Works Volume 4

Annotations on Chap. X.

[ a] V. 3. The substance ] What 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 here signifies, must be somewhat doubtful; From 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , fuit, was ] it may signify substance, estate, possessions; and so Psal. 52.7. we render it riches, and have the Chaldees authority for it, who there read 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , his mammon or wealth, and so they read here 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , possessionem, for which the LXXII. have 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , life, in the notion of riches, which support life, (see Note on 1 Pet. 3. c.) so we know 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 is oft used for possessions, and so Luk. 12.15. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , is the comforts or advantages of life that come in to him from his possessions. And if this be the notion of the word here, then 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 may best be rendered disperseth, dissipates, as Psal. 1.4. the chaff which the wind 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 scattereth, dissipates, which the LXXII. render in sense, not literally, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , shall destroy, but the Chaldee 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , shall distract, catch away, or dissipate. But it is to be remembered that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 denotes, from 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , factus est, any event, but it is used only for ill ones, calamities, mischiefs, and those either in act or thought. So that place Psal. 52.7. our vulgar reads in his wickedness ; so Psal. 38.13. they talked of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , mischiefs, Psal. 91.3. the pestilence, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , we render noisome or noxious pestilence. So Prov. 17. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a naughty tongue, a tongue of mischiefs, and Prov. 19.13. a foolish son is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , calamities to his Father ; so Mich. 7.3. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the mischief or wickedness of his soul, we render mischievous desire. And if this be the notion here, then the place will best be rendered, he dissipateth or brings to naught the mischievous either enterprises or purposes of the wicked, viz. those which are aimed against the righteous man in the former part of the verse, whom God hath promised to defend from want and distress, and so will defend from the mischievous designs of wicked men, which if not dissipated and defeated would bring that distress upon him. Thus the vulgar renders it, Insidias impiorum subvertet, shall subvert the treacheries, i. e. mischievous designs of the wicked, and so the learned Castalio, impiorum noxas repellet, he shall repel the mischiefs or injuries of the wicked ; and so the Interlinear, praevitatem impiorum expellet, shall expel or drive away, i. e. dissipate, scatter the pravity of the wicked.

[ b] V. 4. Slack hand ] The word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , (from 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , fraudavit, in Piel) is ambiguous: It signifies deceit, and it signifies sloth, which is a kind of deceit, the slothful servant robbing his master of that labor which is due to him, and the slothful man deceiving himself of that which he might gain by his diligence. The Interpreter of the Chaldee renders the paraphrase here in the notion of fraud; for when they thus render the passage 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 he renders it paupertas attenuat virum dolosum, poverty depresses, attenuates a deceitful man ; And in that sense it is certainly taken Psal. 120.2. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , deceitful tongue, and so Mich. 6.12. and thus it well agrees with the words immediately foregoing, the Lord dissipates whether the substance or the mischiefs of the wicked. But if we look on the use of the word elsewhere in this book, it will incline us to the latter sense; for so what is said of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , ch. 27. that he roasteth not that which is caught in hunting, must needs belong to sloth, and not to deceit ; and so the other part of the period exacts, the substance of the diligent, &c. the LXXII. there render it 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , deceitful, and the Chaldee that there reads 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 is by their Interpreter rendered vir dolosus, a deceitful man, though I suppose their 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 as our Latin nebulo, may signify a slothful man, as well as a knave. So v. 24, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the slothful hand, that shall be tributary, is opposed to the hand of the diligent or sedulous ; and though there again the LXXII. read 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , deceitful, yet the Latin which after them reads fraudulentus, fraudulent, v. 27. reads both there and here manus remissa, the slothful or cowardly hand, parallel to which is our rendering of slack hand. So also Jer. 48.10. cursed is he that doth work the work of the Lord 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , in negligence or sloth, i. e. negligently. The only remaining difficulty is, what 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 here signifies; for although the verb 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 signifies to make, and so the rendering be obvious, the slothful hand makes poor, or causeth poverty, yet there is another notion of that verb, all one with 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , to depress, or oppress, so Zeph. 4.19. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , we render it I will undo them that afflict thee, and in this the Chaldee and LXXII. and Syriac agree to understand it; the Chaldee, as was said, render the whole passage, poverty attenuates or depresses the (whether deceitful or) slothful man, and the LXXII. leaving the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 unrendred, read 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , poverty humbleth a man, and so the Syriac also. And so this will be the most probable rendering, poverty depresseth the slothful hand, but the hand of the sedulous enricheth.

[ c] V. 6. Violence covereth the mouth of the wicked ] The words in the Hebrew are ambiguous, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , for if 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 be the nominative case it must then be rendered the mouth of the wicked shall hide or cover mischief or violence ; if 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 be the nominative, then our English from the vulgar Latin hath duly rendered it; But the truth is, all other Ancient Interpreters have taken the former way, the Chaldee and Syriac have put it into words free from that ambiguity, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , in the mouth ( 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , say the Syriac, with the mouth) of the wicked, rapine, ( 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , impiety, say the Syriac) is covered. And to this sense the LXXII. may well be rendered, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the mouth of the wicked shall hide untimely grief, (reading 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 in the nominative case, though v. 11. where the same passage is again found, they render it in the accusative, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , destruction shall cover the mouth of the wicked. ) So the Interlinear, os impiorum operiet injuriam, the mouth of the wicked shall cover injury ; and the learned Castalio, impiorum os tegit inhumanitatem, the mouth of the wicked covers inhumanity. And to this rendering there is no reason why we should not adhere; the opposition betwixt this and the former part (which is the only appearance of pretence for the other) being very commodious in this rendering, thus, blessings are upon the head of the just, (all men pour out their prayers to God for benedictions upon him, which accordingly, from God fall in abundance upon his head) but the mouth of the wicked (calumniators, cursers, contumelious persons) covereth 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , violence, whether we take it in the active or passive sense; in the active 'tis evidently true (for the end of every calumniator is the wronging of others; that design of violence is covered or hid in his foul mouth) but that comes not so home to the opposition, unless we add to it the passive sense, all mischief and sorrow to the calumniator himself, his calumniating, speaking evil, or cursing of others brings sure mischief on himself, from God's vindicative justice, and that yields a proper sense of the LXXII. their rendering, the mouth of the impious shall cover or hide untimely sorrow, as a cause the effect, i. e. at last bring it upon them; and so saith Castalio, impii maledici sunt, adeoque infortunati, wicked men are evil-speakers, and therefore infortunate ; which is expressly opposed to the benedictions that the just meet with in the former part. Only the analogy betwixt them will enforce, that as in the latter part the mouth is expressed, and so the mouth of the wicked must denote calumny and incurious speaking, so the justice also in the former part must belong to the uprightness of the tongue peculiarly, and not be taken in the latitude (as else it would) for all kind of justice.

[ d] V. 7. Blessed ] The Hebrew reads 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , for blessing, and the Syriac agrees thereto, whose frequent accordance with the Chaldee makes it probable that they so read also, though now our Copies have 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , benediction, without the preposition ל. It is only to be remembered that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 denotes blessing in the notion of praise, and then the LXXII. have most fitly rendered the passage, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the memory of the just is with praises or panegyricks, and so the Latin, cum laudibus, they are never mentioned or named without commendations: And as the children's thriving in the world tends to the happiness of the parents, v. 1, &c. so will also the excellent reputation which they have, the praises which befall them, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , saith Aristotle, though the dead parents discern it not, have no sense of it.

[ e] V. 8. Wise in heart ] In this verse the Antithesis lies clear between wise and fool, heart and lips ; the only difficulty is whether heart and lips are to be annexed and read in construction with the nouns wise and fool, or with the verbs receive and fall, or be caught, (for so 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 signifies, Hos. 4.14.) If the former, then the rendering is, wise in heart, and fool in lips ; but if the latter, then it is, the wise in heart receive commandments, but the fool will fall, be caught or ruined with, or by his lips. To the latter way of rendering the Chaldee inclineth, reading the last words 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , shall be taken in his lips, by analogy to which, the former part must be rendered, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , shall receive in his heart ; so the Latin, sapiens cord praecepta recipit, stultus caeditur labiis, the wise receives precepts with his heart, the fool is destroyed with his lips. But the words will very fitly bear the former, and so the Syriac understood it, who read 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 he whose lips are foolish is caught ; In this uncertainty it is most reasonable so far to retain both renderings, as to permit both to have their influence on the words, thus, he that hath a wise heart will receive precepts into that heart, and he that hath the lips of a fool will be ensnared and ruined by his lips; and this in the latter part seems to have been designed by the LXXII. who read 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , but he that hath no cover to his lips, doing frowardly or perversely shall be supplanted, ensnared. The latter part of this verse is again repeated, v. 10. and there the opposition seems to require that we render it as here, he that winketh with his eye, by his eye causeth sorrow, but he that is a fool in his lips, by his lips shall be ensnared. But instead of that latter part, the LXXII. read 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , but he that reproves with boldness causeth peace or safety. And herein the Syriac agrees with them, without any other color of ground in the original than either that they had formerly read it here, and therefore preferred some variety, or that they understood the winking with the eyes of flattering, (as it is thought to signify Ecclus 27.22, 23.) and so to the mischief that comes by that, opposed the contrary benefit of free rebukes But in that place the Antithesis requires that winking with the eye should signify a secret gibing or laughing at, which he that is apt to do, will also flatter one to the face, which is all that is said in that place of Ecclesiasticus, He that winketh with the eyes worketh evil—when thou art present, he will speak sweetly, and admire thy words, but at the last he will writh his mouth, and slander thy sayings. Where 'tis evident, that winking with the eye, writhing the mouth, and slandering, are conjoined as phrases of the same kind, to express scoffers and slanderers, secret, or more open; and so in all probability that will be the interpretation of the tenth verse here, the winking with the eyes being the secret gibing, of which that with the tongue is more open, and an higher degree, that of slandering; In proportion wherewith the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , sorrow must be understood of that which befalls himself, not that which he causeth to others, that so it may bear analogy with his being caught or ensnared, in the latter part.

[ f] V. 12. All sinners ] For 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , over all sins, the LXXII. read 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , all that are not contentious, thus paraphrastically limiting the universal proposition, that love covers all but the contentious and perverse; where it is manifest what they mean by covering, viz. (that which is opposite to stirring up, precedent) quieting, appeasing, as stirring up fire from under the ashes is the means to make it burn, and increase into a flame, but covering it with ashes is quite contrary, the means of appeasing and allaying it. And indeed, if the persons were here said to be covered, the angry, the injurious, this might be thought to be the meaning of the word covereth, as when we are commanded to overcome the evil with good ; or if instead of all sins, wrath particularly had been mentioned, for then loves covering wrath had been equivalent to the soft word putteth away wrath, and in either notion it would have agreed competently with the former part of the verse, hatred stirreth up strifes, my hating or provoking another inflameth him, and so stirreth up, causeth contention, but my kindness▪ and charitable returns to his provocations qualifies him, and appeases wrath or strife. But being here applied to sins, and not to persons, and again to all sins, and not particularly to wrath or strife, this cannot be the notion of covering, but rather that of hiding from sight; and so the opposition is not to be set betwixt hiding and stirring up, but betwixt hiding all sins and stirring up strife. He that looks suspiciously and narrowly upon every action of another, that weighs it rigidly, and without any allowance of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , will find matter of quarrel in everything that is done, and thus hatred doth whom a man hates, he thus rigidly examins, or rather tortures all his words, and gestures and actions; but charity or love is quite contrary, sets the most favorable gloss on all that another doth, is so far from finding faults where there are none, that when somewhat hath been done amiss, it affords it a benign interpretation; and thus it is exactly all one with that part of the character of charity, 1 Cor. 13.7. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , (not bears, but) covers all things, (see Note h. on that Chapter.) And then covering thus interpreted, refers to that use of garments for covering, as when Sem and Japheth covered their Father's nakedness; or as when Constantine expresses his respect and kindness to Clergy-men, that if he should discern anything amiss in them, he would cover it with his Robe; and to this most eminently belongs that of Pythagoras, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a garment hides crookedness, or disproportion, of the Body, but good will, kindness, charity, hides sin. This then being the undoubted meaning of this place, it were necessary to examine the two places of the New Testament, which seem to be taken from hence, Jam. 5.20. and 1 Pet. 4.8. and inquire whether this notion can belong to them. But a full account of that is already given, Jam. 5. Note i. All that I shall here add, is, that there is yet another sense of which these words are capable here, wherein though they come not home to the full importance of those two places, (of obtaining God's pardon for a multitude of sins) yet they approach nearer to them than in this which we have given, and still conceive to be the fittest interpretation of this place, viz. that as hatred stirreth up strifes, where one hates another, he that knows he is hated by him, is continually bent to act revenges, and so enters into contentions and quarrels with him on all and on no occasions; so charity hides all offenses, he that is known to be kind, whatsoever offenses he commits, they are not imputed to him, his kindness satisfies, propitiates for all, and is accepted as if it did; And then improving this sense so far, that it extend not to men only but to God, and signify obtaining his pardon for all sins, it will then come to the sense of the words in those two places of S. James and S. Peter. The Syriac in this place have made a great change, reading 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , and confusion shall cover all sinners.

[ g] V. 14. Destruction ] 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , from 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , prostratus, contritus est, must here signify breaking to pieces ; The congruity whereof to the place will be discerned by considering the quality of fools discourse, temerarious and precipitous, venting anything giddily and hastily, which may do them never so much hurt and mischief, and then to such precipitation, contusion and contrition, brusing and breaking in pieces is consequent. This the LXXII. have most fully expressed, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , but the mouth of the temerarious or precipitous approacheth to breaking to pieces, and so the Latin, contusioni proximum est, is next to contusion. The word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 is used again in the next verse, and there by the opposition to the strong or fortified city, wherein trust is reposed, it appears to signify consternation or dejection of spirit, which is another signification of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , to be cast down, affrighted, in consternation, Jer. L. 2. Isa. 8.9. and Jer. 1.17. we render it be not dismayed, so Eccl. 12.5. we read fears in the way ; And so the LXXII. here retaining 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , contrition, the Latin yet read pavor eorum, their fear ; and thus the sense follows currently, the riches of the rich are matter of confidence to them, the poverty of the poor is their dejection or terror, that which so casts them down that they have no courage or comfort to do anything,

[ h] He is in the way of life, &c. ] The most literal rendering of this verse may reasonably be judged the best, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the way to life is observing correction, or keeping correction, (the keeping or observing, and so making use of the good admonitions and counsel that is given us) is the way to life, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , and forsaking reproof causeth to err. The LXXII. making 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 the subject of each branch of the proposition, have transformed it, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , instruction or discipline preserves the ways of life, but discipline wanting reproof, errs. Instead of the former part, Symmachus reads 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the way of life is of them (the Latin reads custodienti, to him) that keep discipline ; Instead of the latter, Aquila and Symmachus and Theodotion read, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , but he that leaves reproof, errs. This makes it not improbable that this latter 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 in the LXXII. is by some Scribes mistake set for 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , for thus the sense flows very currently, but the child that is without reproof, erreth.

[ i] V. 18. He that hideth, &c.] All the ancient Interpreters agree in this plain rendering of this passage, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , lying lips conceal hatred, so the Chaldee is evidently to be rendered (not as their Latin reads, Insidiatur inimicus labiis mendacii, but) 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , lying lips conceal or hide over hatred, and so the Syriac, with this change only, that for lips of falsity, or lying lips, they read lips 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 of the wicked, or wicked lips, which assures us that in our reading of the LXXII. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , righteous lips hide enmity, it should be 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , wicked, and so Symmachus reads 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , wicked lips, but Aquila and Theodotion 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , lips of a lie, i. e. lying lips, and so the vulgar, abscondunt odium labia mendacia, lying lips hide hatred. And thus the second part of the verse fitly connects with it, as appears in the paraphrase.

[ k] V. 23. As a sport ] From 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , to laugh, used sometimes in a good sense for being merry, Job 5. v. 22. (as in an ill for mocking and deriding, Ps. 59.9.) is the noun 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , laughter, in a good sense, all one with mirth and joy, Psal 126.2. (as well as in a bad, being taken for derision.) And so in all probability it is used here. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , as mirth, i. e. as it is mirth to a fool 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , to do mischief. — And then first the notion of ו in the latter part must be observed, not as a bare copulative [ and ] but as a note of an 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 or second part of a similitude [ so ] Thus v. 25. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , as the passing of a whirlwind, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 (we duly render) so the wicked is no more, and so the Chaldee and Syriac 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 so ] Secondly to make the latter part of the verse bear analogy with the former, the word mirth ] must be again repeated there, viz. that wisdom is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , mirth, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , to a man of understanding. Thus the Antithesis is exact, for as to a fool in the former, is opposed a man of understanding, in the latter, so to doing mischief in the former, is wisdom, piety, practice of virtue, (eschewing evil, doing good) in the latter; and then the כ and ו [ as ] and [ so ] being exactly answerable one to the other, the first word of the verse [ mirth ] is common to them both, as doing mischief is mirth to one, so is wisdom to the other. The first part of the verse the LXXII. (and other ancient Interpreters) competently render, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , with or in laughter a fool doth evil ; the latter they have not so fully interpreted, for want of resuming 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , mirth, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , say they, but wisdom begets prudence to a man.

V. 29. The way of the Lord ] In this verse are several difficulties which deserve to be taken notice of; First what is meant by the way of the Lord, whether that which respects God or us, that wherein God walks, or that wherein we are appointed to walk, the former is the way of his providence, the latter of his commandments; In this place (as in most other) it seems to be determined to the latter, by the mention of the upright, who walk in this way of the Lord, and the workers of iniquity, which forsake that way. Secondly what is meant by 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , which signifies either strength or courage, or a fort, or strong hold ; Any of these three senses it will well bear here, but especially the second, that of courage, or fortitude, if we will judge it by its opposition to 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , which that it signifies fear and consternation, (as well as destruction or confusion) hath been shown Note g. Lastly it is doubtful whether in the second part of the verse the phrase [ the way of the Lord ] be again to be repeated or no; for if it be, then the rendering must be (not [ destruction shall be ] but) fear to the workers of iniquity ; and thus indeed the rendering is most literal, The way of the Lord is courage to the upright, but fear to the workers of iniquity ; by the contrary tempers of men, it is of very distant and contrary effects, (like as when Christ is said to be for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and the Gospel the savor of life to the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , escapers, or penitent, and the savor of death to the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the lost or impenitent.) And as all the renderings of the Ancients being literal, are capable of this sense, so the learned Castalio hath particularly expressed it, Et integris firmamento & maleficis detrimento est Jovae institutio, God's law or institution is both a firmament to the upright, and a loss to the evil-doers.

V. 5. The LXXII. have in this verse much mist the sense, for 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , he that gathereth in summer, they read 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , hath been delivered or saved from the heat, taking 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , to gather, in the notion of gathering what is designed to secure or save from mischief, and that in a passive sense, and then using ב according to the promiscuous acception of prepositions for from. And so in the latter part of the verse for 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , snorting or sleeping ] they read 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , blasted by the wind, or stricken, partly from the notion of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 for stupor, which they elsewhere render 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , ectstasie, partly to hold up the opposition betwixt the former and the latter part of the verse, that as the wise is preserved from the scorching of the Sun, so the foolish or wicked is blasted by the wind; but especially because they that sleep in the harvest, abroad on the ground, as slothful workers use to do, are oft blasted by some wind or vapor that comes out of the earth, and so much mischiev'd. Accordingly their rendering of the whole verse is, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , A wise or knowing son is delivered from scorching, but a wicked son is blasted by the wind in harvest.

V. 13. The two branches of this verse are by the LXXII. (and therein they are followed by the Syriac) compounded into one, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , He that bringeth forth wisdom out of his lips, smites with a rod the heartless man. Hereby they seem to point out what is meant by this rod, viz. no other but the wise and prudent discourse of pious men, which is a reproof, and so metaphorically a chastisement to the impious, for such is the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , which they fitly render 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , one that wants an heart. Aquila, Theodotion, and Symmachus, are more literal, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , In the lips of the wise wisdom shall be found, and the rod on the back of him that wants an heart.

V. 21. For 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , shall feed or teach, (as when Jer. L. 6. it is said their pastors, i. e. teachers have seduced them ) they read 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , know high things, questionless mistaking ד for ר, and so reading 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , know. So Hos. 9.2. for 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , feed them, they read 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , know them. In the latter part of the verse, for 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , by want of heart, they read no more than 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , in want, the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 being omitted by some Scribe, or perhaps 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 being taken for folly by force of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , fools, foregoing.

V. 23. To 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the blessing of the Lord, they add by way of paraphrase 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , on the head of the just, and in the end, for 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , with it, they read 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , in the heart.

V. 24. The LXXII. no way render the words which are plain, yet the sense they express paraphrastically, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , (in the notion of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 frequent with them for 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ) the wicked is hurried to destruction, which is exactly equivalent to his fear coming on him, destruction being that which he feared, and not the affection, but the object, being here and frequently in other places meant by fear. So in the second part, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the desire of the just is acceptable, is all one with 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , he shall give the desire of the just, or his desire shall be given him.

V. 25. For 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , as the whirlwind passeth, &c. they read 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the whirlwind passing, the wicked vanisheth, which is but another scheme to the same sense. In the latter part of the verse, for 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , so the righteous is a foundation forever, ] they read 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , but the righteous escaping is delivered forever, no doubt reading 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the future of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , declinavit, recessit, and understanding it of such a declining or going out of the way of danger, as signifies deliverance, they fitly render it 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , he declining escapes, or escaping is delivered, wherein they recede but little from the sense, the being a foundation forever ] being set to denote unmovedness, in opposition to the passing away of the whirlwind.

V. 26. For 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the sluggard, &c. they read 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , transgression to them that use it, probably it should be 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the transgressor to them that employ him, and then it is no remote paraphrase.

V. 28. For 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the hope of the righteous, &c. they read 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , gladness endures, continues to the righteous, from another notion of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , which as it signifies to hope, so 'tis also to stay, and wait, and that they thought to express by 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , and to that purpose make gladness the subject instead of the predicate in the proposition. But herein the rest of the ancient Interpreters, all but the Arabic, dissent from them.

V. 32. For 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , know what is acceptable ] they read 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , distill graces, borrowing the verb from v. 31. as fitter for the tongue, than knowing ] seemed to be, and using 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 in the notion of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , for placatus, reconciliatus est, to denote prayers to appease and reconcile whether God or Man.

The I. SERMON.

T HE day is the Third of Advent, designed by the Church for the Celebration of the closer and nearer approach of the Majesty of Heaven to this lowly sinful Earth of ours; that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , blessed coming Kingdom, as 'tis styled Mark 11.10. And the Text is a piece of an Advent Chapter, the very Contents bespeak it so, Isaiah prophesying the coming, i. e. Advent, of Christ's Kingdom. All the unhappiness of it is, that this part of the Prophecy about transforming of Swords, seems not yet to be fulfilled in our ears; that after so many Centuries, Christ is not yet so effectually and thoroughly born amongst us, as was here foretold; that those glorious effects of his Incarnation are not yet come to their full date: i. e. in effect, that Christ is come to his birth, and with him all the well-natured charitable qualities, all the unity and peace and bliss in the world, and through the contrivances the Enemy-power, there is not liberty or strength to bring forth ; all the precious issues of Christianity are resisted, and obstructed, and stifled in the Womb; the temper of the pretending world being so strangely distant from the temper of Christ, the prophecies of his coming having so little of the Sword in them, and the practice of Christendom so nothing else. Blessed Lord! that we might once be able to reconcile these contrary 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , that we might one day celebrate an Advent indeed, and that the completion of the Prophecy of this Text, might be an Ingredient in the Solemnity; that this of ours, might be one of those Nations and People judged and rebuked, i. e. convinced and converted by the Incarnate Savior: for then would these words of the Text be verifi'd of us, They shall beat their Swords, &c.

The words are the Character or Effect of Christ's Kingdom, of the state and power of his Gospel in men's hearts: and I shall view them, first, absolutely, in the several parts or branches of this Character; and then relatively, as they are peculiarly verified of the state of the Gospel, or as they are a character of that.

In the Absolute view you have, 1. The Swords and Spears on one side; 2. The Plough-shares and Pruning-hooks on the other: 3. The Passage or Motion of one of these into the other, by way of Beating.

In the Relative view we shall, 1. have occasion to vindicate the truth of this Prophecy against the contrary appearances. 2. To show you how and by what means, Christianity undertakes to work this great work, to beat the Swords, &c.

I begin with the Absolute view, and in that, with the most formidable part of the Prospect, the Swords and Spears ; sharp, assaulting, piercing weapons, found out and forged by the passions and wits of men, to arm their rage, to satisfy their covetings and ambitions, to manage all the quarrels that the carnal or diabolical affections of men have commenc'd or inflamed through the world. These are the gross Elements made use of by the Prophet, figuratively to express the instruments of our Hostilities that lie more covertly in our hearts, these invisible Swords and Spears, animosities, uncharitable, unpeaceable humors, that Christ came to allay and temper, to transform and beat into other shapes. And to put off the Figure, and give you plain words instead of it; Three sorts there are of these quarrels or Hostilities, which seem all to be comprehended in these words.

First, though more improperly, our Hostilities against God, our rebellions and resistances against his will, our contrary walkings to him, the throwing off that yoke of Moral or Christian duties, breaking those bands, casting of those cords, Psal. 2. and that, either 1. In an universal dislike of his Government, a direct nolumus hunc, that professed Atheism that begins to set up, to gather Disciples and Proselytes abroad in the world, that Chair of the Scorner, that disclaims Religion as a pusillanimous thing, a ridiculous pedantic quality, that hath in their opinion dis-spirited and emasculated the world: Or else, 2. by particular oppositions to his commands in the retail, sinning over all the Precepts on either Mount, taking part with the Law of the Members against all the Empires of the Law of the Mind, and under a Christian profession doing as much despite unto Christ as he that hath shut him out of his mouth and brain also. And in relation to these Hostilities it is, that we Ministers are posted from Heaven like so many Heralds at the news of a Battery, or approach of the Enemy, to demand a Parley, before men proceed any farther in their giantly 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , or fighting against God: and our Embassy is very submiss, as though God did beseech you by us, as Lot doth the Sodomites on their assault of the Angels, We pray you, Brethren, do not so wickedly; We pray you in Christ's stead that you will not proceed in your course, that you will be pacified and reconciled unto God. And sure these are formidable slaughtering-weapons, very bloody threatening Enemies, that make God think fit to send out Embassies for Treaty, and not venture his Heaven to be stormed by them.

A second sort of Hostilities possibly here meant, are these against ourselves, the fatallest and bloodiest in the world, the piercing, and wounding, and butchering our own poor Souls, deforming and infeebling them with our wasting habits of sin, exhausting the very principles of civil ingenuous Nature, leaving never a vital spark or seed of humanity behind, but violating, and grieving, and quenching all, a direct felonia de se, murthering and assassinating these divine creatures, which God had prepared to people Heaven, and casting them out to the noisome'st dunghills, employing them to the meanest offices in the world. Nay, Hostilities to the Flesh itself: those sins that undertake to serve the grosser part of us, to have special fidelities and kindnesses to the flesh in all their warrings against the Soul, are not yet so faithful in their performances, work oft the greatest malices to that very flesh, cast it sometimes into the fire, sometimes into the water, despoil it of all the honor, beauty, spirits, joys, and life itself, leave it in the pitiousest, disfigured, rifled, wasted flesh imaginable, and so have their malices and treacheries against that also. But the truth is, these are but the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , or 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the prelusory lighter brandishings of these swords: The uncharitablenesses here especially designed are, in the third place, those that (as our material swords and spears ) are ordinarily employed against our Brethren, or fellow-Christians, either upon their Lives, or their Reputations, or their Souls.

1. On their Lives : when either our ambitions, or revenges, or, which is the worst of all, and the bloodiest assassinate (when 'tis set on it, when 'tis gotten into the Jesuit Chamber of meditation) our 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , bitter envying or zeal, when that, I say, like the blood of the Mulberries to the Elephant, shall inflame us to a brutality, a thirst of our Brethren's blood, turning the Christian into a Nimrod, a mighty Hunter before the Lord, giving the Church that new notion of Militant, in shedding as much of other men's blood (and triumphing in that effusion) as in the Primitive times it poured out of its own veins, when the Heathen Persecutors called for it; when Christians shall design God Sacrifices, bloody Cannibal Oblations, and, in that other stern sense of the Apostle's words, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , rational human sacrifices, whole Herds and Hecatombs at once, and think to avert judgments, to work expiations, to perform supererogating services to God by that means.

2. On their Reputations : whether in the Language of the Slanderer and Reviler, whose words are spears and arrows, and his tongue a sharp sword, in the Psalmist's dialect, the preparative to that former practicing on the Life, putting men into wild beasts Skins, that they may be worried and torn to pieces in their disguises; or whether yet in the higher strain of the censorious Anathematizer, that breaths out woes and damnations, passes that bloody sentence upon all that walk not in his path toward Canaan ; this spiritual assassinacy, this deepest die of blood being most Satanically designed on Souls, and (because they cannot get those into their power) practicing it in Effigie, slaughtering them here in this toother Calvary, the place for the crucifying of Reputations, turning men (upon any, upon no occasion) out of the communion of their charity, when they cannot out of bliss, and no doubt rejecting many, whom the Angels entertain more hospitably.

Lastly, on men's Souls : whether by terrors or by invitations, by the sharp or by the soft weapon, working ruin and destruction on them. By the sharp, forcing them to violate their consciences in hope to get their bodies or estates off from the torture, (as the Englishman is observed, through impatience of any present pressure, to venture the vastest future danger that will pretend to ease or rescue him at the instant, and therefore, they say, the use of the Rack was superseded in this Nation.) And they that can be Instruments in this savage enterprise, that can thus operate under the great Abaddon, in this profession of assaulting and wounding of Souls, for which Christ was content to die, are sure some of the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 the sons of bloods, in the plural, as the Hebrews call them. And so he also that is so skilled at the soft weapon, that by the fair insinuating carriage, by the help of the winning address, the Syrene-mode or meen, can inspire poison, whisper in destruction to the Soul (as the Poetic Present that had secret Chains in it, fettering and inslaving of him that was pleased with it; 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , in the Orator, the delight brought shackles, the beauty bands along with it, but no man to loose him that was presently ensnared by them (he that can tole on the tame, well-natured, easily seducible into all the luxury and the hell, the sin and the damnation imaginable, he is one of the fair-spoken sword-men that David speaks of, whose words are softer than butter, and yet are they very swords.

You have had a view of the Artillery in the Text, the interpretation of the hostile weapons, the swords and spears, the furniture of the Heathens Armory before Christ's coming: (Good God! that in their travel round about the world, they were not at length all transported hither, and, like the Teeth of old, sowed and sprung up a whole harvest of swords and spears, of animosities and uncharitablenesses in this our land.) I hasten to the more innocent tools, the weapons of the Husbandman's warfare against his enemies, barrenness and unprofitableness, the plough-shares and the pruning-hooks on the other side, my second particular. The signification of these Emblems or Hieroglyphics you will soon discern, when you but consider them, first, in the general notion, wherein both of them agree, instruments of husbandry; and then in their several particular proprieties. In the first they both accord, to express unto us the spiritual industry and skill, the office and the craft of dressing and cultivating of Souls: we are God 's Husbandry, his beloved Plantation, entrusted ministerially under him to our own, to our Brethren's diligence.

1. Every man to take the care of his own field, his own Soul, to help it to all the dressing and improving, to water it with his tears, when 'tis a dry soil, drain it with action and business, yea and mix it with new mould, affiance and comfort in Christ, when it is too moist, (the dissolving or weeping earth) and when 'tis too beggarly and lean, to enrich it with all the whole mine of fatness that lies treasured up to that purpose in the Word of God, to ply it through each season from the seed time of Repentance, (that sowing in tears ) to the harvest in joy and cheerfulness, the bringing our sheaves with us, these worthy meet fruits of that Repentance. This earth of ours, I say, is thus to practice upon itself; or when it can do nothing else, (the driest, parched, unregenerate Soul,) yet still, with that, to cleave, and open, and gasp toward Heaven, to be ready to receive and suck in those showers, those influences which that is ready to afford us; and after all the planting and watering, to acknowledge all to be God's 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , his fructifying or giving of increase. And not only thus, every man to be his own Husbandman under God, but

2. Every man again to help in his Brother's field, to make his art and trade of husbandry as communicative and gainful as he can: not as the manner is of the covetous Worldling to inclose his skills, for fear any man else should be as prosperous as he; but to diffuse our charity, and not only, as the Ancients did, write Books of Husbandry, (our spiritual Georgicks and Geoponicks ) but go bodily, and labor in the Vineyards, by our aid and by our example encourage all the neighbourhood into this Trade of thriving, set to that glorious work of civilizing Desarts, banishing Briars and Thorns (to which the Laps'd Adam was condemned) quite out of the Country, weed out all the Ferity and Barbarity out of men's minds, bring the whole Region from the neglected Waste to the trim fruitful Inclosure, from the Wilderness to the Garden, and as far as 'tis possible to some degree of return towards Eden, towards Paradise again, I mean, towards the Innocence and Fertility of that. And if ever there was a time when the Province was large, (I would I could say, the Harvest great ) and need to pray to the Lord God of the Harvest to send a whole Army of Laborers, not with their military, but their husbandly, Instruments, for the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the grand charitable acts, which Cyrus in Xenophon prefer'd before the military, to dress a wild People, and plant some seeds (of Christianity, shall I say? nay) of honest civil nature amongst Christians, to make men ingenuous Heathens, one pitch above Salvage or Cannibal, to give a little Europe-breed instead of a whole Africa of wilder Creatures, and so in some measure to take away Christ 's reproach, which the most unchristian lives of the generality of Christians have cast upon him; this certainly were a season for such prayers in Christendom, and all the Plough-shares and Pruning-hooks in a Country would be little enough for that purpose.

But then somewhat is here noted by the particular proprieties of the Plough-shares and the Pruning-hooks : The Plough-shares, they are for the breaking up our fallow grounds, wounding and tearing asunder our firm fast-hardened habits of sins, that Quarry of Earth and Stone, with the fair green even surface over it, fetching up the root of the Weeds and Thorns, our corrupt Customs of Atheism and Profaneness, that grew so voluntarily and so fast; nay, the very green-swart, as we call it, the more innocent, blameless face of unregenerate Morality, which, though it have no great hurt in it, must yet give place to this seed of Christ, furrowing and turning it up all, that there may be the bare earth, as it were the solum subactum, the broken, humble, contrite heart, ready for this new Sower, for the infusions of Grace, which will never thrive if there be anything left to encumber or resist, to over-top or wrestle with it. And so you have the Interpretation of Plough-shares here, the rending of the impenitent heart, the preparing it for grace, the humbling the proud sinner, and fitting, and softening, and emptying him for Christ.

Then for the Pruning-hooks, if that be the exact rendering of the Hebrew; you have then under that color the dressing of God's plantations, the supervenient work of paring and cutting all Excrescences in the regenerate Child of Heaven, (parallel to the washing of his feet, which were cleansed already, in Christ 's answer to St. Peter ) lopping off the Suckers, the luxuriances that will still return as long as we have that root and fomes of flesh about us, and if they are suffered to grow too lavishly, will soon suck away all the vital fructifying juice from the Branches, at least exhaust very much of that heavenly store which would be husbanded at the best advantage, every dram more pretiously employed.

But if our Margent have made the better conjecture, (as many times it doth) and the Scithes, which you meet with there, carry away the importance of the Original from the Pruning-hooks, you have then, God's calling for his fruits in the time of harvest, sending his Mowers into the field, his strict requiring and earnest expecting the plentiful issues of all his care, the growths and fructifyings of his graces; and then, put all these together (as indeed the various readings may both stand good, or the Hook or Sickle, which may probably be the yet fitter rendering of the word, will supply the place both of Text and Margent, be accommodable to either, to both uses) and then you have here the entire positive business of all Christianity, sometimes to break up, sometimes to prune, sometimes to prepare the fruits for God 's barn, to begin, to advance, to perfect that great work of fruit-bearing, that only design of all God's methods and dispensations amongst us, the kindly Vintage which he expects so passionately, Isa. 5. after all his husbandry. And, O what an exprobration will it be to us, the Ecce labruscas there, our nothing but wild Grapes, our sour unsavory fruits of unrighteousness after all this dressing! And let that serve for the second particular of the Absolute view. There is only the third behind, The motion or passage from one of these to the other, from the Swords to the Plough-shares, from the Spears to the Sickles or Hooks, and that by way of beating, They shall beat, &c.

The same individual metal, which was even now a Sword, having suffered some change by the fire and anvil, comes out new forged in the other shape; the same affections that were even now maliciously acted by Satan, formed and whet at the Philistines forge, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , weapons of all the villainy in the world, the Disquieters of the honor and peace of Christendom, the only boutefeux abroad, our passions and appetites, let them be but transformed by the Spirit of Christ, let the fire and hammer pass on them and without being destroyed in that fire, they come out new molded, instruments of righteousness, zeal for the reforming our own lives, emulation for purity, and for fructifying; that Saul that was even now an Apostle or Messenger of the Jewish Consistory to Damascus, and had then such a heart full of Swords and Spears, was so furious a Blasphemer of Christ, and Persecutor of Christians, may continue his metal still, his title, and almost his name and office, and be the gallanter Apostle of Christ, the more abundant Labourer forever after. Christianity doth not mean such enmity to Nature, such scorn and contumely to our human Souls, as to throw all away as dross and refuse, to mortify any other members upon earth, but those which signify our sins, fornication, uncleanness, envyings, seditions, &c. as for the Affections or Faculties themselves, have they been never so profane and unhallowed, a breathing on them, or a consecrating them anew, a putting them to purer and more honorable uses for the future, will serve the turn; the Censers of Corah, with a little change, will become excellent plates for God's sanctuary. Let that Love that even now was transported and lavisht out on the sensual object, be baptized with the Holy Ghost and with fire, come out a pure ethereal love, fastened on the beauty of holiness, (that angelical purity, to be transcribed into thine and thy brethren's hearts;) and the more flaming this love is, the more gracious and more acceptable it is like to be. Let but the hostility that is now let loose upon the persons, the sins, the personal affronts, nay perhaps the graces and virtues of other men, be retrencht and retired, and reflected on our own sins; and then, let there be as much steel in the weapons, as much zeal in the revenges and indignations as ever. May but the ambitions and aspirings of the Worldling (that like air, pent up in too close a coop, works such 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and tempests, such shaking palsy-fits in the regions about us) be fastened, according to S. Paul 's advice, on a new object, transformed into the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , pursuing of charity, as of a prize in the Olympic games, into the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , taking as much pains, striving as emulously to contain himself and others in quiet, to restore a battered Kingdom to Peace again, as contentious men use to put the world into a combustion; and then, our Swords may become very edifying weapons, our contentions very excellent, profitable contentions, every man striving to surpass and exceed the other, in meekness, patience, contented taking up the Cross of Christ, (those more than Olympic 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , to which the incorruptible crown is assigned) overcoming men in charity and well-doing. Do but you enter into the school of Christ, (the most boisterous, raw, uncultivated you, that have least of this sacred temper about you) and that will be able to infuse it: which brings me to my second general, the relative aspect of these words, as they are a character of the Gospel-state, of the kingdom of Christ, and so the fitter for an Advent Sermon.

And in that we are, 1. To consider what truth there is in that prediction, to justify and vindicate this prophecy against all the contrary appearances, They shall beat, &c. One Objection 'tis clear there is against the truth of this prophecy, (and 'twere more for the credit of Christendom that there were an hundred others, so this might be superseded) The contrary practice of the generality of Christians. Blessed Lord! where is this promise of Christ 's coming, this consequent of his birth, and kingdom among men? For since Swords came once into the world, since the sweet of revenge and the advantage of spoiling others, was once tasted, since that bloody issue once began to break out, what hath all our Christianity done to stop or stanch it? 'It is true, what Historians tells us, that at the time of Christ 's birth there was a notable cessation of Arms over the whole world; and the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Luk. 2.1. (not taxing, but) inrolling, that brought Christ's Parents up to Bethlehem, and so occasioned his birth there, was an effect and immediate product of that Cessation: and 'twas a remarkable act of providence, that upon a former peace, and so command for that in rolling, in the same Augustus time, proclaimed at Tarracone in Spain, as Sepulveda tells us, (which if it had succeeded, Christ in any likelihood had not been born in Bethlehem ) there brake out some new broils, that deferred the peace and inrolling till this very point of time, when Christ was carried up in Mary 's womb to obey the prediction of his Birth in Bethlehem. But sure all this would be but a very imperfect completion of this other prophecy in my Text; this peace was soon at an end, and, besides, was rather the midwife to bring Christ into the world, than Christ to bring this peace: And yet to see how some Observers have been willing to pitch upon this one passage of story, the shutting of Janus Temple about the birth of Christ, (the Catholic peace in that part of the world at that point of time) as the main thing that was pointed at in this Verse.

Their reason is clear, because as for a long time before, so since that time, there was never any such completion of it; Christ born in an Halcyon hour, had scarce ever any one afterwards whilst he lived: and for his posterity he makes the profession, he came not to bring peace, but a sword, that is, he foresaw this would be the effect of his coming; Christianity would breed new quarrels in the world; some men really hating one another upon that score of difference in Religion, (and they say, no feuds are more desperately implacable, no swords more insatiably thirsty of blood, than those which Christ brought into the world) but most men making this the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the pretence and excuse of all their bloudiness. 'Twas Du Plesse 's account to Languet, why he had not a mind to write the Story of the Civil wars of France, because if he had said truth, he must render new originals and causes of these Wars, hound that fox to a kennel which would not willingly be acknowledged, charge that on an emulation, or rivality of state, which (like the Harlot that, coming fresh from her unclean embraces, had wiped the mouth ) came demurely, and solemnly, and superciliously, out of the Church, the only sanctuary to give impunity and reputation (apology at least) to the blackest enterprises; and betwixt the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the true and the pretended causalities, the effect, God knows, is generally too sad. Mahomet, that professed to propagate his Religion by the Sword, hath not brought such store of these bloody weapons, so rich a full-stocked artillery into the world, hath not kept them so constantly employ'd, so sharp set, so riotous in their thirsts of blood, as hath been observable in Christendom. I am sure that Caesarean section, practicing upon our own mothers, our own bowels, fellow-Christians, fellow-Protestants, fellow-Professors (shall I add fellow-Saints? but sure, sanctity, if it were sincere, would turn these Swords into Plough-shares ) was never so familiar among Turks or Savages; nay, as Erasmus hath sweetly observed, among the wildest beasts in nature, (which are not beast enough to devour those of their own kind,) as it is among Christians of this last Age almost in every part of the world. Only the bladder of Snakes in Epiphanius hath been our parallel: They were there but few hours together, but one of them had devoured all the rest; and when (to try the Experiment, how solitude and want of prey would discipline the devourer's appetite) he was shut up alone in the bladder, his vulturous stomach lets loose upon himself, and within few minutes more, one half of him devours the other: so many divided and subdivided enmities, and, when all others are wanting, such bloody practisings upon ourselves, that if it be true which Psellus saith, that the devils feast on the vapor that is exhaled from the blood of men, sure the Christian devils, and of late the English, are the fattest of the whole herd, the richliest treated of any, since whole Tables were furnished for them of the blood and flesh of their worshippers. And thus far I confess myself unable to vindicate this Prophecy in this sense of it, that so it should actually prove, that Christianity would really drive Swords out of the world: I should be glad to be secured by the Millenary, that ever there would come an age when this Prophecy would thus be completed; but more glad, if this Nation might have the happiness within some tolerable term to enter upon its millennium, that the (Pacem, Domine, in diebus nostris, Peace in our time, our age, O Lord,) were not such a desperate, non-licet form, and that for deliverance from battle and murder, as scandalous a piece of Litany, as that other from sudden death hath been deemed among us.

I have sufficiently shown you in what sense these words have no truth in them; 'tis time I proceed to show you in what sense they have: and that will be either,

1. By telling you that this prophetic form is but a phrase to express the duty and obligation of Christians; They shall beat their swords into plough-shares, i. e. 'tis most certainly their duty to do so. Charity is the only precept, Peace the only depositum, that Christ took any care to leave among them: and then, be there never so many swords in Christian nations, yet 'twere more obediently and more Christianly done, if they were beaten into plough-shares. There is a thousand times more need of amending men's lives, than of taking them away; of reforming ourselves, than of hating or killing our Brethren: one broken heart is a richer and more acceptable sacrifice to God than a whole pile of such bloody offerings, such Mosaical consecrating ourselves to God upon our Brethren. And then, as Clemens speaks of seals or rings, that those that have the impressions and sculptures (as of Idols so) of Bow or Sword, must not be worn by the disciple of Christ, the pacifick Christian; or as the Polonian, being asked concerning two Brethren that desired to be of his Congregation, (as being of a Trade which was suspected to be unlawful, the making of Images or Faces to put upon Guns or Ordnances) gave answer, that he knew no great danger in those Images; if there were anything unchristian, 'twas sure in the Guns, which they were used to adorn: so certainly, that Christ that came to cast Idolatry and Heathenism out of the World, desired also to cast out that heathenish custom of wallowing in one another's blood, of hunting, and worrying, and devouring one another, and with the Christian faith to introduce the brotherly charity into his Church; this being the most strict and most frequently reiterated command of Christ, and that the importance of this Prophecy in the first place.

2. The truth of this Prophecy will be most clear, if you observe the [ They ] in the front, and the reflection of that, on the former part of the verse, Christ shall judge amongst nations, and rebuke many People: He shall set up his Kingdom in men's hearts, subdue and conquer them; that is the meaning of judging, (as the Administrators of the Jewish Nation, and they that subdued their enemies, were called Judges for some time:) and he shall mould them anew into an Evangelical temper; that is the interpretation of rebuking : And then [They] i. e. these subjects of this Kingdom of his, these malleable, tame, Evangelical new creatures, that are effectually changed by the Spirit and power of Christ's doctrine in their hearts, they that are his Disciples indeed, they shall beat their swords into those more edifying shapes, shall profess more Christianly Trades; and if they do not, be sure they are at the best, if not Amti -, yet Pseudo-Christians, either professed enemies, or false friends of Christ. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye love one another: no other Character of difference to distinguish a Disciple of Christ from any man else, but the Ecce ut se invicem diligunt, Behold how they love, how they embrace, not how they pursue or slaughter, one another. And so there you have the difficulty cleared, how it comes to pass, that there is so little Charity among Christians; why? because there is so little Christianity among Christians, so much of the hypocritical guise, of the form of Christian piety, but so little, so nothing of the power of it discernible among us. Had but Christ the least real influence on our hearts, it would inflame and animate us with love; had we any of that salt within us, Mar. 9.50. the only preservative from putrefaction and rottenness of spirit, it would be as the Naturalists observe of it, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , unitive, and bring along what our Savior hath joined with it, the peace with others. 'It is the propriety and peculiarity of the Gospel, where 'tis entertained, to impress this well-natured quality; and where ever 'tis not impressed, 'twill not be censorious to affirm, in despite of all the glorious appearances to the contrary, that those men have received the Gospel, the name, the grace of Christ in vain: which will be demonstrated to you, if I proceed to my second or last particular, to show you by what means Christianity undertakes to work this great work, to beat our swords into plough-shares, and our spears &c. And that is by three strokes, as it were, and impressions upon our Souls. 1. By inculcating a peculiar strain of Doctrines. 2. By prescribing a peculiar Spirit. 3. By setting before us a peculiar Example. Every of these very proper moral instruments to this end, though (God knows) the stubborn unmalleable weapons of our warfare have too-too often the honor or resisting and vanquishing them all.

For the first, his peculiar strains of Doctrines, they are of two sorts : either they are the direct contrary to these swords and spears, or else such by way of consequence and result. Directly contrary : such is that of not avenging ourselves, the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Matt. 5. not retributing of trouble or violence to the injurious, but leaving God and his Vicegerents to work all these necessary acts of revenge, or repaiment; such is that of loving, blessing, praying for enemies ; and, let me tell you, not only our own, but (which is worth the considering) our God 's enemies. For 1. such are all the cursers and persecutors of Disciples; the true Christian's enemies there spoken of, they are all God 's enemies also, as Saul 's persecuting of Christians, was the persecuting of Christ: There is no possible separating the hatred of the Brethren from enmity to Christ. And therefore Polycarpus, an Apostolical person, and Bishop, and Martyr, (one of the first Angels of Smyrna in the Revelation ) commanding to pray for them that persecute us, takes in not only the Heathen Powers and Princes, the greatest enemies of God then living, but in plain words, the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the renouncers and enemies of the Cross, i. e. certainly of Christ himself. 2. Such were the Samaritans, direct enemies of Christ, and yet such 'twill not be permitted the Disciples to curse, Luke 9.55.3. Because the commandment of mercifulness lying on us proportionably to God's pattern, (to be merciful as our Father in heaven is merciful ) 'tis there said, that he is merciful to the evil as well as to the unthankful, to those that have sin'd against virtue in general, as well as against that particular of gratitude : and 'tis clear, God loves his enemies as well as ours, and out of that love gave his Son for those that had sinned against the first as well as the second Table, and consequently so are we obliged to do also. Lastly, because St. Paul 's reason against avenging ourselves is grounded on God's sole prerogative of punishing Malefactors, Rom. 12.19. As it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay it, saith the Lord. And this privilege of God's sure extends to the punishing of his own, as well as our enemies. Having named this, I need not mention anymore plain Doctrines of direct contrariety to these hostile weapons. If God hath left us no kind of enemies to hate, neither our own, nor his, the first, the ordinary object of our animosity and revenge, the second, of our very piety and zeal; and so the furious and the pious sword, the Jehu -zeal for the Lord of Hosts, as well as that other for ourselves, the slaughtering of Christ's or the Christian's enemies, be quite excluded out of our Commissions; then sure there is no excuse for keeping so much profitable Metal in that unprofitable, cutting, piercing shape: there is far more use of those materials in another form, in that of the plough-share and pruning-hook ; the work of Repentance being still as necessary, as that other of uncharitableness is unchristian. But then this is not all that Christ hath done by way of pacifick Doctrines, some other Doctrines he hath as effectually contrary to swords and spears, though not so directly and visibly, some mines more secretly to supplant this bloody temper: Such are his teaching his Disciples humility, and meekness, and patience, and contentedness with our own, four graces which, if once received into our hearts, are the breaking the bow, the knapping the spear asunder, the rending up all unpeaceableness by the roots. What are the roots of strife and contentions among men? or in St. James his style, From whence come wars and fightings among you ? 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , of the greater and lesser size, the piracies of the first or second magnitude? are they not from the lusts that war and rage in your members ? What be those lusts? Why, the spawn of those two great sensual principles, anger and desire, sometimes pride, sometimes stomach, sometimes impatience of injuries, and sometimes and most especially covetousness, the desiring to have somewhat which God had not made my lot; and nothing but hudling, and blending, and confusion of proprieties, throwing the lots into the Helmet again, can give me hope of attaining it. All the irregular swords and spears in the world are in the hands of these lusts, both to forge and manage, and the Graces that Christ prescribes, are sent to drive these all out of the field. The humility that Christ prescribes is directly contrary to that pride ; the meekness or obedience to Superiors, so inculcated in the New Testament, is the mortifying that stomach ; the patience, and taking up the Cross, and denying myself that hellish piece of sensuality, that of revenge, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , is sent out to duel with that impatience ; and contentedness with whatever lot, with that of ravening and coveting. O let but the Beatitudes in the fifth of Matthew plant these blessed seeds in us, and our swords will presently be out of fashion, and within a while assaulted and eaten through with the tamest Creatures, the rust that themselves beget; your carnal Affections will lie useless by you, or else be undiscernably transformed into calmer and more profitable shapes. And that is the first part of Christ's method in working this change, by a new strain of Precepts or Doctrines.

His second way is by a new kind of Spirit ; whether by that we mean the Spirit of Christ, or the Spirit of the Gospel.

1. The Spirit of Christ, taken almost in the Naturalists acception of the word [ Spirit ] for a kind of vital or animal spirit. For this flowing from Christ our Head, and passing freely through all the Members, unites us not only to him, but one to the other also in a vital fellow-membership, to which you know nothing is more contrary or destructive than the Sword, division, or Separation : and this is the Argument in St. Paul for the strictest charity, not so much as to tell a falsity one to another, (which is sure less than drawing of Swords, calling down fire from Heaven one upon another) because, saith he, ye are members one of another ; all members are united in one spirit. And then though some members are sometimes corrupt and diseased, and therefore offend and grieve the other members; nay, 2. though one member sometimes work real injury to the other, the petulancy of the hand or tongue bring mischief to the whole body; and 3. though the members generally differ in opinion one from the other, the Smell liking that which the Taste utterly dislikes: yet is neither one nor all of these ground sufficient for any member to bear malice, revenge, anything but love and tenderness of care and bowels towards the other, because of the uniting spirit that passes through them, and gives them joys and sorrows in sympathy one with another, but never animosities or indignations, underminings or betrayings one of the other.

But then 2. that which I chiefly mean by the new kind of Spirit, is the Spirit of the Gospel. In the 9. of Luke there is a reference to this, (as to a consideration that all disciples of Christ are much concerned in, and from ignorance whereof, all our bloody and fiery and thundering designs against our own or the enemies of Christ do proceed) 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , you know not, or, consider not, what kind of spirit you are of. The Gospel-spirit, it seems, was peculiarly qualified, a spirit of a special temper, nothing favorable to the proposals of the Boanerges ; and if you would know the kind of it, you shall have it, first Positively, then Negatively. Positively the Gospel-spirit is (a Jewel, will you call it? or) an Asterism made up of all those Celestial Gems even now touched on, Poverty of spirit, mourning, meekness, purity of heart, hungering and thirsting after righteousness, not after the Cannibal-feast of fellow-Christians blood; again, of mercifulness, peace-making, being persecuted and reviled, (and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , not a piece of Rabshakeh 's railing Rhetoric to be had in hell▪ which is not poured out on them, and endured cheerfully by them in obedience to Christ.) Put all these together, and mix with them such a proportion of Self-denial, and cheerful following of Christ whithersoever he leads; and the quintessence, the Elixir that by the help of the Limbeck is fetched out of all these in union or refraction, is, in the Chymist 's style, the Spirit of the Gospel, the Spirit of Christianity. If you will yet more perfectly understand it, you must then look on it Negatively, as 'tis in that place by Christ set opposite to the spirit of Elias. Elias his spirit you may discern by the five considerations or respects that his person is capable of.

1. Elias was under the Law.

2. Elias was a Prophet.

3. Elias was a Zealot, as the Author of the Book of Maccabees calls him and Phineas ; and so he was peculiarly in that passage to which the Disciples refer.

4. Elias called for judgments from heaven.

5. That judgment was particularly Fire.

And proportionably to these five, Elias his spirit was

A 1. Legal spirit. 2. A Prophetick spirit. 3. A Zelotick spirit. 4. A Cursing spirit. 5. A Fiery spirit. And by the opposition to each and all of these five, you will be able to make up the new-qualified spirit, the Spirit of the Gospel.

1. The Legal spirit is that which was observable in the time of the Law, especially in order to the planting of the Israelites in Canaan, and rooting out of the Inhabitants; and that was a rough, bloody, hating, eradicating spirit: and that Legal is certainly out-dated and abolished now, and in its place the spirit of the Gospel, a smooth, loving, planting spirit, quite contrary to that.

2. The Prophetick spirit was that which received immediate directions from heaven: I mean, not from the supernatural influences and motions of Grace, preventing or exciting, sanctifying or assisting in the heart of the regenerate man; but (as the spirit of sanctification and the spirit of prophecy are very distant things, so) I say, from the extraordinary revelations of his will, by Urim and Thummim, by Vision, by Dream, by coming of the Spirit, or of the word of the Lord upon them, or to them, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , acted and carried by God. And the Gospel-spirit is that, which after the out-dating of Prophecies, pretends to no such special revelations, to no other direction, or incitation, or impulsion of the Spirit, than that which lies visible in the New Testament, ( verbum vehiculum spiritus, and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the Word is it that brings and administers the Spirit unto us;) the Spirit that incites us to perform those duties that the Word hath prescribed us, (and if to anything else contrary to that, hath then need of the exorcist to bind or cast out that spirit; the Spirit which, when it comes to be tried whether it be of God or no, pretends not, like Mahomet, to be a talking with God, whilst he lies foaming in an Epileptick fit, but is content to be judged and discerned by the old plain Doctrines of the Gospel; a regular, authorized, ordinary, sober Spirit.

3. The Zelotick Spirit was a thing peculiar among the Jews, introduced and settled by the example of Phineas and Elias by way of precedent and standing Law to that Nation, whereby 'twas lawful (when a man was taken in some notorious facts, specifi'd by their Law, Idolatry, &c.) to run him through, to kill him in the place, without expecting any Legal process against him. This was expressly commanded by Moses, Numb. 25.5. Slay ye everyone the men that are joined to Baal-peor, and accordingly practiced by Phineas upon incitation from God: and when 'twas done so by a Jew, in the cases provided by the Jewish Law, and by divine impulsion, and the person assured that it was so, there was then no harm in it; but when that incitation from God was but pretended only, not true, when in any case but that prescribed by the Law, then 'twas perfect butchery and villainy even among those Jews: and unless in those few precedents of Phineas, and Elias, and the Maccabees, i. e. Zealots (for so the word Maccabee signifies in the Syriac ) 'twill be hard to find either in Scripture or Josephus (where there were whole multitudes of such men) any one example of this practice justifiable even in a Jew. And in opposition to, and not compliance with that, is the Gospel-spirit quite contrary to the heights of the Jewish practice, never sheds blood upon any but regular commissions, an obedient, orderly, temperate, cool Spirit.

4. The Cursing spirit, that may be of two sorts: either in passing judgments on men's future spiritual estates, a censorious damning spirit, such as hath been usual in all kind of Heretics almost that ever came into the Church; ( nos spirituales, we the spiritual, and, in the King of China 's style, filii coeli, sons of heaven, and all others animales & psychici, animal carnal men :) or 2. in wishing, praying, calling for curses either on God's or our enemies. And you may know the Gospel-spirit by the opposition to these, a hoping, charitable, merciful, deprecating, blessing Spirit.

Lastly, the Fiery spirit is a vehement, violent, intractable, irreconcilable spirit, sets all where ever it comes into a flame and combustion, and will never have peace with anything which it can possibly consume; nay farther, it infuseth warmths and distempers and turbulencies into all that come within any reach of it, communicates and diffuses its violencies to all others: And the Gospel-spirit is direct antipodes to that, an allaying, quenching, quieting, cooling Spirit. And so you see this new Spirit, the Spirit of the Gospel, of what a temper it is, in all these respects, a Spirit more fit than Lightning to melt the swords in our scabbards, to new forge these hostile weapons into those that are more civil and profitable; and that was the second course by which Christianity was to work this metamorphosis, to beat these swords, &c.

3. And lastly, our Savior hath contributed toward this great work, by the exemplariness of his own practice in this kind: Not only (in the first place) in refusing to have the fire from heaven, that the Boanerges would have helped him to, against the Samaritans (professed enemies of Christ, and of all that had any kind looks toward Jerusalem ; and besides, notorious Heretics and Schismatics, and yet pretenders to the only purity and antiquity, against all sense and reason, and so most arrogant Hypocrites also: and yet all this, not enough to inflame Christ 's Spirit into that of Elias 's, or to change his temper into anything of zeal or anger against these:) Nor only (in the second place) in reprehending and trashing of St. Peter 's zeal, when it drew the sword in his Master's defense against the high Priest's servants, and indeed against the very Crucifiers of Christ: Nor only (in the third place) in refusing the aid even of Angels from Heaven (when they were ready upon his summons) against the Heathens that attach'd him: But fourthly, and above all, by that answer of his to Pilate, John 18.36. If my Kingdom were of this world, then should my servants fight, &c. (which was certainly part of that good confession before Pilate mentioned with such honor, 1 Tim. 6.13.) inferring, that because his Kingdom was not of this world, because he was not a worldly or an earthly King, therefore his servants were not to fight for him against a legal power of Heathens, though 'twere but to save him from Crucifying. 'It is clear, 'twas one of his Accusers main hopes to find him in Judas Gaulonita 's Doctrine, That 'twas unlawful for God 's people (and so for him that undertook to be God 's Son) to be subject to Idolaters, making advantage of Piety (as the Gnostics after did) toward their secular ends, the freeing themselves from subjection in this world. But our Savior everywhere disclaims that Doctrine, both Matth. 22.21. vindicating Caesar 's Prerogative by his Coin, and in that good confession to Pilate: From which 'tis demonstrable, that what was not to be done in defense of Christ when he was in that danger and under that persecution, is no more to be attempted in that case for Religion, for Christianity itself. I shall shut up this by leaving in your hands that most glorious lively Image of his whole Soul and Life, delivered to us in one Medal, that [ Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest unto your Souls. ] To which if you add the sealing and the practicing of this, in the giving up his Soul, laying down his Life, an Offering of Charity even for enemies, and yet farther, for those enemies Souls; this one Amulet hung about your necks, one would think, were sufficient to charm all the weapons of our warfare, that are so unmercifully carnal, to exorcize and conjure all the swords and spears out of the world, to work new transfigurations and metamorphoses among us, to return the Bears and Vultures into their old human shapes again, and proclaim an universal truce to all the military affections we carry about us, to our wraths, our covetings, our aspirings, a Sabbath, a Jubilee of rest and peace, like that which Jamblichus talks of in the Sphears, a 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a catholic constant harmony and accord, a present pacification of all our intestine broils, and so a quiet and rest unto our souls: and till this be done, till this Advent Prophecy be fulfilled in your ears, you must know, there is little of Christianity among us, little of Evangelical graces or Evangelical Spirit, nothing but Legal at the best. That in God's good time there may be more, not in the brain or tongue, to elevate the one or adorn the other, but in the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the depth and sincerity of the heart, more of the work and power, the spirit and vital energy of the Gospel, God of his infinite mercy grant us all, even for the sake and through the operation of his Son Jesus Christ, that wonderful Counselor, that mighty God, that Father of this Evangelical state, that Prince, and that God of peace ; to whom with the Father and the holy Ghost be ascribed, as is most due, the honor, the glory, the power, praise, might, majesty, and dominion, which through all ages of the world hath been given to him that sitteth on the Throne, to the Holy Spirit, and to the Lamb for evermore. Amen.

The II. SERMON.

T Hat the Christian's Heaven should be acknowledged his only blissful state, and yet they which pant for bliss, never think fit to inquire after it; That Christ, the way to that heaven, should be truly styled by one Prophet, the desire of all Nations ; and yet they that look on him, be affirmed by another Prophet, to see nothing in him that they should desire him ; That a rational creature should be made up of such contradictions, as to desire life most importunately, and yet as passionately to make love to death; to profess such kindness to immaterial joys, and yet immerse and douz himself in carnal; to groan and languish for Salvation, i. e. an eternal state of purity, and yet to disclaim and fly it whensoever any impure delight is to be parted with; might have leave to exercise and pose a considering man, were there not one clear account to be given of this prodigy, one reason of this fury, the many evil reports that are brought up of the way to this good land, the prejudices, fatal prejudices infused into us, the vehement dislikes and quarrels to all Christian practice, that only passage to our only bliss. We have heard of an Angel with a flaming Sword at the gate of Paradise, which our poetick fears and fancies have transformed into a Serpent at the door of the Hesperides garden, (that Angel fallen, and turned into a Devil;) we have heard of the Cannibal Anakims in the confines of the promised Land, that devour all that travel toward that Region: and our cowardly, sluggish, aguish fancies have transplanted all these into Christendom, made them but emblems of Christ's duri sermons, the hard tasks, unmerciful burdens that he lays on his Disciples; yea and conjured up a many spirits and Fairies more, sad direful apparitions, and sent them out all a commanded Party to repel or to trash us, to intercept or incumber our passage toward Canaan, to pillage and despoil the Soul of all Christian practice, of all that's duty in Discipleship.

Three of these prejudices our Savior seems to have foreseen and prevented in the words of this Text.

1. That there is no need of doing anything in Discipleship; Christ came to free from yokes, to release from burdens, the Gospel's made all of promises, Obedience to precepts is a mere unnecessary: And for the preventing of that prejudice, you have here as a yoke and a burden, so both of Christ's owning, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 & 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , my yoke, and my burden.

A second prejudice of them that, being forced to confess the necessity of Christian obedience, do yet resolve it impossible to be performed, discerning the burdens in my Text, must have them unsupportable burdens, no hope, no possibility for us to move under them; and then studium cum spe senescit, their industry is as faint as their hope, Desperation stands them in as much stead as Libertinism did toother, they are beholden to the weight of their burdens for a supersedeas for taking them up. And for the preventing of that prejudice, you have here this character of Christ's burden, not only supportable, but light; my burden is a light burden.

A third prejudice there is yet behind, of those that having yielded the both necessity and possibility of Christian obedience, are yet possessed of the unpleasingness and bitterness of it, like those in the Prophet, cry out [ The burden of the Lord, the burden of the Lord, ] the yoke. a joyless melancholic yoke, the burden a galling pinching burden ; and to them hath our Savior designed the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 here, as the most significative epithet to express the nature of the Christian yoke. We have rendered it but imperfectly, my yoke is easy ; it signifies more richly, my yoke is a benign yoke, all pleasure and profit made up in the word: 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the Lord is gracious, 1 Pet. 2.3. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Rom. 2.4. signifies the bounty, we render it, the goodness of God, that which immediately before is, the riches of his bounty ; and proportionably the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a gracious bountiful yoke, a mine, a treasure of bounty, a good, a joyous and a gainful yoke.

And he that is thus answered in all his objections, confuted in all his fears, and prejudices, and excuses for Libertinism, if he do not acknowledge the reasonableness of Christ's advice, [ take my yoke upon you,] take it for its own sake, though it were not laid upon you by Christ, my necessary, my light, my gracious yoke ; he that will not accept of some office in the house of so good a Master, I know not what kind of address to make to him, I must leave him to Pythagoras 's Sponde 's, that could cure a Mad man, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , rectify the errors of his appetite first, and then his mind, first of his spleen, and then his brain, before any portion of this bread of life will be diet for him.

I have drawn you the lines which lie folded up in this Text: the filling each up with colors in the shortest manner I could devise, would prove a work of more time than is now my portion. The expedient I have resolved on is, to leap over the two former, and only fasten on my last particular, as that which includes and supposes the two former, as that which will bring its reward with it, invite and feed your patience, and in all probability obtain your belief, because there is never an interest, never a passion about you that it contradicts.

Your patience being thus armed with a fight of the guesses, but one stage, and that the smoothest you ever passed, I shall presume you ready to set out with me; and it is to consider that anticipation of the third prejudice, in the Epithet affixt to Christ's yoke, in the fullness of its significancy, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , my yoke is a benign, a gracious, a pleasant, a good and a gainful yoke.

Yea, and that in this life, at the taking the yoke upon you ; a present gooodness in it here, though there were never a treasure of rewards, never a heaven after it: at least as the present paradise of a true Disciple is considered apart, abstracted from that future expectation, my yoke is a good yoke, is for the present; the [ 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Is ] hath an influence on the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , as well as on the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , on the gainfulness of the yoke, as well as the supportableness of the burden. And so you see the full of my scope, the utmost of my design, the present advantages of a Christian course, the instant goodness of Christ's service beyond all other callings and preferments in the world; a yoke, but that a good one, a yoke that shall never be repented of by him that bears it, whatever it be apprehended to cost him at the taking up.

And 1. you may please to observe that a yoke hath nothing of hardship in it, 'tis smooth'd and fitted to the neck, rather to ease than press, rather to defend than gall; not as a weight or burden, but only an instrument of advantage, to make the burden that is to be undergone, more easy and supportable: and therefore our Savior counts of it as that which a rational man would be content to take up of his own accord, if he knew the benefit of it, [ Take my yoke upon you, ] and be richly rewarded in the taking, and you shall find rest unto your Soul. The entrance on Discipleship, making the New Vow, converting to God, is this taking Christ's yoke upon us, (as the performing the Vow, the practice of the several duties, is the moving under the burden.) And, to prevent mistakes, to forestal all possible objections, I shall acknowledge to you that there is some difficulty in that taking, though not in that yoke, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , some difficulty in the first setting out, in the breaking off from the former course, whatsoever it were; somewhat of fancy, somewhat of interests against it.

Of Fancy : To take leave of an old familiar, to carry out the whole body of sin to its funeral, (that pompa mortis, so much more grievous than death itself) to give up the earth to earth, corruption to corruption, with all the pompous solemnities attendent on an hearse; this, I say, hath somewhat of sadness in it, especially to the inferior brutish part of the man, like the Persian Commander in Herodotus, his fall is lamented by the Horses and Oxen and Boeotians, all the Bestial, rude herd of man joining in the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 .

So besides, there is somewhat of interests, some uneasiness again in the motion necessary to so vast a change, some injury to the old possessors, aliquid iniqui, somewhat of pressure in the change itself; some pain in spiritualizing of flesh, racking it, fetching it from the lees, ra • ifying and attenuating the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the spirit incrassate by vicious diet, as Philoponus calls the habituate sinner, of returning the gross habit of sin to a spareness and slenderness of stature, an exinanition of that carnal appetite which hath brought in all the grosser joys which hitherto we have fed on. And the truth is, this even with Saint Paul himself, goes for a mysterious piece, 1 Cor. 15.51. Behold I show you a mystery, we shall all be changed : the change of the natural to a spiritual body, is a greater work than the rising of the dead. No wonder then that the natural man generally is not so well satisfied with this. Saul is fain to be struck down in the place; a kind of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 or swooning fit, an expiration of the animal man, necessary to so great a change; as the LXXII. have cast Adam not into a sleep, (as the Hebrew Text) but into an 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a being hurried out of himself to make him capable of an helper. Thus when Christ was first born in Bethlehem, Herod the King was troubled and all Jerusalem with him. Such great stupendous felicities are not brought forth without some pangs at birth, some unpleasant throes at the delivery; the very earthly Canaan is not come to, but by passing through a proemial wilderness. Thus much by way of concession of the some difficulty to the carnal man in taking up of Christ's yoke, the minute of the new creation. But that being supposed,

Let me now tell you, this is all that is of hardship in the Christian's life, all the unacceptable even to flesh and blood, the instant of putting on the yoke, of entering into the traces, of harnessing for the future race, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , as the Greek in the Acts reads it, the child-birth pangs of dying to sin, of mortifying 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the affections that are so fastened on the earth, that, like a Plantagnus torn from its soil, they bleat and roar again; the concussion or flesh-quake that follows the sudden stop in the vehement course, the Vertigo that the forcible turn in the rapid motion begets, the smart that the passing through the purgative fire costs us: and the fear of this one sharp minute is that that betrays us to all the drudgery and torments in the world, that which makes us so shy of piety, so afraid of all spiritual conceptions. As you know that one terror of dying, parting of such ancient mates, makes some good men not over-willing to be with Christ, though they acknowledge it never so much a more valuable state: Whereas could we but arm ourselves for this one act of spiritual daring, the pain of ascending the Mount Tabor, and being transfigured with Christ, we should soon resolve of the bonum est esse hic, it is good for us to be here, and set presently to build us Tabernacles never to return to our old shapes or tents again. Could we but resolve to set out on this voyage, encounter this one Giant, son of Anak, the breaking off from our old customs, there were then nothing but Canaan behind, that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , as once Homer called Greece, the pap of the earth, that fountain of milk and hive of honey, (all the Bees and Hornets driven out of it) a succession of uninterrupted felicities streaming through it. Could we but repel the fancy, or support the pangs of one short travail, in contemplation of the joy which the man-child will within a few minutes bring into the world with him, ( 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ,) I am confident, Christ would be once more, not only 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 in Jacob 's prophecy, not only the expectation, but withal the joy, the sensuality of the very Gentiles, that which flesh and blood, man in every of his most inferior capacities, the rational, the moral, yea and the carnal man would thirst with more joy, taste with more ravishment, devour with less satiety, than ought which his present confections of luxury did ever yield him, and thence break out into the Virgin-Mother 's Magnificat, a transportation of joy for the approach of the birth of so much blessedness; or into old Simeon 's Nunc dimittis, desire no more joy in this life, than that which infallibly attends the taking a Savior into his arms, those intimate embraces of Christ in the regenerate heart.

To make this more visible and acknowledged in the retail than 'tis in the gross, in the coin than 'tis in the bullion, I shall require your patience but to these two heads of probation. One, by viewing severally some of the chief duties of Christianity. The other, by enumeration of the special good things which have ever been prized by mankind.

The first, I say, by surveying the duties of a Christian, the tasks that are prescribed him by Christ, the particulars of his yoke and burden. Consider them a while, and if they be not the object of all other men's envy, if his toils be not demonstrably the vastest pleasures, his exercises the most joyous divertisements and highest rank of entertainments that any mortal hath arrived to, I shall be content with Cassandra 's fate, never to be credited in my affirmations.

For instance, Well-doing in general, in the first place, the conscience of any degree of having discharged any part of duty, that [ euge, bone serve ] from the God within thee, what a ravishment is it to any the meanest undertaker? what an olio of all high tastes compounded together? Their very enemies could say it of the Athenians in Thucydides, That there was nothing that they could count feast or banquet, but the having done what they ought. And the Persians, when they beheld the solemnity of the Grecian Olympic games, such courage and patience of the combatants, and no reward expected but an Olive crown, expostulate with Mardonius, Why dost thou bring us to fight against those, who fight not for money, but virtue? A conscience of having done well, served in with a few leaves about it, was it seems the daintiest dish, and most animating emboldning reward in nature. And if a Christian cannot outvie those Heathens, if it be not in our breasts, as it is in the Translations of our Bibles [ a merry heart, all one with a good conscience ] and the attribute of that, a continual feast to thee as it was to Solomon, believe it, thy taste is mortified, thou art no competent judge of dainties. And that is one part, or indeed the sum, of all Christ 's yoke, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , in all things a good conscience.

In the second place, not to lead you out of the most vulgar rode, that our discourse may be the more demonstrative, the Trinity of Theological virtues, Faith, Hope, and Charity, what are they, but so many elevations of the Soul above all that's mean and painful; so many steps of entrance into obedience and bliss, into discipleship and paradise together?

For Faith, 'tis S. Peter 's expression, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , believing you do exult for joy; Faith naturally hath that acquiescence and joy in it, and that a 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , an inexpressible and glorified joy, even in this life. Take it but in the meaner of its offices, as it is a trusting God with our temporal weal, a full submission not only to the will, but wisdom of God, a resolution that God can choose for us better than we for ourselves, that whatever he sends, his hottest or bitterest potion, is fit for our turns, and so absolutely better, and even to us (when we see 'tis his will) more eligible, more desirable than anything we could have prayed for. That cheerful valiant resignation of all into God's hands, with an old Eli 's Dominus est, It is the Lord, let him do what seemeth him good, what a blessed pill of rest is this unto the Soul? what a Sabbath from all that servile work, those horrid perjuries, those base submissions, that the covetous Mammonist or cowardly trembler drudges under? Though the earth shake, or the hills be carried into the midst of the Sea, he is the Cube indeed that Socrates pretended to be, he hath a basis that will not fail, his feet stand fast, he believeth in the Lord. He hath gotten a superiority of mind, that all this region of meteors cannot disquiet; he hath rifled all the Sects of the old Philosophers, robbed each of them of his master-piece; the Sceptic of his 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 & 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , indifference and untroubledness ; the Stoic of his 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , he hath none of the tragical complaints how tragical soever his sufferings be; and Epicurus of his 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , tranquility or calm of mind, to the acquiring of which all his philosophy was designed, a thing so hugely pleasurable, that he hath been taken for a carnal voluptuous swine ever since, upon no other merit but for seeking out those great composers of the Soul, so much beyond all other Sensuality. Those boasts, I say, and prides, those dreams and wishes of those Philosophers, are now the reality and acquisition of a Christian, an Epicurism which faith, and only faith, undertakes to furnish us with. A thing so deeply considerable, that I cannot but resolve all the differences of men's estates and fortunes, as well as Souls, their secular felicity and infelicity, as well as piety and impiety, to proceed from this one fountain opened by Christ to the House of David : No Prince more happy than the Peasant in the present advantages of this life, but as he hath more faith than he; the spring of our daily misery, as well as our sins, is the [ 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , O ye of little faith. ]

And so certainly for Hope, that second Christian Gemm, that Royal High Priest of ours that enters within the Veil, takes possession beforehand of all that's rich or secret, brings down all the Treasures of another world to be our daily portion in this, hope of Eternity, hope of Heaven, you will not wonder if I assure you; 'tis a far pleasanter Companion than the possession of all worldly preferments. You would be amazed to hear a Papist describe his Purgatory flames so scorching, and yet go cheerfully out of this world into the midst of those flames: but he will satisfy your wonder when he tells you, that the expectation of the heavenly joys that those flames do confirm and ascertain to him, though after never so many hundred years the precious hope that dwells there, and the assurance of a Title in Heaven, a portion in that glorious 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 or inrolment, is richly sufficient to allay those flames to make those scorchings supportable. And then judge what a confluence of pleasures is this one grace supposed to be, which is resolved sufficient to sweeten and recommend a Tophet, to make torments desirable; like the kind gales and benign vapors under the Line that Menardus tells of, which make the Torrid'st Clime habitable; and the presence of that Fourth in Nebuchadnezzar 's Fornace, which makes the Three Children sing in the midst of flames.

As for Charity, that is certainly the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , superior to either Faith or Hope, for joy and pleasure, as well as use and excellency. Can there be anything so ravishing as love, love of so for-ever-satisfying a beauty, that heroical improvement and elevation of Soul, the want of which is as great a punishment as 'tis a sin, as much of hell in the extinction of this flame as in the raging of that, in the chill, numm'd, as in the raving tormented spirit, as fatal a Lethargy from the one, as Fever from the other? If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha, saith St. Paul. Blessed Apostle! I cannot imagine thy Gospel-spirit could permit thee to deliver those words as a wish, or prayer for curses on any, even enemy of Christ; may not this form of speech be a Scheme of Apostolic Rhetoric? If any man love not the Lord Jesus, he is and shall be, for the very present he is the interpretation of those thundering sounds, anathema maranatha, a miserable accursed creature; the very not loving, the chilling of that blessed passion within his breast, is the saddest curse that the Devil could design his hated'st enemy.

Add unto this that other branch of Charity, that ray which Prometheus in the figure stole from heaven, to inspire and warm the world with, that inferior elementary fire, love of our fellow-men, our fellow-Christians; and tell me if there be anything so capable not only of the quàm bonum, but the quàm jucundum too, that hath so much of the pleasant as well as the virtuous in the composition. The ground of all pleasure is agreement and proportionableness to the temper and constitution of anything; the reason, saith Boethius, that men love Music so well, is the answerableness of the Notes in that, to those observed by nature in the fabric of our bodies : And say we, is there anything so agreeable and harmonical, so consonant to our reasonable nature, to the ingenuity of our kind, and consequently, so universally delightful to all that have not put off Man in exchange for Panther and Tigre, as that which Christ hath left us our duty, yea, and our reward, the loving of the brethren, that language, that Song of love that we are to practice here, that we may chant it in heaven eternally? 'It is said to be a speech of Christ's which the Nazaren Gospel hath recorded, though our Bibles have not, (and it seems by St. John, all was not written which Christ spake to them) Nunquam laeti sitis nisi cum fratrem in charitate videritis; There is no spectacle of delight to a Christian, nothing of value sufficient for a Disciple to rejoice at, but to see his fellow-Disciples embracing one another in love : And they say, Mahomet was such an admirer of this quality, that he once resolved to have inserted a Precept of good-fellowship among his Laws, because he thought he had observed (though most ridiculously mistaken) that that which is indeed the bane, was a promoter of this Charity. I conceive I have the suffrage of all mankind, that Charity is a pleasing grace ; and of the wisest and most pondering observers, that Friendship is the only sweet neighbor and companion of life, that which being drained from its baser mixtures (which would otherwise cause satiety) becomes the prime ingredient in the glorified Saints, of whose state we understand little, but that they are happy and love one another, and in that forever happy, that they forever love one another; charitas nunquam excidit, and so their bliss nunquam excidit, neither. And then, behold and admire the goodness of this yoke ; Christ's design even in this life to set up charity, friendship above all virtues, as high as it is above all felicities, to settle that for the prime Christian duty, which hath most of present blessedness in it, to make that our burden which is our bliss, our yoke which is our boon; and withal to separate it from all those mixtures which would either embitter or shorten, cool or satiate our love, the lusts and excesses and the prides that would make the most ingenuous delight either less ingenuous or less delightful; that love of my Brother's virtues, love of his Soul; love of the Nature that Christ assumed, and died for, and carried to Heaven with him; love of the Image of God in him, that most transporting, durable pleasure. And all this will be abundantly sufficient to make up a second instance of the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the graciousness and pleasantness of this yoke.

A Third shall be, by referring you to the most extemporary view of the commands of the Decalogue, which Christ came not to destroy, but to fill up and perfect. Temperance is the only Epicurism ; Continence or Conjugal Chastity the only Supersedeas to that black flame, that is the Incontinent's daily Hell even in this life: But above all, that Precept of the Old, and Mystery or Craft of the New Testament, [ Thou shalt not covet ] that of Contentment with whatsoever lot, the prohibition of all desire, which seemeth such a galling restraint to the carnal man, with his bored tub of insatiate desire (as Jamblichus calls it) about him; but to him that hath taken this yoke upon him, is the gainfullest, not duty, but donative, not burden, but purchase and preferment, that any mortal is capable of. The Philosopher could resolve it the way to help any man to whatever he wanted, detrahere cupiditatibus, to pare so much off from his desires, as his desires were larger than his fortune. To bring down his ambitions to his lot, would be as rich a prize as the compassing and acquiring all his ambitions. Contentment is (in earnest) the Philosopher's Stone, that makes Gold of anything; the Pandora 's Box, that hath all wealth and honor and pleasure in its disposing; makes the poorest Eremite the richest possessor; the most scorned abject, the most honorable person; the Recluse, or the mortified Christian, the most voluptuous liver in a Kingdom; every diminution that can come by the malice of men or devils, a pleasurable calamity; whilst the largest possessions in nature without this one skill, [ 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ] this sovereign piece of Alchymy, are still the perfectest beggary imaginable. The Devil's whole Map or Landskip of all the Kingdoms and glory, if (as liberally offered, so) actually bestowed, is not able to satisfy the lusts of one eye, much less to fill up the angles and vacuities of one heart without it. That one prudent instruction of [ Quod sis esse velis, nih • lque malis ] in one Poet, or [ Permittes ipsis expendere numinibus ] in another, or [ 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ] in a third, [ Stand still and see the salvation of our God ] is a far richer provision than all their more glittering fictions of Golden Apples, and Golden Showers, and Golden Fleeces, and Golden Rods, that could make such sudden metamorphoses, yea, and of the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the Golden Nets, the Golden Ages can afford us. In heaven, saith Christ they neither eat nor drink, marry, nor are given in marriage, and yet are better satisfied and pleased than they below, that are fed in Mahomet 's Dining-room, or lodged in his Seraglio: The not desiring those pleasures of life is to them the same thing with advantage, that the enjoying them is to others, (as the Poet that begs two things of Mars, Either valor for war, or peace that he may not need that valor, would be richly provided for, which soever was granted him.) And this is, in Christ's language, being 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , equal to the very Angels. It seems, 'tis the Angels special advantage above us men, that they desire not the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the all these things, which the luggage of flesh about us, makes to us so necessary; and no such Crane, such Engine to elevate our nature to this 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , to this so Angelical a state, as 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , this so liberal a Science of Contentment, which not only makes Romances creditable, finds mines in our Closets, under every Cushion we kneel on, rains down both the Indies into our Treasury, satisfies all our needs, fills all our vacuities; but is withal the noblest act of wisdom, of superiority of mind, of prowess, and conquest of ourselves, that any Book but that of Life, any place but Heaven can give us story of; and therefore sure a 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a yoke, a command of Christ, but that a benign and gainful yoke, in the third place.

A fourth instance I cannot omit, though I suppose the most vulgar fancy hath prevented me in it, because Aristotle hath a Note in his Rhetoricks, that some kind of Auditors are most wrought upon by such ; and that is from the Catalogue of the blessing Graces, in the Fifth of Matthew, Blessed are the poor in spirit, the meek, &c. In the present, they are blessed, yea, and would be so, though there were never a Heaven of blessedness behind for them. Will you examine the truth of this in a few of them?

1. Poverty of Spirit: whether a preparation of spirit to be poor, and then 'tis blessed Contentment that just now we parted with; or whether it be Humility, blessed humility, and then, besides the advantages it hath toward another life, grace to the humble, to the humble more grace, and at last, heaven to the humble, yea, and more heaven (as in the learned rules of Husbandry they are appointed to plough, to sow, and to reap too all naked, humility, pourtraied by that nakedness being the only auspicious posture, the only catholic qualification for all seasons,) besides these advantages, I say, 'tis over and above, even in the eye of the world an amiable graceful quality, hath a present secular blessedness in it, a calm of Soul to itself, a controlling loveliness in respect of others, and a world of conveniences attending it. 'It is that wherein heaven and earth are met as Rivals: God himself a making court to it, With him will I dwell, and in the Oracle,— 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 there are two Residences, Palaces, Thrones for God, Heaven, and an humble Soul : and for men, a plain 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 to them, an Enchantment or Charm of respect and love, where ever 'tis met with; whereas in the mean time Pride goes alone in state, only with a train of menial scorns and curses after it; 'tis a kind of excommunicating sin, drives away confidents, counsellors, servants, graces, the very credit and reputation which it courts, all kind of company but devils and parasites, that pessimum genus inimicorum, that worse kind of devil of the two. So true is that of Solomon, Prov. 16.19. Better is it to be of an humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud: the comparison there is set as betwixt the lowly and proud, so betwixt the humble spirit and dividing the spoil ; there is no need to mention any benefit of humility, the humble spirit, it seems, is reward enough to itself, and all the proud man 's prizes are not comparable to it in this life.

So for Meekness, 'tis a lovely grace again, The ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, 1 Pet. 3. a more gallant embroidery, more enamouring dress, which hath more of the Agreeable in the look of it, than all the other helps of beauty can afford that Sex which is there spoken of: but especially that notion of meekness that consists in obedience to our lawful Superiors, which (beside the many other conveniences of it, that thy days may be long in the land, &c. long life in a Canaan ) is a most advantageous gainful duty, such as, if it had applications made to it, would infallibly leave the Prince the only uneasy person in the Kingdom, because he only were assigned the task, the painful, thankless, yet necessary, task of commanding, and deprived of the obsequii gloria, that far more glorious, I will add and pleasant, way of obeying. The glory of it is such, as that Gerson having discerned in the Angels two habitudes, one of waiting upon God, the other in the ruling and managing of things below, resolves, that if that Angel were to set himself out in a luster, to triumph in a Magnificat, it would be certainly in the Virgin Mary 's style, humilitatem famuli, that he were a meek servant of God's, rather than a Prince of so many Myriads of subjects. And for pleasure, I shall profess my sense so far from doting on that popular Idol, Liberty, that I hardly think it possible for any kind of obedience to be more painful than an unrestrained liberty: Were there not some bounds of Magistrate, of Laws, of Piety, of Reason in the heart, every man would have a Fool, they say, I add, a mad Tyrant, to his Master, that would multiply him more sorrows than the briars and thorns did Adam, when he was freed from the bliss at once and the restraint of Paradise, and was sure greater slave in the Wilderness than he was in the Enclosure. Would but the Scripture permit me that kind of Idolatry, the binding my faith and obedience to any one visible infallible Judge or Prince, were it the Pope, or the Mufti, or the Grand Tartar, might it be reconcilable with my Creed, it would be certainly with mine interests to get presently into that posture of obedience. I should learn so much of the Barbarian Ambassadors in Appian, which came on purpose to the Romans to negotiate for leave to be their servants: 'Twould be my policy, if not my piety, and may now be my wish, though not my faith, that I might never have the trouble to deliberate, to dispute, to doubt, to choose, (those so many profitless uneasinesses) but only the favor to receive commands, and the meekness to obey them; so demonstrably true is the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , (the very meekness is their blessedness) and from thence this part of the gainfulness of this yoke.

I will detain you but with one more of that Catalogue, that of Mercifulness, the pleasurablest burden in the world; there's no such kind of inward delight and sensuality, as it were. Liberality is a kind of tickling to the Soul, 'tis hard to conceal the pleasure of it, to keep it from boiling over, from running out at mouth in vain-glory. To make a poor man happy, and by a seasonable alms to reprieve and rescue him that was, as it were, appointed to death, is that God-like quality, as Pythagoras agrees with Christ, that kind of creative power, that of all things men are best pleased with; and therefore naturally they love those better, as their creatures, whom they have thus obliged, than any their liberallest benefactors. This the good-natured Tyrant Phalaris, if his Image be truly drawn in his Epistles, took more joy in, than in all his other Greatness, designed that Tyranny (that cost him and others so dear) to no other end, than that it might yield him that one pleasure, the power of obliging many and accordingly he woos and beseeches to be allowed this favor, nay quarrels and threatens his Bull to those that would not afford him this joy, of pouring out his largesses upon them. This so delightful a piece of duty, so perfect voluptuousness to any ingenuous man, is withal, let me tell you, be it never so incredible, the gainfullest trade, the thrivingest way of merchandise for the wealth of this world, that any Projector can direct you to. Give me leave for once to interpose in secular affairs thus far, as to assure you of that, that I will pawn my whatever is mine for the truth of it, (and for which I conceive I have so many plain promises in the Scripture, that 'twere infidelity (in me, I am sure) to doubt of it) That the exercise of this duty of alms-giving was never the impoverishing of any Family, but constantly the enriching. Let it be tried, and I will once set up the Ensurers Office, that whatever goes out on that Voyage shall never miss to come home with gain: there is no man that parteth with anything for Christ 's sake, saith he, but he shall have an hundred-fold more in this life. Add but this 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 to the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , this of gain to that of delight, the policy to the even sensual ravishment of it, and you will resolve that Christ was a good Master; that if you had been called to counsel at that great Parliament, had had your Negative in that power of making Laws for Mankind, you would not have chosen a smoother and more agreeable yoke for yourselves than this that Christ hath designed for you.

I promised to make this as evident by another head of probation, the enumeration of the special goods that have ever been prized by Mankind; but that were a new Deep, and you have no stock of patience to hold out that Voyage. Among all that have ever pretended to that Title, I will suppose that of Honor hath gotten the Primogeniture, supplanted all other Pretenders, in an ingenuous Auditory; and therefore one word to that, and I shall think I have made good my undertaking.

Honor I conceive to be the Daughter of Heroic action, and specially of Victory: And is there any such sweeping triumphant Conqueror in the world as the regenerate Christian? 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , he overcometh the world : overcomes himself, that Lion and that Bear that David combated with, his furious rageful Passions, Achelous in all his shapes; and is always in pursuit of that Victory, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , still in the present, he is always overcoming: overcomes enemies, the injurious person, by not retributing of injuries, the very tyrant persecutor, (whose adoration he hath, when he can get none of his mercy, whilst toother that is frighted out of his conscience and integrity, is scorned and kicked into hell by him) yea, and the Devil, that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the evil one, whom when the Christian resists, he conquers, ( fugiet, he shall fly from thee;) yea, and overcomes, and reproaches, and triumphs over all the world besides, practices those duties upon Christ's commands, which neither Jew nor Heathen ever thought themselves obliged to. Athenagoras can challenge all the Philosophers and Law-givers of the world to equal Christ in one Precept, or Christians in one practice of theirs, that of blessing of enemies ; and no Goliath of Gath being able to answer his challenge, no uncircumcised Philistine of confidence to meet him, ( 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ,) the Christian is the only victor, he conquers the whole world about him, yea, and those glittering Courtiers of the superior world, outvies and conquers Angels in that one dignity of suffering for Christ, and so becomes the renowned'st Champion under heaven.

To this I should add again, if I had not said so much of it already, and if 'twere not a baser earthier consideration, the profit and secular advantage, of which the Christian life (let the insensate worldling think what he will) hath the peculiar only promise from him which hath the sole disposing of it. Some mistakes there are in judging what worldly Prosperity is. Let it be rescu'd from these mistakes, as particularly from that of signifying a present few months vicissitude of power and wealth, (so sure to be paid (and confuted from deserving that Title) by that of the Prophet, When thou ceasest to spoil, thou shalt be spoiled ;) let it signify, as alone it doth truly signify, that competency, not that superfluity, which hath all the advantages, and none of the pains, of wealth in it; and no question the doing our duty (though it be the present leaving of all for Christ's sake) is that which doth not use to fail of the liberallest sort of harvest, the hundred-fold more in this life, i. e. all the true advantages of those possessions, without that addition, which would be bare profitless incumbrance, and which, if it were added, would prove a most disadvantageous diminution. I shall venture the brand and punishment that belongs to the most infamous Cheat, whenever any Disciple of Christ shall think fit to call me his underminer or enemy for this doctrine, when he shall think fit to tell me really, that Honesty is not the only Prudence, the surest foundation and treasure of worldly bliss.

I have done with the particulars I promised: And now put all together, and you will never think the Preacher a Tyrant more, never pity the Melancholick, but envy the ravishments of him that hath taken up this yoke (yea, though it have a Cross annexed to it) to follow Christ; you will never put in for your part in Mahomet 's Paradise, exchange your purer Gospel for a grosser Alco • an, having in this very yoke of Christ a satisfaction to all your longings, a richer harvest of joys in the present possession than all the false Prophets and false Christ's could feign for their Clients in the latest reversion. And having thus fortifi'd you, I shall now challenge the Rival Satan to come out to thee, to bring forth his pleas and pretensions for thee, to interpose his exceptions, if he have any, why this hour should not be the solemn Aera, the date of thy long farewell to the Kilns and Flesh-pots of Egypt, why this minute should not be that of the blessed shrill Trumpet's sound, that of proclaiming a Jubilee, a manumission for thee (and all thy fellow captives) never to return to his Gallies again, who art offered so far a more gainful, more easy, more pleasant, and more liberal Service. Satan, I am confident, dares not say, his wages are comparable to those that here I have tendered thee from Christ: let him show me in all his Kingdoms of the earth, in his Treasury of gold, or Gynaeceum of beauty, anything fit to be a Rival with the Graces, not which the Poets feign, but, which the Sermon on the Mount prescribes, (ingredient and constitutive of a Christian) both for the gain and pleasure, the commodity and the delight of them even to flesh and blood, (when the one Bedlam-heat of youth, or Lethargick custom of sin is over) and I shall no longer pretend to get any Proselyte out of his hands.

And if after all this, I must be content with the fate of other Sermons, to have played a vain-glorious prize, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , wounding none but the air this whole hour together; if I must miscarry in this so charitable undertaking, and may not be heard when I come but to comply with you in all your interests, to direct you through one Canaan to another, to lay you out a Paradise here for your rode to an eternal Heaven; I confess I am fallen upon a peevish auditory, a company of sick fancies and crest-fallen souls: For whose cure,

I might yet farther set off all this, and improve it into little less than a Demonstration, by the view of the contrary not only unpleasant and unprofitable, but even painful, tormenting, trade of sin; those so many Limbo's in passage to the deeper hell; that Sodom of filth and burning, in the way to a Tophet of worms and flames. But I had rather fancy you the Sheep in Aristotle which the green bough would lead, than the Goats in the same Philosopher that the nettles must sting; whom the cords of a Man might draw, than the whips of Scorpions drive into Paradise, into Canaan ; being confident that I have at this time revealed such precious truths unto you, that he whom they do not melt, and charm, and win to enter into this so necessary, so fecible, so gainful a service, Father Abraham 's Divinity would prejudge and conclude against him, that neither will that man convert, though one should rise from the dead and preach unto him. If there be any here of this unhappy temper, the only reserve I have to rescue him is my prayer, that God would touch his heart, that he would say Ephphatha ; that if there be an • consolation in Christ, any comfort of love, any virtue, any praise, any such thing as Paradise here, or Heaven hereafter, we may every of us think of these things, and having entered into the blessed Family of this good Master, we may all serve him acceptably here, fight under his Banner, overcome by his conduct, and reign with him triumphantly hereafter.

Now to him which hath elected, created, redeemed, called, justified us, will consummate us in his good time, will prosper this his Ordinance to that end, will lead us by his grace to his glory; To him, &c.

The III. SERMON.

T HIS Text is a sad Soliloquy of a provoking afflicted people. Ephraim transmigrantem, reads the Vulgar: and sure 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , which we read bemoaning, would be better rendered thus; The ten Tribes sealed up in a black night, a fatal last Captivity.

To parallel our state with Israel in the transmigrantem, is not my design, much less in the bemoaning ; that's but a piece of unseasonable pusillanimity that our English hath imposed upon the Text, and our Savior hath inspirited us into a more cheerful guise in suffering, the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , rejoice and be exceeding glad, the most blissful joyous condition of any.

The parallel, I fear, will prove too perfect in the words themselves, which Ephraim then was over-heard to utter, and perhaps some infidel hearts may be a whispering now: and that I may prevent this parallel, I have pitched upon these words, I have surely heard Ephraim, &c.

The sense of Ephraim 's 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , thus sadly muttered, 'tis possible you may not articulately understand. I shall briefly be his Interpreter, by giving you a plain Paraphrase of the Verse;

I heard the ten Tribes, in a melancholic reflection on their state, thus whispering within themselves; We have long been punished by God, and no more wrought on by those punishments than a wild unmanaged Bullock, i. e. not reformed or mended at all by this discipline, (the Targum hath cleared the rendering, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 We have not been taught, and the Septuagint's [ 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ] hath done so too) but then, Turn thou me, return my captivity, restore us to our liberty and our Canaan again, and then no doubt we shall be turned, reformed and mortified by that change.

Having thus laid bare the words before you, you will presently discern the sum of them, A people unreformed under God's rod, petitioning to be released from that smart, because it did not mend them, pretending that Prosperity would work wonders on them.

And this you will dissolve into these three specials, each worth our stay and pondering;

• 1. God's judgment what course is fittest to reform sinners; not the delicate, but the sharp, that of smiting: Tu percussisti, thou hast smitten.
• 2. Man's judgment, or the sinner's flattering persuasion of himself, quite contrary to God's; a conceit that Roses are more wholesome than Wormwood, that Prosperity will do it better, and a bribing God with a promise that it shall do it: Converte, & Convertar; thy smitings have done no good on me, Turn thou me, and I shall be turned.
• 3. The stating of this difficulty betwixt God and man, and in that, the falseness of man's judgment, and the fallaciousness of such his promise : 1. In respect of God, who will never send them Prosperity, that Adversity wrought no good on ; and 2. of Prosperity itself, which would never do that work on those, if God should send it, intimated in the Prophet's recounting and upbraiding this speech of Ephraim, I have surely heard Ephraim, &c.

I begin first with the first, God's judgment what course is fittest to reform sinners, not the delicate, but the sharp, that of smiting.

And all the proof I pretend to have from this Text for this, is the percussisti in the front. 'It is clear, God had smitten Ephraim, and God's actions are a declaration of his judgment, his smiting a sufficient assurance that nothing else is judged by God so likely to reform Ephraim, and that upon these two plain heads of probation.

• 1. That whatever is, whatever is come to pass, is certainly God's will it should be.
• 2. That what was thus God's will, was designed to some benign end, and in short, to nothing in Ephraim but his reformation.

1. That whatever comes to pass, is certainly God's will. Not still his will so as to be matter of decree (save only of permission) that thou shouldst do it; and therefore even those things that are most necessarily to come, shall be matter of the greatest guilt and woe to those by whom they come. Matt. 18.7. But his will, his over-ruling decretory will, that I should suffer it; his hand and his counsel 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Act. 4.28. predetermining that to be done, which none but Herod and Pilate, Gentiles and Devil, against the express will of God and his child Jesus, were gathered together to do. All the sin and furies, guilt and damnation of hell may be in the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 the doing or executing God's will, (as, believe it, there is not a more formidable trade in the world than that of which Satan alone hath the Patent, and men do but intrench on hell, whensoever they exercise it, that of the lictor & carnifex, of being God's rods, God's executioners:) but then, all the mercy, and all wisdom, bounty and divinity, sometimes the redeeming of a world, in the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the being done. Not the softest affliction or bloodiest tyranny had ever come into the world, had not God permitted, and for our sins decreed to permit the doors to be open for it. Not the lightest wound or deepest furrow on a poor Christian's shoulders, but hath characters of God's hand in it, superscribing him 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , in Ignatius 's phrase, the coin of Christ, a stamp of his impressing: and as the Painter had so interweaved his own face in Minerva 's picture, that you could not behold one without discerning the other; so when the Image of Christ is imprest on us, I mean the image of the Crucified Savior, the thorns on the head, the spitting on the face, the sponge of vinegar and gall at the mouth, and the one wound on the whole body; when the conformity to this Image of the Son, Rom. 8. is sealed upon us, that seal of the Tiphereth, or the Magnus Adam, (as the Caballists are wont to call it) I mean of the Archetypal sufferer Christ, is imprest so hard, that it prints quite through the bottom of him, leaves the impression on the Malcuth, the bride, the house of Israel, the poor crucified Church here below; when, I say, that sad original is thus copied upon us, there is no avoiding the sight, no escaping the acknowledgment of that great Painter's face, that drew these parallel signatures both on Christ and us, or, in St. Paul 's phrase, predestined us to be conformable to that Image of his Son, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Col. 1. by way of correspondence, of antitype, to fill up the remainders of his sufferings in our flesh, and as punctually elected us to this 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , this co-suffering for and after Christ, as to the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 we trust he hath, to the also being glorified with him.

These are the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 literally and exactly, the prints or brands of Christ, the works of his hands, as well as the transcripts of his sufferings: and as this may give us a perfect satisfaction in whatsoever the most smitten condition, a 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , all joy when we are thus vouchsafed and dignified, especially if we shall have transcribed the active as well as passive part of his image, or if this suffering teach us to transcribe it; so will it be a first proof of the point in hand, a declaration of God's opinion by his prescriptions, that nothing is so fit for our turn as smiting.

But then this first proof will not perfectly come home to the conclusion, unless we improve and sharpen it with the second, that this smiting, as it already appears to be God's will, so 'tis by God designed to Ephraim's's good, the greatest good for rebellious Ephraim, the bringing him to repentance, and that if anything else could have tended so directly to that end, Ephraim had never been thus smitten. The foundation of this lies in the superlative love of God extended even to enemies, and that evidenced by his manner of prescribing that to us, with an ab exemplo, from the example of his own perfection, Mat. 5.48. who, it seems by that argument, is a benefactor and blesser even of enemies, and whatever he sends to the most hostile Ephraim, it is method of deliberate charity, the bitter'st Recipe 's designed on purpose (neither by chance nor malice, those two heathen principles of Theology, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 & 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , but, I say, on purpose) from love and pondering, from judgment and from bowels, as that which, as long as there is any hope of recovery, will do it, if anything, and therefore cannot in charity be withdrawn while there is hope; and when there is none, is then to be spared, not lavish'd out, like Galen 's generous medicaments, that must not be dishonored, or cast away on the desperate Patient, but preserved to do noble and signal cures on those that are capable and worthy of them.

Such are these caustick plasters, preparatory to the incarnative, the knife and the launce that Hippoc. reckons among the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the mollifying preparations that the Physician must always carry about with him. This is the new, and, as late Artists tell us, the truer notion of the Fever, not as of a disease, but an endeavor and strife of Nature to cure one; as when there is a thorn in the hand, or burthenous excrement in the body, nature heaves and plunges, puts itself into a passion and flame to thrust it out: and then to cure that Fever, to quench that flame, to allay or trash nature in that march, is to dis-arm the friend, and side with the adversary. And such, it seems, was the messenger of Satan to St. Paul, that medicinal thorn in the flesh, to prick the rising, and let out the putrid humor, that he might not be puffed up and exalted above measure; and God would not be so unkind as to hearken to his importunity, in giving it leave to depart from him.

If you will further see the opinion and judgment of God in this matter, I shall mention but one evidence more of it, the notes of his constant practice through the whole Scripture.

The briars and thorns were immediately designed by God to the first sins, to repair the errors and crimes of Paradise.

Afterward, the Rod was the only engine by which Moses was to work all his miracles, on the rock, on the Egyptians, on the more obdurate Israel ; all the exchange and variety was only this, the Rod sometimes transformed into a Serpent, or else multiplied into an army of Frogs, and Flies, and Locusts, when an obdurate rebellious sinner, a Pharaoh, was to be softened : and, if you mark it, when upon the importunity of Moses God was persuaded to withdraw that rod, to intermix deliverances, these never wrought any good upon Pharaoh; when Pharaoh saw that there was respite, respite but for a minute, he hardened his heart, &c. Ex. 8.15. an observation that made S. Basil resolve, that 'twas God's patience, or 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , that hardened Pharaoh's heart, the removings of his plagues, interealations of mercy: the taking off the water from the fire, and letting it cool again, that, as Aristot. saith, makes it freez so hard and so speedily. The Devil and the Magicians would have been better at the cure of an hard heart, than Moses and his prayers : they could only conjure up more blood and more frogs, but could not remove any; and that, it seems, was the most likely means to have kept him humbled. And therefore in the New Testament, 'tis the Apostles saving method in such great cures, to call in the Devil into consultation, to deliver men up unto Satan, as the last and surest remedy; the continued stripes and the no-respite, to give the impenitent to drink of the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , in the Apoc. that hath so pose • the Interpreters, the unmixed mixed wine, the all myrrh but no water, the all manner of imbittering, heightening, but none of the allaying, cooling mixtures in it, and so still the portion of our crucified Master, i. e. by the way of this Text, all smitings and disciplining, real, corporeal inflictions of Satan, to the diseasing and destroying of the flesh; and, it seems, no popular Empirical means so probable for the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.

And then, my brethren, to bring down this first particular unto ourselves, was there ever such a course of sour discipline, such a delivering up unto Satan, as this Nation of ours hath for some years been under? Were there ever such real bufferings? not like that in Saint Jerome 's Dream, to convert the Ciceronian into a Christian, but as upon a waking Bedlam, a daily constant exercise of stripes; or like that on the possessed in the Gospel, the spirit taking us, and tearing us till we foam again, (and our base reviling and slandering one another is that foam.) O how many sad falling fits hath this poor demoniac been wrestling under, and unless an over-ruling mercy interpose, perhaps the bitterest part of the agony still to come, in the struggling of life to return again▪ is not this the antitype of a smitten Ephraim ? I speak not this particularly of those that have been the sufferers under this rod; believe it, the catalogue of the smitten is larger than so: You may mark it, that the Rod itself is smitten whensoever it smites, at every blow wounded and torn by way of re-passion.

And so the most distant atoms of this Kingdom are once united in this one sad notion of stripes and wounds, fit to become one common 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , precentor in the first note of this sad anthem, the flagellâsti me, thou hast smitten me. O that we could get but one word farther, join all in the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 or counterpart, & flagellatus sum, in the real passive, and I was smitten.

This were but justice unto God, that hath taken all this pains with us, been at such an expense of coulters with these stony fallow hearts of ours. You shall see how rhetorically he expostulates it, Amos 3.4. Will a Lion roar in the forest to have no prey? shall my chidings and threats and thunderbolts (tearing your Ephod and your Altar, rending not the veil, but the Temple itself from the top to the bottom) be spent all to no purpose? Will a young Lion give forth his voice from his den that he may take nothing? (that is the best rendering of the place) Shall all this tragical scene designed and acted by God (all but our sin-parts in it) be but a beating of the air, or a scourging of the sea, unprofitably? no one sin in such a legion brought down or vanquished by all this storming?

Nay, shall we at once evacuate and reproach, frustrate and defame his methods? pronounce unto all the world, that God hath lost his design for want of conduct? shall we set up for the Master-wits? get Proselytes away from heaven to Ephraim 's heresy? preach back again to God's Rod? and tell him, that afflictions are very improper engines to make batteries on Souls? If so, then are we just the indomiti juvenci in this Text, so perfectly untamed after all this smiting▪ I wish we could say as true in that that follows, the [ Turn thou us, and we shall be turned ;] that the resolvedness not to benefit by stripes, were not so like the blasphemy against the holy Ghost; that when this hath failed, any other method might hope to prove successful. That Prosperity might do it, was Ephraim 's fancy, though distant enough from God's: which brings me to my second particular, Man's judgment, or the sinners persuasion of himself, that Roses are more wholesome than Wormwood, that Prosperity will do it better, and a bribing God with a promise that it shall do it ; Converte, & convertar, Turn, &c.

And this we shall not fully carry away with us, if we do not view it distinctly in three notions.

• 1. As 'twas a persuasion or act of belief in Ephraim, that so 'twould prove: Turn thou me, &c.
• 2. As a promise that it should be thus: Turn, and I will, &c.
• 3. As in truth it was, an excuse to get off the Rod, or to procrastinate the repentance : the present method of smiting may be superseded; Turn thou me, &c.

The first, an act of judgment in Ephraim. The second, of temporary resolution. The third, of artifice and design. In each of these, Ephraim may chance to prove our mirror; 'twill be worth your patience that I show you how. And

1. As it was a persuasion or act of judgment in Ephraim, that Prosperity was the way to make them better.

'Twas a truth of God's own pronouncing, that his thoughts are not like our thoughts, consented to by the Philosopher, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , saith Xenophanes, God hath no more of our fancies than of our shapes ; heaven and earth are seldom of an opinion. 'Twill be most pertinent and visible in matters of his providence.

When God hath designed the cross, the constant post and stage in our guesses to Heaven, we must needs set up another economy, fancy it a kingdom of uncompounded felicities, crowd all the Godly into one throne, and the ungodly into one footstool, bring Christ unto this Earth again, on a second more prudent errand, to have an age of reigning, not of suffering, among a world not of followers, but of fellow-kings, and so, in the Apostles judgment, inclose him in a kingdom of bastards, whom we are resolved (quite contrary to God's pronouncing) to be the only sons and Saints of the Millennium. To this end must Prophecies be precipitated, and what belongs to the future (perhaps long ago past) Conversion of the Jews, or our yet more future bliss, shall be all anticipated presently, the Cross condemned and banished out of the world, and none like to be of the Order of the new Disciples, but he that will cast off that unchristian luggage, and so not follow Christ. Can there be a greater contrariety unto Christ's judgment, a more perfect Antipodes to all that hath hitherto been Gospel, than that which by pulling out one pin in the scene, hath been thus shifted into its stead?

And as in the general, so in the particular too, [ In what state soever I am, therewith to be contented ] is not to be had, by Saint Paul 's own confession, without a 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a great deal of mysterious instruction, such as in the Eleusinia sacra cost the Client so many sighing patient years of attendance and purgation, before he could ascend to the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 & 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the heights of Christian contentment: but especially to have any good opinion of Afflictions when they are actually on our shoulders, to be so tame as to think such a proportion of earth, with wormwood imbibed, can prove useful or medicinal to any.

Will not a brave golden shower of cordials dispel poisons, raise a collaps'd habit of Soul, infuse a new stock of spirits, more probably far than a course of steel or quicksilver? Would not an army of Sun-beams, that have light as well as warmth in them, subdue and thaw the most hardened heart in the whole quarry, dissolve the most icy crystal spirit, better than a stroke of Moses rod, or a crack of thunder?

Thus hard it is for flesh and blood to believe that God can choose best for us: Are not Abanah and Pharphar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Jordan? May not I wash there and be clean ? Would not a little kind usage, a few fatherly kisses and embraces, an inheritance or portion given me in my hand, a fair demeans to keep hospitality upon, be more likely to work upon well-natured sinners, that do not love to be forced, will be as thankful as any man living, if they may be courteously treated, but with a froward handling cannot choose but show themselves unsavory ? This driving and forcing men to repentance is a violation of the Gospel-liberty, a kind of constraining and violencing of the spirit, if it be enslaved to these beggarly rudiments of stripes and terrors, and savors much of the spirit of Legal fear, that Hagar or mount Sinai that engendereth unto bondage, quite contrary to the free-born Zion or Jerusalem-spirit, whereby we cry, Abba Father.

Farther yet, I have heard Ephraim a murmuring as well as a bemoaning ; I am so encumbered with the pressures of a villanous world, such a hurry of passions, of indignation and impatience, of a tumultuous grief and shame, that I have neither heart, nor joy, nor leisure to mend anything. Thus it follows, verse. 19. I am ashamed and confounded, because I bear the reproach of my youth ; no possible reforming in such a state of confusion, such a kind of Tophet and hell as this.

And I heartily wish I did not speak to men that can think Ephraim in the right all this while, that with Jonas on the withering of the Gourd can justify against God himself, that they do well to be angry even unto death, that can really persuade themselves that Afflictions are not for their turn, that they are as noxious to their Souls as to their bodies, that as Hippocrates resolved of the Scythians, that the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , if they came from God, (that all the curses and ill-turns that Heaven had to spare) would be confined to the poor, because their wants set them always a murmuring and a blaspheming of God; so, I say, I wish we had not some of that Atheist's conceit, that cannot tell how to imagine that stripes should bring forth anything but clamours and execrations, more ferity, more sullen Atheisms, more bestiality to drown, Opiate potions to benum the sense of our calamities. And many of us do this out of pure judgment, that affluence is far the more probable way toward mending, that a Canaan were able to inspire Israelites, as the good foil in Plutarch was thought to infuse Poetry into the Oracle. And having experience to demonstrate the first part of Ephraim 's speech, being no more wrought on by all God's smiting than the most intractable Steers, they go on with a presumption of the truth of the second, that Prosperity will do all that Adversity hath not done: Turn thou me, &c.

But then, 2. I told you there was a second notion of these words, as they are an act of promise and temporary resolution, that if God will but turn our captivity, we will infallibly amend.

And 'tis very possible at a distance for a man to think himself in earnest when he so promises. 'Twas Dio 's observation of Nero 's mother, (that professed herself content to be killed by her son, on condition he might be Emperor) That 'tis very ordinary at a distance to enter such obligations; we'll venture any the sourest payment from Satan after this life, so we may get but his Kingdom of the Earth, his Seraglio of Carnal felicities at the instant. The Hypocrite or false-hearted professor will make any bargains with God for the future, will not doubt but to be a Disciple of Christ, so he may but first go and bury his father, or, with Jephta 's daughter, have a month or two to go up and down the mountains and bewail her virginity, she and her fellows: Be it the Cloister or the Altar, Chastity or Death itself, (as you know 'tis not resolved which 'twas that that Vow belonged to) a little present felicity will be sufficient payment for either of them; only when the date of the undertaken returning begins to commence, when the sour part of the bargain comes to be performed, the Nero to kill as well as to reign, the Cloister to be actually entered, and with that the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a vow never to return ad seculum again, then the Votary begins to understand himself better, finds it as improper to turn Penitentiary in a Palace as it was in a Prison, as irrational to be condemned to Tantalus as to Prometheus fate, to be abstemious in a river of delights as patient of fastening to a mountain of torments: and had he known it that he should thus have been taken at his word, have had his turning required as soon as his Captivity was turned, his mortification expected at the restoring of his peace, and with the festivity and rest, the holiness also and services of a Sabbath and Jubilee, he would have even courted his Rod, embraced his pleasanter Gyves or Dunghill, have continued a slave in Egypt, rather than thus be circumcised in Canaan, have been bored through the ear by his old Master, rather than thus dignified with the Title of Free-man, and denied the Libertinism that belongs to it.

But the truth is, there is a third notion of these words, which will be a Supersedeas to that of a Promise ; and that is, as this art of promising is only an excuse, or shift, or pretence, to get off the present smart of the rod, or the importunity of the Prophet, to escape the smiting or the being smitten, the cross or following of Christ.

Should the unmanaged Horse (instead of the Bullock in the Text) desire his Rider to put off his Spurs and Whip, and at once to ease him both of Bit and Saddle, and then promise to be the tractablest Beast in nature, but till then profess that all those Instruments of Discipline should never tame him, I beseech you, what would be thought of this Oration? would you certainly be persuaded that the Beast spake reason, that it was a serious design of a generous obedience, a gallantry of a voluntary unconstrained virtue ? If so, you may believe the Beast within you, that makes the same proposal to God and you. In the mean time, 'twill not be amiss to resolve, that he that hath exceptions to God's methods, hath some other Master to whom he is more inclinable to retain; he that will not serve God for naught, that is all for the thriving Piety, the gainful Godliness, that must have his reward just as he is a doing the work, a payment in hand, even before he sets about the duty ; will sure bring in little profit to God, be he fed never so high, very thin returns of good life for all his donatives. He that will not now mend under the rod, edify by so many doleful Lectures as have been read us out of a Zacharias 's and a Jeremy 's roll, that hath arrived to Theodoret 's 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a mind that can reverberate judgments, and make them rebound in more provoking sins against the hand that sent them, is of the Pharaoh, the anvil-temper; and, let him pretend, or promise, or flatter himself what he please, by holding out his white Flag for Treaty, he desired to be in case to maintain his Fort still against God, and 'tis not victualling and bribing, but starving and storming, must help to drive him out of it. Which brings me to the third and last particular,

The stating of this difficulty betwixt God and man, and in it the falseness of man's judgment, and fallaciousness of such his promise, both in respect of God, who will never send them Prosperity that Adversity wrought no good on, and of Prosperity itself, which would never do the work if God should send it.

For the first, in respect of God, who will never send them Prosperity that Adversity wrought no good on: this you may judge of, not only by that great Rule of State in Heaven; of [ God 's resisting the proud ] and [ Surely God heareth not sinners ] compounded into one Gospel-aphorism, [ the incorrigible beggar can never have audience in heaven, nor returns from thence, save only of stones and thunder-bolts; ] but especially on that wise ground of divine economy on which all these stripes are sent.

God's first method of calling us off from the world, is the soft and friendly, the [ having therefore these promises, let us cleanse ourselves, ] a Heaven, a Paradise, and a Canaan, to confirm Angels, and bring men to bliss, to draw with the cords of a Man, with the bands of love ; and if that prevail, Afflictions are superseded, (and were it not that there is another special use of them, to illustrate our Christian virtues, and improve our Crown, and withal to confute Satan when he accuses us of unsincerity, the reformed Christian should never be thus exercised.) But when Prosperity will not work, when the calmer physic is digested into nourishment of the disease, then, and not till then, the vomit comes in on the reserve, the tempest and deluge to drown those Serpents that had engendered and thriven in the shallow and stlll waters, as to them that are sick of perfumes, the noisomest Smell is the only Cordial: and then, as Cusanus observes there is in God coincidentia contrariorum, this severity is the only mercy, these wounds the only balsam, the hostile approach the most obliging charity: and as by the Heathen artifice in Hero 's 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , as soon as ever the fire was kindled upon the Altar, the plummets fell, and the doors flew open, and the God appeared upon the Chair of State; so by this rarifying power of flames and judgments, the earthly obstacles are oft removed, and the Deity set up and inthron'd in the heart; and then sure 'twas good for that man that he was in trouble. And generally the rule is true in Gerson, Omnes poenae non exterminantes sunt medicinales, All mulcts that are not undoing (and our Law admits not of any but such as are salvo contenemento ) are a piece of charity and physic in the Judge. For this cause are many sick and weak, nay, many fallen asleep, (if we will believe the Apostle;) and all these judgings of the Lord, the only Antidotes against that fatal poison, the being condemned and ruined with the world.

And then, you will not blame the wit or piety of the old Heathens, ( who deifi'd all their Benefactors ) that they had Temples for such Fevers as these, the friends that had so obliged them: I am sure St. Augustine makes it his wonder, that upon that score they had not erected one Altar more, impietati hostium, to the impiety and rapine of their enemies, which was constantly (if they had but the grace to make use of it) so royal a Benefactor.

The sovereign power of this Recipe being thus considered, you will give it leave to be the last in God's prescribing, and the most depended on; and the Patient being not fit for the cost or trouble of any farther experiments, when these have proved successless, the greatest mercy of the Physician is to leave him with these Cupping-glasses at the neck, that if there be ever a spark of vital spirit within, it may by this assistance discharge itself of that poisonous vapor, and yet possibly overcome and quit the danger: but if not, 'tis sure too late to divert to any new course; the fetching out the Cordials will but enhance the Bill, and maintain the Lamp a little longer, will never beget a new stock of spirits or spring of life, when 'tis once so quite exhausted: and therefore the conclusion is clear, and the Prophet Amos hath expressed it by an apt resemblance, Amos 3.5. Shall one take up a snare from the earth, and take nothing at all? Shall God remove his judgments from a Nation, while the sins are still at the high-water? Infallibly he will not do it: If he do, 'tis a sad presage; his soft hand is but absolute desertion, the leaving to ourselves is the giving us up to our bloodiest enemies, that unseasonable heaven is the far worse Tophet of the twain.

Let but the present Calamities work the cure on us, and then all the Canaan's in the world are ready at hand to perfect it; the old peaceable, flourishing England, hid under that heap of thunder-bolts, is ready to be our Bath and Palaestra once again, to refresh and confirm what was thus acquired, and to beget a whole treasure of health in us. But till then, Prosperity is quite beside the purpose, a mere ignorant Empirick-prescription, which hath nothing of purging or medicinal in it, should it be administered, 'twould never reform or convert any. The demonstrating of which, is the undertaking of the last minute of my last particular, that in respect of Prosperity itself, which in this case will never do the work if God should send it.

The Beast that is not tamed or humbled by the whip or goad, the rich pasture in all reason will never break or work on; the liberty of that field is a new temptation, and the plenty strengthens for a sturdier resistance, and both liberty and plenty, respite and peace are apt to be mistaken for a reward of the former stubbornnesses, far from any restraint of them.

Will you see it exemplified in the most eminent stories of deliverances and prosperities that the Scripture takes notice of? that will enforce the conclusion à majori.

You have Lot of Sodom, and Noah of the old World, the remnant preserved from that double deluge of fire and water, and as soon as they are landed in their fair Havens, the same Calm shipwrecks both, and their Prosperity is branded by holy Writ for the mother of their two bestial sins, Incest and Drunkenness.

Look back from thence into Eden, and there that happy at once and innocent pair are not by plenty secured from coveting; beauty, and sweetness, and desire of knowledge, the perfections and temptations of Paradise, are the ruin to Innocence itself: and then, what do you think, the Swine would have done there, when the Lambs committed such early riots? what an havoc would an Army of Roisters have made in that Garden, where Adam himself (if you will believe the Rabbins rendering of the Psalmist 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ) abode not one night in that state of bliss and honor.

Pass we from Paradise unto Heaven itself, where there is neither eating nor drinking, marrying nor giving in marriage, and so no room for carnal sins to do anything but starve in, yet even there was matter for the filthiness of the spirit to feed on; the Angels can grow proud and ambitious there, stumble and fall in plain Heaven, adore and worship (and so damn) themselves in the absence of all other Idols. And therefore from these experiments 'twould be no boast or hyperbole to affirm, (and perhaps worth your pains to consider it) that if a profane impenitent should (upon an impossible supposition) be so prosperous as to enter heaven itself, it would be very far from reforming or converting him ; such a gratifying and rewarding of sinners, would but confirm them in their course: as when an habituate demure adulterer, oppressor, or the like, gets confident of his Salvation,