Fifty Sermons

SERMON XLIV.

Preached at St. Paul's Cross, Novemb. 22. 1629.

T Hese are words spoken by our Blessed Savior, to two Disciples, sent by John the Baptist, then a prisoner, to inform themselves of some particulars concerning Christ. Christ, who read Hearts, better then we do faces, and heard Thoughts clearer then we do words, saw in the thoughts, and hearts of these men, a certain perverseness, an obliquity, an irregularity towards him, a jealousy and suspicion of him, and according to that indisposition of theirs he speaks to them, and tells them, This, and This only is true Blessedness, not to be scandalized in me, not to be offended in me; I see you are; but, as you love Blessedness, (and there is no other object of true love, but Blessedness ) establish yourselves in me, maintain in yourselves a submission, and an acquiescence to me, in my Gospel, suspect not me, be not jealous of me, nor press farther upon me, then I open and declare my self unto you, for, Blessed is he, whosoever is not scandalized, not offended in me.

The words have in them an Injunction, and a Remuneration; A Precept, and a Promise; The Way, and the End of a Christian. The Injunction, The Precept, The way is, As you love blessedness, be not offended in me, Be satisfied with me, and mine Ordinances; It is an Acquiescence in the Gospel of Christ Jesus: And the Remuneration, the Promise, the End, is Blessedness; That, which, in itself, hath no end, That, in respect of which, all other things are to no end, Blessedness, everlasting Blessedness, Blessed is he, whosoever is not scandalized, not offended in me. In the first, Christ gives them first, if not an Increpation, yet an Intimation of our facility in falling into the Passive scandal, the mis-interpreting of the words or actions of other men, which is that which our Savior intends, by being offended in another; And Blessed are they, in general, who are not apt to fall into this Passive scandal, not subject to this facility of mis-interpreting other men. In a second branch in this first part, Christ appropriates this to himself, Blessed is he, whosoever is not scandalized, not offended in me; In which branch, we shall see, that the general scandal, and offense that the world took at Christ, and his Gospel, was, that he induced a Religion that opposed the Honors, and the Pleasures, and the Profit of this world: And these three being the Triangle within our circle, the three corners, into which Satan, that compasses the world, leads us, (all is Honor, or Pleasure, or Profit ) because the Christian Religion seemed to the world to withdraw men's affections from these, the world was scandalized, offended in Christ. But then, in a third consideration, we shall see, that Christ discerned in these two persons, these Disciples of John, a Passive scandal of another kind; Not that Christ's Gospel, and the Religion that he induced, was too low, too base, too contemptible, as the world thought, but that it was not low enough, not humble enough, and therefore John's Disciples would do more then Christ's Disciples, and bind themselves to a greater strictness and austerity of life, then Christ in his Gospel required. In which third branch, we shall take knowledge of some Disciples of John's Disciples, in the world yet; and, (as for the most part it falls out in Sectaries ) of divers kinds and ways; for, we shall find some, who in an over-valuation of their own purity, condemn, and contemn other men, as unpardonable Reprobates; And these are scandalized, and offended in Christ, that is, not satisfied with his Gospel, in that they will not see, that it is as well a part of the Gospel of Christ, to rely upon his Mercy, if I have departed from that purity, which his Gospel enjoined me, as it is, to have endeavored to have preserved that purity; And a part of his Gospel, as well to assist with my prayers, and my counsel, and with all mildeness, that poor soul that hath strayed from that purity, as it is to love the Communion of those Saints, that have in a better measure preserved it; Not to believe the Mercy of God in Christ, after a sin, to be a part of the Gospel, as well as the Grace of God for prevention before, not to give favorable constructions, and conceive charitable hopes of him, who is fallen into some sin, which I may have escaped, this is to be scandalized, to be offended in Christ, not to be satisfied with his Gospel; And this is one Sect of the offspring of John's Disciples. And the other is this, that other men thinking the Gospel of Christ to be too large a Gospel, a Religion of too much liberty, will needs undertake to do more, then Christ, or his Disciples practiced, or his Gospel prescribed: for, this is to be offended in Christ, not to believe the means of salvation ordained by him, to be sufficient for that end, which they were ordained to, that is, salvation. And then, after all this, in a fourth branch we shall see, the way, which our Savior takes to reclaim them, and to devest them of this Passive scandal, which hindered their Blessedness, which was, to call them to the contemplation of his good works, and of good works in the highest kind, his Miracles; for in the verse immediately before the text, (which verse induces the Text) he says to them, you see the blind receive their sight, the lame go, the leapers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life. Christ does not propose, at least, he does not put all, upon that external purity, and a • sterity of life, in which, these Disciples of John pretended to exceed all others, but upon doing good to others; the blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk. Which miracles, and great works of his, our blessed Savior sums up with that, which therefore seems the greatest of all, Pauperes Evangelizantur, The poor have the Gospel preached unto them. Beloved, the greatest good that we, (we to whom the dispensation of the word of reconciliation is committed) can do, is, to preach the Gospel to the poor, to assist the poor, to apply ourselves by all ways, to them, whether they be poor in estate, and fortune, or poor in understanding and capacity, or poor in their accounts and dis-estimation of themselves, poor and dejected in spirit. And all these considerations, which, as you see, are many, and important, (first our general easiness to fall into the passive scandal, to be offended in others, to mis-interpret others; And then the general passive scandal and offense that the world took at Christ, That he induced a Religion incapable of the honors, or the pleasures, or profits of this world; And thirdly, the particular passive scandal that dis-affected these Disciples of John towards Christ, which was, That his Gospel enjoined not enough, and therefore they would do more, in which kind, we find two sects in the world yet, the offspring, and Disciples of those Disciples; And then lastly, the way that Christ took to reclaim and satisfy them, which was, by good works, and the best works that they that did them, could do, (for in himself it was by doing miracles, for the good of others) and preferring in his good and great works, the assisting of the poor) All these considerations, I say, will fall into our first part, As you love blessedness, be not scandalized, be not offended in me, which is the injunction, the precept, the way. And, when in our due order, we shall come to our second part, The remuneration, the promise, the end, Blessedness, everlasting blessedness, I may be glad, that the time will give me some color, some excuse of saying little of that, as I can foresee already, by this distribution, that we shall be forced to thrust that part into a narrow conclusion. For, if I had Methusalems years, and his years multiplied by the minutes of his years, (which were a fair term) if I could speak till the Angels Trumpets blew, and you had the patience of Martyrs, and could be content to hear me, till you heard the Surgite M • rtui, till you were called to meet the Lord Jesus in the clouds, all that time would not make up one minute, all those words would not make up one syllable, towards this Eternity, the period of this blessedness. Reserving ourselves therefore for that, to those few minutes which may be left, or borrowed, when we come to the handling thereof, pursue we first, those con • iderations which fall more naturally into our comprehension, the several branches of our first part; As you love blessedness, Be not scandalized, be not offended in me.

First then our Savior's answer to these Disciples of John, gives us occasion to consider our inclination, our propenseness to the passive scandal, to be offended in others, to mis-interpret the words and actions of others, and to lament that our infirmity, or perverseness, in the words of our Savior, Vae Mundo à scandalis, Woe to the world by reason of scandals, of offenses: For, that is both a Vae Dolentis, The voice of our Savior lamenting that perverseness of ours, and Vae Minantis, his voice threatening punishments for that perverseness. For, Parum distat scandalizare, & scandalizari, says St. Jerome excellently; It is almost all one to be scandalized by another, as to scandalize another; almost as great a sin, to be shaked in our constancy, in ourselves, or in our charity towards others, as to offer a scandal to others. For, this Vae, this intermination of woe from our Savior, is bent upon us, from three batteries; for, it is Vae quia Illusiones fortes, woe, because scandals are so strong in their nature, as that they shall seduce, if it be possible, the Elect; And then, Vae quia infirmi vos, Woe because you are so weak in your nature, as that, though you receive the word, and receive it with joy, yet Temporales estis, you may be but Time servers for all that, for, as soon as persecution comes, ilico, continuo, scandalizamini, Instantly, presently, you are scandalized, offended; But especially Vae quia Praevaricatores, Woe be unto you, not because the scandals are so strong, not because you are so weak, but because you prevaricate against your own souls, because you betray yourselves, and make yourselves weaker than you are, you open yourselves too easily to a scandal, you assist a scandal, create a scandal, by your aptness to mis-interpret other men's proceedings. Great peace have they that love thy Law, says David: Wherein consists this great peace? In this, Non est illis scandalum, nothing scandalises, nothing offends them, nothing puts them off from their Kings, their Constancy in themselves, their Charity towards others. And therefore upon that prayer of David, Liberet te Deus ab Homine malo, The Lord deliver thee from the evil man, Saint Augustine retires himself into himself, he sends every man home into himself, and says, Liberette Deus à te, ne sis tibi homo malus, the Lord deliver thee from thyself, that thou be not that evil man to thyself; God bless me from myself, that I lead not myself into temptation, by a willful misinterpreting of other men, especially my superiors; that I cast not aspersions or imputations upon the Church, or the State, by my mistakings. And thus much being said of this general facility of falling into the Passive scandal, and being offended in others, (which is a great interruption of blessedness, for Blessed is he, and he only, that is not so scandalised, offended so) pass we now to the second branch of this first part, our Savior's, appropriating of this more particularly to himself, Blessed is he, whosoever is not scandalised, not offended in me.

Christ Crucified, that is, the Gospel of Christ, is said by the Apostle, to be scandalum Iudaeis, a scandal, a stumbling block to the Jews, but Graecis stultitia, to the Grecians, to the Gentiles, mere foolishness. So that one scandal & offense that was taken at Christ, & his Gospel, was by the wisemen, the learned, the Philosophers of the world; they thoght that Christ induced a religion improbable to Reason, a silly and a foolish religion. But these learned men, these Philosophers, were sooner convinced & satisfied, then others. For, when we have considered Justin Martyr, and Minutius Felix, and Arnobius, and Origen, and Lactantius, and some things of Theodoret, & perchance one or two more, we have done with those Fathers, that did anything against the Gentiles, and their Philosophers, and may soon come to that question of the Apostle, Vbi sapiens, where is the wiseman, where is the Philosopher, where is the disputer of the world? Indeed, all that the Fathers writ against thē, would not amount to so much, as may be found at one mart, of papists against Protestants, or of Protestants, Lutherans and Calvinists, against one another. The reason is, Reason will be satisfied, Passion will not. And therefore, when it came to that issue between the Christian and the Natural man, which Religion was most comfortable to Reason, it soon resolved into these two, whether it were more conformable to Reason to believe One God, as the Christian does, or many, as the Gentiles; and then, being brought to the belief of one God, whether it were more conformable to reason, to believe three Persons in that one God, as we, or but one, as they do. Now, for the first of these, the Multiplicity of God's, it involved so many, so evident, so ridiculous absurdities, as not only those few Fathers soon disputed them, but some of themselves, such as Lucian, soon laughed them, out of it; and so reason prevailed soon for the unity of the Godhead, that there is but one God, and that question was not long in suspense, nor agitation. And for the other, three persons in this one God, the Trinity, though we cannot so immediately prove that by Reason, nor so entirely, altogether, yet, by these steppes we can: first, that there is nothing in the doctrine of the Trinity against Reason; the doctrine of the Trinity implies no contradiction; It may be so; and then, that it is so, if we have the word of God, for it, Reason it self will conclude, that we have Reason on our side; And that we have the word of God for it, we proceed thus, that for this Book, which we call the Bible, which book delivers us the Doctrine of the Trinity, we have far better reasons, and stronger arguments to satisfy any natural man, that this book is the word of God, then the Turk, or any professors of any other Religion have, that those books which they pretend to be so, are so. So that positively for the first, that there is but one God, & Comparatively for the other, that there are three persons, Reason it self, (if we were bound to submit all Religion to Reason) may receive a satisfaction, a calm, and peaceable acquiescence. And so, the scandal that the Philosophers took, was, with no great difficulty, overcome. But then the scandals that worldly and carnal men took, lasted longer. They were offended in Christ, that he induced an inglorious, a contemptible Religion, a Religion that opposed the Honors of this world; and a sooty, and Melancholique Religion, a Religion that opposed the Pleasures, and delights of this world; and a fordid, and beggarly Religion, a Religion that opposed the Gaine, and the Profit of this world. But were this enough to condemn the Christian Religion, if it did oppose worldly honor, or pleasure, or profit? Or does our Religion do that? Be pleased to stop a little upon both these Problems; whether that were enough to their ends, if it were so, and then, whether there be any such thing in our Religion; and begin we with their first offense at Christ, The point of Honor.

The Apostle speaks of an Eternal weight of Glory; Glory, A weight of Glory, An eternal weight of Glory; But where? In heaven, not in this world. The Honors of this world, are far from being weights, or fraights, or ballast to carry us steady; they are but light froths, but leaven, but fermentation, that puffs and swells us up. And they are as far from being eternal; for, in every family, we know, in which father, or grandfather the Honor began, and we know not how soon, or how ignominiously it may end; but such ends of worldly Honors, we see every day. When a Lord meets a man that honors him, makes him courtesy, and curses him withal, what hath his Lordship got by that Honor? when popular acclamations cast him into insolent actions, and into the net of the Law, where is the ease, the benefit, the consolation of his Honor? But especially, if worldly Honor must be had upon those conditions here, as shall hinder my eternal weight of Glory hereafter, I should honor any dishonor, glorify any inglorious state, embrace any Dunghill, call any poverty Treasure, rather then bring the Honors of this world into the Balance, into competition, into comparison with that eternal weight of Glory in heaven. So that if the Christian Religion did oppose worldly Honor, it were not to be opposed for that: But it is far from that; for, as no Religion imprints more honor, more reverence, more subjection in the hearts of men, towards their Superiors of all sorts, Natural, or Civil, or Ecclesiastical, Parents, or Magistrates, or Prelates, then the Christian Religion does (for, we bind even the conscience it self) so never was there any form of Religion upon the face of the earth, in which persons were capable of greater Titles, and styles of dignity, then in the Christian Church. Never any Moscovite, any Turk, received such titles, as the world hath, and does give to the Bishop of Rome; so great, as that some of the greatest later Emperors, have had an ambition of that dignity, and endeavored to have been elected Popes too, being Emperors. If Religion opposed Honor, that should not diminish it; but it does not that, nor Pleasure neither, which was another thing, in which, the world was offended in Christ.

As when we compared the Honor of this world, with the Glory of Heaven, we found it nothing, so should we do the Pleasures of this world, if we compared them with the Joys of heaven. And therefore if my religion did enwrap me in a continual cloud, damp me in a continual vapor, smoke me in a continual sourenesse, and joylesnesse in this life, yet I have an abundant recompense in that Reversion, which the Lord, the righteous Judge hath laid up for me, That I shall drink e torrente valuptatis, of the Rivers of his pleasures; pleasures, His pleasures, Rivers, ever-flowing, overflowing Rivers of his pleasures. So that if my Religion denied me pleasure here, I would not deny my Religion, nor be displeased with my Religion for that; But it does not that; for what Christian is denied a care of his health, or of a good habitude of body, or the use of those things, which may give a cheerfulness to his heart, or a cheerfulness to his co • ntenance? What Christian is denied such Garments, or such Ornaments, as his own rank, and condition, in particular requires, or as the National and general custom of his times hath induced and authorised? What Christian is denied Conversation, or Recreation, or honest Relaxation of Body or Spirit? Excess of these pleasures, as well in the Heathen, as in the Christian, falls under Solomon's Vanity, and Vexation of spirit. But with the right use of these pleasures, the Christian hath that, which none but he, hath, That the Lord puts gladness into my heart, That the Lord enables me to lay me down in peace, and sleep, That the Lord assures me that he will keep me in safety. If Religion excluded worldly pleasure, that were no cause of scandal or offense; but it does not that; no nor Profit neither, which is a third consideration.

What is a man profited, says our Savior, (he saw all the world was carried upon profit, and he goes along with them, that way) What is a man profited, if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? If a man have an answer to that question, that question of Confusion, and Consternation, that Christ asks, Cujue erunt, fool this night they shall fetch away thy soul, and then, Cuju • erunt, whose shall all those things be, that thou hast provided? if a man can answer, Haeredis erunt, They shall be mine heirs, mine heir shall have them; Besides that, though thy bell toll first, his may ring out first; though thou beest old, and crazy, and sickly, Though they do fetch away thy soul this night, they may fetch away his before thine, thine heir may die before thee, and there's that assurance disappointed; If thine heir do enjoy all this, will all that distill one drop of cold water upon thy tongue in hell? And so is he, (says Christ, in the conclusion of that parable) that layeth up riches for himself, and is not rich towards God. So that if Riches might not consist with Religion, it would not hurt our cause; but they may, they do. Godliness hath the promise of this life, and of the next; of both, but of this first. The seed of the righteous, shall be mighty upon earth, and wealth and riches shall be in his house. Many places of Scripture tell us that the wicked may be rich, and that they are rich; but in no place does God promise that they shall be rich. So says David's son, Solomon, too, The Crown of the wise is their riches; we all know what men Solomon means by wise men; Godly men, Religious men; And their Crown is Riches. Beloved, there is an inward Joy, there is an outward dignity and reverence, that accompanies Riches, and the Godly, the righteous man is not incapable of these; Nay, they belong rather to him, then to the ungodly: Non decent stultum divitiae, (as the Vulgat reads that place) Riches do not become a fool. But because, for all that, though Riches do not become a fool, yet fools do become rich; our Translations read that place thus: joy, pleasure, delight, is not seemly for a fool; Though the fool, the ungodly man, may be rich, yet a right joy, a holy delight in riches, belongs only to the wise, to the righteous. The Patriarchs in the Old Testament, many examples in the New, are testimonies to us of the compatibility of riches, and righteousness; that they may, that they have often met in one person. For, is fraud, and circumvention so sure a way, of attaining God's blessings, as industry, and conscientiousnesse is? Or is God so likely to concur with the fraudulent, the deceitful man, as with the laborious, and religious? Was not Ananias, with his disguises, more suddenly destroyed, then Job, and more irrecoverably? And cannot a Star-chamber, or an Exchequer, leave an ungodly man as poor, as a storm at sea, in a ship-wrack, or a fire at land, in a lightning, can do the godly? Murmure not, be not scandalized, nor offended in him, if God, for reasons reserved to himself, keep thee in poverty; but know, that God hath exposed the riches of this world, as well, rather to the godly, then the wicked. And so have you the second branch of this first part, The scandals which, for the most part, were taken at Christ, and his Gospel, by the Philosophers, that it was a Religion contrary to Reason, by worldly, and carnal men, that it was a Religion contrary to the honors, to the pleasures, to the profits of this world; which, if it were so, were no impeachment to it, but it is not: And so we are come to the third branch, The particular passive scandal, which our Savior deprehended in these two Disciples of John, diverse from the rest.

That, which mis-affected them towards Christ, was not that he induced a Religion too low, too sordid, too humble, but not low enough, not humble enough; and therefore they would out-bid Christ, and undertake more, then his Disciples practiced, or himself prescribed. Their Master, John the Baptist, discerned this distemper in them, then when they said to him, Rabbi, He that was with thee beyond Jordan, baptizes as fast as thou, and all the world comes to him. John the Baptist deals plainly with them, and he tells them, that they must not be offended in that, for so it must be, He must increase, and I must decrease. This troubled them; and because it did so, John sends them personally to Christ, to receive farther satisfaction. When they come at first to him, they say, Sir, we fast, and, even the Pharisees fast, why do not you, and your Disciples fast too? And then our blessed Savior enlarges himself to them, in that point of fasting, and they go home satisfied. Now they return again, and they continue their wonder, that Christ should continue his greatness, and his estimation in the world, they exceeding him so far in this outward austority of life, which was so specious, and so winning a thing amongst the Jews. But duo Discipuli fortasse duo populi, These two Disciples of John may have their Disciples in the world to this day; And therefore forbearing their persons, we shall consider their offspring; Those men, who in an over-valuation of their own purity, despise others, as men whom nothing can save; & those men, who in an over-valuation of their own merits, think to save themselves and others too, by their supererogations.

Begin we with the first, The over-pure despisers of others; Men that will abridge, and contract the large mercies of God in Christ, and elude, and frustrate, in a great part, the general promises of God. Men that are loath, that God should speak so loud, as to say, He would have all men saved, And loath that Christ should spread his arms, or shed his blood in such a compass, as might fall upon all. Men that think no sin can hurt them, because they are elect, and that every sin makes every other man a Reprobate. But with the Lord there is Copiosa redemptio • plentiful redemption, and an overflowing cup of mercy. Aquae quae non mentiuntur, As the holy Ghost says more then once, more then many times, in the Prophets, Waters that will not lie, that will not dry, not deceive, not disappoint any man. The wisdom that is from above, is first pure, & then peaceable. Purity, Sincerity, Integrity, Holiness, is a skirt of Christ's garment; It is the very livery that he puts upon us; we cannot serve him without it, (we must serve him in holiness and pureness ) we cannot see him without it, without holiness no man shall see God. But then to be pure, and not peaceable, to determine this purity in ourselves, and condemn others, this is but an imaginary, but an illusory purity Not to have relieved that poor wretch, that lay wounded, and weltering in his blood in the way to Jericho, was the uncharitableness of the Levite, and the Priest, in that parable. But that parable presents no man so uncharitable, as would have hindered the Samaritan, from pouring his •• yle, and his Wine into the wounds of that distressed wretch. To hinder the blood of Christ Jesus, not to suffer that blood to flow as far, as it will, to deny the mercy of God in Christ, to any sinner, whatsoever, upon any pretence, whatsoever, this is to be offended in Christ, to be scandalized with his Gospel; for, that's his own precept, Have sa •• in yourselves, (be it, purity, the best preservative of the soul) And then, Have peace with one another, Deny no man the benefit of Christ; Bless thou the Lord, praise him, and magnify him, for that which hoe hath done for thee, and believe, that he means as well to others, as to thee. And these are one Sect of the Disciples of John's Disciples, That think there are men, whom Christ cannot save, And the other is of men that think they can save other men.

Ignatius, who is so ancient, as that we have letters from him to S. John, and from him to the Blessed Virgin, and if the copies be true) from her to him, as ancient as he is, says, Monet quisquam antiquorum, One of the Ancients hath given us this caution, Vt nemo bonus dicatur qui malum bono permiscuerit, That we call no man good, that is good to ill ends, nor believe any man to speak truth, that speaks truth at sometimes, to make his future lies the more credible. And much this way does the Roman Church proceed with us, in this behalf. They magnify sanctification, and holiness of life well; well do they propose many good means, for the advancement, and ex • ltation thereof; fasting, and prayer, and alms, and other Medicinal Disciplines, and Mortifications. But all this to a wrong end; Not to make them the more acceptable to God, but to make God the more beholden to them; To merit, and over-merit; To satisfy, and super-satisfy the justice of God for their own, and for others sins. Now, God will be served with all our power; But, say they, we may serve God, with more then all our power. How? Because I may have more power, more grace, more help, today, then I had yesterday? But does not the same Commandment, of serving God, with all my power, lie upon me, today, as did yesterday? If yesterday, when I had less power, less grace, less help, all was but Duty and service that could be done, is it the less a service and a duty now, because God hath enlarged my capacity with more grace, and more helps then before? Do I owe God the less, because he hath given me more? All that my Savior hath taught me, in this, to pray for, is but this, Dimitte debita, Lord forgive me the not-endeavoring to keep thy Commandments: But for not doing more then thy Commandments, I ask no forgiveness, by any prayer, or precept recommended to me by him. Ad Evangelii impletionem conscendat nostra religio, nec transcendats says the learnedest Nun, and the best Matriarch, and Mother of that Church, I think, that ever writ, Heloyssa; I pray God, our Order may get so far, as the Gospel enjoins, and not press beyond that; Nec quid amplius, quàm ut Christianae simus, appetamus, That we desire to be no more, then good Christians. And farther we extend not this third consideration, The particular passive scandal, which Christ found in these Disciples of John, and which we have noted in their progeny, and offspring but go on to the fourth, The way that Christ took to devest them thereof, by calling them to the contemplation of his works, Consider what you have seen done, The blind see, The lame go, The deaf hear, and then you will not endanger your blessedness, by being offended in me.

The evidence that Christ produces, and presses, is good works; for, if a man offer me the root of a tree to taste, I cannot say this is such a Pear, or Apple, or Plum; but if I see the fruit, I can. If a man pretend Faith to me, I must say to him, with Saint James, Can his Faith save him? such a Faith, as that the Apostle declares himself to mean, A dead Faith, as all Faith is that is inoperative, and works not. But if I see his works, I proceed the right way in Judicature, I judge secundum allegata & probata, according to my evidence: And if any man will say, those works may be hypocritical, I may say of any witness, He may be perjured; but as long as I have no particular cause to think so, it is good evidence to me, as to hear that man's Oath, so to see this man's works. Cum in Coelis sedentem in Crucem agere non possum, Though I cannot crucify Christ, being now set at the right hand of his Father in Heaven, yet there is Odium impietatis, saith that Father, A crucifying by ungodliness; An ungodly life in them that profess Christ, is a daily crucifying of Christ. Therefore here Christ refers to good works; And there is more in this then so: It is not only good works, but good works in the highest proportion, The best works, that he that doth them, can do: Therefore, in his own case he appeals to Miracles. For if fasting were all, or wearing of Camells hair, all, or to have done some good to some men, by Baptizing them, were all, these Disciples and their Master might have had as much to plead as Christ. Therefore he calls them to the consideration of works of a higher nature, of Miracles; for, God never subscribes nor testifies a forged Deed; God never seals a falsehood with a Miracle. Therefore, when the Jews say of Christ, He hath a Devil, and is mad, why hear ye him? some of the other Jews said, These are not the words of one that hath a Devil: But though by that it appear, that some evidence, some argument may be raised in a man's behalf, from his words, from that he saith, from his Preaching, yet Christ's friends who spoke in his favor, do not rest in that, That those are not the words of one that hath a Devil, but proceed to that, Can the Devil open the eyes of the blind? He doth more then the Devil can do; They appeal to his works, to his good works, to his great works, to his Miracles. But doth he put us to do miracles? no; Though, in truth those sumptuous and magnificent buildings, and endowments, which some have given for the sustentation of the poor, are almost Miracles, half Miracles, in respect of those penurious proportions, that Myut and Cumin, and those half-ounces of broken bread, which some as rich as they, have dropped, and crumbled out; Truly, he that doth as much as he can, is almost a Miracle; And when Christ appeals to his Miracles he calls us therein, to the best works we can do. God will be loved with the whole heart, and God will have that love declared with our whole substance. I must not think I have done enough, if I have built an Alms-house; As long as I am able to do more, I have done nothing. This Christ intimates in producing his greatest works, Miracles; which Miracles he closeth up with that, as with the greatest, Pauperes evangelizantur, The poor have the Gospel preached unto them.

In this our Blessed Savior doth not only give an instruction to John's Disciples, but therein also derives and conveys a precept upon us, upon us, who as we have received mercy, have received the Ministry, and indeed, upon all you, whom he hath made Regale Sacerdotium, A royal Priesthood, and Reges & Sacerdotes, Kings and Priests unto your God, and bound you thereby, as well as us to preach the Gospel to the poor, you, by an exemplar life, and a Catechizing conversation, as well as us, by our words and meditations. Now beloved, there are Poor, that are literally poor, poor in estate and fortune; and poor, that are naturally poor, poor in capacity, and understanding; and poor, that are spiritually poor, dejected in spirit, and insensible of the comforts, which the Holy Ghost offers unto them; and to all these poor, are we all bound to preach the Gospel. First then for them which are literally poor, poor in estate, how much do they want of this means of salvation, Preaching, which the rich have? They cannot maintain Chaplains in their houses; They cannot forbear the necessary labors of their calling, to hear extraordinary Sermons; They cannot have seats in Churches, whensoever they come; They must stay, they must stand, they must thrust, they must overcome that difficulty, which Saint Augustine makes an impossibility, that is, for any man to receive benefit by that Sermon, that he hears with pain: They must take pains to hear. To these poor therefore, the Lord and his Spirit hath sent me to preach the Gospel; That Gospel, The Lord knoweth thy poverty, but thou art rich; That Gospel, Be content with such things as thou hast, for the Lord hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee; And that Gospel, God hath chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith, heirs of that Kingdom, which he hath promised to them that love him; And this is the Gospel of those poor, literally poor, poor in estate. To those that are naturally poor, poor in understanding, the Lord and his Spirit hath sent me to preach the Gospel too; That Gospel, If any man lack wisdom, let him ask it of God; Solomon himself had none, till he asked it there. And that Gospel where John went bitterly, because there was a Book preseated, but no man could open it, It were a sad consideration, if now, when the Book of God, the Scripture is afforded to us, we could not open that Book, not understand those Scriptures. But there is the Gospel of those poor; That Lamb, which is spoken of there, That Lamb, which in the same place is called a Lion too, That Lamb-Lion hath opened the Book for us. The humility of the Lamb gathereth the strength of the Lion; come humbly to the reading and hearing of the Scriptures, and thou shalt have strength of understanding. The Scriptures were not written for a few, nor are to be reserved for a few; All they that were present at this LambLions opening of the Book, that is, All they that come with modesty and humility, to the search of the Scriptures, All they, (and they are no small number, for there they are said to be ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands ) All they say there, We are all made Kings and Priests unto our God. Begin a Lamb, and thou will become a Lion; Read the Scriptures modestly, humbly, and thou shalt understand them strongly, powerfully; for hence is it that Saint Chrys • stome, more then once, and Saint Gregory after him, meet in that expression, That the Scriptures are a Sea, in which a Lamb may wade, and an Elephant may swim. And this is the Gospel of those poor, poor in understanding. To those that are spiritually poor, wrung in their souls, stung in their Consciences, fretted, galled, exulcerated viscerally, even in the bowels of their Spirit, insensible, inapprehensive of the mercies of God in Christ, the Lord and his Spirit hath sent me to preach the Gospel also, That Gospel, Blessed are the poor in Spirit, for theirs it the Kingdom of Heaven; and to recollect, and redintegrate that broken and scattered heart, by enabling him to expostulate, and chide his own soul, with those words of comfort, which the Holy Ghost offereth him, once, and again, and again, Why art thou cast down, O my soul, and why art thou disquieted in me? Hope thou in God; and, yet praise him for the light of his countenance. Words of inexpresible comfort, yet praise him for the light of his countenance; Though thou sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death, yet praise him for the light of his Countenance. Whatsoever thy darkness be, put not out that candle, The light of his Countenance. Maintain that light, discern that light, and whatsoever thy darkness seemed, it shall prove to be but an over shadowing of the Holy Ghost. And so beloved, if you have sufficiently considered, first, our general easiness of falling into the Passive scandal, of being offended in others, by misinterpreting their proceedings, and then the general scandals which the world took at Christ, and his Gospel, The Philosophers, that it was an ignorant religion, (where you saw, That the learneder the adversary is, the sooner he is satisfied ) And the worldly and carnal man, that it was a dishonorable, an unpleasurable, an unprofitable Religion, (where you saw, that it were no Diminution to our Religion, if it were all that, but it is none of it) If you have also considered the particular passive scandal that Christ deprehended in those two Disciples of John, That they would do more then Christ practiced or prescribed, (where you saw also the distemper of those, that are derived from them, both those that think there are some sinners whom Christ cannot save, and those who think there are no sinners whom they cannot save, by their Supererogations ) And considered lastly, the way that Christ took, to devest these men of this offense, and passive scandal, which was to call them to the consideration of good works, and of the best works, which he that doth them, can do, (where you have also seen, that Christ makes that our best work, To preach the Gospel to the poor, both because the poor are destitute of other comforts, and because their very poverty hath soupled them, and mellowed them, and macerated, and matured, and disposed them, by corrections to instructions) If you have received all this, you have received all that we proposed for the first part the injunction, the precept, the way, Be not sandalized, be not offended in me. And now, that which I suspected at first, is fallen upon me, that is to thrust our other part into a narrow conclusiō, though it be blessedness it self, everlasting blessedness; so we must; so we shall; blessed is he, (there's the remuneration, the promise, the end) whosoever is not offended in me. Blessed.

The Heathen, who saw by the light of nature, that they could have no Being, if there were no God, (for it is from one of themselves, that Saint Paul says, in him we live, and move, and have our Being, and Genus cjus su • us, we are the offspring of God) saw also by the same light of nature, that they could have no well-being, if there were no Blessedness. And therefore, as the Heathen multiplied God's to themselves, so did they also multiply blessedness. They brought their Jupiter's to three hundred, says Varro; And from the same author, from Varro, does Saint Augustine collect almost three hundred several opinions of Blessedness. But, In multitudine nullitas, says Tertullian excellently; as where there are many God's, there is no God, so where there are many blessednesses imagined, there is no blessedness possessed. Not but that, as the Sun which moves only in his own Sphere in heaven, does yet cast down beams and influences into this world, so that blessedness which is truly, only in heaven, does also cast down beams and influences hither, and gild, and enamell, yea inanimate the blessings of God here, with the true name, the true nature of blessedness. For, though the vulgat edition do read that place, thus, Beatum dixerant populum, the world thought that people blessed that were so, that is, Temporally blessed, as though that were but an imaginary, and not a true blessedness; and howsoever it have seemed good to our Translators, to insert into that verse a discretive particle, a particle of difference, Yea, ( Blessed are the people that are so,) that is, Temporally blessed, Yea, blessed are the people whose God is the Lord, yet in truth, in the Original, there is no such discretive particle, no word of difference, no yea, in the text, but both the clauses of that verse are carried in one and the same tenor, Blessed are the people that are so, Blessed are the people whose God is the Lord; that is, that people whom the Lord hath blessed so, with Temporal blessings, is bound to believe those temporal blessings, to be seals and evidences to them that the Lord is their God. So then there is a Viatory, a preparatory, an initiatory, an inchoative blessedness in this life. What is that? All agree in this definition, that blessedness is that in quo quiescit animus, in which the mind, the heart, the desire of man hath settled, and rested, in which it found a Centricall reposednesse, an acquiescence, a contentment. Not that which might satisfy any particular man; for, so the object would be infinitely various; but that, beyond which no man could propose anything; And is there such ablessednesse in this life? There is. Fecisti nos Domine ad te, & inquietum est Cor nostrum, donec quiescat in te; Lord thou hast made us for thyself, and our heart cannot rest, till it get to thee. But can we come to God here? We cannot. Where's then our viatory, our preparatory, our initiatory, our in choative blessedness. Beloved, though we cannot come to God here, here God comes to us; Here, in the prayers of the Congregation God comes to us; here, in his Ordinance of Preaching, God delivers himself to us; here in the administration of his Sacraments, he seals, ratifies, confirms all unto us; And to rest in these his seals and means of reconciliation to him, this is not to be scandalised, not to be offended in him; and, not to be offended in him, not to suspect him or these means which he hath ordained, this is our viatory, our preparatory, our initiatory and inchoative Blessedness, beyond which, nothing can be proposed in this life. And therefore, as the Needle of a Sea-compass, though it shake long, yet will rest at last, and though it do not look directly, exactly to the North Pole, but have some variation, yet, for all that variation, will rest, so, though thy heart have some variations, some deviations, some aberrations from that direct point, upon which it should be bent, which is an absolute conformity of thy will to the will of God, yet, though thou lack something of that, afford thy soul rest: settle thy soul in such an infallibility, as this present condition can admit, and believe, that God receives glory as well in thy Repentance, as in thine Innocence, and that the mercy of God in Christ, is as good a pillow to rest thy soul upon after a sin, as the grace of God in Christ is a shield, and protection for thy soul, before. In a word, this is our viatory, our preparatory, our initiatory, and inchoative blessedness, beyond which there can be no blessedness proposed here, first to receive a satisfaction, an acquiescence, that there are certain and constant means ordained by Christ, for our reconciliation to God in him, in all cases, in which a Christian soul can be distressed, that such a treasure there is deposited by him, in the Church, And then, the testimony of a rectified Conscience, that thou hast sincerely applied those general helps to thy particular soul. Come so far, and then, as the Suburbs touch the City, and the Porch the Church, and deliver thee into it, so shall this Viatory, this preparatory, this initiatory and inchoative blessedness deliver thee over to the everlasting blessedness of the Kingdom of heaven. Of which everlasting blessedness, I would ask leave, not so much of you; (yet of you too, for with you, I would not be over-bold) but I would ask leave of the Angels of heaven, leave of the holy Ghost himself, to venture to say a little, of this everlasting blessedness: The tongues of Angels cannot, the tongues of the holy Ghost, the Authors of the books of Scripture have not told us, what this blessedness is; And what then shall we say, but this?

Blessedness itself, is God himself; our blessedness is our possession; our union with God. In what consists this? A great limb of the School with their Thomas, place this blessedness, this union with God, In vision, in this, That in heaven I shall see God, see God essentially, God face to face, God as he is. We do not see one another so, in this world; In this world we see but outsides; In heaven I shall see God, and God essentially. But then another great branch of the School, with their Scotus, place this blessedness, this union with God, in Amore, in this, that in heaven, I shall love God. Now love presumes knowledge; for, Amari nisi nota new possunt, we can love nothing, but that which we do, or think we do understand. There, in heaven, I shall know God, so, as that I shall be admitted, not only to an Adoration of God, to an admiration of God, to a prosternation, and reverence before God, but to an affection, to an office, of more familiarity towards God, of more equality with God, I shall love God. But even love it self, as noble a passion as it is, is but a pain, except we enjoy that we love; and therefore another branch of the School, with their Aureolus, place this blessedness, this union of our souls with God, in Gaudio, in our joy, that is, in our enjoying of God. In this world we enjoy nothing; enjoying presumes perpetuity; and here, all things are fluid, transitory: There I shall enjoy, and possess forever, God himself. But yet, everyone of these, to see God, or to love God, or to enjoy God, have seemed to some too narrow to comprehend this blessedness, beyond which, nothing can be proposed; and therefore another limb of the School, with their Bonaventure, place this blessedness in all these together. And truly, if any of those did exclude any of these, so, as that I might see God, and not love him, or love God, and not enjoy him, it could not well be called blessedness; but he that hath any one of these, hath everyone, all: And therefore the greatest part concur, and safely, In vision, That vision is beatification, to see God, as he is, is that blessedness.

There then, in heaven, I shall have continuitatem Intuendi; It is not only vision, but Intuition, not only a seeing, but a beholding, a contemplating of God, and that in Continuitate, I shall have an un-interrupted, an un-intermitted, an un-discontinued sight of God, I shall look, and never look off; not look, and look again, as here, but look, and look still, for that is, Continuitas intuendi. There my soul shall have Inconcussam qu • etem; we need owe Plato nothing; but we may thank Plato for this expression, if he meant so much by this Inconcussa quies, That in heaven my soul shall sleep, not only without trouble, and startling, but without rocking, without any other help, then that peace, which is in it self; My soul shall be thoroughly awake, and thoroughly asleep too; still busy, active, diligent, and yet still at rest. But the Apostle will exceed the Philosopher, St. Paul will exceed Plato, as he does when he says, I shall be unus spiritus cum Deo, I shall be still but the servant of my God, and yet I shall be the same spirit with that God. When? Dies quem tanquam supremum reformidas, aterni natalis est, says the Moral man's Oracle, Seneca. Our last day is our first day, our Saturday is our Sunday, our Eve is our Holyday, our sun-setting is our morning, the day of our death, is the first day of our eternal life. The next day after that, which is the day of judgment, Veniet dies, quae me mihi revelabit; comes that day that shall show me to myself; here I never saw myself, but in disguises: There, Then, I shall see myself, and see God too. Totam lucem, & Totus lux aspiciam; I shall see the whole light; Here I see some parts of the air enlightened by the Sun, but I do not see the whole light of the Sun; There I shall see God entirely, all God, totam lutem, and totus lax, I myself shall be all light to see that light by. Here, I have one faculty enlightened, and another left in darkness: mine uuderstanding sometimes cleared, my will, at the same time perverted. There, I shall be all light, no shadow upon me; my soul invested in the light of joy, and my body in the light of glory. How glorious is God, as he looks down upon us, through the Sun? How glorious in that glass of his? How glorious is God, as he looks out amongst us through the king? How glorious in that Image of his? How glorious is God, as he calls up our eyes to him, in the beauty, and splendor, and service of the Church? How glorious in that spoufe of his? But how glorious shall I conceive this light to be, cum sub loco viderim, when I shall see it, in his own place. In that Sphere, which though a Sphere, is a Center too; In that place, which, though a place, is all, and everywhere. I shall see it, in the face of that God, who is all face, all manifestration, all all Innotescence to me, (for, facies Deiest, qua Deus nobis innotescit, that's God's face to us, by which God manifests himself to us) I shall see this light in his face, who is all face, and yet all hand, all application, and communication, and delivery of all himself to all his Saints. This is Beatitudo in Auge, blessedness in the Meridionall height, blessedness in the South point, in a perpetual Summer solstice, beyond which nothing can be proposed, to see God so, Then, There. And yet the farmers of heaven and hell, the merchants of souls, the Roman Church, make this blessedness, but an under degree, but a kind of apprenticeship; after they have beatified, declared a man to be blessed in the fruition of God in heaven, if that man, in that inferior state do good service to that Church, that they see much profit will rise, by the devotion, and concurrence of men, to the worship; of that person, then they will proceed to a Canonization; and so, he that in his Novitiat, and years of probation was but blessed Ignatius, and blessed Xavier, is lately become Saint Xavier, and Saint Ignatius. And so they pervert the right order, and method, which is first to come to Sanctification, and then to Beatification, first to holiness, and then to blessedness. And in this method, our blessed God be pleased to proceed with us, by the operation of his holy Spirit, to bring us to Sanctification here, and by the merits and intercession of his glorious Son, to Beatification hereafter. That so not being offended in him, but resting in those means and seals, of reconciliation, which thou hast instituted in thy Church, we may have life, and life more abundantly, life of grace here, and life of glory there, in that kingdom, which thy Son, our Savior Christ Jesus hath purchased for us, with the inestimable price of his incorruptible blood. Amen.

SERMON XLV.

Preached at Saint Dunstans April 11. 1624. The first sermon in that Church, as Vicar thereof.

F Rom the beginning God intimated a detestation, a dislike of singularity; of being Alone. The first time that God himself is named in the Bible, in the first verse of Genesis, he is named plurally, Creavit Dit, God's, God's in the plural, Created Heaven and Earth. God, which is but one, would not appear, nor be presented so alone, but that he would also manifest more persons. As the Creator was not Singular, so neither were the creatures; First, he created heaven and earth; both together; which were to be the general parents, and out of which were to be produced all other creatures; and then, he made all those other creatures plurally too; Male, and female created he them; And when he came to make him, for whose sake (next to his own glory) he made the whole world, Adam, he left not Adam alone, but joined an Eve to him; Now, when they were married, we know, but we know not when they were divorced; we hear when Eve was made, but not when she died; The husbands death is recorded at last, the wives is not at all. So much detestation hath God himself, and so little memory would he have kept of any singularity, of being alone. The union of Christ to the whole Church is not expressed by any metaphor, by any figure, so oft in the Scripture, as by this of Marriage • and there is in that union with Christ to the whole Church, neither husband, nor wife can ever die; Christ is immortal as he is himself, and immortal, as he is the head of the Church, the Husband of that wife: for that wife, the Church is immortal too; for as a Prince is the same Prince, when he fights a battle, and when he triumphs after the victory: so the militant, and the triumphant Church is the same Church. There can be no widower, There can be no Dowager, in that case; He cannot, she cannot die. But then this Metaphor, this spiritual Marriage, holds not only between Christ and the whole Church, in which case thee can be no Widow, but in the union between Christ's particular Ministers, and particular Churches; and there, in that case, the husband of that wife may die; The present Minister may die, and so that Church be a Widow; And in that case, and for provision of such Widows, we consider the accommodation of this Law. If brethren dwell together, and one of them die, and have no child, the wife of the dead shall not mary without, unto a stranger, &c.

This law was but a permissive law; rather a dispensation, then a law: as the permitting of usury to be taken of strangers, and the permitting of divorces in so many cases, were. At most it was but a Judicial law, and therefore lays no obligation, upon any other nation, then them, to whom it was given, the Jews. And therefore we inquire not the reasons of that law, (the reasons were determined in that people ) we examine not the conveniences of the law; (the conveniences were determined in those times ) we lay hold only upon the Typique signification, and appliablenesse of the law, as that secular Marriage there spoken of, may be appliable to this spiritual Marriage, the Marriage of the Minister to the Church: If brethren dwell together, &c.

From these words then, we shall make our approaches, and application, to the present occasion, by these steps; First, there is a marriage, in the case. The taking, and leaving of a Church, is not an indifferent, an arbitrary thing; It is a Marriage, and Marriage implies, Honor: It is an honorable estate, and that implies charge, it is a burdensome state; There is Honos, and Onus, Honor, and labor, in Marriage; You must be content to afford the honor, we must be content to endure the labor. And so in that point, as our Incumbencie upon a Church, is our Marriage to that Church, we shall as far, as the occasion admits, see what marriage includes, and what it excludes; what it requires, what it forbids. It is a marriage, and a marriage after the death of another: If one die, says the Text; Howsoever the Roman Church in the exercise of their Tyranny, have forbidden Church-men to mary, then when they have orders, and forbidden orders to be given to any, who have formerly been married, if they married Widows, God is pleased here, to afford us, some intimation, some adumbration, a Typicall and exemplar knowledge of the lawfulness of such marriages, he maries after the death of a former husband; and then farther, a brother maries the wife of his deceased brother; Now into the reasons of the law, literally given, and literally accepted, we look not; It is enough, that God hath a care of the preservation of names and families and inheritances in those distinctions, and in those Tribes; where he laid them then; but for the accommodation of the law to our present application, it must be a brother, a spiritual brother, a professor of the same faith, that succeeds in this marriage, in this possession, and this government of that widow Church. It must be a brother, and Frater c • habitans, says our Text, a brother that dwelt together, with the former husband; he must be of the same household of the faithful, as well as profess the same faith; he must dwell in the house of God, not separate himself, or encourage others to do so, for matter of Ceremonies, and discipline; Idolaters must not, Separaists must not be admitted to these marriages, to these widow churches. And then it is a surrendering to a brother dead without children: In this spiritual procreation of children, we all die without children of our own; Though by our labors, when God blesses them, you become children, yet you are God's children, not ours; we nurse you by his word, but his Spirit begets you by the same word; we must not challenge to us, that which God only can do. And then being thus married to this widow, taking the charge of this Church, he must, says our text, perform the duty of a husbands brother. He must, it is a personal service, not to be done always by Proxy, and Delegates; He must; and he must perform; not begin well, and not persist, commence and not consummate, but perform the work, and perform the work, as it is a duty; It is a mere mercy in God, to send us to you, but it is a duty in us, to do that which we are sent for, by his Word, and his Sacraments, to establish you in his holy obedience, and his rich, and honorable service. And then our duty consists in both these, that we behave ourselves, as your husband, which implies a power, an authority; but a power and authority rooted in love, and exercised with love; and then that we do all as brothers to the former husband, that as one intentation of this law was, that inheritances, and temporal proprieties might be preserved, so our care might be through predecessor, and successor, and all, that all rights might be preserved to all men, that nothing not due, or due only in rigor, be extorted from the people, nothing that is in truth, or in equity due, be withheld from the Minister; but that the true right of people, and Pastor, and Patron be preserved, to the preservation of love, and peace, and good opinion of one another.

First then, that which we take upon us, is a Marriage. Amongst the Jews, it was almost an ignominious, an infamous thing, to die unmaried, at least to die without children, being married. Amongst the gentiles it was so too all well governed States ever enlarged themselves, in giving places of command and profit, to married men. Indeed such men are most properly said to keep this world in reparations, that provide a succession of children; and for the next world, though all that are borne into this world, do not enter into the number of God's Saints, in heaven, yet the Saints of heaven can be made out of no other materials, but men borne into this world. Every stone in the quarry is not sure to be employed in the building of the church, but the Church must be built out of those stones; and therefore they keep this world, they keep heaven it self in reparation, that mary in the fear of God, and in the same fear bring up the children of such a marriage. But I press not this too literally, nor over persuasively, that every man is bound to Mary; God is no accepter of persons, nor of conditions. But being to use these words in their figurative application, I say, every man is bound to marry himself to a profession, to a calling: God hath brought him from being nothing, by creating him, but he resolves himself into nothing again, if he take no calling upon him. In our Baptism we make our contract with God, that we will believe all those Articles there recited; there's our contract with hi • ; and then, pursuing this contract, in the other Sacrament, when we take his body and his blood, we are married to him. So at the same time, at our Baptism, we make a contract in the presence of God, and his congregation with the world; that we will forsake the covetous desires of the world, that is, the covetous proprieting of all things to ourselves, the covetous living only for ourselves, there's our contract with the world, that we will mutually assist, and serve our brethren in the world; and then, when we take particular callings, by which we are enabled to perform that former contract, then we are married to the world; so every man is duly contracted to the world, in Baptism, and lawfully married to the world in accepting a profession. And so this service of ours to the Church is our marriage.

Now in a Matrioniall state, there is onus and Honos, a burden to be born, an Honor to be received. The burden of the sins of the whole world, was a burden only for Christ's shoulders; but the sins of this Parish, willly upon my shoulders, if I be silent, or if I be indulgent, and denounce not God's Judgment upon those sins. It will be a burden to us, if we do not, and God knows it is a burden to us, when be do denounce those Judgments. Isaiah felt, and groaned under this burden, when he cried Onus Babylonis Onus Moab, and Onus Damasci, O the burden of Babylon, and the burden of Damscus, and so the other Prophets groan often under this burden, in contemplation of other places: It burdened, it troubled, it grieved the holy Prophets of God, that they must denounce God's judgments, though upon God's enemies. We read of a compassionate General, that looking upon his great Army, from a hill, fell into a bitter weeping, upon this consideration, that in fifty or sixty years hence, there will not be a man of these that fight now, alive upon the earth. What Sea could furnish mine eyes with tears enough, to pour out, if I should think, that of all this Congregation, which looks me in the face now, I should not meet one, at the Resurrection, at the right hand of God! And for so much as concerns me, it is all one, if none of you be saved, as if none of you be saved by my help, my means, my assistance, my preaching. If I put you upon miraculous ways, to be saved without hearing, or upon extraordinary ways to be saved by hearing others, this shall aggravate my condemnation, though you be saved: How much more heavy must my burden be, if by my negligence both I and you perish too? So then this calling, this marriage, is a burden every way. When at any midnight I hear a bell toll from this steeple, must not I say to myself, what have I done at any time for the instructing or rectifying of that man's Conscience, who lieth there now ready to deliver up his own account, and my account to Almighty God? If he be not able to make a good account, he and I are in danger, because I have not enabled him; and though he be for himself able, that delivers not me, if I have been no instrument for the doing of it. Many, many burdens lie upon this calling, upon this marriage; but our recompense is, that marriage is as well an honorable as a painful calling.

If be a Father, where is mine Honor, faith God: If you can answer God, why, you have it in your Prophets, They have it, that satisfieth him, that dischargeth you. For, he that receiveth them, receiveth him: But if Christ, who repeats that complaint, in every one of us, That a Prophet hath no honor in his own Country, that a Pastor is least respected of his own stock, you have not your Quctus est, for the honor due to God; God never discharges the honor due to him, if it be not paid into their hands, whom he sendeth for it, to them upon whom he hath directed it. Would the King believe that man, to honor him, that violateth his Image, or that calumniateth his Ambassador? Every man is the Image of God; every Creature is the Ambassador of God; The Heavens, (and as well as the Heavens, the Earth) declare the glory of God; but the Civil Magistrate, and the Spiritual Paster, who have married the two Daughters of God, The state and the Church, are the Images and Ambassadors of God, in a higher and more peculiar sense, and for that marriage are to be honored. And then Honor implieth that, by which Honor subsisteth, maintenance; and they which withdraw that injuriously, or with-hold that contentiously, dishonor God, in the dishonor of his servants, and so make this marriage, this calling only burdensome and not honorable.

So then the interest of your particular Minister, and the particular Church, being such as between Man and Wife, a marriage, we consider the uses of marriage in God's first intention, and apply them to this marriage. God's first intentions in marriage were two. In adjutorium, for mutual helpers, and in prolem, for procreation, and education of Children. For both these are we made Husbands of Churches; in prolem, to assist in the regeneration of Children, for the inheritance of Heaven; and in adjutorium, to be helpers to one another. And therefore if the husband, the Pastor, put the wife, his flock in a circumcision, to pare themselves to the quick, to take from their necessary means to sustain their families, to satisfy him; the wife will say as Zipporah said to Moses, spon • sus sanguinum, a bloody husband art thou, that exactest and extortest more then is due, In that case the Husband is no helper. But if we be always ready to help your children over the threshold, (as Saint Augustine calls Baptism, Limen Ecclesiae) always ready to Baptize the Children; if we be always ready to help you in all your spiritual diseases, to that Cordial, that Balsamum, the body and blood of Christ Jesus; If we be always ready to help you in all your bodily distresses, ready even at your last gasp to open your eyes then, when your best friends are ready to close them; ready to deliver your souls into the hands of God, when all the rest about you are ready to receive into their hands, that which you leave behind you, and then ready to lay up the garments of your souls, your bodies, in the wardrobe the grave, till you call for them, and put them on again, in the resurrection, then are we truly helpers, true husbands; and then if the Wife will say, as Job's wife to the husband, Curse God and die, be sorry, that thou hast taken this Profession upon thee, and live in penury, and die in poverty. In a word, if he press too much, if she withdraw too much, this frustrates God's purpose in making that a marriage; they are not mutual helpers to one another. These were God's two principal intentions in marriage, in adjutorium, in prolem. But then man's fall induced a third, in remedium, That for a remedy against burning, and to avoid fornication, every man should have his own wife, every woman her own husband. And so in remedium, for a remedy against spiritual fornication, of running after other men in other places, out of disaffection to their own Pastor, or over affecting another, God hath given every wife, her own husband, Every Church her own Pastor. And to all these purposes, our function is a marriage.

It is a marriage, it deserves the honor, it undertakes the burden of that state; and then it is a marriage of a widow, of a Church left in widow-hood by the death of her former husband. In the Law literally God forbad the High Priest to marry a widow. The Roman Church continues that literally, and more; they extend it; that which was in figure, enjoined to the High Priest only, they in fact extend to all Priests; no man that ever married a widow, may be a priest, though she be dead, when he desires orders. There is no question but there is a more exemplary sanctity required in the Priest, then in other persons, and more in those, who are in high places in the Church, then in those of inferior Jurisdictions, and the name and title of Virginity, hath ever been exhibited as an Emblem, as a Type of especial Sanctity. And as such the Apostle uses it when he saith, That he would present the Church of Corinth, as a chaste Virgin to Christ; That is, as chaste as a Virgin, though married, for so he saith in the words immediately before, That he had espoused them to a husband: As marriage is an honorable state, though in poverty, so is the bed undefiled with strange lust, a chaste bed even in marriage. And in the accommodation of the Figure to the present occasion, our marriage to several Churches, If we might marry no widows, (no Churches, which had been wives to former husbands) we should find few Virgins, that is, Churches newly erected for us. But when the wife of a former husband is left a widow, Nubat in Domino, saith the Apostle, In God's name let her marry.

But the former husband must be dead: The husbands absence makes not the wife a widow; nor doth the necessary, and lawful absence of the Pastor, make the Church vacant. The sickness of the husband makes not a widow; The bodily weakness nay the spiritual weakness of the Pastor in case that his parts and abilities, and faculties, be grown but weak, do not make his Church vacant. If the Pastor be suspended, or otherwise censured, this is but as a separation, or as a divorce; and as the wife is not a widow, upon a divorce, so neither is the Church vacant, upon such censures. And therefore for them that take advantages upon the weaknesses, or upon the disgrace, or upon the poverty of any such incumbent, and so insinuate themselves into his Church, this is intrusion, this is spiritual adultery, for the husband is not dead, though he be sick. Nay if they would remove him by way of preferment, yet that is a supplantation; when Jacob had Esau by the heel, whether he kept him in, till he might be strong enough to go out before him, or whether he pushed him out, before he would have gone, Jacob was a supplanter. Some few cases are put when a wife becomes as a widow, her husband living; but regularly it is by death. In some few cases, Churches may otherwise be vacant, but regularly it is by death. And then Esto vidua in Dom • Patris, saith Judah to Tamar, Remain a widow at thy fathers house: Then the Church remaineth in the house, in the hands of her Father, the Bishop of that Di • ces, till a new husband be lawfully tendered unto her: And till that time, as our Savior Christ recommended his most blessed Mother, to Saint John, but not as a wife, so that Bishop delivers that Church, to the care and administration of some other during her widowhood, till by due course she become the wife of another.

Thus our calling is a marriage; It should have honor; It must have labor; and it is a lawful marriage upon a just and equitable vacancy of the place, without any supplantation; upon death; And then it is upon death of a brother, If brethren dwell together, and one of them die, and have no child, the wife, &c. Aswell Saint Gregory, as Saint Augustine before, interpret this of our elder, our eldest brother Christ Jesus. That he being dead, we mary his wife, the Church, and become husbands to her. But Christ, in that capacity, as he is head of the Church, cannot die. That to which, the application of this law, leads us, is, That predecessor, and successor, be brethren of the same faith, and the same profession of faith. The Sadducees put a case to Christ of a woman married successively to seven men; let seven signify infinite; still those seven were brethren. How often soever any wife change her husband, any Church, her Pastor, God sends us still a succession of brethren, sincere, and unfeigned Preachers of the same truth, sons of the same father; Who is that father? God is our Father; Have we not all one Father, says the Prophet? Yes, we have, and so a worm, and we, are brethren, by the same father, and mother, the same God, the same Earth. Hath not the rain a father? The rain hath; and the same that we have. More narrowly, and yet very largely, Christ is our father; One of his names is, The everlasting Father; And then after these, after God, after Christ, the King is our father; See, my father, the skirt of thy robe, in my hand, says David to his King Saul; Now if any husband should be offered to any widow, any Pastor to any vacant Church, who were not our brother by all these fathers, in a right belief in God, the Father of all men, in a right profession of Christ Jesus, the Father of all Christians, in a right affection, and allegiance to the King, the Father of all Subjects, Any that should incline to a foreign father, an imaginary universal father, he of whom his Vice-fathers, his Junior fathers, the Jesuits (for all the Jesuits are Fathers ) says, That the Fathers of the Church are but sons, and not fathers, to him; They that say to a stock, to the Image of the beast) Thou art my father, who, (not in a sense of humiliation, as Job speaks the words) but of pride, say to corruption, Thou art my father, that is, that prostrate themselves to all the corruptions of a prostitute Church: If any so inclined of himself, or so inclinable if occasion should invite him, or rather tempt him, be offered for husband to any widow, for a Pastor to any vacant Church, he is not within the accommodation of this law, he is not our brother, by the whole blood, who hath not a brotherhood rooted in the same religion, and in the allegiance to the same Sovereign.

He must be a brother, and Frater Cohabitans, a brother dwelling with the former brother. As he is a brother, we consider the unity of faith: As he dwells in the same house, we consider the unity of discipline; That as he believes, and professes the same articles of faith, so by his own obedience, and by his instructing of others, he establish the same government; A Schismatic is no more a brother to this purpose, then an Heretic. If we look well, we shall see, that Christ provided better for his garments, then for his flesh; he suffered his flesh to be torn, but not his seamlesse garment. There may be, in many cases, more mischief, in disobeying the uniformity of the discipline of the Church then in mistaking in opinion, some doctrine of the Church. We see in God's institution of his first Church, whom he called brethren: Those who were instructed, and cunning in the songs of the Church, they are called brethren; To oppose the orders of the Church solemnly ordained, or customarily admitted, for the advancement of God's glory, and the devotion of the Congregation, forfeits this brotherhood, or at least discontinues the purpose and use of it; for, howsoever they may be in a kind, brothers, if they succeed in the profession of the same faith, yet we see where the blessedness is settled, Blessed are they that dwell in thy house; And we see, where the goodness, and the pleasantness is settled, Behold, how good, and how pleasant a thing it is, for brethren to dwell together in unity: So that, if they be not brothers in the same faith, and brothers in the same household of the faithful, and brothers in the same allegiance, If they advance not the truth of the Church, and the peace of the Church, and the head of the Church, fomentors of Error, and of Schism, and Sedition, are not husbands for these widows, Pastors for these Churches.

He must be a brother; A brother dwelling in the same house of Christ, and then brother to one dead without children, as Tertullian expresses it in his particular elegancy Illiberis; that is, content to be his brother, in that sense, in that capacity, to claim no children, no spiritual children of his own begetting; not to attribute to himself that holy generation of the Saints of God, as though his learning, or his wit, or his labor, had saved them; but to content himself to have been the foster father, and to have nursed those children, whom the Spirit of God, by over-shadowing the Church, hath begot upon her, for, though it be with the word of truth, in our preaching, yet of his own will begot he us, though by the word, says the Apostle. Saint Paul might say to the Corinthians, Though you have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the Gospel; And he might say of his spiritual son Onesimus, That he begot him in his bonds; Those, to whom he first of any presented the Gospel, That had not heard of a Christ, nor a holy Ghost, before, They, into whom, he infused a new religion, new to them, might well enough be called his children, and he their father; But we have no new doctrine to present, no new opinion to infuse, or miracles to amaze, as in the Roman Church, they are full of all these: we have no children to beget of our own: Paul was not crucified for you, nor were you baptized in the name of Paul, says Paul himself; as he says again, who is Paul? but a Minister by whom ye believed, and that also not by him, but as the Lord gave to every man; Not as Paul preached to every man, for he preached alike to every man; but as the Lord gave to every man; I have planted, says he, it is true, but he that planteth is nothing, says he also; Only they that proceed, as they proceed in the Roman Church Ex opere operato, to tie the grace of God, to the action of the man, will venter to call God's children, their children in that sense. My prayer shall be against that commination, That God will not give us a miscarrying womb, nor dry breasts; that you may always suck pure milk from us, and then not cast it up, but digest it, to your spiritual growth; And I shall call upon God with a holy passion, as vehement as Rachel's to Jacob, Da mihi liberos, give me children, or I die: That God would give me children, but his children; that he by his Spirit, may give you an inward regeneration, as I, by his ordinance shall present to you, the outward means, that so being begot by himself, the father of life, and of light, you may be nursed, and brought up, in his service by me. That so, not attributing the work to any man, but to God's Ordinances, you do not tie the power of God, nor the breath of life, to any one man's lips, as though there were no regeneration, no begetting, but by him; but acknowledging the other to be but an instrument, and the weakest to be that, you may remember also, That though a man can cut deeper with an Axe, then with a knife, with a heavy, then with a lighter instrument; yet God can pierce as far into a conscience, by a plain, as by an exquisite speaker.

Now this widow being thus married, This Church thus undertaken, He must perform the duty of a husbands brother: First, it is a personal office, he must do it himself. When Christ shall say, at the Judgment, I was naked, and ye clothed me not, sick, and ye visited me not, it shall be no excuse to say, When saw we thee naked, when saw we thee sick? for we might have seen it, we should have seen it. When we shall come to our accompt, and see them, whose salvation was committed to us, perish, because they were uninstructed, and ignorant, dare we say then, we never saw them, show their ignorance, we never heard of it? That is the greatest part of our fault, the heaviest weight upon our condemnation, that we saw so little, heard so little, conversed so little amongst them, because we were made watchmen, and bound to see, and bound to hear, and bound to be heard; not by others, but by our selves; My sheep may be saved by others; but I save them not, that are save so, nor shall I myself be saved by their labor, where mine was necessarily required.

The office is personal, I must do it, and it is perpetual, I must perform it, says the text, go through with it. Lots wife looked back, and God never gave her leave to look forward again. That man who hath put his hand to the plow, and looks back, Christ disables him for the kingdom of God. The Galatians who had begun in the spirit, and then relapsed, before whose eyes Christ Jesus had been evidently set forth, as the Apostle speaks, fall under that reproach of the Apostle, to be called, and called again, fools, and men bewitched. If I begin to preach, amongst you, and proceed not, I shall fall under that heavy increpation from my God, you began, that you might for your own glory, show that you were in some measure, able to serve the Church, and when you had done enough for your own glory, you gave over my glory, and the salvation of their souls, to whom I sent you. God hath set our eyes in our foreheads, to look forward, not backward, not to be proud of that which we have done, but diligent in that which we are to do. In the Creation, if God had given over his work, the third, or fifth day, where had man been? If I give over my prayers, due to the Church of God, as long as God enables me to do it service, I lose my thanks, nay, I lose the testimony of mine own conscience for all. My office is personal, and it is perpetual, and then it is a duty. He must perform the duty of a husbands brother unto her.

It is not of courtesy, that we preach, but it is a duty, it is not a bounty given, but it is a debt paid: for, though I preach the Gospel, I have nothing to glory of, for a necessity is laid upon me, says Saint Paul himself. It is true, that as there is Vae si non, Woe be unto me, if I do not preach the Gospel, so there is an Euge bone serve, Well done, good and faithful servant, to them that do. But the Vae, is of Justice, the Euge is of Mercy; If do it not, I deserve condemnation from God; but if, I do it, I deserve not thanks from him. Nay, it is a debt, not only to God, but to God's people, to you: and indeed there is more due to you, then you can claim, or can take knowledge of. For the people can claim but according to the laws of that State, and the Canons of that Church, in which God hath placed them; such preaching, as those Laws, and those Canons enjoin, is a debt which they can call for: but the Pastor himself hath another Court, another Barre in himself, by which he tries himself, and must condemn himself, if he pay not this debt, perform not this duty, as often, as himself, knows himself, to be fit, and able to do it.

It is a duty, and it is the duty of an husbands brother. Now the husband hath power, and authority over the wife. The head of the woman is the Man; and when the office of this spiritual husband is particularly expressed, thus, Reprove, Rebuke, Exhort, you see, for one word of familiarity, that is, Exhort, there are two of authority, Reprove, and Rebuke. But yet, all the authority of the husband, secular, or ecclesiastical, temporal, or spiritual husband, is grounded, rooted in love: for, the Apostle seems to delight himself, in the repeating of that Commandment, to the Ephesians, and to the Colossians, Husbands love your wives. Moses extends himself no farther, in expressing all the happiness, that Isaac and Rebecca enjoyed in one another, but this, she become his wife, and he loved her. If she had not been his wife, Moses would never have proposed that love for an example; for so it is also between Elkanah, and his wife Hannah. 1 Sam. 1. 5. Unto Hannah he gave a double portion, for (says the Text) he loved Hannah. If the Pastor love, there will be a double labor; if the People love, there will be double respect. But being so, he thought he said all, when he said they loved one another; For where the Congregation loves the Pastor, he will forbear bitter reproofs, and wounding increpations, and where the Pastor loves his Congregation, his Rebukes, because they proceed our of love, will be acceptable, and well interpreted by them.

It is a duty, and personal, and perpetual; a duty, of a husband, and lastly, of a husband that is brother to the former husband; In which last circumstance, we have time to mark but this one note, that the reason of that law, which drew the brother to this marriage, was the preservation of the temporal inheritance, in that family. Even in our spiritual marriages to widow Churches, we must have a care to preserve the temporal rights of all persons; That the Parish be not oppressed with heavy extortions, nor the Pastor defrauded with unjust subtraction, nor the Patron damnified by usurpations, nor the Ordinary neglected by disobediences; but that people, and Pastor, and Patron, and Ordinary, continuing in possession of their several rights, love being the root of all, the fruit of all may be peace, love being the soul of all, the body of all may be unity; which the Lord of unity, and concord, grant to us all, for his Son Christ Jesus sake, Amen.

SERMON XLVI.

The second Sermon Preached by the Author after he came to St. Dunstanes, 25 Apr. 1624.

T HE Text does not call children simply, literally, but such men, and women, as are willing to come in the simplicity of children; such children, as Christ spoke of, Except ye become as little children, ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of heaven; Come ye children come such children. Nor does the Text call such as come, and would fain be gone again; it is Come and Hearken; not such as wish themselves away, nor such as wish another man here; but such as value God's ordinance of Preaching, though it be, as the Apostle says, but the foolishness of Preaching, and such, as consider the office, and not the person, how mean soever; Come ye children; And, when ye are come, Hearken, And, though it be but I, Hearken unto me; And, I will teach you the fear of the Lord; the most noble, the most courageous, the most magnanimous, not affection, but virtue, in the world; Come ye children, Hearken unto me, and I will teach you the fear of the Lord.

To every Minister and Dispenser of the word of God, and to every Congregation belong these words; Divisio. And therefore we will divide the Text between us; To you one, to us appertains the other part. You must come, and you must hearken; we must teach, and teach to edification; There is the Meum & Tuum, your part, and our part. From each Part, these branches flow out naturally; In yours, first, the capacity, as children; Then the action, you Come; Then your Disposition here, you hearken; And lastly, your submission to God's Ordinance, you hearken even unto me, unto any Minister of his sending. In our Part, there is first a Teaching; for, else, why should you come, or hearken unto me, or any? It is a Teaching, it is not only a Praying; And then, there is a Catholic doctrine, a circular doctrine, that walks the round, and goes the compass of our whole lives, from our first, to our last childhood, when age hath made us children again, and it is the Art of Arts, the root, and fruit of all true wisdom, The true fear of the Lord. Come ye children, hearken unto me, and I will teach you the fear of the Lord.

First then, the word, in which, in the first branch of the first part, your capacity is expressed, filii, pueri, children, is, from the Original, which is Banim, often accepted in three notions, and so rendered; Three ways, men are called children, out of that word Ban • m, in the Scriptures. Either it is servi, servants; for, they are fili • familiares; as the Master is Pater familias, Father of the family, (and that he is, though there be no natural children in the family) the servants are children of the family, and are very often in Scriptures called so, Pueri, children; Or it is Alumni, Nurse-children, foster-children, filii m • mmillares, children of the breasts; whether we minister to them, temporal or spiritual nourishment, they are children; Or else it is filii viscerales, children of our bowels, our natural children. And in all these three capacities, as servants, as sucking children, as sons, are you called upon in this appellation, in this compellation, children.

First, as you are servants, you are children; for, without distinction of age, servants are called so, frequently, ordinarily, in the Scriptures, Pueri. The Priest asks David, before he would give him the holy bread, An vasa puerorum sancta, Whether those children, (speaking of David's followers) were clean from women; Here were children that were able to get children. Nay, David's Soldiers are often called so, pueri, children. In the first of the Kings, he takes a Muster, recenset pueros; Here were children that were able to kill men. You are his children, (of what age soever) as you are his servants; and in that capacity he calls you. You are unprofitable servants; but it is not an unprofitable service, to serve God; He can get nothing by you, but you can have nothing without him. The Centurions servants came, when he said, Come; and was their wages like yours? Had they their being, their ever-lasting well-being for their service? You will scarce receive a servant, that is come from another man, without testimony; If you put yourselves out of God's service, whither will ye go? In his service, and his only, is perfect freedom. And therefore as you love freedom, and liberty, be his servants; and call the freedom of the Gospel, the best freedom, and come to the Preaching of that.

He calls you children, as you are servants, ( filii familiares ) and he calls you children, as you are Alumni, nurse-children, filii mammillares, as he requires the humility, and simplicity of little children in you. For, Cum simplicibus sermocinatio ejus, (as the vulgat reads that place) God's secret discourse is with the single heart. The first that ever came to Christ, (so as he came to us, in blood ) they that came to him so, before he came so to us, that died for him, before he died for them, were such sucking children, those whom Herod slew. As Christ thought himself bound to thank his Father, for that way of proceeding, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast revealed these things unto babes; so Christ himself pursues the same way, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me, for of such is the Kingdom of heaven. Of such; not only of those who were truly, literally children, (children in age ) but of such as those, ( Talium est regnum coelorum ) such as come in such a disposition, in the humility, in the simplicity, in the singleness of heart, as children do. An habitual sinner is always in minority, always an Infant; an Infant to this purpose, All his acts, all the bands of an Infant, are void all the outward religious actions, even the band and contract of Baptism in an habitual sinner is void, and ineffectual. He that is in the house, and favor of God, though he be a child, (a child to this purpose, simple, supple, tractable, single-hearted) is, as Adam was in the state of Innocency, a man the first minute, able to stand upright in the sight of God. And out of one place of Isaiah, our Expositors have drawn, conveniently enough, both these conclusions; A child shall die 100 years old, says the Prophet; that is, (say some) a sinner though he live 100 years, yet he dies a child, in ignorance; And then, (say others, and both truly) He that comes willingly, when God calls, though he die a child in age, he hath the wisdom of 100 years upon him. There is not a graver thing, then to be such a child; to conform his will to the will of God. Whether you consider temporal or spiritual things, you are God's children. For, for temporal, if God should take off his hand, withdraw his hand of sustentation, all those things, which assist us temporally, would relapse to the first feeble, and childish estate, and come to their first nothing. Armies would be but Hospitals, without all strength; Council-tables but Bedlams, without all sense; and Schools and Universities, but the wrangling of children, if God, and his Spirit did not inanimate our Schools, and Armies, and Councils. His adoption makes us men, therefore, because it makes us his children. But we are his children in this consideration especially, as we are his spiritual children, as he hath nursed us, fed us with his word. In which sense, the Apostle speaks of those who had embraced the true Religion, (in the same words that the Prophet had spoken before) Behold, I, and the children that God hath given me; And in the same sense, the same Prophet, in the same place, says of them who had fallen away from the true Religion, They please themselves in the children of strangers, In those men, who have derived their Orders, and their Doctrine from a foreign Jurisdiction. In that State where Adoptions were so frequent, (in old Rome ) a Plebeian could not adopt a Patrician, a Yeoman could not adopt a Gentleman, nor a young man could not adopt an old. In the new Rome, that endeavors to adopt all, in an imaginary filliation, you that have the perfect freedom of God's service, be not adopted into the slavery, and bondage of men's traditions; you that are in possession of the ancient Religion, of Christ, and his Apostles, be not adopted into a younger Religion. Religio à religando; That is Religion, that binds; that binds, that is necessary to salvation. That which we affirm, our adversaries deny not; that which we profess, they confess was always necessary to salvation. They will not say, that all that they say now, was always necessary; That a man could not be saved without believing the Articles of the Council of Trent, a week before that Council shut up. You are his children, as children are servants; and, If he be your Lord, where is his fear? you are his children, as he hath nursed you, with the milk of his word; and if he be your Father so, (your foster Father ) where is his love?

But he is your Father otherwise; you are not only Filii familiares, children because servants, nor only Filii mammillares, children because noursed by him, but you are also Filii viscerales, children of his bowels. For, we are otherwise allied to Christ, then we can be to any of his instruments, though Angels of the Church, Prophets, or Apostles; and yet, his Apostle says, of one whom he loved, of Onesimus, Receive him, that is mine own bowels; my Son, says he, whom I have begotten in my hands. How much more art thou bound to receive and refresh those bowels from which thou art derived, Christ Jesus himself; Receive him, Refresh him. Carry that, which the wiseman hath said, Miserere animae tuae, be merciful to thine own soul, higher then so; and Miserere salvatoris tui, have mercy upon thine own Savior, put on the bowels of mercy, and put them on even towards Christ Jesus himself, who needs thy mercy, by being so tome, and mangled, and embowelled, by blasphemous oaths, and execrations. For, beloved, it is not so absurd a prayer, as it is conceived, if Luther did say upon his death bed, Oremus pro Domino nostro Jesus Christo, Let us pray for out Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Had we not need pray for him? If he complain that Saul persecutes him, had we not need pray for him? It is a seditious affection in civil things, to divide the King and the kingdom; to pray, to fight for the one, and leave out the other, is seditiously done. If the kingdom of Christ need thy prayers, and thy assistance, Christ needs it; If the Body need it, the Head needs it; If thou must pray for his Gospel, thou must pray for him; Nay, thou canst not pray for thyself, but thou must pray for him, for, thou art his bowels; when thou in thy forefathers, the first Christians in the Primitive Church, wast persecuted, Christ cried out, why persecutest thou me? Christ made thy case his, because thou wast of his bowels. When Christ is disseised, and dispossessed, his truth profligated, and thrown out of a nation, that professed it before, when Christ is wounded by the blasphemies of others, and crucified by thee, in thy relapses to repented sins, wilt thou not say to Them, to Thy self, in the behalf of Christ, why persecute ye me? Wilt thou not make Christ's case thine, as he made thine his? Art not thou the bowels of Christ? If not, (and thou art not, if thou have not this sense of his suffering ) thou hast no interest in his death, by thy Baptism, nor in his Resurrection, by thy feeble half repentances. But in the duty of a child, as thou art a servant, in the simplicity of a child, as thou hast sucked from him, in the interest and inheritance of a child, as thou art the Son of his bowels, in all these capacities, (and with all these we have done) God calls thee, come ye children; and that is our next step, the Action, Come.

Passing thus from the Persons to the action, Venite, Come, we must ask first, what this coming is? The whole mystery of our redemption is expressed by the Apostle in this word, venit, that Christ Jesus is come into the world. All that thou hast to do, is to come to, and to meet him. Where is he? At home; in his own house, in the Church. Which is his house, which is his Church? That to thee, in which he hath given thee thy Baptism, if that do still afford thee, as much as is necessary for thy salvation. Come thither, to the participation of his ordinances, to the exercises of Religion there. The gates of heaven shall be opened to you, at last in that word, Venite benedicti, come ye blessed, the way to those gates is opened to you now, in the same word, Venite filii, come ye children, come. Christ can come, and does often, into thy bed-chamber, in the visitation of his private Spirit, but, here, he calls thee out into the congregation, into the communion of Saints. And then the Church celebrates Christ's coming in the flesh, a month before he comes, in four Sundays of Advent, before Christmas. When thou comest to meet him in the Congregation, come not occasionally, come not casually, not indifferently, not collaterally; come not as to an entertainment, a show, a spectacle, or company, come solemly, with preparation, with meditation. He shall have the less profit, by the prayer of the Congregation, that hath not been at his private prayer before he came. Much of the mystery of our Religion lay in the venturus, that Christ was to come, all that the law and Prophets undertook for, was that venturus, that Christ was to come; but the consummation of all, the end of the law and the Prophets, is in the venit, he is come. Do not clog thy coming with future conditions, and contingencies, thou wilt come, if thou canst wake, if thou canst rise, if thou canst be ready, if thou like the company, the weather, the man. We find one man who was brought in his bed to Christ; but it was but one. Come, come actually, come earnestly, come early, come often; and come to meet him, Christ Jesus and nobody else. Christ is come into the world; and therefore thou needest not go out of the world to meet him; He doth not call thee from thy Calling, but in thy Calling. The Dove went up and down, from the Ark, and to the Ark, and yet was not disappointed of her Oliveleafe, Thou mayest come to this place at due times, and mayest do the businesses of the world, in other places too, and still keep thy Olive, thy peace of Conscience. If no Heretical recusancy, (thou dost like the Doctrine ) no schismatical recusancy, (thou dost like the Discipline ) no lazy recusancy, (thou forbearest not because thou canst not sit at thine ease) no proud recusancie, (that the company is not good enough for thee) if none of these detain thee, thou mayest be here, even when thou art not here; God may accept thy desire, as, in many cases, thou mayest be away, when thou art here; as, in particular thou art, if being here, thou do not hearken to that which is said here; for that is added to the coming, and follows in a third consideration, after the capacity, Children, and the Action, Come, The disposition, Hearken: Come ye children & hearken.

Upon those words of David, Conturbata sunt ossa mea. St. Basil faith well, Habet & anima ossa sua, The soul hath bones as well as the body. And in this Anatomy, and dissection of the soul, as the bones of the soul, are the constant and strong resolutions thereof, and as the seeing of the soul is understanding (The eyes of your understanding being opened ) so the Hearing of the soul is hearkening in these religious exercises, we do not htar, except we hearken; for hearkening is the hearing of the soul. Some men draw some reasons, out of some stories of some credit, to imprint a belief of ecstacy, and raptures; That the body remaining upon the floor, or in the bed, the soul may be gone out to the contemplation of heavenly things. But it were a strange and a perverse ecstacy, that the body being here, at a religious exercise, and in a religious posture, the soul should be gone out to the contemplation, and pursuit of the pleasures or profits of this world. You come hither but to your own funerals, if you bring nothing hither but your bodies; you come but to be enterred, to be laid in the earth, if the ends of your coming be earthly respects, praise, and opinion, and observation of men, you come to be Canonized, to grow Saints, if your souls be here, and by grace here always diffused, grow up to a sanctification. Bonus es Domine animae quaerenti te, Thou art good, O Lord, to that soul that seeks thee; It is St. Augustine's note, that it is put in the singular, Animae, to that soul: Though many come, few come to him. A man may thread Sermons by half dozens a day, and place his merit in the mumber, a man may have been all day in the perfume and incense of preaching, and yet have received none of the savor of life unto life. Some things an Ape can do as well as a Man; some things an Hypocrite as well as a Saint. We cannot see now, whether thy soul be here now, or no; but, to morrow, hereafter, in the course of thy life, they which are near thee, & know whether thy former faults be mended, or no, know whether thy soul use to be at Sermons, as well as thy body uses to go to Sermons. Faith comes by hearing, saith the Apostle; but it is by that hearing of the soul, Hearkening, Considering. And then, as the soul is infused by God, but diffused over the whole body, & so there is a Man, so Faith is infused from God, but diffused into our works, and so there is a Saint. Practice is the Incarnation of Faith, Faith is incorporated and manifested in a body, by works; and the way to both, is that Hearing, which amounts to this Hearkening, to a diligent, to a considerate, to a profitable Hearing. In which, one essential circumstance is, that we be not over affectionately transported with an opinion of any one person, but apply ourselves to the Ordinance, Come, and hearken unto me, To any whom God sends with the Seal and Character of his Minister, which is our fourth and last branch in your part.

David doth not determine this in his own person, that you should hearken to him, and none but him, but that you should hearken to him in that capacity and qualification, which is common to him with others, as we are sent by God upon that Ministry; Me. that you say to all such, Blessed art thou that comest in the Name of the Lord. St. Augustine, and not he alone, interprets this whole Psalm of Christ, that it is a thanksgiving of Christ to his Father, upon some deliverance received in some of his Agonies, some of his persecutions; and that Christ calleth us to hearken unto him. To him, so, as he is present with us, in the Ministry of his Church, He is a perverse servant, that will receive no commandment, except he have it immediately from his Masters mouth; so is he too, that pretendeth to rest so wholly in the Word of God, the Scriptures, as that he seeks no interpretation, no exposition, no preaching, All is in the Scriptures, but all the Scriptures are not always evident to all understandings. He also is a perverse servant, that will receive no commandment by any Officer of his Masters, except he like the man, or, if his Master might, in his opinion, have chosen a fitter man, to serve in that place. And such a perverseness is in those hearers who more respect the man, then the Ministry, and his manner of delivering it, then the message that he delivers. Let a man so account of us, as of the Ministers of Christ, and Stewards of the mysteries of God. That is our Classis, our rank, our station, what names soever we brought into the world by our extraction from this or that family, what name soever we took in our baptism, and contract between God and us, that name, in which we come to you, is that, The Ministers of Christ, The Stewards of the Mysteries of God, And so let men account of us, says the Apostle. Invention, and Disposition, and Art, and Eloquence, and Expression, and Elocution, and reading, and writing, and printing, are secondary things, accessory things, auxiliary, subsidiary things; men may account us, and make account of us, as Orators in the pulpit, and of Authors, in the shop; but if they account of us as of Ministers and Stewards, they give us our due; that's our name to you. All the Evangelists mention John the Baptist and his preaching; but two of the four say never a word of his austerity of life, his Locusts, nor his Camels hair; and those two that do, Matthew and Mark, they insist, first, upon his calling, and then upon his actual preaching, how he pursued that Calling, And then upon the Doctrine that he preached, Repentance, and Sanctification, and after that, they come to these secondary and subsidiary things, which added to his estimation, and assisted the passage of his Doctrine, His good life. Learning, and other good parts, and an exemplar life fall into second places; They have a first place, in their consideration who are to call them, but in you, to whom they are sent, but a second; fixe you, in the first place, upon the Calling. This Calling circumcised Moses uncircumcised lips; This made Jeremiah able to speak, though he called himself a child; This is Esays coal from the Altar, which takes away even his sin, and his iniquity. Be therefore content to pass over some infirmities, and rest yourselves upon the Calling. And when you have thus taken the simplicity of Children, (they are the persons, which was our first step) and are come to the Congregation, (that is your Action, and was our second) and have conformed your selves to hearken, (that also is the Disposition here, which was our third) And all this with a reverence to the Calling before an affection to the man, (that is your submission to God's Ordinance, and was our fourth and last step) you have then built up our first part in your selves, & laid together all those pieces which constitute your Duty, Come ye Children, and hearken unto me; And from hence we pass, to our duty, I will teach you the fear of the Lord.