we way be forearmed against them. To which end, among others, I pitched my serious thoughts upon this passage of Scripture; wherein one of Christ's Worthies, who in his time fought many noble battles, and was more than conqueror in them all, advertiseth the Corinthians of a design that Satan had upon them, viz. by the rigor of their severity to cast away one of the members of their Church, whom they had cast out of their congregation for his incestuous match. There was great reason the Elders and Governors at Corinth should be exasperated against this delinquent, qui primus nitorem ecclesiae tam turpi notâ maculasset, who was the first that blemished that Virgin Spouse of Christ: and therefore having received warrant from the Apostle to proceed against him, they draw out their sharp sword of excommunication, and presently cut him off from their assemblies; never thinking they could do enough to manifest to the world their detestation of so foul a fact, and fouler a scandal. Hereupon the common adversary worketh, hardening their hearts more and more by a colorable pretence of zeal, and locking up their ears against the prayers, and shutting their eyes at the tears and lowest submission of this disconsolate penitent; that so he being out of all hope of restitution to his former state, might run some desperate course. And very like it was that Satan would have gone beyond them all, had not the Apostle descried this his subtle device, and discovered it unto them in this clause of his letter, which carrieth this sense:

The words contain in them a wise prevention of a subtle circumvention; wherein I observe

• 1 A caution,
• 2 A reason.

The caution most seasonable, lest Satan should get an advantage.

The reason most forcible, for we are not ignorant of his devices.

In the former we are to take special notice,

• 1 Of the caveat put in, ne circumveniat.
• 2 Of the party against whom it is put in, Satanas.
• 3 Of the parties in whose behalf it is put in, nos.

• 1 Him.
• 2 You.
• 3 Mee.

The reason is drawn from two heads,

• 1 The cause of the danger, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , They are devices.
• 2 The notice thereof, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , We are not ignorant of them.

First, of the caution: 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . Some render these words, lest Satan should usurp upon you; and they give this reason, because, say they, Satan hath no right to any place; wheresoever he getteth footing he is an intruder and usurper: like Antiochus surnamed Hierax, the Hawk, who had no estate or patrimony left him, but preyed upon others territories, and by rapine patched out a kingdom to himself. Others read, lest Satan circumvent us, agreeably to the circumstances of the place, and the practice of the devil; who being demanded by God, from whence he came, answered, from compassing the earth; & cur circuit, nisi ut circumveniat? why doth he compass the earth, but to circumvent us? Circumvention is more easily understood, than prevented or avoided. A Wrestler who can circumvenire, come about his adversary, taketh hold where he list to his best advantage: in a duel fought on horse-back, he that can nimbly turn his beast, and circumvenire, come about his Antagonist, he striketh him at pleasure: when a passenger is met by a thief at every turn, he is properly circumvented: when a city is environed and begirt with a puissant army, that is circumvented, there is no hope to escape. By which few instances you may perceive how apt this phrase is to express the great danger of Satan his temptations. Yet the Kings Translation (lest Satan get advantage of us) cometh nearest to the Greek Etymology, which imports, to have more or the better, to gain over and above: and Oecumenius the Greek Scholiast descanteth upon this signification of the word after this manner: Doth not Satan gain over and above, when he gains upon us both ways, when he getteth an advantage of us both by sin and repentance, both by vicious pleasures, and by godly sorrow? as he would have done upon this Corinthian, whom first he persuaded to make an incestuous match, to satisfy his lustful desires; and after he felt the smart of his sin, and severe censure of the Church, he wrought upon his sorrow, and sought to drive him into desperation.

But why doth the Apostle say, lest he get advantage of us? was Saint Paul in any danger, or had Satan any design upon him? We may piously conceive that Saint Paul joins himself with them, because he esteemed all those whom he begot to Christ by the Gospel, no other than his own children; and the Father cannot but suffer in the loss of his child. The shepherd must needs be endamaged when any of his flock is diminished. Who is offended, saith Saint Paul, and I burn not? yet this is not all, Saint Paul was further interested in this business than so: for the Corinthians had excommunicated this incestuous person by order from the Apostle himself, and therefore if he had miscarried, Satan had made his advantage upon all: upon the incestuous person, whose soul he would have ruined; upon the Church, which he had maimed of a member; upon the Corinthians, and S. Paul himself, under whose hands this patient had been so roughly handled, that he died in the cure. These were Satan's reaches, or as they are here called, devices; which he could not carry so closely, but that the Apostles vigilant eye descried them: for, saith he,

We are not ignorant of his devices. Did the householder know what night the thief would come to rob him, he would certainly guard his house: did the birds know a snare were laid for them, would they come near it? were the fishes aware that a net were spread for them, would they run into it? had the soldiers certain notice of an ambush set for them, would they be surprised? Loe here, beloved, snares of temptation, nets of circumvention, ambushes of destruction, prepared by a most subtle enemy, and we are not ignorant of them; if then we be taken, entangled, or surprised, can we lay the blame upon anything but upon our careless and reckless folly? Could we plead with him in the Poet,

I was wounded by a dart I was not aware of, our case deserved some compassion: but when we know our enemy, and are foreshowed what fiery darts he prepareth for us, and when and how he will cast them at us, if we receive our deaths wound, our blood must needs be upon ourselves.

Satan assaults us two manner of ways, by his lions paw, & by his serpents sting; by open force, and by cunning sleights; by the one in time of persecution, by the other in time of peace: of the latter the Apostle here speaks, saying, we are not ignorant of his

Devices. Devices are subtle means to compass our ends, such as are tricks in gaming, fallacies in disputing, sleights in wrestling, mysteries in trading, policies in state, and stratagems in war; the enemy of our soul is full of them:

Lypsius hath written of all the warlike engines used by the ancients, and Vegetius of their military policies and Captain-craft; but never any yet was able to recount, much less describe all Satan's poliorcetickes and stratagems. Some of the chief and most dangerous, partly out of scripture, and partly out of experienced soldiers of Christ, I purpose to acquaint you with at this time.

1. The first stratagem, policy, or device of Satan is, To observe the natural constitution of every man's mind and body, and to fit his temptations thereunto. For he knoweth well, that as every plant thrives not in every soil, so neither every vice in every temper and complexion. Though there be in every man a general averseness from good, and propension to evil; and albeit nature, as it is corrupted since the fall, be a step-dame to all virtue, and a mother to all vices, yet she is not equally affected in everyone, to all her own children. Some ill conditions are more incident to some climats, to some countries, to some families, than others. The Eastern people were for the most part given to sorcery, the ancient Jews to idolatry, the Greeks to curious heresy, the Latin Church to superstition. Unnaturall lust seemeth to be naturalized in Italy, pride in Spain, levity in France, drunkenness in Germany, gluttony and new fangled fashions in great Britain. Ambition haunteth the Court mostly, faction the University, luxury and usury the City, oppression and extortion the Country, bribery and forged cavillations the Courts of justice, schism and simony the Church. Pliny writeth of some families, that they had privy marks in their bodies, peculiar to those of that line; the like may be found in men's minds: and everyone herein is like the Leopard,

he favoreth his own spots. These spots Satan curiously marketh, and accordingly frames his suggestions: he observes our walks, and spies our usual haunts, and there sets gins for us. As the Mariner marks the wind, and accordingly hoiseth up or striketh sails: or as the cunning Orator learneth which way the Judge propendeth, and ever draweth him where he seeth him coming on; so the Devil maketh perpetual use of the bent of our nature to help forward his temptations, rightly considering that it is a very easy matter to bow a tree the way it bendeth of it self, to cast a bowle swiftly down the hill, to push down a wall where it swaggeth already, to trip up his heels whose foot is sliding. He would find it a matter of some difficulty to tempt a phlegmatic man to quarrelling and contention, a choleric man to sloth and sluggishness, a melancholy man to excess of mirth, a man of a sanguine complexion to over much sorrow, because the bias of their constitution carrieth them to the contrary affections. What then doth this crafty Sinon? he creepeth into the bosom of the choleric man, by adding fuel to his natural fire, and whetting his desire of revenge; of the sanguine, by preparing a sweet bit for his liquorish taste; of the phlegmatic, by making a down bed for him to sleep in it securely; of the melancholy, by opening a spring to pensive thoughts, and driving him along upon a full stream of sorrow into the gulf of despair.

2. The second stratagem, policy, or device is, To observe our natural abilities and endowments, and accommodate his temptations thereunto. Like a cunning Poet he fits every actour with a part agreeable. Ex quolibet ligno non fit Mercurius, Every piece of timber will not serve to carve Mercury on; neither is every man fit to make an Arch-traitor or Heretic. He that will be the ring-leader of rebellion, had need be a man of great parts and power. Such was Jeroboam in Israel, Cyrus the younger in the Persian state, Arbaces in the Assyrian, Alcibiades and Themistocles in the Athenian, Hannibal in the Carthaginian, the Gracchi, and Marius, and Cinna, and Sylla, and Catiline in the Roman state. None but a man of a curious wit, and a prying Spirit into the secrets of nature, would busy himself in astrologicall and magical speculations: Satan therefore finding Zoroastres of old, and Cornelius Agrippa of late, fitted for this purpose, used their brains and pens, under the title of natural magic, or hidden philosophy, to commend sorcery, figure-casting, and negromancy to the world. When Absalom went about to dispossess his Father, a wise and puissant Prince, of his kingdom, he needed a man of a deeper reach than his own to be his Counselor: therefore Satan sends him Achitophel, the cunningest Politician that age afforded, whose ungodly Maxims and state Aphorisms, fit for no Court but Lucifers in hell, passed by tradition for the most part, till that Florentine monster Nicolaus Machiavel committed them to writing. The invention and maintenance of heresy is no work of a dull wit or illiterate apprehension; which the Father of lies and all falsehood understanding, employed the subtilest Philosophers to devise and defend impious novelties against the Orthodox faith. In which regard Tertullian fitly termeth Philosophers the Patriarchs of Heretics; from whom we may derive the pedigree of Arius, and Sabellius, and Coelestius, and Pelagius, the fragments of whose works yet extant in the Fathers writings, show the subtlety of their wits, and their excellent skill in sophistry. Neither was Servetus much inferior to Arius, nor Socinus to Coelestius, nor Gentilis to Sabellius, nor Arminius to Pelagius, who in our days have uttered some of their wares at second hand, setting only a new gloss of words upon them. As Phillis in the Poet pitifully complaineth against Demophoon for flying away from her in the fleet of ships she furnished him withal:

so the Church and University have just cause to exclaim against her own children of eminent parts, that they have given her the deepest wounds by those weapons of art and authority wherewith she armed them.

The third stratagem, policy or device of Satan is, To accommodate his temptations to men's outward estate, condition, and place; which much swayeth either way. For you shall seldom hear of a man in high honor humble, or in disgrace proud; in prosperity distrustful, or in extreme misery hopeful; in wealth discontent, or in poverty patient; in abundance temperate, or in want luxurious; in health and strength mortified, or in sickness lustful. Had not the Philosopher, in the second of his Rhetorickes, taught us what impressions these outward things make upon the mind, we might have read it in the Greek and Latin proverbs, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Honores mutant mores. Who knoweth not that tyranny is often incident to sovereignty, ambition to nobility, oppression to power, insolency to wealth, and luxury to abundance, as contrary vices to contrary fortunes? Whereupon the subtle spy of mankind suggesteth evil motions, agreeable as well to our outward estate as our inward qualities: he shooteth his poisoned arrows always with the wind, that they may be carried with a double force, the motion of the air and the strength of his arm; and hard it is if he prevail not, when both our natural temper and parts, and our outward condition and calling help forward his attempts against us. Adam was no sooner made by God a Prince on earth, but he tempteth him to aspire higher, even to be like God himself the King of heaven; and this temptation taketh, because it well suited with Adams present honor and happiness. Nimrod was a mighty man, Satan therefore tempteth him to violence and tyranny; and his temptation taketh, because it met with a fit subject. Nebuchadnezzar was a great, puissant, and magnificent Prince, Satan therefore tempteth him to pride and vain-glory; and this temptation taketh, because it was suitable to the high quality of that Monarch. Joab was a great Commander in war, Satan therefore tempteth him to a bloody revenge on Abner his competitor; and this temptation taketh, because it fitted so well Joab's profession and present discontent. Haman was King Asuerus his favourite, and could ill brook any to rise in the Kings Court, Satan therefore tempteth him to envy Mardocheus, and lay a plot to destroy him and all the Jewish nation; and this temptation taketh, because it sorted well with the proud stomach of that Princes Minion. To conclude with the worst of all men, Judas; Satan saw that he had the bag, and was basely covetous, repining at any extraordinary expense, even upon his Masters person, therefore he tempteth him by money to betray his Master; and this temptation took, because it so well agreed with Judas his disposition and employment. Eutrapeles, as it seemeth, had good experience how men's inward minds changed with their outward garb: for,

if he had aspleen at any, and intended to ruin them, he sent them rich & costly apparel; not doubting but after they had put it on, they would withal take upon them, and by their insolent carriage bring themselves into danger. We cannot but smile when we read of Bucephalus, that when he had on his rich caparisons, and held his golden bit between his teeth, he would suffer none to mount upon him but Alexander; but when he was out of his costly trappings any Page or Lackey might back him. Have we not greater reason, I will not say to laugh at, but to pity the folly of most men, who, according to the words of the Psalmist, being in honor have no understanding, but may be compared to the beast that perisheth? Their purple robes are no sooner on but they reflect upon their own worth and wisdom, and trample those who were before their equals, underfoot.

4. The fourth stratagem, policy, or device is, To tempt us by method, beginning with questionable actions, thence proceeding to sins of infirmity, from them to willful transgressions, after to heinous crimes, and last of all to obstinacy and final impenitency. No wool or clothe is died purple or scarlet at the first, but after divers tinctures, at the last taketh that deepest die: so doth the soul scarlet and crimson sins, after many lesser faults of an inferior die or stain.

No man at one leap gets up to the top of all impiety: therefore Satan takes him by the hand and leads him by these several steps;

• 1 An evil motion, plot, or design.
• 2 The entertainment of it with some kind of approbation.
• 3 A determination to pursue it.
• 4 A vicious action.
• 5 An evil habit or custom.
• 6 The defense or justification of his wicked course.
• 7 Glorying in it, and in a reprobate sense.

He that hastily turns the pegge to wind up a treble to his pitch, will sooner break the string than tune it; but if he strain it up by little and little, he bringeth it without danger to the height. Had Satan at the first dash tempted Saint Peter to forswear his Master, and curse himself, doubtless the Apostle would have abandoned the suggestion, and defied the tempter; who yet wrought upon him by degrees, and at length obtained his end. First he cooleth his zeal, persuading him not to run upon danger; but if he were resolved to see what would become of his Master, to follow him afar off: when he comes slowly to the high Priests palace, he sets a damsel upon him to question him, and upon a light apprehension of danger he gains from him an unadvised denial; after, upon greater fear, a double and treble abnegation; in conclusion an oath, to make good his former denials. If this grand Impostor of the world, and cunning supplanter of souls meet with a man of a strict conscience, who endeavoreth to walk uprightly before God; first he trieth to bring him to venture upon questionable actions, such things as may bear a dispute whether they are sins or no, as statute usury (to take eight in the hundred): legal simony (to buy the next advowson of a living, the Incumbent lying desperately sick): customary sacrilege (to pay a certain rate for the tithe, though far less in value than the due.) If he get thus much ground of him, he easily presseth him forward to commit some undoubted sins, but small in the kind; as to let his eyes range about vain objects, to entertain a wanton thought for a while, to keep from Church in foul weather, to salve a fault with a hansome excuse, to mis-spend an hour or two with a friend in a Tavern: after Satan hath gained thus much of him, he will easily draw him from making little account of small sins, to make small account of great. For as the wimble bores a hole for the auger, so less sins make way for greater; idleness for wantonness, lust for adultery, wrath for murder, lying for perjury, errors for heresies, good fellowship for drunkenness and all wickedness. Milo by carrying a calf at the first, and after a bullock, was able in fine to bear an ox. And it is storied of Mithridates King of Pontus, that by taking weak poisons at the first, & by degrees stronger, in the end he brought his body to that temper, that no poison could work upon him.

Thus custom in small sins at the first, and in greater after, makes us in the end insensible of all. This rule of Satan's method extendeth farther than private corruption in men's minds. For thus sensim sine sensu, tyranny, heresy, and superstition overran the greater part of the Church. The Bishop of Rome in the beginning contended but for a bare primacy of order, which considering the great power of that City, being the seat of the Empire, was without much difficulty yielded unto him: after he pretends to a little more, viz. receiving the last appeals from the sentence of the other Patriarchs; this Sozimus stickled for, alleging for it a Canon of the Council of Nice, which the African Bishops proved to be forged. By Boniface the third his time he durst to put in for the title of Universal Bishop, which he obtained, though with much ado, through the Emperor Phocas his means, who murdered his Master Maurice. By virtue of this title his successor Vitalianus took upon him to give spiritual laws to the whole Church; and after him Pope Hildebrand to give temporal laws to Kings and Princes, to depose them at pleasure, and to dispose of their crowns. As tyranny, so superstition and Idolatry stole pedetentim into the Church. First to confirm Christians in the faith of the resurrection, and to encourage them to constancy in their holy profession, in the Church Liturgy there was some commemoration made of the dead; after this commemoration succeeded anniversary panegyrickes in their commendation soon after, public giving thanks to God for them by name; and last of all, direct invocation of them. In like manner gross Idolatry crept into the Church. First images and pictures of Saints were used in private for memory, history, or ornament only; after, upon the like color of pretence in St. Gregory's days they were brought into the Church, with an express prohibition of worshipping them. In the next age the worship of them was enjoined by Pope Adrian in the second Synod at Nice; yet not for themselves, but respectively only in regard of that which they represent: but now in our age, since the Council of Trent, it is the tenent of the Roman Church, that Images are to be worshipped for themselves, Ut in se considerantur, non tantum ut vicem gerunt exemplaris; and farther the Heathen go not in their Idolatry, nor the wiser of them so far.

5 The fifth stratagem, policy or device of Satan is to bring us from one extreme to another: when our heart smiteth us for any grievous sin out of detestation thereof, unless we walk circumspectly we are easily carried to the opposite vice. With this engine Satan maketh great batteries upon many weak Christians, not only because it is a hard thing to hit the middle, but because we are apt to think that the extremest opposition to that vice which lieth heaviest upon our conscience is the work of grace in us, not considering that vices are not only opposed to virtues, but to vices also. Our way to heaven is like the course of a ship in the Sicilian sea between two rocks called the Symplegades, the one lying on the right hand, the other on the left; between which the channel is so narrow, that few seek to decline the one but they dash on the other.

As those that go upon ropes, or pass over a narrow bridge, if they be not exceeding careful, when the body swayeth or the foot slippeth one way, by hastily leaning too far the other way they fall irrecoverably: so if we be not very watchful over our ways, in declining one vicious extremity, ere we are aware we pass the middle, and are upon the other. I need not go far for an instance; this Corinthian, before he fell into this snare of Satan, was puffed up in pride, and sinned presumptuously; but after the heavy censure of the Church for his incestuous marriage, and the remorse of his own conscience for it, he fell into the contrary extreme, took on so far, and plunged himself into so deep sorrow, that he was in great danger to be swallowed up in the gulf of despair. Demea offended not so much in rigor towards his children at the the first, as afterwards in indulgency when he felt the smart of his own rod. None usually so exceed in mirth, and run into that riot of pleasure as melancholy men when they are out of that humor. This stratagem serves Satan's turn as well in matter of faith as manners. For as vices are in both extremes, and virtue in the middle; so oftentimes errors in doctrine are in both extremes and truth in the middle: by over-reaching against one heresy we wrong the truth, hurt ourselves, and fall upon the error in the other extreme. St. Basil in his heat of opposition to Sabellius his heresy, was transported so far, that he came within the Verge of the opposite heresy, and uttered some inconvenient speeches concerning the Trinity. St. Augustine likewise in his zeal against the Pelagians, who sleightned baptism, went too far in urging the necessity thereof, pronouncing all children that died unbaptized to be damned. And how many are there among us, who out of hatred of the Antichristian tyranny, condemn all Ecclesiastical Hierarchy? out of detestation of superstitious rites, dislike even decent ceremonies? in opposition to garish and idolatrous trimming of Temples, are brought to dis-allow all cost in adorning and beautifying Christian Churches?

6 The sixth stratagem, policy or device of Satan is to turn himself into an Angel of light, and thereby to persuade the children of light that his suggestions are the motions of God's holy Spirit. This he attempteth and often effecteth by observing what gifts and graces are most eminent in God's children, and to what actions of piety or charity they are most addicted, and subtly, under the color and resemblance of these, drawing them to those neighbor vices that seem to have most affinity with their Christian perfections: like as if a cunning Lapidarie should insinuate into the company of a rich Merchant, and getting a sight of his cabbinet of Jewels, should cheat him with counterfeit stones instead of them. To discover this plot of Satan more apparently:

• 1 Religion is a true jewel, Superstition a counterfeit:
• 2 Humility a jewel, Pusillanimity a counterfeit:
• 3 Spiritual wisdom a jewel, Worldly policy a counterfeit:
• 4 Magnificence a jewel, Prodigality a counterfeit:
• 5 Tendernesse of conscience a jewel, Scrupulosity a counterfeit:
• 6 Severity a jewel, Cruelty a counterfeit:
• 7 Clemency a jewel, Indulgence a counterfeit:
• 8 Zeal a jewel, Indiscreet fervor a counterfeit:
• 9 Diligent search into divine mysteries a jewel, curiosity a counterfeit:
• 10 Inward peace a jewel, Carnal security a counterfeit:
• 11 Confidence in God a jewel, Presumption a counterfeit:
• 12 Constancy a jewel, Pertinacy a counterfeit.

Here then is Satan's masterpiece, to rob us of our precious jewels of grace, and deceive us with counterfeit in their room; by name, to adulterate and sophisticate the former virtues by the later vices:

• 1 Religion by Superstition.
• 2 Humility by Pusillanimity.
• 3 Spiritual wisdom by Policy.
• 4 Magnificence by Prodigality.
• 5 Tendernesse of conscience by Scrupulosity.
• 6 Severity by Cruelty.
• 7 Clemency by Indulgence.
• 8 Zeal by Indiscreet fervor.
• 9 Diligence by Curiosity.
• 10 Inward peace by Carnal security.
• 11 Confidence by Presumption.
• 12 Constancy by Pertinacy.

Saul was most zealous for the law of Moses: this his fervor Satan inflaming enraged him against the Apostles and Disciples, whom he as then thought to be capital enemies to the law: in this his rage he makes havoc of the Church of God, deeming that he could not do better service to God, than to be an instrument to put to death the dearest servants of Christ. The great love St. Cyprian the Martyr bare to the Orthodox faith, and the Professors thereof, bred in him a vehement detestation of Heresy and Heretics: upon this Satan works, and draweth him by degrees to question, then to condemn their baptism, and lastly to press the necessity of rebaptizing those that were baptized by them. Theodosius his infinite desire of the Church's peace was a most commendable and Christian virtue in him; yet Satan made his advantage of it, working him to some connivence at the Arians, which much prejudiced the Orthodox Professors. Who can sufficiently extol Constantine the great his love to Bishops and Churchmen? yet Satan abused this his pious respect to the Clergy, in such sort that when divers Bishops brought indictments one against another, for adultery and other foul crimes, he never so much as looked upon their papers, but presently burned them, saying, that rather than any should espy the nakedness of those his spiritual Fathers, he would cast his Princely robe over them to cover them. Whosoever readeth the story of St. Monica, would think that a son could never do too much for such a mother, who took so much pains, and shed so many tears for his conversion. Neither was she more careful for him, than he thankful to her: and would you think that Satan could suck poison out of so sweet a flower as is filial obedience to a gracious mother? yet he doth by inducing St. Augustine to pray for her soul after she was dead. How was he brought to this? Did he believe that his mothers soul was in Purgatory, or that she needed any prayer? That conceit he disclaimeth in the very same place where he prayeth for her, Credo quod jam feceris quod te rogo, sed voluntaria oris mei opproba Domine. For my mother on her death-bed desired but this one thing of me, that I would remember her in my devotions at thine Altar.

7 The seventh stratagem, policy or device of Satan is to make advantage of time, not only by alluring every age to the peculiar vices thereof, as children to idleness and vanity, youth to lust, perfect age and strength to violence and audacious attempts, old age to covetousness, and everyone to the sins of the time: but making use of the present opportunity to thrust a man suddenly into the next sin. When he had got Christ upon the pinnacle of the Temple, he tempteth him to cast himself down from it, to make experience of the Angels care and diligence in waiting on him, and bearing him in their hands, that he dash not his foot against a stone. As soon as David had spied fair Bathsheba bathing her self, he cast a fiery dart of lust at him, and wounded him at the heart. Achan's eyes were no sooner dazzled with the luster of the rich Babylonish garment, but Satan closeth with him. And as by taking advantage of the present occasion he made Achan a thief, so Gyges an adulterer, Ananias and Sapphira liars to the holy Ghost, Judas a murderer of himself. If ever a Christian is like to be in any great distress and trouble in mind, it is either in the travels of his new birth, or when he laboreth for life at his last gasp; therefore Satan at these times is most busy. In the beginning of our conversion nature is strong, and grace is weak, and the practice of religious duties is uncouth unto us; then therefore Satan sets upon us, and presents to us all our former pleasures, and amplifieth upon the austerity of a Christian course of life. At the hour of death he doubleth his files, not only because he is straightened in time, and knoweth that either then he is to prevail, or never; but because many things help his temptation, viz. the extremity of pain, the natural terror of death, and apprehension of Christ's dreadful tribunal, before which the sick party is presently to appear. Now therefore he sets upon a man in his greatest weakness of body, and consternation of mind; he chargeth him with all his sins secret and open, he exaggerateth the strictness of God's justice, and the unsufferable torments of hell: and if the dying man hath not prepared himself for this last conflict, or hath not on the whole armor of God, or cannot wield his buckler of faith, to quench all the fiery darts of the Devil, it is great ods that he wi l get the upper hand of him, and bring him, if not to die desperately, yet most uncomfortably.

To launch out of these deeps of Satan, and steer towards the haven. The knowledge of evil is good, of fraud is honest, of errors is true, of things that are most noxious wholesome; and therefore Logicians discourse accurately of fallacies, Physicians of poisons, moral Philosophers of vices, and Divines of heresies: not that we should use the first, or take the second, or practice the third, or profess the fourth; but that we be not deceived by the first, annoyed by the second, infected by the third, seduced by the fourth. And this was my first aim in laying before you these stratagems, policies, and devices of our ghostly enemy, to forewarn you of them, that you be not taken or hurt by them. But my chief was to instruct you how to employ his own engines, and turn his own ordnance upon himself, to make treacle of his poison, and use of serpentine wisdom against the serpent, after this manner.

1. First, doth Satan play the Physiognomer, and observing our natural temper fit his temptations thereunto? let us also make use of Physiognomy, and take advantage of our natural inclinations to further the work of grace in us: If we find ourselves by nature timorous, let us endeavor to improve this fear into awful reverence: if audacious, to improve this boldness into spiritual confidence: if gladsome and merry, to improve our mirth into joy in the holy Ghost: if choleric, to improve our wrath into zeal: if melancholy, to improve our pensiveness into godly sorrow.

2. Secondly, doth Satan play the Poet, and fit every Player with a part that he is best able to act? let us also make use of Poetry, and observing our natural abilities of mind and body, to fit our spiritual exercises accordingly: If we are endued with pregnancy of wit, to employ it in the study of heavenly mysteries: if with maturity of judgment, employ it in discerning between the true and false Religion, and resolving intricate cases of consciences: if with felicity of memory, employ it in treasuring up precious doctrines: if with liberty of speech, employ it in prayer, praises and godly exhortations: if with strength of body, and courage of mind, employ them in fighting the Lord's battles: if with wisdom, in prudently governing the affairs in Church and Commonwealth.

3. Thirdly, doth Satan play the Politician, and inquire into every man's estate & condition of life, and accommodate his temptations thereunto? let us also make use of policy, and by our outward estate better our inward, laboring for those graces which are most proper for our place and condition. If we are in authority, let us strive for gravity and integrity: if under the command of others, for obedience and faithfulness: if in an eminent condition, for magnanimity and magnificence: if in a low, for modesty and humility: if in abundance, for charity and thankfulness: if in want, for frugality and contentedness: if in prosperity, for temperance: if in adversity, for patience.

4. Fourthly, doth Satan play the Logician, and tempt us by method? let us also make use of Logic, and observe method in the science of salvation: let us first acquaint ourselves with the Catechism, and afterwith profounder mysteries in Divinity; let us first practice easier, and after more difficult duties of Christianity; first accustom ourselves to bear lighter, and after heavier crosses with patience: above all things to kill the cockatrice in the shell, nip sins in the bud, to resist evil motions in the beginning, to make a stop at every step by which Satan leads us: not easily to be brought to venture upon any doubtful or questionable actions; if we have ventured upon any, by no means to give consent to commit the least sin: if we have been overtaken in the act of any sin, let us take special care we break it off by speedy repentance, and make no custom of it: if through carelessness, or conversation with wicked men we have gotten an ill custom, let Satan never so far prevail with us as to stand in defense and justification thereof, much less to glory in our evil courses; but let our heart smite us for them, and let us never be at peace with ourselves till we have driven out an iron nail with a golden, an evil custom with a good.

5. Fifthly, doth Satan play the false Pilot, and by persuading us to decline from a rock on the right hand, carry us so far the contrary way that we split our ship upon a rock on the left hand? let us also make use of the art of navigation in our course to the fair havens in heaven: let us perfectly learn our way, and all points of the Compass, and carefully steer by the Card of God's Word, and keep in the straight and middle way of God's commandments, neither declining to the right hand nor to the left.

6. Sixthly, doth Satan play the crafty Merchant, and cheat us with counterfeit stones for jewels, with shows of virtues for true graces? let us also imitate the wisdom of Merchants, who will be perfect Lapidaries before they deal in pearls and precious stones: let us study the difference between true and seeming graces, and pray continually to God that we may abound more and more in knowledge, and in all judgment, that we may be able to discern things that differ, and try Spirits whether they are of God or no.

7. Lastly, doth Satan play the temporizer, and time all his suggestions? let us also in a pious sense be time-servers, let us perform all holy duties in the fittest season, let us omit no opportunity of doing good, let us take advantage of all occasions to glorify God, and help on our eternal salvation. If we hear a bell toll, let us meditate on our end, and pray for the sick lying at God's mercy: if we see an execution, let us meditate on our frailty, and reflecting upon our own as grievous sins (though not coming within the walk of man's justice) have compassion on our brother: if we see Lazarus lying in the street, let us meditate upon the sores of our conscience, and our poverty in spiritual graces, and extend our charity to him: finally, since we know at what time Satan most assaulteth us, let us be best provided at those times, especially at the hour of our death; let us follow the advice of Seneca, though a Heathen, Quotidie aliquid adversus mortem auxilii compara, & cum multa percurreris, unum excerpe quod illo die concoquas: lay up store for that day, every day gather one flower of Paradise at least, that even when the fatal hour is come, and the stench of death and rottenness is in our nostrils, we may have a posy by us, in which we may smell a savor of life unto life: which God grant, &c.

THE BELOVED DISCIPLE. THE XXX. SERMON.

IF we must abstain from all appearance of evil in our civil conversation, much more, certainly, in our religious devotion. For God is most jealous of his honor, which is all he hath from us for all we hold of him: and the straight rule of religion will in no wise bend to any obliquity on either side; either by attributing any true worship to a false, or any false worship to the true God. From both which aspersions he that seeth not the Liturgy established by law in the Church of England to be most clear and free, either is short-sighted, or looketh on her through a foul pair of spectacles; and thereby ignorantly imagineth that dust to be in her sacred Canons and Constitutions, which indeed is not in them, but sticketh in his glassie eyes: let him but rub his spectacles and he shall see all fair, and without any the least deformity or filth of superstition, as well in the Service appointed for the Lord's day, as for the Saints feasts. For though we adorn our Calendar with the names of some eminent Saints, and make honorable mention of them in our Liturgy, as the ancient Church did of her Martyrs, non tamen invocamus, yet we call not upon them, we lift not up our hands, we bow not our knees, we present not our offerings, we direct not our prayers, we intend not any part of religious worship to them, sed uni Deo & martyrum & nostrum, but to their God and ours, as Saint Augustine answereth for the practice of the Church in his time. Which may serve as a buckler to bear off all those poisonous darts of calumny, which those of the concision cast at that part of our Church-service, wherein upon the yearly return of the Feast of the blessed Virgin, the Archangel, Apostles, Evangelists, Protomartyr, Innocents, and All-holy-ones, we remember the Saints of God; but in no wise make God's of Saints: sanctificamus Deum, non deificamus Sanctos; we bless God for them, we worship not them for God.

Although our devotion glanceth by their names, yet it pitcheth and is fixed upon the Angel of the covenant, and sanctum sanctorum, the holy of all holy ones, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. On the blessed Virgins anniversary we honor him in his Mother: on Saint John Baptists we honor him in his forerunner: on Saint Michaels we honor him in his Archangel (the Captain of his celestial squadron): on the Apostles we honor him in his Ambassadors: on the Evangelists we honor him in his Chroniclers: on Saint Stevens we honor him in his Martyr: on S. John the Divine his day we honor him in his beloved Disciple, who also leaned on his breast at Supper.

• 1 The Disciple.
• 2 The Disciple beloved.
• 3 Beloved of Jesus.
• 4 In Jesus bosom.

All Christians are not Disciples, this is the Disciple: all the Disciples were not beloved, this is the beloved Disciple: all that are beloved are not beloved of Jesus, this is he whom Jesus loved: lastly, all whom Jesus loved were not so familiar with him, or near unto him, that they leaned on his breast: this was his bosom friend, and, as the text saith, at supper leaned on his breast. Every word is here a beam, and every beam is reflected, and every reflection is an intention of the heat of Christ's affection to Saint John.

• 1 A Disciple; there is the beam:
• 2 Ille, the, or that Disciple; there is the reflection.

• 1 Beloved; there is the beam:
• 2 Beloved of Jesus; there is the reflection.

• 1 Leaning; there is the beam:
• 2 Leaning on his breast; there is the reflection.

It is a great honor to be a Disciple, but a greater to be the Disciple: a great honor to be beloved, a greater to be beloved of Jesus: a great honor to lean on such a personage, a greater to lean on his breast.

Thus I might with an exact division cut the bread of life: but I choose rather after the manner of our Savior, to break it, and that into three pieces only, viz. John his

• 1 Calling in Christ.
• 2 Favor with Christ.
• 3 Nearenesse unto Christ.

• 1 His calling in Christ, The Disciple.
• 2 His grace and favor with Christ, whom Jesus loved.
• 3 His nearness unto Christ, who also leaned on his breast.

The Disciple. The Spouse in the Canticles setting out her husband in his proper colors, saith, My beloved is white and ruddy, that is, of admirable and perfect beauty: or, white in the purity of his conversation, and ruddy in the hiew of his passion: white in his life, and ruddy at his death; or, white in his garland of lilies, unspotted Virgins; ruddy in his garland of roses, victorious Martyrs; or lastly, as some flourish upon the letter, ruddy in all his Disciples (save St. John ) who shed their blood for his name and Gospel, and white in the Disciple in my text, who alone came to a fair and peaceable end; abiding (according to the words of our Savior) till he came unto him by an easy and natural death. For this privilege Christ gave him above them all, that none should have power to lay violent hands on him, who lay in his Redeemers arms. The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth by Jesus Christ: and with grace came in John, a name that signifieth grace. We read of no John in the Old Testament, but we find two in the Gospel; the one the forerunner, the other the follower of Christ; the one, in allusion to the Hebrew Etymology of his name, may be called Gratia praeveniens, grace prevenient; the other Gratia subsequens, grace subsequent; the one may be compared to 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 the Morning, the other to 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the Evening star: for Saint John Baptist, as the Morning star, ushered in the Sun our Savior; Saint John the Evangelist, as the Evening star, appeared long in the sky, shining in the Churches of Asia, after the Sun of righteousness Christ Jesus was set, at his death. This latter John is the Disciple whose feast we now keep, and memory we celebrate, and graces we admire, and title we are now to declare. As Christ spake of the Baptist, What went ye out to see? a Prophet? nay I say unto you, and more than a Prophet; we may say of this Evangelist: what are ye come to hear of? a Disciple? nay I say unto you and more than a Disciple; a Prophet, an Evangelist, an Apostle: O noble stock, on which many grafts of the plants of Paradise are set! In some parts of the sky we see single stars, in others a conjunction or crown of many stars: the other Disciples were like single stars, some were Prophets, some were Evangelists, some Doctors, some Apostles; but in Saint John, as a constellation, shine the eminent gifts and callings of many Disciples. Saint Luke was an Evangelist, but no Apostle; Saint Peter was an Apostle, but no Evangelist; Saint Matthew was an Evangelist and Apostle, but no Prophet; Saint John was all:

• 1 In his Gospel an Evangelist.
• 2 In his Epistle an Apostle.
• 5 In his Apocalypse a Prophet.

And in all, according to his divine Hieroglyphic, An Eagle. He was an Eagle in his Apostolic function; where the body was, there was this Eagle still lying at his breast. In his Gospel like an Eagle he soareth higher than the other three, beginning with, and more expressly delivering the divinity of Christ than any before him. Lastly, in the Apocalypse like an Eagle with open eye he looketh full upon the Sun of righteousness, and the light of the celestial Jerusalem, whereat all our eyes at this day are dazzled. Yet this divine Eagle here flieth low, and in humility toucheth the ground, styling himself nothing but a Disciple.

[Obser. 2] We read in Exodus, They came to Elim, where are twelve Wels of water, and seventy Palme trees. In these twelve Springs of water Saint Jerome conceived that he saw the face of the twelve Apostles, and on the branches of these seventy Palme trees, the fruit of the seventy Disciples labor. In allusion whereunto, most of the Ancients make the Apostles the Parents and patterns of all Bishops, and the seventy Disciples of Priests: the Bishops they make as it were the springs, from whence the Presbyters, like the Palme trees, receive sap and moisture, whereby they grow in the Church, and bring forth fruit in the parochial Cures where they are planted. The Bishops they called Pastors and Teachers primi ordinis, of the first order or rank: the Presbyters or Priests Praeceptores secundi ordinis, teachers as it were in a lower fourm. To confound which ranks in the Church, and bring a Bishop perforce 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , down to the lower fourm or degree of a Priest, is defined sacrilege in the great Council of Chalcedon. Yet Saint John the Apostle here of himself descendeth into that lower step or stair, assuming to himself the name only of a Disciple,

• 1 In humility:
• 2 In modesty:
• 3 In thankfulness to his Master.

1 In humility to take all Christians into his rank, hëe giveth himself no higher title than was due to the meanest follower of Christ. The weightier the piece of gold is, the more it presseth down the scale; even so where there is more worth, you shall ever find more lowliness: the empty and light ears prick up, but the full bow to the earth.

2 In modesty Saint John was the youngest of the Apostles, and in that respect termeth himself rather a Disciple, that is, a learner, than as he was indeed, a great Master in the Church: though he were 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , yet he was not 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , young he was in years but not in conditions, his youth was wiser than others age, his dawning was brighter than their noontide, his blossoms fairer than their fruits, his Spring exceeded their Autumn; yet like Moses, he saw not the beams of his face which all other beheld. Young men do not so much usually over-value themselves, as here Saint John doth under-value himself: the style wherewith the Church hath most deservedly graced him, is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , John the Divine, but the title which he taketh to himself is but 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the Scholar or Disciple.

3 In thankfulness to his Master he chooseth this title before any other, thereby professing that whatsoever knowledge he had, he sucked it from him on whose breast he lay. About the time of our Savior's birth, as Platina writeth, Augustus by a Proclamation forbad that any should call him Lord: whereby, though he intended no such thing, yet God, who secretly moved him to it, may seem to give all men to understand, that no Lord ought to be named the same day with his son: that when he came into the world all other Lord's and Kings were as much obscured as the stars are at the rising of the Sun.

In his presence, and in comparison of him, there is no King, Lord or Master. For as all Kings are but his subjects, all Lord's his servants, so all Masters his scholars: in whose school there is great difference between the scholars, some are able to construe a lecture to others, but none can give a lecture, but he who is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , both the wisdom and the word of God. From whence we hear Learn of me: of whom we hear, This is my well beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear him: In whom we hear all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hid: to whom we hear St. Peter beareth record, Thou hast the words of eternal life: and St. Ignatius, Christ is my ancient record: and Tertullian, There needs no curiosity after Christ, nor farther enquiry after or beyond the Gospel; when we believe it we desire to believe no more: and St. Cyprian, It is agreeable to the Religion we profess, and our reverence to God, to keep the truth of that which our Lord hath delivered, and according to his commands, to correct what is amiss; that when he shall come in his glory and majesty, he may find that we hold that he admonished us to keep, and observe what he taught, and do what he did: and St. Jerome, We follow none as first but Christ: and Vincentius Lerinensis (adver. heres.) Keep the Depositum. What is the Depositum? That wherewith thou art trusted, not which thou hast found out; that which thou hast received, not which thou hast invented: keep the talent of the Catholic faith, be thou a Bezaleel of the spiritual Tabernacle, cut the gems of divine doctrine shining in his word, insert them curiously in thy discourse, set them off with a good foil; let men understand that by thy exposition clearly, which before they believed obscurely; yet be sure to teach no more than thou hast learned of Christ: though thou speak in a new manner, yet deliver no new matter. If we teach not that which we have learned of Christ, or teach anything as needful to salvation, which we have not learned of Christ, we hazard, if not lose, the name of Christians; for Disciples of Christ & Christians are all one; no Disciple of Christ no Christian, & everyone so far a Christian as a Disciple of Christ. What Christians then are Papists, whose Creed consisting of four and twenty articles, twelve of them they learned of Christ, the other twelve of Antichrist, as may be seen in the Bull of Pope Pius affixed to the Council of Trent? Shall we simply affirm that they are Christians? we wrong then ourselves and all the reformed Churches who have severed from them. Shall we absolutely deny that they are Christians? we wrong them who hold with us the profession of the Trinity, the two Sacraments, Baptism and the Lord's Supper, and the three Creeds, the Apostles, the Nicene or Constantinopolitane, and that of Athanasious. Although the Roman Cardinal might justly be blamed, who caused his Painter to draw King Solomon half in heaven and half in hell: yet I suppose they could not justly be censured, who should draw Popery or the Church of Rome, as she is at this day, partly in heaven, and partly in hell; in heaven in respect of those heavenly truths which she maintaineth with us against Atheists, Jews, Turks, and all sorts of Infidels, and many ancient Heretics; but in hell in respect of many pernicious and hellish errors, which she pertinaciously defendeth against the clear letter of Scripture, and doctrine and practice of the Primitive Church. The blessed Apostle resolveth a like question concerning the Jews, who received the Old Testament, but rejected the New in a like manner: As concerning the Gospel they are enemies for your sake: but as touching the election they are beloved for the Fathers sake. We can hardly come off this controversy upon better terms than these, that Papists, as concerning the principles of the common faith, are Christians; but as touching their proper errors by addition to it, detraction from it, corruption of it, they are no Christians. You will say this is no simple or direct answer: neither need it so to be, because the question is not simple. As it is superfluous to give a mixed or double answer to a simple question, so it is dangerous to give a simple and single answer to a mixed question, or a question of a mixed subject. 1 For instance, let the question be concerning Ayat the Jew, who used indifferently either of his hands as we use our right hand; Whether was he a right handed or a left handed man? 2 Or concerning a part of speech, which taketh part of a noun, and part of a verb: Whether is it a noun or a verb? 3 Or concerning a Myrmaid, which in the upper part resembleth a maid, in the lower a fish: Whether is it a fish or a maid? 4 Or concerning the Muscovy Monster, which feedeth like a sheep, yet groweth like a plant, and hath his root affixed to the earth: Whether is it a beast or a plant? 5 Or concerning an Androgyne, that hath in it both sexes: Whether is it a man or a woman? 6 Or concerning the apple mentioned by Seneca, that hath in it a middle kind of taste, bitterish at first, and sweetish at last: Whether is it a sweet or a bitter fruit?

To the first we must not answer simply, that he was a right handed or left handed man, but as the Historian termeth him, an Ambodexter.

To the second we must not answer simply, that it is a noun, or a verb, but as the Grammarians call it, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , participium, a participle.

To the third we must not answer simply, that it is a maid, or a fish, but with the Poet a Syren; in some respect a maid, in some a fish.

To the fourth we must not answer simply, that it is a plant, or a beast, but with the Geographer, a Plantanimall.

To the fifth we must not answer simply, that it is a man, or a woman, but with the natural Philosopher, an Hermaphrodite.

To the sixth we must not answer simply, that it is a sweeting, or a bitter apple, but with Seneca, that it is pomum suave-amarum, a bitter-sweet.

So if the question be of a Christian by profession of all or the most fundamental points, who yet holdeth some heretical opinion, we must not answer simply, that he is a Christian, or a Miscreant, but a Miscreant or mis-believing Christian. Some write of the River Jordane, that the water thereof is sweet, and that store of fish breed and live in it: others, that it is brackish, yea and venomous also, in such sort that no fish can live in it; and both write most truly in a reference to divers parts thereof. For all that is behether the lake Asphaltites is most sweet and wholesome; all that is beyond it is salt and brackish, and in some places poisonous: and accordingly the fish that swim not beyond the lake, or tasting the water salt, return speedily back to the sweet springs, live: but if they are carried farther with a full stream into Mare mortuum, or the dead sea, they instantly perish. What then? shall we deny Jordan, in which Christ himself was baptized, to be a sweet river? or do we doubt but that the doctrine of the Church of Rome, like the river Jordan, is sweet in the spring, I mean the Font of baptism, in which so many thousands of our fathers were christened? or that good Christians may live the life of grace there, so long as they keep within the bounds of the common Principles of Christianity; or if they have tasted some of the brackish waters, the errors of popery, if yet they return back to the springs of holy Scripture, may they not recover? questionless they may: but if they pass over the lake Asphaltites, and swim with the full current into the midst of the Mare mortuum of Antichristian errors, superstitions, and Idolatries, and are not taken up in the net of the Gospel, before the venomous water hath sunk into their heart and bowels, and corrupted all their blood, we can have little, if any hope of their safety. Those that are such, and have a resolution to continue such, I leave In mari mortuo, in the sea of death, and come to the Disciple in the bosom of Jesus the Fountain of life, even that Disciple

[Object.] Whom Jesus loved. Did Jesus love him only? did he not love all his Apostles, save Judas, to the end? nay, doth he not love us all with an endless love? Surely greater love than this can no man show, to lay down his life for his friend. Is not he the good Shepherd that gave his life for the sheep? did he not lay down his life for us all? did one of us cost him more than another? shed he not as much and as pure life blood for one as for another? doth the Sun of righteousness shine brighter upon one than another? in perfection of love can there be any remission or intention? in that which is infinite are there any degrees? can anything be said to be more or less infinite? The determination of this point dependeth upon the consideration of our blessed Savior:

• 1 As God.
• 2 As Man.
• 3 As Mediator.

As God his love is his nature, and his nature is himself, and himself is infinite, and in that which is infinite no degrees can be distinguished. As Mediator he seemeth to be like the Center, from which all lines drawn to the circumference are equal; he casteth the like beams of affection, if not upon all, yet certainly upon all his Elect; for whom he prayed jointly, and satisfied entirely, whom he washeth equally in the same Font of Baptism, feedeth equally with his blood, incorporateth equally in his body, and maketh equally coheirs with him of his kingdom in heaven. Notwithstanding as man he might, and did affect one more than another, and in particular he loved John more than the rest of his Disciples. Neither is it any disparagement at all to our discretion or charity, to enlarge our hearts more to one than another, if the cause be not a by or carnal respect, but a different measure of gifts; if those be more in our grace, in whom God's graces shine brighter. Saint Paul had his Barnabas, Saint Augustine his Alypius, Saint Jerome his Heliodorus, Saint Bernard his Gervafius, Saint Basil his Nazianzen, Eusebius his Pamphilus, David his Jonathan, and Jesus here in my text his beloved Disciple. But here Saint Augustine putteth in a curious Quere; Why did Jesus love John best, since it should seem Peter loved Jesus best? else why doth Christ say unto him, lovest thou me more than these? He who more loved Jesus is the better, but he whom Jesus more loveth is the happier. To avoid this seeming jar in Christ's affections, S. Austin streineth up the plain history to a mystery: Saint Peter, saith he, was a type of the Church militant, Saint John of the triumphant: now the Church militant expresseth more love to Christ, in fighting his battles, and suffering for him; but Christ manifesteth more love to the Church triumphant, crowning her with celestial glory: in this life, like Peter, we more show our love to Christ; in the other Christ showeth more love to us, as he did here to Saint John. These conceptions of that seraphicall Doctor, like a wax light newly blown out, yield a sweet savor, and have much heat in them of pious affection, but little light of knowledge. For as Christ's love to us is consummate in heaven at the Lambes marriage, so is then our love most complete in him. And for the two Disciples, Saint Peter and Saint John, between whom there was never any contention greater than this, Whether should more love our Savior; we may safely resolve, that though both exceedingly loved him, yet (if we must needs enter into a comparison between them) that the odds is on Saint Johns side. For doubtless he whom Christ more loved, he found or made him more thankful: the ground of our Savior's love could be no other than grace, and he who hath a greater measure of grace, must needs more love the Fountain of grace, Christ Jesus. As Jesus therefore more loved John, so John more loved Jesus; he followed him boldly to the high Priests hall, he never denied him once, as Peter did thrice; he with his mother attended him at the cross, and from that day took the blessed Virgin to his own home; and therefore though Christ promised the keys of heaven to Peter first, yet he gave Saint John a greater privilege, to lean on his breast.

Which leaned on his breast. Of Saint Johns leaning on Christ's breast four kinds of reasons are given:

• 1 A civil by Calvin.
• 2 A Moral by Theophylact.
• 3 A mystical by Saint Augustine.
• 4 A tropologicall by Guilliandus.

Though, saith Calvin, for a servant to lie on his masters breast may seem unseemly, yet the custom of the Jews being not to fit at table, as we do, but at their meals to lie on beds or carpets on the ground; it was no more for Saint John to lie on Christ's breast, than with us to sit next to him: unless with Theophylact we conceive, that Saint John upon the mention of our Lord's death, and that by treason, took on most grievously, and beginning to languish through grief, was taken by Christ into his bosom to comfort him: or we interpret with Saint Austin, and others of the Ancients, Sinum Christi, Sapientiae secretum; the bosom of Christ, the cabinet of celestial jewels, or treasury of wisdom; and infer with Saint Ambrose from thence, That John when he laid his head to Christ's breasts, sucked from thence the profound secrets of wisdom: and with Beda, That Christ revealed to Saint John as his bosom friend, more secrets; and that the reason why his writings are more enriched with knowledge, especially of things future than the rest, is, because he had free access to Christ's breast, wherein all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge were hid. Moreover, as Guilliandus observeth, S. John lay upon Christ's breast for the same reason that Moses appointed in the law the breast of all sacrifices for the Priest: to teach us, that wisdom and understanding, whose seat is the breast and heart, ought to be the special portion of the Priests.

Among so many ingenuous reasons of this gesture of Saint John, if we lean to Saint Augustine's opinion, the use we are to make of it is, with reverence and religious preparation to read and hear all the books of holy Scripture, and especially Saint Johns writings, who received those hidden and heavenly mysteries in Jesus his bosom, which Jesus heard in his Fathers bosom. All Scriptures are given by divine inspiration, and are equally pillars of our faith, anchors of our hope, deeds and evidences of our salvation; yet as the heaven is more starry in one part than another, and the seas deeper in one place than another, so it is evident that some passages of Scripture are more lightsome than others, and some books contain in them more profound mysteries and hidden secrets; and most of all S. Johns Gosspell, and his Apocalypse, wherein, by Saint Jeromes reckoning, the number of the mysteries near answereth the number of the words, quot verba tot sacramenta.

If we like of Theophylact his reason, we are from thence to learn, not to add affliction to the afflicted, not to vex them that are wounded at the heart; but to stay with flagons, and comfort with apples those that are in a spiritual swoon, and by no means to withhold from them that faint under the burden of their sins, the comforts of the Gospel to support them; especially considering, that he as well killeth a man who ministereth not to him in due time those things which may hold life in him, as he that slayeth him down right.

Lastly, if we stick with Calvin to the letter, it will discover unto us the error of many among us, that contend so much for sitting at the Communion, and a table gesture (as they speak); whereas Christ at his last Supper neither sat nor used any table at all. In eating of the Passover we read 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , that Christ with the twelve fell down, or lay down after the Jewish manner, which was nearer to kneeling than sitting. But what gesture precisely he used in the delivery of the holy mysteries, it is not expressed in Scripture: most probable it is that he kneeled, or at least that the Apostles kneeled when they received the sanctified Elements from him. For no doubt they who in the first ages immediately succeeded the Apostles, received the Communion as the Apostles manner was; and that they kneeled, the heathen cavil against them, that they worshipped bread and wine, maketh it in a manner evident. For had they sat or stood in the celebration of the Sacrament, the Gentiles could have had no color to cast an aspersion of bread-worship on them: but because in receiving the sacred elements of bread and wine, they kneeled down, and religiously called upon God, the Paynims conceived that they adored the creatures of bread and wine. And they among us who cannot distinguish between kneeling at the Sacrament, and kneeling to the element; bread worship and the worship of Christ, in religiously and reverently participating the holy mysteries of his body and blood, are as grossly ignorant in Christian rites as the ancient heathen were. Verily did they consider seriously who it is that under the form of bread and wine offereth unto them his body and blood, even Christ himself by his Spirit, and what they at the same time in a thankful love offer to God, their bodies for a holy and living sacrifice, and what then they receive, a general pardon of all their sins under the seal of the King of heaven; I persuade myself their hearts would smite them, if they strived not to receive so great a benefit from so gracious a Majesty, as in the most thankful, so in the most humble manner. But it is not the position of your bodies, but the disposition of your minds, which in this rare pattern of my text I would commend to your Christian imitation.

The best keeping the Feast of a Saint, is to raise him as it were to life, by expressing his virtues and graces in ours: do you desire my brethren to be Johns, gracious in the eyes of your Redeemer? make much of those things for which he was so much made of; love those virtues above others, which made him beloved above others; decke your souls with those jewels, the beauty whereof enamored the Son of righteousness; which are three especially:

• 1 The Emerauld, the emblem of chastity.
• 2 The Ruby, the emblem of modesty.
• 3 The Carbuncle, the emblem of love.

Chastity is resembled by the Emerauld, which, as Rueus writeth, hath a singular virtue to cool the heat of lust; and in this stone was the name of Levi engraven, who revenged the wrong done to the chastity of his sister by the Shechemites.

Modesty is resembled by the Ruby, in whose color the hue of that virtue appeareth. And who cannot see in the glowing fire of the Carbuncle, the ardencie of love? Saint Jerome attributeth the overflowing measure of Christ's love to Saint John, to his chastity; Saint Chrysostom to his modesty, Aquinas to his love of Christ.

Saint John lived and died a Virgin, and if we will believe the Ancients, the clearness of his complexion answered the purity of his conversation, and beauty of body and mind met here in one. The beauty of the body is fair and brittle, like crystal glass; but if the gift of spiritual chastity be incident to it, like the beams of the sun it: is most lovely in the eyes of God and man. Eriphile was so taken with the sparkling of an orient jewel exhibited to her, that for it she sold her loyalty to her husband, a far more precious jewel. Take heed, Beloved, lest for favor of great ones, or worldly honor, or earthly treasure, you put away that jewel, which if you once part withal you can never recover again. There can be nothing more hateful to him that was borne of a pure Virgin, continued a Virgin all his life, and now in heaven is attended by Virgins ( These are they which were not defiled with women, for they are Virgins; these are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth: ) than to make his members the members of an harlot.

We have had the glimpse of the Emerauld; let us now view the Ruby, Saint Johns modesty; who, though he might glory truly, if any, in the spirit, For he had seen with his eyes, and heard with his ears, and handled with his hands the Word of life: he was an eye-witness of Christ's transfiguration, one of the three pillars mentioned by Saint Paul; he was a Prophet, an Evangelist, and an Apostle, and in greater grace with his Lord and Master than any of the rest, yet he will be known of no more than that he was a Disciple, he concealeth his very name. The modest opinion of our knowledge is better than knowledge, and humility in excellency excelleth excellency it self. That stone is most resplendent which is set off with a dark foil; modesty is the dark foil which giveth luster to all virtues. How many, saith Seneca had attained to wisdom if they had not thought so, and therefore given over all search after it? how many had proved men of rare and singular parts, if they had not known them too soon themselves? Moses face shined, but he knew not of it; the blessed of the Father at the day of judgment shall hear of their good works, but they shall not acknowledge them, but answer saying, Lord, when saw we thee hungry, or a thirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and ministered unto thee? If we take no knowledge of our good parts, God will acknowledge them; but if like Narcissus we know and admire our own beauty, this very knowledge will metamorphize us, and make us seem deformed in the eyes of God and man.

We have viewed the Ruby, let us now cast a glance on the Carbuncle, the third precious stone, Saint Johns love to Christ. The main scope of his Gospel is Christ's love to us, and the argument of his Epistles our love one to another. As he is styled the beloved, so he might well be called the loving Disciple: as he was one of the first that came to Christ, so he was the last that left him; he was never from his side, I had almost said out of his bosom. Out of confidence of his loyal affection to his Lord, when neither Peter nor any of the rest durst, he was bold to inquire of our Savior, who is it that shall betray thee? He followeth Christ to the high Priests hall, to the judgment seat, and to the cross, where our Lord commended his Mother to him, and him to his Mother, and his soul to his Father. Love is the load-stone of love, that love that drew Saint Johns heart to Christ drew Christ's to him. If thou desire above all things that Christ should love thee, love him above all things: love him with all thy heart, whose heart was pierced for thee: love him with all thy soul, whose soul was made an offering for thee: love him with all thy strength, who for thee lost not only his strength but life also.

Yea, but you may say, how can we now show our love to Christ? he is in heaven, and our bounty cannot reach so high; we have him not here to offer gold, myrrh, or frankincense, as the wise men did; or minister to him of our substance, as some religious women did; or break a box of precious ointment, and pour it on his head, as Mary did; or feast him, as Simon did; or wrap his corps in fine linen, as Joseph did; we have not his mother with us, to keep, cherish, or comfort her, as Saint John did: yet we have his Spouse, his Word, his Sacraments, his Disciples, his mystical members; and if out of sincere love to him we honor his Spouse the Church; we frequent his house, the Temple; we delight in his Word, the Scriptures; we come reverently and devoutly to his board, the Communion Table; we give countenance and maintenance to his Meniall servants, the Ministers of the Gospel; and relieve his afflicted members, the poor and oppressed among us, we shall be as Johns to him, gracious in his eyes; Disciples, nay, which is more, beloved Disciples; yea so beloved, that to our endless rest and comfort, we shall lie in his bosom, not on earth, but in heaven. Which he grant unto us, who loved us, and washed our sins in his blood, and made us Kings to command, and Priests to offer our dearest affections unto him. To whom, &c.

THE ACCEPTED TIME: OR THE YEERE OF GRACE. THE XXXI. SERMON.

AS at the Salutation of the blessed Virgin the babe sprang in the womb of Elizabeth, so I doubt not but that at the reading of this text in your ears, the fruits of your devotion, which are your religious thoughts and zealous affections, leap and spring for joy in the womb of your soul; for now is the accepted time, the time of grace: now is the day of salvation, the day of our Lord's Incarnation. As the golden tongued Father spake of a Martyr, Martyrem dixisse laudâsse est, to name a man a Martyr is to commend him sufficiently: so it may be said of this text, to rehearse it is to apply it. I need not fit it to the time, for the time falleth upon this time, and the day upon this day: now if ever is this Now in season. If any time in all the year be more acceptable than other, it is the holy time we now celebrate: now is the accepted time on God's part, by accepting us to favor: now is the day of salvation, by exhibiting to us a Savior in our flesh: let us make it so on our parts also by accepting the grace offered unto us, and by laying hands on our Savior by faith, and embracing him by love, and by joy dilating our hearts to entertain him, with all his glorious attendants, a troupe of heavenly Soldiers, singing, Glory be to God on high, on earth peace, and good will towards men. Sing, O heavens, and be joyful, O earth, and break forth into shouting, O ye mountains: for God hath comforted his people, and will have mercy upon the afflicted. Keep this holy day above others, because chosen by God to manifest himself in the flesh, bid by an Angel, and by him furnished both with a lesson and with an Anthem also. Well might the Angel, as on this day, sing glory in excelsis Deo, &c. for on this day the Son of God, out of his good will towards men, became man, and thereby set peace on earth, and brought infinite glory to God in the highest heavens. Well may this be called by the Apostle, The fullness of time, or a time of fullness, which filled heaven with glory, the earth with blessings of peace, and men with graces flowing from God's good will. The heavens which till this time were as clasped boxes, now not able longer to contain in them the sovereign balsamum of wounded mankind, burst open: and he whose name is an ointment poured forth, was plentifully shed upon the earth, to revive the decayed spirits, and heal the festered sores of wounded mankind. Lift up then your heavy looks, and heavier hearts, ye that are in the midst of danger, and in the sight, nay within the clasps of eternal death; you have a Savior borne to rescue you. Cheare up your drooping and fainting spirits, all ye that feel the smart and anguish of a bruised conscience and broken heart; to you Christ is borne to anoint your wounds, bruises and sores. Exult and triumph ye gally slaves of Satan, and captives of Hell, fast bound with the chain of your sins; to you a Redeemer is borne to ransom you from spiritual thralldom.

Two reasons are assigned why festivities are religiously to be kept.

1. The special benefits of God conferred upon his Church at such times, which by the anniversary celebration of the days are refreshed in our memories, and visibly declared to all succeeding ages.

2 The express command of God, which adjoined to the former reason, maketh the exercises of devotion, performed at these solemnities, duties of obedience.

It cannot be denied that in this latter consideration those feasts which are set down in the book of God, have some prerogative above those that are found wrtiten only in the Calendar of the Church. But in the former respect no day may challenge a precedency of this, no not the Sabbath it self, which the more to honor him whose birth we now celebrate, resigned both his name, place and rites to the Lord's day: and if we impartially compare them, the work wrought on this day was far more difficult, and the benefit received upon it, greater than that, to the memory whereof the Sabbath was at the first dedicated. It was a greater miracle that God should be made a creature, than that he should make all creatures: and the redemption of the world so far exceeds the creation, as the means by which it was wrought were more difficult, and the time larger: the one was finished in six days by the commandment of God, the other not in less than four and thirty years by the obedience of Christ: the one was but a word with God, the breath of his mouth gave life to all creatures; the other cost him much labor, sweat and blood: and what comparison is there between an earthly and an heavenly Paradise? Nay, if we will judge by the event, the benefit of our creation had been none without our redemption. For by it we received an immortal spirit, with excellent faculties, as it were sharp and strong weapons, wherewith we mortally wounded ourselves, and had everlastingly laid weltering in our own blood, had not our Savior healed our wounds by his wounds and death, and raised us up again by the power of his resurrection. To which point Saint Augustine speaking feelingly saith, Si natus non fuisset, bonum fuisset si homo natus non fuisset, If he had not been borne, it had been good for man never to have been borne: if this accepted time had not come, all men had been rejected: if this day of salvation had not appeared, we had all perished in the night of eternal perdition.

Behold now is the accepted time. In this Scripture as in a Dial we may observe,

• 1 The Index,
• 2 The Circles,
  • Certain, Behold.
  • Different:
    • 1 The larger,
    • 2 The narrower,
      • The accepted time.
      • The day of salvation.

To man in general it is an accepted time, to every believer in particular it is a day of salvation. Lynx cum cessat intueri, cessat recordari: Because we are like the Lynx, which mindeth nothing no longer than her eye is upon it, the Spirit everywhere calleth upon us to look or behold: Behold, not always or at any time, but now, not 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , but 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , not 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , but 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ; not 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , but 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 : not time simply, but season, the flower of time; not barely accepted, but according to the original, well accepted, or most acceptable; not the day of help or grace, but a day of salvation. As in the bodies which consist of similar parts, the form of the whole, and the form of every part is all one; for example, the whole ocean is but water, and yet every drop thereof is water; the whole land is but earth, and yet every clod thereof is earth; the whole stone is but a diamond, and yet every carrect thereof in it is diamond; the whole wedge is but gold, and yet every plate, every smallest foil or raye is gold; and as the soul of man is tota in toto, & tota in qualibet parte corporis, is whole in the whole, and whole in every part of the body; so there is season in the whole text, and in every part thereof: for there is season, and that instant in now; there is season, and that welcome in accepted time; lastly, there is season, and that most welcome in the day of salvation. In the accepted time I will hear thee, in the day of salvation I will help thee. This (I will hear thee) is as it were the noise of heavenly music afar off: Behold the accepted time, this soundeth like music at our gate; but now is the day of salvation, this is like music at our ears.

Behold the accepted time, the day star beginneth to appear: Behold the day of salvation, the sun is risen: Behold now is that time, now is that day, the sun is directly over our heads, it is now high noon.

Behold is as a larum bell of attention, now is as a finger of indication or application to a season:

• 1 Indefinite, a time of acceptation.
• 2 Definite, or singular, a day of salvation:

That for information, this for our consolation.

Behold is as a star or hand in the margent pointing to some excellent matter. In the Scripture we find four sorts of Ecce's:

1 An Ecce of demonstration, as Behold the man.

2 An Ecce of admiration, as Behold the star.

3 An Ecce of affection, as Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guilt.

4 An Ecce of excitation or attention, as Behold I show you a mystery: we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump. The Rabbins write of David's harp that it sounded of it self, by the wind only blowing on it, without the touch of any string: it were to be wished that our heart strings were like his harp strings, and would give a sweet sound by the wind only of the Spirit blowing on them, without any touch of an Ecce of excitation or increpation: but so it is, that though our soul be full of divine graces, like Argo's eyes, yet Mercury with his enchanted rod, the world with fascinating pleasures, or the Syren of our flesh with her effeminate songs closeth them all; and we need an Ecce, like the Angels stroke on Peters side, to awake us out of our dead sleep. A strange thing it is that our eyes should be open, and we run with all speed sometimes before day out of doors, to see a May-game, or a Masque, or a Pageant, or a Morrice-dance, and yet we should need to have an Ecce to stir us up, and pluck open, as it were, our eye-lids to behold the light of heaven, and the glory of the celestial Paradise. We listen willingly to wanton music, and lascivious songs, but must be pulled by the ear to listen to the sacred songs of Zion. Beloved, did you fasten your attention, did you thoroughly consider of, what you cannot but hear again & again, unless with the deaf adder you stopped your ears, something would stick by you; all our sermons, all our admonitions, all our reprehensions, all our consolations should not be like letters written in sand, or the track of a ship in the sea, or of a bird in the air, or of a serpent upon a stone, whereof there remains no print at all. Saint Jerome speaking of an Imperial law restraining the luxury of the Clergy; The law, saith he, is good, but this is not good, that the manners of the Clergy were so dissolute that they needed such a coercive law: Bonum cauterium, sed vae nobis quod indigeamus tali cauterio: so it may be said of these Ecce's, or Beholds in Scripture, that they are good, and of singular use, but it is great pity that we should need them: it is a sign that our spiritual man is very drowsy, if not in a dead sleep, that the Spirit calleth so often, and so loud upon us, sometimes

1 To awake our faith: as, Behold a Virgin shall he with child, and shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Immanuel.

2 To awake our hope: as, Behold I come quickly, and my reward is with me, to give every man as his works shall be.

3 To awake our love: as Behold what love God hath shown unto in, that we should be called the sons of God.

4 To awake our fear: as Behold he cometh with the clouds, and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him, and all kindreds of the earth shall veil before him.

5 To awake our joy: as, Behold I bring you tidings of exceeding great joy, which shall be to all people, that to you is borne this day in the City of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.

6 To awake our thankfulness: as, Behold, now praise the Lord all ye servants of the Lord, which by night stand in the house of the Lord.

7 To awake our compassion: as, Behold if there were ever sorrow like unto my sorrow, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce wrath.

8 To awake our diligence and industry in eager and speedy pursuing the means of our salvation, as here in my text: Behold, now is the accepted

Time. Other things are with more ease described than understood; but time is easily understood, not described or defined so easily: there is no rustic so rude who understandeth not what you mean when you speak of time, yet never any Philosopher to this day hath exactly defined or described it. Aristotle maketh an essay in his Physickes, determining time to be Numerum motus secundum prius & posterius, The number of motion or motion numbered according to the former or latter parts thereof: but he faileth in this his definition. For questionless time is as well the measure of rest as of motion: we sleep as well in time as we work in time. And as a ship in the Sea, whether the passengers lie in their cabbins or walk on the deckes, holdeth on her course; so whether we sleep or wake, labor or be at our ease, the time of our life goeth on. When Joshua commanded the Sun to stand still in the heavens, all the motions of the celestial bodies ceased, yet was there then time, wherein that noble General accomplished his victory. The Platonics definition is truer, who say that time is eternity limited, but yet no way perfect. I grant time is as it were a portion or cantle of eternity; yet I deny that this is any good description of time, because every description ought to be per notius, by something that is more known; whereas eternity is far more obscure than time it self: all men have a common notion of the one, few or none of the other. Neither do they give any better satisfaction who define time by duration. For albeit there is a time of duration of everything, and a duration also of time it self, yet duration is not time; duration is the existence of anything in time, not the term or time it self. They define time most agreeable to the Scriptures, who affirm it to be the continual flux of moments, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, ages, from the creation of the world to the dissolution thereof, after which the Angel sware that time should be no more. But I need to speak no more of time at this time, because the word in my text is not 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , but 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , time, but season; or, as it is here rendered,

The accepted time. The season is that in time which light is in the air, luster in metals, the flower in plants, cream in milk, quintessence in herbs, the prime and best of it: 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Now there being a threefold season:

1. Natural, which Husbandmen observe in sowing, Gardeners in planting and grafting, Mariners in putting to Sea, Chirurgians in letting blood, Physicians in purging, &c.

2. Civil, of which the Poet speaketh, Mollissima fandi tempora, which all humble suppliants observe in preferring petitions to Princes and great Personages.

3. Spiritual, which all that have a care of their salvation must observe, in seeking the Lord while he may be found.

When the King cometh (saith St. Chrysostom) there is no time for sessions or assizes, but for pardon and favor. Behold, now the King is come to visit his subjects upon earth; and from his first coming to his last the day of grace continueth: Behold now is this accepted time. He calleth it an accepted time (saith St. Chrysostom) because now God accepteth them to favor, who a thousand times incurred his displeasure. It is called in the Hebrew 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 that is, a time of good will and favor, as Calvin rendereth the words; who biddeth us mark the order: first a time of grace is promised, and after a day of salvation, to intimate unto us, that salvation floweth from the mere grace and mercy of God. We are active in sin to our own damnation, but mere passive to the first grace: we draw on damnation with the cartropes of vanity, but God draweth us to salvation with the cords of love. The special point of doctrine to which this ecce or index in my text pointeth is, that we ought to take special notice of the time of grace, beginning at the birth of our Savior, and ending to us at the day of our death, and to all men that shall be upon the earth at the consummation of the world. As the celestial spheres are wrapped one in another, and the greatest, which the Philosophers term the Primum mobile, invelopeth all the rest; so the parts of time are enclosed, the lesser in the greater, hours in days, days in years, years in ages, and ages in the time of the duration of the world. To explicate then to the full the time of our Lord's birth, it will be requisite to treat

• 1 Of the age of the world.
• 2 Of the year of the age.
• 3 Of the day of the year in which the true light that lighteneth every man that cometh into the world first shined on the earth.

1 Of the age of the world. The Jews, according to an ancient tradition received from the house of Elias, make three ages of the world, as it were so many stages of time:

• 1 From the creation to the law.
• 2 From the law to the Messias.
• 3 From the coming of the Messias to the end of the world.

To each of these they allow two thousand years, counting thus,

• 1 Duo millia vacuum.
• 2 Duo millia lex.
• 3 Duo millia Messias; & post mundi deflagratio.

Saint. Augustine doubleth these files, and maketh reckoning of six ages.

• 1 From Adam to the Deluge.
• 2 From the Deluge to Abraham.
• 3 From Abraham to Solomon.
• 4 From Solomon to the captivity.
• 5 From the captivity to Christ's birth.
• 6 From Christ's birth to the day of judgment;

after which, in the seventh, we shall all keep an eternal Sabbath in heaven. By both which computations it appeareth that the birth of our Savior fell late towards the declining and end of time, as Maximus Taurinensis observeth. Here the wit of man, which like the Sea will still be working, though oftentimes foaming out his own shame, curiously inquireth why the desire and joy of all mankind was so long delayed, why he was so late born whose birth was of more importance than of all the Potentates, Princes, Kings, Emperors and Monarchs of the whole world. Was not Christ the bright morning star? how came it then to pass that he appeared not till the afternoon, if not evening of the world? Was not he the bridegroom, whose Epithalamium Solomon by the spirit of prophesy endited in the book of Canticles? how could he then hear his dearest Spouse breathe out so many sighs, and shed such abundance of tears, in so many ages, still longing for his coming, and crying, Let him come into the flesh, and kiss me with the kisses of his lips? Was not he the good Samaritan which healed the wounded man, after Moses the Levite, and Aaron the Priest passing by left him as they found him, and did him no ease at all? how then could this tender hearted Chirurgian suffer wounded mankind to lie so many ages weltering in his own blood, and take no pity on him? To silence these curious questionists, the most judicious Divines teach, that albeit God hath special reasons of his will for everything he determineth, yet to us his will must stand for the last and best reason. The fullest answer that can be given to that demand, why Christ was borne in the days of the Roman Augustus, about the two and fortieth year of his reign, is, that then was the fullness of time, that is, the time was fully come, which God appointed before all time, for the coming of his Son in the flesh. And surely a fitter time could hardly have been chosen, whether we respect the condition of the patient, or the quality of the Physician, or the state of Judea, or of the whole world at that time.

First, if we regard the condition of the patient: before Adam fell, and by his fall took his deaths wound, there was no need of a Chirurgian or a Physician: and after he was wounded it was fit that he should feel the smart of his wounds a while, and by woeful experience find that he was not able to help himself. With this reason Aquinas rested satisfied.

Secondly, if we regard the quality of the Physician. For no man sendeth for the greatest Doctor, especially if he be far off, before he hath tried others that are near at hand, or the cure grow dangerous, if not desperate. Before the King cometh himself, many Ambassadors and Noble men are sent. Nature and Art observe the like method, proceeding from less noble to more noble works: from the egg to the chicke, from the seed to the fruit, from the kernel to the apple, from the dawning to the day, from childhood to youth, and from youth to perfect age. The painter in like manner first maketh a rude draught of a face, after perfectly pourtrayeth it, and last of all casteth beautiful colors upon it: the Chirurgian first washeth the wound, then poureth in wine to search it, and after oil to supple and heal it: in like manner the providence of God proceeded in the dispensing the means of man's salvation, after the twilight of nature, and dawning as it were of the day, the day star appeared more obscurely in the publishing of the law, but manifestly in Saint John Baptists doctrine; and then the Sun arose in the preaching of the Gospel: first God sent Priests and Prophets as messengers, then Angels and the Archangel, as it were Princes and Peers of heaven, and last of all he sent his Son, the heir of all things. Like a Chirurgian he first cleansed the sores of wounded man by pouring in the wine of the Law, after he suppled and healed them by pouring in the oil of the Gospel: first he rough hewed us by Moses, and after plained and smoothed us by Christ, that we might be as the polished corners of the Temple.

Thirdly, if we regard the state of Judea, which was now most deplorate, being destitute both of King and Law-giver: for Herod a stranger usurped the Crown, and destroyed the Sanhedrin, or great Council, they had now no Prophet or Seer to lead them in this time of thickest darkness: now therefore, if ever, the Messiah must come to set all right.

Fourthly, if we regard the state of the whole world, which at this time was most learned, and thereby most capable of the doctrine of the Gospel. Besides, it being reduced to a Monarchy, and the parts thereupon holding better correspondency one with the other, a greater advantage was given for the dispreading of Christian doctrine through all the Provinces of the Roman Empire.

2 Of the year of the age. As God crowned the age in which our Lord took flesh, with many remarkable accidents; so also the year of that age.

1 First, Herod this very year bereaving the Tribe of Judah of King and Lawgiver, utterly abolished their grand Council, and thereby the Prophesy of Jacob was verified, that the Scepter should not depart from Judah, nor a Lawgiver from between his feet till Shilo come. The substance of the Scepter, if I may so speak, was departed before, and this year the shadow also remaining hitherto in the Sanhedrin, which had a kind of sovereign power to make laws and execute them, vanished away: now therefore Shilo cometh.

2 Secondly, Moreover, this very year Augustus Caesar sent forth a Decree, that the whole world should be taxed, which was not without a mystery, viz. that this year the world should be prized, and an estimate made thereof, when our Lord came into the world to redeem it. Little thought Augustus (when he gave order for drawing that Proclamation) of drawing Marie to Bethlehem, that she might there be delivered according to the prophesy of Micah: yet so did Augustus his temporal Decree make way for God's eternal determination of Christ's birth in Bethlehem.

3 Thirdly, this very year the same Emperor shut up the Temple of Janus, where all the Roman warlike provision lay, and established a peace through the whole world, that so the Prince of peace might be borne in the days of peace.

4 Fourthly, this year also he enacted a law De manumission servorum, of setting servants at liberty, which might have some reference to the spiritual freedom which Christ purchased for us, whereof he himself saith, If the Son make you free you shall be free indeed.

5 Fifthly, this year in a certain Shop or Inn to be let in Rome, a fountain of oil sprang out of the earth, and flowed a whole day without intermission.

Which may seem literally to verify those words of the Prophet, It shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall be taken off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck; and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the oil or annointing.

6 Sixthly, what should I speak of the falling down of the Temple of peace in Rome about this time? Might not that be an item, that true peace was nowhere now to be sought save in Jesus Christ our only Peace-maker, now come into the world to reconcile Heaven and Earth, and establish a covenant of grace between God and man forever?

7 Seventhly, neither is Calvisius his hot discordant from our purpose, viz. that the year of our Lord's birth was Annus Sabbathicus, a year made of seven multiplied, or a year of Jubile. For even by this very circumstance we may be put in mind that he who was borne in a temporal Sabbathicke year on earth procureth for us an everlasting Sabbath in heaven.

3 Of the day of the year. From the age in which our Lord was incarnate we have already proceeded to the year; now from the year we will come to the day on which God hath set many glorious marks.

1 First, St. Matthew telleth us of a new star that appeared to the heathen Sages, which guided them in their way to Bethlehem.

2 Secondly, St. Augustine, and St. Ambrose, and Prudemius note that the day of our Lord's birth fell precisely upon the winter solstice, and from that day the days begin to lengthen.

3 Thirdly, this day in the vineyard of Engaddi the Balsamum tree both blossomed and bare fruit, and liquor also dropped from it.

Thus we see what golden characters God hath fixed upon the age, year and day of our Lord's birth; in which we may read the benefits of his incarnation, which are these:

First, rest: this seemeth to be figured by the Sabbathicke year.

Secondly, peace: this was shadowed by the temporal peace concluded through all the world by Augustus.

Thirdly, liberty from spiritual thralldom: this was represented by the law of manumission of servants.

Fourthly, Knowledge: this was shown by the new star.

Fifthly, increase of grace: this was signified by the lengthening of the days from Christ's birth.

Sixthly, spiritual joy: this was expressed by the oil which sprang out of the earth.

Seventhly, health and life: this the Balsamum was an emblem of. This peace, this liberty, this knowledge, this grace, this joy, this health, God offereth to us in this accepted time, and day of salvation.

Behold, now, &c. The Jews had their now, and that was from the day of our Lord's birth to the time of the destruction of the Temple, before which a voice was heard at midnight, saying, Let us go hence.

The Gentiles now or day of grace began after Peters vision, and shall continue until the fullness of all Nations be come in.

Our Country's now for their conversion from Paganism began when Joseph of Arimathea, or Simon Zealots, or Saint Paul, or some other of the Apostles planted the Gospel in this Island: for our reversion to the purity of the ancient doctrine and discipline, was from the happy reformation in King Henry the eighth his time, and Kings Edward the sixts, and shall last till God for our sins remove our golden Candlestick.

All your now who hear me this day is from the day of your new birth in baptism, till the day of your death.

Behold, now is your accepted time, now is your day of salvation: make good use of these golden moments, upon which dependeth your eternal happiness or misery. Yet by a few sighs you may drive away the fearful storm that hangeth over you; yet with a few tears you may quench the fire of hell in your consciences; yet by stretching out your arms to God, and laying hold on Christ by faith, you may be kept from falling into the brimstone lake. While ye have the light of this day of grace Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, before the night of death cometh, when no man can work. If you reject this accepted time, and let slip this day of salvation, there remaineth nothing for you but a time of rejection. Away from me, I know you not: and a day of damnation, Go ye cursed into everlasting fire.

To apply this now yet once more. Behold now in these feasts of Christmas is tempus acceptum, an accepted time, or a time of acceptation, a time when we accept and entertain one another, a time of giving and accepting testimonies of love, a time of receiving the holy Sacrament, a time when God receiveth us into favor, biddeth us to his own table.

Behold, now is the day of salvation; the day in which our Savior was borne, and the grace of God, bringing salvation, appeared unto all men. This day our Savior will come into thy house; and if with humble devotion, godly sorrow, a lively faith, and sincere love thou entertain him, what himself spake to Zacchaeus, the Spirit will speak unto thee; This day is salvation come to thy house.

THE SPOUSE HER PRECIOUS BORDERS. A rehearsal Sermon, preached Anno 1618. THE XXXII. SERMON.

AS the riches of God's goodness are set forth to the eye of the body by the diversity of creatures in the book of nature; so are the treasures of his wisdom exposed to the eye of the mind by the variety of senses in the book of Scripture. Which in this respect is by reverend antiquity compared to the scroll in Ezekiel's vision, spread before him, which was written

within and without: without in the letter, within in the Spirit; without in the history, within in the mystery; without in the typical ceremonies, within in the moral duties; without in the Legal resemblance, within in the Evangelical reference; without in verborum foliis, within in radice rationis, as St. Jerome elegantly expresseth it. The former sense resembleth the golden pot, the latter the hidden Manna it self: that is as the shell or mother of pearl, this as the Margarite contained within it; both together, as Nazianzen observeth, make this singular correspondency between the incarnate and the inspired word of God, (both conceived by the holy Ghost, and brought forth in sacred sheets) that as the one consisteth of two natures, human and divine, visible and invisible; so the other of two senses, external and internal; external and visible in the shadow or letter, internal and invisible in the substance or spiritual interpretation: either tropologicall, or allegorical, or anagogicall, as the learned distinguish. Doth experience teach us that the richest metals lie deepest hid in the earth? Shall we not think it very agreeable to divine wisdom so to lay up heavenly knowledge in Scriptures, that the deeper we dig into them by diligent meditation, the vein of precious truth should prove still the richer? Surely howsoever some Divines affect an opinion of judgment (it is judgment in opinion only) by allowing of no sense of Scripture, nor doctrine from thence, except that which the text it self at the first proposing offereth to their conceit; yet give me leave to tell them that they are but like Apothecaries boys, which gather broad leaves and white flowers on the top of the water; not like cunning Divers, who fetch precious pearls from the bottom of the deep. St. Augustine, the most judicious of all the Fathers, is of a different judgment from them herein. For he confidently affirmeth, that the Penman of the holy Ghost of purpose so set down the words, that they might be capable of multiplicity of senses; and that he intended and meant all such divine truths as we can find in the words, and such also as we have not yet, or cannot find, and yet by diligent search may be found in them.

Now as the whole texture of Scripture, in regard of the variety of senses, may not unfitly be likened to the Kings daughters raiment of needle-work, wrought about with divers colors: so especially this of the Canticles, wherein the allegorical sense, because principally intended, may be called literal; and the literal or historical, as intended in the second place, allegorical. Behold here, as in a fair samplar, an admirable pattern of drawn-work, besides King Solomon in his royal robes and his Queen in a vesture of gold, divers birds expressed to the life, as the white Dove, washed with milk, and the black Raven: divers trees, as the thorn, the fig-tree, and the vine, the myrrh, spikenard, saffron, calamus, cinamon, with all trees of frankincense: divers flowers, as the Rose and the Lily: divers precious stones, as the Berill and the Sapphire: lastly, divers artificial woe • kes, as Houses of Cedar, Rafters of Fir, Tents of Kedar, Pillars of Marble, set in sockets of fine gold, rouse of Jewels, Chaines, and here in my text, Borders of gold, and Studs of silver.

Sanctius and Delrio upon my text observe, that Solomon alludeth to the 13. verse of the 68. Psalm; and what the Father prophesied of the Spouse, the Son promiseth to her, viz. to make her borders, or, as the Hebrew signifieth also, turtles of gold, enameled with silver. Howbeit it seemeth more probable that these words have a reference to the 9. verse of this chapter, and that Solomon continueth his former comparison of a troop of horses in Pharaoh 's Chariot: and thus the borders and chains in the 10 ^th . and 11 ^th . verses are linked to the 9 ^th .

Thus much of the letter, or rather letters of my text, which you see are all golden, flourished over with strikes, or, as Junius translateth the words, points of silver: now let us endeavor to spell the meaning. As artificial pictures drawn by the pencil of a skillful Opticke, in the same part of the frame or table, according to divers sites and aspects represent divers things: (look one way upon them, you shall see a man, another way a lion;) so it is in this admirable piece drawn by the pencil of Solomon; according to divers aspects it presenteth to our view divers things: look one way on it and there appeareth a man, to wit King Solomon; look another way and there appeareth a lion, the lion of the tribe of Judah; look downward upon the history, and you shall see Solomon with a crown of gold, and his Queen in her wedding garment; look upward to the allegory, and you shall see Christ crowned with thorns, and his Spouse the Church in a mourning weed, and under the one written a joyful Epithalamium, under the other a doleful Elegy. Agreeable to which double picture drawn with the self same lines and colors, we may consider the chains and borders of gold in my text, either as habiliments of Solomon's Queen, or ornaments of Christ's Spouse. If we consider them in the first sense, they show his royal magnificence and pomp; if in the second, either they signify the types and figures of the Jewish Synagogue under the law, or the large territories and rich endowments of the Christian Church under the Gospel. Origen, who taketh the seventy Interpreters for his guide, thus wadeth through the allegory: The Angels, saith he, or Prophets speak here to the Spouse before her husband Christ Jesus came in the flesh to kiss her with the kisses of his lips, and their speech is to this effect; O beautiful Spouse, we cannot make thee golden ornaments, we are not so rich, thy husband when be cometh will bestow such on thee; but in the mean time we will make thee 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , similitudes of true things; similitudines auri, with studs or points of silver, id est, scintillis quibusdam spiritualis intelligentiae that is points, spangles, or sparkles of precious and spiritual meaning. For example: Aaron's mitre and his breast-plate of judgment, engraven with Urim and Thummim, and his golden bells were similitudines auri, similitudes of gold, or golden similitudes: and the studs or points of silver, that is, sparkles or rays of spiritual truth in them were Christ his three offices;

• His Priestly, represented by the breast-plate.
• His Princely by the mitre.
• His Prophetical by the bells.

Again, in the breast-plate of Aaron there were set in rouse twelve precious stones; here were similitudes of gold, or golden similitudes; and the studs of silver, that is, sparkles or rays of spiritual meaning, were the twelve Apostles, laid as precious stones in the foundation of the heavenly Jerusalem, that is, the Church. Take yet a third example: in the Ark there were the two Tables, and the golden of Manna, and the rod that had budded; these were similitudines auri, golden similitudes: and the puncta argenti, that is, the clear and evident points of spiritual truth in them, are the three notes of the true Church:

• 1 The Word, or the Old and New Testament, signified by the two Tables.
• 2 The Sacraments, prefigured in the golden pot of Manna.
• 3 Ecclesiastical discipline, shadowed by Aaron's Rod.

Thus I might take off the cover of all the legal types, and show what lieth under them, what liquor the golden vessel containeth, what mysteries the precious robes involve, what sacraments their figures, what ablutions their washings, what table their Altars, what gifts their oblations, what host their sacrifices pointed unto. The Apostle in the Epistle to the Hebrews observeth such an admirable correspondency between these things, that in this respect the whole Scripture may be likened to one long similitude, the protasis whereof or first part is in the Old Testament, & the antapodosis or second part in the New. For in the Old, as the Apostle testifieth, there were similitudes of true things; but in the New we find the truth of those similitudes. Which if our new Sectaries of the precisian or rather circumcision cut had seriously thought upon, they would not, like Aesop's dog, let fall the substance by catching at the shadow; they would not be so absurd as to go about to bring the aged Spouse of Christ to her festraw again, and reduce all of us her children to her nonage under the law: they would not be so mad as to keep new moons, and Jewish Sabbaths, after the Sun of righteousness is risen so long ago, and hath made us an everlasting Sabbath in heaven. These silly Schismatics do but feed upon the scraps of the old Ebionites, of whom Haymo out of Eusebius writeth thus; (The Ebionites, according to the Hebrew Etymology of their name, are interpreted poor and silly; and so indeed they are in understanding, who as yet keep the ceremonies of the old Law.) Nay rather they lick the Galatians vomit, and therefore I think fit to minister unto them the purge prescribed by the Apostle: O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? This only would I learn of you, received ye the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by the hearing of faith? Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit are ye now made perfect by the flesh? Behold I Paul testify unto you, that if you be circumcised Christ shall profit you nothing: we may add, If you keep the Jewish Sabbath, or abstain from swine's flesh, out of conscience, and in obedience to the ceremonial Law, Christ's flesh shall profit you nothing: if you abstain from blood in any such respect, Christ's blood shall profit you nothing. For I testify again, saith St. Paul, to every man that is circumcised, that he is become a debtor to the whole Law. And will they not yet learn that Mosaical rites and ceremonies were at several times

• 1. Mortals or moriturae,
• 2. Mortuae,
• 3. Mortiferae?

They were mortals at their first constitution, mortuae, that is, dead, at Christ's death, and now mortiferae, deadly, to all that observe them. Will they put off the long white robes washed in the blood of the Lamb, and shroud themselves with the old rags, or, as St. Paul termeth them, beggarly rudiments of the Law? If they are so minded, I leave them, and fill up this Border with the words of Saint Leo, The ancient rite is taken away by a new Sacrament, one host passeth into another, blood excludeth blood, and the Legal festivity is fulfilled, in that it is changed.

The second exposition of this Scripture, which understandeth the golden borders and silver studs of the glorious and pompous splendor of the Christian Church, seemeth to come nearer unto the letter faciemus, we will make thee; the verb in the future tense evidently implieth a promise or prophesy, and the sense of the whole may be illustrated by this or the like Paraphrase:

Nay, such shall be thy honor and power, that thou shalt bind Kings with chains, and Nobles with links of iron, who for their ransom shall offer unto thee store of gold to make thee borders, and silver for studs.

Which prophesy seemed to have been fulfilled about the days of Constantine, or a little after, when such was the sumptuous stateliness of Christian Churches, and so rich the furniture thereof, that it dazzled the eyes of the Heathen; Felix the Emperors Treasurer blessing himself when he beheld the Church vessels and vestments, saying: En qualibus vasis ministratur Mariae filio! See what plate the son of Mary is served in! Here I might take occasion to congratulate our Churches of great Britain, which alone among all the Reformed, have preserved from sacrilege (ransacking holy things under pretence of zeal against Idolatry) some remains of Ecclesiastical preferments and sacred ornaments, as it were borders of gold.

But the time and your expectation call me from the explication of this Scripture, to make some application thereof to this present exercise. Whereto I would presently address myself, if I were not arrested by a new action repetundarum, commenced justly against those, who before me have repeated in this place. It is alleged against them, that they have turned recensere into censere, or censuram ferre, rehearsing into censuring, and contraction of Sermons into detraction from the Preachers. This is utterly a fault, and I hold it most necessary at this time and in this place to reprove it, that the plaster may be applied where the wound hath been given. It is no better than instead of wine to offer to Christ on this Cross the sharpest vinegar: after which if any thirst here, I think fit to send him packing on Martial the Poet his errand;

Can a fountain out of the same place send forth bitter waters and sweet? can a man with the same breath bless God and scandalize his Ministers, glorify him and disgrace their brethren? If any Rehearser hereafter shall turn Satirist, and take delight in spilling much wit and reading in this kind, I desire him seriously to consider, that as Achyllas was hurt in the eye by the rebound of that very stone, which he inhumanely coited at a skull; so that they cannot cast any contumelious aspersion in this kind upon their brethren in the Ministry, but that it will rebound back upon themselves, and wound them in the eye of their discretion, to say no more. For even they who most applaud their pregnancy, or rather luxuriancy of wit, secretly condemn their want of judgment, as Tully did his, who wonderfully pleased himself in that Paronomasie, Videte patres conscripti, ne circumscripti videamini, whereby he offended all the Senate; Ego vero non tanti fecissem 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , I would not have set so much by a figure or cadency of sentence, as for it to fall out with the Council of State. Quintilian gravely schools such, telling them, that • e buyeth a witty conceit or jest at too dear a rate, who pawneth his honesty for it: Much more he, who pawneth Christian charity for it. The Ministers of the Gospel, who are styled angels in holy Scripture, ought to resemble the Cherubims in the Ark, which cast a gracious aspect one upon the other; and Rehearsers should be like the golden snuffers of the Temple, not like extinguishers of baser metal: they ought to take away the superfluity, and clear the light of their brethren's labors, not put it out as some have done of late, and left a loathsome savor behind them: or, to make use of the similitude which I find in my Text, they should be like studs of silver in borders of gold, receive, and give a mutual luster one to the other.

Thus having given a law to myself as well as others, I proceed to speak of the worthy Speakers, whose resounding echo the redoubled command of authority hath made me at this present, who like the Roman Orator (in his divination in Verrem ) had rather that any should have undertaken this task than myself, myself rather than none.

If (as the Proverb is) tria sunt omnia, so it might be said truly, quatuor sunt omnia, I should not doubt but to fit the four Speakers, whose remembrancer I must be, with a similitude running upon four feet. But it is far otherwise, there are few quaternians in nature, and these have been laid out for, and anticipated long ago. Besides, as Pliny writeth of the flesh of a Chameleon, that it is very wholesome for women in labor, if the Chameleon were bred in the country, but very unwholesome if it be brought from foreign parts; so it may be truly said of allusions and applications, If they are home borne as it were, and taken from things near at hand, they are in request; but if they be far fetched they lose their grace. Howsoever, they who never mean to touch this heavy burden so much as with a little finger, should forbear to censure those who in these later years are to furnish this exercise, yea, though we send far for our provision in this kind; since our just apology may be, that Pliny and Solinus their markets have been fore-stalled, and there is nothing to be had near at hand.

The four Postes have long ago rode their four stages.

The four parts of the World have been traversed.

The four rivers of Paradise have been drawn dry.

The four winds have breathed out their last gasp.

The four rich Merchants have sold their commodities.

The four Ambassadors have delivered their embassages.

What shall I add more? Heaven it self hath been ransacked, and from thence four Angels have been called down to sound the four last Trumps: Nay, Hell it self hath been raked for similitudes, and from thence Proteus was conjured up, to turn himself into four shapes. This (as I conceive) occasioned my immediate predecessor, with whose praises the Cross yet rings, to chime the Rehearsers knell with four Bells in this place, where there was never yet any one hung. Nothing remaineth for me, who am to fish for allusions after all these, but to make use of the words of my Text according to the seventies Translation, faciamus similitudines, to set forth a new Pliny, and forge new similitudes of things that never were nor will be. But see, as Apelles when he had often tried to paint the foaming of a horse, and could never come near it, at last in a rage flung his spunge carelessly upon his work, and chance expressed that which art could not: so after much labor taken in devising an emblem, and pourtraying a lively draught of these four Speakers, at last, unsatisfied with any, I threw down my pensill upon my work, and behold, quod ars non potuit, casus expressit, I find here casually in my Text what I so long sought for, similitudines auri, golden resemblances, to wit, borders of gold with studs of silver. For, as Aquinas teacheth us, the gold mystically signifieth the Spirits meaning, the studs of silver the Preachers art; gold representeth the precious doctrine they delivered, silver the perspicuity of their speech, and bright luster of their style. As for the number, the Text saith borders, in the plural number, and if Solomon continue his former comparison of a troupe of horses in Pharaohs chariot (in the precedent Verse) which were four, after the custom of all Nations when they rode in state,

the borders by consequence must needs be four. And herein the mystical ornaments of the Spouse are corresponding to the typical ornaments of her Husband. As the breast of Aaron (a type of Christ) was adorned with four rouse of precious stones; so the neck and breast of Solomon's Queen (the Churches type) is decked here with four borders of gold.

See then here as it were the model of my intended frame. The friends of the Spouse who present her with four borders of gold, with studs of silver, are the four Preachers, whose Sermons may be compared to the borders in my text in a fourfold respect:

1 Of the number; four Borders, four Sermons.

2 Of the order; the Borders were set immediately one under another, the Sermons preached one after another.

3 Of the matter; the Borders were made of gold, the Sermons consisted of Scripture doctrine, like unto gold tried in the fire.

4 Of the form; the Borders were enameled with silver, or set out with spangles of that metal; and in the Sermons Scripture doctrine was beautified with variety of human learning, and adorned with short sentences of ancient Fathers, like O 's, spangles, or studs of silver.