Fifty Sermons

SERMON VI.

Preached at a Christening.

I N great and enormous offenses, we find that the law, in a well governed State, expressed the punishment upon such a delinquent, in that form, in that curse, Igni & aqua interdicitor; let him have no use of fire, and water, that is, no use of anything, necessary for the sustentation of life. Beloved, such is the miserable condition of wretched Man, as that we come all into the world under the burden of that curse; Aqua, & igni interdicim • r; we have nothing to do, naturally, with the spiritual water of life, with the fiery beams of the holy Ghost, till he that hath wrought our restitution from this banishment, restore us to this water, by pouring out his own blood, and to this lively fire, by laying himself a cold, and bloodless carcass in the bowels of the Earth: till he who haptized none with wa • er, direct his Church to do that office towards us; and he without whom, none was baptized with fire, perfect that Ministerial work of his Church with the effectual seals of his grace; for this is his testimony, the witness of his love.

Yea, that law, in cases of such great offenses, expressed it self in another Malediction, upon such offenders, appliable also to us, Intestabiles sunte, let them be Intestable. Now, this was a sentence, a Condemnation so pregnant, so full of so many heavy afflictions, as that he, who by the law was made intestable, was all these ways intestable: First, he was able to make no Testament of his own, he had lost all his interest in his own estate, and in his own will; Secondly, he could receive no profit by any testament of any other Man, he had lost all the effects of the love, and good disposition of other Men to him; Thirdly, he was Intestable, so, as that he could not testify, he should not be believed in the behalf of another; and lastly the testimony of another could do him no good, no Man could be admitted to speak for him. After that first, and heavy curse of Almighty God upon Man, Morte morieris, If thou eat, thou shalt die, and die twice, thou shall die a bodily, thou shalt die a spiritual death (a punishment which no sentence of any law, or law-maker could ever equal, to deter Men from offending, by threatening to take away their lives twice, and by inflicting a spiritual death eternally upon the Soul,) after we have all incurred that malediction, Morte moriemur, we shall die both death, we cannot think to scape any less malediction of any law, and therefore we are all Intestabiles we are all intestable, in all these senses, and apprehensions, which we have touched upon.

We can make no testament of our own; we have no good thing in us to dispose; we have no good inclination, no good disposition, in our Will; we can make no use of another's testament; not of the double testaments of Almighty God; for in the Old testament, he gives promises of a Messias, but we bring into the world no Faith, to apprehend those promises; and in the New testament, he gives a performance, the Messias is come, but he is communicable to us, no way but by baptism, and we cannot baptize ourselves; we can profit nobody else by our testimony, we are not able to endure persecution, for the testimony of Christ, to the edification of others, we are not able to do such works, as may shine before Men, to the glorifying of our God. Neither doth the testimony of others do us any good; for neither the Martyrdom of so many Millions, in the primitive Church, nor the execution of so many judgments of God, in our own times, do restifie anything to our Consciences; neither at the last day, when those Saints of God, whom we have accompanied in the outward worship of God here in the visible Church, shall be called to the right hand, and we detruded to the left, shall they dare to open their mouths for us, or to testify of us, or to say, Why Lord, these Men, when they were in the world, did as we did, appeared, and served thee in thy house, as we did, they seemed to go the same way that we did upon Earth, why go they a sinister way now in heaven? We are utterly intestable; we can give nothing; we can take nothing; nothing will be believed from us, who are all falsehood it self; nor can we be relieved by anything, that any other will say for us. As long, as we are considered under the penalty of that law, this is our case; Interdicti, intestabiles, we are accursed, and so, as that we are intestable.

Now as this great malediction, Morte marieris, in volves all other punishments, (upon whom that falls, all fall) so when our Savior Christ Jesus hath a purpose to take away that, or the most dangerous part of that, the spiritual death, when he will reverse that judgment, Aqua & igni interdicitur, to make us capable of his water, and his fire; when he will reverse the intestabiles, the inte •• ability, and make us able to receive his graces by faith, and declare them by works; then, as he that will re-edify a demolished house, begins not at the top but at the bottom, so Christ Jesus, when he will make this great preparation, this great reedification of mankind, he begins at the lowest step, which is, that we may have use of the testimony of others, in our behalf: and he proceeds strongly, and effectually; he produces three witnesses from heaven, so powerful, that they will be heard, they will be believed; and three witnesses on earth, so near us, so familiar so domestic as that they will not be denied, they will not be discredited; Three are three that bear Record in heaven, and three that bear record in earth.

Since then Christ Jesus makes us all our own Jury, able to conceive, and judge upon the Evidence, and testimony of these three heavenly, and three earthly witnesses, let us draw near, and hearken to the evidence, and consider three things; Testimonium esse. Quid sit, and Qui testes. That God descends to means proportionable to Man; he affords him witness; and secondly, the matter of the proof, what all these six witnesses testify, what they establish; Thirdly, the quality, and value of the witnesses, and whether the matter be to be believed, for their sakes, and for their reasons. God requires nothing of us, but Testimony: for Martyrdom is but that; A Martyr is but a witness. God offers us nothing without testimony: for his Testament, is but a witness. Teste ipso, is shrewd evidence; when God says, I will speak, and I will testify against thee; I am God, even thy God: when the voice of God testifies against me in mine own conscience. It is more pregnant evidence then this, when his voice testifies against me in his word, in his Scriptures: The Lord testified against Israel, by all the Prophets and by all the Seers. When I can never be alone, but that God speaks in me, but speaks against me; when I can never open his book, but the first sentence mine eye is upon, is a witness against me, this is fearful evidence. But in this text, we are not in that storm, for he hath made us Testabiles, that is, ready to testify for him, to the effusion of our blood; and Testabiles, that is, fit to take benefit by the testament, that he hath made for us, The effusion of his blood; which is our second branch: what is testified for us, what these witnesses establish.

First then, that which a sinner must be brought to understand, and believe, by the strength of these witnesses, is Integritas Christi; not the Integrity, as it signifies the Innocency of Christ: but integrity, as it signifies Intireness, not as it is Integer vitae, but Integra vita; not as he kept an integrity in his life, but as he only, is entirely our life. That Christ was a person composed of those two Natures, divine, and human, whereby he was a fit, and a full satisfaction for all our sins, and by death could be our life: for when the Apostle writ this Epistle, it seems there had been a schism, not about the Mystical body of Christ, the Church, but even about the Natural; that is to say, in the person of Christ, there had been a schism, a separation of his two natures: for, as we see certainly before the death of this Apostle, that the Heresy of Ebion and of Cerinthus, (which denied the divine nature of Christ) was set on foot, (for against them purposely was the Gospel of Saint John written) so by Epiphanius his ranking of the Heresies, as they arose, where he makes Basilides his Heresy, (which denied that Christ had any natural body) to be the fourth herefie, and Ebions, to be the tenth, it seems, that they denied his humanity, before they denied his Divinity. And therefore it is well collected, that this Epistle of Saint John, being written long before his Gospel, was written principally, and purposely against the opposers of Christ's humanity, but occasionally also, in defense of his divine nature too. Because there is Solutio Jesus, a dissolving of Jesus, a taking of Jesus in pieces, a dividing of his Natures, or of his Offices, which overthrows all the testimonies of these six great witnesses when Christ said, Solvite templum hoc, destroy, dissolve this temple, and in three days I will raise it, he spoke that but of his natural body; there was Solutio corporis, Christ's body and soul were parted, but there was not Solutio Jesus; the divine nature parted not from the human, no not in death, but adhered to, and accompanied the soul, even in hell, and accompanied the body in the grave.

And therefore, says the Apostle, Omnis spiritus qui solvit Iesum, ex deo non est; (for so Irenaeus, and Saint Augustine, and Saint Cyril with the Grecians, read those words) That spirit which receives not Jesus entirely, which dissolves Jesus and breaks him in pieces, that spirit is not of God. All this then is the subject of this testimony; first that Christ Jesus is come in the flesh; (there is a Recognition of his human nature ) And then that this Jesus is the son of God; (there is a subscription to his divine nature:) he that separates these, and thereby makes him not able, or not willing to satisfy for Man, he that separates his Nature, or he that separates the work of the Redemption, and says, Christ suffered for us only as Man, and not as God, or he that separates the manner of the work, and says that the passive obedience of Christ only redeemed us, without any respect at all, to his active obedience, only as he died, and nothing as he died innocently, or he that separates the perfection, and consummation of the work, from his work, and finds something to be done by Man himself, meritorious to salvation, or he that separates the Prince, and the Subject, Christ and his members, by nourishing Controversies in Religion, when they might be well reconciled, or he that separates himself from the body of the Church, and from the communion of Saints, for the fashion of the garments, for the variety of indifferent Ceremonies, all these do Solvere Iesum, they slacken, they dissolve that Jesus, whose bones God provided for, that they should not be broken, whose flesh God provided for, that it should not see Corruption, and whose garments God provided, that they should not be divided.

There are other luxations, other dislocations, of Jesus, when we displace him for any worldly respect, and prefer preforment before him; there are other woundings of Jesus, in blasphemous oaths, and exerations; there are other maimings of Jesus, in pretending to serve him entirely, and yet retain one particular beloved sin still; there are other rackings, and extendings of Jesus when we delay him and his patience to our death-bed, when we stretch the string so far, that it cracks there, that is, appoint him to come then, and he comes not; there are other dissolutions of Jesus, when men will melt him, and pour him out, and mold him up in a waser Cake, or a piece of bread; there are other annihilations of Jesus when Men will make him, and his Sacraments, to be nothing but bare signs; but all these will be avoided by us, if we be gained by the testimony of these six witnesses to hold fast that integrity, that intirensse of Jesus, which is here delivered to us by this Apostle.

In which we believe first I • sum, a Savior; which implies his love, and his will to save us; and then we believe Christum, the anointed, that is God and man, able, and willing to do this great work, and that he is anointed, and sealed for that purpose; and this implies the decree, the contract, and bargain, of acceptation by the Father, that Pactum salis, that eternal covenant which seasons all, by which, that which he meant to do, as he was Jesus, should be done, as he was Christ. And then as the entireness of Jesus is expressed, in the verse before the text, we believe, Quod venit, that as all this might be done, if the Father and Son would agree, as all this must be done, because they had agreed it, so all this was done, Qu • a venit, because this Jesus is already come; and that, for the father entireness, for the perfection, and consummation, and declaration of all, venit per aquam & sanguinem, He came by water, and blood.

Which words Saint Bernard understands to imply but a difference between the coming of Christ, and the coming of Moses; who was drawn out of the water, and therefore called by that name of Moses. But before Moses came to be a leader of the people, he passed through blood too, through the blood of the Egyptian, whom he slew; and much more when he established all their bloody sacrifices, so that Mases came not only by water. Neither was the first Testament ordained without blood. Others understand the words only to put a difference between John the Baptist, and Christ: because John the Baptist is still said to baptize with water • Because he should be declared to Israel; therefore am I come, baptizing with water: but yet John Baptists baptism had not only a relation to blood, but a demonstration of it, when still he pointed to the Lamb, Ecce Agnus, for that Lamb was sl • ine from the beginning of the world. So that Christ, which was this Lamb, came by water, and blood, when he came, in the risuall types, and figures of Moses; and when he came in the baptism of John: for in the Law of Moses, there was so frequent use of water, as that we reckon above fifty several Immunditi as uncleannesses, which might receive their expiation by washing, without being put to their bloody sacrifies for them: And then there was so frequent use of blood, that almost all things are by the Law purged with blood, and without shedding of blood, is no Remission, But this was such water, and such blood, as could not perfect the work, but therefore was to be renewed every day. The water that Jesus comes by, is such a water, as he that arinketh of it, shall thirst no more; nay there shall spring up in him a well of water; that is, his example shall work to the satisfaction of others; (we do not say to a satisfaction for others.) And then this is that blood, that perfected the whole work at once, By his own blood entered he once into the holy place, and obtained eternal Redemption for us. So that Christ came by water, and blood, (according to the old ablutions, and old sacrifices) when he wept, when he sweat, when he poured out blood; precious, incorruptible, inestimable blood, at so many channels, as he did, all the while that he was upon the altar, sacrificing himself in his passion. But after the immolation of this sacrifice, after his Consummatum est; when Christ was come and gone for so much as belonged to the accomplishing of the types of the old law, then Christ came again to us by water and blood, in that wound, which he received upon his side, from which there flowed out miraculously true water, & true blood. This wound Saint Augustine calls Ianuam utriusque Sacramenti, the door of both sacraments; where we see he acknowledges but two, and both presented in this water, and blood and so certainly do most of the fathers, make this wound if not the foundation, yet at least a sacrament of both the sacraments. And to this water and blood doth the Apostle here, without doubt, aim principally; which he only of all the Evangelists hath recorded; and with so great asseveration, and assurednesse in the recording thereof, He that saw it bare record, and his record is true, and he knoweth that he saith truth, that ye might believe it. Here then is the matter which these six witnesses must be believed in, here is Integritas Jesus, quae non solvenda, the entireness of Christ Jesus, which must not be broken, That a Savior, which is Jesus, appointed to that office, that is Christ, figured in the law, by ablutions of water, and sacrifices of blood, is come, and hath perfected all those figures in water, and blood too; and then, that he remains still with us in water, and blood, by means instituted in his Church, to wash away our uncleannesses, and to purge away our iniquities, and to apply his work unto our Souls; this is Integritas Jesus, Jesus the son of God in heaven, Jesus the Redeemer of man, upon earth, Jesus the head of a Church to apply that to the end, this is Integritas Jesus; all that is to be believed of him.

Take thus much more, that when thou comest to hearken what these witnesses shall say to this purpose, thou must find something in their testimony, to prove him to be come not only into the world, but into thee; He is a mighty prince, and hath a great train; millions of ministering spirits attend him, and the whole army of Martyrs follow the Lamb wheresoever he goes: Though the whole world be his Court, thy soul is his bedchamber; there thou mayest contract him, there thou mayest lodge, and entertain Integrum Iesum, thy whole Savior. And never trouble thyself, how another shall have him, if thou have him all; leave him, and his Church to that; make thou sure thine own salvation. When he comes to thee, he comes by water and by blood; If thy heart, and bowels have not yet melted in compassion of his passion for thy soul, if thine eyes have not yet melted, in tears of repentanc • and contrition, he is not yet come by water into thee; If thou have suffered nothing for sin, nor found in thy self a cheerful disposition to suffer, if thou have found no wresting in thyself, no resistance of Concupiscences, he that comes not to set peace, but to kindle this war, is not yet come into thee, by blood. Christ can come by land, by purchases, by Revenues, by temporal blessings, for so he did still convey himself to the Jews, by the blessing of the land of promise, but here he comes by water, by his own passion, by his sacraments, by thy tears: Christ can come in a marriage and in Musique, for so he delivers himself to the spouse in the Canticles; but here he comes in blood; which coming in water, and blood (that is, in means for the salvation of our souls, here in the militant Church) is the coming that he stands upon and which includes all the Christian Religion; and therefore he proves that coming to them, by these three great witnesses in heaven, and three in earth. For there are three which bear record in heaven. The Father, the word, and the holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are three which bear record in the earth; The spirit, and the water, and the blood, and these three agree in one.

By the mouth of two, or three witnesses every word shall be confirmed, says Christ out of the law. That's as much as can be required, in any Civil, or Criminall business; and yet Christ gives more testimony of himself, for here he produces not Duos testes, but Duas Classes; two ranks of witnesses; and the fullest number of each, not two, but three in heaven, and three in earth. And such witnesses upon earth, as are omni exceptione majores, without all exception. It is not the testimony of earthly men; for when Saint Paul produces them in abundance, (The Patriarch, the Judges, the Prophets, the elders of the old times; of whom he exhibits an exact Catalogue,) yet he calls all them but Nubes testium clouds of witnesses; for though they be clouds in Saint Chrysostom's sense, (that they invest us, and enwrap us, and so defend us from all diffidence in God,) (we have their witness what God did for them, why should we doubt of the like?) though they be clouds in Athanasius sense, they being in heaven, shower down by their prayers, the dew of God's grace upon the Church; Though they be clouds, they are but clouds; some darkness mingled in them, some controversies arising from them; but his witnesses here, are Lux inaccessibilis, that light, that no eye can attain to, and Pater Luminum, the father of lights, from whom all these testimonies are derived. When God employed a man, to be the witness of Christ, because men might doubt of his testimony, God was content to assign him his Compurgators; when John the Baptist must preach, that the kingdom of God, was at hand, God fortifies the testimony of his witness, then, Hic enim est, for this is he of whom that is spoken by the prophet Isaiah; and lest one were not enough, he multiplies them, as it is written, in the prophets. John the Baptist might be thought to testify as a man, and therefore men must testify for him; but these witnesses are of a higher nature; these of heaven are the Trinity, and those of earth, are the sacraments and seals of the Church. The prophets were full of favor with God, Abraham full of faith, Stephen full of the Holy Ghost, many full of grace, and John the Baptist a prophet, and more then a prophet, yet never any prophet, never any man, how much soever interested in the favor of Almighty God was such an instrument of grace, as a sacrament or as God's seals and institutions in his Church: and the least of these six witnesses, is of that nature, and therefore might be believed without more witnesses.

To speak then first of the three first, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, it was but a poor plot of the devil, to go about to rob us, of their testimony; for as long as we have the three last, the spirit, the water, and blood, we have testimony enough of Christ, because God is involved in his ordinance; and though he be not tied to the work of the Sacrament, yet he is always present in it. Yet this plot, the devil had upon the Church: And whereas this first Epistle of Saint John was never doubted to be Canonical, (whereas both the other have been called into some question) yet in this first Epistle, the first verse of this text, was for a long time removed, or expung'd, whether by malice of Heretics, or negligence of transcribers. The first Translation of the new testament, (which was into Syriaque) hath not this verse; That which was first called Vulgata editio, had it not, neither hath Luther it in his Germane translation: very many of the Latin Fathers have it not; and some very ancient Greek Fathers want it, though more ancient then they, have it; for Athanasius in the Council of Nice cites it, and makes use of it; and Cyprian, beheaded before that Council, hath it too. But now, he that is one of the witnesses himself, the Holy Ghost hath assured the Church, that this verse belongs to the Scripture; and therefore it becomes us to consider thankfully, and reverently, this first rank of witnesses, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost.

The Father then hath testified De integritate Christi, of this entireness, that Christ should be all this and do all this, which we have spoken of, abundantly: he begun before Christ was borne; in giving his name, Thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from sin. Well; how shall this person be capable to do this office of saving his people from sin? Why, in him say God the father, (in the representation of an Angel) shall be fulfilled that prophecy, A virgin shall bear a Son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, which is by interpretation God with us: This seems somewhat an incertaine testimony, of a Man, with an Aliàs dictus, with two names. God says he shall be called Jesus, that the prophecy may be fulfilled which says he shall be called Immanuel: but therein consists, Integritas Christi, this entireness; he could not be Jesus, not a Savior, except he were Immanuel, God with us, God in our nature. Here then is Jesus, a Savior, a Savior that is God, and Man, but where is the Testimony De Christo; that he was anointed, and prepared for this sacrifice; that this work of his was contracted between the Father, and him, and acceptable to him? It is twice testified by the Father; both in Christ's act of humiliation, when he would be Baptized by John; when he would accept an ablution, who had no uncleanness, then God says, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, he was well pleased in his person, and he was well pleased, in his act, in his office. And he testifies it again in his first act of glory, in his transfiguration; where the Father repeats the same words with an addition, Hear him: God is pleased in him, and would have Men pleased in him too. He testified first, only for Joseph's sak that had entertained, and lodged some scrupulous suspicion against his wife, the Blessed Virgin; His second testimony at the baptism, had a farther extent; for that was for the confirmation of John the Baptist, of the preacher himself, who was to convey his doctrine to many others; His third testimony in the transfiguration, was larger then the Baptism; for that satisfied three, and three such as were to carry it far, Peter, and James, and John: All which no doubt made the same use of his testimony, as we see Peter did, who preached out of the strength of his manifestation, we followed not deceivable fables, but with our own eyes we saw his Majesty; for he received of God the Father, honor, and glory, when there came such a voice to him, from the Excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. But yet the Father gave a more free, a more liberal testimony of him, then this, at his Conception, or Baptism, or Transfiguration: when upon Christ's prayer, Father glorify thy Name, there came a voice from heaven, I have both glorified it and will glorify it again. For this all the people apprehended; some imputed it to Thunder, some to an Angel; but all heard it; and all heard Christ's comment upon it, That that voice came not for him, but for their sakes; so that when the Father had testified of a Jesus, a Savior, and a Christ, a Savior sent to that purpose, and a Son in whom he is pleased, and whom we must hear, when it is said of him, moreover, Gratificavit •• s in Dilect • , he hath made us accepted in his beloved, this is his way of coming in water, and blood, that is, in the sacraments of the Church, by which we have assurance of being accepted by him; and this is this Integritas Christi, the entireness of Christ, testified by our first witness, that bears record in heaven. The father.

The second witness in heaven, is ver • um, The Word: and that is a welcome message, for it is Christ himself: It is not so when the Lord sends a word; The Lord sent a word unto Jacob, and it lighted upon Israel • there the word is a judgment, and an execution of the Judgment: for that word, that signifies, 2 word there, in the same letters exactly signifies, a pestilence, a Calamity; It is a word, and a blow; but the word here, is verbum cara, that Word which for our sakes was made ourselves. The word then in this place, is the second person in the Trinity, Christ Jesus, who in this Court of heaven, where there is no corruption, no falsification, no passion, but fair and just proceeding, is admitted to be a witness in his own cause; It is Jesus, that testifies for Jesus now, when he was upon earth, and said, If I should bear witness of myself, my witness were not true, whether we take those words to be spoken, per Co • nlventiam, by an allowance, and concession, (It is not true, that is, I am content that you should not believe my witness of myself to be true) (as Saint Cyril understand them) or whether we take them, Humana mare, that Christ as a man, acknowledged truly, and as he thought, that inlegall proceeding a man's own testimony ought not to be believed in his own behalf, (as Athan •• ius and Saint Ambrose understand them) yet Christ might safely say as he did, Though I bear a record of myself, yet my record is true; why? because I know whence I come, and whither I go. Christ could not be Singularis •• stis, a single witness • He was always more then one witness, because he had always more then 〈◊〉 ; God and man; and therefore Christ instructing Nicodemus, speaks plurally, we speak, that 〈◊〉 know, we testify that we have seen, and you receive not Testimoni •• n • strum, our witness • he does not say my witness, but ours, because although a singular, yet he was a plural person too.

His testimony then was credible, but how did he testify Integritatem, this entireness, all that belonged to our faith • All consists in this, that he was Jesus, capable in his nature, to be a Savior, that he was Christus, ordained, and sent for that office, and then Quod venit, that be was come, and come, in aqus & sanguine, in water and blood, in sacraments, which might apply him to us. That he was Jesus a person capable, his miracles testified aloud and frequently: that he was Christ, anointed, and sent for that, his reference of all his actions to his Father testified; both these were enwrapped in that, that he was the Son of God; and that he professed himself upon the earth to be so; for so it appears plainly, that he had plainly done: We have a law, say the Jews to Pilate, and by our law, he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God. And for the last part, that he came In aqua & sanguine, in water, and blood, in such means, as were to continue in the Church, for our spiritual reparation, and sustentation, he testified that, in preaching so piercing Sermons, in instituting so powerful Sacraments, in assuring us, that the love of God expressed to mankind in him, extended to all persons, and all times, God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoseever believeth in him, should not perish, but have life everlasting. And so the words bear record, De Integritate, of this Intirenesse, of the whole work of our Redemption: and therefore, Christ is not only truly called a Martyr, in that sense, as Martyr signifies a witness, but he is truly called a Martyr, in that sense, as we use the word ordinarily; for he testified this truth, and suffered for the testimony of it: and therefore he is called Jesus Christ, Martyr, a faithful witness. And there is Martyrium, a Martyrdom attributed to him, where it is said, Jesus Christ under Pontius Pilate, witnessed a good confession; so he was a speaking, and a doing, and a suffering witness.

Now for the third witness in heaven, which is the holy Ghost; we may contract ourselves in that; for the whole work was his; Before Joseph and Mary came together, she was found with Child of the holy Ghost: which (if we take it, as Saint Basil, and divers others of the Fathers do) that Joseph found it, by the holy Ghost, that is, the holy Ghost informed him of it, then here the holy Ghost was a witness to Joseph, of this Conception: but we rather take it (as it is most ordinarily taken) that the Angel intimated this to Joseph, That that which was conceived in her, was of the holy Ghost; and then the holy Ghost did so primarily testify, this decree of God, to send a Jesus, and a Christ, for our Redemption, that himself was a blessed and bountiful actor in that Conception, he was conceived by him, by his overshadowing. So that the holy Ghost did not only testify his coming, but he brought him: And then, for his coming in Aqua & sanguine, in water and blood, that is, in Sacraments, in means, by which he might be able to make his coming useful, and appliable to us, first the holy Ghost, was a pregnant witness of that, at his Baptism; for the holy Ghost had told John the Baptist beforehand, That upon whomsoever he should descend, and tarry still, that should be he, that should baptize with the holy Ghost: and then according to those Markes, he did descend, and tarry still upon Christ Jesus, in his baptism. And after this falling upon him, and tarrying upon him, (which testified his power) in all his life, expressed in his doctrine, and in his Sermons, after his death, and Resurrection, and Ascension, the holy Ghost gave a new testimony, when he fell upon the Apostles in Cloventongues, and made them spiritual channells, in which this water and blood, the means of applying Christ to us, should be conveyed to all Nations; and thus also the third witness in heaven, testified De integritate, of this entireness of Jesus.

Of these three witnesses then, which are of heaven, we shall need to add no more, but that which the text adds, that is, That these three are one; that is, not only one in Consent, (they all testify of one point, they all speak to one Intergatory; Ad integritatem Christi, to prove this entireness of Christ;) but they are Vnum Essentia, The Father, the Son, and the holy Ghost are all one Godhead, and so meant and intended to be in this place. And therefore as Saint Jerome complained, when some Copies were without this seventh verse, that thereby we had lost a good argument for the unity of the three Persons, because this verse said plainly that the three witnesses were all one, so I am sorry, when I see any of our later expositors deny, that in this place, there is any proof, of such an unity, but that this Vnum sunt, (They are one) is only an unity of consent, and not of essence. It is an unthrifty prodigality (howsoever we be abundantly provided with arguments, from other places of Scriptures, to prove this Unity in Trinity) to cast away so strong an argument, against Jew, and Turk, as is in these words, for that, and for the consubstantiality of Christ, which was the Tempest, and the Earthquake of the Primitive Church, raised by Arius; and his followers then, and (God knows) not extinguished yet.

Thus much I add of these three witnesses, that though they be in heaven, their testimony is upon the earth; for they need not to testify to one another, this matter of Jesus: The Father hears of it every day, by the continual intercession of Christ Jesus: The Son feels it every day; in his new crucifying by our sins, and in the perfecution of his Mystical body here: The holy Ghost hath a bitter sense of it, in our sins against the holy Ghost, and he hath a loving sense of it, in those abundant seas of graces, which flow continually from him upon us; They need no witnesses in heaven; but these three witnesses testify all this, to our Consciences. And therefore the first author, that is observed to have read, and made use of this seventh verse (which was one of the first Bishops of Rome) he reads the words thus, Tres in nobis, there are three in us, which bear witness in heaven; they testify for our sakes, and to establish our assurance, De Integritate Jesus; that Jesus is come, and come with means, to save the world, and to save us. And therefore upon these words, Saint Bernard collects thus much more, that there are other witnesses in heaven, which restifie this work of our Redemption, Angels, and Saints, all the Court, all the Choir of heaven testify it; but catera nobis occults, says he, what all they do we know not: but (according to the best dispositions here in this world) we acquaint ourselves, and we choose to keep company with the best, and so not only the poor Church s the earth, but every poor soul in the Church, may hear all these three witnesses testifying to him, Integrum Iesum suum, that all, which Christ Jesus hath done, and suffered, appertains to him: but yet, to bring it nearer him, in visible and sensible things, There are, tres de terra, three upon earth too.

The first of these three upon earth, is the Spirit: which Saint Augustine understands of the spirit, the soul of Christ: for when Christ commended his spirit, into the hands of his Father, this was a testimony, that he was Verus hemo, that he had a soul; and in that he laid down his spirit, his soul, (for no Man could take it from him) and took it again, at his pleasure, in his resurrection, this was a testimony, that he was Verus Deus, true God; And so says Saint Augustine, Spiritus, The spirit, that is anima Christi, the soul of Christ, did testify De integritate Jesus, all that belonged to Jesus, as he was God, and as he was Man. But this makes the witnesses in heaven, and the witnesses in earth all one; for the personal testimony of Christ's preaching, and living, and dying, the testimony which was given by these three Persons of the Trinity, was all involved in the first rank of witnesses: Those three which are in heaven. Other later Men understand by the Spirit here the Spirit of every Regenerate Man; and that in the other heavenly witnesses, the spirit is Spiritus sanctus, the spirit that is holy in it self, the holy Ghost, and here it is Spiritus sanctificatus, that spirit of Man, which is made holy by the holy Ghost, according to that, The same spirit, beareth witness, with our spirit, that we are the children of God. But in this sense, it is too particular a witness, too singular, to be intended here; for that speaks but to one Man, at once; The spirit therefore here is; Spiritus oris, the word of God, the Gospel; and the preaching, and ministration thereof. We are made Ministers of the New testament of the spirit, that giveth life: And if the ministration of death were glorious, how shall not the ministration of the spirit, be more glorious? It is not therefore the Gospel merely, but the preaching of the Gospel, that is this spirit. Spiritus sacerdotis vehioulum Spiritus Dei; The spirit of the Minister, is not so pure, as the spirit of God, but it is the chariot, the means, by which God will enter into you. The Gospel is the Gospel, at home, at your house; and there you do well to read it, and reverence it, as the Gospel: but yet it is not Spiritus, it is not this Spirit, this first witness upon earth, but only there, where God hath blessed it with his institution, and ordinance, that is, in the preaching thereof. The stewardship, and the dispensation of the graces of God, the directing of his threatenings against refractary, and willful sinners, the directing of his promises to simple, and supple, and con • rite penitents, the breaking of the bread, the applying of the Gospel according to their particular indigences, in the preaching thereof, this is the first witness.

The second witness here is The water, and I know there are some Men which will not have this to be understood of the water of Baptism; but only of the natural effect of water; that as the abtutions of the old law, by water did purge us, so we have an inward testimony, that Christ doth likewise wash us clean; so the water here, must not be so much as water; but a metaphorical, and figurative water. These men will not allow water, in this place, to have any relation to the sacrament; and Saint Ambrose was so far from doubting that water in this place belonged to the sacrament, that he applies all these three witnesses to the Sacrament of Baptism: Spiritus mentem renovat, All this is done in Baptism, says he; The Spirit renews and disposes the mind; Aqua perficit ad Lavacrum; The water is applied to cleanse the body; Sanguis Spectat ad pre • lium; and the blood intimates the price, and ransom, which gives force, and virtue to this sacrament: And so also (says he in another place) In sanguine mors, in the blood there is a representation of death, in the water, of our burial, and in the spirit, of our own life. Some will have none of these witnesses on earth to belong to baptism, not the water; and Ambrose will have all, spirit, and water, and blood to belong to it.

Now both Saint Ambrose, who applies all the three witnesses to Baptism, and those later men which deny any of the witnesses to belong to baptism, do both depart from the general acceptation of these words, that water here, and only that, signifies the Sacrament of baptism. For as in the first creation, the first thing, that the spirit of God, is noted to have moved upon, was the waters, so the first creature, that is sanctified by Christ's institution, to our Salvation, is this element of water. The first thing that produced any living sensible creature was the water; Primus liquor qnod viveret edidit; ne mirum sit quod in Baptismo, aquae a • nimare noverunt; water brought forth the first creatures, says Tertullian; That we should not wonder, that water should bring forth Christians. The first of God's afficting miracles in Egypt, was the changing of water into blood; and the first miracle of grace, in the New Testament, was the changing of water into wine at the marriage. So that water hath still been a subject, and instrument of God's conversation with man: So then Aqua janua ecclesiae, we cannot come into the Church, but by water, by baptism: for though the Church have taken knowledge of other Baptismes, (Baptisma sanguinis, which is Martyrdom, and Baptisma Flaminis, which is a religious desire to be baptized when no means can be got) yet there is no other sacrament of Baptism, but Baptisma Fluminis, the Baptism of water; for the rest, Conveniunt in causando, sed non in significando, says the School; that is, God doth afford a plentiful retribution to the other baptisms Flaminis and Sanguinis, but God hath not ordained them, to be outward seals, and significations of his grace, and to be witnesses of Jesus his coming upon earth, as this water is. And therefore they that provide not duly to bring their children to this water of life, (not to speak of the essential necessity thereof) they take from them one of the witnesses, that Jesus is come into them; and (as much as they can) they shut the Church door against them, they leave them out of the Ark, and for want of this water, cast them into that general water, which overflows all the rest of the world, which are not brought within the Covenant, by this water of baptism. For, though in the first Translation of the New Testament, into Syriaque, that be said in the sixth verse, that Jesus is come per manus aquarum, by the power of waters, many waters, and in this verse, this witness is delivered in the plural, spirit and waters, (and so, waters in that signification, (which signification they have often in the Scriptures) that is, affliction, and tribulation, be good testimonies that our Lord Jesus doth visit us) though the waters of Co • trition, and repentant tears be another good testimony of that too, yet that water, which testifies the presence of Jesus so, as that it doth always infallibly bring Jesus with it, (for the Sacraments are never without Grace) whether it be accepted or no, there it is) • That water which is made equal with the preaching of the Word, (so far as to be a fellow-witness with the Spirit) that is only the Sacrament of baptism, without which (in the ordinary dispensation of God) no soul can be surer that Jesus is come to him, then if he had never heard the Word preached; he mistakes the spirit, the first witness; if he refuse the water the second.

The third witness upon earth, is blood: and that is briefly the Communion of the body, and blood of Jesus, in the Lord's Supper. But how is that blood upon earth? I am not ashamed to confess, that I know not how, but the blood of Christ is a witness upon earth, in the Sacrament, and therefore, upon the earth it is. Now this Witness being made equal with the other two, with preaching, and with baptism, it is as necessary, that he that will have an assurance • that Jesus is come into him, do receive this Sacrament, as that he do hear Serm • n • , and that he be baptized. An over vehement urging of this necessity, brought in an erroneous custom in the Primitive Church: That they would give the Sacrament of the body of Christ to Children, as soon as they were baptized; yea, and to dead man too. But because this Sacrament is accompanied with precepts, which can belong only to Men of understanding, (for they must do it in Remembrance, and they must discern the Lord's body) therefore the necessity lies only upon such, as are come to those graces, and to that understanding. For they that take it, and do not discern it, (not know what they do) they take it dangerously. But else, for them, to whom this Sacrament belongs, if they take it not, their hearing of Sermons, and their baptism doth them no good; for what good can they have done them, if they have not prepared themselves for it? And therefore, as the Religion of the Church holds a stubborn Recusant at the table, at the Communion bord, as far from her, as a Recusant at the Pew, that is, a Non-communicant as ill, as a not commer, or a not hearer, so I doubt not but the wisdom of the state weighs them in the same balance; For these three agree in one, says the text: that is, first they meet in one Man, and then they testify the same thing, that is, Integritatem Jesus, that Jesus is come to him in outward Means, to save his soul. If his conscience find not this testimony, all these avail him nothing. If we remain vessels of anger, and of dishonor still, we are under the Vae v • bis Hypocritis: woe unto you Hypocrites, that make clean only the outside of your cups and Platters. That baptize, and wash your own, and your children's bodies, but not their minds with instructions. When we shall come to say Docuisti in plateis, we have heard thee preach in our streets, we have continued our hearing of thy Word, when we say Manducavimus coram te, we have eat in thy presence, at thy table, yea Manducavimus t • , we have eaten thee thyself, yet for all this outward show of these three witnesses, of Spirit, and Water, and blood, Preaching, and Baptism and Communion, we shall hear that fearful disclaiming from Christ Jesus, Nescio vos, I know not whence you are. But these witnesses, he will always hear, if they testify for us, that Jesus is come unto us; for the Gospel, and the preaching thereof, is as the deed that conveys Jesus unto us; the water, the baptism, is as the Seal, that assures it; and the blood, the Sacrament, is the delivery of Christ into us; and this is Integritas Jesus, the entire, and full possession of him.

To this purpose therefore, as we have found a Trinity in heaven, and a Trinity in earth, so we must make it up a Trinity of Trinities, and find a third Trinity in our selves. God created one Trinity in us; (the observation, and the enumeration is Saint Bernard's) which are those three faculties of our soul, the reason, the memory, the will; That Trinity in us, by another Trinity too, (by suggestion towards sin, by delight in sin, by consent to sin) is fallen into a third Trinity; The memory into a weakness, that that comprehends not God, it glorifies him not for benefits received; The reasen to a blindness, that that discerns not what is true; and the will to a perverseness, that that wishes not what's good; But the goodness of God, by these three witnesses on earth regenerates, and reestablishes a new Trinity in us, faith, and hope, and charity; Thus far that devout Man carries it; And if this new Trinity, faith, and hope, and charity, witness to us Integritatem Christi, all the work of Christ, If my faith testify to me, that Christ is sealed to my soul; and my hope, testify, that at the Resurection, I shall have a perfect fruition in soul, and body, of that glory which he purchased for every believer; and my charity testifies to the world, that I labor to make sure that salvation, by a good life, then there's a Trinity of Trinities, and the six are made nine witnesses: There are three in heaven that testify that this is done for all Mankind, Three in the Church that testify, this may be done for me, and three in my soul, that testify, that all this is applied to me; and then the verdict, and the Judgment must necessarily go for me. And beloved, this Judgment will be grounded upon this entireness of Jesus, and therefore let me dismiss you with this note, That Integritas is in continuitate, not in contignitate; It is not the touching upon a thing, nor the coming near to a thing, that makes it entire; a fagot, where the sticks touch, a piece of cloth, where the threads touch, is not entire; To come as near Christ as we can conveniently, to try how near we can bring two Religions together, this is not to preserve Integritatem Jesus: In a word, Intirenesse excludes deficiency, and redundancy, and discontinuance; we preserve not entireness, if we preserve not the dignity of Christ, in his Church, and in his discipline, and that excludes the defective Separatist; we do not preserve that entireness if we admit traditions, and additions of Men, in an equality to the word of God, and that excludes the redundant Papist; neither do we preserve the entireness, if we admit a discontinuance, a slumbering of our Religion for a time, and that excludes the temporizers, the Statist, the Politician. And so, beloved, I recommend unto you Integritatem Jesus, Jesus, and his truth, and his whole truth, and this whole Truth, in your whole lives.

SERMON VII.

Preached at a Christening.

T His text is a Reason of a Reason; an Argument of an Argument; The proposition undertaken by the Apostle to prove, is, That after faith is come, we are no longer under the Schoolmaster, the law. The reason, by which he proves that, is: For ye are all the Sons of God by faith, in Christ Jesus; And then the reason of that, is this text, for all ye that are baptized into Christ, have put on Christ.

Here then is the progress of a sanctified Man, and here is his standing house; here is his journey, and his Lodging; his way, and his end. The house, the lodging, the end of all is faith; for whatsoever is not of faith, is sin. To be sure that you are in the right way to that, you must find yourselves to be the Sons of God; And you can prove that, by no other way to yourselves, but because you are baptized into Christ.

So that our happiness is now at that height, and so much are we preferred before the Jews, that whereas the chiefest happiness of the Jews was to have the law, (for without the law they could not have known sin, and the law was their Schoolmaster to find out Christ) we are admitted to that degree of perfection, that we are got above the law; It was their happiness to have had the law, but it is ours, not to need it: They had the benefit of a guide, to direct them, but we are at our journeys end; They had a schoolmaster to lead them to Christ; but we have proceeded so far, as that we are in possession of Christ. The law of Moses therefore, binds us not at all, as it is his Law; Whatsoever binds a Christian, in that law, would have bound him, though there had been no law given to Moses. The Ceremonial part of that law, which was in the institution, Mortale, (it was mortal, It might die) and by Christ's determination of those Typicall things, Mortuum, (It did die) is now also Mortiferum, (deadly) so that it is sin to draw any part of that law, into a necessity of observation; because the necessary admission of any Type, or figure, implies a confession, that that which was signified, or figured, is not yet come; So that that law, and Christ cannot consist together. The Judicial law of Moses, was certainly the most absolute, and perfect law of government, which could have been given to that people, for whom it was given; but yet to think, that all States are bound to observe those laws, because God gave them, hath no more ground, then that all Men are bound to go clothed in beasts skins, because God appareled Adam, and Eve in that fashion.

And for the moral part of that law, and the abridgement of that moral part, the decalogue, that begun not to have force, and efficacy then, when God writ it in the tables; but was always, and always shall be written in the hearts of Men; And though God of his goodness, was pleased to give that declaration of it, and that provocation to it, by so writing it, yet if he had not written it, or if (which is impossible) that writing could perish, yet that moral law, those commandments, would bind us, that are Christians, after the expiration of that law, which was Moses law, as it did (de Iure) bind all those which lived, before any written law was. So that he that will perfectly understand, what appertains to his duty in any of the ten Commandments; he must not consider that law, with any limitation, as it was given to the Jews, but consider what he would have done, if he had lived before the Tables had been written. For certainly, even in the Commandment of the Sabbath, which was accompanied with so many Ceremonies amongst the Jews, that part only is moral, which had bound us, though that Commandment had never been given; and he that performs that part, keeps the Sabbath; the Ceremonial part of it, is not only not necessary; but when it is done with an opinion of necessity, it is erroneous, and sinful. For neither that Commandment nor any other of the ten, began to bind them, when they were written, nor doth bind now, except it bound before that.

Thus far then we are directed by this Text, (which is as far, as we can go in this life) To prove to ourselves, that we have faith, we must prove, that we need not the law; To prove that emanecipation, and liberty, we must prove, that we are the sons of God; To prove that engraffing, and that adoption, we must prove, that we have put on Christ Jesus; And to prove that apparelling of ourselves, our proof is, that we are baptized into him.

All proofs must either arrest, and determine in some things confessed, and agreed upon, or else they proceed in infinitum. That which the Apostle takes to be that which is granted on all sides, and which none can deny, is this, that to be baptized is to put on Christ: And this putting on of Christ, doth so far carry us to that Infinitissimum, to God himself, that we are thereby made Semen Dei, the seed of God; The field is the world, and the good seed are the Children of the kingdom; And we are translated even into the nature of God, By his precious promises we are made partakers of the Divine nature; yea, we are discharged of all bodily, and earthly incombrances, and we are made all spirit, yea the spirit of God himself, He that is joined to the Lord, is one spirit with him. All this we have, if we do put on Christ: and we do put on Christ, if we be baptized into him.

These then are the two actions which we are now to consider: Baptizari, To be washed. Induere, To be clothed.

Induere, is to cover so far, as that Covering can reach; A hat covers the head; a glove the hand; and other garments, more; But Christ, when he is put on, Covers us all. If we have weak heads, shallow brains, either a silexce, and a reservednes, which make the fool and the wise equal, or the good interpretation of friends, which put good Constructions upon all that we say, or the dignity of authority, and some great place, which we hold, which puts an opinion in the people, that we are wise, or else we had never been brought thither, these cover our heads, and hide any defect in them. If we have foul hands, we can cover them, with excuses; If they be foul with usurious Extortion, we can put on a glove, an excuse, and say, He that borrowed my money, got more by it, then I that lent it; If, with bribery in an office, we can cover it and say, He that knew, that I bought my office, will be content to let me be a saver by it; If our hands be foul with shedding of innocent blood, as Saint Jerome says that Adam eat the Apple, Ne contristaretur Delicias suas, left he should over grieve his wife, by refusing it, Ne contristaremur Delicias nostras, either because we would not displease another, or because our beloved sin, to which we had married ourselves, did solicit us to it. Particular excuses cover our particular defects, from the sight of men, but to put on Christ, covers us all over, even from the sight of God himself. So that how narrowly so ever he search into us, he sees nothing but the whiteness of his Sons innocence, and the redness of his Sons blood.

When the prodigal child returned to his father, his father clothed him entirely, and all at once; he put a robe upon him, to cover all his defects: which Robe, when God puts upon us, in clothing us with Christ, that robe is not only Dignitaes quam perdidit Adam, as Augustine says, but it is Amictus sapientiae, as Ambrase enlarges it, It does not only make us as well, as we were in Adam, but it enables us better, to preserve that state; It does not only cover us, that is, make us excusable, for our past, and present sins, but it indues us with grace; and wisdom to keep that robe still, and never to return to our former foulnesses, and deformities.

Our first parents Adam and Eve were naked all over; but they were not sensible of all their nakedness, but only of those parts whereof they were ashamed. Nothing but the shame of the world makes us discern our deformities; And only for those faults, which shame makes us take knowledge of, we go about to provide; And we provide nothing but short Aprons, as that word signified; and those but of fig-leaves; That which comes first to hand, and that which is withered before it is made, that do we take for an excuse, for an aversion of our own conscience, when she begins to cast an eye, or to examine the nakedness, and deformities of our souls.

But when God came to clothe them, their short aprons were extended to coats, that covered them all over, and their fig-leaves to strong skins; for God saw that not only those parts, of which they were already ashamed, needed covering, but that in all their other parts, if they continued, naked, and still exposed to the Injurie, and violence of the weather, they would contract diseases, and infirmities; and therefore God covers them so thoroughly, as he doth not only provide for reparation of former inconveniences, but prepare against future.

And so perfect effects doth this garment, Christ Jesus, work upon us, if we put him on; He doth not only cover Original sins, (which is the effect of those disobedient Members, which derive sin, upon us, in the sinful generation of our parents) but he covers all our actual sins, which we multiply every day: and not only those, which the world makes us ashamed of, but which we hide from the world; yea which we hide from our selves; that is, sins, which by a long custom of practice, we commit so habitually, and so indifferently, as that we have forgot, that they are sins.

But as it was in Adams Clothing there, so must it be in our spiritual putting on of Christ. The word used there, Labash, doth not signify that God clothed Adam, nor that Adam clothed himself; but as the Grammarians call it, it is in Hiphil, and it signified Induere fecit eos; God caused them to be clothed, or God caused them to clothe themselves; which is also intimated, nay evidently expressed in the words of this text; we are ourselves poor, and impotent creatures, we cannot make ourselves ready; we are poor and beggarly creatures, we have nothing to put on; Christ is that garment; and then Christ is the very life, by which we stretch out our arms and our legs, to put on that garment; yea he puts it on upon us, he doth the whole work: but yet he doth not thrust it on: He makes us Able to put it on: but if we be not willing, then he puts no necessity upon our will: but we remain naked still.

Induere then, to put on, is an extension, a dilatation over all; And sometimes it signifies an abundant, and overflowing, and overwhelming measure of God's judgments upon us, Princeps Induetur desolatione, The prince shall be 〈◊〉 with desolation and with astonishment: But most commonly, the rich and all-sufficient proportion of his mercies and spiritual benefits: as he expressed it to his Apostles, at his ascension, Stay you in the Citty, quousque Induamini virtute ex alto; till ye be endued (so we translate it) that is, clothed with power from on high. And this was per fidem ei innitends, and per opera cum declar ando, says Saint Augustine, He only hath pat on Christ, which hath Christ in himself by faith, and shows him to others by his works, which is Lucern • ardens, (as Christ said of John the Baptist) a burning lamp, and a shining lamp, profitable to others, as well as to himself.

There is a degree of vanity, and pride, whereby some Men delight to wear their richest clothes innermost, and most out of sight; But in this double garment of a Christian, it is necessarily so; for faith is the richest, and most precious part of this garment; an this, which is our Holy-day garment, is worn innermost; for that (our faith) is only seen by God; but our outward garment, of works, which is our workyday garment, that is our sanctification is seen of all the world. And that also must be put on, or else we have not put on Christ: and it must cover us all over; that is, our sanctification must go through our whole life in a constant, and an even perseverance; we must not only be Hospitale, and feed the poor at Christmas, be sober, and abstinent, the day that we receive, repent, and think of amendment of life, in the day of visitation, and sickness; but as the garment, which Christ wore, was seamlesse, and entire, so this garment, which is Christ Jesus, that is, our sanctification, should be entire, and uninterrupted, in the whole course of our lives, we must remember, that at the Marriage which figured the kingdom of heaven, the master of the feast reprehended, and punished him, that was come in, not expressly because he had not a wedding garment, but Qu • modo intrasti, says he, how camest thou in not having on thy wedding garment? So that (if it could be possible) though we had put on the inside of this garment, which is Christ, that is, if we had faith, yet if we have not the outside too, that is sanctification, we have not put on Christ, as we should; for this is Indui virtute ex alto; to have both inside, faith, and outside, sanctification: and to put it on so, that it may cover us all over, that is all our life; because it is not in our power, if we put it off, by new sins, to put it on again, when we will. I have put off my coat, how shall I put it on, was the doubt of the spouse, in the Canticles, even when Christ had called her: So hard a thing is it, if we devest the righteousness of Christ, after we have put it on, to cloth ourselves again in that garment.

As then this word, Induere, to put on, to be clothed, signifies a largeness, and an abundance, according to that, The pastures are clothed with sheep, and the valleys with corn: So is this garment, Christ Jesus, such a garment, as is alone so all sufficient, as that if we do put on that, we need no other; Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and take no thought for the flesh; if ye have put on that, you are clothed, and armed, and adorned sufficiently.

In the first creation, in the Faciamus hominem ad Imaginem nostrûm, when God seems to have held a consultation about the making of Man, man put on all the Trinity, all God; & in the redemption God put on all Man; not only all the nature of Mankind in general, but in particular, every Man. But as the spirit of God, is said to have put on a particular Man, Spiritus Domini induit Gideon, the spirit of the Lord, clothed, or put on Gideon, when he selected him for his service, so must the spirit of every particular Man, put on Christ, he must not be content, to be under the general cover, (either under his general providence, because he is a Creature, or a member of his Mystical body, because he adheres to a visible Church) he must not say, I am as warm clothed, as another, I have as much of Christ in me, as a great many, that do well enough in the world, but he must so enwrap himself in Christ, and in his Merits, as to make all that to be his own. No man may take the frame of Christ's merit in pieces; no Man may take his forty days fasting and put on that, and say, Christ hath fasted for me, and therefore I may surfeit; No man may take his Agony, and pensiveness, and put on that, and say, Christ hath been sad for me, and therefore I may be merry. He that puts on Christ, must put him on all • and not only find, that Christ hath died, nor only that he hath died for him, but that he also hath died in Christ, and that whatsoever Christ suffered, he suffered in Christ.

For, as Christ's merit, and satisfaction, is not too narrow for all the world, so is it not too large for any one Man; Infinite worlds might have been saved by it, if infinite worlds had been created; And, if there were no more Names in the book of life, but thine, all the Merit of Christ were but enough to save thy one sinful soul, which could not have been redeemed, though alone, at any less price, then his death.

All that Christ did, and suffered, he did and suffered for thee, as thee; not only • s Man, but as that particular Man, which bears such, or such a name; and rather, then any of those, whom he loves, should appear naked before his Father, and so discover to his confusion, those scars, and deformities, which his sins have imprinted upon him, (as his love is devoutly, and plously extended by the Schools and some contemplative Men) Christ would be content to do, and suffer, as much as he hath done, for any one particular Man yet: But beyond Infinite, there is no degree: and his merit was infinite, both because an infinite Majesty resided in his person, and because an infinte Majesty accepted his sacrifice for infinite.

But this act of Christ, this redemption makes us only servants; servi à servand • , we are servants to him, that preserved, and saved us, is the derivation of the Law. But the application of this redemption (which is the putting on of Christ,) makes us s • ns; for we are not to put on Christ, only as a Livery, to be distinguished by external marks of Christianity; but so, as the son puts on his father; that we may be of the same nature and substance as he; and that God may be in us, Non tanquam in denario, not as the King is in a piece of coin, or a medall, but tanquam in filio, as he is in his son, in whom the same nature both human, and Royal doth reside.

There is then a double Induere, a twofold clothing; we may 〈◊〉 1. Vestem, put on a garment; 2. Personam, put on a person. We may put on Christ so, as we shall be his, and we may put him on so, as we shall be He. And even to put him on as a garment is also twofold; The first is to take only the outward name, and profession of Christians upon us; and this do • h us no good; ye cloth ye, but are not warm, says the Prophet, of this kind of putting on of Christ. For this may be done only to delude others; which practice God discovered, and threatened, in the false Prophets, The Prophets shall not wear a rough garment to deceive; As God himself cannot be deluded, so for the encouragement of his Church, he will take off this garment of the Hypocrite, and discover his nakedness, and expose him to the open shame of the world; He shall not wear arough garment to deceive.

For this is such an affront and scorn to Christ, as Han •• cutting off of David's servants clothes at the middle, was; we make this garment of what stuff, and what fashion we list; As Hanun did, we cut it off in the middle; we will be Christians till noon, (in the outward acts of Religion) and Liberti • es in the after-noon, in putting off that garment again; we will be Christians all day, and return to wanto • nesse, and licentiousness at night; we do that which Christ says, no Man doth, (that is, no Man should do) we put new pieces to an old garment; and to that habit of sin, which covers us as a garment, we put a few new patches of Religion, a few flashes of repentance, a few shreds of a Sermo • , but we put not on, that entire and feamlesse garment Christ Jesus.

And can we hope, that these disguises, these half coats, these imperfect services will be acceptable to God, when we ourselves would not admit this, at our children, or at our servants hands? It is the argument by which the Prophet convinces the Israelites, about their unclean sacrifices; offer this now unto the Prince; will he be conte • t with thee, and accept thy person? If thou shouldest wear the princes Livery, in a scantler proportion, or in a different fashion, or in a courset stuff, then belongs to thy place, would he accept it at thy hands? No more will Christ if thou put him on, (that is, take his profession upon thee) either in a co •• ser stuff, (Traditions of Men, instead of his word) or in scantler measure, (not to be always a Christian, but then, when thou hast use of being one) or in a different fashion, (to be singular and Schis • aticall in thy opinion) for this is one, but an ill manner of putting on of Christ as a garment.

The second, and the good way is, to put on his righteousness, and his innocence, by imitation, and conforming ourselves to him. Now when we go about earnestly to make ourselves Temples, and Altars, and to dedicate ourselves to God, we must change our clothes; As when God bad Jacob, to go up to Bethel, to make an Altar, he commanded all his family to change their clothes; In which work, we have two things, to do; first, we must put off those clothes which we had; and appear naked before God, without presenting anything of our own; (for when the Spirit of God came upon Saul, and that he prophesied, his first act was, to strip himself naked: And then s • condly, we come to our transfiguration, and to have those garments of Christ communicated to us which were as white, as the light; and we shall be admitted into that little number, of which it is said, Thou hast a few Namees in Sardis, which have not defiled their garments, and they shall walk with • e in white.

And from this (which is Induere vestem, ) from this putting on Christ as a garment, we shall grow up to that perfection, as that we shall In •• ere personam, put on hi • , his person; That is, we shall so appear before the Father, as that he shall take us for his own Christ; we shall bear his name and person; and we shall everyone be so accepted, as if everyone of us were all Mankind; yea, as if we were he himself. He shall find in all our bodies his wounds, in all our minds, his 〈◊〉 ; in all our hearts, and actions his obedience. And as he shall do this by imp • tation, so really in all our Agonies, he shall send his Angels to minister unto us, as he did to Eli • s; In all our temptations he shall furnish us with his Scriptures to confo •• d the Tempter, as be in person, did in his temptation, and in our heaviest tribulation, which may ex •••• from us the voice of diffidence, My God, My God, why hast 〈◊〉 forsaken me? He shall give us the assurance to say, In manus tuas &c • Into thy • ands O Lord have I co •••• nded my spirit, and there I am safe; He shall use us in all things, as his son; and we shall find restored in us, the Image of the whole Trinity, imprinted at our creation; for by this Regeneration, we are adopted by the Father in the blood of the Son by the sanctification of the holy Ghost.

Now this putting on of Christ, whereby we stand in his place at God's Tribunal, implies, as I said, both our Election, and our sanctification; both the eternal purpose of God upon us, and his execution of that purpose in us. And because by the first (by our Election ) we are members of Christ, in God's purpose, before baptism, and the second, (which is sanctification ) is expressed after baptism, in our lives, and conversation, therefore Baptism intervenes, and comes between both, as a seal of the first, (of Election) and as an instrument, and conduit of the second, Sanctification.

Now, Abscendita Domin • , Dea nostro, quae manifesta su • s nobis; let no Man be too curiously busy, to search what God does in his hedchamber; we have all enough to answer, for that, which we have done in our bedchamber. For God's eternal decree, himself is master of those Rolls; but out of those Rolls he doth exemplify those decrees in the Sacrament of baptism; by which Copy, and exemplification of his invisible and unsearchable decree, we plead to the Church, that we are God's children, we plead to our own consciences, that we have the Spirit of adoption, and we plead to God himself, the obligation of his own promise, that we have a right to this garment, Christ Jesus, and to those graces, which must sanctify us; for from thence comes the reason of this text, for all ye • that are baptized into Christ, have put on Christ.

As we cannot see the Essence of God, but must see him in his glasses, in his Images, in his Creatures, so we cannot see the decrees of God, but must see them in their duplicats, in their exemplification, in the sacraments. As it would do him no good, that were condemned of treason, that a Bedchamber man should come to the Judge, and swear he saw the king sign the prisoners pardon, except he had it to plead: so what assurance soever, what pri • y mark soever, those men, which pretend to be so well acquainted, and so familiar with the decrees of God, to give thee to know, that thou art elect to eternal salvation, yea if an Angel from heaven comedowne and tell thee, that he saw thy name in the book of life, if thou have not this Exemplification of the decree, this seal, this Sacrament, if thou beest not baptized, never delude thyself with those imaginary assurances.

This Baptism then is so necessary, that first, as Baptism (in a large acceptation) signifies our dying, and burial with Christ, and all the acts of our regeneration, so in that large sense, our whole life is a baptism: But the very sacrament of Baptism • the actual administration, and receiving thereof, was held so necessary, that even for legal and Civil uses, (as in the law, that child, that died without circumcision, had no interest in the family, no participation of the honor, nor name thereof) So that we see in the reckoning of the Genealogy, and pedigree of David, that first son of his, which he had by Bathshebae, which died without circumcision is never mentioned, nor touched upon.) So also, since the time of M • ses law, in the Imperial law, by which law, a posthume child, borne after the fathers death, is equal with the rest in division of the state, yet if that child die before he be baptized, no person which should derive a right from him, (as the mother might, if he died) can have any title by him; because he is not considered to have been at all, if he die unbaptized. And if the State will not believe him to be a full Man, shall the Church believe him to be a full Christian, before baptism? Yea, the apprehension of the necessity of this Sacrament, was so common, and so general, even in the beginning of the Christian Church, that out of an excessive advancing of that trnth, they came also to a falsehood • to an error, That even they that died without baptism, might have the benefit of baptism, if another were baptized in their name, after their death • And so, out of a mistaking of those words, Else what shall they do, Qui baptizantur pro mortuis (which is, that are ready to die, when they are baptized) the Marcionites induced a custom, to lay one under the dead bodies bed, that he, in the name of the dead man, might answer to all the questions usually asked, in administering of Baptism.

But this was a corrupt effect of pure, and sincere doctrine, which doctrine is, That Baptism is so necessary, as that God. hath placed no other ordinary scale, nor conveyance of his graces in his Church, to them that have not received that, then buptisme. And they, who do not provide duly, for the Baptism of their children, if their children die, have a heavier accompt to make to God for that child, then if they had not provided a Nurse, and suffered the child to starve. God can preserve the child without Milk; and he can save the child without a sacrament; but as that mother that throws out, and forsakes her child in the field, or wood, is guilty before God of the Temporal murder of that child, though the child die not, so are those parents of a spiritual murder, if their children, by their fault die unbaptized, though God preserve that child out of his abundant, and miraculous mercy, from spiritual destruction.

When the custom of the Christian Church was to baptize but twice in the year, at Easter, and Whi • sontide, for the greater solemnity of that action, yea when that ill custom was grown (as it was even in the Primitive Church) that upon an opinion, that all sins were absolutely forgiven in Baptism, Men did defer their Baptism, till their death-bed, (as we see the Ecclesiastical histories full of such examples, even in some of the Christian Emperors: and according to this ill custom, we see Tertullian chides away young children for coming so soon to Baptism, quid festinat innocens aetas, ad rem • ssionem peccatorum, why should this child, that as yet hath done no sin, make such hast to be washed from sinnce?) which opinion had got so much strength, that Saint Basil was fain to oppose it, in the Eastern Church, and both the Gregory's, Nazianzen and Nissen, and Saint Ambrose in the Western; yet, in the height of both their customs, of seldom baptizing, and of late baptizing, the case of insants, that might be in danger of dying without baptism, was ever excepted, So that none of those old customs, (though some of them were extremely ill) went ever so far, as to an opinion, that it were all one, whether the child were baptized or no.

I speak not this, as though the state of children that died without baptism were desperate; God forbid, for who shall shorten the Arm of the Lord? God is able to rain down Manna and Quails into the souls of these children, though negligent parents turn them out into the wilderness, and put God to that extraordinary work. They may have Manna, and Quails, but they have not the Milk, and Honey, of the Land of promise; They may have salvation from God, but they have not those graces, so sealed, and so testified to them, as God hath promised they should be in his Sacraments. When God in spiritual offenses, makes Inquisition of blood, he proceeds not, as Man proceeds; for we, till there appear a Man to be dead, never inquire who killed him; but in the spiritual Murder, of an unbaptized child, though there be no child spiritually dead, (though God's mercy have preserved the child from that) yet God imputes this as such a murder to them, who endangered the child, as far as they could, by neglecting his ordinance of baptism.

This is then the necessity of this Sacrament; not absolutely necessary, but necessary by God's ordinary institution; and as it is always necessary, so is it always certain; whosoever is baptized according to Christ's institution, receives the Sacrament of baptism; and the truth is always infallibly annexed with the sign; Nec fieri potest visio hominis, ut non sit Sacramentum quod figurat; Though the wicked may feel no working by the Sacrament, yet the Sacrament doth offer, and present grace as well to the unworthy as to the worthy Receiver: Nec fallaciter promittit; The wicked may be a cause, that the Sacrament shall do them no good; but that the Sacrament, become no Sacrament, or that God should be false in his promises, and offer no grace, where he pretends to offer it, this the wicked cannot do; baptism doth truly, and without collusion, offer grace to all; and nothing but baptism, by an ordinary institution, and as an ordinary means, doth so: for when baptism is called a figure, yet both that figure is said there to save us, (The figure that now saveth us, baptism; and it is a figure of the Ark; it hath relation to it, to that Ark which did save the world, when it is called a figure; So it may be a figure; but if we speak of real salvation by it, baptism is more then a figure.

Now as our putting on of Christ was double, by faith, and by sanctification, so by this Sacrament also, we are baptized in Nomen Christi, into the Name of Christ, and in mortem Christi, into the death of Christ: we are not therefore baptized into his Name, because names are imposed upon us in our baptism: for that was not always permanently accustomed, in the Christian Church, to give a name at baptism. To men who were of years, and well known in the world already by their name • if they were converted to the Christian faith, the Church did not use to give new names at their baptism: neither to Children always; but sometimes as an indifferent thing, they left them to the custom of that country, or of that family, from which they were derived. When Saint Augustine says, that he came to Milan, to S. Ambrose, at that time, qu • dari nomina oportuit, when Names were to be given, it is true, that he speaks of a time, when Baptism was to be administered, but that phrase of Giving of Names, was not a receiving of Names at Baptism, (for neither Ambrose, nor Augustine, received any new name at their Baptism) but it was a giving up of their Names, a Registring, a Matriculating of their Names in the book of the profession of the Christian Religion, and a public declaration of that profession.

To be baptized therefore into the name of Christ, is to be translated into his Family, by this spiritual adoption, in which adoption (when it was legal ) as they that were adopted, had also the name of the family into which they were adopted, as of octavius Octavianus, and the rest, so are we so baptized, into his name, that we are of Christus Christiani; and therefore to become truly Christians, to live Christianly, this is truly to be baptized into his name.

No other name is given under heaven, whereby we can be saved; nor must any other name accompany the name of God, in our Baptism. When therefore they teach in the Roman Church, that it is a good Baptism, which is administered in this form, I baptize thee in the name of the Father, and Son, and holy Ghost, and the virgin Mary, if he which baptizes so, do not mean in his intention, that the virgin Mary is equal to the Trinity, but only an assistant, this is not only an impertinent, but an impious addition to that God, that needs no assistant. And as in our baptism, we take no other name necessarily, but the name of Christ: So in our Christian life, we accept no other distinctions of Jesuits, or Franciscans; but only Christians: for we are baptized into his name, and the whole life of a regenerate man is a Baptism. For as in putting on Christ, sanctification doth accompany faith, so in baptism, the imitation of his death (that is, mortification ) and the application of his passion, (by fulfilling the sufferings of Christ in our flesh) is that baptism into his death. Which do so certainly follow one another, (that he that is truly baptized into the name of Christ, is also baptized into his death ) as that Saint Paul couples them together, Was Paul crucified for you, or were you baptized into the name of Pa • l? If you were not baptized into his name, then you have no interest, no benefit by his death, nor by anything which he suffered, that his merits, or his works of supereragation should be applied to you: And if he did not suffer for you, (if all that any Paul (much less any Ignatins ) could do, were but enough, and too little for himself) then you are not baptized into his name, nor to be denominate by him.

This is then to be Baptized into Christ's death, Habere, & reddere testimonium, Christam pro me mortuum, to be sure that Christ died for me; and to be ready to die for him; so that I may fulfill his sufferings, and may think that all is not done, which belongs to my Redemption, except I find a mortification in myself. Not that any mortification of mine, works anything, as a cause of my redemption, but as an assurance and testimony of it; 〈◊〉 sit pignus & sigillu • redemptionis; It is a pledge, and it is a Seal, of my redemption.

Christ calls his death a Baptism; So Saint Augustine calls our Baptism a death, Quod crux Christo, & Sep • lcr • m, id nobis Baptisma; Baptism to us, says he, is our Croffe, and our passion, and our burial; that is, in that, we are conformed to Christ as he suffered, died, and was buried. Because if we be so baptized into his Name, and into his death, we are thereby dead to sin, and have died the death of the righteous.

Since then Baptism is the death of sin, and there cannot be this death, this conquest, this victory over sin, without faith, there must necessarily faith, concur with this baptism; for if there be not faith, (none in the child, none in the parents, none in the sureties, none in the Church ) then there is no baptism performed; Now, in the Child there is none actually; In the sureties, we are not sure, there is any; for their infidelity cannot impeach the sacrament; The child is well baptized though they should be misbelievers; for, when the Minister shall ask them, Doest thou believe in God? dost thou renounce the Devil? perchance they may lie in their own behalfes; perchance they do not believe, they do not renounce, but they speak truth in the behalf of the child, when they speak in the voice of the Church who receives this child for her child, and binds her self to exhibit, and reach out to that child, her spiritual paps, for her future nourishment thereof. How comes it to pass, says Saint Augustine, that when a man presents another man's child at the font, to be baptized, if the Minister should ask him, Shall this man child be a valiant man, or a wise man, shall this woman child, be a chaste, and a continent woman? the surety would answer, I cannot tell, and yet, if he be asked, of that child, of so few days old, Doth that child believe in God now, will he renounce the Devil hereafter? the surety answers confidently, in his behalf, for the belief, and for the renouncing: How comes this to pass, says Saint Augustine? He answers to this, that as Sacramentum Corporis Christi, est secundum modum Corpus Christi, so Sacramentum fidei est fides; As the Sacrament of the body, and blood of Christ is, in some sense, and in a kind, the body, and blood of Christ, says Augustine, so in the sacrament of faith, says he, (that is, Baptism) there is some kind of faith. Here is a child borne of faithful parents; and there is the voice of God, who hath sealed a Covenant to them, and their seed; Here are sureties, that live (by God's gracious spirit) in the unity, and in the bosom of the Church: and so, the parents present it to them, they present it to the Church, and the Church takes it into her care; It is still the natural child, of her parents, who begot it, it is the spiritual child of the Sureties that present it; but it is the Christian child of the Church, who in the sacrament of Baptism, gives it a new inanimation, and who, if either parents, or sureties, should neglect their parts, will have a care of it, and breed it up to a perfection, and full growth of that faith, whereof it hath this day, an inchoation and beginning.

As then we have said, that Baptism is a death, a death of sin, and as we said before, sin dies not without faith, so also can there be no death of sin, without sorrow, and contrition, which only washes away sin: as therefore we see the Church, and Christ's institution, furnishes this child, with faith, which it hath not of it self, so let us bring to this action, that sorrow and that condoling, that we produce into the world such miserable wretches, as even by peccatum involuntarium, by that sin, to which no act, nay no will of theirs concurred, that is, Original sin, are yet put into the state of damnation.

But let us also rejoice, in our own, and this childes behalf, that as we that have been baptized, so this child, that shall be, have, and shall put on Christ Jesus in Baptism. Both as a garment, for Sacramenta sunt vestimenta, As Christ is a garment, so the Sacraments are Christ's garment, and as such a garment; as Ornat militem, and convinced desertores, It gives him, that continues in God's battles, a dignity, and discovers him that forsakes God's tents, to be a fugitive; Baptism is a garland, in which two ends are brought together, he begins aright, and perseveres, so, Ornat militem, It is an honor to him, that fights out in God's battle, but Convincit Desertorem, Baptism is our pressed-money, and if we forsake our colors, after we have received that, even that forfaits our lives; our very having been baptized, shall aggravate our condemnation. Yea it is such a garment, as those of the children of Israel in the wilderness, which are (by some expositors) thought to have grown all the forty years, with their bodies; for so by God's blessed provision, shall grace grow with this infant, to the life's end. And both we and it, shall not only put on Christ, as a garment, but we shall put on his person, and we shall stand before his Father, with the confidence, and assurance of bearing his person, and the dignity of his innocence.

SERMON VIII.

Preached at Essex house, at the Churching of the Lady Doncaster.

A LL things desire to go to their own place, and that's but the effect of Nature; But if Man desires to go the right way, that's an effect of grace, and of Religion. A stone will fall to the bottom naturally, and a flame will go upwards naturally; but a stone cares not whether it fall through clean water, or through Mud; a flame cares not whether it pass through pure air, or cloudy; but a Christian, whose end is heaven, will put himself into a fair way towards it, and according to this measure, be pure as his father in heaven is pure. That which is our end, salvation, we use to express in Schools by these two terms, we call it visionem Dei, the sight of God, and we call it unionem, an union with God; we shall see God, and we shall be united to God: for our seeing, we shall see him Sicuti est, as he is; which we cannot express, till we see him; Cognoscam ut cognitus, I shall know as I am known, which is a knowledge reserved for that School, and a degree for that Commencement, and not to be had before. Moses obtained a sight of God here, that he might see, Posterior a, God's hinder parts; and if we consider God in posterioribus, in his later works, in the fulfilling of all his Prophecies, concerning our Redemption, how he hath accomplished in novissimis, in the later times, all that which he spake ab initio, by the mouth of his Prophets, which have been since the world began, if we see God in them, it is a great beam of that visio beatifica, that beautificall sight of God in heaven; for herein we see the whole way of our salvation, to be in Christ Jesus; all promise, all performance, all prophecy, all history concern us, in and by him. And then for that union with God, which is also our salvation (as this vision is) when we shall be so united, as that we shall follow the Lamb whither soever he goes, though that union be inexpressible here, yet here, there is an union with God, which represents that too. Such an union, as that the Church of which we are parts, is his spouse, and that's Eadem care, the same body with him; and such an union as that the obedient children of the Church, are Idem spiritus cum Domin • , we are the same body, and the same spirit: So united, as that by being sowed in the visible Church, we are Semen Dei, the seed of God, and by growing up there in godliness, and holiness, we are participes Divinae naturae, partakers of the divine Nature it self. Now these two unions, which represent our eternal union with God (that is, the union of the Church to him, and the union of every good soul in the Church to him) is the subject of this Song of songs, this heavenly Poem, of Solomon's; and our baptism, at our entrance into this world, is a Seal of this union; our marriage, in the passage of this world, is a Sacrament of this union; and that which seems to be our dissolution, (our death ) is the strongest • and of this union, when we are so united, as nothing can disunite us more. Now, for uniting things in this world, we are always put to employ baser, and courser stuff, to unite them together, then they themselves; If we lay Marble upon Marble, how well soever we polish the Marble, yet we must unite them with mortar: If we unite riches to riches, we temper a mortar (for the most part) of our own covetou • nesse, and the loss, and opressing of some other Men; if we unite honors to honors, titles to titles, we temper a mortar, (for the most part) of our own Ambition, and the supplanting, or excluding of some other Men; But in the uniting of a Christian soul to Christ Jesus, here is no mortar, all of one Nature; Nothing but spirit, and spirit, and spirit, the soul of Man to the Lord Jesus, by the holy Ghost. Worldly unions have some corrupt foulnesses in them, but for this spiritual union, Lavi pedes, I have washed my feet, how shall I defile them?

Which words, though in the rigor of the coherence, and connection of this Scripture, they imply a delay in the spouse of Christ, and so in every soul too, that when Christ called here, the soul was not ready to come forth to him, but made her excuses, that she had put off her coat, and was loath to rise to put it on, that she had washed her feet, and was loath to rise, and foul them again, yet because the excuse it self, (if it were an excuse) hath a piety, and a Religious care in it, the Fathers for the most part, pretermit that weakness that produced an excuse, and consider in their expositions, the care that the soul had, not to defile her self again, being once washed. Saint Gregory says, that the soul had laid off, Omnia externa, quae non tam ornant quàm • nerant, all outward ornaments, which are rather encumbrances, then ornaments; And Saint Ambrose says, Pedes lavi, dum egrederer de corporis contubernio, when I departed from the confederation of my body, and the 〈◊◊〉 that, I washed my feet, Quomod • in tenebr • sum carcerem reverterer? And 〈◊〉 I return into that dark, and dirty prison, again, the love of mine own body • 〈◊〉 suing therefore their pious acceptation of these words, we have in them, two festivals of the soul, a Resurrection, and an ascension of it; This soul hath raised it self, from the dirt and Mud of this world, Lavit pedes, she hath washed her feet, and then she hath ascended to a resolution, of keeping herself in that state, Quom • do inquinab • eos, how shall I defile them? Call these two parts a Gratulation of the soul, and an Indignation; first she congratulates with her good, and gracious God, that she is cleansed from worldly corruptions, Lavi pedes, I have washed my feet • and then she conceives a Religious scorn and indignation, of setting her foot in the same foul way again. Quom • do, how, how is it possible that I should descend, to so low a disposition, as to foul them again? This Resurrection then of the soul, and grat • lation, & this Ascension of the soul & Indignation, will be our two parts. And in the first, we shall stop a little, upon everyone of these five branches; There is abluti • necessaria; There is a washing, that is necessary to all; for we enter in foulness, and corruption into this world; and that we have in Baptism for Original sin; Secondly, there is abluti • pedum, a washing of our feet, of our steps, and walks in this world, and that's by repentance, sealed in the other Sacrament, and properly, that is for actual sins; Thirdly, in this ablution, there is an Ego lavi, there is a washing, and I myself do something towards this cleansing of myself; And fourthly, it is Lavi, it is, I have washed, not Lavabo, it is not, I will wash; it is already done, it is not put off to mine age, nor to my death bed, but Lavi, I have washed; And lastly, it is Pedes meas, I have washed mine own feet; for if by my teaching, I cleanse others, and remain, by my bad life, in foul ways myself, I am not within this text, Lavi pedes meos; I have not washed my feet; But if we have sincerely performed the first part, we shall perform the other too, Quomodo, we shall come into a religious detestation, and indignation of falling into the same foulness again.

To pass then through all these (for of all these that's true which Saint Basil says of all words in the Scriptures, Habent minutissime particulae suae mysteria, Every word hath force and use, as in Pearl, every seed Pearl is as medicinal, as the greatest, so there is a restorative nature in every word of the Scriptures, and in every word, the soul finds a rise, and help for her devotion,) To begin with the first, the necessity of washing, consider us in our first beginning, Concepti in peccatis, our Mothers conceived us in sin; and being wrapped up in uncleanness there, can any Man bring a clean thing out of filthiness? There is not one; for as we were planted, in our Mothers womb, in conception, so we were transplanted from thence into this world, in our Baptism, Nascimur filii • rae, for we are by nature the children of wrath, as well as others. And as in the bringing forth, and bringing up, of the best, and most precious, and most delicate plants, Men employ most dung, so the greatest persons, where the spirit and grace of God, doth not allay that intemperance, which naturally arises, out of abundance, and provocation, and out of vanity, and ambitious glory, in outward oftentations; there is more dung, more uncleanness, more sin in the conception, and birth of their children, then of meaner and poorer parents; It is a degree of uncleanness, to fixe our thoughts too earnestly upon the uncleanness of our conception, and of our birth: when we call that a testimony of a right coming, if we come into the world with our head forward, in a head-long precipitation; and when we take no other testimony of our being alive, but that we were heard cry; and for an earnest, and a Prophecy, that we shall be viri sanguinum, et d • losi, bloody, and deceitful Men, false and treacherous, to the murdering of our own souls we come into this world, as the Egyptians went out of it, swallowed, and smothered in a red sea, Pueri sanguinum, & infirmi, weak, and bloody infants at our birth. But to carry our thoughts from material, to sptrituall uncleannesses, In peccat • concepti, we were conceived in sin, but who can tell us how? That flesh in our mothers womb, which we are, having no sin in it self, (for that mass of flesh could not be damned, if there never came a soul into it) and that soul, which comes into that flesh from God • having no sin in it neither, (for God creates nothing infected with sin, neither should that soul be damned, if it came not into that body) The body, being without sin, and the soul being without sin, yet in the first minute, that this body and soul meet, and are united, we become in that instant, guilty of Adams sin, committed six thousand years before. Such is our sin and uncleanness, in Original sin, as the subtlest Man in the Schools, is never able to tell us, how, or when we contracted that sin, but all have it; And therefore if there be any, any any-where, of that generation, that are pure in their own eyes, and yet are not washed from their filthiness, as Solomon speaks, Erubesce vas stercorum, says good Saint Bernard, If it be a vessel of gold, it is but a vessel of excrements, if it be a bed of curious plants, it is but a bed of dung; as their tombs hereafter shall be but glorious covers of rotten carcasses, so their bodies are now, but pampered covers of rotten souls; Erubescat vas stercorum, let that vessel of uncleanness, that barrel of dung, confess a necessity of washing, and seek that, and rejoice in that, for thus far, (that is, to the pollution of Original sin,) in peccato concepti, and nas • imur filii ira • , we are conceived in sin, first, and then we are borne the children of wrath.

But where's our remedy? Why for this, for this original uncleanness, is the water of Baptism. Op • rtet nos renasci; we must be borne again; we must; There is a necessity of Baptism: As we are the children of Christian parents, we have Ius ad rem, a right to the Covenant, we may claim baptism, the Church cannot deny it us; And as we are baptized in the Christian Church, we have Ius in re, a right in the Covenant, and all the benefits thereof, all the promises of the Gospel: we are sure that we are conceived in sin, and sure that we are borne children of wrath, but not sure that we are cleansed, or reconciled to God, by any other means then that, which he hath ordained, Baptism. The Spirit of God moved first upon the water; and the spirit of life grew first in the water; Primus liquor, quod viveret edidit: The first living creatures in the first creation, were in the waters; and the first breath of spiritual life, came to us, from the water of baptism. In the Temple there was Mare aeneum, a brazen sea; In the Church there is Mare aureum, a golden sea, which is Baptisterium, the font, in which we discharge ourselves, of all our first uncleannesses, of all the guiltiness of Original sin; but because we contract new uncleannesses, by our unclean ways here; therefore there must be Ablutio pedum, a washing of our feet, of our ways, of our actions, which is our second branch.

Cecidimus in lutum, & super acervum lapidum, says Saint Bernard; we fell by Adams fall, into the dirt; but from that, we are washed in baptism; but we fell upon a heap of sharp stones too; and we feel those wounds, and those bruises, all our lives after; Impingimus meridie, we stumble at noon day; In the brightest light of the Gospel, in the brightest light of grace, in the best strength of Repentance, and our resolutions to the contrary, yet we stumble, and fall again. Duo nobis pedes, says that Father, Natura, & Cons • e •• do; we stand, says he, upon two feet, Nature, and Custom; and we are lame of one foot hereditarily, we draw a corrupt Nature from our parents; and we have lamed the other foot, by crooked, and perverse customs. Now, as God provided a liquor in his Church, for Original sin, the water of Baptism, so hath he provided another for those actual sins; that is, the blood of his own body, in the other Sacrament. In which Sacrament, besides the natural union, (that Christ hath taken our Nature, ) and the Mystical union, (that Christ hath taken us into the body of his Church ) by a spiritual union, when we apply faithfully his Merits to our souls, and by a Sacramental union, when we receive the visible seals thereof, worthily, we are so washed in his blood, as that we stand in the sight of his Father, as clean, and innocent, as himself, both because he and we are thereby become one body, and because the garment of his righteousness covers us all. But, for a preparation of this washing in the blood of Christ, in that Sacrament, Christ commended to his Apostles, and in them, to all the world, by his practice, and by his precept too, ablutionem pedam, a washing of their feet; before they came to that Sacrament he washed their feet; And in that exemplary action of his, his washing of their feet, he poured water into a Bason, says the text: Aqua spiritus sanctus, pelvis Ecclesia,; These preparatory waters are the gift of the holy Ghost, the working of his grace in repentance; but pelvis Ecclesia, the bason is the Church; that is, these graces are distributed, and dispensed to us, in his institution, and ordinance in the Church: No Man can wash himself at first, by Baptism; no Man can baptize himself; no Man can wash in the second liquor, no Man, (that is but a Man) can administer the other Sacrament to himself: Pelvis ecclesia, the Church is the bason, and God's Minister in the Church, washes in both these cases. And, in this ablutione pedum, in the preparatory washing of our feet, by a survey of all our sinful actions and repentance of them, no Man can absolve himself, but pelvis ecclesia, the bason of this water of absolution, is in the Church and in the Minister thereof.

First then this washing of the feet, which prepares us for the great washing, in the blood of Christ, requires a stripping of them, a laying of them naked; covering of the feet in the Scriptures, is a phrase, that denotes a foul, and an unclean action; Saul was said to cover his feet, in the Cave, and Eglon was said to cover his feet in his Parler; and we know the unclean action, that is intended here: but for this clean action, for washing our feet, we must discover all our sinful steps, in a free and open confession to almighty God. This may be that which Solomon calls, sound wisdom; My son keep sound wisdom, and discretion. There is not a more silly folly, then to think to hide any sinful action from God. Nor sounder wisdom then to discover them to him, by an humble, and penitent confession; This is sound wisdom, and then, discretion is, to wash, and discern, and debate, and examine all our future actions, and all the circumstances, that by this spirit of discretion we may see, where the sting, and venom of every particular action lies: My son keep sound wisdom, and discretion, says he, And then shalt thou walk in thy way safely, and thy foot shall not stumble; If thy discretion be not strong enough, (if thou canst not always discern, what is, and what is not sin) he shall give his Angels charge over thee, that thou dash not thy foot against a stone; and that's good security; and if all these fail, though thou do fall, thou shalt not be utterly cast down, for the Lord shall uphold thee with his hand, says David; God shall give that Man, that loves this found wisdom, (humble confession of sins past) this spiritual discretion, the spirit of discerning spirits, that is, power to discern a temptation, and to overcome it; confess that which is past with true sorrow, that is sound wisdom, and God shall enlighten thee for the future, and that's holy discretion.

The washing of our feet then, being a clean, and pure and sincere examination of all our actions, we are to wash all the instruments of our actions, in repentance; Lavanda facies, we are to wash our face, as Joseph did, after he had wept, before he looked upon his brethren again: If we have murmured, and mourned, for any cross, that God hath laid upon us, we must return to a cheerful countenance towards him, in embracing whatsoever he found best for us; we must wash our Intestina, our bowels, (as it is after commanded in the law) when our bowels, which should melt at the relation, and contemplation, and application of the passion of our Savior, do melt at the apprehension, or expectation, or fruition of any sinful delight, Lavanda intestina, we must wash those bowels▪ Lavanda vestimenta, we must wash our clothes; when we apparel and palliate our sins with excuses, of our own infirmity, or of the example of greater Men, these clothes must be washed, these excuses; Lavanda currus & arma, as Ahab's chariot and armor were washed; If the power of our birth or of our place, or of our favor, have armed us against the power of the law, or against the clamour of Men justly incensed, Lavandi currus, these chariots, and arms, this greatness must be washed; Lavanda retia; what Nets soever we have fished with, by what means soever we raise, or sustain our fortune, Lavanda retia, These nets must be washed. Saint Bernard hath drawn a great deal of this heavenly water together, for the washing of all, when he presents, (as he calls it) Martyrium, sine sanguine, triplex, a threefold Martyrdom, & all without blood; and that is, Largitas in paupertate, a bountiful disposition, even in a low fortune; parcitas in ubertate, a frugal disposition in a full fortune; and Castitas in Iuventute, a pure, and chaste disposition, in the years, and places of temptation. These are Martyrdoms, without blood, but not without the water that washes our feet; This is sound wisdom, and discretion, to strip, and lay open our feet, our sinful actions, by Confession; To cover them, and wrap them up by precaution, from new uncleanness; and then to tie and bind up all safe, by participation of the blood of Christ Jesus, in the Sacrament; for that's the seal of all; And Christ in the washing of his disciples feet, took a towell to dry them, as well, as water to wash them; so when he hath brought us to this washing of our feet, to a serious consideration of our actions, and to repentant tears, for them, Absterget omnem lachrymam, he will wipe all tears from our eyes; all tears of confusion towards Men, or of diffidence towards him; Absterget omnem lachrymam, and deliver us over to a settled peace of conscience.

There is a washing then, absolutely, generally necessary, the water of Baptism; and a washing occasionally necessary, because we fall into actual sins, the blood of our Savior in the Sacrament; and there is a washing between these, preparatory to the last washing, the water of Contrite, and repentant tears, in opening ourselves to God, and shutting up of ourselves against future temptations: of the two first, the two Sacraments, sons in Ecclesia, the whole spring, and river is in the Church, there is no baptism, no blood of Christ, but in the Church; And of this later, which is most properly ablutio pedum, the washing of the feet, that is, tears shed in repentance of our sinful lives, of this water, there is Pelvis in Ecclesia, the Bason is in the Church; for our best repentance (though this repentance be at home in our own hearts) doth yet receive a Seal, from the absolution of God's Ministers in the Church. But yet though there be no cleansing, but from the spirit of God, no ordinary working of God's spirit, but in the Church, and his ordinances there, yet we ourselves are not so left out, in this work, but that the spouse here, and every careful soul here says, truly, Ego lavi, I my self have washed my feet; which is our third branch.

It is said often in Philosophy, Nihil in intellectu, quod non prius in sensu; till some sense apprehend a thing, the Judgment cannot debate it, nor discourse it; It may well be said in Divinity too, Nihil in gratia, quod non prius in natura, there is nothing in grace, that was not first in nature, so far, as that grace always finds nature, and natural faculties to work on; though that nature be not disposed to the receiving of grace, when it comes, yet that nature, and those faculties, which may be so disposed by grace, are there, before that grace comes. And the grace of God doth not work this cleansing, but where there is a sweet, and souple, and tractable, and ductile disposition wrought in that soul. This disposition is no cause why God gives his grace; for there is no cause, but his own mere, and unmeasurable goodness; But yet, without such a disposition, God would not give that; and therefore let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness, says the Apostle; There is something, which we ourselves may do. A Man that had poured out himself in a vehement, and corrupt solicitation of the chastity of any woman, if he found himself surprised by the presence of a husband, or a father, he could give over in the midst of a protestation; A Man that had set one foot into a house of dangerous provocations, if he saw • bill of the plague, upon the door, he could go back; A Man that had drawn his sword to rob a passenger, if he saw a hue and cry come, could give over that; and all this is upon the Ego lavi, I have washed; without use of grace, his own natural reason declines him from that sin then. How long shall we make this bad use, of this true doctrine, that, because we cannot do enough, for our salvation, therefore we will do nothing? Shall I see any Man shut out of heaven, that did what he could upon earth? Thou that canst mourn for any worldly loss, mourn for thy sin; Thou that lovest meetings of company for society, and conversation, love the meeting of the Saints of God, in the Congregation, and communion of Saints; Thou that lovest the Rhetoric, the Musique, the wit, the sharpness, the eloquence, the elegancy, of other authors, love even those things in the Scriptures, in the word of God, where they abound more, then in other authors. Put but thy affections out of their ordinary sinful way, and then Lavasti pedes, thou hast washed thy feet; and God will take thy work in hand, and raise a building far beyond the compass, and comprehension of thy foundation; that which the soul began, but in good nature, shall be perfected in grace.

But do it quickly; for the glory of this soul here was in the Lavi; It is not Lavabo; that she had already; not that she would wash her feet; since thou art come to know thy natural uncleanness, and baptism for that, and thine actual uncleanness; and that for that, there is a River, that brings thee into the main Sea, (the water of repentance leads thee to the bottomeless Sea of the blood of thy Savior, in the Sacrament) continue not in thy foulness, in confidence that all shall be drowned in that at last, whensoever thou wilt come to it. It was a common, but an erroneous practice, even in the Primitive Church, to defer their baptism, till they were old; because an opinion prevailed upon them, that baptism discharged them of all sins, they used to be baptized then, when they were past sinning, that so they might pass out of this world, in that innocence, which their baptism imprinted in them: And out of this custom; Men grew to be the more careless all their lives, because all was done at once in baptism. But says Saint Augustine in that case, (and it was his own case) It were uncharitably said, Vulneretur amplius, that if we saw a Man welter in his blood, and wounded in divers places, it were uncharitably said, Vulneretur amplius, give him two or three wounds more, for the Surgeon is not come yet; It is uncharitably said to thine own soul, Vulneretur amplius, take thy pleasure in sin yet, when I come to receive the Sacrament, I will repent altogether, do not think to put off all to the washing week; all thy sins, all thy repentance, to Easter, and the Sacrament then; There may be a washing then, and no drying; thou mayest come to weep the tears of desperation, to seek mercy with tears, and not find it; tears for worldly losses, tears for sin, tears for bodily anguish, may overflow thee then; and whereas God's goodness to those, that are his, is, ut abstergat omnem Lachrymam, to wipe all tears from their eyes; absterget nullam Lachrymam, he may leave all unwiped upon thee, he may leave thy soul to sink, and to shipwreck, under this tempest, and inundation, and current of divers tides; tears of all kinds, and ease of none: for those of whom it is said, Deus absterget omnem lachrymam, God shall wipe all tears from their eyes, are they Qui laverunt Stolas, (as we see there) who have already washed their long robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb: who have already by tears of repentance, become worthy receivers of the seal of reconciliation, in the Sacrament of his body, and blood; To them, God shall wipe all tears from their eyes; but to the unrepentant sinner, he shall multiply tears; from tears, for the loss, of a horse, or of a house, to tears for the loss of a soul, and wipe no tear from his eyes.

But yet though this Lavi, exclude the Lavabo, as it is dilatory, that is, I will wash, but not yet, yet it excludes not the Lavabo, I will wash, as it is an often washing; I must come to that, Lavi, I have washed, but yet I will wash again: for till our feet be so washed, as that they be wrapped up in our last linen, and so raised from the ground, as that they be laid upon other Men's shoulders, our feet will touch the ground again and need new washing. When Christ washed his disciples feet, there is agreat difference amongst the Fathers, where he began, whose feet he washed first: Saint Augustine, and Saint Bernard think he began with Peter; they think Christ respected the dignity of his person: origen, and Chrysostom think he began with Judas; they think Christ respected the necessity of the Patient, and applied the Physique soonest, where the disease was most malignant, and venomous. None of them say he began with John, whom it is clear he loved most. If any soul have apprehended that Christ came late to her washing, not till now, let her not argue, to her own danger, that he loved her the less for that: if he have suffered sin to abound, that grace might abound, what Patient shall dare to appoint, that Physician his Dosis, or his times; whomsoever he washed first of his Apostles, he washed them all; and to him that was forwardest ever in his own strength, to Peter, he said, Non habebis partem, If I wash thee not, thou shalt have no part with me; If we come not to this washing of our feet, this preparatory washing by tears of repentance, we can have no part in him, that is, in the participation of his body, and his blood; but when he hath brought us to this Jordan, which is Fluvius Iudicii, the water of Judgment, and that we have judged, and condemned ourselves of this Leprosy of sin, Lavemur septies, let us often call ourselves to account, implore the council often, often accept the absolution of God's Minister, and often settle our souls, in a true peace, by a worthy receiving of the seal thereof, in the Sacrament: And as in that we come to the Lavi, (a peaceful testimony, that we have washed our consciences) so let us pursue it with a Lavabo, with an humble acknowledgment, that we fall every day, and every day need a new washing; for as from poor tenants, Landlords are not content to receive their rent at the years end, but quarterly, or in shorter terms, so from such beggarly and bankrupt souls as ours are, God is not content with an anniversary repentance once a year, at Easter; but we shall find our rent, our payment heavy enough, if we pay every day, and wash our feet every night, for the uncleannesses of that one day.

To shut up this part then; This washing of the feet, is the spirit of discerning, and censuring particular actions: but it is pedes meos, a discerning, and censuring of my actions, not only, or not principally the actions of other Men; Quàm speciosi pedes Evangelizantium, how beautiful are the feet of them, that preach peace, says Saint Paul, out of the mouth of two witnesses, two Prophets, that had said so before. If we will preach peace, that is, relieve the consciences of others, by presenting them their sins, we must have speciosos pedes, clean ways, and a clean life of our own; so it is with us, and our profession; But Gens sancta, regale Sarcerdotium, as the Apostle joines them, If you be a holy people, you are also a royal priesthood; If you be all God's Saints, you are all God's Priests; and if you be his priests, it is your office to preach too; as we by words, you by your holy works; as we by contemplation, you by conversation; as we by our doctrine, so you by your lives, are appointed by God to preach to one another: and therefore every particular Man, must wash his own, feet, look that he have speciosos pedes, that his example may preach to others, for this is truly Regale Sacerdotium, a regal priesthood, not to work upon others by words, but by actions. If we love one another, as Christ loved us, we must wash one another's feet, as he commanded his Apostles; There is a preistly duty lies upon every Man, brotherly to reprehend a brother, whom he sees trampling in foul ways, wallowing in foul sins; but I may preach to others and be myself a reprobate • (as Saint Paul speaks with terror to Men of our coat) in his own person, I may bring others to heaven, and be shut out myself; And thou mayest preach that a Man should not steal, and steal, That a Man should not commit adultery, and commit it; And in these cases, Non speciosi pedes, here are no clean, no fair feet, and therefore no edifying. Nay if, in either kind, we, or you, abhor Idols, and yet commit sacrilege, that is, reprehend a sin in another, which we are free from ourselves, but yet are guilty ourselves, of another sin as great, here's no clean feet no profitable preaching; And therefore the only way to do God service, is, to wash and to censure the feet, (that is, particular actions) but principally, our own feet, that which we do ourselves.

There remains yet a second part: and perchance but a little time for it; and I shall proportion, and fit myself to it. It is, That as this soul had a Resurrection, she hath an • scension; As she had vocem gratulantis, a thanksgiving, that she hath washed her feet, so she hath vocem indignantis, a religious scorn and indignation, to fall into those foul ways again. For this holy indignation, is one link in the Apostles chain of Repentance, where, upon Godly sorrow, depends care, and upon that, cleansing of ourselves, and upon that indignation, and so fear, and so desire, and so zeal, and so punishments of ourselves: every link worthy of a longer consideration; but here we consider only this indignation; when that soul that is washed, and thereby sees, to what a fair conformity with her Savior she is come, is come also to a scorn, to a disdain to compare any beauty in this world, to that face, which Angels desire to look upon; any nearness to great persons in this world, to the following of the Lamb wheresoever he goes; any riches of this world, to that riches wherewith the poverty of Christ Jesus hath made us rich; any length of life in this world, to that union which we shall have, to the Antient of days; where even the everliving God, shall not overlive us, but carry out our days to the unmeasured measure of his own, to eternity. This indignation, this soul expresses here, in this question, Quomodo, how shall I defile them? First then, this voice of indignation, hath this force; Quomodo, how shall I defile them, is, how is it possible, that I should defile them? I have washed my feet, repented my sins and taken the seal of my Reconciliation, the Sacrament, and that hath this effect, ut sensum minuat in minimis, & toliat consensum in magnis peccatis, That grace, that God gives in the Sacrament, makes us less sensible of small temptations, (they move us not) and it makes us resist, and not yield to the greatest temptations; since I am in this state, Quomodo inquinubo? How shall I defile them? The difference will be, of whom thou askest this question: If thou ask the world, the world will tell thee, well enough. Quomodo, How; It will tell thee, that it is a Melancholy thing, to sit thinking upon thy sins; That it is an unsociable thing, to seek him, who cannot be seen, an invisible God; That it is poor company, to pass thy time with a Priest; Thou mayest defile thyself again, by forgetting thy sins, and so doing them over again: And thou mayest defile thyself again by remembering thy sins, and so sin over thy sins again, in a sinful delight of thy passed sins, and a desire that thou couldst commit them again. There are answers enough to this Quomodo, How, how should I defile them, if thou ask the world: but ask thy Savior, and he shall tell thee, That whosoever hath this water, shall never thirst more, but that water shall be in him an everlasting spring; that is, he shall find means to keep himself in that cleanness, to which he is come; and neither things present, nor things to come shall separate him from the love of God.

Thus the voice of this religious indignation, Quomodo, is, how is it possible, but it is also, Quomodo, how, that is, why should I? The first is, how should I be so base, the other, how should I be so bold? Though I have my pardon, written in the blood of my Savior; sealed to me in his Sacrament, brought home to me in the testimony of the holy Ghost, pleaded for me, at the tribunal of the Father, yet as Princes pardons have, so God's pardons have too, this clause, It a quod se been gerat; He that is pardoned must continue of good behavior; for whensoever he breaks the peace, he forfeits his pardon; When I return to my repented sins again, I am under the burden of all my former sins, and my very repentance, contracts the nature of a sin: and therefore Quomodo, how should I, that is, why should I defile them? To restore you to your liberty, and to send you away with the meditation, which concerns you most, consider, what an astonishment this would be, that when Christ Jesus shall lay open the great volumes of all your sins, to your sight, who had forgot them, and to their sight, from whom you had disguised them, at the last judgment, when you shall hear all the wantonnesses of your youth, all the Ambitions of your middle years, all the covetous desires of your age, published in that presence, and think then, this is the worst that can be said, or laid to my charge, this is the last indictment, and the last evidence, there shall follow your very repentances in the list of your sins, and it shall be told you, and all the world then, Here, and here you deluded that God, that forbore to inflict his Judgments, upon new vows, new contracts, new promises, between you and him; even your repentances shall bind up that book, and tie your old sins, and new relapses into one body. And let this meditation bring you ad vocem gratulantis, to rejoice once again in this Lavi pedes, that you have now washed your feet, in a present sorrow, and ad vocem indignantis, to a stronger indignation, and faster resolution, then heretofore you have had, never to defile them again.

SERMON IX.

Preached at a Churching.

A LL that God asks of us, is, that we love him with all our heart: All that he promises us, is, that he will give us rest, round about us; Judah sought the Lord with a whole desire, and he gave her rest, round about her. Now a Man might think himself well disposed for Rest, when he lies down, I will lay me down, and sleep in peace, says David; but it is otherwise here; Arise, and depart; for here, (that is, in lying, and sleeping) is not your Rest, says this Prophet. These words have a three-fold acceptation, and admit a three-fold exposition; for, first, they are a Commination, the Prophet threatens the Jews; Secondly, they are a Commonition, the Prophet instructs all future ages; Thirdly, they are • a Consolation, which hath reference to the Consummation of all, to the rising at the general Judgment. First, he foretells the Jews of their imminent captivity; Howsoever you build upon the pactum salis, the Covenant of salt, the everlasting Covenant, that God will be your God, and this land your land, yet since that confidence sears you up in your sins, Arise and depart, for this is not your rest, your Jerusalem must be changed into Babylon; there's the Commination: Secondly, he warns us, who are bedded and bedrid in our sins; howsoever you say to yourselves, Soul take thy rest, enjoy the honors, the pleasures, the abundances of this world, Tush the Lord sees it not, The Master will not come, we may lie still safely, and rest in the fruition of this Happiness, yet this Rest will betray you, this rest will deliver you over to eternal disquiet: And therefore arise and depart, for this is not your Rest, and that's the Commonition. And in the third acceptation of the words as they may have relation to the Resurrection, they may well admit a little inversion; Howsoever you feel a Resurrection by grace from the works of death, and darkness in this life, yet in this life, there is no assurednesse, that he that is risen, and thinks he stands, shall not fall; here you arise and depart, that is, rise from your sins, and depart from your sinful purposes, but you arise, and depart so too, that you fall, and depart again into your sinful purposes, after you have risen; and therefore Depart and arise, for here is not your rest; till you depart altogether out of this world, and rise to Judgment, you can have no such rest, as can admit no disquiet no perturbation; but then you shall; and that's the Consolation.

First then, as the words concern the Jews; Here is first an increpation, a rebuke, that they are fallen from their station, and their dignity, implied in the first word, Arise, for then they were fallen; Secondly, here is a demonstration in the same word, That though they liked that state into which they were fallen, which was a security, and stubbornness in their sins, yet they should not enjoy even that security, and that stubbornness, that fall of theirs, but they should lose that; though it were but a false contentment, yet they should be rou • 'd out of that, Arise; first arise, because you are fallen, and then, arise, though you think yourselves at ease • by that fall. And then thirdly, here is a continuation of God's anger, when they are risen; for they are not raised to their former state and dignity, from which they were fallen, they are not raised to be established, but it is arise, and depart; And in all this (which is a fourth Consideration) God precludes them from any hope by solicitation, he reveals his purpose his Decree, and consequently his inexorableness evidently, in that word, for; never murmur, never dispute, never entreat, you must depart, For it is determined, it is resolved, and here is not your Rest; In which also the Commination is yet more and more aggravated; first, in that they lose their Rest, which God hath sold them so dearly, by so many battles, and so many afflictions, and which God had sworn to them so solemnly by so many ratifications; they must lose their Rest, they must have no Rest, Here; not there; not in the Land of Promise it self; And then lastly, as they are denied all rest there; There, where was the womb, and Center of their Rest, so there is no intimation, no hope given, that they should have rest anywhere else, for as they were to rise, only to depart, so they were to depart into Captivity.

The first is an increpation, they were fallen; but from whence? It was once said, Qui jacet in terra, non habet unde cadat, but he that is earth it self, whither can he fall? whither can Man, derived from earth before his life, enamored of the earth, embracing it, and married to it in his life, destined to the earth, betrothed to it for a second marriage after this life, whither can he fall? It is true of us all, I shall say to corruption, Thou art my father, and to the worm, Thou art my Mother, and my sister;