Fifty Sermons

SERMON X.

Preached at the Churching of the Countess of Bridgewater.

T Hus far we have proceeded in the first acceptation of these words, according to their principal, and literal sense, as they appertain'd to the Jews, and their sta • e; so they were a Commination; As they appertain to all succeeding Ages, and to us, so they are a Commonition, an alarm, to raise us from the sleep, and death of sin: And then in a third acceptation, they are a Consolation, that at last we shall have a rising, and a departing into such a state, in the Resurrection, as we shall no more need this voice, Arise, and depart, because we shall be no more in danger of falling, no more in danger of departing from the presence, and contemplation; and service, and fruition of God; And in both these latter senses, the words admit a just accommodation to this present occasion, God having raised his honorable servant, and hand-maid here present, to a sense of the Curse, that lies upon women, for the transgression of the first woman, which is painful, and dangerous Child-birth; and given her also, a sense of the last glorious resurrection, in having raised her, from that Bed of weakness, to the ability of coming into his presence, here in his house.

First then to consider them, in the first of these two latter senses, as a Commonition to them, that are in the state of sin, first there is an increpation implied in this word Arise; when we are bid arise, we are told, that we are fallen: sin is an unworthy descent, and an ignoble fall; Secondly, we are bid to do something, and therefore we are able to do something, God commands nothing impossible so, as that that degree of performance, which he will accept, should be impossible, to the man, whom his grace hath affected; That which God will accept, is possible to the godly; And thirdly, that which he commands here, is derived into two branches; We are bidden to rise • that is, to leave our bed, our habit of sin; and then not to be idle, when we are up, but to depart; not only to depart from the Custom • , but from temptations of Recidi • ation; and not only that but to depart into another way, a habit of Actions, contrary to our former Sins. And then, all this is pressed, and urged upon us, by a Reason; The Holy Ghost appears not like a ghost in one sudden glance, or glimmering, but he testifies his presence, and he presses the business, that he comes for; And the reason that he uses here, is, Quia non requies, because otherwise we lose the Pondus animae, the weight, the ballast of our soul, rest, and peace of Conscience: for how • ever there may be some rest, some such show of Rest, as may serve a carnal man a little while, yet, says our Text, it is not your Rest, it conduces not to that Rest, which God hath ordained for you, whom he would direct to a better Rest. That Rest, (your Rest) is not here; not in that, which is spoken of here; not in your lying still, you must rise from it; not in your standing still, you must depart from it; your Rest is not here: but yet, since God sends us away, because our Rest is not here, he does tacitly direct • s thereby, where there is Rest; And that will be the third acceptation of these words; to which we shall come anon.

For that then, which rises first; the increpation of our fall implied in the word, Arise, there is nothing, in which, that which is the mother of all virtues, discretion, is more tried, then in the conveying, and imprinting profitably a rebuke, an increpation, a knowledge, and sense of sin, in the conscience of another. The rebuke of sin, is like the fishing of Whales; the Mark is great enough; one can scarce miss hitting; but if there be not sea room and line enough, & a dexterity in letting out that line, he that hath fixed his harping Iron, in the Whale, endangers himself, and his boat; God hath made us fishers of Men; and when we have struck a Whale, touched the conscience of any person, which thought himself above rebuke, and increpation, it struggles, and strives, and as much as it can, endeavors to draw fishers, and boat, the Man and his fortune into contempt, and danger. But if God tie a sickness, or any other calamity, to the end of the line, that will wind up this Whale again, to the boat, bring back this rebellious sinner better advised, to the mouth of the Minister, for more counsel, and to a better souplenesse, and inclinablenesse to conform himself, to that which he shall after receive from him; only calamity makes way for a rebuke to enter. There was such a tenderness, amongst the orators, which were used to speak in the presence of the people, to the Roman Emperors, (which was a way of Civil preaching ) that they durst not tell them then their duties, nor instruct them, what they should do, any other way then by saying, that they had done so before; They had no way to make the Prince wise, and just, and temperate, but by a false praising him, for his former acts of wisdom, and justice, and temperance, which he had never done; and that served to make the people believe, that the Princes were so; and it served to teach the Prince, that he ought to be so. And so, though this were an express, and a direct flattery, yet it was a collateral increpation too; And on the other side, our later times have seen, another art, another invention, another workmanship, that when a great person hath so abused the favor of his Prince, that he hath grown subject to great, and weighty increpations, his own friends have made Libells against him, thereby to lay some light aspersions upon him, that the Prince might think, that this coming with the malice of a Libell, was the worst that could be said of him: and so, as the first way to the Emperors, though it were a direct flattery, yet it was a collater all Increpation too, so this way, though it were a direct increpation, yet it was a collater all flattery too. If I should say of such a congregation as this, with acclamations and shows of much joy, Blessed company, holy congregation, in which there is no pride at all, no vanity at all, no prevarication at all, I could be thought in that, but to convey an increpation, and a rebuke mannerly, in a wish that it were so altogether. If I should say of such a congregation as this, with exclamations and show of much bitterness, that they were sometimes somewhat too worldly in their own business, sometimes somewhat too remiss, in the businesses of the next world, and add no more to it, this were but as a plot, and a faint libelling, a publishing of small sins to keep greater from being talked of: slight increpations are but as whisperings, and work no farther, but to bring men to say, Tush, no body hears it, nobody heeds it, we are never the worse, nor never the worse thought of for all that he says. And loud and bitter increpations, are as a trumpet, and work no otherwise, but to bring them to say, Since he hath published all to the world already, since all the world knows of it, the shame is past, and we may go forward in our ways again: Is there then no way to convey an increpation profitably? David could find no way; Vidi praevaricatores & tabescebam, says he, I saw the transgressors, but I languished and consumed away with grief, because they would not keep the law; he could not mend them, and so impaired himself with his compassion: but God hath provided a way here, to convey, to imprint this increpation, this rebuke, sweetly, and successfully; that is, by way of counsel: by bidding them arise, he chides them them for falling, by presenting the exaltation and exultation of a peaceful conscience, he brings them to a foresight, to what miserable distractions, and distortions of the soul, a habit of sin will bring them to. If you will take knowledge of God's fearful judgments no other way, but by hearing his mercies preached, his Mercy is new every morning, and his dew falls every evening; and morning, and evening we will preach his mercies unto you. If you will believe a hell no other way, but by hearing the joys of heaven presented to you, you shall hear enough of that; we will receive you in the morning, and dismiss you in the evening, in a religious assurance, in a present inchoation of the joys of heaven. It is God's way, and we are willing to pursue it; to show you that you are Enemies to Christ, we pray you in Christ's stead, that you would be reconciled to him: to show you, that you are fallen, we pray you to arise, and si audieritis, if you hear us so, if any way, any means, convey this rebuke, this sense into you, Si audieritis, lucrati sumus fratrem, If you hear, we have gained a brother; and that's the richest gain, that we can get, if you may get salvation by us.

God's rebukes and increpations then are sweet, and gentle, to the binding up, not to the scattering of a Conscience; And the particular Rebuke in this place, conveyed by way of counsel, is, That they were fallen; and worse could not be said, how mild, and easy soever the word be. The ruin of the Angels in heaven, the ruin of Adam in Paradise, is still called by that word, it is but the fall of Angels, and the fall of Adam; and yet this fall of Adam cost the blood of Christ, and this blood of Christ, did not rectify the Angels after their fall. Inter objectos, objectissimus peccator; amongst them that are fallen, he falls lowest, that continues in sin: for (says the same Father,) Man is a king in his Creation; he hath that Commission, Subjicite, & dominamini; the world, and himself, (which is a less world, but a greater dominion) are within his Jurisdiction; and then servilly, he submits himself, and all, to that, Qua nihil magis barbarum, then which nothing is more tyrannous, more barbarous. All persons have naturally, all Nations ever had, a detestation of falling into their hands who were more barbarous, more uncivil then themselves, & peccato nihil magis barbarum; (says that Father) sin doth not govern us by a rule, by a Law, but tyrannically, impetuously, and tempestuously; It hath been said of Rome, Romae regulariter male agitur; There a man may know the price of a sin, before he do it; and he knows what his dispensation will cost; whether he be able to sin at that rate, whether he have wherewithal, that if not, he may take a cheap sin. Thou canst never say that of thy soul, Intus regulariter male agitur; Thou canst never promise thyself to sin safely, and so to elude the Law, for the Law is in thy heart; nor to sin wisely, and so to escape witnesses, for the testimony is in thy Conscience; nor to sin providently, and thriftily, and cheaply, and compound for the penalty, and stall the fine, for thy soul, that is the price, is indivisible, and perishes entirely, and eternally at one payment, and yet ten thousand thousand times over and over. Thou canst not say: Thou wilt sin, that sin, and no more; or so far in that sin, and no farther; If thou fall from an high place, thou mayest fall through thick clouds, and through moist clouds, but yet through nothing that can sustain thee, but thou fall'st to the earth; If thou fall from the grace of God, thou mayest pass through dark Clouds, oppression of heart, and through moist Clouds, some compunction, some remorsefull tears; but yet, (of thyself) thou hast nothing to take hold of, till thou come to that bottom, which will embrace thee cruelly, to the bottomless bottom of Hell it self. Our dignity, and our greatest height, is in our interest in God, and in the world, and in ourselves; and we fall from all, either non utend • , or abutendo; either by neglecting God, or by over-valuing the world; our greatest • all of all is, into Idolatry; and yet Idolatry is an ordinary fall; for tot habemus Deas recentes, quot habemus vitia, As many habitual sins as we embrace, so many Idols we worship; If all sins could not be called so, Idols, yet for those sins, which possess us most ordinarily, and most strongly, we have good warrant to call them so; which sins are Licentiousness in our youth, and Cov • tousnesse in our age, and voluptuousness in our middle time. For, for Licentiousness, Idolatry, and that, are so often called by one another's names in the Scriptures, as many times we cannot tell, when the Propehts mean spiritual Adultery, and when Carnal; when they mean Idolatry, and when Fornication. For Covetousness, that is expressly called Idolatry by the Apostle: and so is voluptuousness too, in those men, whose belly is their God. We fall then into that desperate precipitation of Idolatry, by 〈◊〉 , when by fornication, we profane the temple of the Holy Ghost, and make even his temple, our bodies, a Stews: And we fall into Idolatry by Covetousness, when we come to be, tam putidi minutíque animi, of so narrow, and contracted a soul; and of so sick, and dead, and buried, and putrefied a soul, as to lock up our soul, in a Cabinet where we lock up our money, to ty our soul in the corner of a handkerchief, where we ty our money, to imprison our soul, in the imprisonment of those things, Quae te ad gloriam •• bvectur • e, the dispensation, and distribution whereof, would carry thy soul to eternal glory. And when by our voluptuousness, we raise the prices of necessary things, Et eorum vulnera, qui à Deo flagris caeduntur, adangemus; and thereby scourge them with deeper lashes of famine, whom God hath scourged with poverty before, we fall into Idolatry by voluptuousness; Numismatis inscriptiones inspicuis, & non Christi in sratre, thou takest a pleasure, to look upon the figures, and Images of Kings in their several coyns; and thou despisest thine own Image in thy poor brother, and God's Image in thy ruinous, and defaced soul, and in his Temple, thy body, demolished by thy Licentiousness, and by all these Idolatries. This is the fall, when we fall so far into those sins, which have naturally a tyranny in them, and that that sin becomes an Idol to us; which fall of ours, God intimates unto us, and rebukes us for, by so mild a way, as to bid us rise from it.

Now when God bids us rise, as the Apostle says, Be not deceived, Non irridetur Deus, God cannot be mocked by any man, so we may boldly say, Be not afraid, Non irridet Deus; God mocks no man; God comes not to a miserable bedrid man, as a man would come in scorn to a prisoner, and bid him shake off his fetters, or to a man in a Consumption, and bid him grow strong; when God bids us arise, he tells us, we are able to rise; God bad Moses go to Pharaoh; Moses said he was Incircumcisus labiis, heavy, and slow of tongue; but he did not deny, but he had a tongue: God bade him go, and I will be with thy mouth, says he; He does not say, I will be thy mouth; but, thou hast a mouth, and I will be with thy Mouth. It was God's presence, that made that mouth serviceable, and useful, but it was Moses mouth; Moses had a mouth of his own; we have faculties, and powers of our own, to be employed in God's service. So when God employed Jeremiah, the Prophet says, O Lord God, behold, I cannot speak, for I am a child; but God replies, say not thou, I am a child; for whatsoever I command thee, thou shalt speak: When God bids thee rise from thy sin, say not thou it is too late, or that thou art bedrid in the custom of thy sin, and so canst not rise; when he bids thee rise, he enables thee to rise; and thou mayest rise, by the power of that will which only his mercy, and his grace, hath created in thee; for as God conveys a rebuke in that counsel, Surgite, arise, so he conveys a power in it too; when he bids thee rise, he enables thee to rise.

That which we are to do then, is to rise; to leave our bed, our sleep of Sin. Saint Augustine takes knowledge of three ways, by which he escaped sins; first, occasionis substractione; and that's the safest way, not to come within distance of a temptation; secondly, resistendi data virtute, That the love, and the fear of God, imprinted in him, made him strong enough for the sin; Can I love God, and love this person thus? thus, that my love to it, should draw away my love from God? Can I fear God, and fear any Man, (who can have power but over my body) so, as for fear of him, to renounce my God, or the truth, or my Religion? Or affectionis sanitate, that his affections, had, by a good diet, by a continual feeding upon the Contemplation of God, such a degree of health, and good temper, as that some sins he did naturally detest, and, though he had not wanted opportunity, and had wanted particular grace, yet he had been safe enough from them. But, for this help, this detestation, of some particular sins, that will not hold out; We have seen men infinitely prodigal grow infinitely Covetous at last. For the other way, (the assistance of particular grace) that we must not presume upon; for, he that opens himself to a temptation, upon presumption of grace to preserve him, forfaits by that, even that grace, which he had. And therefore there is no safe way, but occasionis substractio, the forbearing of those places, and that Conversation, which ministers occasion of temptation to us. First therefore, let us find, that we are in our bed, that we are naturally unable to rise; We are not born Noble: Saint Paul considers himself, and his birth, and his Title to grace, at best; That he was a Jew, and of the Tribe of Benjamin, and of holy parents, and within the Covenant; yet all this raised him not out of his bed, for, says he, we were by nature the Children of wrath, as well as others. But where then was the rising? that is, in the true receiving of Christ. To as many as received him, he gave, Potestatem praerogativae, to be the sons of God; yea, power to become the sons of God, as it is in our last Translation. Christianus non de Christiano nascitur, nec facit generatio, sed regeneratio Christianum; A Christian Mother does not conceive a Christian; only the Christian Church conceives Christian Children. Judaeus circumcisus generat filium incircumcisum, A Jew is circumcised, but his child is born uncircumcised: The Parents may be up, and ready, but their issue abed, and in their blood, till Baptism have washed them, and till the spirit of Regeneration have raised them, from that bed, which the sins of their first Parents have laid them in, and their own continuing sins continued them in. This rising is first, from Original sin, by baptism, and then from actual sin, best, by withdrawing from the occasions of temptation to future sins, after repentance of former.

But it is not, Arise, and stand still: But Surgite, & ite, arise, and depart; But whither? Into actions, contrary to those sinful actions, and habits contrary to those habits. Let him that is righteous, be righteous still, and him that is holy, be holy still; and that cannot be, without this; for it is but a small degree of Convalescence, and reparation of health, to be able to rise out of our bed, to be able to forbear sin: Qui febri laborat, post morbum infirmior est; though the fever be off, we are weak after it; though we have left a sin, there is a weakness upon us, that makes us reel, and lean towards that bed, at every turn; decline towards that sin, upon every occasion. And therefore according to that example, and pattern, of God's proceeding at the creation, who first made all, and then digested, and then perfected them; Primo faciamus, deinde venustemus, says Saint Ambrose; first let us make us up a good body, a good habitude, a good constitution, by leaving our beds, our occasions of temptations; and then venustemus, let us dress ourselves, adorn ourselves, yea, arm ourselves, with the whole armor of God, which is faith in Christ Jesus, and a holy and sanctified conversation. Memento peregisse te aliquid, restare aliquid: Remember, (and do not deceive thyself, to remember that, which was never done) but remember truly, that thou hast done something, towards making sure thy salvation already, and that thou hast much more to do; Divertisse te ad Refectionem, non ad defectionem, that God hath given thee a baiting place, a resting place; peace in conscience, for all thy past sins, in thy present repentance; but it is, to refresh thyself with that peace; it is not to take new courage, and strength to sin again. Let not the ease which thou hast found in the remission of sins now embolden thee to commit them again; not to trust to that strength which thou hast already recovered; but arise and depart; avoid old temptations, and apply thyself to a new course in the world, and in a calling; for there may be as much sin, to leave the world, as to cleave to the world: and he may be as inexcusable at the last day, that hath done Nothing in the world, as he that hath done some ill.

Now, we noted it to be a particular degree of God's mercy, that he insisted upon it, that he pressed it, that he urged it with a reason; do thus, says God, for, it stands thus with you. It is always a boldness, to ask a reason of those decrees of God, which were founded, and established only in his own gracious will, and pleasure; In those cases, Exitiales vaculae, our & quomodo; to ask, why God elected some, and how it can consist with his goodness, to leave out others there the how, and why are dangerous, and deadly Monosyllables. But of God's particular purposes upon us, and revealed to us, which are so to be wrought and executed upon us, as that we ourselves have a fellow-working, and co-operation with God, of those, it becomes us to ask, and to know the reason. When the Angel Gabriel promised such unexpected blessings to Zacharias, Zacharias asks, whereby shall I know this? and the Angel does not leave him unsatisfied. When that Angel promises a greater miracle to the blessed Virgin Mary, she says also, Quomodo, how shall this be? and the Angel settles, and establishes the assurance in her: Whatsoever we are bid to believe, whatsoever we are bid to do, God affords us a reason for it, and we may try it by reason, but because that sinner, whom in this text, he speaks to, to arise and depart, is likely to stand upon false reasons, against his rising, to murmur, and ask Cur or quomodo, why should I arise, since me thinks I lie at my ease, how shall I arise, that am already at the top of my wishes? God who is loath to lose any soul, that he undertakes, follows him with this reason. Quia non requies, Arise, and depart, for here is not your rest.

Now this rest, is in it self, so grateful, so acceptable a thing, as all the service, which David, and Solomon, could express towards God, in the dedication of the Temple, (which was then in intention, and project) is described in that phrase, Arise O Lord, and come into thy rest, thou and the Ark of thy strength; God himself hath a Sabbath, in our Sabbaths; It is welcome to God, and it is so welcome to Man, as that Saint Augustine preaching upon those words, Qui posuit fines tuos pacem, He maneth peace in thy borders, (as we translate it) he observed such a passion, such an alteration in his auditory, as that he took knowledge of it in his Sermon; Nihil dixeram, nihil exposuerans, verbum pronunciavi & exclamastis, says he; I have entered into no part of my text; I have scarce read my text; I did but name the word, Rest, and Peace of conscience, and you are all transported, affected, with an exultation, with an acclamation, in the hunger, and ambition of it; That, that the natural, that, that the supernatural Man affects, is Rest; Inquire pacem, & persequere eam; it is not only seque • t, but persequere; seek peace & ensue it; follow this rest, this peace so, as if it fly from you, if any interruption, any heaviness of heart, any warfare of this world, come between you, and it, yet you never give over the pursuit of it, till you overtake it. Persquere, follow it, but first Inquire, says David, seek after it, find where it is, for here is not your rest.

Vnaqu • que res in sua patria fortior; If a Star were upon the Earth, it would give no light; If a tree were in the Sea, it would give no fruit; every tree is fastest rooted, and produces the best fruit, in the soil, that is proper for it. Now, here we have no continuing City, but we seek one; when we find that, we shall find rest. Here how shall we hope for it? for ourselves, Intus pugnae, foris timores; we feel a war of concupiscencies within, and we fear a battery of temptations without: Si dissentiunt in domo uxor & maritus: pericul • sa molestia, says Saint Augustine; If the Husband, and wife agree not at home, it is a troublesome danger; and that's every man's case; for Care conjux, our flesh is the wife, and the spirit is the husband, and they two will never agree. But si dominetur uxor, perversa pax, says he, and that's a more ordinary case, then we are aware of, that the wife hath got the Mastery, that the weaker vessel, the flesh, hath got the victory; and then, there is a show of peace, but it is a stupidity, a security, it is not peace. Let us depart out of ourselves, and look upon that, in which most ordinarily we place an opinion of rest, upon worldly riches; They that will be rich, fall into temptations, and snares, and into many foolish, and noisome lusts, which drown Men in perdition, and in destruction, for the desire of money is the root of evil; Not the having of Money, but the desire of it; for it is Theophylacts observation, that the Apostle does not say this, of them that are rich, but of them, that will be made rich; that set their heart upon the desire of riches, and will be rich, what way soever. As the Partridge gathereth the young, which she hath not brought forth, so he that gathereth riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool; (he shall not make a wise will) But shall his folly end, at his end, or the punishment of his folly? We see what a restless fool he is, all the way; first, because he wants room, he says, he will pull down his barns, and build new; (thus far there's no rest; in the Diruit, and adificat, in pulling down, and building up;) Then he says to his soul, live at ease; he says it, but he gives no ease; he says it as he shall say to the Hills, fall down, and cover us • but they shall stand still; and his soul shall hear God say, whilst he promises himself this case, O fool, this night, they shall fetch away thy soul; God does not only not tell him, who shall have his riches, but he does not tell him, who shall have his soul. He leaves him no affurance, no ease, no peace, no rest, Here.

This rest is not then in these things; not in their use; for they are got with labor, and held with fear; and these, labor and fear, admit no rest; not in their nature; for they are fluid, and transitory, and moveable, and these are not attributes of rest. If that word do not reach to Land, (the land is not movable,) yet it reaches to thee; when thou makest thine Inventory, put thyself amongst the moveables, for thou must remove from it, though it remove not from thee. So that, what rest foever may be imagined in these things, it is not your rest, for howsoever the things may seem to rest, yet you do not. It is not here at all: not in that Here, which is intimated in this Text; not in the falling, that is Here; for sin is a stupidity, it is not a rest; not in the rising that is Here, for this remorse, this repentance, is but as a surveying of a convenient ground, or an emptying of an inconvenient ground, to erect a building upon; not in the departing that is here, for in that, is intimated a building of new habits, upon the ground so prepared, and so a continual, and laborious travail, no rest; falling, and rising, and departing, and surveying, and building, are no words of rest, for give these words their spiritual sense, that this sense of our fall, (which is remorse after sin) this rising from it, (which is repentance after sin) this departing into a safer station, (which is the building of habits contrary to the former) do bring an ease to the conscience, (as it doth that powerfully, and plentifully) yet, as when we journey by Coach, we have an ease in the way, but yet our rest is at home, so in the ways of a regenerate Man, there is an inexpressible ease, and consolation here, but yet even this is not your rest; for, as the Apostle says, If I be not an Apostle unto others, yet doubtless I am unto you, so what rest soever others may propose unto themseleves, for you, whose conver sation is in heaven, (for this world to the righteous is Atrium templi, and heaven is that Temple it self, the Militant Church, is the porch, the Triumphant, is the Sanctum Sanctorum, this Church and that Church are all under one roof, Christ Jesus) for you, who appertain to this Church, your rests is in heaven; And that consideration brings us to the last of the three interpretations of these words.

The first was a Commination, a departing without any Rest, proposed to the Jews: The second was a Commonition, a departing into the way towards Rest, proposed to repentant sinners; And this third is a Consolation, a departing into Rest it self, proposed to us, that believe a Resurrection. It is a consolation, and yet it is a funeral; for to present this eternal Rest, we must a little invert the words, to the departing out of this world, by death, and so to arise to Judgment; Depart, and arise; for, &c.

This departing then, is our last Exodus, our last passover, our last transmigration, our departing out of this life. And then, the Consolation is placed in this, that we are willing, and ready for this departing; Qua gratia breve nobis tempus praescripsit Deus? How mercifully hath God proceeded with Man, in making his life short? for by that means he murmurs the less at the miseries of this life, and he is the less transported upon the pleasures of this life, because the end of both is short. It is a weakness, says Saint Ambrose, to complain, De immaturitate mortis, of dying before our time; for we were ripe for death at our birth; we were born mellow: Secundum aliquem modum, immortalis dici posset homo, si esset tempus intra quod mori non posset, is excellently said by the same Father; If there were any one minute in a man's life, in which he were safe from death, a man might in some sort be said to be immortal, for that minute; but Man is never so; Nunquam ei vicinius est, posse vivere, quàm posse mori: That proposition is never truer, This man may live tomorrow, then this proposition is, This man may dy this minute. Though then shortness of life be a malediction to the wicked, (The bloody and deceitful men shall not live half their days) there's the sentence, the Judgment, the Rule, (And they were cut down before their time) there's the execution, the example, God hath threatened, God hath inflicted, shortness of days to the wicked, yet the Curse consists in their indisposition, in their over-loving of this world, in their terrors concerning the next world, and not merely in the shortness of life; for this Ite, depart out of this world, is part of the Consolation. I have a Reversion upon my friend, and (though I wish it not) yet I am glad, if he die; Men that have inheritances after their fathers, are glad when they die; though not glad that they die, yet glad when they die: I have a greater, after the death of this body, and shall I be loath to come to that? Yet, it is not so a Consolation, as that we should by any means, be occasions to hasten our own death; Multi Innocentes ab aliis occiduntur, à seipso nemo; Many men get by the malice of others, if thereby, they dy the sooner; for they are the sooner at home, and dy innocently: but no man dies innocently, that dies by his own hand, or by his own hast. We may not do it, never; we may not wish it, always, nor easily. Before a perfect Reconciliation with God, it is dangerous to wish death. David apprehended it so, I said, O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days. In an over tender sense, and impatience of our own Calamities, it is dangerous to desire death too. Very holy men have transgressed on that hand: Elias in his persecution came inconsiderately to desire that he might die; It is enough, ô Lord, take away my soul; He would tell God how much was enough. And so says Job, My soul chooseth rather to be strangled and to die, then to be in my bones; He must have that that his soul chooses. But to omit many cases wherein it is not good, nor safe to wish Death, certainly, when it is done primarily in respect of God, for his glory, and then, for the respect which is of ourselves, it is only to enjoy the sight, and union of God, and that also with a Conditional submission to his will, and a tacit, and humble reservation of all his purposes, we may think David 's thought, and speak David 's words, My soul thirsteth for God, even for the living God, when shall I come, and appear before the presence of my Living God? Saint Paul had David 's example for it, when he comes to his Cupio dissolvi, to desire to be dissolved; And Saint Augustine had both their examples, when he says so affectionately, Eia Domine videam, ut hîc moriar, O my God, let me see thee in this life, that I may die the death of the Righteous, dy to sin; & moriar ut te videam, let me dy absolutely, that I may see thee essentially. Here we may be in his Presence, we see his state; there we are in his Bedchamber, and see his eternal and glorious Rest. The Rule is good, given by the same Father, Non injustum est justo optare mortem, A righteous man, may righteously desire death • Si Deus non dederit, injustum erit, non tolerare vitam amarissimam, but if God affords not that ease, he must not refuse a laborious life; So that, this departing, is not a going before we be called: Christ himself stayed for his ascension, till he was taken up. But when these comes a Lazare veni foras, that God calls us, from this putrefaction, which we think life, let us be not only obedient, but glad to depart.

For without such an Ite, there is no such Surgite, as is intended here; without this departing there is no good rising, without a joyful Transmigration, no joyful Resurrection; He that is loath to depart, is afraid to rise again; and he that is afraid of the Resurrection, had rather there were none; and he that had rather there were none, a • t • aecitate, aut animos • tate, says S. Augustine, either he will make himself believe, that there is none, or if he cannot overcome his Conscience so absolutely, he will make the world believe, that he believes there is none: and truly to lose our sense of the Resurrection, is as heavy a loss, as of any one point of Religion; It is the knot of all, and hath this privilege, above all, that though those Joyes of heaven, which we shall possess immediately after our death, be infinite, yet even to these infinite Joyes, the Resurrection given an addition, and enlarges even that which was infinite. And therefore is Job so passionately desirous, that this doctrine of the Resurrection, might be imparted to all, imprinted in all; Oh that my words more now written, Oh that they were written in a book; and graven with an Iron pen in lead, and stone, forever: what is all this, that Job recommends with so much devotion to all? I am sure that my Redeemer liveth, and be shall stand the last on Earth, and though after my skin, worms destroy this body, yet I shall see God in my flesh; whom I myself shall see; and mine eyes shall behold, and none either for me. This doctrine of the Resurrection, had Job, so vehement, and so early a care of. Neither could the malicious, and pestilent inventions of man, no not of Satan himself, abolish this doctrine of the Resurrection: for, as Saint Jerome observes, from Adrian 's time, to Constantine 's, for 180 years, in the place of Christ's birth, they had set up an Idol, a statue of Adonis: In the place of his Crucifying, they had set up an Idol of Venus; and in the place of his Resurrection, they had erected a I •• p • ter: in opinion, that these Idolatrous provisions of theirs, would have abolished the Mysteries of our Religion; but they have outliv'd all them, and shall outlive all the world, eternally beyond all Generations. And therefore doth Saint Ambrose apply well, and usefully to our Death, and Resurrection, to our departing, and rising, these words, Come my people, enter then into thy Chambers, and shut thy doors after thee; Hide thyself for a very little while, until the Indignation passover thee; that is, Go quietly, to your graves, attend your Resurrection, till God have executed his purpose upon the wicked of this world; Murmur not to admit the dissolution of body, and soul, upon your death-beds, nor the resolution, and putrefaction of the body alone in your graves, till God be pleased to repair all, in a full consummation, and reuniting of body and soul, in a blessed Resurrection. Ite & Surgite, depart so, as you may desire to rise; Depart with an In manus tuas, and with a Veni Domi • e Jesus; with a willing surrendering of your souls, and a cheerful meeting of the Lord Jesus.

For else, all hope of profit, and permanent Rest is lost: for, as Saint Jerome interprets these very words; Here we are taught that there is no rest, in this life, Sed quasi •• • mortuis resurgentes; ad sublime tendere, & ambulare post Daminum Iesum; we depart when we depart from sin, and we rise, when we raise ourselves to a conformity with Christ: And not only after his example, but after his person, that is, to hasten thither, whither he is gone to prepare us a Room. For, this Rest, in the Text, though it may be understood of the Land of Promise; and of the Church, and of the Ark, and of the Sabbath, (for, if we had time to pursue them, we might make good use of all these acceptations) yet we accept Chrysost • me 's acceptation best, Requies est ipse Christus, our rest is Christ himself. Not only that rest that is in Christ, (peace of conscience in him) but that Rest, that Christ is in; eternal rest in his kingdom, There remaineth a Rest, to the people of God; besides that inchoation of Rest, which the godly have here, there remains a fuller Rest. Jesus is entered into his Rest, says the Apostle there; his Rest was not here, in this world; and, Let us study to enter into that • Rest, says he; for no other can accomplish our peace. It is righteousness with God, is recompense tribulation to them, that trouble you, and, to you, which are troubled, Rest; but, when? in this world? no: when the Lord Jesus shall she • himself from heaven, with his mighty Angels, then comes your Rest; for, for the grave, the body lies still, but it is not a Rest, because it is not sensible of that lying still; In heaven the body shall rest, rest in the sense of that glory.

This Rest then is not here, Not only not Here, at this Here was taken in the first interpretation, Here in the Earth; but not Here in the second interpretation, not in Repentance it self; for all the Rest of this life, even the spiritual Rest, is rather a Truce, then a peace, rather a Cessation, then an end of the war. For when these words, ( I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians, Everyone shall fight against his brother, and every one against his neighbor, City against City, and Kingdom against Kingdom) may be interpreted, and are so interpreted of the time of the Gospel of Christ Jesus, when Christ himself says, Nolite putare quod venerim mittere pacem in terrâ, Never think that I came to settle peace, or Rest in this world; Nay, when Christ says, None of them that were bidden shall come to his supper, and that may be verified of any Congregation, none of us that are called now, shall come to that Rest, a Man may be at a security in an opinion of Rest, and be far from it; A man may be nearer Rest in a troubled Conscience, then in a secure.

Here we have often Resurrections, that is, purposes to depart from sin: but they are such Resurrections, as were at the time of Christ's Resurrection: when (as the strongest opinion is) Resurrexerunt iterum morituri, Many of the dead rose, but they died again; we rise from our sins here, but here we fall again; Monumenta aperta sunt; (it is Saint Jerome 's note,) The graves were opened, presently upon Christ's death; but yet the bodies did not arise, till Christ's Resurrection: The godly have an opening of their graves, they see some light, some of their weight, some of their Earth is taken from them, but a Resurrection to enter into the City, to follow the Lamb, to come into an established security, that they have not, till they be united to Christ in heaven. Here we are still subject to relapses, and to looking back; Memento uxoris L • t, Ipsa in loco manet, transeuntes monet, She is fixed to a place, that she might settle those, that are not fixed; Vt quid in statuam salis conversa, si non homines, ut sapiant, condiat? to teach us the danger of looking back, till we be fixed, she is fixed. When the Prophet • Elijah • was at the door of Desperation, an Angel touched him, and said, Up, and eat: and there was bread, and water provided, and he did eat; but he slept again; and we have some of these excitations, and we come, and eat, and drink, even the body, and blood of Christ, but we sleep again, we do not perfect the work. Our Rest Here then, is never without a fear of losing it: This is our best state, To fear le • t at any time, by forsaking the promise of entering into his rest, we should seem to be deprived. The Apostle disputes not, (neither do I) whether we can be deprived or no; but he assures us, that we may fall back so far, as that to the Church, and to our own Consciences we may seem to be deprived; and that's argument enough, that here is no Rest. To end all, though there be no Rest in all this world, no not in our sanctification here, yet this being a Consolation, there must be rest some where; And it is, In superna Civitate, unde amicus non exit, quâ inimicus non intrat, In that City, in that Jerusalem, where there shall never enter any man, whom we do not love, nor any go from us, whom we do love. Which, though we have not yet, yet we shall have: for upon those words, (because I live, ye shall live also) Saint Augustine says, that because his Resurrection was to follow so soon, Christ takes the present word, because I do live. But because their life was not to be had here, he says, Vivetis, you shall live, in heaven; not Vivitis; for here, we do not live. So, as in Adam we all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive; says the Apostle: All our deaths are here, present now; now we dy; our quickening is reserved for heaven, that's future. And therefore let us attend that Rest, as patiently as we do the things of this world, and not doubt of it therefore, because we see it not yet: even in this world we consider invisible things, more then visible; Vidimus pelagus, non autem mercedem, The Merchant sees the tempestuous Sea, when he does not see the commodities, which he goes for: Videmus terram, non autem messem, The Husbandman sees the Earth, and his labor, when he sees no harvest; and for these hopes, that there will be a gain to the Merchant, and a harvest to the Labourer, Naturae fidimus, we rely upon Creatures; for our Resurrection, fide us • orem habemus Coranatum; Not Nature, not Sea, nor Land, is our surety, but our surety is one, who is already crowned, with that Resurrection. Num in hominibus terrae legenera • , quae omnia regenerate, says Saint Ambrose, will the earth, that gives a new life to all Creatures, fail in us, and hold us in an everlasting winter, without a spring, and a Resurrection? Certainly no; but if we be content so to depart into the womb of the Earth, our grave, as that we know that, to be but the Entry into glory, as we depart contentedly, so we shall arise gloriously, to that place, where our eternal Rest shall be, though here there be not our Rest; for he that shoots an arrow at a mark, yet means to put that arrow into his Quiver again; and God that glorifies himself, in laying down our bodies in the grave, means also to glorify them, in reaffirming them to himself, at the last day.

SERMON XI.

Preached at Lincolns Inn, preparing them to build their Chapel.

I N these verses Jacob is a Surveyor, he considers a fit place for the house of God; and in the very next verse, he is a Builder, he erects Bethel, the house of God it self. All was but a drowsiness, but a sleep, till he came to this Consideration; as soon as he awoke, he took knowledge of a fit place; as soon as he found the place, he went about the work. But to that we shall not come yet. But this Text, being a preparation for the building of a house to God, though such a house as Jacob built then, require no contribution, yet because such Churches, as we build now, do, we shall first say a little, of that great virtue of Charity; and then somewhat of that virtue, as it is exercised by advancing the house of God, and his outward worship; And thirdly we shall consider Jacob 's steps, and proceedings, in this action of his.

This virtue then, Charity, is it, that conducts its in this life, and accompanies us in the next. In heaven, where we shall know God, there may be no use of faith; In heaven, where we shall see God, there may be no use of hope; but in heaven, where God the Father, and the Son, love one another in the Holy Ghost, the bond of charity shall everlastingly unite us together. But Charitas in patria, and Charitas in via, differ m this, That there we shall love one another because we shall not need one another, for we shall all be full • Here the exercise of our charity is, because we do stand in need of one another. Dives & pauper duo sunt sibi contraria; sed iterum duo sunt sibi necessaria; Rich, and poor are contrary to one another, but yet both necessary to one another; They are both necessary to one another; but the poor man is the more necessary; because though one man might be rich, though no man were poor, yet he could have no exercise of his charity, he could send none of his riches to heaven, to help him there, except there were some poor here.

He that is too fat, would fain devest some of that, though he could give that to no other man, that lack'd it; And shall not he that is wantonly pampered, nay, who is heavily laden, and encumbered with temporal abundances, be content to discharge himself of some of that, wherewith he is over-straighted, upon those poor souls, whom God hath not made poor for any sin of theirs, or of their fathers, but only to present rich men exercise of their charity, and occasions of testifying their love to Christ; who having given himself, to convey salvation upon thee, if that conveyance may be sealed to thee, by giving a little of thine own, is it not an easy purchase? When a poor wretch begs of thee, and thou givest, thou dost but justice, it is his. But when he begs of God for thee, and God gives thee, this is mercy; this was none of thine.

When we shall come to our Redde rationem villicationis, to give an accompt of our Stewardship, when we shall not measure our inheritance by Acres, but all heaven shall be ours, and we shall follow the Lamb, wheresoever he goes, when our estate, and term shall not be limited by years, and lives, but, as we shall be in the presence of the Ancient of days, so our days shall be so far equal to his, as that they shall be without end; Then will our great Merchants, great practicers, great purchasers, great Contracters, find another language, another style, then they have been accustomed to, here. There no man shall be called a prodigal, but only the Covetous man; Only he that hath been too diligent a keeper, shall appear to have been an unthrift, and to have wasted his best treasure, the price of the blood of Christ Iesue, his own soul. There no man shall be called good security, but he that hath made sure his salvation. No man shall be called a Subsidy man, but he that hath relieved Christ Jesus; in his sick, and hungry Members. No man shall be called a wise Steward, but he that hath made friends of the wicked Mammon; Nor provident Merchant, but he that sold all to buy the pearl; Nor a great officer, but he that desires to be a door-keeper in the kingdom of Heaven.

Now, every man hath a key to this door of heaven. Every man hath some means to open it; every man hath an oil to anoint this key, and make it turn easily; he may go with more case to Heaven, then he doth to Hell. Every man hath some means to pour this oil of gladness and comfort into another's heart; No man can say, Quid retribuam tibi Domine; Lord what have I to give thee? for every man hath something to give God: Money, or labor, or counsel, or prayers. Every man can give, and he gives to God, who gives to them that need it, for his sake. Come not to that expostulation, When did we see thee hungry, or sick, or imprisoned, and did not minister? Nor to that, Quid retribuam, What can I give, that lack myself: lest God come also to that silence, and weariness of asking at thy hands, to say, as he says in the Psalm, If I be hungry, I will not tell thee; That though he have given thee abundance, though he lack himself in his children, yet he will not tell thee, he will not ask at thy hands, he will not enlighten thine understanding, he will not awaken thy charity, he will not give thee any occasion of doing good, with that which he hath given thee.

But God hath given thee a key: yea as he says to the Church of Philadelphia, Behold I set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it. Thou hast a gate into Heaven in thyself; If thou beest not sensible of others men's poverties, and distresses, yet Miserere animae tuae, have mercy on thine own soul; thou hast a poor guest, an Inmate, a sojourner, within these mudwals, this corrupt body of thine; be merciful and compassionate to that Soul; clothe that Soul, which is stripped and left naked, of all her original righteousness; feed that Soul, which thou hast starved; purge that Soul, which thou hast infected; warm, and thaw that Soul; which thou hast frozen with indevotion; cool, and quench that Soul which thou hast inflamed with licentiousness; Miserere animae tuae, begin with thine own Soul; be charitable to thyself first, and thou wilt remember, that God hath made of one blood, all Mankind, and thou wilt find out thyself, in every other poor Man, and thou wilt find Christ Jesus himself in them all.

Now of those divers gates, which God opens in this life, those divers exercises of charity, the particular which we are occasioned to speak of here, is not the clothing, nor feeding of Christ, but the housing of him, The providing Christ a house, a dwelling; whether this were the very place, where Solomon's Temple was after built, is perplexedly, and perchance, impertinently controverted by many; but howsoever, here was the house of God, and here was the gate of Heaven. It is true, God may be devoutly worshipped anywhere; In omni loco dominationis ejus benedic anima mea Domino; In all places of his dominion, my Soul shall praise the Lord, says David. It is not only a concurring of men, a meeting of so many bodies that makes a Church; If thy soul, and body be met together, an humble preparation of the mind, and a reverent disposition of the body, if thy knees be bent to the earth, thy hands and eyes lifted up to heaven, if thy tongue pray, and praise, and thine ears hearken to his answer, if all thy senses, and powers, and faculties, be met with one unanime purpose to worship thy God, thou art, to this intendment, a Church, thou art a Congregation, here are two or three met together in his name, and he is in the midst of them, though thou be alone in thy chamber. The Church of God should be built upon a Rock, and yet Job had his Church upon a Dunghill; The bed is a scene, and an emblem of wantonness, and yet Hezekiah had his Church in his Bed; The Church is to be placed upon the top of a Hill, and yet the Prophet Jeremiah had his Church in Luto, in a miry Dungeon; Constancy, and settledness belongs to the Church, and yet Jonah had his Church in the Whales belly; The Lyon that roars, and seeks whom he may devour, is an enemy to this Church, and yet Daniel had his Church in the Lions den; Aquae quietudinum, the waters of rest in the Psalm, were a figure of the Church, and yet the three children had their Church in the fiery furnace; Liberty & life appertain to the Church, and yet Peter, & Paul had their Church in prison, and the thief had his Church upon the Cross. Every particular man is himself Templum Spiritus sancti, a Temple of the holy Ghost; yea, Solvite templum hoc, destroy this body by death, and corruption in the grave, yet there shall be Festum encaeniorum, a renewing, a reedifying of all those Temples, in the general Resurrection: when we shall rise again, not only as so many Christians, but as so many Christian Churches, to glorify the Apostle, and High-priest of our profession, Christ Jesus, in that eternal Sabbath. In omni loco domi • ationis ejus, Every person, every place is fit to glorify God in.

God is not tied to any place; not by essence; Implet & continendo implet, God fills every place, and fills it by containing that place in himself; but he is tied by his promise to a manifestation of himself, by working in some certain places. Though God were long before he required, or admitted a sumptuous Temple, (for Solomon's Temple was not built, in almost five hundred years after their return out of Egypt) though God were content to accept their worship, and their sacrifices, at the Tabernacle, (which was a transitory, and moveable Temple) yet at last he was so careful of his house, as that himself gave the model, and platform of it; and when it was built, and after repaired again, he was so jealous of appropriating, and confining all his solemn worship to that particular place, as that he permitted that long schism, and dissention, between the Samaritans, and the Jews, only about the place of the worship of God; They differed not in other things: but whether in Mount Zion, or in Mount Garizim. And the feast of the dedication of this Temple, which was yearly celebrated, received so much honor, as that Christ himself vouchsafed to be personally present at that solemnity; though it were a feast of the institution of the Church, and not of God immediately, as their other festivals were, yet Christ forbore not to observe it, upon that pretence, that it was but the Church that had appointed it to be observed. So that, as in all times, God had manifested, and exhibited himself in some particular places, more then other, (in the Pillar in the wilderness, and in the Tabernacle, and in the pool, which the Angel troubled) so did Christ himself, by his own presence, ceremoniously, justify, and authorise this dedication of places consecrated to God's outward worship, not only once, but anniversarily by a yearly celebration thereof.

To descend from this great Temple at Jerusalem, to which God had annexed his solemn, and public worship, the lesser Synagogues, and Chapels of the Jews, in other places, were ever esteemed great testimonies of the sanctity and piety of the founders, for Christ accepts of that reason which was presented to him, in the behalf of the Centurion, He is worthy that thou shouldst do this for him, for he loveth our Nation; And how hath he testified it? He hath built us a Synagogue. He was but a stranger to them, and yet he furthered, and advanced the service of God amongst them, of whose body he was no member. This was that Centurions commendation; Et quanto commedatior qui adificat Ecclesiam, How much more commendation deserve they, that build a Church for Christian service? And therefore the first Christians made so much haste to the expressing of their devotion, that even in the Apostles time, for all their poverty, and persecution, they were come to have Churches: as most of the Fathers, and some of our later Expositors, understand these words, (Have ye not houses to eat and drink, or do ye despise the Church of God?) to be spoken, not of the Church as it is a Congregation, but of the Church as it is a Material building. Yea, if we may believe some authors, that are pretended to be very ancient, there was one Church dedicated to the memory of Saint John, and another by Saint Mark, to the memory of Saint Peter, whilst yet both Saint John, and Saint Peter were alive. Howsoever, it is certain, that the purest and most innocent times, even the infancy of the Primitive Church, found this double way of expressing their devotion, in this particular of building Churches, first that they built them only to the honor, and glory of God, without giving him any partner, and then they built them for the conserving of the memory of those blessed servants of God, who had sealed their profession with their blood, and at whose Tombs, God had done such Miracles, as these times needed, for the propagation of his Church. They built their Churches principally for the glory of God, but yet they added the names of some of his blessed servants and Martyrs; for so says he, (who as he was Peters successor, so he is the most sensible feeler, and most earnest, and powerful promover and expresser, of the dignities of Saint Peter, of all the Fathers) speaking of Saint Peters Church, Beato Petri Basilica, quae uni Deo vero & vivo dicata est, Saint Peters Church is dedicated to the only living God; They are things compatible enough to bear the name of a Saint, and yet to be dedicated to God. There the bodies of the blessed Martyrs, did peacefully attend their glorification; There the Histories of the Martyrs were recited and proposed to the Congregation, for their example, and imitation; There the names of the Martyrs were inserted into the public prayers, and liturgies, by way of presenting the thanks of the Congregation to God, for having raised so profitable men in the Church; and there the Church did present their prayers to God, for those Martyrs, that God would hasten their glory, and final consummation, in reuniting their bodies, and souls, in a joyful resurrection. But yet though this divers mention were made of the Saints of God, in the house of God, Non Martyrs ipsi, sed Deus • orum, nobis est Deus, only God, and not those Martyrs, is our God; we and they serve all one Master; we dwell all in one house; in which God hath appointed us several services; Those who have done their days work, God hath given them their wages, and hath given them leave to go to bed; they have laid down their bodies in peace to sleep there, till the Sun rise again; till the Sun of grace and glory, Christ Jesus, appear in judgment; we that are yet left to work, and to watch, we must go forward in the services of God in his house, with that moderation, and that equality, as that we worship only our Master, but yet despise not our fellow servants, that are gone before us: That we give to no person, the glory of God, but that we give God the more glory, for having raised such servants: That we acknowledge the Church to be the house only of God, and that we admit no Saint, no Martyr, to be a lointenant with him; but yet that their memory may be an encouragement, yea and a seal to us, that that peace, and glory, which they possess, belongs also unto us in reversion, and that therefore we may cheerfully gratulate their present happiness, by a devout commemoration of them, with such a temper, and evenness, as that we neither dishonor God, by attributing to them, that which is inseparably his, nor dishonor them in taking away that which is theirs, in removing their Names out of the Collects, and prayers of the Church, or their Monuments, and memorials out of the body of the Church: for, those respects to them, the first Christian founders of Churches did admit in those pure times, when Illa obsequia, ornamenta memoriarum, n • n sacrificia mortuorum, when those devotions in their names, were only commemorations of the dead, not sacrifices to the dead, as they are made now in the Roman Church: when Bellarmine will needs falsify Chrysostom, to read Adoramus monumenta, instead of Adornamus; and to make that which was but an Adorning, an adoring of the Tombes of the Martyrs.

This then was in all times, a religious work, an acceptable testimony of devotion, to build God a house; to contribute something to his outward glory. The goodness, and greatness of which work, appears evidently, and shines gloriously, even in those several names, by which the Church was called, and styled, in the writings, and monuments of the Ancient Fathers, and the Ecclesiastic story. It may serve to our edification (at least) and to the axalting of our devotion, to consider some few of them: First then the Church was called Ecclesia, that is, a company, a Congregation; That whereas from the time of John the Baptist, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and every violent Man, that is, every earnest, and zealous, and spiritually valiant Man, may take hold of it, we may be much more sure of doing so, in the Congregation, Quando ag •• ine fact • Deum obsidemus, when in the whole body, we Muster our forces, and besiege God. For, here in the congregation, not only the kingdom of heaven, is fallen into our hands, The kingdom of heaven is amongst you, (as Christ says) but the King of heaven is fallen into our hands; When two, or three are gathered together in my Name, I will be in the midst of you; not only in the midst of us, to encourage us, but in the midst of us, to be taken by us, to be bound by us, by those hands, those covenants, those contracts, those rich, and sweet promises, which he hath made, and ratified unto us in his Gospel.

A second name of the Church 〈◊〉 in use, was Dominicum: The Lord's possession; It is absolutely, it is entirely his; And therefore, as to shorten, and contract the possession and inheritance of God, the Church, so much, as to confine the Church only within the obedience of Rome, (as the Donatists imprisoned it in Afrique) or to change the Landmarks of God's possession, and inheritance, which is the Church; either to set up new works, of outward prosperity, or of personal, and Local succession of Bishops, or to remove the old, and true marks, which are the Word, and Sacraments, as this is Injuria Dominico mystico, a wrong to the mystical body of Christ, the Church, so is it Injuria Dominico materiali, an injury to the Material body of Christ sacrilegiously to dilapidate, to despoile, or to demolish the possession of the Church, and so far to remove the marks of God's inheritance, as to mingle that amongst your temporal revenues, that God may never have, nor ever distinguish his own part again.

And then (to pass faster over these names) It is called Domus Dei, God's dwelling house. Now, his most glorious Creatures are but vehicula Dei; they are but chariots, which convey God, and bring him to our sight; The Tabernacle it self was but Mobilis domus, and Ecclesia portatilis, a house without a foundation; a running, a progress house: but the Church is his standing house; there are his offices fixed: there are his provisions, which fat the Soul of Man, as with marrow and with fatness, his precious blood, and body: there work his seals; there beats his Mint; there is absolution, and pardon for past sins, there is grace for prevention of future in his Sacraments. But the Church is not only Domus Dei, but Basilica; not only his house, but his Court: he doth not only dwell there, but reign there: which multiplies the joy of his household servants: The Lord reigneth, let all the earth rejoice, yea let the multitude of the Islands be glad thereof. That the Church was usually called Martyrium, that is, a place of Confession, where we open our wounds and receive our remedy, That it was called Oratorium, where we might come, and ask necessary things at God's hands, all these teach us our several duties in that place, and they add to their spiritual comfort, who have been God's instruments, for providing such places, as God may be glorified in, and the godly benefited in all these ways.

But of all Names, which were then usually given to the Church, the name of Temple seems to be most large, and significant, as they derive it à Tuendo; for Tueri signifies both our beholding, and contemplating God in the Church: and it signifies God's protecting, and defending those that are his, in his Church: Tueri embraces both; And therefore, though in the very beginning of the Primitive Church, to depart from the custom, and language, and phrase of the Jews, and Gentiles, as far as they could, they did much abstain from this name of Temple, and of Priest, so that till Irenaeus time, some hundred eighty years after Christ, we shall not so often find those words, Temple, or Priest, yet when that danger was overcome, when the Christian Church, and doctrine was established, from that time downward, all the Fathers did freely, and safely call the Church the Temple, and the Ministers in the Church, Priests, as names of a religious, and pious signification; where before out of a loathsomeness to do, or say anything like the Jews, or Gentiles, where a concurrence with them, might have been misinterpretable, and of ill consequence, they had called the Church by all those other names, which we passed through before; and they called their Priests, by the name of Elders, Presbyteros: but after they resumed the use of the word Temple again, as the Apostle had given a good pattern, who to express the principal holiness of the Saints of God, he chooses to do it, in that word, ye are the Temples of the holy Ghost: which should incline us to that moderation, that when the danger of these ceremonies which corrupt times had corrupted, is taken away, we should return to a love of that Antiquity, which did purely, and harmelesly induce them: when there is no danger of abuse, there should be no difference for the use of things, (in themselves indifferent) made necessary by the just commandment of lawful authority.

Thus then you see as far (as the narrowness of the time will give us leave to express it) the general manner of the best times, to declare devotion towards God, to have been in appropriating certain places to his worship; And since it is so in this particular history of Jacob's proceeding in my text, I may be hold to invert these words of David, Nisi Deus aedificaverit domum, unless the Lord do build the house, in vain do the laborers work, thus much, as to say, Nisi Domino aedificaveritis domum, except thou build a house for the Lord, in vain dost thou go about any other buildings, or any other business in this world. I speak not merely literally of building Material Chapels; (yet I would speak also to further that;) but I speak principally of building such a Church, as every man may build in himself: for whensoever we present our prayers, and devotions deliberately, and advisedly to God, there we consecrate that place, there we build a Church. And therefore, beloved, since every master of a family, who is a Bishop in his house, should call his family together, to humble, and pour out their souls to God, let him consider, that when he comes to kneel at the side of his table, to pray, he comes to build a Church there; and therefore should sanctify that place, with a due, and penitent consideration how voluptuously he hath formerly abused God's blessings at that place, how superstitiously, and idolatrously he hath flattered and humor'd some great and useful guests invited by him to that place, how expensively, he hath served his own ostentation and vain-glory, by excessive feasts at that place, whilst Lazarus hath lien panting, and gasping at the gate; and let him consider what a dangerous Mockery this is to Christ Jesus, if he pretend by kneeling at that table, fashionally to build Christ a Church by that solemnity at the table side, and then crucify Christ again, by these sins, when he is sat at the table. When thou kneelest down at thy bed side, to shut up the day at night, or to begin it in the morning, thy servants, thy children, thy little flock about thee, there thou buildest a Church too: And therefore sanctify that place; wash it with thy tears, and with a repentant consideration; That in that bed thy children were conceived in sin, that in that bed thou hast turned marriage which God afforded thee for remedy, and physique to voluptuosnesse, and licentiousness; That thou hast made that bed which God gave thee for rest, and for reparation of thy weary body, to be as thy dwelling, and delight, and the bed of idleness, and stupidity. Briefly, you that are Masters, continue in this building of Churches, that is, in drawing your families to pray, and praise God, and sanctify those several places of bed, and board, with a right use of them; And for you that are servants, you have also foundations of Churches in you, if you dedicate all your actions, consecrate all your services principally to God, and respectively to them, whom God hath placed over you. But principally, let all of all sorts, who present themselves at this table, consider, that in that receiving his body, and his blood, everyone doth as it were conceive Christ Jesus anew; Christ Jesus hath in everyone of them, as it were a new incarnation, by uniting himself to them in these visible signs. And therefore let no Man come hither, without a search, and a privy search, without a consideration, and re-consideration of his conscience. Let him that began to think of it, but this morning, stay till the next. When Moses pulled his hand first out of his bosom, it was white as snow, but it was leprous; when he pulled it the second time, it was of the color of flesh, but it was sound. When thou examinest thy conscience but once, but flightly, it may appear, white as snow, innocent; but examine it again, and it will confess many fleshly infirmities, and then it is the sounder for that; though not for the infirmity, yet for the confession of the infirmity. Neither let that hand, that reaches out to this body, in a guiltiness of pollution, and uncleanness, or in a guiltiness of extortion, or undeserved see, ever hope to sign a conveyance, that shall fasten his inheritance upon his children, to the third generation, ever hope to assign a will that shall be observed after his death; ever hope to lift up it self for mercy to God, at his death; but his case shall be like the case of Judas, if the devil have put in his heart, to betray Christ, to make the body and blood of Christ Jesus false witnesses to the congregation of his hypocritical sanctity, Satan shall enter into him, with this sop, and seal his condemnation. Beloved, in the bowels of that Jesus, who is coming into you, even in spiritual riches, it is an unthrifty thing, to anticipate your monies, to receive your rents, before they are due: and this treasure of the soul, the body, and blood of your Savior, is not due to you yet, if you have not yet passed, a mature, and a severe examination, of your conscience. It were better that your particular friends, or that the congregation, should observe in you, an abstinence and forbearing today, and make what interpretation, they would of that forbearing then that the holy Ghost should deprehend you, in an unworthy receiving; lest, as the Master of the feast said to him that came without his wedding garment, then when he was set, Amice quomodo intrâsti, friend how came you in? so Christ should say to thee, then when thou art upon thy knees, and hast taken him into thy hands, Amice quomodo intrabo, friend how can I enter into thee, who hast not swept thy house, who hast made no preparation for me? But to those that have, he knocks and he enters, and he • ups with them, and he is a supper to them. And so this consideration of making Churches of our houses, and of our hearts, leads us to a third part, the particular circumstances, in Jacob's action.

In which there is such a change, such a dependence, whether we consider the Metall, or the fashion, the several doctrines, or the sweetness, and easiness, of raising them, as scarce in any other place, a fuller harmony. The first link is the Tunc Jacob, then Jacob; which is a Tunc consequentiae, rather then a Tunc temporis; It is not so much, at what time Jacob did, or said this, as upon what occasion. The second link is, Quid operatum, what this wrought upon Jacob; It awaked him out of his sleep, A third is Quid ill, what he did, and that was, Et dixit, he came to an open profession of that, which he conceived, he said; and a fourth is, Quid dixit, what this profession was; And in that, which is a branch with much fruit, a pregnant part, a part containing many parts, thus much is considerable, that he presently acknowledged, and assented to their light which was given him, the Lord is in this place; And he acknowledged his own darkness, till that light came upon him, Et ego nesciebam, I knew it not; And then upon this light received, he admitted no scruple, no hesitation, but came presently to a confident assurance, Vere Dominus, surely, of a certainty, the Lord is in this place; And then another doctrine is, Et timuit, he was afraid; for all his confidence he had a reverential fear; not a distrust, but a reverent respect to that great Majesty; and upon this fear, there is a second, Et dixit, he spoke again; this fear did not stupefy him, he recovers again and discerned the manifestation of God, in that particular place, Quam terribilis, how fearful is this place; And then the last link of this chain is, Quid inde, what was the effect of all this; and that is, that he might erect a Monument, and mark for the worship of God in this place, Quia non nisi domus, because this is none other then the house of God, and the gate of heaven. Now I have no purpose to make you afraid of enlarging all these points: I shall only pass through some of them, paraphrastically, and trust them with the rest, (for they insinuate one another) and trust your christianly meditation with them all.

The first link then is, the Tunc Jacob, the occasion, (then Iocob did this) which was, that God had revealed to Iocob, that vision of the ladder, whose foot stood upon earth, and whose top reached to heaven, upon which ladder God stood, and Angels went up and down. Now this ladder is for the most part, understood to be Christ himself; whose foot, that touched the earth, is his humanity, and his top that reached to heaven, his Divinity; The ladder is Christ, and upon him the Angels, (his Ministers) labor for the edifying of the Church; And in this labor, upon this ladder, God stands above it, governing, and ordering all things, according to his providence in his Church. Now when this was revealed to Jacob, now when this is revealed to you, that God hath let fall a ladder, a bridge between heaven, and earth, that Christ, whose divinity departed not from heaven, came down to us into this world, that God the father stands upon this ladder, as the Original hath it, Nitzab, that he leans upon this ladder, as the vulgar hath it, Innixus scalae, that he rests upon it, as the holy Ghost did, upon the • ame ladder, that is, upon Christ, in his baptism, that upon this ladder, which stretches so far, and is provided so well, the Angels labor, the Ministers of God do their offices, when this was, when this is manifested, then it became Jacob, and now it becomes every Christian, to do something for the advancing of the outward glory, and worship of God in his Church: when Christ is content to be this ladder, when God is content to govern this ladder, when the Angels are content to labor upon this ladder, which ladder is Christ, and the Christian Church, shall any Christian Man forbear his help to the necessary building, and to the sober and modest adorning of the material Church of God? God studies the good of the Church, Angels labor for it; and shall Man, who is to receive all the profit of this, do nothing? This is the Tunc Jacob; when there is a free preaching of the Gospel, there should be a free, and liberal disposition, to advance his house.

Well; to make haste, the second link is Quid operatum, what this wrought upon Jacob: and it is, Jacob awoke out of his sleep. Now in this place, the holy Ghost imputes no sinful sleep to Jacob; but it is a natural sleep of lassitude and weariness after his travel, there is an ill sleep, an indifferent, and a good sleep, which is that heavenly sleep, that tranquility, which that soul, which is at peace with God, and divided from the storms, and distractions of this world, enjoys in it self. That peace, which made the blessed Martyrs of Christ Jesus sleep upon the rack, upon the burning coals, upon the points of swords, when the persecutors were more troubled to invent torments, then the Christians to suffer. That sleep, from which, ambition, not danger, no nor when their own house is on fire, (that is, their own concupiscences) cannot awaken them; not so awaken them, that it can put them out of their own constancy, and peaceful confidence in God. That sleep, which is the sleep of the spouse, Ego dormio, sed cor meum vigil • t, I sleep, but my heart is awake; It was no dead sleep when she was able to speak advisedly in it, and say she was asleep, and what sleep it was: It was no stupid sleep, when her heart was awake. This is the sleep of the Saints of God, which Saint Gregory describes, Sancti non t • rpore; sed virtue s • piuntur; It is not sluggishness, but innocence, and a good conscience, that casts them asleep. Laboriosi • s dormium, they are busier in their sleep, nay, Vigita •• ius, dor •• iunt; they are more awake in their sleep, then the watchful men of this world; for when they close their eyes in meditation of God, even their dreams are services to him, S • mniant se dicere Psalmos, says Saint Ambrose; they dream that they sing psalms; and they do more then dream it, they do sing.

But yet even from this holy, and religious sleep (which is a departing from the allurements of the world, and a retiring to the only contemplation of heaven, and heavenly things) Jacob may be conceived to have awaked, and we must awake; It is note enough to shut ourselves in a cloister, in a Monastery, to sleep out the temptations of the world, but since the ladder is placed, the Church established, since God, and the Angels are awake in this business, in advancing the Church, we also must labor, in our several vocations, and not content ourselves with our own spiritual sleep; the peace of conscience in ourselves; for we cannot have that long, if we do not some good to others. When the storm had almost drowned the ship, Christ was at his ease in that storm, asleep upon a pillow. Now Christ was in no danger himself; All the water of Noah's flood, multiplied over again by every drop, could not have drowned him. All the swords of an Army could not have killed him, till the hour was come, when he was pleased to lay down his soul. But though he were safe, yet they awaked him, and said, Master car'st thou not though we perish? So though a man may be in a good state, in a good peace of conscience, and sleep confidently in it, yet other men's necessities must awaken him, and though perchance he might pass more safely, if he might live a retired life, yet upon this ladder some Angels ascended, some descended, but none stood still but God himself. Till we come to him, to sleep an eternal Sabbath in heaven, though this religious sleep of enjoying or retiring and contemplation of God, be a heavenly thing, yet we must awake even out of this sleep, and contribute our pains, to the building, or furnishing, or serving of God in his Church.

Out of a sleep (conceive it what sleep soever) Jacob awaked; and then, Quid ill? what did he? Dixit, he spoke, he entered presently into an open profession of his thoughts, he smothered nothing, he disguised nothing. God is light, and loves clearness; thunder, and wind, and tempests, and chariots, and roaring of Lions, and falling of waters are the ordinary emblems of his messages, and his messengers in the Scriptures. Christ who is Sapientia Dei, the wisdom of God, is Verb •• , Serm • Dei, the word of God, he is the wisdom, and the uttering of the wisdom of God, as Christ is expressed to be the word, so a Christians duty is to speak dearly, and profess his religion. With how much scorn and reproach Saint Cyprian fastens the name of Libellatices upon them, who in time of persecution durst not say they were Christians, but under-hand compounded with the State, that they might live unquestioned, undiscovered, for though they kept their religion in their heart, yet Christ was defrauded of his honor. And such a reproach, and scorn belongs to them, who for fear of losing worldly preferments, and titles, and dignities, and rooms at great Tables, dare not say, of what religion they are. Beloved, it is not enough to awake out of an ill sleep of sin, or of ignorance, or out of a good sleep, out of a retiredness, and take some profession, if you wink, or hide yourselves, when you are awake, you shall not see the Ladder, not discern Christ, nor the working of his Angels, that is, the Ministry of the Church, and the comforts therein, you shall not hear that Harmony of the quire of heaven, if you will bear no part in it; an inward acknowledgment of Christ is not enough, if you forbear to profess him, where your testimony might glorify him. Si sufficeret fides cordis, non creasset tibi Deus • s, If the heart were enough, God would never have made a mouth; And to that, we may add, Si sufficeret os, non creasset manus, if the mouth were enough, God would never have made hands; for as the same Father says, Omni tuba clarior est per opera 〈◊〉 , no voice more audible, none more credible, then when thy hands speak as well as thy heart or thy tongue; Thou art then perfectly awaked out of thy sleep, when thy words and works declare, and manifest it.

The next is, Quid dixit; be spake, but what said he • first, he assented to that light which was given him. The Lord is in his place. He resisted not this light, he went not about to blow it out, by admitting reason, or disputation against it. He imputed it not to witchcraft, to illusion of the Devil; but Dominus est in loco isto, The Lord is in this place; O how many heavy sins, how many condemnations might we avoid, if we would but take knowledge of this, Dominus in loco isto, That the Lord is present, and sees us now, and shall judge hereafter, all that we do, or think. It keeps a man sometimes from corrupting, or soliciting a woman, to say, Peter, Maritus in loco, the Father, or the Husband is present; it keeps a man from an usurious contract to say, Lex in loco, the Law will take knowledge of it; it keeps a man from slandering or calummating another, to say, Testis in loco, here is a witness by; but this is Catholica Medicina, and Omni morbia, an universal medicine for all, to say, Dominus in loco, The Lord is in this place, and sees, and he • es, and therefore I will say, and think, and do, as if I were now summoned by the last • Trumpet, to give an account of my thoughts, and words, and deeds to him.

But the Lord was there and Jacob knew it not. As he takes knowledge by the first light of God's presence, so he acknowledges that he had none of this light, of himself, Ego nesciebam, Jacob a Patriarch and dearly beloved of God, knew not that God was so near him. How much less shall a sinful man, that multiples sins, like clouds between God and him, know, that God is near him? As Saint Augustine said, when he came out of curiousty to hear Saint Ambrose preach at Mila • , without any desire of profiting thereby, Appropinquavi, & vesciebam, I came 〈◊〉 God, but knew it not; So the customary and habitual sinners, may say, Elo • gavi, & nisciebam, I have • loyn'd my self, I have gone farther, and farther from my God, and was never sensible of it; It is a desperate Ignorance, not to be sensible of God's absence; but to acknowledge with Jacob, that we cannot see light, but by that light, that we cannot know God's presence but by his revealing of himself, is a religious, and a Christian humility. To know it by Reason, by Philosophy, is a dim and a faint knowledge, but only by the testimony of his own spirit, and his own revealing, we come to that confidence, Vere Domine, Surely the Lord is in this place.

Est apud 〈◊〉 , sed de •••• lans, God is with the wicked, but he dissembles his being there, that is, conceals it, he will not be known of it; Et 〈◊〉 , mal • rum dissi ••• latio quodammodo Veritas non est, when God winks at men's sins, when he dissembles, or disguises his knowledge, we may almost say, says Saint Bernard, Veritas non est, Here is not direct dealing, here is not entire truth, his presence is scarce a true presence. And therefore as the same Father proceeds, Si dicere licet, if we may be bold to express it so, Apud impios est, sed in dissimulatione, he is with the wicked, but yet he dissembles, he disguises his presence, he is there to no purpose, to no profit of theirs; but Est apud justos in veritate, with the righteous he is in truth, and in clearness. Est apud Angel • s in foelicitate, with the Angels and Saints in heaven, he is in an established happiness, Est apud inferos in feritate, he is in Hell in his • ury, in an irrevocable, and undeterminable execution of his severity: God was surely, and truly with Jacob, and with all them, who are sensible of his approaches, and of his gracious manifestation of himself. Vere non erat apud eos quibus dixit, quid vocati •• me Dominum, & non facitis qua dixi vobis? God is not truly with them, whom he rebukes for saying; Why call ye 〈◊〉 Lord, and do not my Commandments? but ubi in ejus nomive Angeli simul & homines congregantur, When Angels and men, Priest and people, the Preacher and the congregation labor together upon this Ladder, study the advancing of his Church (as by the working of God's gracious Spirit we do at this time) 〈◊〉 vere est & ibi vere Dominus est, surely he is in this place, and surely he is Lord in this place, he possesses, he fills us all, he governs us all: and as, though we say to him, Our Father which art in heaven, yet we believe that he is within these walls, so though we say Adveniat regnum tuum, thy kingdom come, we believe that his kingdom is come, and is amongst us in grace now, as it shall be in glory hereafter.

When he was now thoroughly awake, when he was come to an open profession, when he acknowledged himself to stand in the sight of God, when he confessed his own ignorance of God's presence, and when after all he was come to a settled confidence, Vere Dominus, surely the Lord is here, yet it is added, Et timuit, and he was afraid. No man may think himself to be come to that familiar acquaintance with God, as that it should take away that reverential fear which belongs to so high and supreme a Majesty. When the Angel appeared to the wife of Manoah, foretelling Samsons birth, she says to her husband, the fashion of him was like the fashion of the Angel of God; what's that? Exceeding fearful. When God appears to thy soul, even in mercy, in the forgiveness of thy sins, yet there belongs a fear even to this apprehension of mercy: Not a fearful diffidence, not a distrust, but a fearful consideration, of that height, and depth; what a high Majesty thou hast offended, what a desperate depth thou wast falling into, what a fearful thing it had been, to have fallen into the hands of the living God, and what an irrecoverable wretch thou hadst been, if God had not manifested himself, to have been in that place, with thee And therefore though he have appeared unto thee in mercy, yet be afraid, lest he go away again; As Manoab prayed, and said, I beseech thee my Lord, let the Man of God, whom thou sentest, come again unto us, and teach us, what we shall do with the child; when he is born, so when God hath once appeared to thy soul in mercy, pray him to come again, and tell thee what thou shouldest do with that mercy, how thou shouldest husband those first degrees of grace and of comfort, to the farther benefit of thy soul, and the farther glory of his name, and be afraid that thy dead flies may putrefy his ointment; those relics of sin, (though the body of sin, be crucified in thee) which are left in thee, may overcome his graces: for upon those words, Pavor tenuit me & tremor, & emni •• ssa mea perterrita sunt, fear came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones to shake, Saint Gregory says well, Quid per • ssa nisi fortia act a designantur, our good deeds, our strongest works and those which were done in the best strength of grace, are meant by our bones, and yet ossa perterrita our strongest works tremble at the presence and examination of God. And therefore to the like purpose (upon those words of the Psalm ) the same Father says, Omnia ossa mea dicent, Domine quis similis tibi, all my bones say, Lord who is like unto thee? Carnes meae, verba non habent, (my fleshly parts, my carnal affections) Infirma mea funditus silent, my sins; or my infirmities dare not speak at all, not appear at all, Sed ossa mea, quae fortia credidi, sua consideratione tremiscunt, my very bones shake, there is no degree, no state neither of innocence, nor of repentance, nor of faith, nor of sanctification, above that fear of God: and he is least acquainted with God, who things that he is so familiar, that he need not stand in fear of him.

But this fear hath no ill effect. It brings him to a second profession, Et dixit; and he spoke again. He waked, and then he spoke, as soon as he came out of ignorance; He was afraid, and then he spoke again that he might have an increase of grace. The earth stands still: and earthly Men may be content to do so: but he whose conversation is in heaven, is as the heavens are in continual progress. For Inter profectum, & defectum & defectum, medium in hac vita non datur. A Christian is always in a proficiency, or deficiency: If he go not forward, he goes backward. Nemo dicat, satis est, sic manere vol • ; Let no man say, I have done enough, I have made my profession already, I have been catechiz'd, I have been thought fit to receive the Communion, sufficit mihi esse sicut heri & nudiustertius; though he be in the way, in the Church, yet he sleeps in the way, he is got no farther in the way, then his godfathers carried him in their arms, to engraffe him in the Church by Baptism: for this man, says he, In via residet, in scala subsistit, quod nemo angelorum fecit, he stands still upon the ladder, and so did none of the Angels. Christ himself, increased in wildome, and in stature, and in favor with God, and Man; so must a Christian also labor to grow and to increase, by speaking and speaking again, by asking more, and more questions, and by farther, and farther informing his understanding, and enlightening his faith; per transiit benefaciendo, & sanavit omnes, says Saint Peter of Christ; He went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the Devil; and it was prophesied of him, Exultavit ut Gigas ad currendam vim, He went forth as a Giant, to run a race; If it be Christ's pace, it must be a Christians pace too. Currentem non apprehendit, nisi qui & pariter currit; There is no overtaking of him that runs, without running too. Quid prodest Christum sequi, si non consequamur? and to what purpose do we follow Christ, if not to overtake him, and lay hold upon him? Sic currite, ut comprehendatis, fige Christiane cursus & profectus metam ubi Christus suum; run so as ye may obtain; and if thou beest a Christian, propose the same end of thy course, as Christ did; factus est obediens usque ad mortem; and the end of his course was, to be obedient unto death.

Speak then, and talk continually of the name, and the goodness of God; speak again, and again; It is no tautology, no babbling, to speak, and • terate his praises: Who accuses Saint Paul for repeating the sweet name of Jesus so very many times in his Epistles? Who accuses David for repeating the same phrase, the same sentence [for his mercy endureth forever] so many times, as he doth in his Psalms? nay, the one hundred and nineteenth Psalm is scarce anything else, then an often repetition of the same thing. Thou spokest as soon as thou wast awake, as soon as thou wast born, thou spokest in Baptism. So proceed to the farther knowledge of Religion, and the mysteries of God's service in his house; and conceive a fearful reverence of them in their institution, and speak again, inquire what they mean, what they signify, what they exhibit to thee. Conceive a reverence of them, first, out of the authority that hath instituted them, and then speak, and inform thyself of them. God spent a whole week in speaking for thy good; Dixit Deus, God spake that there might be light, Dixit Deus, God sp • ke that there might be a firmament; for immediately upon God's speaking, the work followed: Dixit & factum, he spake the word, and the world was created. As God did, a godly man shall do; If he delight to talk of God, to mention often upon all occasions, the greatness, and goodness of God, to prefer that discourse, before obscene, and scurrile, and licentious, and profane, and defamatory, and ridiculous, and frivolous talk; If he delight in professing God with his tongue, out of the abundance of his heart, his works shall follow his words, he will do as he says. If God had given over, when he had spake of Light, and a Firmament, and Earth, and Sea, and had not continued speaking till the last day, when he made thee, what hadst thou got by all that? what hadst thou been at all for all that? If thou canst speak when thou awakest, when thou beginnest to have an apprehension of God's presence, in a remorse, if then, that presence, and Majesty of God, make thee afraid, with the horror and greatness of thy sins, if thou canst not speak again then, not go forward with thy repentance; thy former speech is forgotten by God, and unprofitable to thee. Jacob at first speaking confessed God to be in that place; but so he might be everywhere; but he conceived a reverential fear at his presence; and then he came to speak the second time, to profess, that that was none other but the house of God, and the gate of heaven; that there was an entrance for him in particular, a fit place for him to testify and exercise his Devotion; he came to see, what it was fit for him to do, towards the advancing of God's house.

Now whensoever a man is proceeded so far with Jacob, first to sleep, to be at peace with God, and then to wake, to do something for the good of others, and then to speak, to make profession, to publish his sense of God's presence, and then to attribute all this only to the Light of God himself, by which light he grows from faith to faith, and from grace to grace, whosoever is in this disposition, he may say in all places, and in all his actions, This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. He shall see heaven open, and dwell with him, in all his undertakings: and particularly, and principally in his expressing of a care, and respect, both to Christ's Mystical, and to his material body; both to the sustentation of the poor, and to the building up of God's house. In both which kinds of Piety, and Devotion, (non nobis Domine, non nobis, sed nomini tuo da gloriam; Not unto us O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy Name be given the glory;) As to the confusion of those shameless slanderers, who place their salvation in works, and accuse us to avert men from good works, there have been in this Kingdom, since the blessed reformation of Religion, more public charitable works performed, more Hospitals and Celleges erected, and endowed in threescore, then in some hundreds of years, of superstition before, so may God be pleased to add one example more amongst us, that here in this place, we may have some occasion to say, of a house erected, and dedicated to his service, This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven: and may he vouchsafe to accept at our hands, in our intention, and in our endeavor to consummate that purpose of ours, that thanksgiving, that acclamation which he received from his Royal servant Solomon, at the Consecration of his great Temple, when he said, Is it true indeed, that God will dwell on the earth? Behold, the heavens, and the heaven of heavens are not able to contain thee, how much more unable shall this house be, that we intend to build? But have thou respect unto the prayer of thy servant, and to his supplication, O Lord, my God, to hear the cry & the prayer that thy servant shall make before thee that day; That thine eye may be open towards that house night and day, that thou mayst hear the supplications of thy servants, and of thy people, which shall pray in that place, and that thou mayst hear them in the place of thy habitation even in heaven, and when thou hearest, mayst have mercy. Amen.

SERMON XII.

Preached at Lincolns Inn.

W hen our Savior forbids us to cast pearl before swine, we understand ordinarily in that place, that by pearl, are understood the Scriptures, and when we consider the natural generation and production of Pearl, that they grow bigger and bigger, by a continual succession, and devolution of dew, and other glutinous moisture that falls upon them, and there condenses and hardens, so that a pearl is but a body of many shells, many crusts, many films, many coats enwrapped upon one another. To this Scripture which we have in hand, doth that Metaphor of pearl very properly appertain, because our Savior Christ in this Chapter undertaking to prove his own Divinity and God-head to the Jews, who acknowledged, and confessed the Father to be God, but denied it of him, he folds and wraps up reason upon reason, argument upon argument, that all things are common between the Father and him, That whatsoever the Father does, he does, whatsoever the Father is, he is; for first, he says, he is a partner, a cooperator with the Father, in the present administration and government of the world, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work; well, if the Father do ease himself upon instruments now, yet was it so from the beginning? had he a part in the Creation? Yes; What things soever the Father doth, those also doth the Son likewise. But do those extend to the work properly, and naturally belonging to God, to the remission, to the effusion of grace, to the spiritual resurrection of them that are dead in their iniquities? Yes, even to that too, For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them, even to the Son quickeneth whom he will. But hath not this power of his a determination, or expiration? shall it not end, at least when the world ends? no, not then, for God hath given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of man. Is there then no Supersedeas upon this commission? Is the Son equal with the Father in our eternal election, in our creation, in the means of our salvation, in the last judgment, in all? In all, Omne judicium, God hath committed all judgment to the Son; And here is a pearl made up, the dew of God's grace sprinkled upon your souls, the beams of God's Spirit shed upon your souls, that effectual and working knowledge; That he who died for your salvation is perfect God, as well as perfect man, fit, as willing to accomplish that salvation.

In handling then this Judgment, which is a word that embraces and comprehends all, All from our Election, where no merit or future actions of ours were considered by God to our fruition and possession of that election, where all our actions shall be considered and recompensed by him, we shall see first that Judgment belongs properly to God; And secondly, that God the Father whom we consider to be the root and foundation of the Deity, can no more devest his Judgment then he can his Godhead, and therefore in the third place we consider, what that committing of Judgment, which is mentioned here imports, and then to whom it is committed, To the Son: and lastly the largnesse of that which is committed, Omne, all Judgment, so that we cannot carry our thoughts so high, or so far backwards, as to think of any Judgment given upon us in God's purpose or decree without relation to Christ; Nor so far forward, as to think that there shall be a Judgment given upon us, according to our good, moral dispositions or actions, but according to our apprehension and imitation of Christ. Judgment is a proper and inseparable Character of God; that's first, the Father cannot devest himself of that; that's next. The third is that he hath committed it to another; And then the person that is his delegate, is his only Son, and lastly his power is everlasting; And that Judgment day that belongs to him, hath, and shall last from our first Election, through the participation of the means prepared by him in his Church, to our association and union with him in glory, and so the whole circle of time, and before time was, and when time shall be no more, makes up but one Judgment day to him, to whom the Father who judgeth no man hath committed all Judgment.

First then Judgment appertains to God, It is his in Criminall causes, • Vindicta mihi, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord; It is so in civil things too; for God himself is proprietary of all, Domini est terra et plenitudo ejus, The earth is the Lord's, and all that is in, and on the earth; Your silver is mine, and your gold is mine, says the Prophet, and the beasts on a Thousand hills are mine, says David, you are usu •• ructuaries of them, but I am proprietary; No attribute of God is so often iterated in the Scriptures, no state of God so often incultated, as this Judge, and Judgment: no word concerning God so often repeated, but it is brought to the height, where in that place of the Psalm, where we read, God judgeth among the God's, the Latin Church ever read it, Deus dijudicat De • s, God judgeth the God's themselves, for though God say of Judges and Magistrates, Ego dixi dii estis; I have said ye are God's, (and if God say it, who shall gainsay it?) yet he says too, Moriemini, sicut homines, The greatest God's upon earth shall die like men; And if that be not humiliation enough, there is more threatened in that which follows, ye shall fall like one of the Princes, for the fall of a Prince involves the ruin of many others too, and it fills the world with horror for the present, and ominous discourse for the future; but the farthest of all is Deus dijudicat Deos, even these Judges must come to Judgment, and therefore that Psalm which begins so, is concluded thus, Surge Domine, arise ô God, and judge the earth: If he have power to judge the earth, he is God, and even in God himself it is expressed as a kind of rising, as some exaltation of his power, that he is to Judge; And that place in the beginning of that Psalm many of the ancients read in the future Dijudicabit, God, shall judge the God's, because the frame of the Psalm seems to refer it to the last Judgment; Turtullian reads it Dijudicavit, as a thing past, God hath judged in all times; and the letter of the text requires it to be in the present, Dijudicat. Collect all, and Judgment is so essential to God, as that it is coeternal with him, he hath, he doth, and he will judge the world, and the Judges of the world, other Judges die likemen, weakly, and they fall, that's worse ignominiously, and they fall like Princes, that's worst, fearfully, and yet scornfully, and when they are dead and fallen, they rise no more to execute Judgment, but have Judgment executed upon them the Lord dies not, nor he falls not, and if he seem to slumber, the Martyrs under the Altar awake him with their Vsque quo Domine, how long O Lord before thou execute Judgment? And he will arise and Judge the world, for Judgment is his; God putteth down one, and setteth up another, says David; where hath he that power? Why, God is the Judge, not a Judge, but the Judge, and in that right he putteth down one, and setteth up another.

Now for this Judgment, which we place in God, we must consider in God three notions, three apprehensions, three kinds of Judgment. First, God hath Iudicium detestationis, God doth naturally know, and therefore naturally detest evil; for no man in the extremist corruption of nature is yet fallen so far, as to love or approve evil at the same time that he knows, and acknowledges it to be evil. But we are so blind in the knowledge of evil, that we needed that great supplement, and assistance of the law itself to make us know what was evil; Moses magnifies (and justly) the law, Non appropinqu • vit, says Moses, God came not so near to any nation as to the Jews; Non taliter fecit, God dealt not so well with any nation, as with the Jews, and wherein? because he had given them a law, and yet we see the greatest dignity of this law, to be, That by the law is the knowledge of sin; for though by the law of nature written in our hearts, there be some condemnation of some sins, yet to know that every sin was Treason against God, to know that every sin hath the reward of death, and eternal death annexed to it; this knowledge we have only by the law. Now if man will pretend to be a Judge, what an exact knowledge of the law is required at his hand? for some things are sin to one nation, which are not to another, as where the just authority of the lawful Magistrate, changes the nature of the thing, and makes a thing naturally indifferent, necessary to them, who are under his obedience; some things are sins at one time, which are not at another, as all the ceremonial law, created new sins which were not sins before the law was given, nor since it expired; some things are sins in a man now, which will not be sins in the same man tomorrow, as when a man hath contracted a just scruple, against any particular action, it is a sin to do it during the scruple, and it may be sin in him to omit it, when he hath devested the scruple; only God hath Iudicium detestationis, he knows, and therefore detests evil, and therefore flatter not thyself with a Tush, God sees it not, or, Tush, God cares not, Doth it disquiet him or trouble his rest in heaven that I break his Sabbath here? Doth it wound his body, or draw his blood there, that I swear by his body and blood here? Doth it corrupt any of his virgins there, that I solicit the chastity of a woman here? Are his Martyrs withdrawn from their Allegeance, or retarded in their service to him there, because I dare not defend his cause, nor speak for him, nor fight for him here? Beloved, it is a degree of superstition, and an effect of an undiscreet zeal, perchance, to be too forward in making indifferent things necessary, and so to imprint the nature, and sting of sin where naturally it is not so: certainly it a more slippery and irreligious thing to be too apt to call things merely indifferent, and to forget that even in eating and drinking, waking and sleeping, the glory of God is intermingled, as if we knew exactly the prescience and foreknowledge of God, there could be nothing contingent or casual, (for though there be a contingency in the nature of the thing, yet it is certain to God) so if we considered duly, wherein the glory of God might be promov'd in every action of ours, there could scarce by any action so indifferent, but that the glory of God would turn the scale and make it necessary to me, at that time; but then private interests, and private respects create a new indifferency to my apprehension, and calls me to consider that thing as it is in nature, and not as it is considered with that circumstance of the glory of God, and so I lose that Iudicium detestationis, which only God hath absolutely and perfectly to know, and therefore to detest evil, and so he is a Judge.

And as he is a Judge, so Iudicat rem, he judges the nature of the thing, he is so too, as he hath Iudicium discretionis, and so Iudicat personam, he knows what is evil, and he discerns when thou committest that evil. Here you are fain to supply defects of laws, that things done in one County may be tried in another; And that in offenses of high nature, transmarine offenses may be inquir'd and tried here; But as the Prophet says; Who measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or meted 〈◊〉 the heavens with a span, who comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, or weighed the mountains in a scale? So I say, who hath divided heaven into shires or parishes, or limited the territories and Jurisdictions there, that God should not have Iudicium discretionis, the power of discerning all actions, in all places? When there was no more to be seen, or considered upon the whole earth but the garden of Paradise, for from the beginning Deliciae ejus esse cum filiis hominum, God's delight was to be with the sons of men, and man was only there, shall we not diminish God nor speak too vulgarly of him to say, that he hovered like a Falcon over Paradise, and that from that height of heaven, the piercing eye of God, saw so little a thing, as the forbidden fruit, and what became of that, and the reaching • are of God heard the hissing of the Serpent, and the whispering of the woman, and what was concluded upon that? Shall we think it little to have seen to have things done in Paradise when there was nothing else to divert his eye, nothing else to distract his counsels, nothing else done upon the face of the earth? Take the earth now as it is replenished, and take it either as it is torn and crumbled into rags, and shivers, not a kingdom, not a family, not a man agreeing with himself; Or take it in that concord which is in it, as All the Kings of the earth set themselves, and all the Rulers of the earth take counsel together against the Lord; take it in this union, or this division, in this concord, or this discord, still the Lord that sitteth in the heavens discerns all, looks at all, laughs at all, and hath them all in derision. Earthly Judges have their distinctions, and so their restrictions, some things they cannot know, what mortal man can know all? Some things they cannot take knowledge of, for they are bound to evidence: But God hath Iudicium discretionis, no mist, no cloud, no darkness, no disguise keeps him from discerning, and judging all our actions, and so he is a Judge too.

And he is so lastly, as he hath Iudicium retributionis, God knows what is evil, he knows when that evil is done, and he knows, how to punish and recompense that evil: for the office of a Judge who judges according to a law, being not to contract, or extend that law, but to declare what was the true meaning of that Law-maker when he made that law, God hath this judgment in perfection, because he himself made that law by which he judges, and therefore when he hath said, Morte morieris; If thou do this, thou shalt die a double death, where he hath said, Stipendium peccati mors est, every sin shall be rewarded with death; If I sin against the Lord, who shall entreat for me? Who shall give any other interpretation, any modification, any Non obstante upon his law in my behalf, when he comes to judge me according to that law which himself hath made? Who shall think to delude the Judge, and say, Surely this was not the meaning of the Law-giver, when he who is the Judge was the Law-maker too?

And then as God is Judge in all these respects, so is he a Judge in them all, Sine Appellatione, and Sine judiciis, man cannot appeal from God, God needs no evidence from man; for, for the Appeal first, to whom should we appeal from the Sovereign 〈◊〉 Wrangle as long as ye will who is Chief Justice, and which Court hath Juris 〈7 letters〉 over another; I know the Chief Justice, and I know the Sovereign 〈…〉 the King of heaven and earth shall send his ministering Spirits, his Angels to the 〈◊〉 , and bowels of the Earth, and to the bosom, and bottom of the Sea, and Earth must deliver, Corpus cum causâ, all the bodies of the dead, and all their actions, to receive a judgment in this Court: when it will be but an erroneous, and frivolous Appeal, to call to the Hills to fall down upon us, and the Mountains to cover, and hide us from the wrathful judgment of God. He is a Judge then Sine appellatione, without any Appeal, from him, he is so too Sine judiciis, without needing any evidence from us. Now if I be wary in my actions here, incarnate Devils, detractors, and informers cannot accuse me; If my sin come not to action, but lie only in my heart, the Devil himself who is the accuser of the brethren, hath no evidence against me, but God knows my heart; doth not he that pondereth the heart, understand it? where it is not in that faint word, which the vulgar Edition hath expressed it in, inspector cordium, That God sees the heart; but the word is Tochen, which signifies everywhere to weigh, to number, to search, to examine, as the word is used by Solomon again, The Lord weigheth the spirits, and it must be a ready hand, and exact scales that shall weigh spirits. So that though neither man, nor Devil, nay nor myself give evidence against me, yea, though I know nothing by myself, I am not thereby justified, why? where is the farther danger? In this which follows there in Saint Paul, He that judges me is the Lord, and the Lord hath means to know my heart better then myself: And therefore, as Saint Augustine makes use of those words, Abyssus Abyssum invocat, one depth calls upon another, The infinite depth of my sins must call upon the more infinite depth of God's mercy, for if God, who is Judge in all these respects, judicio detestationis, he knows, and abhors evil, and judicio discretionis, he discerns every evil person, and every evil action, judicio retributionis, he can, and will recompense evil with evil; And all these Sine Appellatione, we cannot appeal from him, & Sine judiciis, he needs no evidence from us; If this judgment enter into judgment with me, not only not I, but not the most righteous man, no, nor the Church whom he hath washed in his blood, that she might be without spot or wrinkle, shall appear righteous in his sight.

This being then thus, that Judgment is an inseparable character of God the Father, being Fons Deitatis, the root and spring of the whole Deity, how is it said, that the Father judgeth no man? Not that we should conceive a weariness, or retiring in the Father, or a discharging of himself upon the shoulders, and labors of another, in the administration, and judging of this world; for as it is truly said, that God rested the seventh day, that is, he rested from working in that kind, from creating, so it is true that Christ says here; My Father worketh yet, and I work, and so as it is truly said here, The Father judgeth no man, it is truly said by Christ too, of the Father, I seek not mine own glory, there is one that seeketh, and judgeth; still it is true, that God hath Iudicium detestationis, Thy eyes are pure eyes O Lord, and cannot behold iniquity, says the Prophet, still it is true, that he hath Iudicium discretionis (because they committed villainy in Israel, and I know it, saith the Lord;) still it is true, that he hath Iudicium retributionis, The Lord killeth and maketh alive, he bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up; still it is true, that he hath all these sine appellatione; for go to the Sea, or Earth, or Hell, as David makes the distribution, and God is there; and he hath them sine judiciis, for our witness is in heaven, and our record is on high: All this is undeniably true, and besides this, that great name of God, by which he is first called in the Scriptures Elohim, is not inconveniently derived from Elah, which is Iurare to swear, God is able as a Judge to minister an oath unto us, and to draw evidence from our own consciences against our selves, so that then, the Father he judges still, but he judges as God, and not as the Father. In the three great judgments of God, the whole Trinity judges, In the first judgment, before all times, which was God's Judiciary separating of vessels of honor, from vessels of dishonor, in our Election, and Reprobation; In his second judgment, which is in execution now, which is God's judiciary separating of servants from enemies, in the seals, and in the administration of the Christian Church; and in the last judgment, which shall be God's Judiciary separating of sheep from goats, to everlasting glory, or condemnation; in all these three judgments, all the three Persons of the Trinity are Judges. Consider God altogether, and so in all outward works, all the Trinity concurs, because all are but one God; but consider God in relation, in distinct Persons, and so the several Persons do something in which the other Persons are not interested; The Son hath not a generation from himself, so, as he had from the Father, and from the holy Ghost, as a distinct person, he had none at all; the holy Ghost had a proceeding from the Father and Son, but from the Son as a person, who had his generation from another, but not so from the Father. Not to stray into clouds, or perplexities in this contemplation, God, that is, the whole Trinity, judges still, but so as the Son judgeth, the Father judgeth not, for that Judgment he hath committed.

That we may husband our hour well, and reserve as much as we can for our two last considerations, the Cui, & Quid, to whom, and that's to the Son, and what he hath committed, and that's all Judgment, we will not stand much upon this, more needs not then this; That God in his wisdom foreseeing, that man for his weakness would not be able to settle himself upon God and his judgments, as they are merely heavenly, and spiritual, out of his abundant goodness hath established a judgment, and ordained a Judge upon earth like himself, and like ourselves too, That as no man hath seen God, so no man should go about to see his unsearchable decrees, and judgments, but rest in those sensible, and visible means which he hath afforded, that is, Christ Jesus speaking in his Church, and applying his blood unto us in the Sacraments to the worlds end: God might have suffered Abraham to rest in the first general promise, Semen mulieris, the Seed of the woman shall bruise the Serpents head, but he would bring it nearer to a visible, to a personal Covenant, In semine tuo, In thy Seed shall all nations be blessed; he might well have let him rest in that appropriation of the promise to his race, but he would proceed farther, and seal it with a sensible seal in his flesh with Circumcision; he might have let him rest in that ratification, that a Messias should come by that way, but he would continue it by a continual succession of Prophets, till that Messias should come; and now that he is come and gone, still God pursues the same way; How should they believe, except they hear? and therefore God evermore supplies his Church with visible and sensible means, and knowing the natural inclination of man, when he cannot have, or cannot comprehend the original, and prototype, to satisfy, and refresh himself with a picture, or representation; So, though God hath forbidden us that slippery, and frivolous, and dangerous use of graven Images, yet he hath afforded us his Son, who is the image of the invisible God, and so more proportional unto us, more apprehensible by us; And so this committing is no more but that God in another form, then that of God, hath manifested his power of judging, and this committing, this manifestation is in Filio, in his Son.

But in the entrance into the handling of this, we ask only this question, Cui filio, to which Son of God is this commission given? Not that God hath more Sons then one; but because that Son is his Son by a twofold filliation; by an eternal, and inexpressible generation, and by a temporary, but miraculous incarnation, in which of these rights is this commission derived upon him? doth he judge as he is the Son of God? or as he is the Son of man? I am not ordinarily bold in determining points (especially if they were fundamental) wherein I find the Fathers among themselves, and the School in it self, and the reverend Divines of the Reformation amongst themselves to differ; But yet neither am I willing to raise doubts, and leave the auditory unsatisfyed, and unsettled; we are not upon a Lecture, but upon a Sermon, and therefore we will not multiply variety of opinions; sum up the Fathers upon one side in Saint Ambrose mouth, and they will say with him, Huic dedit ubique generundo, non largiendo, God gave his Son this commission then (and when was that then?) then when he begot him, and then he must have it by his eternal generation, as the Son of God: sum up the Fathers on the other side, in Saint Augustine's mouth, and there they will say with him, that it is so clear, and so certain, that whatsoever is said in the Scripture to be committed, and given to Christ, belongs to Christ as the Son of man, and not as the Son of God, as that the other opinion cannot be maintained; and at this distance we shall never bring them to meet, but take in this rule, Iudicium convenit ei ut homo, causa ut Deus, God hath given Christ this commission as man, but Christ had not been capable of this commission if he had not been God too, and so it is easily reconciled: If we shall hold simply to the letter of the text, Pater dedit, then it will seem to have been committed to him in his eternal generation, because that was a work of the Fathers only, and in that generation the holy Ghost had no part; But since in this judgment, which is now committed to him, the holy Ghost hath a part, (for as we said before, the Judgment is an act of the whole Trinity) we must look for a commission from the whole Trinity, and that is as he is man, for, tota Trinitas univit humanitatem, The hypostatical union of God and man in the person of Christ, was a work of the whole Trinity.

Taking it then so settled, that the capacity of this Judgment, and (if we may say so) the future title to it, was given to him, as God by his essence, in his eternal generation, by which non vitae particeps, sed vitae naturaliter est, we cannot say that Christ hath life, but that he is life, for whatsoever the Father is, he is, excepting only the name and relation of Father, the capacity, the ability is in him, eternally before any imaginable, any possible consideration of time; But the power of the actual execution of this Judgment, which is given, and is committed, is in him as man: because as the same Father says, Ad heminem dicitur, Quid habes quod non accepisti? When Saint Past says, What hast thou that thou hast not received? he asks that question of a man, that which is received, is received as man, For as Bellarmine in a place where he disposes himself to quarrel, at some few words of Calvin's, though he confess the matter to be true, and (as he calls it there) Catholic, says, Essentiam genitam negamus, we confess that Christ hath not his essence from his Father by generation, the relation, the filliation, he hath from his Father, he hath the name of Son, but he hath not this execution of this judgment by that relation, by that filliation, still as the Son of God, he hath the capacity, as the Son of man, he hath the execution; And therefore Prosper that follows S. Augustine limits perchance too narrowly to the very flesh, to the humanity, Ipsa (not Ipsae) • rit Iudex, quae sub Iudice stetit, and ipsa judicabit, quae judicatae est, where he places not this Judgment upon the mixed person (which is the safest way) of God and man, but upon man alone, God hath appointed a day, in which 〈1 page duplicate〉 〈1 page duplicate〉 he will judge the world in righteousness; But by whom? By that man whom he hath ordained God will judge still; but still in Christ; and therefore says S. Augustine upon those words: Arise O Lord, and judge the earth, Cui Deo dicitur surge, nisi ei qui dormivit? What God doth David call upon to arise, but that God who lay down to sleep in the grave? as though he should say (says August.) Dormivisti judicatus à terra, surge & jud • ca terram. So that to collect all, though judgment be such a character of God as he cannot devest, yet the Father hath committed such a Judgment to the Son, as none but he can execute.

And what is that? Omne judicium, all judgment, that is, omne imperium, omnem potestatem; It is presented in the name of Judgment, but it involves all, It is literally, and particularly Judgment in S. John, The Father hath given him authority to execute judgment, It is extended unto power in Saint Matthew, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth; And it is enlarged as far farther, as can be expressed or conceived in another place of Saint Matthew, All things are delivered to me of my Father. Now all things our Savior Christ Jesus exercises, either per carnem, or at least in carne, whatsoever the Father does, the Son does too, In carne, because now there is an inseparable union betwixt God and the human nature: The Father creates new souls every day in the inanimation of Children, and the Son creates them with him; The Father concurs with all second causes as the first moving cause of all natural things, and all this the Son does too; but all this in carne; Though he be in our human flesh, he is not the less able to do the acts belonging to the Godhead, but per carnem, by the flesh instrumentally, visibly, he executes judgment, because he is the Son of man, God hath been so indulgent to man, as that there should be no judgment given upon man, but man should give it; Christ then having all Judgment, we refresh to your memory those three Judgments which we touched upon before; first, the Judgment of our Election, severing of vessels of honor and dishonor; next, the Judgment of our Justification here severing of friends from enemies; and then the Judgment of our Glorification, severing sheep from goats; and for the first, of our Election, As if I were under the condemnation of the Law, for some capital offense, and going to execution, and the Kings mercy expressed in a sealed pardon were presented me, I should not stand to inquire what moved the King to do it, what he said to anybody else, what anybody else said to him, what he saw in me, or what he looked for at my hands, but embrace that mercy cheerfully, and thankfully, and attribute it only to his abundant goodness: So, when I consider myself to have been let fall into this world, in massa Damnata, under the general condemnation of mankind, and yet by the working of God's Spirit, I find at first a desire, and after a modest assurance, that I am delivered from that condemnation, I inquire not what God did in his bed-chamber, in his cabinet counsel, in his eternal decree, I know that he hath made Iudicium electionis in Christ Jesus: And therefore that I may know, whether I do not deceive myself, in presuming myself to be of that number, I come down, and examine myself whether I can truly tell my conscience, that Christ Jesus died for me, which I cannot do, if I have not a desire and an endeavor to conform myself to him; And if I do that, there I find my Predestination, I am a Christian, and I will not offer to go before my Master Christ Jesus, I cannot be saved before there was a Savior, In Christ Jesus is Omne judicium, all judgment, and therefore the judgment of Election, the first separation of vessels of honor and dishonor in Election and Reprobation was in Christ Jesus.

Much more evidently is the second judgment of our Justification by means ordained in the Christian Church, the Judgment of Christ, it is the Gospel of Christ which is preached to you there, There is no name given under heaven whereby you should be saved, there are no other means whereby salvation should be applied in his name given, but those which he hath instituted in his Church; So that when I come to the second • udgement, to try whether I stand justified in the sight of Christ, or no, I come for that Judgment to Christ in his Church; Do I remember what I contracted with Christ Jesus, when I took the name of a Christian at my entrance into his Church by Baptism? Do I find I have endeavored to perform those Conditions? Do I find a remorse when I have not performed them? Do I feel the remission of those sins applied to me when I hear the gracious promises of the Gospel shed upon repentant sinners by the mouth of his Minister? Have I a true and solid consolation, (without shift, or disguise, or flattering of my conscience) when I receive the seal of his pardon in the Sacrament? Beloved, not in any moral integrity, not in keeping the conscience of an honest man, in general, but in using well the means ordained by Christ in the Christian Church, am I justified. And therefore this Judgment of Justification is his too. And then the third and last judgment, which is the judgment of Glorification, that's easily agreed by all to appertain unto Christ, Idem Jesus, The same Jesus that ascended, shall come to judgment, Videbunt quem pupugerant, Every eye shall see him, and they also which piercit him; Then the Son of man shall come in glory, and he, as man, shall give the judgment, for things done, or omitted towards him as man, for not feeding, for not clothing, for not harbouring, for not visiting. The sum of all is, that this is the overflowing goodness of God, that he deals with man by the son of man; and that he hath so given all judgment to the Son, as that if you would be tried by the first judgment; are you elected or no? The issue is, do you believe in Christ Jesus, or no? If you would be tried by the second judgment, are you justified or no? The issue is, do you find comfort in the application of the Word, and Sacraments of Christ Jesus, or no? If you would be tried by the third Judgment, do you expect a Glorification, or no? The issue is, Are you so reconciled to Christ Jesus now, by hearty repentance for sins past, and by detestation of occasion of future sin, that you durst welcome that Angel which should come at this time, and swear that time should be no more, that your transmigration out of this world should be this minute, and that this minute you might say unfeignedly and effectually, Veni Domine Jesus; come quickly, come now; if this be your state, then are you partakers of all that blessedness, which the Father intended to you, when for your sake, he committed all Judgment to the Son.

SERMON XIII.

Preached at Lincolns Inn.

T He Rivers of Paradise did not all run one way, and yet they flowed from one head; the sentences of the Scripture flow all from one head, from the holy Ghost, and yet they seem to present divers senses, and to admit divers interpretations; In such an appearance doth this Text differ from that which I handled in the forenoon, and as heretofore I found it a useful and acceptable labor, to employ our Evening exercises, upon the vindicating of some such places of Scripture, as our adversaries of the Roman Church had detorted in some point of controversy between them and us, and restoring those places to their true sense, (which course I held constantly for one whole year) so I think it a useful and acceptable labor, now to employ for a time those Evening exercises to reconcile some such places of Scripture, as may at first sight seem to differ from one another; In the morning we saw how Christ judged all; now we are to see how he judges none; I judge no man.

To come then to these present words, here we have the same person Christ Jesus, and hath not he the same Office? Is not he Judge? certainly though he retained all his other Offices, though he be the Redeemer, and have shed his blood in value satisfactory for all our sins, though he be our Advocate and plead for us in heaven, and present our evidence to that Kingdom, written in his blood, sealed in his wounds, yet if he be not our Judge, we cannot stand in judgment; shall he be our Judge, and is he not our Judge yet? Long before we were he was our Judge at the separation of the Elect and Reprobate, in God's eternal Decree. Was he our Judge then, and is he not so still? still he is present in his Church, and clears us in all scruples, rectifies us in all errors, erects us in all dejections of spirit, pronounces peace and reconciliation in all apprehensions of his Judgments, by his Word and by his Sacraments, was he, and is he, and shall he not be our Judge still? I am sure my Redeemer liveth, and he shall stand the last on earth. So that Christ Jesus is the same today, and yesterday, and forever, before the world begun, and world without end, Sicut erat in principio, as he was in the beginning, he is, and shall be ever our Judge.

So that then these words are not De temp • re, but De modo, there was never any time when Christ was not Judge, but there were some manner of Judgments which Christ did never exercise, and Christ had no commission which he did not execute; for he did all his Fathers will. 1. In secularibus, in civil, or criminal businesses, which belong merely to the Judicatures, and cognizance of this world, Iudicat neminem, Christ judges no man. 2. Secundum carnem, so as they to whom Christ spake this; who judged, as himself says here, according to fleshly affections, Iudicat neminem, he judges no man: and 3. Ad internecionem, so as that upon that Judgment, a man should despair of any reconciliation, any redintegration with God again, and be without hope of pardon, and remission of sins in this world, Iudicat neminem, he judges no man; 1. Christ usurps upon no man's Jurisdiction, that were against justice. 2. Christ imputes no false things to any man, that were against charity. 3. Christ induces no man to desperation, that were against faith; and against Justice, against charity, against faith, Iudicat neminem.

First then, Christ judgeth not in secular judgments, and we note his abstinence therein; first, in civil matters, when one of the company said to him, Master, bid my brother divide the inheritance with me, as Saint Augustine says, the Plaintiffe thought his cause to be just, and he thought Christ to be a competent Judge in the cause, and yet Christ declines the judgment, disavows the authority, and he answers, Homo, quis me constituit Iudicem, Man, who made me a Judge between you? To that General, which we had in the morning, Omne judicium, the Son hath all judgment; here is an exception of the same Judges own making, for in secular judgments, Nemo constituit, he had no commission, and therefore Iudicat neminem, he judges no man; he forbore in criminal matters too, for when the woman taken in adultery, was brought before him, he condemned her not; It is true, he absolved her not, the evidence was pregnant against her, but he condemned her not, he undertook no office of a Judge, but of a sweet and spiritual Counselor, Go, and sin no more, for this was his Element, his Tribunal.

When then Christ says of himself, with such a pregnant negative, Quis me constituit Iudicem, may not we say so too, to his pretended Vicar, the Bishop of Rome, Qui • te? Who made you Judge of Kings, that you should depose them, in criminal causes? Or who made you proprietary of Kingdoms, that you should dispose of them, as of civil inheritances? when to countenance such a pretence, they detort places of Scripture, not only perversely, but senselessly, blasphemously, ridiculously, (as ridicolously as in their pasquils, whē in an undiscreet shamlesnes, to make their power greater then it is, they make their fault greater then it is too, & fil their histories with examples of Kings deposed by Popes, which in truth were not deposed by them, for in that they are more innocent then they will confess themselves to be) when some of their Authors say, that the Primitive Church abstained from deposing Emperors, only because she was not strong enough to do it, when some of them say, That all Christian Kingdoms of the earth, may fall into the Church of Rome, by faults in those Princes, when some of them say, that De facto, the Pope hath already a good title to every Christian Kingdom, when some of them say, that the world will never he well governed, till the Pope put himself into possession of all (all which several propositions are in several Authors of good credit amongst them) will be not endure Christ's own question, Quis te constituit? Who made you Judge of all this? If they say Christ did; did he it in his Doctrine? It is hard to pretend that, for such an institution as that must have very clear, very pregnant words the carry in; did he do it by his example and practice? we see he abstained in criminal causes, when they come to their last shift, that is, that Christ did exercise Judiciary Authority, when he whipped Merchants out of the Temple, when he cursed the fig-tree, and damnified the owner thereof, and when he destroyed the Heard of Swine, (for there, say they, the Devil was but the Executioner, Christ was the Judge) to all these, and such as these, it is enough to say, All these were miraculous, and not ordinary; and though it might seem half a miracle how that should exercise so much authority as he hath done over the world, yet when we look nearer, and see his means, that he hath done all this by Massacres of millions, by withdrawing Subjects from their Allegiance, by assasinating and murthering of Princes, when we know that miracles are without means, and we see the means of his proceedings, the miracle ceases, howsoever that Bishop as Christ's Vicar can claim no other power, then was ordinary in Christ, and so exercised by Christ, and so Iudicavit neminem; In secular judgment, Christ judges no man, and therefore that Bishop as his Vicar should not.

Secondly, Christ judges no man by calumny, by imputing, or laying false aspersions upon him, nor truths extrajudicially, for that's a degree of calumny; We enter into a large field, when we go about to speak against calumny, and slander, and detracti • on, so large a field, as that we may fight out the last drop of our blood, preach out the last gasp of our breath, before we overcome it, those to whom Christ spake here, were such as gave perverse judgments, caluminiating censures upon him, and so he judges no man, we need not insist upon that, for it is manifest verum; but that we may see our danger, and our duty, what calumny is, and so how to avoid it actively, and how to bear it passively, I must by your leave stop a little upon it.

When then we would present unto you that monster Slander, and Calumny, though it be hard to bring it within any compass of a division, yet to take the largeness of the school, and say, that every calumny is either direct, or indirect, that will comprehend all, and then a direct calumny, will have three branches, either to lay a false and unjust imputation, or else to aggravate a just imputation, with unnecessary, but heavy circumstances, or thirdly to reveal of fault which in it self was secret and I by no duty bound to discover it, and then the indirect calumny will have three branches too, either to deny expressly some good that is in another, or to smother it in silence, when my testimony were due to him, and might advantage him, or lastly to diminish his good parts, and say they are well, but not such as you would esteem them to be; collect then again, for that's all, that we shall be able to do, that he is a calumniator directly, that imputes a false crime, that aggravates a true crime, that discovers any crime extrajudicially; That he is an indirect calumniator, that denies another man's sufficiencies, that conceals them, that diminishes them; Take in some of Saint Bernard's examples of these rules, that it is a calumny to say, Doles vehementer, I am sorry at the heart for such a man because I love him, but I could never draw him from such and such a vice, or to say, per me nunquam innotuisset, I would never have spoken of it, yet since all the world talks of it, the truth must not be disguised, and so take occasion to discover a fault which nobody knew before, and thereby (as the same Father says) cum gravitate et tarditate aggredi maledictionem, to cut a man's throat gravely, and soberly, and so much the more persuasively; because he seems, and pretends to do it all against his will; This being the rule, and this the exumple, who amongst us is free from the passive calumny? Who amongst us hath not some other man calumniated? Nay who is free from the active part? Which of us in some of these degrees hath not calumniated some other? But those to whom Christ makes his exception here, that he judges no man as they judge, were such calumniators, as David speaks of, Sede • adversus fratrem tuum loque ba • is, Then sittest and speakest against thy neighbor, as Saint Augastin notes upon that place, Non transitory, non surreptionis passion, sed quasi ad hoc vacans, not by chance, & unawares, not in passion because he had offended thee, not for company, because thou wouldest be of their minds, but as though thy profession would bear thee out in it, to leave the cause and lay aspersion upon the person, so thou art a calumniator, They up 〈◊〉 my people as bread, as David says in God's person: And upon those words of the same Prophet, says the same Father, De caeteris, when we eat of anything else, we taste of this dish, and we taste of that, non semper hoc • lus, says he we do not always eat one sallet, one meat, one kind of fruit, sed semper panem, whatsoever we eat else we always eat bread, howsoever they implored their thoughts, or their wits otherways, it was always one exercise of them to calumniate Christ Jesus, and in that kind of calumny, which is the bitterest of all, they abounded most, which is in scorn and derision, David, and Job, who were slander proof, in a good measure, yet everywhere complain passionately that they were made a scorn, that the wits made libels, that drunkards sung songs, that fools, and the children of fools derided them; And when Saul was in his last, and worst agony, and had abandoned himself to a present death, and prayed his armourbearer to kill him, it was not because the uncircumcised should not kill him (for he desired death, and he had their deadly arrows already in his bosom) but it was (as it is expressed there) lest the uncircumcised should come and abuse him, he was afraid of scorn when he had but a few minutes of life. Since then Christ judges no man (as they did) secundum carnem ejus, according to the outward appearance, for they thought no better of Christ then he seemed to be, (as Fathers take that phrase, nor secundum carnem suam, according to his own fleshly passions, (as some others take it) judge not you so neither, first judge not that ye be not judged, that is, as Saint Ambrose interprets it well enough, Nolite • udicare de judiciis Dei, when you see God's judgments fall upon a man, when you see the tower of Silo fall upon a man, do not you judge that that man had sinned more then you, when you see another borne blind, do not you think that he or his Father had sinned, and that you only are derived from a pure generation, especially n • n maledic as surdo, speak not evil of the deaf that hears not; That is, (as Gregory interprets it if not literally, yet appliably, and usefully) calumniate not him who is absent, and cannot defend himself, it is the devils office to be Accusator fratrum, and though God do not say in the law, Non erit, yet he says, Non erit criminator, it is not plainly, there shall be no Informer: (for as we dispute, and for the most part affirm in the School, that though we could, we might destroy no entire species of those creatures, which God made at first, though it be a Tiger, or a viper, because this were to take away one link of God's chain out of the world, so such vermin as Informers may not, for some good use that there is of them, be taken away) though it be not non erit, there shall be none, yet it is at least by way of good counsel to thee, non eris, thou shalt not be the man, thou shalt not be the Informer, and for resisting those that are, we are bound, not only not to harm our neighbors house, but to help him, if casually his house fall on fire, we are bound where where we have authority to stop the mouths of other calumniators where we have no authority, yet since as the North wind driveth away rain, an angry countenance driveth away a back-biting tongue, at least deal so with a libeller, with a calumniator, for he that looks pleasantly, and hearkens willingly to one libel, makes another, occasions a second; always remember David's case, when he thought that he had been giving judgment against another he was more severe, more heavy, then the law admitted; The law was, that he that had stolen the sheep should return fourfold, and David's anger was kindled says the text, and he said, and he swore, As the Lord liveth, that man shall restore fourfold, Et filius mortis, and he shall surely dies O judicis superfluentem justitiam, O superabundant and overflowing Justice, when we judge another in passion; But this is judicium secundum carnem, according to which Christ judges no man, for Christ is love, and that non cogitat malum, love thinks no evil any way; The charitable man neither meditates evil against another, nor believes not easily any evil to be in another, though it be told him.

Lastly, Christ judges no man Ad internecionem, he judges no man so, in this world, as to give a final condemnation upon him here; There is no error in any of his Judgments, but there is an appeal from all his Judgments in this world; There is a verdict against every man, every man may find his case recorded, and his sin condemned in the law, and in the Prophets, there is a verdict, but before Judgment, God would have every man saved by his book, by the apprehension, and application of the gracious promises of the Gospel, to his case, and his conscience, Christ judges no man so, as that he should see no remedy, but to curse God, and die, not so, as that he should say, his sin is greater then God could forgive, for God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.

Do not thou then give malicious evidence against thyself, do not weaken the merit, nor lessen the value of the blood of thy Savior, as though thy sin were greater then it; Doth God desire thy blood now, when he hath abundantly satisfied his justice with the blood of his Son for thee? what hast thou done? hast thou come hypocritically to this place upon collateral reasons, and not upon the direct service of God? not for love of Information, of Reformation of thyself? If that be thy case, yet if a man hear my words, says Christ, and believe not, I judge him not, he hath one that judgeth him, says Christ, and who is that? The word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him; It shall, but when? It shall judge him, says Christ, at that last day, for till the last day, the day of his death, no man is past recovery, no man's salvation is impossible: Hast thou gone farther then this? Hast thou admitted scruples of diffidence, and distrust in God's mercy, and so tasted of the lees of desperation? It is true, perpetrare flagitium est mors anima, sed desper are est descensus ad inferos, In every sin the soul dies, but in desperation it descends into hell, but yet portae inferi non praevalebunt, even the gates of this hell shall not prevail against thee; Assist thyself, argue thine own case, desperation it self may be without infidelity; desperation as well as hope is rooted in the desire of happiness; desperation proceeds out of a fear and a horror of sin, desperation may consist with faith thus far, that a man may have a true, and faithful opinion in the general, that there is a remission of sin, to be had in the Church, and yet have a corrupt imagination in the particular, that to him in this sinful state that he is in, this remission of sins shall not be applied, so that the resolution of the School is good, Desperatio potest esse 〈◊〉 solo excessu boni; desperation may proceed from an excess of that which is good in it self, from an excessive over fearing of God's justice, from an excessive over hating thine own sins, Et virtute quis male utitur? Can any man make so ill use of so great virtues, as the fear of God and the hare of sin? yes they may, so froward a weed is sin, as that it can spring out of any root, and therefore if it have done so in thee, and thou thereby have made thy case the harder, yet know still, that Objectum spe • est ardu • , et possibile, the true object of hope is hard to come by, but yet possible to come by, and therefore as David said, By my God have I leaped over a wall, so by thy God mayest thou break through a wall, through this wall of obduration, which thou thyself hast begun to build about thyself. Feather thy wings again, which even the flames of hell have touched in these beginnings of desperation, feather them again with this text Neminem judicat, Christ judges no man, so as a desperate man judges himself, do not make thyself believe, that thou hast sinned against the holy Ghost; for this is the nearest step thou hast made to it, to think that thou hast done it; walk in that large field of the Scriptures of God, and from the first flower at thy entrance, the flower of Paradise, Semen mulieris, the general promise of the seed of the woman should bruise the Serpents head, to the last word of that Messias upon the Cross, Consummatum est, that all that was promised for us is now performed, and from the first to the last thou shalt find the savor of life unto life in all those flowers; walk over the same alley again and consider the first man Adam in the beginning who involved thee in original sin; and the thief upon the Cross who had continued in actual sins all his life, and sealed all with the sin of reviling Christ himself a little before his expiration, and yet he recovered Paradise, and Paradise that day, and see if thou canst make any shift to exclude thyself, receive the fragrancy of all these Cordials, Vivit Domin •• , as the Lord liveth I would not the death of a sinner, Quandocunque, At what time soever a sinner repenteth, and of this text Neminem judieat, Christ judgeth no man to destruction here, and if thou find after all these Antidotes a suspicious air, a suspicious working in that Impossibi • e est, that it is impossible for them, who were once enlightened if they fall away, to renew them again by repentance, sprinkle upon that worm wood of Impossible est, that Manna of Quorum remiseritis, whose sins ye remit, are remitted, and then it will have another taste to thee, and thon wilt see that that impossibility lies upon them only, who are utterly fallen away into an absolute Apostasy, and infidelity, that make a mock of Christ, and crucify him again, as it is expressed there, who undervalue, and despise the Church of God, & those means which Christ Jesus hath instituted in his Church for renewing such as are fallen. To such it is impossible, because there are no other ordinary means possible, but that's not thy case, thy case is only a doubt, that those means that are sha •• not be applied to thee, and even that is a slippery state to doubt of the mercy of God to thee in particular, this goes so near making thy sin greater then God's mercy, as that it makes thy sin greater then daily adulteries, daily murders, daily blasphemies, daily prophanings of the Sabbath could have done, and though thou canst never make that true in this life that thy sins are greater then God can forgive, yet this is a way to make them greater, then God will forgive.

Now to collect both our Exercises, and to connexe both Texts, Christ judgeth all men and Christ judgeth no man, he claims all judgment, and he disavows all judgment, and they consist well together, he was at our creation, but that was not his first sense; the Arians who say, Erat quando non erat, there was a time when Christ was not, intimating that he had a beginning, and therefore was a creature, yet they will allow that he was created before the general creation, and so assisted at ours, but he was infinite generations before that, in the bosom of his Father, at our election, and there in him was executed the first judgment of separating those who were his, the elect from the reprobate, and then he knows who are his by that first Judgment: And so comes to his second Judgment, to seal all those in the visible Church with the outward mark of his baptism, and the inward mark of his Spirit, and those whom he calls so, he justifies, and sanctifies, and brings them to his third Judgment, to an established and perpetual glory. And so all Judgment is his. But then to judge out of human affections, and passions, by detraction, and calumny, as they did to whom he spoke at this time, so he judges no man, so he denies judgment: To usurp upon the jurisdiction of others, or to exercise any other judgment, then was his commission, as his pretended Vicar doth so he judges no man, so he disavows all judgment: To judge so as that our condemnation should be irremediable in this life, so he judges no man, so he forswears all judgment, As I live, saith the Lord of hosts, and as I have died, saith the Lord Jesus, so I judge none. Acknowledge his first Judgment, thy election in him, Christ his second Judgment, thy justification by him, breath and pant after his third Judgment, thy Crown of glory for him; intrude not upon the right of other men, which is the first, defame not, calumniate not other men, which is the second, lay not the name of reprobate in this life upon any man, which is the third Judgment, that Christ disavows here, and then thou shalt have well understood, and well practiced both these texts, The Father hath committed all Judgment to the Son, and yet The Son judges no man.

SERMON XIIII.

Preached at Lincolns Inn.

A Mongst those Articles, in which our Church hath explained, and declared her faith, this is the eight Article, that the three Creeds, (that of the council of Nice, that of Athanasius, and that which is commonly known by the name of the Apostles Creed ) ought thoroughly to be received, and embraced. The meaning of the Church is not, that only that should be believed in which those three Creeds agree; (for, the Nicene Creed mentions no Article after that of the holy Ghost, not the Catholic Church, not the Communion of Saints, not the Resurrection of the flesh; Athanasius his Creed does mention the Resurrection, but not the Catholic Church, nor the communion of Saints,) but that all should be believed, which is in any of them, all which is sum'd up in the Apostles Creed. Now, the reason expressed in that Article of our Church, why all this is to be believed, is; Because all this may be proved by most certain warrants of holy Scriptures. The Article does not insist upon particular places of Scripture; not so much as point to them. But, they who have enlarged the Articles, by way of explanation, have done that. And when they come to cite those places of Scripture, which prove the Article of the Resurrection, I observe that amongst those places they forbear this text; so that it may seem, that in their opinion, this Scripture doth not concern the Resurrection. It will not therefore be impertinent, to make it a first part of this exercise, whether this Scripture be to be understood of the Resurrection, or no; And then, to make the particular handling of the words, a second part. In the first, we shall see, that the Jews always had, and have still, a persuasion of the Resurrection. We shall look after, by what light they saw that; whether by the light of natural reason; And, if not by that, by what light given in other places of Scripture; and then, we shall shut up this inquisition with a unanime consent, (so unanime, as I can remember but one that denies it, and he but faintly) that in this text, the doctrine of the resurrection is established. In the second part, the doctrine it self comprised in the words of the text, (And though after my skin, worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God) we shall see first, that the Saints of God themselves, are not privileged from the common corruption and dissolution of the body; After that curse upon the Serpent, super pectus gradieris, upon thy belly shalt thou go, we shall as soon see a Serpent go upright, and not craule, as, after that Judgment, In pulverem revertêris, to dust thou shalt return, see a man, that shall not see death, and corruption in death. Corruption upon our skin, says the text, (our outward beauty;) corruption upon our body, (our whole strength, and constitution.) And, this corruption, not a green paleness, not a yellow jaundise, not a blue lividnesse, not a black morpheu upon our skin, not a bony leanness, not a sweaty faintness, not an ungracious decrepitnesse upon our body, but a destruction, a destruction to both, After my skin my body shall be destroyed. Though not destroyed by being resolved to ashes in the fire, (perchance I shall not be burnt) not destroyed by being washed to slime, in the sea, (perchance I shall not be drowned) but destroyed contemptibly, by those whom I breed, and feed, by worms; (After my skin worms shall destroy my body.) And thus far our case is equal; one event to the good and bad; worms shall destroy all in them all. And farther then this, their case is equal too, for, they shall both rise again from this destruction. But in this lies the future glory, in this lies the present comfort of the Saints of God, that, after all this, (so that this is not my last act, to die, nor my last scene, to lie in the grave, nor my last exit, to go out of the grave) after, says Job; And indefinitely, After, I know not how soon, nor how late, I press not into God's secrets for that; but, after all this, Ego, I, I that speak now, and shall not speak then, silenced in the grave, I that see now, and shall not see then, ego videbo, I shall see, (I shall have a new faculty) videbo Deem, I shall see God (I shall have a new object ) and, In carne, I shall see him in the flesh, (I shall have a new organ, and a new medium ) and, In carne mea, that flesh shall be my flesh, (I shall have a new propriety in that flesh) this flesh which I have now, is not mine, but the worms; but that flesh shall be so mine, as I shall never devest it more, but in my flesh I shall see God forever.

In the first part then, which is an inquiry, whether this text concern the Resurrection, or no, we take knowledge of a Crediderunt, and of a Credunt in the Jews, that the Jews did believe a Resurrection, and that they do believe it still. That they do so now, appears out of the doctrine of their Talmud, where we find, that only the Jews shall rise again, but all the Gentiles shall perish, body and soul together, as Korah, Dathan, and Abiram were swallowed all at once, body, and soul into hell. And to this purpose, (for the first part thereof, that the Jews shall rise) they abuse that place of Isaiah; Thy dead men shall live; awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust. And, for the second part, that the Gentiles shall not rise, they apply the words of the same Prophet before, They are dead, they shall not live, they are deceased, they shall not rise. The Jews only, say they shall rise; but, not all they;