A Century of Sermons

Doctors, this absurdity would follow, they should exceed the Merits of the Blessed Virgin and all the Saints, their stock of good Works should run on in infinitum; I think they are afraid they might prove such excellent servants that God should scarce be able to requite them.

Thus they entangle themselves in endless strifes to keep Enoch out of Heaven, and with him all those souls that died in the Faith before our Savior gave up the Ghost, and upon affected misconstruction of those Texts, that Christ was the first fruits of them that sleep, that no man hath ascended into heaven, but he that first descended, the Son of man that is in heaven. To explain myself, and satisfy them, remember our Savior's words, that there are divers mansions in his Fathers house, that is, divers Stories of glory in his Fathers house built one above another; there are outward Courts of glory, and inward Chambers. Now it is not to be denied, but that Enoch, and all the souls of all the just men of the Old Testament were in some quarterings of Heaven, as in their proper place, and in a state of happiness and salvation, which is figuratively called heaven, yet I do not say but Christ did open a door unto them to bring them nearer to the Vision of God in the highest heavens, when himself did enter into glory. The souls of good men deceased were ever in the hand of God, but not ever in like distance to the joys of God. They were in Heaven before Christ ascended, but not in such an Heaven as they possess now after he ascended. Their Lot was Heaven from the beginning, but their inheritance is augmented, that Verse in our Morning Hymn looks this way, I take it, when thou hadst overcome, &c. But of St. Paul's meaning to jump with this Doctrine I am very confident, Heb. ix. 8. The way into the holiest of all was not yet mode manifest, while as the first Tabernacle was yet standing. That I may leave no objections behind me to stumble you, the main scruple is, that the Scripture speaks as if Christ had made the first passage into Heaven in his own person, which must be interpreted of the highest heavens, where the blessed shall remain forever; no man was admitted there, not the body nor the soul of man, till he that was God and man in one person went in first, and by his own merits and intercession gave access unto his brethren. I settle in my own belief upon this answer, not for want of two other answers, and both of them probable. The one, that before ever Christ took flesh, virtually, and meritoriously he opened the Kingdom of heaven to all Believers. Ab origin mundi operata est Christi 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the Ministry of Christ had all effects and operations of grace and goodness from the beginning of the world. The other answer is, no man hath ascended into heaven but Christ, but Enoch, Elias, and those that rose out of their graves, and appeared in the holy City, these were translated into heaven; 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 negatur, non 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , as one distinguisheth. To ascend is to exalt himself by his own power, to be translated is to be carried away by the power of God. So Gregory says upon Elias his triumphant departure out of this world, Ligitur in curru ascendisse, quia homo purus adiutorio indiget alieno; He is described to be mounted in a Chariot, for it is not in man to reach up to heaven without divine assistance. Wherefore I conclude this Point, that nothing is repugnant to the dignity and priority of Christ, but that Enoch was carried away to heaven in the hand of God.

And surely, as the Apostle says, the gifts of God are without repentance; he took him not away from the state of corruption here to kill him hereafter. As he saved him from death once, and translated him, so he will keep him from death forever. I confess it is strange to me that the greatest part of the Fathers should be of another mind, but I confess the most ancient, and the best part of them are of another mind. Justin Martyr, Tertullian, and so downward to St. Austin, Vivunt Enoch & Elias, sed reddituri ut morti debitum solverent; Enoch and Elias are alive, but the time is to come that they will return, and pay the debt of nature, and die. Such learned judgments had carried me clear along with them but that the foundation upon which they built was evidently rotten. The obstreperous Jews, I dare avouch it, laid the first stone of that error to oppose the true Messias that came to save them; for whereas Malachi concludes the Old Testament with a Prediction that the next Prophet after him should be John the Baptist, who should prepare the way unto Christ the Lord, behold I will send you Elijah the Prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. The Jewish Septuagint would make the world believe that the very Elias should personally appear against the Apparition of Messias, and have cogged in a word to that purpose, Behold I will send Elijah the Thisbite before the great day of the Lord. Upon this Tryphon the Jew, being put to it learnedly by Justin Martyr, falls at last into this cavil, for his part he knew not whether the Messias were come, or no, but he knew he should have no power or authority till Elias anointed him. What doth Justin Martyr reply to this? We have not wanted one Elias already, meaning John the Baptist, and we shall see the true Elias himself going before the second coming of Christ. Thus the good Fathers of the Christian Church were mistaken by the fraud of that addition Elias the Thisbite. And since they looked for Elias to come again, they thought it as expedient that Enoch his pew-fellow and associate should join with him in the same fortune.

Well, this comes not yet home to our Point, for the Jews did not meddle or make with that question whether Elias, and by consequent Enoch, should die when he came again? No, that was brought in by Christian Disciples, who were much stunned with an hard place in the Revelation, in Chap. xi. The two Witnesses that should fight with the Beast, and be slain by the Beast, the two Olive trees, the two Candlesticks standing before the God of the earth. Some ancient Writers have distorted this place to Enoch and Elias, that they should preach against Antichrist three years and an half, clothed in Sackcloth, be slain in Jerusalem, and rise again in the face of all people before the general Resurrection. Venerable Bede was the first, whom I light upon, that expounds it of the two Testaments of the Scripture, which openly convince all false Prophets by the evidence of truth. In this latter Age divers adhere to that exposition, among the rest the Learned and Princely Pen of King James of blessed memory. I believe many of those excellent Fathers if they had lived in these times would have approved the ingenuous collection of a late Writer, how nothing is proved, but that certain men in the last days shall preach against Antichrist and his Idolatries. Now two Witnesses are spoken of, that is very few, if they be compared with the great numbers of their enemies; but Witnesses must be two at least, according to the Law, therefore by the two Olive trees and two Candlesticks are meant Zorubabel and Joshua in the Prophet Zacharias: By them that have power to shut heaven in the days of their Prophesy that it rain not, Elias and Elisha; by them that have power to turn waters into blood, and to smite them with Plagues when they will, Moses and Aaron. But none of those are meant definitively, and personally, but that the Lord shall have powerful Witnesses to preach against false Prophets, such as these, and not any color of intimation to bring in Enoch, who is not glanced at in any description of the Text Many Writers, opposite unto us, are confident that if any Witnesses come from Heaven to fight against Antichrist, they shall be Moses, and Elias, and Enoch shall continue where he is, for ought they know. Nay, their judgments are so various herein, that some follow St. Hilary, and say, the Witnesses shall be Moses and Elias. One Hippolytus thrusts in St. John the Evangelist, because it is said of him, Thou must prophesy again. Some say as much for the Prophet Jeremy, because the time of his death is unrecorded, locus est & pluribus umbris, it may be we shall hear of more hereafter. For they have a wild and large field to run in that will interpret Prophesies unfulfilled. Now if our Adversaries will be so resolute in their curiosities to define who these Witnesses are, and be angry with them that dissent from them, they for their part have less cause to blame them, who will be so confident in their Expositions about the Beast, his number, the City on seven hills, &c. For their part they are well requited, though I commend neither, the secret things belong to thee O God, the revealed unto us. And it is revealed to us that God took Enoch to himself, not that he will return him to us again. But as David said after the departure of his Child, We shall go to him, he shall not come again to us. And the Lord grant us all an happy passage out of this life to live with him forever. AMEN.

THE FIRST SERMON UPON NOAH.

I T is impossible to choose a better method than Elihu did to find out wisdom: Repetam scientiam meam à principio, Job xxxvi. 3. I will fetch my knowledge from far, or from the very beginning. But why do I call it Elihu's method? When behold a greater than Elihu, impugning the frivolous divorcements of marriages among the Jews, which then had common passage, doth thus overthrow them, Ab initio non fuit sic; It was not so from the beginning. From which words I am bold to pronounce, that this must be the leading rule of Divine Learning, that all Religion must be tried and allowed from the first, and most ancient Ordinations. Now we have four Ages to run through upon that examination. First for the Age before the Flood, whereof Almighty God hath left us a very short and confused memorial; I will not say, as some do, that the Church began when Enos was born to Seth, although we find it written, Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord, Gen. iv. ult. Nor from the Sacrifices of Cain and Abel, for the tradition of the Hebrews hath reason in it, that Adam himself had often sacrificed before, but the first hint of Religion in that Age is at this mark, where the Lord made woman, and brought her unto man, which was a mystery of Christ and his Church, Eph. v. 12. Secondly, if you will know how the fear of God was first professed after the Flood, it is written in my Text. Thirdly, If you will be acquainted with the first institution of the Mosaical Law, inquire for it at that time when God appeared in glory at Mount Sinai. And fourthly, If you will search to the bottom, when the Law was quite abrogated, and the Gospel was purely in force, reckon from the coming down of the Holy Ghost, at the Feast of Whitsuntide.

Among these four I have wittingly light upon the second, that I may entreat before you, how Religion was first managed presently after the Deluge under the Law ot Nature. For this seems to me to borrow somewhat of all the rest; so that speaking of this one they will all be remembered. The Mystery of Christ and his Church knit together is not here forgotten, where the clean Beasts and the clean Fowls are laid upon the Altar. The Sacrifices of Moses Law certainly were patterned by this example; and the inspiration of the holy Spirit must needs be in the Sacrifices work, from whence the Lord smelt a sweet savor. If your attention be now ready to receive the distribution of these words into their several parts, they may thus be divided into two principal branches; here is the material part, and the formal part, the body and the soul of that Divine Worship which Noah performed unto the Lord. He built an Altar unto the Lord, and took of every clean Beast, and of every clean Fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the Altar; that is the matter, the visible body of his good work: And the Lord smelled a sweet savor, there is the invisible part, or the Soul. The material outward work contains these three things: 1. That he offered burnt offerings. 2. Of every clean Beast, and of every clean Fowl. 3. Upon an Altar which he built. And Noah built an Altar unto the Lord, and offered burnt offerings on the Altar. In the formal part there are two things to be spoken of, sensibile, and sensus. The sensibile, that this Sacrifice had a sweet savor. 2. There was a quick sense that took it, and that is the Lord's, the Lord smelled a sweet savor. And Noah built an Altar, &c.

I take the material part first in hand, and this is the principal composition in the matter, that Noah offered burnt-offerings to the Lord. This was it, I perceive, why Noah thought it long till the Flood were asswaged, and sent one bird after another to learn if the waters were fallen, that he might come forth, and worship him with an holy Worship that made both the Flouds and the dry Land. As a conscionable man recovering from a perilous sickness, which brought him even to deaths door, thinks every hour seven till he present himself in the Church before the Lord, that he may praise his name in the Congregation: So the heart of this Patriarch had been so long full of meditations, all those days that he was shut up in the Ark, how he and his Posterity alone were preserved from the common Deluge, that his desires grew restless, and he sent forth the Dove three several times and no less, to bring him better news, if he might come forth, and do his homage for the possession of the Earth upon an Altar of earth, and that the Incense of his devotion might smoke up to heaven in Sacrifice. Now I lift up this example before you, to let you behold why we are born, and for what use we have our Station in this Globe of Creatures. The Lord hath opened our Mothers Womb, to bring us forth into the light, as he opened the door of the Ark to set Noah's feet in a large room: We were shut up in a place which God had appointed for us, till our passage was made into the world, almost as long as he; now we have our egress, and the liberty of the Earth and Air. To what end all this? What is appointed for man? Which way should his business tend? To enjoy the pleasures of the Age? To extend our appetite over the abundance of all things which the earth affords? To build and plant? To be renowned, and leave a Posterity behind us? No, that account is ill cast up: for you may see in this condition of Noah, that he, and all that were with him, were let forth of the Ark as a people then born again into a new world, and the end was to offer up spiritual Sacrifices with a clean heart, and while we have any being to praise the Lord. When the Angel had delivered the Apostles out of the common-Prison into which they were cast, says he, Go, stand, and speak to the people in the Temple all the words of this life: So we are set at liberty from our Mothers Womb, from that Ark to which we were committed for a time, that we may go to the Courts of the house of our God, even as Noah came abroad, and took seisin of the earth immediately to make an Altar thereof, and thereon to offer Sacrifice to the strength of his deliverance.

The question will be, what direction the holy man had to worship the Lord with this kind of Service? Lay it down for that which must be granted. He that makes his own brain the model of his Religion, shall have little thanks for his forwardness. Ascribe unto the Lord the honor due unto his name; honor of Duty and Precept is best, that which is redundant, and of man's excogitation is frivolous. Indeed, Ceremonies, for the most part, are unprescribed, that particular Churches may be their own carvers in them; only let them beware that they use their liberty discreetly: But the offering of burnt Sacrifices is a matter of substance, how came this into Noah's heart to do it? By divine information certainly. At some time, about the beginning of time, God did appoint a form of Religion to Adam and his Posterity, which in the Breviary of the Book of Genesis is omitted, which Lesson was read to Cain and Abel, from whom they undertook the solemnity of Sacrifice; and the Candle was lighted from hand to hand till the Tradition came safe to Noah: Or thus very briefly, Which God did deliver to Adam, which Adam did commit ro Jared, he to Methuselah, which Methuselah did commend to Noah. Never imagine that they were appointed precisely about the food of their body, that is in the Letter of the Book, and no instruction delivered for the food of their Soul. That were such an omission that the worst Lawgiver would prevent, much more the wisest. The Lord did set his holy Patriarchs in order, from succession to succession (till the Law was written) to communicate true Religion. And it is St. Jerome's rule, Omne verum à quocunque dicitur à spiritu sancto est; Every mouth that speaks truth, speaks it from the Holy Ghost. From Abel downward all those, whose Oblations had a sweet savor, offered by Faith; if by Faith, then by Precept and Instruction; for Faith comes by hearing, Rom. x. 17. Sacrifice then was that Divine Worship which God revealed did please him: that was the general approbation. I do not say, that every time they kept that duty they had need of a new and a special Commission. St. Ambrose says, that Noah did this good work of his own genius, and not by any new particular Commandment: Qui debitum gratiae ut à se exigatur expectat ingratus est; A man must not stay after he hath received a benefit, till God say unto him, thank me now: for such thankfulness were ingratitude. Yet St. Ambrose hath far more voices against him than of his part, that this holy Father had special directions for the solemnizing this Sacrifice, and that expressly it was revealed unto him, upon the taking in of seven of the clean beasts into the Ark, Gen. vii. 2. Of clean beasts by sevens, that three Pairs were for propagation, and the single odd one, the seventh of clean Beasts and clean Fowls, the celebs animal, the pure Creature which mixed with no female, was to be dedicated in an whole burnt-offering to the Lord. And then this example will so little favor Will-worship, that it utterly beats it down, the invention of man had so little hand in it, that it was Scientia à Deo indita, an inspiration immediately put into the Prophet by the will of God.

The reason why the blood of Beasts was poured out to the Lord, and well accepted of him, will be ripe to be rendered by and by, when I have first shewn in a word, that Religion did never discord from itself by mutation of times. The Saints in all Ages had the same Faith, the same Worship, the same Hope and expectation. Pietas ante legem, in lege, post legem piissime sibi concordat; Piety in the Law, before the Law, and since the Law is constantly the same, and did never vary. Mark therefore from this Text, that the Levitical Ordinances of Moses in many things are but a renovation and amplification of Ceremonial Customs before the Law. I said in many things, that I might not fall into the same error with them, who have overlasht, that all the Ceremonial Law was in use and practice with the Patriarchs, and that Moses did but compile and gather it up into a body. If these men had been asked, where they did read of the Levites, and all the ritual Orders of the Priesthood before Moses, where concerning the trial of Leprosy, of Jealousy, and an hundred things more, I know they must be gravel'd, and could not answer: Nay, in the next Chapter, and the third verse, says the Lord to Noah, Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; but many living things were prohibited to the Jews in the Law of Ordinances, that they should not eat them. But this ground, I know, cannot be shaken, that many parts of the Ceremonial Law had clear passage in the Church presently after the Flood, long before they came forth in Moses name. And the whole Moral Law was acknowledged to be just and righteous even from the beginning of the world. Sacrifices, Altars, distinction of clean from unclean, abstaining from blood and things strangled, Vows, the Brother to raise up seed unto the Brother that died without Issue, these are all purely Ceremonial, and yet in practice before ever Jacob went down into Egypt, and that was 210 years, before ever the Levitical Institutions were enacted: And that all the Ten Commandments were engrafted in the good seeds of nature, there are such evident examples for them in all the book of Genesis, that it will be less tedious for you to ruminate upon them, than for me to remember them. But as a Book which is ill set forth, or rare to be had, is sometimes reprinted again in a good Edition, by them that are careful to propagate Learning: So those things Moral and Ceremonial which were in use before, were revived again when the Law was committed to Writing, and called the Scripture; partly because the Age of man grew short, and the Tradition of Religion through the more hands it went was the more corrupted, and because the Devil did superseminare in cord, scatter so many Tares among the Wheat, that the pure Law was scarce to be found in man's heart; and partly men were grown so guilty of the Law, that they would not look into their own hearts, where they found thoughts accusing them; Facti sunt fugitivi à cordibus suis, says St. Austin, they shunned to look into their own knowledge and conscience, which did condemn them, therefore it was necessary to have the Law written, that it might come unto men, since men did run from it. But the effects and grounds both of Ceremonial Sacrifices, and Moral Precepts were in force from the beginning. And we may say with Solomon, There is no new thing under the Sun, that which is called new hath been already of old time, which was before us, Eccles. i. 10.

And because all things which are written are written for our instruction, I will spare some time to show, that it concerns us, even after the cessation of all Sacrifice, to learn, why the Lord would be honored with the blood of beasts, and with the fat of Sacrifices. One of the best and choicest of the Fathers thought it such a gross kind of serving of God, to kill Oxen and Sheep, and throw their flesh into the fire, such a tyrannizing over the Creature rather than a worshiping of the Creator, that he esteemed it was granted the Ceremonial Church, because it could not be shifted. For since it was to be feared that the Israelites had cast their eye upon those fond customs of the Gentiles, and did affect to imitate them, rather than they should sacrifice to false God's, God did permit they should sacrifice to his name to prevent Idolatry. But I answer, The most ancient and primitive use of sacrificing, such as Noah's was in my Text, is not so to be slighted. For a bad thing by a toleration is not made half a virtue, nay, after toleration it still remains more than half a Vice. Moses did allow a Bill of divorce for the hardness of men's hearts, but that which is allowed for the hardness of the heart is yet a sin after the allowance: the connivance of the Law cannot make any fashions of pride excusable: and the farming out of Stews for Pensions cannot make Fornication venial. But I pray you what Idolatry was suspicious in Abel's time, or at this time when Noah came new out of the Ark? And yet even then Sacrifice was, and was a sweet savor. And the ground of the objection is mistaken; for who can ever prove, that the Children of Israel had learnt the forms of sacrificing in the Land of Egypt? It is impossible. For the Egyptians hated sacrificing, and killing of Cattle; wherefore Moses would not consent to Pharaoh to sacrifice to God in that Land: Says he, Shall we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, and will they not stone us? And the Egyptians continued such long after Christ, when the Satirist fell thus upon them, Nefas illic foetum jugulare capellae, carnibus humanis vesci licet, &c. This hath declared that the Ordinance of Sacrificing from the beginning was not a bare toleration, to divert men from laying their Offering upon the Altars of their Idols.

But to make all perspicuous, we are to hearken to the judgment of Irenaeus; and St. Jerome, that Sacrificing was an holy Worship which God did like and allow from the beginning of the world; and for many Ages there was no prescription for the manner, all holy men had their freedom for quantùm and quomodo, for how much, for when it should be done; but when the seed of Abraham proved recreants, and fell in love with the superstition, and worse than superstition, then, and not before, was the Levitical Law drawn out at large, to command all the true Worshipers of God to follow that written prescription in all their Sacrifices; That is, when the Molten Calf was set up by Aaron and the People to provoke God, when they offered burnt-offerings and Peace-offerings unto it, the Lord saw it was time no more to leave them to themselves to offer indefinitely, and indeterminately how they list; but after that he bound them to those Levitical rules, whereof Moses made an entire book. Says God, ye shall break down the Altars and Groves of the God's of the heathen, but the Lord will choose a place for you, and thither ye shall bring your burnt-offerings, ye shall not do after all things that we do here this day, every man whatsoever is right in his own eyes. That is their ancient liberty in sacrificing after what manner they pleased was restrained, after the adoration of the Calf, for fear of further Idolatry.

Sacrifice therefore was not barely a toleration for avoidance of Idolatry in the first institution, but properly had many parts of Religious Worship in it, which are these: First, the mind of him that brought the offering was bent to honor God, that he was the giver of all things, and the end to which all things were to be referred. Which reason the Schoolmen very well put into this Proposition, Emanant ex fide sacrificia, quae amplissime de Deo sentit; The Religion of Sacrificing proceeds out of Faith, which esteems most devotionately of God's excellent greatness, and in the act of Sacrificing it is carried up to worship God in his invisible glory. And surely some Litany or Collects of Prayers were said at the same time, with such like Ejaculations in them as these: We lay this gift on thy Altar, O Lord, to acknowledge that every living thing is thine; this is a Testimony that thine is the Power and the Dominion over all things; let everything do thee service, for thou art the Savior both of Man and Beast; the life of everything upon earth is in thy hand, but thou alone art immortal, thou art the same and endurest forever: or such a form of supplication as came from David's mouth, when he offered for the building of the Temple, Who am I, and what is my people, that we shall be able to offer so willingly after this sort? for all things come of thee, and of thine own hand have we given thee.

Now the rudeness of the old World, I may say, did require these lessons to be taught and repeated often in visible figures, in lessons that might be felt as well as heard, which were fit to be written not in ink alone, but even in the blood of Sheep, and of Goats. A visible sign is a fair mark of remembrance for them that are slow to learn. They that distrust their memory will wear a gimmal ring, nay a thread or a rush about the finger to bring business into mind, which might have been forgotten. And God distrusting man's memory put him into the way of sacrificing, a good shore or support for such a use; so by that object which did incur into all the senses the Divine honor was kept in an everlasting remembrance. Well then in this very service wherein they brought somewhat unto the Altar, yet it was the Lord's purpose to give, and not to take. Nothing is left to him in an whole Burnt-offering, no more than a Prince gets when his Subjects make Bonfires at, or upon the memory of his Inauguration. Julian the Emperor scoffing at all the Royal Caesars that had been before him, gives Antoninus Pius the praise before them all, for this saying. He being asked by Silenus what was the end of his life, and of all his actions, he answered to imitate the God's. And wherein consists that imitation, says Silenus. Antoninus rejoyns 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , to stand in need of little, and to be beneficial to many; that's the true blazon indeed of the Divine dignity, to want nothing, and to do good to all. God's honor was recognized in sacrifice, that was the end of it; but our Goods and Oblations were nothing to him, and therefore the elementary part of their gratitude was consumed to nothing: It was a Law not to be broken for the blood of every Sacrifice to be spilled before the Altar, and the fat to be burnt in the fire; the blood stood for the life which we breath, the fat for the abundance of all increase which we enjoy; now we ought to confess that we owe both our life and our substance to the Eternal Majesty, yet our thankfulness could return nothing to him, but it is spilled and consumed to nothing. Unto these two blessings which the Jews did enjoy by his mercy long life, and rich means to maintain it, sanguis & adeps, we have received two blessings ten thousand times richer; first that the Most High did offer up his Son on the Cross for our sakes, and then he did as it were sacrifice the Holy Ghost unto Man, sending him down in cloven tongues as it had been of fire; these are sanguis and adeps, the best blood and the best fat or unction in the world. O let us not forget his honor and goodness to make continual mention of it, and since the Father hath sacrificed as it were the Son and the Holy Ghost to us, let us sacrifice ourselves to the holy and individed Trinity both blood and fat, both life and fortunes, both soul and substance.

Secondly by slaying a Beast in Sacrifice the humble Penitent did confess his unworthiness, and the guiltiness of his sins, which made him deserve to be quite consumed by the anger of the Lord, even as the flesh of a Sheep or Goat was burnt in the fire. As the Ninevites in their humiliation cast ashes upon their heads, that such a spectacle of desolation might speak their mind, that they and their City did justly deserve to become ashes and desolation. Such a Ceremony in the Injunctions of Penance hath often been imposed upon infamous Delinquents, to hold a wax Candle lighted in their hand before the people, which was a silent confessing, that as the Taper wasted away with the flame, so their iniquities made them fit to be burnt in Hell fire, but that they hoped the Lord would be merciful. The old Manichaeans therefore, and the modern Anabaptists had small reason to reject the Books of Moses, because he delivered a form of Religion, which consisted much in the slaughter of Birds and Cattle: I am sure Christ allowed that old way, while it was a way, to be very laudable, both by his Precept, Luke v. 14. He bad the Leper whom he had cured, Go thyself to the Priest, and offer for thy cleansing according as Moses commanded: and by partaking no doubt every year as well as at his last Supper of the Paschal Lamb, a Rememorative according to the present point in hand, that the Children of Israel should confess how their first-born deserved to have been slain as well as the first of the Egyptians were, and as well as that Lamb was whereof they eat, if justice had been strictly executed upon them, as it was upon the Egyptians. Certainly this was no small profit arising out of Sacrifice, which made a contrite man discern his own sins and unworthiness, wherein he compared himself with the Beast that perished; And this was wont to be done in the Law by one annual Ceremony more solemn than ordinary, wherefore St. Paul says, in those Sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year, Heb. x. 3. and in the usual Sin-offering, which came often to the Altar, according as such as were laden with sins did unburden their conscience. And I will interpose one thing in a touch and a way, to convince their obstinacy, that hold it no way material for the peace of their mind, to have the absolution of their sins pronounced unto them by the lips of the Priest; such a one for ought I can see in this opinion, thinks himself to make a Church alone, without the Communion of Saints, yet as he is convinced by the power of the Keys committed to the Apostles and their Successors under the Gospel, so the Lord did refute him by the Ceremony of the Sin-offering under the Law; for one part of the Sin-offering was burnt to God, an the Priest had the other part, ad significandum quod expiatio peccatorum sit à Deo per ministerium Sacerdotum, to prove symbolically, that God did remit sins by the ministry of his Priests, and therefore God had the main share, and the Priest the remaining portion of the Offering.

But alas, though this second reason were very useful to the Jews while they were like Elementary Children fed with Signs and Figures, yet now we Christians have other principles, stronger meat; for what need we confess our unworthiness, and what punishment we deserve, over the Carkass of a Beast, when we see much better what penalty remains unto us, if God would be extreme to mark what is done amiss, who spared not the life of his only Son when he bore the person of our transgressions. And there's the third reason, which is the full and complete use of all the ancient Sacrifices, it was to prefigure the immolation, the bloodshedding, the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ: those were the Parables of the Old Testament, as I may call them, and Christ's Death was the intepretation of them all: Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world, says John the Baptist, Agnus qui redemit oves, the Lamb that redeemed all the Sheep which hear his voice: Behold the Lamb of God slain from the beginning of the world ( Revel. xiii. 8.) says John the Divine, slain personally under Pontius Pilate, but slain representatively from the beginning of the world, in the immolation of all those beasts, whose blood by faith did embrew the Altar: The blood of Bulls and of Rams, the slaughter of the Morning and Evening Sacrifice did all belong to the acknowledgment of the same reckoning, which at last was fully discharged by the blood of Christ: those were but like petty sums to pay the Interest in the mean time, at last the Principal, the whole Debt was discharged by that most Royal ransom of our Savior. In a word, all those bloody Oblations were like John the Baptist forerunners of Christ, Indentures sealed with blood, that the Redeemer would come and die for his People. Not the least Sparrow which was offered for cleansing, but might move our Savior to say unto the Jews, If yes believed in Moses, ye would believe also in me. Now for as much as the Holy Ghost hath made us able to interpret obscure things since the coming of Christ, how fluent and facile are these meditations to us, to discern our Lord in every clean offering which was offered up by Noah? in every Lamb which came to the office of the Sons of Aaron? with great difficulty did the Patriarchs pick out that construction. When we read of a Sacrifice, we see as much in it as if Christ's Passion were represented on a Stage. Bernard made a pious and an eloquent gradation, how faith gathered strength by degrees, being a little spark with those that were ordinary Believers before the Law, then a candle under the Law, lumen in laterna, no more, as David said in his days, thy word is a Lantern unto my feet, and a light unto my paths; then like a flaming Beacon in the time of the Gospel, lumen super montem, nay super coelum, more than a candle upon a hill, even as the Sun itself in the firmament, Christus fuit in spicâ in fide patrum, in similâ in doctrinâ legis, post humanitatem assumptum panis formatus. Christ was in the faith of the Patriarchs like corn in the ear, in the faith of the Law like corn ground into flower, but since the word took flesh, and dwelt among us, He is in our faith completely, as when corn is made into bread. The Patriarchs in their Burnt-offerings did hope for him, the Levites in their Sacrifices did look for him more near at hand, but we have him really exhibited in our Sacrifice, and if we have a Sacrifice left unto us likewise, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , according to St. Chrysostom, we do commemorate the Sacrifice of the Cross, where we do not profess that then Christ's Body is slain, or then his Blood is shed, but we remember all his sufferings past, we look for his grace at that present, and we hope for his coming hereafter in glory. And so much upon those three reasons, why God did institute Religion of old to be discharged in sacrifice.

Noah had all these things in his heart, as I will show, when I come to speak of the sweet savor. Now although the value of a gift consists not in the plenitude of the thing given, but in the good affection of the giver, yet the Sacrifice of Noah wanted not fullness and weight, it was 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , as the Septuagint expressed, all that he brought to the Altar was burnt, and nothing reserved, as God bad Abraham offer up Isaac for an whole burnt-offering. Under the Law of Moses those kind of Sacrifices were the principal in three regards. 1. It was an Offering completely burnt, and nothing must remain of it. 2. It burnt all night upon the Altar until the morning, Levite. vi. 8. 3. As St. Austin truly adds, holocaustum est totum incensum sed igne divino, at first of all that Sacrifice was lighted from heaven with fire that did consume them, there came a fire out from before the Lord, and consumed upon the Altar the Burnt-offering. Levite. ix. 24. and when Nadab and Abihu brought other fire in their Censers to add it unto the fire of that Altar which came from heaven, a fire went out from the Lord and devoured them. Literally you see what an whole Burnt-offering was; mystically it imported such an exact yielding up of the Soul and Body to the Lord, wherein we dedicate all our faculties unto his service from the bottom of our heart, reserving nothing unto ourselves with Ananias and Sapphira, but with the commendable Widow, casting our two mites, even all we have into the Corban, and whatsoever we do to please the Lord, it must be kindled in our breast by celestial motions, as it were with fire from heaven. A man may give all he hath unto the poor: is that an whole Burnt-offering simply by itself? no a man may give his body to be burnt: is not that enough? is not that all he can do? no, St. Paul says neither this nor that shall profit you, if you have not charity. Be perfect in the study of all good virtues, but have the fire of divine love with them, do all to the honor of God. The whole Burnt-offering which is first mentioned in Noah's piety, is then acceptable, when God doth inflame it with the fire of his holy Spirit from heaven.

I will hold you no longer upon the first point, the second consists herein, of what kind and species Noah did offer unto the Lord of every clean Beast, and of every clean Foul. God saw everything that he had made, and behold it was very good: it is no variation of sense to say, God saw everything that He had made, and behold it was very clean. All creatures are clean to him. Peter learnt it in a trance, that we might not doubt it waking, What God hath cleansed let no man call it common. Nothing is properly impure in his eyes but sin, and the works of the Devil. How comes this distinction then of clean and unclean Beasts in the Holy Scripture? two ways, ex Traditione, ex Lege: by Tradition before Moses, and then more amply and particularly by the Law of Moses. I will begin a notioribus, from the information of the Law, which will direct us far better than the dark steps of Tradition. Twelve chapters, and no less, are spent in the Book of Leviticus to discriminate clean things from unclean, wherein some things are called unclean for two uses, quoad esum, quoad sacrificium: some things were impure, and not to be eaten; some things impure and not to be sacrificed; the 11. chapter of Leviticus doth enumerate both fouls and Fishes, and creeping things which were unhallowed meat: and for the Beasts which are permitted for food, they are sum'd up in two rules, if they divided the hoof and chewed the cud they might be eaten, and all the rest to be forborne. But God was far more strict in appointing himself sacrifice, than in appointing of us food: for first many sort of Fishes were clean food, yet none of them were clean Sacrifice, they are 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , they have no blood, or at least abound not with blood, and so not fit for the Altar. 2. Many sort of Fouls might be served up to the Table, yet none but Turtles and Pigeons were fit to be offered in the Temple, and Sparrows in the expiation of leprosy. 3. Among all Beasts that divided the hoof and chewed the cud none but Beeves, and Sheep, and Goats were to be slain in that religious service unto the Lord: the Hart and the Roebuck might be eaten, Levite. iv. so you see here is a great difference between clean meat in the Law, and clean sacrifice.

As the wits of men will expatiate upon all things, so from hence they take leave to ask, why the Lord did call one thing clean, and another unclean? But first I shall tell you, all God's words are undisputable, and to argue why He did it, is rather to dishonor than to understand his commandment. Humility will sit down contented with this answer: but I will go further to satisfy the itching inquisitions of our heart: And first I will join another question to elucidate this. Why was Adam restrained eating of the Tree of knowledge of good and evil; for the same reason some living things were made unclean, and unlawful unto the Jews, to make them know the Earth is the Lord's and the store thereof; and He gave Man Dominion over the Creatures, but with exception, that man was subject to Authority of touch not, taste not, where he laid his prohibition. 2. As Images are called by some, Laymens Books, so the mark of cleanness and uncleanness set upon some Creatures made them visible Sermons, what cleanness did become the Saints; a clean hand, that hath not taken reward against the innocent, a clean eye, that doth not look so far till it make the Soul commit fornication; undefiled lips, which have not defiled the holy name of the Most High; and above all an heart, that hath no savage inhumane malice in it. Make clean the inside of the Platter, or the best meat that you eat will be so unclean unto you, that you will make the Table of the Lord become the Table of Devils. Therefore as great persons in their Galleries keep the patterns of virtues in colors or in sculpture, so these Creatures were forbidden to the Jews, as the patterns and representments of inward uncleanness, and ghostly pollution. 3. If God can find uncleanness in these dumb things, which follow their natural inclination, and do not violate it, what filthiness is in us, in whom the rebellion of concupiscence is always burning? We are all as an unclean thing says the Prophet, an original leprosy hath overspread us, but we must wash in the Bethesda of Christ's blood, and we shall be purified from our sins.

So I have tried the Law briefly what is clean and unclean both for Meats and Sacrifice. How stood it with Tradition before the Law? Now I come close to that. First as for Meats, when flesh began to be meat, all things were clean before the Law was given without restriction. Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you, even as the green herb have I given you all things, Gen. ix. 3. And for sacrifice Theodoret and Beda think that all things promiscuously might be sacrificed before the Law, there was nothing then disallowed as unclean, and that Moses wrote the Book of Genesis since the Law, and that some things were called unclean, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 by anticipation. But all ancient Expositors beside make a part against them, that the Patriarchs received an institution from the beginning, by Divine revelation delivered to Adam of what kind only, and with exclusion of all things else they should sacrifice unto him. And the Lord God caused Noah to receive clean Beasts and clean Fowls by sevens, that the odd one might be allotted in due time for a Burnt-offering. Therefore Rabbi Eleezar paraphraseth my Text, that Noah brought out an Heifer, a Sheep and a Goat, a Turtle Dove and a Pigeon, and offered these five creatures, of every clean Beast, and of every clean foul upon the Altar. And to confirm it the more, those are the very particulars, and none other, which God caused Abraham to present unto him, Gen. xv. 9.

This Exposition yet, some man will say, had been much the clearer, if it had been written that Abel had brought an Offering of clean things unto the Lord. But require it not (beloved) because it needed not. Abel was a Keeper of sheep, and Abel brought of the firstlings de grege suo, says the Text, therefore it is all one to say, he presented a clean Sacrifice. As Noah, by due estimation of circumstances, cannot be said to come short of Abel, in that his Offering is not said to be de primitiis, of the first birth of the Flock, for he had no firstlings perhaps in the Ark: but since he had not primitias pecorum, yet he had primitias temporis, he consecrated the first minutes of time unto the Lord, as soon as ever he came out of the Ark, and the choicest things that were in the Ark, of every clean Beast, and of every clean Fowl. For this is a common Law in everything, if it be for the name of the Good God, let it be of the goodliest and best. If one build an House of Prayer, let it be fairer than his own Dwelling: if he feed the hungry let it be of the wholesomest of the Table: if he sanctify anything for the ornament of God's House, let it be of the costliest: if he preach God's Word, let it come from his studied and best industry, and not with extemporary sawciness, which some do, they say, for conscience, I say for laziness, and therein imitate Gonzaga the Jesuit, of whom one of his own Fatherhood says, he would preach ridiculously on purpose that he might be scorned and laughed at. Levite. iii. 16. all the fat is the Lord's, that is, bring him none but the best, the purest, and choicest Oblations; of clean Beasts and of clean Fowls; to which I make but this short Appendix, that as there were unclean Cattle, as well as clean in the Ark, so the ungodly are mixed in the Church with the righteous, but the faithful only are the sacrifice of good acceptation, and of sweet savor. Good and bad are in the Ark, but the pure and undefiled are received upon the Altar. Many of the coarsest sort belong to the outward Society of the Church, hypocrites, seducers, men empoisoned and empoisoning with malice, but they are not of that principal and high degree, that the blessings of the Church are made effectual in them, and their souls offered up to the Lord on the Golden Altar before the Throne, which is an Allegory of Christ, Revel. viii. 3. So St. Austin differenceth the two diverse Tribes of the Church, alii sunt in domo Dei, ut ipsi etiam sint domus Dei, &c. Some are in such sort in the House of God, that they also are the House of God: and some are so in the House of God, that they pertain not to the Frame and Fabric of it. But here the similitude concurs not between the unclean Beasts in the Ark, and Hypocrites in the Church, between the clean ones and the elect; for once a clean beast and ever clean, once an unclean, and ever so accounted by the Law; but How many are there that now wallow in all impurity and filthiness, that hereafter, we hope, may be converted, prove chaste and undefiled? How many, that either blaspheme, or know not Christ; who, we trust and expect, shall be illuminated and believe? These are sheep in God's preordination, yet for the present are unclean, and follow the voice of a stranger. On the other side, How many have we known that have been chaste for a while, and afterward plunged themselves in sensuality? How many that have vowed to bear the Cross of Christ, and yet denied him? How many that have eaten of the Lord's Table, and yet have resolved in their heart to betray their fellow Disciples, as Judas did to betray Christ. These had the seeds of righteousness, and yet proved unclean, which says, let him that standeth take heed lest he fall; and take heed lest there be in any of you an evil heart to depart from the Living God.

To be brief in the remainder. There is no separation now between clean and unclean things. Rabbi Moses is quoted by Lyra for this saying, nulla animalia erunt immunda tempore Messia, when the Messias comes no living things shall be accounted unclean by any legal imputation. So it is come to pass indeed, and we have witness out of the mouth of an Adversary. But why should the Messias do all the Creatures that honor to be esteemed clean? Hath God care of Oxen? The Jewish Rabbi ventured not upon that question: but Irenaeus answers it, omnia purificata sunt per sanguinem Christi. Christ hath set the Church at liberty to be debarred from nothing which God hath made, and the uncleanness of the beasts is now accounted cleanness, because our filthiness is washed away, and made clean in his most precious blood. That which was commonly usurped among the Gentiles throughout all the world was branded for unclean; and therefore Peter said, Lord I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean: but now the style is changed, and that which is most common is most clean. Our riches are made clean by being scattered abroad, and communicated in charity, the Word of God is most clean and undefiled, whose sound is gone forth into all Worlds. Prayer and Preaching are best when they are performed in the Congregation, and are most public. The holy Eucharist is cibus communis 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the Communion of the body of Christ, and yet it is so pure a food, that being eaten by faith it purifieth the heart and conscience above all things. To the clean all things are clean, but because we live in the contagion of the evil World, and he that toucheth pitch shall be defiled; and because our own heart is an impure fountain from which the streams of bitterness do continually flow, Cleanse the thoughts of our heart O Lord by the inspiration of thy holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love thee, and worthily magnify thy holy Name by Christ our Lord. AMEN.

THE SECOND SERMON UPON NOAH.

T His is our Sacrifice which we offer unto God at this time to preach of Sacrifice, and Preaching hath a great similitude with the Law of the Peace-offering, Deut. xxvii. 7. Thou shalt offer Peace-offerings, and shalt eat thereof, and rejoice before the Lord thy God: So we are come together to speak unto the honor of God, and to make ourselves perfect in his ways and Testimonies to do them. We offer unto the honor of our Savior, and eat of our own Offering, which is the very condition of a Pacificatory Sacrifice. Now that I may bring nothing unto the Altar but that which is pure and clean, the Lord grant that he will circumcise my lips, and put a right Spirit into my Meditations. Among the Beasts such a one was clean that parted the Hoof, and chewed the Cud: upon which St. Chrysostom deviseth this interpretation; to divide the Hoof is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ▪ to divide the Word of God aright, in St. Paul's Phrase: To chew the Cud is to ruminate upon sacred things, to roll them in our understanding, and to examine them maturely, not to admit, or swallow down Divine Mysteries rashly with slight and undiscoursed credulity. That we may chew the Cud in this Fathers sense I take these words, upon which I have lately spoken, again into my mouth, to make further proof what is contained in them.

And lest confusion should make all that is to be said unprofitable I will divide the Hoof after the condition required in a clean Sacrifice. I have declared before that there are two principal branches to be noted in the Text, the material part, and the formal, the body and the soul of that Divine Worship which Noah offered unto the Lord. In the material part again are two contents, the Gift, and the place which sanctified the Gift. The Gift was an whole burnt-offering of every clean Beast, and of every clean Fowl; the place was the Altar which he made, and Noah built an Altar to the Lord. These are the visible body of the work; The invisible part, or the soul consists herein, that the Lord smelt a sweet savor; and that hath two members in it sensum, and sensibile, first, the sweet Odor which did exhale from the Sacrifice what it was; secondly, a quick sense that took it, the Lord smelled a sweet savor. I did not dispatch all the material part when I first handled these words, for accounting it a less fault to be abrupt than tedious, I proceeded upon no more than the consideration of the bare Gift, a Burnt-offering of every clean Beast, and of every clean Fowl. At this time I have measured to go a little further without prolixity. I shall speak, God willing upon the place that sanctified the Gift, and Noah built an Altar unto the Lord; and upon the quick sense, which did apprehend the sweet Odor, it was even he who is present at every part of clean devotion, and delighteth in it, the Lord smelled a sweet savor. From whence I will meditate, 1. That the time was but new over that God destroyed almost the whole World, see how soon he is pleased after his great wrath, and with what small seeking. 2. When we do anything well there is joy in heaven. 3. Many pious offices which stink in the Worlds opinion are sweet before God. 4. There is no greater encouragement to do well, than that we are sure it finds grace in the eyes of our heavenly Master, it is sweet in his nostrils, and he will reward it. Of these as I have divided them. And Noah built an Altar, &c.

The whole Earth had been overwhelmed for a long space with the waters of the Deluge, in plain terms it was all under malediction, but Noah built an Altar of the tu • f and mold of the earth, and so brought it again into good use and service, and sanctified the whole Element to the Lord. Truly, God that revealed unto Noah that he should make an Ark, and be saved in the common Calamity, deserved to have an Altar erected at his hands, that thereon he might adore his Savior. The Jewish Rabbin's are so punctual in their curiosities, that they go about to tell us the very Plot of ground on which this Altar was raised, and many things more of great fame to happen in the same place, I am sure you will say the report is very strange, if it be credible. But this Ben-Maimon adventures to say, that it is a Tradition by the hand of all, where David built an Altar on the Threshing Flore of Araunah, Solomon built a Temple, and Abraham made ready there to offer up Isaac, and Noah built this Altar in the same standing when he came out of the Ark, that there was the Altar where Cain and Abel did first offer before Noah; nay, that the first man did offer an Offering there soon after he was created; and yet he goes further, our Wisemen say, Adam was created out of the very earth of the same place. There is no mediocrity in these men's conjectures, and therefore I give them over without commending them.

Wheresoever this Altar did fortune to stand (why not most likely upon the Mountains of Ararat, or Armenia, upon which the Ark rested?) But certain it is, this is the first time that we read of an Altar. And though the substance were like other earth, yet being once erected for that use it became a very holy place, the Altar sanctifieth the Gift says our Savior, Mat. xxiii. 19. And therein it was a Figure of Christ, by whom we offer up to God praise and thanksgiving, and all the desires of our heart; he is understood by all Expositors, whom I have seen, to be the Golden Altar before the Throne, upon which the Prayers of all the Saints were offered up, Rev. viii. 3. And there is not an Altar of any fashion or stuff in Moses, but the Fathers have found out somewhat in it to agree with Christ in their pious Meditations. First, Propter unicam aram, in the Tabernacle, in the Temple there was but one Altar, so there is but one Christ that reconciles us to his Father, but one Mediator between God and Man. Secondly, Because some special occasions were now and then dispensed with to set up another Altar, the materials of those Altars were either to be rude earth, or else rough and unpolished stones. 1. Undigested earth with much simplicity, and devoid of all ornament, Ut nihil in eis admiraremur praeter salutis pretium; Nothing was made beautiful, or to be admired in the outward form of things, that the mind of the devotionary might be transported with no outward thing, but inwardly conceive the excellency of that ransom which was paid for the sins of the world. And then Gregory will carry you with him to this fancy; Why were religious Altars to be made of earth? Questionless, to betoken the Incarnation of our Lord. Quicquid offerimus Deo in altari terreo, i • in fide dominicae incarnationis solidamus; Whatsoever we bring unto the Lord to please him, deliver upon the Earthen Altar, upon this ground and foundation, that the Word was made flesh, the Son of God was made the Son of Man, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have life everlasting. Litterally these earthen Altars made of sods of grass, Temeraria de cespite altaria, as Tertullian calls them, did best like the Lord before the Temple was established, that they might crumble away, and not stand long, lest their permanency should breed diversity of Worship, and confusion in Religion: And it is very likely considering how readily a few clods of earth may be piled up, and Noah as yet wanted stuff and means for any other Architecture, his Altar was but a bank of earth; not 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 which is a structure in a Temple, but 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ; a place to receive Sacrifices set up in the open-fields; so Philo gives me the distinction, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the word which is accurately kept in this place by the Septuagint.

If the Altar were a little more costly and elaborate, that is made of stone, the order was, it should be rough and unpolished, no iron tool must be lifted up upon it, and in these materials likewise we shall meet with Christ. First, Christ is Lapis vivus & insectus, called in the Gospel a living stone, called by Daniel the stone which is cut out of the Mountain without hands. He was not polished by Art, by Education, or by anything that man could put into him, as he came from the very Quarry, from the Womb of his Mother, he was full of grace and truth. Secondly, Those rough ragged stones did best become the work of the Altar, partly to imply in what poor and despicable manner Christ came into the world, without form or comeliness in him, says Isaiah; partly it did figure those rough and dolorous sufferings which he sustained upon the Cross, which was an Altar truly taken, and his body the Sacrifice which was slain upon it. Thirdly: No Iron Instrument must grate itself upon the stones of the Altar; for he who is the Altar on which we eat was the Prince of Peace; he came not to redeem us by Sword, or by Conquest, or taking earthly Kingdoms into his hand by force and victory (which was the weak imagination of some that were his best Disciples) but by Patience, and Sufferance, and putting up the Sword into the Sheath. Cicero testifies for the Heathen, that they used no Brass or Iron about their Altars, nor knit the stones together with such Metals, Aes & ferrum arcenda sunt à delubris, & duelli instrumenta non fani; says he, those warlike Metals are for the Martial Field, not for Divine Sanctuaries. And thus you see what semblance those Altars of Earth and of stone had with our blessed Savior.

But by this the good Patriarch Noah hath shown, that an Altar was a necessary part of Religion, that he began with that work before any other, it was the first fruits of his piety. But now the Church hath outgrown that name properly taken; we have no real and external Sacrifice of Christ's body and blood; by himself he did once offer a full, perfect, and sufficient Sacrifice for the sins of the whole world; therefore to erect a real Altar without a figurative construction is to overthrow the Cross of Christ. But many both have been delighted, and are delighted to keep the name figuratively without offense. And Bellarmine doth but fight with words, that there can be no Altar without Sacrifice, that Antiquity useth the name of an Altar when Christ's body and blood are proposed to the Receivers, therefore the Priest doth properly sacrifice our Savior. Thus many words which passed to and fro in antiquity with great eloquence have been distorted to make dissention. In Origen's and Arnobius time the case stood thus, Objiciunt nobis quod non habemus imagines aut aras; The Heathen quipt them that they had no Images nor Altars. And Clemens of Alexandria says, we have no other Altars but these earthly bodies of ours, which we bring to the Congregation of Prayer. Afterward the holy Communion began to be celebrated with many elegant and sumptuous Ceremonies, and that upon which the Elements of Bread and Wine were set, properly by St. Paul called a Table, improperly and figuratively was called an Altar. The Writers of Sacred things delighted in many names of Mosaical use for the similitude of the Law and Gospel. hence it is frequent to call Prayer by the name of Incense, to call the Christian Priesthood Levites, the Thanksgiving of women after their safe deliverance from Childbirth their Purification; Finally to call the holy Communion a Sacrifice, and the Table of the Lord an Altar. But how far they were from allowing the new Philosophy of Transubstantiation from hence the diligent Reader may mark it. Even our own Church, since it renounced the opinion of an External propitiatory Sacrifice in the Mass, yet in the first Liturgies, set forth by Public Authority in the Reign of Edward the Sixth, the name of Altar is throughout retained, to comply with the Figurative phrase of good Antiquity; and the next Edition of Liturgies, to keep an wholesome form of words as St. Paul says, and to give no place to misconstruction, doth everywhere throughout call it the Lord's Table. And in the Injunctions of another blessed Prince, (whereas by order of Law Altars were to be removed, and Tables placed for the ministration of the holy Communion) it is said, saving for Uniformity sake there was no matter of great moment, so the Sacrament was duly and reverently celebrated, and that the holy Table in every Church should be set in the place where the Altar stood. We dare therefore, and will speak according to Antiquity, in the Figurative meaning of Antiquity, calling it an Altar; but lest the Supper of the Lord should be called the external and real crucifying of our Lord again, we neither dare nor will speak after the sense of the Roman novelty, to call it an Altar, but we come to that holy Supper to be partakers of the Table of the Lord. These are not times to offer Sacrifice as Noah did, and therefore not to build an Altar, but only to commemorate that Sacrifice, after which all true Sacrifices ceased, and all properly called Altars fell to the ground. And so much for the place which Noah sanctified, he built an Altar to the Lord.

I am past the visible part of this good work, I come now to the invisible part, the life, the soul of it: And the Lord smelled a sweet savor. What this delicate Odor and fragrancy was which the Sacrifice did exhale up to heaven I will not defraud you of it hereafter, but I will defer it now, and make myself room enough to speak of that quick sense which did apprehend this sweet Odor, the Lord smelled a sweet savor. A remnant or portion of living things had entered into the Ark to escape, those were given unto the new World to multiply, but Noah would be more severe against the sins of the World than the Lord was, he would not spare so much as the merciful God had spared. Nay, the Lord thought it enough to overwhelm the iniquities of men with water, but Noah presented Burnt-offerings on the Altar to confess, that the wicked works of the World deserved likewise to be consumed with Fire. A most depressing humility in the good Patriarch, a most mortified Confession. This won far upon the Lord's compassion, and changed the rugged brow of Justice into the smiles of mercy and benevolence. It grieved him before that he had made man, now he rejoiceth for the Remnant alive, that he had preserved them. As a Kingly Expositor said upon the Lord's Prayer, the most generous are the most gentle, and a magnanimous courage is never vindicative of a wrong, never retentive. The time was but even now over that God had destroyed the whole World, and see how placable he is, from what a little pittance of true devotion he smelled a sweet savor. Before the King of Ninivey had worn out his Sackcloth, nay, almost before he had put it on; God saw their works, and repented of the evil which he said he would do unto them, and did it not. Zachaeus did but profess to make restitution of all things ill-gotten, and before he had made restitution of one penny, says Christ, this day, (yea Lord, what if thou hadst said this minute?) is salvation come into thy house. Nathan charged David with most bitter offenses, (Lord keep us from the like) David begins to reply, I have sinned against the Lord; it was but a beginning, surely he would have said more, but Nathan takes him off at a few words, the Lord also hath taken away thy sin, thou shalt not die. It is accounted so great a matter to follow, and solicit Christ thrice together, like she of Canaan, that she had her Garland for it. O woman great is thy faith! Our loving Father will wait long for our Repentance, but we shall not wait long for his Forgiveness. As the Historian noted in Romulus, that inveagled the Sabines with such courteous usage, Quod eodem die hosts & cives habuit; in the Morning they came against him with hostility, before Evening he had incorporated them all into his City. So the Lord, (upon good tokens of their humiliation) looked upon some in the Morning as excluses from the upper Jerusalem; and presently he enroles their names in the Book of life. Upon that mournful cry of David, Have mercy upon me, O Lord, according to thy great goodness; Thus Cassiodor, Vox est quae nunquam discutitur, sed tranquille semper auditur; It is a voice which is never examined, never suspended or delaid, never deliberated upon, it penetrates far, it will be heard, and it shall be answered. It meets with God's mercy as quick as a strong Perfume comes to the Nostril, and therefore his complacency so ready to forgive, is called smelling a sweet savor; nay, let me not forget that the Hebrew read it Odorem quietis, the Lord smelled a savor of rest. All sensible smells, be it the Rose among the Flowers, or Cassia among the Spices, must be often put to the sense, and often taken away to please it; hold them long to the Nostril, and they will prove faint and tedious, Nullus odor sensibilis est odor quietis; bodily sents are not sents of rest and quietness; but to show that our gracious Father is suddenly reconciled, and long pleased, very tenacious of his mercy, our Sacrifice, our Prayers, our Alms, all our Christian Offices are odores quietis, their smell stays long with God, they are an odour of rest, he never loathes or disdains them. O Lord, thy placable compassions are exceeding sweet, ten thousand times sweeter than the Sacrifice of Noah.

It should be thus with all that will follow Christ, like Lord, like Servants, but it seems it is not. David had no heart to stand to any bodies courtesy but the good God's, O let me not fall into the hands of men. We smother rancor in our breast like fire in touchwood, or like fire in iron, touch and you shall feel it burn, though you cannot see it. We are the Children of Eve, and our great Mother, you know, was made of a stiff and a crooked rib, we take after it too much. We must be courted rather like Mistresses than Christians, be wooed, be presented, be supplicated, and after all this may be scarce obtain so much kindness as a merciful man would show to his Beast. Like the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa his humiliation, he stood at doors three days barefoot for an apparition of his Holiness, and the favor which all this patience and expectation procured was to stoop to the earth, and to have his neck trode upon by Pope Alexander the Third, a disdain which the Royal spirit of Alexander the Great did never put upon Darius. Some do keep such long distance from this Doctrine, that I may justly say as Abraham did to the rich Glutton, there is a great gulf between you and I. I mean those that turn away their face from pity and reconciliation never to look upon it. I say lay down your enmities upon the first motion of peace, they say no, not upon the last summons of death. I conclude from my Text, that all displeasure must quickly be scattered, they consult with the black book of their own Satanical malice, and say it shall never be mitigated. How many wedges must be driven in before this knotty heart will cleave. Cleave and yield without delay, or the use of that logg shall be to be cast into eternal fire.

You are all in haste, will some object, and stubborn hearts are as slow to lay down their enmities; would not a moderation do well? What's that? Why, this is called discretion and moderation, not to embrace too soon after a falling out, to press our adversary down, and drive him to affliction, that he may be the more beholding to reconciliation. Is this the wisdom of the world? I am sure it is enmity with God, and this is such a Paradox to foster malice for a while, I know not for what pretensed ends, to wind up all with chariry at the last, as if a wound would be the better for rankling. All that time which the Devil gains of you to stand out and exclude charity, is to harden your heart, that you may never relent: and he that is not mollified to disgorge all malice at the preaching of one Sermon, if I mistake not the manifold threatenings in Holy Scripture (as I am sure I do not) he will be worse and worse after the preaching of an hundred. Esau indeed had spent all his spite at last, and fell upon Jacob's neck and kissed him, but did not that curse remain both upon him, and upon his House? Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I hated. In Ecclesiastical Stories, that which befell Saprisius is a Sermon alone to put you on speedily to be at perfect peace with all men, unless you have resolved not to break your Covenant with Hell. Sapricius was a Church-man of great note and name, but an errand Boanerges; a Son of thunder, he had a quarrel against one Nicephorus a Lay person; Nicephorus desired his friendship, Sapricius would not: It fortuned that Sapricius preaching the Doctrine of Christ with much diligence, was attacht by Pagan Officers to suffer Martyrdom. As he was led to Execution, Nicephorus then took his time to pacify him. This venomous Priest even at that hour refused him, and turned away his face. God above was angry, took away his good spirit from him, and even at the point of death Sapricius revolted, denied his Savior for hope of life, and Nicephorus that stood by weeping, and had besought reconciliation with tears, took his Girlond from him and suffered Martyrdom in his place. I know Sapricius could have said as much for himself as any witty rankerous person whatsoever, he loathed not Nicephorus upon revenge, but he had justice on his side, to detest him for divers injuries he had received. Avoid Satan, and all such Apologies. Justice is the Garland of all Virtues, Revenge is the most stinking weed of all Vices. What a wide mistake is here? He that should call black white must needs have a great fault in his eyes, and he that will call revenge justice must needs have a foul blot in his conscience. I will not rob the other points of the Text of that time that is due unto them, otherwise much more might be said, and very profitably; for look for this doom and sentence from God, no charity no Christianity, no mercy no salvation. So much malice so much devil. Therefore depart from me ye malicious into everlasting fire, &c.

The Lord smelled a sweet savor; mark then in the next place what welcome entertainment this is for all the fruits of a godly life, when we do anything well there is joy in Heaven, the delight of the Lord is in his Saints, and in them that fear him. Because the old world was full of wickedness, and in every part but like a corrupt Dunghil, therefore it was every whit drowned, and made a loathsome Kennel of waters. All these wicked Generations had left a stink behind them fulsom as mortified carrion; therefore the perfume of Noah's piety was very expedient to air the new world, that the Lord might be delighted with a better savor. But in this phrase there are many figures to be unfolded, many shells to be broken before I come to the kernel. 1. Here is one Figure to translate bodily senses to the Divine Essence, which is incorporeal. 2. Though it were spoken of a man, yet there must needs be another Figure to say He smelt sweetness from that wherein you mean he took delight and complacency, wherein he rejoiced. 3. Here is another Figure, to speak of God's immutable Essence as of things created, to which somewhat happens in time that was not in them before. Angels and Men may be partakers of some good news today, which were not in being before, from whence they feel a new branch of comfort and exhilaration: but do you ween that any savor was sweet unto God at this time, and kindled a new act, or a new affection in him, which he had not before? O no, he knows our infirmity, that we are Children, and cannot speak of him as we ought, therefore He lets us talk of him as a man, that we may learn to honor him as God. But the true notion how God is pleased with the sweet odour of that which Noah did then, or that we do now is in this Maxim of the School: Ab aeterno laetatus est Deus simul & semel unico actu de toto ordine punitionis & praemiorum. There is one immutable joy and delight in God, which never changed, never did fall or rise by addition, or diminution of parts and degrees, with this one eternal act he delights himself in his own justice, and in his own mercy, and in the shadow of his glory, which is his Church; and this must last and persevere in the same constancy forever.

But because the speculation of this truth is far more abstruse than the forms of ordinary speech with which we are familiar, the Lord leaves it unto us, to make use of that joy which he takes in our faith and zeal, as if at that instant, when Noah offered a good Sacrifice, He smelt a sweet savor. So Luke xv. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Rejoice with me, for I have found the piece of silver which I lost; and in the same chapter, when the lost Child came home again, the Father tells his elder Son, It was meet that we should make merry and be glad, for this thy Brother was dead, and is alive again. Now I bring my motive to you, and lay it down at the door of your conscience. Contend and strive for that perfection of virtue, that the Lord may say this my Son is like Joseph, the comfort of old Israel, a Plant which I set in a lucky hour, it brings forth fragrant flowers of obedience, of alms, of charity to delight me, and as old Isaac said, I smell the savor of my Son like the savor of a Field which is newly mown, from which all dispreading weeds and luxury are quite cut down. You flow with vain delights, but that is God's contristation. You please yourselves with filthy communication, but St. Paul says you grieve the Holy spirit, Ephes. iv. You are sportful and merry even till calamity comes upon you, but the security of Jerusalem causeth Christ to weep. Properly grief and vexation are not incident to God, or to the Eternal Spirit, you shall know to your cost, that when our voluptuous life is changed to howling and gnashing of teeth, Angels shall sing about his Throne without ceasing; but wicked men do what lies in them to put Christ to sorrow and sadness, as earthly Parents eat their own heart, and macerate themselves, when their Children will not be ruled by their authority. Comment thus I beseech you upon all your unlawful pleasures. Can there be any relish in that joy wherewith you grieve your Redeemer? any sweetness in that sacrilege wherein God is impoverished? Will you sing placebo to any man to grate the ear of the Most High? Will you perfume yourself for the Chamber of a Curtezan, and stink in the nostrils of the Lord? no I will abandon all my delights, that He may be pleased in my mortification: I will mourn continually in repentance, that He may smile at it; the zeal of his House shall eat me up, I will burn with devotion, that He may smell a sweet savor. The dolor and smart of any present calamity doth not trouble a righteous man so much, as that he feels the wrath of God upon him, so prosperity, peace, health, nay Heaven itself make him not so happy, as to collect from the sense of his benefits, that the Lord is delighted with him. This is the Nuptial Song which we look for, when we are married to the Lamb; as the Bridegroom rejoiceth over the Bride, so shall the Lord rejoice over thee, Isa. 62.5.

Here it is to be admonished, that nothing is so savoury and delightful which we do, as what the Lord doth himself, non tam delectatur ut aliquid accipiat, quàm ut aliquid det; his love is very bountiful, and better pleased to give than to take. Therefore in no place of Scripture did his joy break forth so gaudily as in the Parable, where he bad his Servants kill the fatted Calf, to bid his penitent Child welcome home: whereupon says Chrysologus, immolabat vitulum, i. filium & gaudebat! he rejoiced in the death of his own Son for our sakes, because his mercy was free to have mercy on whom He pleased in that propitiatory Sacrifice. The Jews would bring thousands of Rams to the Altar at this day; the Lord will have none of them, because they will not bring them in the faith of that Sacrifice, wherein alone He is well pleased. If abundance of Oblations would have made a grateful steam to mount up to Heaven, they had done it long ago. Josephus says against Appio, that 5000 of their Levites took their turn every week to attend at the Altar; I am sure much Sacrifice must be brought to employ so many hands, but non est mihi voluntas in vobis, says Malachi, I have no pleasure in you, nor in your gifts; surely because they offered not up unto him the savor of his Son. All manners of Religions do not please God, that were in effect to say, that all kind of smells had an odoriferous fragrancy. You must plow with God's Heifer, present him with faith in the death of his own dearly beloved Son, and your imperfect righteousness being perfumed with that incense, the Lord will take it for a sweet savor, and call it perfect obedience.

Let me now make you partakers of the third Proviso, that a rank stink steams from Beasts and Fowl burnt in the fire, yet the piety of Noah did ascend up in a sweet smell to Heaven: therefore let not such good things stink in the nostrils of men, that did delight the Lord. It is God's direction to gather tares in bundels, so I will muster together the corrupt examples of those that were as senseless as David's Idols, They had noses and smelt not, or at least they were so full of the putrefaction of their own sins, that they complained there was an ill sent, where indeed there was the fragrancy of most excellent virtue. Pharaoh called Religion an idle man's Exercise; says he, ye are idle, ye are idle, and therefore ye would go into the Wilderness to sacrifice to the Lord. Michal scoffed at David for being in an ecstacy of joy that the Ark was brought into Jerusalem. The Pharisees disliked every good thing that Christ did; and observe it I beseech you, from thence they provoked the most dreadful words that ever came from Christ's mouth, He that sinneth against the Holy Ghost, it shall neither be remitted to him in this world, nor in the world to come. Judas smelt no sweet savor in the ointment which a most pious woman poured upon our Savior's head, but complained, quorsum perditio haec? to what purpose is this waste? The scoffers of Jerusalem said the Disciples were full of new wine, when they preached the Name of Christ in all tongues and languages. New wine at Whitsuntide was never heard of, for there are scarce new leaves upon the Vine at that season. I wept and chustned myself with fasting, and it was turned to my reproof, says the holy Penitent. It is altogether a fault that we will not commend, nay that we will gibe and deride at that which is very good and devout in them that are of a contrary faction. Sectaries, whose courses I abhor, yet some things should not be scoffed at, that they are diligent to come to Church, that they read the Scriptures, that they are not accustomed to rash and odious swearing; let not these things be reckoned with their justly condemned hypocrisy. Pontificians, whose errors I decry, yet their observing Canonical hours of Prayer, their obedience to obey Ecclesiastical Laws, their desire to kindle zeal by visiting those places where our Lord and Savior frequented, let these things be separated from their Superstitions. As Seneca said of Learning, quicquid been scriptum est meum est, whatsoever was well written by any man, he took for his own, as freely as if he had invented it; so I say of Religion, quicquid been gestum est meum est, whatsoever is praise-worthy in any Sect, I will not scoff at it, but imitate it.

When the Pharisees boasted of some of their good deeds, haec oportuit fieri, says our Savior, this is well, this ought to have been done, and not other things left undone. Holofernes could not dislike that Judith and her Maid should pray together every night; make a conscience therefore what you condemn, and reprove it out of judgment; flout not at tolerable things out of levity. There shall come in the last days scoffers walking after their own lusts, 2 Pet. iii. 3. These say the ancient Expositors were the Gnostics, that traduced the faithful for living chastely and austerely, to avoid the judgment to come, and to inherit a Crown of life. But what are these scoffers in the very word of the Apostle, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 such as play the child, and no better. Such were the Massalians, that condemned Fasting, I, and Baptism, because they said all good things might be brought to pass by Prayer. And the Arians, that were ill affected to singing of Psalms, because the Orthodox used it much: and they that can find no just fault with the decent Habit that our Churchmen wear, and yet bespatter it with ill words, because some of our Opposites do wear the like Livery. Vestitum non nuditatem patris rident, Cham laughed at the nakedness of Noah, but these not at the nakedness, but at the Garments of their spiritual Fathers; judge between them and Cham then, who was the greater scoffer. Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are lovely or of good report, the Lord applauds them, and says they have a sweet savor: if the detestation and scorn of evil men shall light upon such things, their smell will be more aromatical to the Lord like those Allies of herbs that give a better sent when the foot doth trample upon them.

Anciently the wages of virtue was praise at least, but the saying was, it might be praised, and in the mean time starve for cold; now it may starve and be quite obscured it is so coldly praised; but in the last annotation of my Text I will raise up the righteousness of the just to some comfort and expectation; for we are sure our good works find grace in the eyes of our heavenly Father, and He is present at them all, as the sense is near at hand to that it smells; both his presence, and his liking, and his remuneration are all in this Allegory, that when Noah offered a clean Sacrifice, the Lord smelled a sweet savor. Nehemiah 's eye was almost never off from the building of the Temple, and the work was therefore rid out of the way with incredible expedition. So the Lord having a present sense of everything that man doth well, it will make man (if he have sense of God's presence) instant, devout, patient, sow plentifully that he may reap abundantly. It is a great motive to be watchful to say, Dominus venit, the Lord is coming: what will you say then to Dominus videt, Dominus audit, Dominus odoratur? the Lord sees you, the Lord hears you, the Lord smells your savor? nihil illustre nisi coram, & in oculis Caesaris, says Tacitus, the mirth of the Roman Theaters was flat, and their pomp nothing illustrious, unless Caesar were a spectator; so the spirit of a Christian would be obtuse, and nothing so well excited to be dutiful, but that we know all the thoughts, words, and works of piety are within the look of God: and that He is such a looker on as St. Austin speaks of, qui spectat certantes, & adjuvat invocantes, whose aspect doth fortify and animate our strength, like Plants that open themselves to the Sun, and revive when his light is cast upon them. Nay if you be in perfect charity, ye dwell in God, and God in you; there can be no closer conjunction, thats nearer than the object to the eye, or the sent unto the nose. Yet this is more measure superadded, that the great King of Heaven both knows our works and tribulation, which is to smell our savor; and He loves and likes it also, He calls it a sweet savor. If we had such a Master as Nabal was, so crooked and unpropitious, that none could speak to him, or please him; if we served under the Lord, as Jacob did under Laban, who had nothing but murmuring and persecution for all his fidelity, then we might cross our arms and say, we had lost our oil and our labor; but our service is full of benevolence and encouragement, Euge bone serve, well done good and faithful servant, every title chimes alacrity. Duo cum faeciunt idem non est idem: the same work being done by two several hands, so much only shall take as comes from God's chosen Ministers, and so much as came from an unacceptable person shall be clean discountenanced. Nazianzen tells a story that Gallus and Julianus, the two Nephews of Constantius, built a Temple, where Mamantis the good Martyr had suffered; so much as Gallus was the Founder of stood, all that Julian was at charge for fell to the ground: the wisest of men of that age concluded, God accepted the dedication of Gallus, but not of Julian. Saul sacrificed at Gilgal, and came under the ban of Samuel for doing it; Samuel sacrificed at Bethlehem, and the savor was so sweet that it run down from Samuel unto the skirt of Jesse: the Lord accepted of the offering, and David was then anointed King in token of a sweet savor.

Finally, the love and complacency of God is not a bare affection like man's, amor Dei non in affectu, sed in effectu situs est. Where God is said to love, or to smell some sweetness in a thing, this is not to affect it theorically, but to effect some good for it. As Aeneas said of his followers, Nemo ex hoc numero mihi non donatus abibit, all that pleased him in his Games should have a reward for their labor: so everyone whose works exhale a sweet odour to God, the dew of his liberality shall drop down upon them. God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love, which you have shown toward his name, Heb. vi, 10. The best sent that is (though it have that in it which is truly sweet) hath some vapor that is faint and fulsom in it; so the best actions of men, which are good verily and properly called, have yet some ill adjunction in them, or somewhat that is imperfect: but that which St. Paul speaks of the works of charity, may be referred to all the works of the light, if there be a willing mind, it is accepted according to that which a man hath, and not according to that he hath not, 2 Cor. viii. 12. More pressely to the cause. In some sense all the creatures and their natural operations do please God, but in a supernatural order nothing doth please him, but that into which he hath put supernatural bonity: and those effects He doth not only love and like, but will remunerate them, with this sober restriction, bona opera non habent condignitatem ad proemium coeleste, sed quandam ordinabilitatem. That is, good works have no intrinsical worth or value to claim eternal life, but through the gracious promise of God they are ordained unto it.

From hence Valentia, and some others of that part do paralogize, that they may truly say, that a condignity doth amount to the works of pious men, upon the obligation of God's promise. I answer, that the promise of God doth make our good endeavors remunerable with the Kingdom of Heaven; not that the Promise changeth the work into a better quality than it hath of itself, as to make charity of two degrees become charity of two hundred: no, for the Promise is but an extrinsical acceptation, but it must be some intrinsical perfection infused into a good work, that shall make it commensurable and worth the reward. How then doth the Promise knit our works and the reward together? why thus. God casts his eyes upon his beloved Son, in whom, and for whose sake all those Promises are ratified. Now this must altogether imply a great indignity, and not any condignity in our righteousness. All the favor which we obtain at God's hands above the inherent bonity which is in our works, it is merely for Christ's sake, and for his obedience imputed to us. Examin in the weight of a reason, what I give to a man above the value of his labor for a friends sake, doth it make the reward meritoriously due. The terms cannot consist together. If God should promise the same reward of glory to him that died for Christ, and to him that gave a cup of cold water for his sake, the reward upon this supposition is equally due to both, and then these two agreeing in uno tertio, that is in the same promise, should be equal in goodness between themselves, which none will admit, whose judgment is not quite perished. To conclude then, that Noah brought so sweet a gift to the Lord, it came from a supernatural infusion that so directed him. That which is inspired from a supernatural virtue doth please the Lord, though it be much attainted with human infirmity: that which He is pleased so to accept in mercy, He hath promised to remunerate it with eternal glory for Christ Jesus sake, who is a Sacrifice of the sweetest favor, and to whom be all honor, &c.

THE THIRD SERMON UPON NOAH.

T He former Verse brings in this Text, Noah built an Altar to the Lord, and took of every clean Beast, and of every clean Fowl, and offered Burnt-offerings on the Altar, And the Lord smelled a sweet savor. A work well managed, and the end was happy. We compose ourselves, in this devout time of Lent especially, to be very conversant in the service of the Lord: Prayer, Preaching, Fasting, Alms come into practice, or should do, more than at other times. It were pity so much labor should be spent to little profit, so much business be driven to God's glory, and to his small content, so much doing, rather to our undoing than to our salvation. I have chosen this Text therefore for a seasonable subject to be insisted upon, how this frequent Worship, and all the fruits of our Religion may be an odour of a sweet smell, a Sacrifice acceptable, well pleasing to God. Whom if we do not serve, the omission will make him punish us: and if he be ill served, the neglect will make him punish us. All the works of Piety which the Church of Israel brought forth, were quarrelled by the Prophets as much as the worst Profanations. They fasted, but for strife and debate: They repented, but with sullenness, hanging down their heads like a Bullrush: They gave Alms, sounding them abroad to be popular: They Prayed, but honored God with their lips, and their heart was far from him: They chanted sweet Music, but with no devotion, Amos v. 23. Take away from me the noise of thy Songs, for I will not hear the melody of thy Viols: And they sacrificed, but with so much ill relish, as he that killed an Ox was as if he had killed a man, he that burnt Incense, as if he had blessed an Idol. The course of godly Service is easily mistaken. It is possible for a man to do good, and to mar it in the doing: it is possible for a man to wander in the right way: It is possible for a man to bring a Sacrifice to God, and to give high offense, because it hath not a sweet savor.

I regard your spiritual profit, that you may have a reward for your work in the Lord, for which I refer you to the record of old Father Noah, when he began a new World (and how far are we from that? Not four years) in whose Piety the Lord delighted, and therefore called it a sweet savor. And what sweetness was this, that exhaled up to heaven? The resolution of that question shall make up my whole Sermon, and divide the parts. And I answer to the Question Negatively, and Affirmatively. Negatively in two Points: First, That the integrity, or well-meaning of Noah is not said to give a sweet savor till he added a Sacrifice. Secondly, That a bare Sacrifice cannot be commended for a sweet savor. Affirmatively, The composition of the sweetness consists in five particulars: First, In the devotion of Noah. Secondly, In the instauration of true Religion. Thirdly, In his thankfulness for his preservation. Fourthly, In his endeavor to procure God to be gracious to all succeeding Generations. Fifthly, In his faith, that had an eye unto a better Sacrifice. Here are many granes of Incense in this sweet savor, which shall not trouble you with length, though they do with multitude.

What the sweet savor in my Text doth mean, I like the method best to assign what it is not, before I resolve what it is. First, It will be allowed, that there were Faith, Piety, Sincerity in Noah's heart, all the while he was shut up in the Ark, yet they are not commended for sending up a delightful fragrancy to God till he brought his gift unto the Altar. The reason is, that God useth to prove the integrity of the heart by some outward sign before he commends it. Abraham sought the Lord with all his soul, since he came out of Ur of the Chaldeans; yet his faith was not extolled till he was ready to offer up his only Son: then he received the Promise, that the blessing should abide upon him, and upon his Seed forever. The life of a Slip is in the root, but the sweetness is in the Flower, when it opens: So the Just doth live by faith, but he shall be loved for the fruits of holiness. Adam was created after God's Image, yet he required clothes to cover him, that he might not be ashamed of his nakedness: So a good Conscience is an heavenly thing, the likeness of the Holy Ghost, yet unless it be clothed with outward effects of obedience it may be ashamed of its nakedness. Faith should say to God, as Achsah did to her Father Caleb, Judge. i. 15. Thou hast given me a South Land, give me also springs of water. Let me not lie concealed, lest I be out of remembrance, and thou forget me: Let me do good and communicate, lest I prove but an imaginary Notion: Let me offer some dutiful Sacrifice, lest I lose my Savior. Noah's internal Sanctity was not honored with this praise, that it exhaled sweetness, before it proved itself by a most religious action. For ought we know, Hell may be full of them, who had many good purposes, but did never execute them.

Yet again, put a bare Sacrifice into the Balance, and it weighs as little. I think none will conceive my Text in a literal sense, that the flesh of a Beast burnt upon the coals did send a sweet savor, but an offensive smell. Some are at a wonder, when many Cattle were burnt together, how the nostrils of the Priests and People could endure it. And yet there was no miracle in it, as Abulensis supposeth, as if God did always by omnipotent power draw a sweet steam from the Altar, and the flesh that was burnt upon it. What, every day Miracles, and yet this never revealed to us by any Prophet in all the Scriptures? The resolution is easy: The Altar of Burnt-offerings was in the open Court, the air carried away the stench that would offend under a covered Seiling: Some excellent Perfumes were cast into the fire at the same time. I have Plutarch’s testimony touching the noisome vapor of heathen Sacrifices, that all manner of sweet Gums were thrown together into the flame to overcome the strong Odor: especially the Priest was clad in perfumed Robes, which made the worst smell tolerable to him. But none can be deceived with the bare Letter of the Text, as if God did smell any savor. It is a Figure translating the affections of a man to the divine Essence: And a second Figure upon that, calling delight and complacency by the name of smelling a sweet Odor. And the words lying so naked to be understood, I say the Lord took no pleasure in a bare Sacrifice. For what is it to him to have the beasts slain, and their substance consumed? Or, how is a wicked man made more innocent by executing vengeance upon an harmless Sheep? Gifts and Sacrifices could not make him that did the Service perfect as pertaining to the Conscience, Heb. ix. 9. When the Magi came to Bethlehem, and found the Babe, whom they had sought, they fell down and offered up their body: they worshiped and offered up their Soul, they were liberal of their Substance, and presented their gifts. But what? Not Sheep and Oxen, not work to employ the Levites, the Sons of Aaron, Loe, says St. Chrysostom, in the beginning of the Gospel we find the turn of those ancient Rites, whose place was supplied with Gold, Mirrh, and Frankincense, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , they were not fat and fulsom, like the Jewish Ordinances, but pure and Intellectual, Adoration, Faith, Obedience, Charity. We learn out of it that the virtue of the mind consecrates the Gift. There is not anything which St. Paul hath omitted, 1 Cor. xiii. but says, that without the love of God all will come to nothing. The opus operatum, the material substance of any good work, no more considered with it, is a vapor that vanisheth. Prayers, Preaching, the Sacraments in the more transitory work, issuing not out of our Spirit, are Consonants without Vowels, it is past all skill to utter them. And who would compare the best Statue with a living man? Works of beneficence must be done, and liberally: He that hath much owes much; he that hath but little ought not altogether to shut his hand. Yet the richest endowment that ever was made in a pious way, is a Sacrifice but of a dull smoke, unless it be spiced with those good Odours, of which I will now speak in the Affirmative, how the Lord smelled a sweet savor.

First, His devotion was very fragrant; I begin with it, because I would revive it, I say revive it: For it is much laid aside, and takes as little with some as Jewish Sacrifice. You shall not be much edified in it by our Sister Churches beyond Seas, and their imitators: and little will you learn of it without a Liturgy of Prayer, comprised in a solemn order. The Seraphical acclamations of such a pious model may carry up an Elias in its Chariot far above the clouds. Humility is a great ingredient in it: A devout soul the more it presseth to come near to God, it keeps the greater distance from the glory of his Majesty: Like a flame of a great Candle, it mounts with heat, but the more it ascends, the more it trembles. Holy Vows are inseparable from it, a Vow is in the name of Devotion, to bind us the faster to God: Therefore it is a Bow that is strongly bent, when the string is slack it is an useless Instrument. Also, without any force, this is in the Word, that a Devotee devoves his life, and all he hath, to maintain the honor of God, after that excess of St. Paul's courage, Acts xxi. 13. I am ready, not to be bound only, but to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. This is devotion, which counts not its life dear, but doth devove itself for the Gospel of Christ. St. Austin describes it with much plainness. Devotio est pius & humilis affectus ad Deum; It is a compound of the best internal Piety, and the most lowly and prostrate humility of the body: More loftily in another place, Carbo ignitus flammâ divini amoris accensus; A firy coal wasting away all earthy dull affections with the flame of divine love. I cannot mend it. In brief, it is the excess of a religious fear in the heart, which doth all things outwardly with most becoming reverence. Apply this to the example of Noah. As soon as ever he came out of the Ark he made ready some solemn Worship: and none so solemn in those days as Sacrifice; and none could be more bountiful at that time than one of every clean Beast, and of every clean Fowl. Seven of all clean Creatures were taken into the Ark, three Couples to multiply, and the odd one to be offered up, it was Caelebs animal, it lived single, not coupled with any Female, to be the purer Oblation: And these were not offered on the ground, but to show the elevation of his heart, he built an Altar for it, which you never read of before. Lastly, It was 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , an whole burnt offering. Holocausta sunt perfecta studia virtutum. Origen began the Allegory, and all have followed him, they are whole Burnt-offerings that consume the old man, and all the members of their concupiscence, as much as they are able.

I score not out this Line to move you to the like in fleshly Sacrifices, which are long since superannuated. I will put the issue, for your instruction, upon that which the brevity of the Book of Genesis hath omitted, but is necessarily understood, that Noah sent up clean Prayers to God with the Oblation of every clean Beast, and of every clean Fowl. For while Zacharias burnt Incense in the Temple, the whole multitude were Praying without at the time of Incense, Luk. i. 8. And Solomon gives us light what was done at Sacrifice, he spread out his hands to heaven in Prayer, and dedicated the fat of the Peace-offerings to the Lord. Nay more, the Evening Sacrifice burnt all night upon the Altar, and the Priests continued in the Temple till morning at Prayer. You that by night stand in the house of the Lord, lift up your hands in the Sanctuary, and bless the Lord, Psal. cxxxiv. 2. I know not what company they had at the Prayers of the Sacrifice by night or day; very little, if their devotion were no greater than ours. I read in the Ages upward, what a thrust there was in their Churches at the daily service of Prayer; which concourse is quite disused in our days: and unless the office of Prayer be pieced out with a Sermon, in all places you shall find a most contemptible paucity; and yet we should know that in a Sermon God sacrificeth to us, not we to him. Let me be bolder with you, they are scarce worthy to be called Prayers, as they are most negligently handled. The Priest reads, I will not say how dreamingly sometimes; the People gape about, and have other business in their heads: Some chop in at the latter end, cannot spare leisure to all: Some answer to one line, and hold their peace at ten: Some stand more upon their ease, than to stand up, or bow down when they should with reverend gesture. What can there be in such Prayers as these to call them a sweet savor? Our sins stink in the nostrils of God, and are odious: you confess that; and miserable man have you no better than such careless shuffling Supplications to sweeten them? They were Wisemen that took out Myrrh and Frankincense when they came to Christ, Ad faetorem stabuli excludendum, to correct the ill savor of the Stable where he lay: but contrary to all reason, when our heart is dung, and our ways more filthy than Augias Stable, we yawn out heedless, heartless, undevotioned Prayers to mend the matter. O is it not to us that he speaks by the Prophet? Amos v. 21. I despise your Feasts, I will not smell in your holy Assemblies. I will borrow a piece of a Sermon from St. Bernard to make up this Point, Stand before the Lord cheerfully, reverently, devoutly, Non pigri, non oscitantes, non parcentes vocibus, non praecidentes verba dimidia; Be not drowsy, let not your attention slip from you when God is praised, leave not all the Prayers to the Priests care, but everyone make up his part; do not mangle and chop God's Service, let your Spirits go with every word; when you hear an Hymn or Psalmodie, think of nothing else but that which is sung. You are not allowed a good thought at that time, if it be extravagant, much less a worldly, a malicious, a wanton cogitation. Pare away these superfluities, that you may say, My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed, I will sing and give praise. Thus far that the devotion of Noah was very Aromatical in the sweet savor of his Sacrifice.

Secondly, the care that this Patriarch had for the instauration of Religion above all things, is like Mary's sweet Ointment, which she poured upon our Savior, it shall be spoken of so far as the Word is Preaced in all the world. Bethink you, as well you may, when Noah put forth his head out of the Ark to tread upon the earth, which could afford him nothing but room to walk upon, with how many thoughts he was distracted. What house to put his head in, where to be provided of Food and Raiment; where were all the necessaries and comforts of life to be had? How should he rake up a New World out of the Ruines of the Old? All these instances, and more than these, were thoughts to take up a wise man, and yet he laid all these under his feet, and built an Altar upon them, to institute a true form of Divine Worship in the first place, that all the World might follow it, Why, it is evident that his heart gave him in charge to look to Religion above all the necessaries of life, and to forget all things, even himself, till he had remembered God. Abraham was a Pilgrim, and it is ever observed in this Book of Genesis, or with little exception, that he never removed to any new place, but first he built an Altar to the Lord. At the first quiet Station, which the Children of Israel had when they came out of Egypt, Moses sanctified the first-born to God. David was no sooner confirmed a King, but he brought the Ark into its resting place. We stand before a great God, that will not be served with the second or third part of our care. The Jews were rebuked that built houses for themselves, when they were returned from Captivity, and let the House of the Lord lie waste. Christ did reprove it, that the young man that was called to follow him should put in another thing between, First let me go and bury my Father. Can you find out any first before God, that is the first and the Last? Piety and Sacred Offices are sweetly managed when you give them the flower of your care, and the pre-eminence before all things. The day will shine prosperously on you if you give the first hour after you rise from your bed to Prayer. The whole Week is blessed, because the first day is the Lord's-day to call holy Assemblies together. The Heathen Romans began the Laws of the twelve Tables with a sanction of Religion, Deos caste adeunto. In all Commerce, Confederacies, Treaties, let the honor of God be the prime and Master respect. And all other fine devices will prove but counterfeits of wit to such sacred Policy.

Another thing makes this repair and settlement of Religion precious and highly valued, for the unity and conformity of all parties present at it. It was the first solemnity performed to God after the Flood, that the Company, before they dispersed, might agree in one outward form of Divine Worship. I do not know whether such a complete consent of all persons in the Earth was ever seen before, or since the days of Noah. Therefore it must needs afford an excellent savor. There was no Idolatry in the world, no different ways, no divisions, I am for this, and I am for that: This little Flock was at unity in itself: the old Patriarch, his Sons and Daughters agreeing in one Prayer, and in one Sacrifice. O rare and heavenly! One Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Hosts in the tongues of all the Angels, is the most Angelical part of the Angels Ministry. That is in heaven, but the sacred Concord that I preach of was on earth: An obedience running all one way, no separations, no Conventicles, which are the obstructions of Unity, and the decay of Allegeance and Loyalty. They that live far from Court may perhaps see their danger sooner than the wisest that hear it, and scarce hear all reports which threaten danger. It is easy to spit out a spark, but not a flame. When Pliny in his Proconsulate in Asia wrote to Trajan, that he found the Christians meeting in secret corners before day, (then they had no Churches ) and to be a harmless people, that sung Psalms to Christ, that confederated not to kill, not to commit Adultery, and the like. Budaeus upon the Pandects is my Author, that Trajan wrote to Pliny that he did not like to have them gather together in that privy sort, for it might tend to conspiracy. That thereupon the Christians certified of the Emperors jealousy, refrained their meetings, though as yet they had no public places to assemble in for the Worship of Christ. But try our Christians that meet in hugger mugger in household Congregations, I doubt you will not find that inoffensiveness and modesty among them, which was in our Primitive Brethren, who would sooner observe the Edict of a Pagan Prince than these will the Defenders of the Faith.

Look upon this Point once more. Noah called all that were about him together to the solemn Worship of God. A good Spring sets all the Wheels a going with a true and an equal motion; and it was fit this good work should be carried on in his person. The Father of the Family, the Master of the Household, the chief Priest of the Church in Sacred causes, the Supreme Magistrate in Civil causes, in any of these respects, but much more in all together, he was to give a good example to his Relatives. A good example, let us look to it to whom it most belongs, is a sweet savor to many, far and wide, to the whole World in the Twelve Apostles. Upon which Gregory runs out in this exuberant eloquence: The Apostles were flowers of all sweet smells, as the flower of the Grape, Doctrina praedicatorum inebriat mentes audientium; their Doctrine did inebriate their Auditors with the Cup of Salvation: there was in them the flower of the Olive in the sweet works of mercy, the flower of the Rose in the crimson blood of their Martyrdom, the flower of the white Lily, in some by Virginity, in all by pureness and chastity, and the flower of the Violet in lowly growth or humility. Holy conspicuous men are flowers of Paradise, whose odors and colors are delectable: an orient color in their own conscience within, a fragrant odour in their good name to those that are without. Justus lilium est in se candidum, sed proximo odoratum; A just man is a Lily, that hath inherent whiteness to himself, but sweet as a Rose to his neighbor by the edifying of his example, that others may see his good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. It is happy to live well, thrice happy to lead well; like Caesars Soldiers, that were called an Army of Commanders. St. Basil says, that some in his time did sprinkle sweet Ointment upon the Wings of tame Pigeons, and sent them abroad, like our coy Ducks, to fetch in the wild Flocks that they might take delight in them, and follow them home: So, as he applies it, the good Odor, which may be scented from them that are exemplarily virtuous, attracts the wild and dissolute to the Dove Coats, or the Collections of the Saints of God. All that have done eminently to abandon Profaneness, suppress Superstition, revoke Sacrilege, discourage the Factious, suppress Heretics and Contentious, Kings, Potentates, Prelates shall be renowned, as Josiah was, that famous restorer of Religion, there remembrance shall be sweet as honey in all mouths, and as Music at a banquet of wine, Ecclus. xlix. 1. Enough now of this Point, that Noah before all necessaries of life and nature took care for the instauration of true Religion, begun in a most divine unity, and settled it by his great example, Therefore the Lord smelled a sweet savor.

The third thing which in the Affirmative interprets the phrase of my Text is, That God is mightily delighted with Oblations of thankfulness. Noah had a very small stock of Creatures with him to begin a new Generation, and when they came forth of the Ark, none were appointed to be slain, but had their Exeatis with this blessing, Be fruitful and multiply on the earth. Yet the Patriarch knew by faith, how he that had preserved them so miraculously could multiply their paucity, and the sooner if somewhat were gratefully repaid to God. Let Elias have a little of a little, and the Widow shall have the more. These few Beasts and Fowls I speak of were the Relics of the Old World, and the Seminary of the New. Now how well did a Sacrifice come in to divide between these two Points of Religion? To give thanks for the remainder preserved, and to bespeak their increase for the time to come. So God is justly acknowledged in both his titles, Servator reliquiarum, & multiplicator seminarii; the conserver of the little remainder, the multiplier of the total Seminary. O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is gracious. The most material exception that a good man can make against the shortness of life is, that we want space to run over all the benefits we have received. Woe be to them that have time, and spare little for such Meditations.

Some man, who is not very practical in this duty, will say, question me not whether I praise the Lord for his great mercies, for my Redemption, for my Salvation: How can I forget it? Or had I been in Noah's case, escaped a common Deluge, I would have offered a Sacrifice. I see God must buy our gratitude dear if he will have it; and many times when he pays well for it he goes without it. For some do premeditately except against the Public Thanksgiving of women delivered from the peril of Childbirth, as if it savoured of Jewish Purification. The time is to come when such shall know, that it is better to be a thankful Jew than an unthankful Christian. This was St. Austin's Divinity, Liberata est uxor tua à periculo partus, benedicis Dominum; When thy Wife is delivered, and well recovered, thou wilt say, The name of the Lord be praised. The like will any man almost do that is come off from a bloody Battle, a raging Tempest, a burning Feaver, a malicious Conspiracy, that he may not appear a rank Atheist. But the Lord, as I said, buys such thanks at a great rate. Do you think he gives common blessings like a vantage above the dozen, which you shall not pay for? Is it nothing that the Sun doth shine upon us, and not burn us? That the Seas flow, and ebb again, and not overwhelm us? That the Cattle of the field feed us, and not devour us? Nothing should befall us without a retribution of praise, In everything give thanks, for this is the will of the Lord, 1 Thes. v. 18. If the Scripture had not said it, natural ingenuity would lead you to the duty. St. Ambrose says, that Noah's Sacrifice was a free-will offering, it was not commanded. Qui debitum gratiae ut à se exigatur expectat ingratus est. If you expect a Process to be served upon you to be thankful, it is a kind of ingratitude, for it wants the sweet savor.

But I will degree it to the highest, to make my Doctrine useful. As one Wave of the Sea drives on another, and the latter puts on the next in a continual flux, so the souls yearnings to thanksgiving take hand in hand, and that which goes before plucks on that which follows after it. A consultation must be called about it, as David did, What shall I render to the Lord? The Soul asks itself the question, and needs no Monitor, as Elisha made it his own motion to the Shunamite, in requital of her hospitality, Behold thou hast been careful for us, what shall be done for thee? Proceed now; What doth consultation produce? Why, the voice of joy and melody, I will sing and give praise. O but lip labor may be fruitless, a Pharisee can say, Lord I thank thee. Prove it more than by some bountiful retribution, bring presents unto the Lord, that ought to be feared: Let them be many and liberal, such as God doth expect, who gave us all, and looks for no nigardly proportion in return. O but again, a Pharisee will give as well as pray. Yes, but he will boast, and pride himself in it: then wrap your thankful present in lowly confession, O my God my goods are nothing to thee. For what is the light beholding to them that look upon it? Or what doth a Fountain get of a thirsty man that drinks of it? Then that which brings up the rear, and puts on the rest before it, is a heart big with holy thoughts, thankful for the grace of the holy Spirit above all things, that stirs it up to be thankful, and is ashamed of its own impotency, that it is able to make no better retribution. Therefore David changeth giving into taking: What shall I give? I will take the Cup of salvation. As who should say, fain I would render unto the Lord, fain I would be thankful: but that's impossible on even terms, all the Cattle are his upon a thousand hills. If I can give nothing, I will take somewhat for his sake, I will take anything in good part, I will suffer anything that the Lord doth lay upon me so you may compound these many things into a redolency to make a sweet savor to the Lord.

This generous and well bred quality of gratitude is ever in good men, where those few are to be found. Few alas; for God knows, and benefactors find it, that mercy and bounty are Pearls cast before Swine, and that they are requited with malice, revilings, treachery from those, whom they have bribed enough, and estated in all they have. No Rogues mark, burnt upon the shoulder or face, are so infamous as this character upon some, that no benefits will win them, no good turns will purchase them. The Parable of the ten Lepers bids you expect nine bad for one good, so it was among them that Christ healed. Mundita cute, leprosi cord, healed of their Leprosy, still sick of unthankfulness, cured in the outward skin, corrupted in their heart. Where are the other nine, says our Savior? Are they lost that they returned not to give thanks? Yes, certainly, quite lost. De ingratis quasi ignotis loquitur; Christ makes as if he did not know them. That is the fatal doom to have it pronounced by him, Depart from me I know you not. The next thing that follows is to be cast into the stinking Dungeon because the Lord did smell an ill savor from an unthankful Generation.

Hear now the fourth principal answer, what the sweetness of this savor was, it was Noah's charity, that he desired to appease God's wrath toward all flesh then living, and to beseech his mercy to all Generations that should succeed. Josephus, the best reporter of the Jewish Traditions, says, it was the end of this Sacrifice to be a solemn Litany for the reparation of the drowned world, and that it might no more be destroyed with an universal deluge. My Text doth much concur, if you read it word for word after the original, that God did smell an odour of rest, Quia fecit Deum quietum ab indignatione, says the Gloss, by this propitiatory offering he made the divine justice quiet, or cease from indignation. And mark what mercy in this Verse immediately follows the sweet savor, I will not again curse the ground anymore for man's sake: and in the next Chapter the Rainbow is instituted for a promise and Sacrament of future safety. I will confirm it with apt words out of Luther, Delectatus est Deus perdendo genus humanum, & nunc iterum delectatus est augendo. God was delighted in his justice before to destroy all people, and now his mercy will be delighted to increase mankind again.

It is fairly seen now as the light, that Noah entreated God by Sacrifice to be favorable to his Sons and Daughters, to their offspring, to the whole increase of the New World, and this was part of the sweet savor. For God commends this zelum protensum, zealous love that extends itself to all its neighbors round about, to the whole body of Christ's Church, to all men living, to all Generations to come, as Tully in his Lelius writes like an honest man, Non minoris mihi curae est, &c. I have as much care that this Commonwealth should flourish when I am dead, as while I am alive. Hezekiah's affections were too much contracted to himself, when he said, Is it not good if peace and truth be in my days? 2 Kings xx. 20. Moses is called God's Elect, his chosen Servant for standing in the gap to save all the people. Nehemiah is very famous, for he raised up the ruins of his Nation, Ecclus. xlix. 13. If foreign wits do not mistake us English, they defame us sharply, that we want public spirits, and are commonly careless of the common good. But I doubt we are worse than they make us. For it is not as they have heard, that we intend our private wealths before the general wealth of the Kingdom: no, it is our private pleasure, our private luxury, that we project at, rather than the honor of our Nation and Country. This is a strong Garlic smell, fit to be looked to, and to be turned into a better savor with a great deal of redress and reformation. It is an unnatural baseness, to prefer ourselves before the prosperity of the Land that bore us. The seat of our Ancestors, the receptacle of our Children and Progeny to come, where we breathed the first breath of life, whose dust, which the wind blows about, is the Carkasses of our Fore-fathers rotten long ago in their Graves. But Noah's charity was wider than one Country, saving that the whole world was but one Country at that time: and he included all Ages to come in the intention of his Burnt-offering and Prayers. So Patrial, so public, so universal are the endeavors and supplications of all good men. I will cite you a piece of a Prayer out of St. Ambrose,

This is a full song of all parts, whose loud volley must needs pierce the Heavens. He that prays for the thousand thousands of all that are in distress, will be heard as if he prayed with ten thousand voices. Noah's Sacrifice was an intercession for all mankind, and it was sweet, as Christ died for the sins of the whole World, to whose example St. Paul bids us frame our charity, Walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and given himself for an Offering, and a Sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor, Eph. v. 2.

Which brings in the last grain of Incense in this sweet savor, God looked on his own Son, appointed to be slain on the Cross, it was Noah's Faith in that Sacrifice which found such gracious favor, more precious than all the Powders of Arabia. God will be pleased with righteous men, such as this Patriarch was, though in many things they sin: he could not but be well pleased in Christ, because in all things he was obedient. Which well-pleasing in him redounds to all that are his true members: Who are an holy Priesthood, to offer up spiritual Sacrifice, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ, 1 Pet. ii. 5. Let us put our Prayers, our Thanksgiving, our Repentance, our Alms, our Sufferings in his hand, or they will never be well taken. The Intercession of Christ should be continually in our remembrance. He is the Angel, Rev. viii. 3. with the golden Censor, to whom much Incense was given, that he should offer it with the Prayers of all the Saints upon the Golden Altar, which was before the Throne. For take us in ourselves, without him, and we are noisesome, ulcerous, Swine wallowing in the mire: but we are unto God a sweet savor of Christ, 2 Cor. ii. 15. They that verse continually with, or near to carrion smells, lose their sent, and never stop their nose at them: So the fetor of our sins is not so well discerned as it should be, because we carry their contagion always about us. The implacable Spirit thinks that revenge is sweet: he that lives by wrong and robbery says, Stoln waters are sweet: It was the ancient word of the covetous, Dulcis odor lucri ex re quâlibet, anything is sweet that brings in gain: the Wanton doats of his unlawful pleasure, and is so far from perceiving it to be obscene, that he is catched with the Harlots enticement, Prov. vii. 17. I have perfumed my bed with Myrrh, Aloes, and Cinnamon. Alas, these are the savor of death unto death, and in St. Paul's Phrase they offer up the Sacrifice of Devils. But put the trial upon our good actions, good according to the perfection of parts, though not of degrees, all is unprofitable, all short of Legal exactness, and of Evangelical too, unless our Father will say to us for Christ's sake, Well done good servant, thou hast been faithful in a little. The comfort which old Isaac took in the fragrancy of his Sons Rayment, may be better applied to the sweet savor which is never separable from our gracious Redeemer, The smell of my Son is as the smell of a field, which the Lord hath blessed, Gen. xxvii. 27.

The great zeal of some, and no mean ones, to prove that everything without Faith is fulsom, and odious, and that nothing is sweet but that which is washed in the blood of Christ, hath made them raise a report, upon the incredulous Jews (how true I know not, but not easily laid) that a corrupt rankness steams from their bodies, ever since they crucified our Savior. Marcus the Emperor, and Ammianus Marcell. and other Heathen called them of old faetentes Judaeos, nasty smelling Jews. The Christian reporters add, when any of them are converted and baptized, that loathsome smell is never more perceived in them. This record likewise is of good antiquity in Baronius, That under Lucas Bishop of Constantinople a Synod was held in Trullo, to which the Hagarens were summoned, and warned to receive Baptism, they, and their Children. They answered, their Children were baptized. What, says the Bishop, in the name of Christ? No. Why then are they baptized? The Hagarens reply, that their children, till they received that Sacrament, were vexed with Devils, and stunk worse than Dogs. For my part I lend no ear to these relations, because they of the Roman Profession, that make them, report no better of us Protestants than they do of the Jews. One of them thought to discredit the Reformed Religion with this tale, That the next day after Luther was laid in his Grave, some came near to it, and his body not to be found, but such a pestilent evaporation of stink as offended all that were present. All this while Luther was alive, received this lying Pamphlet, and read it, and gave it such an answer as a slanderous Libel deserved. I doubt not but the Lord smelt a sweet savor in that zealous Servant of his, because he put his trust in Christ, and believed that in the mercy of the most highest he should not miscarry: And a better savor was in him, I may resolutely say, than in those his Adversaries, who think they find much Nard and Cassia in the Condignity of their own merits. By Faith Abel offered up a more excellent Sacrifice than Cain. By Faith Noah being warned, Heb. xi. 7. prepared the Ark, and became heir of the righteousness, which is by Faith. By Faith we must offer up ourselves holy, unblameable, living Sacrifices, that we which know Christ now by Faith may see him hereafter in perfect Glory. AMEN.

THE FIRST SERMON UPON LOT'S WIFE.

S Ince the least sin that ever was committed deserves eternal punishment, I am sure any sin that ever was done deserves an hours reprehension; especially one of so great magnitude as this of Lots Wife. He that will judge himself, and take a strict account of his faults, let him look this way to my Text, and observe with me how many ways this woman transgressed, through so small a motion as to turn about. He that will examine his repentance and his vivification as well as his sins, let him look upon this Pillar, and mark that it is a Monument erected against a relapsing convert, against one that was turning from the vain pomp of the World and did not persevere. For she that fled from Sodom, and looked back, perished as well as they that never came out. And he that will consider what an heinous crime it is to be invited unto mercy, and abuse it, let him taste of this salt, and feel what a strange judgment remains in this example to cast away that which God would have saved. All this is tacitly included in the words which I have read unto you: and as the Prophets of old uttered their Prophetical spirit many times by deeds and gestures, as well as by word and speech. So God doth teach his Church as well by fact as by precept. Those Exhortations I premised were not doctrinally delivered at the castigation of Lot's Wife, but miraculously exhibited in a visible work, objective, non praeceptive, they are not passed over in a line or two by the Pen of a ready Writer, but built up for all posterity to look upon in a durable Monument.

And when judgment advanceth itself in a Trophy, in a standing Pillar, every man will conceive that it is meant it should be a monitory to all succession, rather than if it were a fluxive a transitory penalty that left no print behind it. The Idol Calf which the Israelites worshipped was beaten to powder, the dust of it blown away before the wind, and drunk up in the River. The Sea which had given back on either side for the passage of God's Host, met together and overwhelmed Pharaoh and his Army in the bottom, that they were no more seen. The Earth clave and opened itself to swallow up Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, and it closed again, so that no appearance of them remained. Nothing was found of Jezebel, eaten up of dogs, but her skull, her feet, and the palms of her hands. So it pleased him who sits on high that all visible memorial of these sinners should be rid out of the way. But He made brine of Lot's Wife, and congealed it into a Statue, where it stood longafter, nay I cannot convince those reporters who have written, that the relics of it are to be seen to this day, that passengers might shake their heads at it, and say, Ah thou that wert plucked out of Sodom, like a brand out of the fire, and yet didst loiter by the way, and couldst not refrain to cast back a wishing and a voluptuous eye upon those filthy habitations.

Ingenious fancies have taken scope to riddle upon this judgment, Cadaver nec habet suum sepulchrum, sepulchrum nec habet suum cadaver, sepulchrum tamen & cadaver intus; that she was a dead corps that had no sepulcher, and that she was a sepulcher that had no dead corps, and yet it was both corps and sepulcher. This gives me the hint to divide my Text into an Epitaph and a Tomb: the Epitaph, His wife looked back from behind him; the Tomb which that Epitaph respects is, that she became a pillar of salt. If you will have it in Logical terms, which come all to one pass, thus, here are two principal heads to which all the matter is to be referred, qua fecit, quae passa est, first what she did, and that's the summary Enditement of her sin, secondly what she suffered, and that's the sentence of her punishment. I bind myself to the first part only at this time, in which there is cumulus salis, as many corns of salt as will lie upon a knifs point, so in these few words, she looked back from behind him, many Commandments are broken. 1. She was inobsequens, she looked back, being expressly forbidden, there's disobedience. 2. Excors, here's blindness of heart, she might have saved herself by going straight on, and looking forward, yet she violated those easy conditions. 3. I • docilis, she looked back from behind him. Lot was a good example that went before her, and she would go her own ways. 4. Incredula, she doubted whether those Cities should be destroyed as God had sent word, or she thought it would not be the worse for her though she stood still and gazed upon Sodom. 5. Recidiva, she fainted in well doing, and had a desire growing upon her to live again among those filthy sinners whom she had escaped. 6. Misericordiae contemtrix, she was slow to save herself, and did not fly away upon the wings of mercy. 7. Beneficii pertaesa, she rather valued what she had lost, than what she had saved, her Habitation, her Estate and Riches were consumed, for her life's preservation she set little by that, and so loathed the benefit.

The Angel speaks in the 17. verse of this Chapter, Escape for thy life, look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the Plain, yet she would not hearken, no not to such a Monitor as an Angel, but she looked back from behind him, and so stands guilty of disobedience. For disobedience is a sin by itself alone, Cum crimen potius contra prohibitionem quàm contra rem ipsam fiat, says the School, when the fact itself were innocent, but that the prohibition of the Lawgiver makes it nocent. There are some Commandments of God's which lean not so much upon apparent reason, as upon absolute authority. For though there be weighty causes which moved the most wise God to appoint it so, yet when those reasons are not emergent out of the seeds of nature, nor any way expressed and revealed, as the Angel expresseth none in this place, then the Command is said to come from absolute and uncontradicted dominion to try obedience. There is a natural Law which lighteth every man that cometh into the World to choose the good in sundry cases of honesty, and to refuse the evil; this light is not a pure elementary fire, but ignis culinaris as we say in Philosophy an impure smoky flame, which makes it apparent to the understanding what's filthy to the soul, as well as what's noxious to the body. And in those things where God is little known, or at least little thought of, humanity itself doth suggest the performance. But because we rest not in the good of nature only, as beasts do, but aspire to a supernatural end and felicity; therefore there is a supernatural Law to bring us to it, Repent and believe, and thou shalt be saved; this is the Covenant of mercy and forgiveness which is made in Christ, and the grace of God doth work in us a good will to those Divine duties, that we do not frustrate our salvation. Then thirdly the Sacraments of the New Testament are the Seals of the righteousness of faith: as Sacraments they are Ceremonial Ordinances, and are solemnly kept upon submission to the absolute Command of the Divine Authority; but as faith is necessarily now knit unto them, so they are a limb of the supernatural Law, and are carefully observed, not as Canons of obedience, but as the way to eternal life. As a sick man takes the potions that are prescribed him, not out of duty to the Physician, but out of due regard to his own recovery. The similitude sorts with our infirmity, Obtemperet medico ut surgat, qui noluit credere ne aegrotaret, says St. Austin, Man would not obey the Physician to prevent his sickness, therefore let him use his after-wit, and take those Sacramental means that are appointed to make him whole. But fourthly there is lex privata, a Law imposed upon some particular person, in whose transgression neither were justice infringed, nor God's glory violated, if his Command were not laid upon it; and there is no scope in this but to make the passive humility of our soul, that is our obedience more illustrious.

What was there in it else that the Man of God that came from Judah unto Bethel was charged neither to eat nor drink water in that place, nor to return by the same way that he came, there is no color of Religious Worship in these observations, but God would have him submit to his unquestionable Authority, and you know his misery ensued, when he was unperswaded to obey it. Dominus cur jusserit viderit, what profit there is to keep such private Laws, as seem to carry no great substance in them, let God look to that says the Father, but be you obsequious. That peremptory denunciation upon pain of death not to eat of the Tree of knowledge of good and evil, called the forbidden fruit, no Theological wits could ever pass a ripe mature judgment upon it why it was so laid, but that they, and all we in them, are to stoop under that sweet yoke of the Divine Will with absolute, indefinite, undiscoursed obedience. It was no robbery to eat of it, wherein God was defrauded of anything that He stood in need of, then it had been hurtful to him; the fruit was not diseaseful or poisonous, then it had been hurtful to them: it was a pure Edict of Authority, to let the best of all bodily Creatures know to what service and homage they were born; as the vulgar Latin reads that verse, Psal. ix. ult. Constitue legislatorem super eos, not as we translate it, put them in fear, O Lord, but set a Lawgiver over them, that they may know themselves to be but men. Quomodo eris sub Domino, nisi fueris sub praecepto? so St. Austin upon that very instance of the forbidden fruit. How are you under the Lord, unless you be under the Law? and not that Law which leans upon apparent reason, for that Law is within you, and therein you obey yourself; but that Law which flows from absolute Authority, that's without you, and therein you stoop lowest under the power of God. And this is the very condition of that word which the Angel spoke to Lot and those that were with him, Look not behind thee, neither stay in all the plain. Wherein could it tend to the honor of God that they should set their face one way more than another? perhaps you will say it was meant to the greater detestation of the Sodomites, whom the Lord would not permit to have commiseration, or any respect from good men: or to urge them to make haste away with a kind of hyperbolical celerity. As our Savior sent his Disciples to preach in every City of Judea with this speedy or prefestinating Command, Salute no man by the way, Luke x. 4. And Elisha imposed that post haste upon Gehazi his servant, Gird up thy loins and go thy way, if thou meet any man salute him not, and if any man salute thee answer him not again. Suppose this or that were the secret drift of this Interdiction look not behind thee, yet a little casting of the head on one side had not made their expedition the slower. What need we seek a knot in a rush? what need we prove her faulty for reasons that are not alleged? this convinceth obliquity enough in her sin, that she did not observe the precise command of God in every gesture of her body.

In a word, the thing itself commanded did not in itself bind the conscience, but with the Command it did. The eye is free to view all the works of the Lord, unless something upon which it glanceth doth scandalize it with concupiscence. Who suspects the contrary, but that the crackling of the fire, and the out-cries of them that perished in those Cities that were consumed, did rouse many in the neighbor Villages to look upon those places, and lament them? Did not Abraham rise up early in the morning and look toward the Land of the Plain, and see the smoke of the Country go up as the smoke of a Furnace? 'tis soon answered, Where there was no restraint, there was no transgression. But above all other Laws, those which we may rather call Canons and Constitutions, that impose the prestation of adiaphorous duties, and prohibit other things that have no moral obliquity in them, are most generous ways to heap reward upon the willing, and to discover the stiff stomach of rebellion. In all Injunctions Ecclesiastical and Political, set aside charity, edification, unity, peace of the Church, or any other moral respect. Put it only upon this, that mere authority enforceth them, which is just authority derived from God's Ordinance, God forbid we should need any haling or towing to them, for he that sees the finger of Authority held up, sees reason enough to obey; and to recoil as Lots Wife did, because the Commandment seemed not to be weighty and ponderous, is blind disobedience. O 'tis a blessed thing not to have a licentious itch upon a man, not to desire scope and random, but to submit cheerfully to a punctual Discipline in all our actions, and every circumstance of them. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , as it is the praise of an Holy Father, as if his soul had been created without a will. Alas into what precipices would our fancy carry us if we were left to ourselves, to be libertines in anything, there would be nothing but confusion? Deus servitute nostrâ non eget, nos autem sine ejus dominatione esse non possumus, nothing truer, it is St. Austin's. God stands in no need of our service, but we could not live without his command and governance. 'It is hard to confine this point to brevity, but I must break off: only let me put you in mind, that whereas the Jesuits set forth themselves to be the only Obedientiaries in the World, so that to neglect the Precept of their Superior in a trifle, they brand it for a flagitious crime; yet the Jesuit a Lapide says upon my Text that he would not discord with them, that hold the trespass of Lots Wife to be no more than venial error; for either some sudden clap of thunder might make her start and look back unawares: or else she thought not that the Angel gave her that direction not to retort her eyes under the guilt of a mortal sin, or she thought the Commandment held her no longer, when she came out of the Plain, and was even entering into Zoar. Here's a Jesuitical subtlety for you, to aggravate the offense to the bigness of a Mountain, if a Novice violate the private Law of his Superior; but to extenuate the sin almost to nothing, if a Servant disobey the private Law of his heavenly Master. But it is not the wit of man that can set a size upon sins which are mortal and which are venial, for it is the Lord that judgeth the Earth.

The next place to which I refer the heinousness of this woman's sin, is great folly and blindness of heart, for she refused the will of God, and the preservation of her own life, upon such easy conditions as to hold still her head. When Elisha 's Messenger bad Naaman wash seven times in Jordan, and he turned away in a rage, his Servants spake reason to him, if the Prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldst thou not have done it? how much rather then when he saith to thee, wash and be clean? If he would not use such gentle means, so near at hand, means of no expense, no pain, no lingering molestation, he deserved to continue a Leper. In like sort if Lots Wife had been set a task of many observations, put to a strict and a tedious penance would she not have done it, to have escaped a storm of fire and brimstone? how much more when this was all that was required from her, Go on straight to the Mountain that is before thee, turn neither to the right hand nor to the left. Quanta erat iniquitas in peccando ubi tanta erat non peccandi facilitas? says the Father, What a shame it was to offend when there was so much facility to decline the offense? Were not all the Regions of the World free for her to look upon, excepting that one City behind her which could not be seen for the smoke? Ex omnibus unum elige Myrrha virum, modo ne sit in omnibus unus: A single exception is the smallest exception that can be made, and let them feel the smart that cannot conform themselves to those things which are of such easy observation. For wherein did the transgression of Adam and Eve especially consist. God knows best, but the trivial and best grounded conjecture is, quod levis fuisset in tantâ copiâ unius arboris continentia, all the Trees of the Garden else were frankly theirs both for food and pleasure, both for delight and necessity; What an easy imposition was this, let this only Graft be untouched, the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and all beside is yours? Who could forget it, or neglect it? But they stumbled when there was nothing to make them fall, that is, they violated a Law which was neither burdensome in strictness, nor in multitude of circumstances.

Therefore in those good hours which we set apart for repentance and bewailing of our sins, let it strike us deep to the heart, when we remember how much evil we have done upon very small provocation, how many branches of the Law we have broken, when we cannot justly say that we were strongly beset with any temptation, and how far we have given way to our frailties when 'twas prompt and easy to repress them. The negative Commands of the Law are more obvious to us, more ready in our power to obey them than the affirmative. So St. Chrysostom spends his judgment upon it with a tacit reason, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , 'tis far easier to hold off our hand from sin than to put to our hand to virtue: and we can sooner show the evil that we have not done, than the good that we have done. Nay the Father makes that such a slight thing that he says, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the very Beasts might allege that, or it might be alleged for them that they had done no iniquity: yet what a strong charge it will be against us all in the day of judgment, that we have not girt ourselves close, no not to this negative obedience, touch not, taste not; What facile Ordinances are these to a temperate man? and nothing but custom and a sluggish spirit hath made them difficult to the intemperate. Defraud no man, extort from no man; God is no austere God in those Statutes, they are quickly learnt, and quickly kept; yet the wealthiest many times will do the contrary: when they could not pretend, as the necessitous may, the least impulsion of poverty. How soon may any one abstain from the Lord's Table that finds himself unprepared and uncomposed for those sacred Mysteries? yet God shall have their company at that holy Feast when he least desires it. How easy a thing it is for a man not to fall down before Stocks and Stones, and to worship them? yet a smack of Idolatry abounds even in the Church of Christ. We dream of difficulties, we cry out against invincible temptations, when there is no such matter. I know there are Royal Laws in Scripture fit for heroic virtue, to bless them that persecute you, to pull down every high imagination, to quench all the sparks of concupiscence, to lay down our life for Christ's sake. God doth justly weigh both the duress and the weight of these Commands, and our infirmity to fulfil them, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ▪ he sees us strive for mastery in those Combats, and admires the fortitude of his Saints; but in other things it is as strange how quickly our faintness and easiness is subdued. Could you not watch one hour, says our Lord to his Disciples? What a poor request is this? to wake one hour for his comfort and service: Therefore the objurgation was the sharper, because they failed him. You will pollute my name for handfuls of barley and pieces of bread, Ez. xiii. 19. The Devil's haec omnia is a strong allurement, All these things will I give thee; he may bate a great deal of that offer to them that are ready to run into sin, let it be hoc aliquid, a little preferment, a little countenance and they are taken with the Snare. O insensati, O slow of heart, like this sinner in my Text, will you reject God and forsake his Word even in things wherein you may so easily perform obedience?

Thirdly it is another brand upon her sin, that she was indocilis, most unattentive to learn. Lot went before her constantly and steadfastly without any reciprocation or backsliding, the Example was in her eye all the way from Sodom to Zoar, every step he trode was a Sermon to bid her do the like, if she would be saved, yet she made no benefit of the Pattern, though he were her own Mate, her 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , with whom she was bound in a more particular bond than all others, to draw the same yoke. What was this but to shut her eyes unto the light that was before, and to turn to the smoke that was behind? This is no distorted amplification, but an evident spot in her crime: yet not in her alone, but in all those that cannot show the use of good examples in the fruits of their lives. A good Example is the fairest transcript of God's will, texted in capital letters, so that he that runs may read; and as a Picture expresseth the life more when colors are laid upon it, than when 'tis drawn out only in the rude figure: so where piety lives and moves in the actions of virtuous men, 'tis more illustrious so by far than in empty Precepts, and God expects it at our hands, that where we are deaf to plain instruction, yet we would easily be won with imitation. We will run after thee in odor unguentorum, says the Spouse, in the smell of those fragrancies which the Worthies of the Church have left behind them. Our Church, which hath omitted no opportune occasion to put sound devotion in our mouths, hath taught us often to pray in several Collects, in that admirable piece of piety the Common-Prayer Book, for grace of conformity with the best of God's Children, that we may learn to love our enemies by the example of his Martyr St. Stephen, that after the example of John the Baptist we may constantly speak the truth, and patiently suffer for the truths sake; that we may follow all the Saints that are knit together in one communion and fellowship in virtuous and godly living; this is the true celebration of their Holy-days, to tread their footsteps as they have gone before us unto everlasting life.

But Novelists had rather be talked of that they began a fashion, and set a Copy for others, than that they contain'd themselves within a strict imitation of the most excellent Presidents. Be ye followers of me, says Paul to the Church of Corinth; and is it not better says Nazianzen to one Nichobalus upon the mention of those words, to come after the Apostles heels, than be a ringleader, or the foremost among Sectaries? Praestat infra aquilas paululum, quàm supra alaudas volitare, it is a fairer pitch to fly a little under an Eagle, than to soar somewhat above a Lark. The Age is blessed, the days are blessed, when conspicuous facts of holy men are like Beacons on a hill, which cannot choose but be gazed upon. And if our sluggishness obscure such rare Examples for want of emulation, and make them vanish like prints in snow that are soon forgotten, the Lord will set up others of a contrary kind that shall last longer to our terror. For since the memory of the just is no more regarded which is eternized for our imitation, he will powder and make brine of the wicked for our confusion. Here's an instance in my Text of one that observed not a faithful Leader that conducted her: She would not be tied to example, and in that place where she refused to learn she was left for an example to all posterity. But why do I stick at this only, that she would not be a Scholar to Lot? he was a frail man, and had need of a Guide himself: herein rather it appears that she was most averse from discipline, nothing would make her wise, for there was an Angel or twain in the Troop, they were the Leaders of this little Flock out of Sodom, yet she ordered her steps disobediently even in the sight of an Angel. No earthly means or persuasions, no nor heavenly patterns can reduce some headstrong sinners to repentance, they have hardened their hearts like the nether millstone. The rich Glutton in Hell thought that by some new device his Brethren might be converted, if one would come from the dead and admonish them. And do not most of you imagine, if an Angel were sent from Heaven to preach, there would be great reformation among us, we would mend apace: yes perhaps as much as Lots Wife did, who would tread her own path, though the Angel were at her elbow. They that will not hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and be converted for that, they would be at the same stay though Angels walked daily among them.

The express words of my Text have afforded me hitherto all that I have objected against this sinner, and what I shall say more shall be deducted out of it both by facile and easy consequence, and by fair authority; especially in the imputations of incredulity and recidivation. And to come to them with the more perspicuity and order, I observe the same rottenness in the sin of Lots Wife which Cajetan discovered in the transgression of Eve. Eve cavilled upon that which God had commanded, two ways; first she turned that absolute sentence, in the day thou eatest that fruit thou shalt die, into ye shall not eat of it lest you die, or as the Vulgar Latin, ne forte, lest perhaps ye die. Then she cloyed the Commandment with more austerity than was in it, to show she was weary of it, ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it; concerning the not touching her own loathing of the Law did put in that addition. So the poison of the Devil had crept into her understanding, and into her affections says Cajetan, In intellectum per haesi • ationem poenae, in affectum per displicentiam praecepti: in her understanding she doubted no such punishment would follow as was threatened, in her affections she distasted the Commandment, and these are just so in the Subject we handle.

In the 10. of Wisdom ver. 7. (I name an Author of all that are in the Apocryphal List next to Canonical credit) Lots Wife is called a standing Pillar of salt, as a Monument of an unbelieving soul. An unbeliever is one that gives not faith to that which God hath said and revealed. Now she fell into unbelief in one of these two points, or in both, either she believed not that the place from whence she came should be destroyed as the Angels had denounced, or else she believed not it would conduce to her safety whether she looked back or no: the former she would try out of curiosity, and the latter she would put to hazard upon peevish presumption. The Sun rose clear that morning, ver. 23. there was no thunder nor darkness in the Heavens; she began to suspect she was drawn from home to no purpose, and they were wiser that stayed behind. So she stood in motu trepidationis, she knew not whether she should believe or not believe, at last she resolved to trust God's Messenger no further than she saw cause, and would make her own eyes her sureties, though she were strictly forbidden. You cannot provoke God to anger sooner than by reserving power and license to yourself to judge whether all his sayings are certain and infallible. He that believeth not is condemned already. Faith is the eye of all Religion, if you wink with that eye you shall never see the Lord: Especially to think you can discern more with these bodily senses than with the inerrable light of Divine Truth, is an extreme indignity. A grave Patrician would be grieved that the deposition of a noted Varlet should be heard against his innocence. And will you hear the objections of sense and reason against that sacred evidence, Thus saith the Lord? that were to trust to darkness before light, the Flesh before the Spirit, to lying vanities before unalterable and eternal truth. But to her senses this Infidel would appeal, and they would instruct her sufficiently, whether it had gone with Sodom so ill as it was foretold. And was she sure to be satisfied by looking back? I greatly doubt it, a mist might rise up like the smoke of a Furnace, and she conceive it to come from fire, when it did not: Or the Sun might shine upon the waters in the Plain, and she misdoubt that the waters were become blood, as the Moabites were so mistaken. Doth not a late Historian tell us of the whole Watch of a City, that misdoubted a Field of thistles a far off was a Troop of Pikemen that encamped there to besiege them? Was ever man more cautious according to human rules than St. Thomas the Apostle? He would trust no man's reports that his Master was risen from the dead, he would see somewhat; neither would he trust his own eyes, he would feel too, nay he would not trust his fingers ends in small wounds, but he would wallow his whole hand in the rent of his side. For all this wariness he might have been deluded. The Syrians saw Elisha, and yet wist not it was he. The Sodomites felt all night at Lots door, and were still to seek. Old Isaac held Jacob fast and was deluded, the hands are Esau 's hands says he, and yet they were not. And will this woman trust her eye-sight, and at a distance, rather than God's peremptory assertion? O trust not in man, trust not in these fallible human means. Our senses are brutish, Nature is corrupt, Philosophy is vain, but Faith leans upon that strong pillar, the revelation of the Spirit from above, which cannot falter, and to lie it is impossible.

And as this woman was called an incredulous Soul, because she looked back to see whether vengeance had passed upon the Cities of the Plain, as the Angel of the Lord had foretold, so for want of faith, touching the caution which was given to her own person, she fell into presumption, and by presumption into death; it would not sink into her thoughts that God was in earnest, that as many of their Troop as looked behind them should be consumed; she thought they were big words to scare timorous persons, such as Prophetical men in their zeal did every day denounce against sinners, yet they lived and rubbed on that took their own liberty to disobey, for God was gracious and would not suffer his whole displeasure to arise against miserable sinners. Feel, feel the pulse of your own conscience I beseech you, tell me if it do not beat disorderly? Doth it not confuse you to call to mind, that this infidelity, this in ipso genere, hath betrayed you to the temptations of Satan more than all his snares beside? that desperate courage which you assume to yourselves upon some hope of impunity is it not the spur to all transgression? God is gentle and of long suffering, his minacies are terrible, but his dearly beloved Son and our only Savior is merciful, sed & exorabile numen fortasse experiar, says the Heathen, his loving kindness is soon entreated. This is a bastard faith of our own, to subvert the true faith which is begotten by the Spirit. A Diabolical infusion that God doth menace out of policy that which He never meant, to make us obsequious by the shadow of his scourge: but remember that non moriemini was a lie. 'It is the Serpents Master-piece to expel all faith and fear out of our mind, for they go hand in hand together, and to break our necks with confidence. A barbarous beastly kind of life says Aristotle hardened the Scythians, that they neither feared Thunder nor Earthquakes: but it is infernal witchcraft that makes obdurate hearts believe that all the woes and curses in the Gospel are but a strong noise, terrible while it is heard, but comes to nothing. Quotidie Diabolus quae Deus minatur levigat, says Gregory. God affirms, the Woman doubts, the Devil denies. O unhappy they that think Truth itself may be deceived, and give ear to a deceitful spirit. If all the maledictions against Impenitents were not indubitably to be expected, Christianity were but fainthearted superstition, Religion nothing but panic fear, Faith not the Evidence of things to come, but a devised Fable, and the sacred Scriptures in all penalties and threatenings a vizard of mockery. But as sin brought punishment upon us, so let the certain expectation of punishment bring us out of sin. Remember Lots Wife, the only memento that Christ fixeth upon any Story of the Old Testament. The less she believed the less she feared, but the less she feared the more she smarted. What God hath threatened will not be declined by our contrary opinion. Though Christ shed his blood to save a sinner, God will not lie to save a sinner. No title of his Word shall fail, no not to save an hundred thousand souls out of the infernal pit.

I am come to the utmost portion of the hour, and not to the utmost of the first part of my Text by three points. She fainted in well-doing, she neglected mercy, and was slow to save herself, she contemned the benefit of preservation in respect of that which was taken from her. But as Logic convinceth more than Rhetoric, as the fist knit together is stronger than the hand spread abroad; so all this will be most doctrinal in one point, that she relapsed, and sunk after she was in fair speed to obtain mercy, because she fell in love with wicked Sodom again from whence God had withdrawn her? This is her crime which Philo exaggerates more than once, aestu refluo retrosum absorpta, she was like a Ship sailing with full sails from the sinful delights of the World, but the contrary winds and tides of concupiscence carried her clean back again. Josephus accuseth her worse upon the same charge, that though her feet came from that impious City, yet her heart staid behind, Et saepius tardavit vertendo se ad civitatem, she stood still more than once to take her full view of that loss which she so much bemoaned, nor was it at the first turning about, as he says, that she was turned into a pillar of salt. The very Apples of Sodom remain as a token against her to this day, which put forth at first as if they would grow to be very delicious in the taste, and in conclusion they pulverize, and become sooty ashes. So Lots Wife ran well at first, but in the midst of her course, nay almost at the end she fainted, and stuck fast in the mire of recoiling desires. These are the Apples of Sodom, Plants bearing fruit that never come to ripeness, Wisd. x. 7. This was not her native Country from whence the Angel brought her, I confess that would have moved a stony heart to have pitied it, if they had seen it desolate: No, Lot and she were strangers in Sodom, and but coarsly used by the lawless luxurious multitude: but wealth came in apace, Lot chose it for that end: there were other reasons I believe that took her more, there was the conflux of the Gallantry, there were the Fashions, there was the Bravery, there were the Sports that filled up idle hours, there were the Servants and the Visitants, and some things else which we much mistrust did follow all this. O 'tis an harsh thing for feminine pride and wantonness to be sent from such a City into little Zoar, or into a Mountain. No marvel if good counsel do not altogether work that good effect in this kind among our Ladies that might be expected, for the Angels of God could neither persuade nor affright Lots Wife from such a place, but that being a mile or so out of the Gates she longs to return.

He that puts his hand to the plough and looks back, says our Savior, is not fit for the Kingdom of Heaven. Post aratrum respicit qui ad mala revertitur quae reliquit, says Gregory. If you call back any sin to which you had bid adieu, then you mar that furrow which is before your eyes, wherein you were casting good seed, and make it crooked. This is a cleanly Comparison, but because relapsing is an odious sin, St. Peter hath streined for a loathsome Similitude, and calls it returning with the dog unto his vomit. Si canis hoc faciens horret oculis tuis, tu quid eris oculis Dei, says St. Austin, if a dog is not to be endured in our sight that will lap in his own digustments, how shall God cast thee out of the sight of his eyes which dost wallow in those sins which thou hadst abjured? 'It is a subtle question which Clemens propounds in the 2. of his 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 : and the resolution of it will cost them dear, I think, that resume those sins for which they had asked pardon, whether it be worse to sin in one kind once with a man's full knowledge and obstinacy, or out of negligence and weakness to return again to those faults whereof he had repented? certainly the determination will be, that relapsing begets extreme obstinacy, and obstinacy begets obdurateness: Facit obrigescere in peccato, as one says, the Metaphor is taken from her in my Text, that after recidivation became senseless as a Pillar, and did not feel what it was to sin. They marry those sins again from whence their Soul was once divorced: they are reinamoured of iniquity which once they confessed was to be loathed: they do as it were say unto God, take thy restraining grace again, we will have none of it: they were drawn out of the snare of the Hunter, and put in their foot again, improbe Neptunum accusat, qui iterum naufragium facit, said the Heathen; therefore as their first illumination was an illustrious example of mercy, so their sliding back and ingratitude shall be punished with a memorable instance of justice. The Canonists say bis recidivus non debet commutare. A simple offender, in whom unfeigned sorrow appears, if the Magistrate please may be punished in his Purse for once to excuse him from his corporal shame; but if he fall into the same offense again he must undergo his own penance without all indulgence of commutation.

Consider therefore, and the Lord put it into all our thoughts, that all Vows, Promises, and Protestations of amendment of any fault that are retrograde, cease, and become nothing, will be the most terrible witnesses against us in the day of judgment. The Scape-goat that was sent out into the Wilderness with the sins of the people was dismissed never to return again. The Philosopher Plato could say 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ; which is as one would say, go out of Sodom, and never turn back to look upon it. Christ bad us not only come unto him, Matth. xi. 28. but also abide with him, and stay with him, Jo. 15.4. There is no labor to lost labor, to begin in the spirit, and to end in the flesh. Root up vanity that it may grow no more; if you do but clip off the top it will grow the thicker afterward, The Philistines let the hair of Samson grow again to their own destruction. Take heed that your repentance be not the worst sin that ever you committed; be as constant in well doing as the worst are in evil, be constant unto the end, and the Lord will give you a Crown of Life. AMEN.

THE SECOND SERMON UPON LOT'S WIFE.

H Ere is a relation of a great sin, and of the destruction of the sinner, and both in the compass of one short verse. And yet as brief as the Story is, I believe it is longer in telling than the deed was a doing. Though it might give us not an hours but an Ages time to consider how such a transmutation should come to pass; for every alteration in nature requires time, and previous dispositions to work it, yet a thousand years to the Lord are but as one day, and a moment of one day as sufficient to bring his will to pass as a thousand years. If you regard the gripes of pain which customarily are antecedent to death, I think never any died with less sense of pain than this woman did, for a numbness took her all over in the twinkling of an eye, and left her as it had been a stone. And you know long lingering punishments are most cruel, and most exquisite to flesh and blood; Ita moriatur ut se mori sentiat, was a most tyrannical sentence. But of that the example in my Text was most free, and yet never the happier. Julius Caesar's quick answer to his friends demand, what death is most eligible, and he said, the quickest is much cited, but little commended. For though his opinion seem specious in one similitude, that no Seafaring man will complain that he was brought too soon to the Haven: Yet there is another similitude to counterpoise that, how an unprovided Steward may be shent, because he was brought too soon to his reckoning. A little warning time at the latest of all may be worth much time. Moses had this bestowed upon him for the fullness of all favors that went before, to have his passing-bell toll in his ears, in those words which God spake unto him. Get thee up into Mount Nebo, and die in the Mountain whither thou goest up, and be gathered unto thy people. From hence I collect, that this Judgment in my Text will be most sensible to our apprehension, because we shall hear of one that was snatched away unpreparedly, without all sense of death. It is true, she had no Will to make, she had no Legacies to bequeath, for all was lost. She had no house to set in order with Hezekiah, for her Habitation was consumed with fire and brimstone; yet she had a Soul to set in order, which was ten thousand times more than all beside. And although I will define nothing rashly against her for this judgment sake, for I have learnt that modesty to let God only judge his own servants, yet this momentary destruction of Lots Wife, I am sure, is worth both this, and many hours meditations. Quod cuivis cuiquam; that which happened but once since the world began to this one person, may happen in some kind every day to any man. Saul was desperately driven to seek to raise Samuel from the dead, and appear before him; this instance in my Text is one that never went down to the grave among the dead, that she might always be in the remembrance of the living, how she looked back to Sodom, and became a Pillar of Salt.

Which words I divided formerly into such terms as might both respect the Contents of the Text, and be expedient places for your memory: Therefore I called the two principal branches, an Epitaph, and a Tomb. The Epitaph thus, But his Wife looked back from behind him: The Tomb which this Epitaph respects in that which follows, And she became a Pillar of Salt. If God made Epitaphs, the stones of the Church should not be guilty of such flattery as they are, for none of the offenses of Lots Wife are left out in these few words: but she is accused, and very justly, of these particulars, as I shown before: 1. Of disobedience, that she would not observe the precise Commandment of God in every motion of her body. 2. Of great folly and blindness of heart, that she would reject God and the preservation of her own life upon such easy conditions as to hold still her head. 3. Of a Spirit most unattentive to learn, for Lot went before her constantly and steadfastly, the example was in her eye every step from Sodom to Zoar, yet she would go her own ways. 4. Of incredulity, an incredulous soul, Wisd. x. 7. Either she did not believe that Sodom should be consumed as God had sent word, or else she thought it would not be the worse for her though she turned about, and looked upon it. 5. She relapsed and fainted in well-doing, and desired to live again among those wicked sinners from whom God had withdrawn her. This was opened in the first part. The second is as strange for a Tomb as this was for an Epitaph. A Christian Poet wrote thus Enigmatically upon it, Cadaver nec habet suum sepulchrum▪ sepulchrum nec habet suum cadaver, sepulchrum tamen & cadaver intus; That she was made a Carkass that had no Sepulcher, nay, that she was made a Sepulcher that had no Carkass or rather that she was both Carkass and Sepulcher. And to conform myself to the resolution of this Riddle, I will consider this punishment inflicted from God two ways, in reference to herself as to the Carkass, and in reference to that into which she was turned as to the Sepulcher. She that was punished, 1. Was one of those very few that professed the name of God among thousands that were unrighteous. 2. She was one of four that were brought out of Sodom, and yet there wanted one of those four before they got into Zoar. 3. She was well nigh passed all danger, and suffered shipwreck in the very Haven. 4. She did willfully cast herself away at the last cast, therefore we read she was lost, but not that she was ever bemoaned. After this, in reference to the Pillar of Salt, 1. I consider it as a new punishment, the like was never heard. 2. As a sudden or momentaneous punishment. 3. As a miraculous and most supernatural punishment. 4. As a mortal punishment, but not as a final destruction. Of these in order.

The Lord told Abraham in the former Chap. that the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah was very great, and therefore He was come down to see how grievous their sin was. That which called him down to execute vengeance was not the iniquity of Lots house, (that little Family was all the remnant He had there to call upon his name) but the filthy sins of the other Canaanites that abounded with rank and unnatural pollutions. And the Angel tells Lot in this Chapter they were come to spare him and his, but the Lord had sent them to destroy that City, because the cry of it was waxen great before the Lord. They confess their Commission was given them to punish none but those Children of perdition, that were aliens from all fear of God. And yet behold one that was in the Catalogue of them that professed the Worship of God she offended, and the hand of God's fury is stretched out upon her, She became a pillar of Salt. Says one upon it, Par est ut judex priùs suam domum examinet quàm alienam. A Magistrate that will reform abuses, let him make his own house the first example of reformation, and then his Justice may more confidently call any to account that are not so near unto him. St. Paul, grounding upon that equitable case, deciphers a good Bishop to be one that ruleth his own house well, for if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the Church of God? 1 Tim. iii. 5. This brings it to our apprehension directly, why this person in my Text was chastised with no less than death, because God would show his justice upon his own Family where they sinned, that unconverted Reprobates might expect nothing but the utmost of severity. For if these things be done in a green tree, what shall be done in a dry? Luk. xxiii. 31.

There is no sort of anguish, no calamity of any name or magnitude, Captivities Famines, Diseases, that doth not show itself as soon within the bowels of the Church, as in any part of the World beside. For a small trespass is taken more unkindly at their hands where grace abounds, than a great profanation from the Heathen, who were left as forsaken as the Mountains of Gilboa in David's curse, upon whom no dew of heaven did fall. A small sin in Judah is as bad as an Idol in Samaria. A lukewarmness, or faintness of Religion in Laodicaea as bad as Paganism in those Regions that sat in darkness, and in the shadow of death. Therefore the first stroke of indignation shall light upon their sins, from whom the Lord did expect the least offense, and the most obedience. Slay utterly both young and old, both Maids and Children, and begin at my Sanctuary, says God, Ezek. ix. 6. You hear that the sword of vengeance shall be drawn forth first against the Sanctuary, that is, the pollutions of the Sanctuary. Christ will sooner take his scourge in hand to drive the money changers out of the Temple than to correct the Publicans and Tole-gatherers at the Custom-house, who were the greater Extortioners. A tree that was made to bear fruit shall be hewn down and cast into the fire, if it continue barren; but wild Plants, from which neither Figs nor Olives were expected, God never threatens them with the Axe, but lets them stand till they decay with age and rottenness.

This is the reason of it, that although God had no more in Sodom for his share but a very little household, yet one of his own Domesticks that looked back upon Sodom perished as well as those his Enemies that never came out. But if God spared not his own, what remains for them that were never folded up in his flock, never called by his name? Si flagellantur filii, quid debent sperare servi nequissimi, says S. Austin? If the Sons of the Family be scourged, what can Runnagates hope for? If King Josiah, a Saint worth all the men of Judah beside, was brought to an untimely end, that stroke was but a forerunner that all the stubborn Nation beside should soon after be cast out into a most woeful captivity. Quando justis non parcitur propter perficiendam purgationem, non parcetur impiis tanquam sarmentis praecisis ad combustionem, so St. Austin goes on in a sweet similitude, If God do not forbear the Righteous, but prune them off sometimes to trim the tree, certainly the unrighteous shall not be endured, who are dead sear boughs, and most combustible for the fire. Upon the Land of my people, shall come up thorns and briars, how much more upon all the houses of the joyous City? Isa. xxxii. 13. As waters are still and shallow near the Spring-head, but run with the swifter Current as they are further off, so the indignation of Divine Justice which begins calmly in the Church, which is near to God, will increase more violently among the outcasts of Satan, among whom at last it will end. Says St. Peter, 1 Epist. iv. 17. The time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God; and if it first begin at us, what shall the end of them be that obey not the Gospel of God? The House of God shall be punished, and severity begins at them; but it is not finis eorum, that is not their final doom; nay, it is no more but a twitch by the way; but punishment, in St. Peters own words, is the end, the last cast of impenitent sinners; What shall be the end of them that obey not the Gospel? Inchoatur ira judicii divini à correptione justorum, ut in reproborum damnatione conquiescat, so Gregory in reference to St. Peter. The Rod of God's Power begins with the chastisement of the Just, that it may give over in the damnation of Reprobates. And as Gregory expounds St. Peter, so our Vulgar English Margin makes St. Peter to expound Solomon, Prov. xi. 31. Behold the Righteous shall be recompensed in the earth, much more the wicked and the sinner. Finally, as God spares not the nearest to him, so let us take up the same justice, my meaning is, let no man spare himself, Proximus egomet mihi. If thy right eye offend thee, thine own eye, thy right eye, pull it out, and cast it from thee. Beati qui cum omnium misereantur, sibi nunquam penitus ignoscant, says Salvianus; Happy are they that are pitiful to all men, only they will not pity themselves, but avenge themselves of themselves, that God may show them mercy.

Secondly, She became a Pillar of Salt, even she that was one of four that were brought out of Sodom to be delivered, and yet there wanted one of those four before they got into Zoar. I will not move that question hereupon, that one did to our Savior in the Gospel, Luk. xiii. 23. Lord are there few that be saved? No answer can be given to this directly but either curious or uncomfortable. Our Savior replies unto it in that same place thus, Strive to enter in at the straight gate, for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. But because St. Matthew says of that straight gate that leadeth unto life, few there be that find it. Therefore Cajetan says, that in effect our Savior rejoined to that man's question, few should be saved, Ex angustiâ portae significans paucos esse qui salvantur; the narrowness of the way did signify how few should hit upon that path that conducteth to eternal life. But I had rather take in light at another window, and receive St. Austin's Exposition, that Christ did purposely decline to give punctual and affirmative satisfaction to that question, deriving his words to this scope, rather to make us study which way every man may be saved than to know how many, or how few shall be saved. Ad questionis vaniloquium nihil dicit sed transfert suum sermonem ad rem magis necessariam. He would not reply to such an impertinent interrogatory, but raised doctrine out of it more necessary to edification.

Let not that curious investigation then lie in our way, what a small number of souls four were, in respect of so many thousands that were burnt to ashes in the destruction of four Cities, and yet how much that portion decreased, because one of them four was cut short by the way; rather I will turn the Point into this consideration, that the Devil is always detracting and abating from that small portion and remnant which God hath set apart for himself. Could our Savior have chosen fewer than Twelve Apostles to testify over all the world what they had heard and seen? And yet the Devil entered into one of these, to make him the guide unto those that betrayed Jesus. God cantonized out for himself but Twelve Families or Tribes out of all the Kingdoms of the Earth, with whom he made a Covenant by Sacrifice, and Ten portions of those Twelve revolted both from God and the King, and fell into Idolatry and Treason. I might be infinite both in Sacred and Human Histories, but our own experience is as sure a touch unto us; The Christian Faith you know is received but into few Regions of the habitable world; I may say according to Nathan's Parable, that Europe was unto God as that only Ewe Lamb, all that the poor man had, but the Devil is like that rich one, that had many Flocks and Herds besides in all places under the Sun, yet you see what a great stride