Commentary on 2 Peter

by union with Christ. This is indeed a riddle to flesh and blood, a paradox to mere human capacity: the best candle in the Philosophers study could not give light enough to resolve it. Only the Christian knows it, and feels it, and really verefies it. Such blessedness comes by the knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.] Thus far I have spoken generally, now particularly. The Object of our knowledge is the Son of God; who is here set forth by four attributes. First; Lord. Secondly, Savior. Thirdly, Jesus. Fourthly, Christ. The first a Name of Dominion and Greatness: the next, of Compassion and Goodness: the third, the Name of his Nature, Jesus: the last, the Name of his Office, Christ. For the two latter, because I have elsewhere treated of them, and they may seem to be comprised under the two former: (For what is Jesus, but a Savior? And what is Christ, but Anointed? Now He was anointed to be a Priest, a Prophet, and a King; to all which, Lord, is appliable. Aaron was no less, though a Priest. My Lord Elias, says Elisha to him; yet Elias was but a Prophet. That it is ascribed to the King, no question; Our Lord the King. Every Lord is not a King; but every King is a Lord.) Therefore I reduce the four into two; Lord and Savior: and in both these relations we must know Him, or not look to be saved by Him. Not Lord only, without Savior; there is no comfort in that: Not Savior only without Lord; there is no manners in that. In the severing of them, we shall either forget his dignity, or our own duty. There is a Pronoun that waits upon each of these Titles; an emphatical one, and by no means to be omitted; Our. It is this Noster that does all the good, both in respect of God's honor, and our own happiness. We acknowledge Him Our Lord; this tends to God's glory: We believe Him to be Our Savior; this tends to our own felicity. A Lord ungodly sinners confess Him: A Savior, the very Devils cannot deny Him. Yea, they go farther; The Lord, and The Savior; they both acknowledge Him: The Lord, the Lord of Lord's; an absolute and independent Lord; that hath a dominion over the Princes of the earth, and principalities of hell: Kings and Emperors are his subjects: at his frown they all tremble: Others do not more fear them, than they do fear Him. With his breath He can dissolve them to dust: and with one word, Discedite, cast them down to torment. By Him they hold their Crowns, and must put them off when He calls for them. Crowns and heads too, are at his command. The Lord said unto my Lord. The Lord; so far a Reprobate may go in his confession. So much honor he will give unto Christ, as to call Him The Lord. But not, My Lord: this he sticks at: for then his obedience and voluntary subjection must come in. The Lord let Him be, but not My Lord at any hand. Many shall cry at the last day, Lord, Lord; but there is no Noster put to it. The Lord He must needs be, but their Lord they cannot say He hath been. So The Savior goes easily down with them: For there is no other Name under Heaven whereby we must be saved, than Jesus. This the Devils know to their vexation; that He hath, and doth, and will save millions, though they be none of that number themselves. Salvator, they must acknowledge: but Noster, they despair of. Indeed profane transgressors would fain, with the substantive Noun, join the possessive Pronoun; and with Salvator, couple Noster: Their Savior they call Him, and theirs they would have Him. But they separate Dominus from Salvator, and so have right to neither. Both these Titles belong to the same Person: Dominus and Salvator is but one Christ. Those that God hath joined together, let no man put asunder. Before I come to speak of these Titles in special, let me consider two observable things in them. First, the position or order. Secondly, the composition or juncture of them.

1. For order of placing them; Lord is set before Savior; and with good reason. Let us not think him a Titular Lord, that hath some under him, and others above him: But one that commands in chief; Lord Paramount certainly. Now such a Lord is a Prince; and a Prince gives laws, and those laws must be kept. Here let us pause a while, and consider have we kept the laws of this Lord? We are his vassells; have we done what he commanded us? No such matter: nay, we have done the contrary: not only passing by observantiam legis, but running into contemptum regis; yea into crimen laesae majestatis. We have left undone those things which we ought to have done, and we have done those things which we ought not to have done. But what? Be the laws of this Lord irrita Iura? Are they not obligatory? yes, as there be rewards promised to the observation, so there be punishments threatened to the transgression of them. Do this and live: Do it not, and perish. These laws we have not kept; not a man of us: What then should keep us from perishing? If the law-giver were flexible, and might be won to remit offenses, either by man's entreaty, or his own partiality, there were some hope of escaping that dismal sentence, But this Lord is just, even Justice it self; and in justice can bate nothing of the penalty, but will see it executed to the full rigor. In what case are we now? Die we must, who should save us from it? Yes, yet there is comfort; for this Lord is also a Savior. And well is it for us, that he is a Savior: How desperate were our estate otherwise? But Lord first, that we may know ovr sins, and what we have deserved by them: This is no slight punishment, not a censure to be bought out with money, nor an imprisonment to be worn out in time: But death, and this not a short one, where a man is not six minutes a dying: but an everlasting one, where a sinner lives a dying forever: A death not of the body only by some painful violence, but of body and soul too by fiery torments. This is our doom for the breach of the law of our Lord: it is time now to seek about for a Savior; and blessed be God, we have one whom we look for.

Therefore is Lord placed first, that we might see in what need we stand of a Savior: And it is a right method, that humiliation should go before comfort, and sorrow prepare us for joy. Among all Christ's converts, none loved him dearer than Mary, the more bitter her penance, the sweeter her forgiveness: and the greater her pardon, the stronger her affection. Thus the law of our Lord, prepares us for the Gospel of our Savior. The law is a glass that shows us our sin, and the Gospel is a glass that shows us our remedy. There we find Christ a Lord, here we find him a Savior: There pronouncing death against us, here suffering death for us: there presenting himself in his glorious Majesty, here in his gracious mercy. There as a Lion condemning the world for sin, here The Lamb of God taking away the sins of the world. Hear this ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver you: There a terrible Lord. This is a true saying, that Jesus came into the world to save sinners: there a merciful Savior.

Thus this Title, Lord, calls upon us for repentance; as we call upon this Savior for forgiveness. Me thinks I see Sorrow sitting in the soul, destitute of all comforts; like a sick man, given over by his physicians: They have ministered diverse medicines to him, and made many experiments upon him; and finding all to fail of wished effect, they even leave him to nature, to live or die at her pleasure. Such is the case of an humble and broken-hearted soul; that hath received the sentence of death in herself, and is condemned by the verdict of her own conscience: She looks to her riches, and finds that those bribes will not be taken: to her friends, and perceives them to be in as much danger as herself: to her old companions, carnal delights, the common refuge of melancholy sinners; and sees them running from her affrighted, like rattes from a house on fire. Pleasure, like Orpah, kisses indeed, but parts: only grief like Ruth, weeps for her, and tarries with her. No joy will down, till there be hope of a pardon. During all this humiliation, and mourning, and running down of tears, Christ shows himself a severe Lord, exacting his debts to the full. But when she is througly mortified, then he changeth his form and presents himself a Savior to her: bids her look upon his Cross, and there find all her debts discharged, and her self aquitted forever. Woe to them that come to the sight of their sins without this Savior: for that is as if a man should waken out of a melancholy dream in the dark: there is no spark of comfort. But I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man can take from you. In the coming of Jesus there is joy, unspeakable joy; which neither the world can give, nor can the world take away.

2. For the union or conjunction of them; both are combined in one Person. In Lord, Greatness: in Savior, Goodness: both make but one Christ. Will to save, quia Salvator: Power to save, quia Dominus; both are concentred in one Jesus: There may be a Lord, which is no Savior: but there can be no Savior, which is not Lord. Power without will, is an unkind ableness: will without power, is an unable kindness. Both together in one man, is for the honor of him that hath them, and for the good of such as need them. If Christ had not been Lord, he could not: if not a Savior, he would not have satisfied for our sins. If not Lord, and such a Lord as was Dominus dominantium, even the infinite God; he could not have paid a ransom that must be of infinite value, or else not, pass currant for our redemption. If not a merciful Savior, he would never have submitted himself to such a condition, as to take on him our nature; and in that nature to suffer such torments as mere man could not have endured. It was a wonder that he made us: more, that he made himself for us: but most of all, that he unmade himself, that he died to save us. He not only made man for himself, but he made himself man for man. The maker was Lord, the creature man: two natures are united in one Person: so the Son of God is Lord and Savior. In the one nature, we contemplate his Dominion: in assuming the other, his Compassion: in both we find our Salvation.

As Lord, he could not die for us; as man he might: As man, he could not satisfy for us; as God he might: He must be both, or no Savior. In his death, his Lordship concealed it self: Many of his servants, the Martyrs, seemed to have more chearfulnes in their death, than their Lord had in his. They were known to be men, therefore had the strength of God: Christ was God, therefore left like a man. They did more than men, because they were filled with the power and Spirit of God: Christ declared himself to be God, in doing the works of omnipotent God: therefore he was also declared to be man, in the weaknesses of men. Those fluenta gratiae were always at high tide in him: yet he seemed both partly to his own sense, and to the senses of the beholders, a forlorn creature. This caused him to cry, My God, why hast thou forsaken me? Natural affection in him cried, My God: sensible, Why hast thou forsaken me? Not that these two, Lord and Savior, could then part: God and man could not be sundered. In the extremity of all his sorrows, his manhood did not lose the union, but the vision of his Godhead. His soul, by the union of the Deity, had a glorious state: though by the union with his body, it was full of anguish. As there is no contrariety between the hate of one thing, and love of another: between the ignorance of one thing, and knowledge of another: so nor between the sorrow of Christ's soul for our sin, and the joy of that soul in the vision of God. Our sins upon Christ, were not in their proper element; therefore He felt them in their weight and heaviness: for Suo loco nullum elementum ponderat. But as the shadow of the earth obscures the Moon, so did the worlds sin darken Christ's soul.

When He was to act the Savior's part, He did not lay by the Lord quite: for the Manhood could never have borne those unspeakable torments, but for the supportation of the Deity. But the Lord did hide Himself from the Manhood, during the sad time of that expiation: so that it might say with Mary, They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they laid Him, nor what is become of Him. They were then, and are still, united in one Person: distinguish them we may, divided they can never be. Neither must we fixe our minds upon Lord only, without Savior; which is the way to desperation: Nor upon Savior only, without Lord; which is the way to presumption. Dejected sinners think upon Lord only, and leave out Savior: Profane sinners think upon Savior only, and forget their Lord. The one without the other, is but half a Jesus: and we must rely upon a whole one, that is both Lord and Savior. I am he that for mine own sake will blot out thy transgressions. Cum propter neminem, cum propter nihil, as thou art a just Lord; yet propter teipsum dimittis peccata, as thou art a merciful Savior. This Lord as He is God, satisfied Himself in that capacity as He is man, for the sins of all Believers. Therefore Lord, Noli ita attendere peccatum meum, ut propterea obliviscaris nomen tuum. Do not so remember thyself to be a Lord over me, as to forget to be a Savior unto me: Nor let me so remember thee to be a Savior unto me, as to forget that thou art Lord over me. But as thou art both these in one infinite Person; so be thou both to my soul, in thy mighty power, and merciful salvation. I come to the Particulars.

1. He is Lord, not only as God, Quatenus Christus. All power is given unto Him in heaven and earth. Kings may talk of their large Territories, but what command have they in heaven? Christ is Lord of heaven too. In heaven and earth He is Lord, but hath He no power on the sea? Is that privileged or exempted from his dominion? No, he doeth what he pleaseth in heaven, earth, in the seas and all deep places. Princes are potent, but yet they cannot do all they would: this Lord can. Heaven, earth, and sea are his; but is Hell or the grave excluded? No, he hath the keys of hell and of death: even thither his Lordship reaches. To Him must all knees bow, and all tongues confess that he is the Lord. All must confess it, either from the depth of their heart, or from the heart of the deep. Saints and Angels do, in excelsis: devils and reprobates do, in profundis: and shall mortal sinners in the middle way deny it? No, acknowledged he will be, either on earth with comfort, or in hell with torments: Here cheerfully, or there upon the rack: Either they shall joyfully sing out, or painfully roar out this confession. He is the lamb of God, the Savior of the world, yet take heed of angering him: for if his wrath be kindled, yea but a little, how soon do men perish? But blessed are they that trust in him. If he be angered, there is no escaping his hands as he is a Lord; but by running into his arms as he is a Savior. Our God is a consuming fire: as he is a wall of fire about them that serve him, so a consuming fire against those that provoke him. When he is angry, all our days are gone. With one word, let there be a world: nay with one thought of this Lord cast toward it, (for his speaking in the creation was but a thinking) he made all of nothing: and can be not reduce all to nothing, if he will? Is not the recalling of that word, the withdrawing of that thought, in the sequestering of his providence, enough to annihilate them? Shall ants, and bees, or lions contest with their maker? Shall any one rational ant, (the wisest philosopher is no more) or any roaring lyon, (the most ambitious and devouring Prince is no more) or any hive of bees, (the most political Counsels and Parliaments are no more, in respect of him) presume to stand without him? What are armies on the land, if this Lord be not their General? What are navies on the sea; if he be not their Pilot?

When this Lord is angry, he shall but need Sibilare muscam, to hiss or whisper for the fly, for the waspe or hornet. Nay he shall not need to whisper for them abroad, or to call in foreign enemies: for we have locusts enow at home; swarms of conkers and caterpillars to devour us. Nay, we will devour one another, when he sets us together by the aares. As this Lord is impartial, so are his Iudgments: there is no respect of persons with him, whether in his favor or his anger. He will wound the hairy scalp of him that goeth on in his wickedness. Be it bald or hairy, it is no defense against the blows of the Almighty. No head-piece, but the helmet of salvation, can ward his blows. He can break the covered, as well as the naked head; wound the armed, as easily as the bare breast. The mitred, and the Turband, and the crowned head, that lifts up it self against Christ, lies as open to his Iudgments, as his that must not put on his hatte, as his that hath no a hatte to put on. We know by woeful and bleeding experience, that he can call up damps and vapors from below, and pour down putrid defluxions from above, and bid them meet and condense into a plague: And that such a plague, as shall not only be uncurable, but unquestionable: both inexorable, and indisputable: It shall not only not admit a remedy when it is come, but not give a reason how it did come. The cause could not be found out by the most learned physicians, the effect was felt by the laboring patients. O happy they that found him their Savior; that though their bodies were cut off by burning fevers from the earth, yet their souls might escape the the burning flames of hell.

Lord therefore let us acknowledge him; for it will go wrong with us, when we shall be driven to complain, Other Lord's have had dominion over us. Tyrans are cruel Lord's, and woe to the people under such an authority: For there it is crime enough to be innocent, where the Tyran is pleased to interpret innocence for a crime. Sins are worse Lord's within us, than those tyrants without us: Our goods, possessions, and lives are under the command of those oppressors; but sin is an usurper over our souls. Satan is a bloody Lord: he is so far from mercy in killing, that he would not give a man leave to pray for mercy ere he must die. These be cursed dominions: from such Lord's this Lord of heaven and earth evermore deliver us.

2. Savior; this comes well after Lord: there is small comfort in that Title, till Savior be put to it. There is no Savior but He: no Name but Jesus carries any salvation in it. The Prophets foretold it, the Evangelists demonstrate it, the Apostles preached it, the better part of the world received it, and all they believe it, that shall be saved. He came to save, and what did he refuse to do or suffer, that he might save? Omnibus omnia factus, was more true of the Master, than of the servant: Pauper pauperibus, divitibus dives. Lazarus so poor that he begged crumbs; Christ then in his poverty, sent him to heaven by his Angels. Zacchaeus rich, and gave the poor a large contribution: Christ was richer than he, and gave him salvation. Esurientibus esuriens sitientibus sitiens. The Disciples were hungry in the field, their Lord in the wilderness. The Samaritan woman thirsts, and Christ thirsts too: they both meet at Jacob's well. The Apostles feast, and he feasts with them: Mary weeps for the loss of her brother, and Jesus weeps too. He is the door to them that would enter, the way to them that would walk, a light to them that would come out of darkness; bread to the hungry soul, and wine to the thirsty. All his actions shown him to be a Savior, his passion proved it. When he first shone forth into the world, like the Sun at his first rising, he drew all eyes after him: His miraculous cures drew patients, his Divine oracles drew auditors: both together drew the admiring multitude after him by troupes. They followed him as a Savior, through deserts and mountains, over land and seas. All his actions were so many characters, out of which the simplest capacity might spell a Savior. But at his death, he wrote a letter of love to us in his own blood: the Cross being the paper, the spear his pen, his blood the ink, and the contents, Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. He came into the world to save sinners, yea and he went out of the world to save sinners. His coming in was but the purpose, his going out, and so going out was the performance. He meant it when he came in, but he dispatched it as he went out. All his life was a furtherance, but his death did the deed: that saved us. His resurrection crowned the deed; He was raised again for our justification. His ascension crowned that; for then he led captivity captive: His glory and Session in Heaven crowns all: and so crowns him, that all crowns are cast down before him. Thus his death was the crown of his enterprise, his resurrection the crown of his death, his Ascension the crown of his resurrection, his sitting at the right hand of his Father, the crown of his ascension; and all these make up a crown for us: Through all these Iournals we may read him a Jesus, and that.

3. Our Savior; which is the next point. Our, both Lord and Savior, and both together. It was not so Stylo veteri: in the law it was Dominus Deus, the Lord our God: but Christ hath changed it, and made it Stylo novo, Dominus Salvator, The Lord our Savior. Salvator stands instead of Deus; to show that in Christ Deus is become Salvator. It mends the term, and it mends the matter much; that a just God is become a merciful Savior. We are bound to Christ, for making such an alteration in God Style, to our unspeakable comfort. Yet were all this nothing (something indeed in it self, but nothing) to us, without this Noster. This is that pronoun, which like a pipe derives the water of life out of that infinite fountain, into our particular cisterns; that appropriates both Lord and Savior to us. That hand of faith, which with a holy violence seizeth upon Christ, as he lies in the bosom of his Father, and challengeth him for Our own: He is My Savior. Without this Noster, Dominus and Salvator, and all were lost 〈1 page duplicate〉 〈1 page duplicate〉 to us; and we no better than if they had never been. There in no true and full comfort but in heaven, no comfort in heaven without God, no comfort in God without a Savior, no comfort in a Savior without Noster: if he be not our Savior, comfort is far from us. This gives us a propriety and interest in them all; and not only in them, but in all theirs. For if this Lord and Savior be ours, he is our Brother: if so, then are we the sons of his Father: and if that, his Fathers estate cannot be kept from us: Everyone must have a child's part: and this part we shall have, yea and more than a part: Son all that I have is thine. If he be ours, all that he hath is ours; and what can we wish more, than all that God hath, all that ever he is worth? The most vast desire wlll be satisfied with this. If he be a Lord, and a Savior too, then what the Savior hath got, the Lord will keep. No man can pluck my sheep out of my hands. David redeemed a sheep out of the paw of the Lion; yet that sheep might be lost again: there was a time, when David might be absent, when David must be a-sleep. But Christ is never absent from us; (I am with you always, to the worlds end) never a sleep; ( the keeper of Israel never slumbers. That roaring Lion may go about, and seek: but he can never find either time or place, when Christ is absent from his: Vt nec superare Christum, sic nec separare a Christo, unquam potest. Which may well raise up our dejected spirits from the deepest consternation, to a holy cheerfulness and peaceful alacrity; that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord. As he is Jesus, to save what was lost: so he is Lord also, to keep what is saved.

4. This makes to our everlasting comfort: for as Lord and Savior are united in one Person, so in no action they are divided. So that the Lord does nothing to his Church without the Savior, nor the Savior without the Lord. We are not put upon the law whereof the Lord is Judge, without liberty to appeal unto the Chancery, where the Savior sits Judge. We may fall into bitter afflictions, and into the sorrow of all sorrows, the perturbation of conscience; and think that this is the Lord's doing only, as if the Savior had no hand in it: but these two never part. Diverse men may do diverse things, but one Person can do no action without himself. Christ is Lord of all that thou hast or art; and the Proprietary may do what he will with his own: Give, or let, or set, or sell. So thy disconsolate heart may suspect, that he hath sold thee to sin, to sadness, to sickness, to error; which be the Midianite merchants that buy up our Joseph's, our souls. But this Savior will never so devest his dominion, or deface his Lordship, as not to reserve a power and will in himself to redeem thee, if thou wouldst be redeemed. Our Lord may lend us out, and that even to Satan for a while: who will put us to drudgery enough, and press us to his own wars, to fight against our friends and allies: as he hires soldiers out of England unto the Romish party, to fight against their own country, and (which is worse) sometime against their own conscience. Thus Paul was lent out to the Scribes and Pharisees, to serve them in their persecutions: wherein he pursued those members of Christ to the death, for whom afterwards he willingly lost his life: So our Lord may lend us out. He may let us out for a time, to those that will use us as farmers do their grounds; plough us, and harrow us, and get the heart out of us, by their injuries and oppressions; and reserve himself but a little rent, a little glory in our patience. Thus he did let out Job, to all the losses and crosses, to all the sores and sorrows, that the devil could bring upon him: So our Lord may let us out. He may mortgage us to a long sickness, that will drink up our blood, and wast our marrow; or to a shorter but sharper extremity. Either to a three years famine, or to a three months invasive hostility, or to a three days pestilence: thus he mortgaged David and Hezekiah, two Kings and Saints: So he may mortgage us out. Our Lord may lease us out for certain years, almost all the time we have in this world; and reserve himself only a last year, a last day, a last hour; suffer us to continue in unrepented sins, till we come to our death-beds, and then reclaim us. Thus He did lease out that Thief till he came to the very Cross: and then Satan's time in him was expired, and Christ's reversion came in: So our Lord may lease us out. But howsoever He may seem to make over his present estate, He will not sell reversions: Though we have long been sinners, He will not sell his future Title to us. Whensoever we shall grow due to Him, by a new and true repentance, He will challenge his own, and re-assume us into his favor, and re-enter us into his revenue. Our Lord will not part with us, our Savior will not lose us, nor shall we lose Him forever.

This He hath done for us, but now is there nothing to be done for Him? Doth He require no duty at our hands? Yes, if He be our Lord, we have cause to fear Him: if our Savior, we are bound to love Him. Yea, we must do both, and in both respects; Love Him as our Lord, and fear Him as our Savior. So Peter professed to love Him, and by that very Name; Lord thou knowest that I love thee. He is to be feared, even as a Savior; With thee there is forgiveness that thou mayest be feared. Though thy friend be never so kind and loving, and apt to remit offenses; yet thou hast no ingenuous nature in thee, if thou doest not fear to displease Him. There is a love that casteth out fear, and there is a fear that casteth out love. Hearty love banisheth all base fear, and servile fear will be without hearty love. These duetyes I might more liberally commend to your practice, but I come to that which I take to be more apposite. These two Titles more especially exact two other offices from us; Service and Faith. If He be our Lord, we are bound to serve Him: if our Savior, to believe in Him. Whom will a man serve sooner than a gracious Lord and Master? Whom will he trust sooner, than a mighty Friend and Savior? As He is our Lord then, He looks for our obedience: as our Savior, He deserves our confidence. He is both our Savior, Clementia, merciful to save us: and our Lord, Disciplina, just to rule us.

1. Obedience must be given to this Lord; which He respects more than Sacrifice: Quia in victimis caro aliena,, per obedientiam voluntas propria mactatur. Bethany is said to signify the house of obedience: there dwelt Mary, and Martha, and Lazarus; the brother and his two sisters. By Lazarus we may understand humble devotion, by Martha charitable works, and by Mary penitent tears: but all these must dwell in Bethany, in obedience, or else Christ will not come unto them, nor shall they come unto Christ. Humility, diligence, and repentance must keep in Bethany, and not look to be accepted without obedience. There Christ loves them all: out of that place it is to be doubted that they shall not find such a gracious respect from Him. Right obedience doth not regard Quale sit quod praecipitur; but contents it self with this; Quia praecipitur. David was dumb, because the Lord did it: so let there be no dispute, because the Lord bad it. No grumbling at hard precepts, when we know the Commander. He that would rather have the command suited to the pleasure of his obedience, than conform his obedience to the pleasure of the Commander, shows himself more a Lord than a servant. So Solon being asked whether he had given the Athenians the best laws; answered, yea, the best of them that they would admit. When we look that the Lord should observe our humors in his Injunctions, rather than we yield to his Will in our pliableness, do we call this obedience? No, but My heart is ready, says David: he is the better servant, Qui paratum se exhibet ante mandatum, quàm qui obedire satagit post mandatum. The same Father sets down this for a rule: In difficult precepts, the obedience is more acceptable, than the neglect is damnable: but in light commands, the omission is more damnable, than the performance could be acceptable. We have a saying; He is unfit to be a Master, that hath not first learned to serve. Some think they know the art of obedience without any direction, and will undertake to teach, rather than to learn: Nec se egere putant magistro, nec idonei sunt magisterio. But Christ Himself was factus obediens, before He was advanced to the honor of exaltation. Though He were a Son, He became a Servant.

Our service is required; for if there be none to serve Him, where is his Lordship? But He hath many: even Kings and Princes have thought it there greatest honor, to be this Lord's servants: and valued this Title above their Crowns. Christianus tertius, Rex Christianisssmus, King of Denmark, did always use to confess his sins to one of Christ's Ministers on his bended knees: and without regard to matter of State or Sovereignty, desired absolution in all humility: at which the preciser spirits of that reformed Church stormed: What, no difference betwixt a King and a Subject? Will he bring in Popery again by his own example? He unmoved replies, that he ought this honor to God, and he would duly pay it: that he must forget himself to be a King, when he comes before the King of Kings: that he presented himself, not as a princely Commander, but as a miserable sinner: and was absolved, not of man, but of God. The fear of Popery must not supplant piety: we plie our prayers, though we do it without beads: Instead of a superstitious bead, we let fall a tear. We relieve the poor with our goods, though we abhor the opinion of merits. We come into the temple with reverence and devotion, though not with a ridiculous gesture and superstition. We have our public, and personal fasts; wherein we abstain from all sustenance: not as they, who refrain from flesh, and feed on junkers; wherewith their own flesh is more pampered: what is this, but (as it were) to cozen God almighty? We preserve Chastity, though we honor Matrimony. They are likely to be more honest men, that have wives; than they that without wedlock have their choice of Strumpets. Blessed be God, we are freed from the papal tyranny, but not from the excercise of virtue. They that live among us otherwise, Exuerunt quidem Antichristi lora, sed induerunt Satanae compedes: have shaken off the Popes cords and put on the Devils fetters. Our Savior then hath not privileged us from obedience to our Lord: nay, by this we know Him to be our Savior. if as to our Lord, we give Him all our service.

2. Our Savior requires faith; He was therefore sent, that we should believe in Him. As Alexander used to say of his two friends, Craterus and Hephestion; that Hephestion loved Alexander, and Craterus loved the King: yet they were both but one man: So obedience gives respect to our Lord, and faith gives respect to our Savior; yet both look to one and the same Christ. This is the tenure we hold Him by, Faith: and without this tenure, He is no Savior of ours. His tenure of us is manifold, ours of Him but single. We are his divers ways; by Creation, his Workemanship, because He made us: by Redemption, his Purchase, because He bought us: by Vocation, his Family, because He hath admitted us: by Sanctification, his Inheritance, because He possesseth us: by Glorification, we shall be of his Court, because He will crown us: every way his. He is but one way ours, only by Faith. This being then our Tenure, and (as Saint Paul calls it) our Evidence; it behooves us to look well unto it. What doth our blessed Savior require of us, for all his infinite favor to us? For all his blood, and pangs, and torment, to redeem us? For all his merits to enrich us? For all his graces, to adorn and honor us? For all his glory, wherewith He purposeth to crown us? What do He ask at our hands? No more but to believe on Him: It is a very easy request: we can do little, if we cannot put our trust in Him, whom we have found so good unto us. It is a duty, Quod nuda paupertas, despecta mediocritas, indocta simplicitas facile implere potest. Here is no wearying of the bones with labor, nor breaking of the brains with study, nor distraction of the mind with difficulty, nor emptying the purse of money: no more but only believe. Thou needest not spend thy days in travel by land or sea; as men do to the West Indies for Gold, and to the East for Spices. Quod à te, & pro te reposcitur, intra te est: with the heart a man believes. God hath laid up the means of thy salvation within thine own bosom: Vt unde peccatum egreditur, inde & peccati medicina peteretur.

There be some that seek it without them, in their good works: these think, they can keep the Laws of the Lord, and never be beholding to this Savior. They would go the old and natural way to work, Quid faciam? What shall I do to inherit eternal life? They would walk, and work, before they be alive. They suppose, they shall not be welcome, except they come with their cost. They would accept of a pardon, if they might pay for it. But Christ scorns a mercenary beneficence: his gifts are free: He bids thee come and buy without money; or else He says, Thou and thy money perish. Did Christ indent with Zacchaeus for restitution and alms? Or Paul bid the Jailor first repent, and do good works, and then believe? I deny not that good works are necessary; as being Fructus fidei, Effectus gratiae, & praecursores gloriae; the followers of grace, and the forerunners of glory. But when the strict Justice of the Lord shall put them in the balance, they will be found too light: put in faith to them, and that makes them up full weight: for faiths sake they are accepted, not for themselves. It is reported that in times of blind Popery, they used to paint Doomesday on Church-walls, and God sitting in Judgment, and Saint Michael by Him, with a pair of scales in his hand, to weigh the souls as they came up. The soul, and her good deeds were put in one balance: her sins and evil deeds in the other; but the soul proved far too light. Then was our Lady painted with a great pair of beads, casting them into the light balance, to make up the weight. That was a blasphemous fiction: but indeed, if our good works be put in one scale, and our evil deeds in the other; this latter will much overpoise the former: but here put in faith, and this makes it up: Not by it own worth or weight, but because it brings with it Christ, and all his righteousness: and puts in, not the mothers beads, but the Sons merits. This is that faith which makes Him our Savior; and this that Jesus which makes us all acceptable to God the Father, through the Sanctification of the holy Ghost our Comforter.

To whom be glory both now and forever.] Christ is the Center: Grace from Him, Glory to Him. Blessings come from Him, like so many lines from the Center to the Circumference: Praises return to Him, like so many lines from the Circumference to the Center. The former part of the Verse was a Benediction from heaven to the earth: this latter, a benediction from earth to heaven. That was a gracious descent, this a glorious ascent: Grace comes down, Glory goes up. That was a contribution of benefits, this a retribution of thanks. In that appeared Christ's bounty, in this man's duty. Crescite in gratia; that is God's good will to us; Tibi sit Gloria; that is our good will to God. He hath given us all the happiness we have, and we will give Him all the honor we can. They are unworthy of any favor, that do not thank their Benefactor. So our Apostle begins, and ends: he begins with Grace from Him: he concludes with Glory to Him. As He is Alpha, the Fountain from which our Grace springs: so Omega, the sea to which all Glory runs. Primus, in the course of our blessedness: and Novissimus, in the recourse of our thankfulness. We could never have been, much less have been happy, but by Him: He can be never the more glorious for us: yet He takes our gratitude in good part when we give it, because He sees we would give more if we had it.

To him be glory: so S ^t . Peter shuts up his Epistle: to him, and him only. Who can but wonder at the superstitious impiety, and audacious presumption of the Romanists, in joining another with him? So Bellarmine shuts up his controversiall disputes; and Tolet his commentary upon the Epistle to the Romans, with Laus Deo omnipotenti, & gloriosissimae ejus Matri. So Pererius concludes, Laus Deo, & Dei Genetrici, Mariae semper virgini: If we should argue with them in cold blood. First, Did any of the Apostles thus conclude their Epistles! Doubtless, they all honored the virgin Mary; yet they durst not give her the Divine glory. Our Apostles doctrine is, If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God. To join the Mother with the Son, in our prayers and praises, is not to speak like the oracles of God. The Apostles did not speak so, and yet they spake the oracles of God. They spake by the Spirit: but by what spirit do they speak, and according to what oracle of God, that divide his glory with another? Secondly, Though she were the most excellent and most blessed creature on earth; yet she is but a creature: and no creature must share the glory of the creator. My glory, saith God, I will not give to another: and if to no other, then not to his own mother. And if he will not give it, nor allow it; how dare we give it; without his allowance? When Christ was borne, the Angels sung, Gloria in altissimis; to his Father above, not to his Mother below. Our blessed Savior, as foreseeing this superstition, and on purpose to prevent this inconvenience, thrice spake home against it. How is it that you sought me? roundly telling her, that she hath forgot herself in prescribing him. To the woman that said, Blessed is the womb that bare thee, he answered, Yea rather blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it. As if he would anticipate her conceit of that external privilege. She is still a blessed creature, but not a Goddess in being Mother of the Creator. He that doth my Fathers will, is my brother, and mother: There he ranketh her with other believers: His brother in the faith is as dear to him as his mother in the flesh. Thirdly, Did the virgin Marie indict the matter they wrote? Did she inspire their minds, or direct their pens? Why then, to her the glory? We never read that Christ did make her a partner in the Deity: or proffer her, as Ahasuerus did Hester, or Herod his daughter in law, the half of his kingdom. The whole kingdom of glory is hers, and the whole glory of the kingdom: for that is Tantum singulis, quantum omnibus: But Christ hath another glory, proper to himself, and not communicable to any creature: no Saint, nor Angel must be partner with him in this. Let this show them, how they incur the wrath of the Son, by the rivalitie of the mother: and therefore leave deifying the mother, and cleave only to the Son;

To him be glory.] In the words, which are generally a retribution of praise, there be fixe particulars; Quid, Cui, Vnde, Quomodo, Quando, and Quousque.

1. Quid, what must be given; Glory: not a slight acknowledgement, but a frank and full payment: the best thing that man can give, and God can receive, Glory.

2. Cui, to whom this glory is due; To him, that is Christ: Not to the holiest or highest creature, but to the Lord and Savior: and good reason. First in regard of his bounty: he gives grace, and all good things; therefore deserves thanks and glory. Next, in regard of his former humility: he that stooped so low for us, should be highly advanced by us: so he deserves glory.

3. Vnde, from whom must it come? This, though it be not expressed, is implied: they that receive his grace, should return him glory. We have the one, therefore must not deny the other.

4. Quomodo, how must we give it? First, by thankfulness in our hearts; there he sees it: next by chanting it in our mouths, that men may hear it: and lastly by expressing it in our lives, that all may behold it.

5. Quando, when must it be rendered to him? Now, instantly, upon every occasion offered. No action of his must pass us, without stirring up our hearts to give him the glory.

6. Quousque, how long must this endure? For ever: This Incense must always burn; to the end of the world, and world without end. In diem aternitatis. For ever.

First, what is this glory? Some resolve it thus: Gloria est frequens de aliquo [unspec 1] fama cum laude: Other say it is Claro cum laudae laetitia. It is due only to virtue; and when it is cast away upon unworthynesse, it is but like sun-shine upon a dunghill. It is another life to man: Secundam vitam dat gloria. The honor of good men overlives them, as bad men over live their honor. Praise is unseemly in the mouth of fools; and as ill doth it become the back of fools. There be some that overvalve commendable acts; Qui de magnis majora loquuntur: a fault of excess. Others under-rate them, and speak of mountains as of hillockes: a fault of disparagement. It is a good rule, Parce laudare, vituperare parcius. There may be a commendation as much guilty of malice, as another is of flattery. We say of the vulgar or popular mouth, that it is a door without either lock or key: soon opened, but not so easily shut. Quicunque vult, intrat in stabulum, & solvit asinum. Their tongue is a continual pump, to fetch up the depth of their heart. I deny not, but all virtue is to be praised, and yet it is dangerous for a man to over-hear his own praise. He that could have been well contented without it, may yet be transported with it. Facile est laude carere, dum negatur: difficile non delectari, cum offertur. If goodness deserves praise wheresoever it is, in any creature; then much more in Christ, who had it above measure, who is goodness it self. If we so honor a beam, how much more the Sun? If we so esteem of water in the cistern, in what account do we hold the fountain? There may be error, or danger, in praising of men: there can be neither in giving glory to God.

1. A man may be proud of praises; like the sails of a ship, when they are puffed up with the winds. Many had been better men, if they had never heard of their own goodness. Therefore the fig tree would not be advanced above the trees, lest it should lose the sweetness. But Christ can never be proud of his glory: all our praises come more short of his merits, than earth can be from heaven in distance. To give him due honor, quomodo sufficit loquens lingua, cum non sufficiat obstupescens conscientia?

2. Men may be praised without just cause: the report of worthy acts breeds an admiration in common breasts, and admiration breaks forth into praises. Many a gallant Commander hath been famous for brave achievements, by the report of his friends at home, that did service little enough abroad. We have known some reputed very rich, that (every creditor being paid) have not been worth a groat. The pure hypocrite is praised for an honest man: but they that once thoroughly try him, will never again trust him. But in Christ there is cause enough to be praised: He is fairer than all the sons of men, than all the sons of God. He is never the better for our honor; we are the better for his. Securitas laudis in laude Dei est: Vbi laudator securus est? Vbi non timet, ne de laudato crubescat. Our praises may show bad men good, or make good men bad. They that are wicked sinners, may pass for honest Saints, through our commendation: And through our commendation, they that have good parts in them, may be puffed up with pride. We may magnify men that are desertlesse; or extol others till they become desertlesse: And so by the one occasion their shame, and by the other our own sin. There is no fear of either, in giving glory to Christ.

3. We may praise men in flattery: so the applauding of the hospitable householder, is the parasites grace before dinner. Some have their common places of adulation; which they study over instead of their prayers. Some observe the inclination and humor of their Patron, and flatter him in that most, wherein he thinks himself best. The arch-flatterer of a man is his own self: him they follow as close, as the shadow does the body. This is the way to catch rich fools, not much unlike that odd devise of catching dotterells: Others will flatter a man in that, wherein he is most conscious of his own defect: As to persuade a prodigal to the opinion of his thriftynesse: which is as if they should tell a cripple, that he goes very strait. They entitle him to that he knows he hath not, spretâ conscientiâ. Yet there be others that praise men to their ruin: so unseasonably do they honor them, that they irritate contradiction, and procure scorn: for such is the nature of envy, to fret and storm at another's glory. He that praiseth his friend aloud, it shall be to him no beeter than a curse; says the Proverb. Thus you see, that in the praises of men there may be flattery, or malice: which is laudanti peccatum, laudato praejudicium. None of these are incident to Christ: he cannot be flattered: No praises are hyperbole's, where infinite goodness is the subject. For all the glory we give him, he cannot think the better of himself, he may think the better of us. Nor can our praises do him any prejudice, for he fears no rivalls. Alij laudant, & falsi sunt: alij laudantur, & ficti sunt: alij credant, & vani sunt. None of these weaknesses can occur to God: therefore let us praise him, and spare not. Our mouth may run over with the praises of men, of Christ's it can never be full enough.

4. Man may be praised for that which is not his: as if we should honor the groome for a lord, because he rides upon his Lord's horse. Nothing is commendable in any man, but that which is given him, and so given that it cannot be taken away. Our noble blood which we had from our progenitors, may be attainted in ourselves. Our riches are called the goods of Fortune; and it is a strange fortune, if they tarry with us. Beauty is a spoil for sickness, strength for old age, life it self for death. Thou hast fair lands; yet the earth thou treadest upon, shall tread upon thee. Him that escapeth the sword of Hazael, shall Jehu slay; and him that escapeth the sword of Jehu, shall Elisha slay: but him that escapeth them all, shall death slay. Quid stultius quàm in homine aliena laudare? we have nothing which we can call our own, but our sins: and who will commend us for that, wherein we justly condemn ourselves? But we need not fear to praise Christ; for he hath nothing but that which is properly his own. Who hath given him ought? For of him, and through him, are all things: to him be glory. That very glory we give him, was his own before: he hath it, we do but acknowledge it. The heart that wisheth it, is his: the lips that speak it, are his: the soul and body that express it, are his: Ye are not your own: but glorify God in your body and spirit, for they are God's. We do but bring him Clusters of his own Vine. Indeed, time was when he received something from us, which never was his own; but most certain, he was little beholden to us for it. He took our griefs, and bore our sorrows: He took them, but we know they were not worth the taking. He accepted our burden, but the bearing of it cost him his life. Thus he did both take the sins, and take away the sins of the world. When we transfer them upon his Cross, he owns them still: and to acquit us, interposeth himself to that infinite Justice: As if he said unto his Father, These sins are not theirs now, but mine. Thus he hath something of ours, which was not his own, for he had no sin of his own: if he had had, what should he have done with ours? But there is no good thing, which is not his own: and we give him but his own, when we give him glory. Glory therefore be to him: to Him, as our Lord, the Highest: to Him, as our Savior, the sweetest. Glory is only fit for Him, and he only is fit for glory. If we place this Divine glory anywhere else, we place it amiss: in Peer or Prince, we are wrong: in Saint or Angel, we are not right: It does not like the ubi, and will not tarry. Glory and honor know him for their own Center; and will never be quiet, till they come to the Throne of Christ.

This makes to their just condemnation, that despise Christ; that instead of Glory, return him contempt. Them that honor me, I will honor: and they that despise me, shall be lightly esteemed. But be there any such despise-Christ's? Too many; not only the whole world of Pagans, but even some that bear the Name of Christians. Wherein stands this contempt, that we may avoid it?

1. In not regarding the knowledge of Christ, nor believing his Word. If I tell you, yet ye will not believe me. Is it not so still? Our hearers seem attentive all the Sermon, till the Preacher lights on a point that trenches upon their commodity: then I have observed them to hang down their heads in discontent, to pull their hattes in their eyes, to turn over the leaves of their unminded Bibles, or to talk with their pew-fellows: As if the Preachers tongue on a sudden was become a Medusa's head, to turn them all into stones. Then they whisper, or perhaps, jeer: is not this to despise Christ? He that despiseth you, despiseth me: and he that despiseth me, despiseth him that sent me. Is there any glory to him, without honor to his Word? Does any man amongst you, think the Company honors him, when they will not believe him? Out upon that same golden devil, that Diana of the Ephesians; for it destroys many souls! So we cannot preach against sacrilege, this Cities Copy-hold; but as if the Book of God had no such Text in it, you scorn the Preacher. You have robbed me in tithes and offerings, saith God by his Prophet Malachi. A Text then it hath in evidence, and guilty men are in their own Conscience: but here is the resolution of it; Though Christ tell you so, yet you will not believe him. And there is a sly schismatic, a corrupt collapsed lawyer, to counsel you, like that unjust steward to his lords debtors; for an hundred to write down fifty. But you will find in that dreadful day, when you stand naked and trembling before the great Tribunal; that this was to cozen Christ of his propriety, not to give him glory. This is one contempt.

2. Another is, to forget his benefits. The thought of his blessings is out of our mind, as soon as the taste is out of our mouth. The first thing that the devil stole from Eve was her memory. Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: this freedom she forgot. But of the tree of Knowledge thou shalt not eat: this prohibition she would not remember. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. Can we move, and forget him in whom we move? The lepers were no sooner cleansed, but gone: only one of the ten returned with his mite of glory: the rest turned their backs, and away, without bidding Christ farewell. Such men, when they are hungry, may think themselves beholden to God for victuals: but once full, they forget to give him thanks. This is contempt, for glory.

3. In perceiving Christ dishonored, without once being moved. As the chief Priests answered Judas; What is that to us? So we hear Blasphemers tear Christ, and more than betray, even shed his innocent blood, digging into his side with oaths; yet we say, What is that to us? We might as well say, what is Christ to us? What is heaven to us? Or what is salvation to us? Indeed, to us the one cannot be, without the other. We shall never have part of his glory in heaven, if we do not take his glories part upon earth. Curse ye Meroz, because they helped not the Lord in the day of battle. They did not maintain his honor here below, they are cursed and excluded from his honor there above. So Gallio; If it be a question of words, and names, and of your law, look ye to it: for I will be no Judge of such matters. If the business concern words, that concerns Christ, what does it concern us? We will not meddle with it. It is good sleeping in a whole skin: yet he that hath an ulcer, thinks it better sleeping in a broken. Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? Shall I hear my Savior abused, and hold my peace? No Lord, if we do not now stand for thee, we shall never be able at the last day to stand before thee. This is another contempt.

4. Not to be affected with the injuries of his Church. O Lord, let them that hate thee, flee before thee: let thine enemies be scattered. Why, be there any professed enemies to God? Yes, The kings of the earth set themselves against the Lord. If they be enemies to his Church, they are so to him. Quod vobis mihi; holds with Christ, whether in good or evil done to his members. He that willfully wounds my finger, is my foe. If the miseries of our brethren do not move us, we have not all one Head, nor be members of the same Body. Why is this come to pass, that there should be today one Tribe lacking in Israel? We have been cut off by whole Tribes, and the blood of Christ's members hath run about the streets, and fallen like dew upon the fields: if our hearts were not set a bleeding for it, Christ takes it as a contempt done to Himself.

5. In vilipending his servants. Is it not a contempt done to Princes, the misusing of their Ambassadors? Who are we? Your murmurings are not against us, but against the Lord. In which expostulation, Moses both condemns them of injustice; for it was not he, but the Lord that afflicted them: and of presumption, in murmuring against Him that was able to confound them. In the one, he would have them see their wrong: in the other, their danger. As the act came not from Him, but from God: so he puts it off to God; from himself: Why murmur ye against the Lord? The opposition which is made to the Instruments of God, redounds ever to his Person. He holds Himself smitten through the sides of his Ministers. So hath God incorporated these respects, that our subtlety cannot divide them. O how hath this Nation lost her glory, in denying of honor to the Ministers of Christ? It stinks even to them, that are the stench of the Christian world: of whom God might say with holy Job, that He scorned to set them with the Dogs of his flock. Down goes the Gospel, that the Law may rise: the pride of that numerous generation is built upon the ruins of the Church. First, those sacrilegious sinners make us poor, and then wonder that we are not rich. I hope they have so much Latin, as to understand that Necessitas cogit ad turpia: Learning would have maintenance, or else it is in danger to be mischievous. Where wit and poverty meet, they seldom make up an honest man. This was the ground of that scandalous Bill, put up against Ministers: by consequence they force us to a scandalous life, and then for a scandalous life they censure us. They throw us into the Lions den, and have not so much mercy, like Darius to Daniel, as to say, God help us. This is to turn Christ's Glory into contempt. There is no City that more prides it self in bounty to Ministers, than this: you hold yourselves the best Benefactors: but no man of understanding will believe you: especially that observes how you have robbed the Churches nest, and stolen away her birds by sacrilege, and then stuck down a feather of your Benevolence.

6. Not to fly unto God in our distress: this He takes for a great indignity. Indeed, what can be worse, than to forsake God for Baal, God for Belial, Christ for the world? They forsake the living Fountain, for broken cisterns. Carnal men will make any shift, rather than trouble God: in their sorrows they never look so high as Christ: some lower respects take up their thoughts. They complain that the wind hath spoiled their fruits, the rain hath drowned their fields, a Surfet hath made them sick, the Oppressor hath undone them. This is all they regard; to blame fortune, or curse their enemies, or perhaps to tax themselves of oversight: as if there could be any evil in the city, and God had not done it. The Israelites want breadin the wilderness, and repine, Would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in Egypt. And if they must die by famine, whose hand was this? Was it not God, that restrained his Creatures from them? We can see God in his immediate Judgments, but not in those whose second causes are sensible: yet he holds himself equally interested in all. It is but one hand, though divers instruments, wherewith we are smitten. The water may not lose the name, though it come by channels and pipes from the spring. It is the want of Faith, that invisible means, keeps us from seeing Him that is invisible. Job does not cry out on the Sabaeans, Chaldeans, on the wind or fire, that they had undone him: he looks higher, and sees another hand above theirs: The Lord hath taken away: blessed be the Name of the Lord. Affliction is a Messenger sent on purpose, to remember us of our Maker: then to forget Him, is a manifest contempt. Now every contempt in examined according to the degree of the Person against whom it is done. To Parents, unnatural: to Princes, rebellious: to God, most heinous: this is the highest degree of contempt that can be. In all these respects we sin: the world is full of the contempt of God and his Christ: where then is his Glory? If we will not be so kind to Him; as to honor his Name with Glory: yet let us not be so unkind to Him, as to soil it with ignominy. The Lord hath contempt too, in store for such: He that sits in heaven, will laugh them to scorn; and mock at their calamity. Were they no less than Princes, that despise Him; He will pour contempt upon Princes, 1 Sam. 2.30. He first offers honor: to inflict shame, He is driven to it. It is, Come ye Blessed of my Father: but Go ye Cursed, not by my Father, but by your own sins. O, let us give Him all Glory upon earth, that He may give us his Glory in Heaven.

Next, Cui, to Him. Christ is the best good to us, therefore He requires the [unspec 2] best good from us. God could give no better thing to us than Christ, nor can we return a better gift to Christ than Glory. It is the reflection of his own beauty; the glass wherein He sees his own face. Though from us it be dim, dull, and imperfect, like the small pieces of a broken looking-glass: yet it is all the representation of his divine Excellencie, which our love and thankfulness can find out: the highest honor, that either Christ can receive, or man can give, is Glory. This is no slight or common acknowledgement: not a Glory Inter, among the sons of men; but Super, above all, men and Angels. God hath given him a Name above all names: so He exalted him; good reason, so should we. He expects it; let not us frustrate his expectation. Not that he hungers for it: his beams are not the less bright, because we do not commend their shining. No interposition of our neglect, can put that glorious Sun into an ecclypse. Our praising of him is but holding of a candle to the Sun, in respect of any addition of light. Bonum laudare, non laudato, sed laudantibus prodest. Not He, but we are the better by it. It were a silly Conceit to imagine of God, that he is Auidior gloriae: for what good can it do him? But this is all we have to give him, and we must give him this or nothing. What can we render him for all his benefits, but praises to his Name? David could find nothing else: if he could, he would not have grudged it. Christ hath deserved this glory at our hands in many dear respects.

1. He gives us all our temporal blessings: what good thing have we, which came not from him? Children, those dear pieces of ourselves, those living and surviving relicts of our bodies and names when we are dead: they are the heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is his reward. Honor: that advancing of our heads above the vulgar, is his gift: I gave thee thy Masters house and crown. Thou sittest in a high place; who lifted thee up thither? Who promoted thee to this honor? Promotion comes not from the east, nor from the west, but from the Lord. Riches are also his gift: Nature reaches out her hand, and gives us corn, and wine, and oil, and milk; but Christ doth fill the hand of nature, and then doth open the hand of nature, that she may rain down her showers upon us. Industrie reaches out her hand to us, and gives us the fruit of our labors; an estate raised by our endeavors, to ourselves and our posterity after us: but Christ's hand doth guide the hand of industry, as a master directs a child to write. He governs our hand when it sows, and when it waters, and still all the increase is from him. Friends reach out their hands to prefer us; but the hand of Christ supports their hands, that support us. God gave Joseph favor in the eyes of his keeper: and Jacob prayed for his sons, that they might find favor in the eyes of Joseph. As we cannot see God here, but in a glass: so we cannot receive from him but by reflection, and by instruments. Even casual things come from him: and that which we call Fortune here, hath another name above. Friends use to give one another tokens of love, for the renewing of their memories in absence; as a ring with a poesy in it; When this you see, remember me: All the blessings of Christ are so many tokens of his love to us: we cannot open our eyes, but we must see those tokens: nay we cannot shut our eyes, but even the sleep and rest that follows, is a token of his favor: So he giveth his beloved sleep. Have we so many tokens, that we forget them all? Or rather, Christ in them all? When the charitable man gave his poor God-son a Lamb for a Cade, he was thankful to him, and would duly ask him blessing: but when his stock began to increase, and he had gotten a numerous flock of sheep, he grew so rich and proud, that he scorned to ask his God-father blessing anymore. He that could remember his Benefactor in one favor, in many slighted him. As we wish there was one Statute more, to enforce the keeping of all the rest: so would to God, Christ would confer upon us one grace more, which might move us to give him glory for all the other. If we can so pass over these common tokens of his favor, yet there is a Ring by which we must needs remember him; a wedding ring, and that with a poesie in it; Do this in remembrance of me. Let us never see this ring, without remembering the charge that goes with it: It is the seal-ring of our marriage: for shame let us not forget our husband.

2. He gives us all grace, therefore he merits all glory. Grace in the former part of the verse, that is his donation? Glory in the latter part, that is our retribution. What can Christ give us here better than grace? And what can we render him better than glory? The former doth require the latter, but the latter cannot requite the former. All our praises, could we sing them in the voice of Angels, could not make amends for his least bounty to us. Yea this very ascription of glory, is but the effect of grace: we could not so much as praise him for our blessings unless he did bless us with thankful hearts. Let your light shine: yet the candle cannot shine, except it be lighted. Our hearts must first take fire at his grace, before our works can shine to his glory. The one is inseparable from the other: if Christ have not glory by us, the grace of Christ is not in us. In the same measure are we gracious, that we desire to make him glorious. If we do but honor him as the world doth we have no more grace than the world hath. But then have we the grace of Saints, when we desire and endeavor to magnify him as do the Saints. It is his goodness to sanctify us, and it is our office to glorify him. As the sap in the root maintains the tree, and the tree brings forth and sustains the fruit, and the fruit acknowledges the sap in the root. It is the honor of his grace to us, that gives us the grace to honor him.

3. He gives us glory, therefore it is fit that we should give glory to him. I do not mean only the honor of this world, which is also his gift. As Herod had not only the glory of a kingdom, but also of great wisdom. A king they knew him before, now they take him for a Philosopher, or some excellent Orator. Sitting on his Throne, they only saw vultum regis: but when he had ended his speech, they thought they heard vocem Dei. Neither had Pharaoh so advanced Joseph, nor Ahasuerus so honored Mordecai, if they had not been destined to this by the purpose of God. Whosoever be the instrument, it is Christ that giveth the advancement. But this is a glory which he communicates even to reprobates: there is a higher glory reserved for the Saints. It is some glory to be a man: his very dominion over the creatures is called an honor, More glory to be a king: and yet more still, to be a Christian, and such a Christian as is a Saint. A man hath command over the irrational creatures: the whole nature of them is tamed by him. A king hath command over men, all those rational creatures that be his subjects. A Saint hath command over his own lusts and passions; a higher soveraignetie than all the rest. Men may have the service of the creatures, kings the service of men, Saints have the attendance of Angels. Angels mandavit; Such honor have all his Saints. All this glory doth Christ give us in this world: good reason therefore that we should return glory to him. One good turn asks another: glory requires glory: we cannot in equity do less.

But Christ hath another manner of glory in store for us: It is his pleasure to give us a Kingdom. And the glory which thou gavest me, I have given them. We have a great glory here, but it is ab intus: The kings daughter is all glorious within. There above, it shall be also external and visible: for they shall shine as the stars. Our very bodies shall be made glorious: they are sown in corruption, but raised in glory: fashioned like Christ's own glorious body. He that will give all this glory to us, may well look for glory from us. Alas, what is the glory we give him, in comparison of that he gives us? The glory he gives us is real: that we give him, is but votall: He gives us as great glory as we can wish: we can but wish him the glory which he hath. He gives us as much glory as we are capable of: we cannot be so bountiful to him, for he is infinite. Our wish cannot make him glorious, his will makes us so. His is operative, ours but optative. Ours is Cum affectu, in desire: his cum effectu, in performance. The glory we give him, is ex merito; he hath deserved it: we cannot deserve the glory he gives us, but it is only ex beneplacito, of his own free favor. He needs not give it unto us, we are bound to return it unto him. His is voluntary, ours necessary: we can challenge no glory from him, he may challenge all glory from us. If he gives us none, we cannot blame him of unkindness: if we give him not all, we are guilty of unthankfulness. There is obligation enough in his bounty to us, to bind us to give all glory to him. It becometh well the just to be thankful: it becomes receivers to praise their benefactors. Our humility and dependence upon God shows it self in this grateful acknowledgement, that to Christ we are beholden for all things. It is good to sing praises unto the Lord: it is pleasant, and praise is comely. It is pleasant to God, and it is good to us: both for procurement of the good we want, and for the continuance of the good we have.

We almost defy the Artist, that hath made some curious and admirable piece: and if any man hath delivered his country from great dangers, his name is honored in our Chronicles. Christ hath made the world, that magnificent structure: and made man (as it were) the Worlds lord and master; and does he not deserve glory? Can we consider the heavens, and not say, O Lord, how excellent is thy Name in all the earth? Christ hath delivered us from all our enemies, sin, death, hell, the devil; and made us more than Conquerors over them, that were no less than tyrants over us; and does he not deserve glory? Paul could not speak of this mercy without the subjunction of glory. When we consider how little good, and how much evil we deserve at his hands: When we consider how little evil, and how much good we receive at his hands; can we do less than give him glory? Christ's benefits are good seed, but they fall upon barren ground, if they do not prosper to his glory. I gave them corn, wine, and oil, multiplied their silver and gold: but they prepared it for Baal: There was God and Israel; God the Founder, and Israel the confounder: as she gives his glory to Baal, so will he give away her plenty to famine. Such is our case: Christ rains down Manna; we gather it, and eat it, and scarce ever think from whence we had it. We can easily remember to wish for what we want, but we forget to give thanks for what we have. But one of those ten lepers cleansed, returned with thanks: it is ten to one, if any give glory to God. Lucke, or wit, or friend; one thing or other still lies in our way, and takes up Christ's glory ere it can come at him. Job was so poor, that he had not a Lamb left to offer in sacrifice: yet even then was he rich, because God had taken them all away in one entire oblation, one holocaust or burnt sacrifice: For the fire that burnt up his sheep, is said to come from Heaven, and it is called the fire of God. Yet after all was gone, and Job had nothing left to offer him, he offered up himself, he did glorify God; Blessed be his Name. It is not so with us; we are not so poor: Nondum ad sterquilinium redacti sumus, we are not brought to the dunghill: Nondum versa est in cineres Troia, our state does not lie in dust and ashes: we have wherewithal to glorify Christ. Only there be three letters wanting in our Alphabet, which spell the best part of us, COR: these hath the world torn out, or obliterated: If we could put them into their place again, all would be right: the glory of Christ should shine forth most brightly, and in all things should he be honored. For of him are all things, and for all things to him be glory.

4. Christ is most lovely, and therefore deserves glory. Omne pulchrum gloriosum. He is fairer than the sons of men: Not as carnal hearts esteem of beauty, by their sense and fancy: So the covetous may think him lovely, because he is rich and bountiful: they wish not the riches of his grace, but to be graced with his riches; as if he were Mammon, the god of gold. If he did proffer riches, when he proffers righteousness, they would bring good stomachs, hunger and thirst enough. So the Epicure may think him lovely, because he always keeps pleasant cheare in his house: Sectator Epularum, non de been vivente, sed de been pascente, laudabilem profert sententiam. If the wine he speaks of were the juice of the grape, he could not want customers. It is the brutish error of men, to think the incomprehensible God like that thing, which best pleaseth their sensual appetite. So it is thought, that if the irrational creatures could draw a picture of the Divine Nature, they would make their own shape the copy. The Lacedemonians, because they were of a warlike disposition, and given to martial affairs, presented all the statues of their gods armed, like Commanders and Soldiers. The Egyptians did worse; for they painted the Angels black, and the devils white: but it was in favor of their own complexion, because themselves were black. So wealthy worldlings may praise Christ for his riches, and secular kings admire him for his Soveraigntie, and voluptuous men magnify him for his pleasures. But those be gross and muddy conceptions: a good man would not be so commended. Sit tibi tam triste, laudari a turpibus, quàm si lauderis ob turpia. I dare not altogether consent with the Philosopher in that: for men may be good, and yet praised of the evil. Bonum est laudari, sed praestantius esse laudabilem. But the children of faith see Christ's beauty with other eyes: they behold him as the Lord and Giver of life, as the Fountain of all Grace, as the Perfection of all Happiness, as a merciful King that smiles upon humble suitors, as a Lamb that shed his own blood to redeem us, as a glorious Sun of favor and pity, that dries up all the tears of Repentance, as the God of Peace and Comfort, that protects us on earth, and will forever crown us in heaven. This is another motive to inflame our hearts, with a desire to exalt his glory, and to praise his Name, because he is lovely.

5. Lastly, his low humiliation deserves glory. It is the Promise of Christ; Everyone that humbleth himself, shall be exalted: and shall not He himself speed so? This was a sufficient cause of his exaltation: Humilitas gloriae meritum, gloria humilitatis premium. As, by CHRIST, GOD brought light out of darkness at the first: so he will bring glory out of humility at the last. Let us look down a little to his descent, that his rise may appear the more glorious. First, The Person was God; and there is first mention of that high Majesty, to give the more luster to this low humility. For a man of mean condition to be humble, is no such hard matter, no great praise, if he be: a great fault, if he be not. But for a king thus to stoop, to rise from the royal Throne, and fall upon his knees; this was great humility. Secondly, the freedom of the action; he was not forced to it, but humiliavit se. Simon of Cyrene was compelled to bear his cross, his neck was humbled under it by constraint: Christ willingly submitted himself to it. The willingness makes it acceptable, to have done it by compulsion, had been miserable. Thirdly, the depth of his humiliation, usque ad naturam hominis: in his very assuming of humanity, there was great humility. But more, usque ad formam servi: as Abigail to David, so Christ to his Apostles, even to the washing of the feet of his servants. Yea, usque ad mortem, which is more. This would stagger the best of us: we love humility in a whole skin. Indeed there was no reason in the world, that obedience should be put to death; for death is the wages of disobedience: obedience, in justice, is rewarded with life. Add to all this, that it was mors crucis, to which he humbled himself. It was the foulest death of all other; the death of Malefactors, and of the worst sort of Malefactors. So it was not only usque formam servi, but usque mortem malefici. Nor did he only suffer without pity, but not without scorn: his pain was their sport. This were worse than death to a generous and noble spirit: for if it be so miserable to live with infamy, what is it with infamy to die? This was low enough; yet his body must be laid in the grave; one story lower. Yea, he descended into hell, and lower he could not go. All this for us; Descendit ad inferos, quo nos oportuit, ne nos descendamus unquam. We have him now at the lowest; and have kept him all this while in the Press; it is now high time that he should come forth in Print.

For his Humiliavit, let him have his Exaltavit: for mortem crucis, gloriam Patris. See how God doth advance him, from death to life, from shame to glory, from a death of shame to a life of glory. He was not raised up like Lazarus, to die again: but being raised up, He dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him; nay, he hath full dominion over death: Neither did he rise only to the upper face of the earth, but from the earth: from De profundis, to in excelsis: above the clouds, above the stars, above the heavens, and the heavens of heavens. As he descended into hell, that we might never come thither: so ascendit in coelum, ut praeparet locum nobis, ubi nos nihil juris.

This glory hath God given him, but have we no glory to give him for all this? We, for whom he suffered all those torments, can we be empty of his praises? The Angels sang, Glory to God on high; when the God of all glory lay low enough. He was then in the Cratch; afterwards on the Cross, but now is advanced to the Crown. Shall they more honor him in his Humility, than we do now in his Majesty? They in infimis, than we in altissimis? He remembered us in our low estate: and shall not we remember him in his glory? He hath it there, though we should never give it him here. Yet this most royal Prince looks down from his Throne to his footstool; to see which of his Servants give him most honor, and what requital they make of his favor. Christ seemed to lose his glory, by hanging on the Cross; therefore let us make him a Coronet of our praises. We took some from him, shall we not wish some to him again for it? That was his Ignominia in infimis, and shall we not give him gloria in altissimis in lieu of it? Yes, as it was said of Babylon, How much she hath glorified her self, give her so much torment and sorrow: so look how much torment Christ felt, if it were possible, let us give him so much glory. As there was no sorrow like to his sorrow, so let there be no glory like to his glory. It is he which gives us beauty for ashes, and joy for heaviness; that lifts us up from the dunghill, and sets us among Princes; that changeth all our tears into comforts; and at last advanceth us from a vale of miseries, to the Mount Royal of eternal Blessedness: Thus he exalts us, and shall not we exalt him? As he was humbled to the lowest, so let our praises lift him up to the highest. Let us sing his praise on earth, so as our songs may pierce the clouds, and enter into the heavens, and become a pleasant incense to the Lord of hosts. That so the glory which we give him below, may make for our souls to his glory above.

[unspec 3] Aquibus, from whom must this Glory come? But here ariseth a doubt, what Verbe is to be put here; for there is never a Verbe in the original: whether Est, or Esto: whether an Indicative, that so it is: or an Optative, that so it may be. The former is by way of gratulation, the other by way of exoptation. Christ now hath Glory, saith the one: let Christ have Glory, saith the other. That is Vox confitentium; they acknowledge that all Glory is his: this Vox petentium; they desire that it may still be given unto Him: either is Vox laudantium; they praise Christ, and show that He is most worthy to be praised. Ipsi sit Gloria, which is per modum voti, doth well befit the Church militant: Est Gloria, which is per concessum facti, is more fit for the Church triumphant. It is either a praise, or a wish; Gratulatory, or Apprecatory: and consists in demonstranda, that this Glory is his; or in exoptando, that it may be, and daily more and more be given Him. Either is well; but both are best, for both are most true.

1. This Glory then must have an Vnde; As there is Terminus in quo, on whom this Glory reflects, and in whom it resides: so there must be Terminus à quo, from whence it comes: without an emissive term, there can be no receptive term. Who then should give this Glory to Christ? For the Angels to do it, is no new thing. From the beginning, it was their occupation so to do. The morning stars sang together: and what is their song, but Holy, holy, holy, the whole earth is full of his Glory? Nor do they sing this only to God in his his own Nature, but even to GOD incarnate. So when the Angel had done his Sermon, the whole Queere begun their Anthem. They gave Him Glory, when He was in great humility: the Cratch was the last word of the Sermon, and yet Glory the first word of the Song. To show that all that external baseness, which seemed to tend to his disgrace, was but the Auspicium of his Glory. All that appeared beneath, Ignominia in imis, is pronounced Gloria in excelsis, and so celebrated by the holy Angels. No sooner was the Speech ended, but as if the word Cratch had been their rest, immediately the Hymn began. It was an Anthem that did properly belong to the Sermon, and it was a Sermon that did properly require such an Anthem. And all this to a Babe in the manger; In infimis puero, in altissimis Deo: for He was both. Such Hymns and Anthems they still continue in heaven: good cause have they to praise the Lord; but why this honor to Christ? Why do they so rejoice at his Birth? Quid illis concio, vel cantio? He took not on Him the nature of Angels: Why do they make such a do about it, when it concerns them not at all? I bring you tidings of joy; To you is borne a Savior: he does not say, To us. Yet they do it; not only upon command; Let all the Angels of God worship Him; let the whole Hoast of heaven do Him honor: but cheerfully and willingly, in relation to us. They rejoice at our conversion; hoc angelicum est. The Devils manner is to grieve at the good of others. If Christ come to save us, they cry out that He torments them: hoc est Diabolicum. They, in whose own particular this concerns not, rejoice: they for us, and not we (by good inference) for ourselves? The Queere of heaven began the song, but to set us in: we are to bear a part, and the chief part, because the best part of it is ours. They took it up, we are to keep it up, and never to let it go down, or die on our hands: but to sing it after the Angels below, that we may sing it with the Angels above.

2. Thus we have found out the Parties, to whom this duty belongs: we are they that must give Glory to Christ. As for us men and for our salvation, He exposed Himself to ignominy: so from us men, for our salvation, He expects Glory. The Vnde is from the earth, and men the Aquibus from whom this Glory is looked for. I deny but that God made all things for his Glory: and Glory He will have in all things that He hath made. The Heavens declare the Glory of God: and Praise the Lord, O ye Heavens, &c. How should these praise Him? The Heavens and Stars, the Earth and Seas, Fire and Vapours, Trees and Mountains, have no tongues. Dragons and Lions, Whales and Fishes, Ravens and Fowls, are called upon to praise God: yet they cannot speak. The former cannot speak, because they have no tongues: the latter have tongues, but they cannot speak. Why are all these Creatures said to praise God, and bidden to praise Him? They cannot do it but by the apprehension and expression of man: it is he that carries the tongue for them all. Therefore after the catalogue and list of the Creatures, mustered up to God's praises, man is instantly mentioned; and that in all the kinds and conditions of men; Kings, Judges, old, young. So in the Song of those three holy servants of God, after that copious enumeration of the Creatures, summoned to this retribution of Glory, Man is plentifully brought in: O ye children of men, O ye Priests, &c. As if all the rest could do nothing without man: and he were not only their Interpreter and vocal Orator, to tell their meaning; but (as it were) their Priest, to offer up their sacrifice of thankfulness to God: and their Lord and Master, to whom they owe and do service: by which service of theirs to him, they put him in mind of the service he owes to his Maker. If the Heavens declare the Glory of God, how do they it, but to the eyes of man, and by the tongue of man, for whom they were made? For what end hath man those two privileges above his fellow-Creatures; Reason and Speech, but that as by the one he may conceive of the great works of God, which the rest cannot: so by the other he may express what he conceives, to the honor of his Creator, which the other do not? He that hath ears, let him hear: and so he that hath a tongue, let him speak. With his own precious blood He hath redeemed us, we have cause to do it: He hath furnished us with Reason and Language, we have means to do it: and if we do it not, the worst will be our own. For Christ will have it done: if we will not, others shall: yea, we ourselves shall, whether we will or no: If not with Jacob, under a shower of blessings; yet with Achan, under a shower of stones. If not with Mary, in a flood of penitent tears; yet with Julian, in a desperate stream of blood. It is woeful, when Balaam's beast must come to speak to her master: when the very Sun that shines upon us, and the earth that bears us, shall condemn our silence: and all the Creatures shall be called to give in their testimony, that we have not given Christ the Glory.

This is no new exprobration of our unthankfulness, by summoning heaven and earth, rocks and mountains. When the Trumpet sounds for the publication of God's Glory, even they are called in for Auditors. They would express, if they could; what we can express, if we would; even the Glory we owe to our Maker. They shall all be Witnesses of God's just quarrel against us, for our prodigious ingratitude. The senseless Creatures shall have a voice to cry out against sin; whether it be the oppression of man, or suppression of the Glory of God. The Pharisees murmur; what was the cause of their quarrel? The people would give Glory to Christ: this they grudge at; this they could not endure. But Christ chokes their clamorous cavils; that if the people should hold their peace, The very stones would speak. And indeed at his delivery into the hand of his enemies; when all his Disciples fled away for fear, and his dearest friends durst not acknowledge Him; the very stones did then confess Him: and that in a language not only extraordinary, but contrary to their solid constitutions. His Glory then shall not be hid: for if men hold their peace, the very stones shall speak it. Ex ore Infantum He will have it: yea, Ex ore Lapidum: As God is able to raise Testes veritatis, ex lapidibus fluminis, children to Abraham, of the stones of Jordan. In the body there be several members, and they have all their offices: the eye sees for all, the ear hears for all, the hand works for all, the foot walks for all: So man is the Tongue of the the world, whose office is to speak for all. The Sun doth his office in giving light, the Stars do theirs in giving influence, the sea his in sending abroad springs, the earth hers in yielding fruits: if man do not discharge his office, in glorifying God for all these benefits; all shall speak against him, because he did not speak for all.

3. The Saints have ever been most careful of this duty. Elisha to heal the waters of Jericho, calls for a new cruse, and fault in it, and says, Thus saith the Lord, I have healed these waters. The cruse shall be theirs, the act his, the power the Lord's. Far was it from the Prophet, to challenge ought to himself. In dividing the waters of Jordan, he does not say, where is the power of Elisha? but, where is the Lord God of Elijah? In curing the waters of Jericho, he says not, Thus saith Elisha, but thus saith the Lord. He professes that he can do no more of himself, than that salt, than that cruse: only God works by him. Jericho shall know to whom they owe the blessing, that to him they may return the thanks. Thus careful was S ^t . Peter, when he had cured the cripple, that none of Christ's glory might cleave to his fingers. There be those that would still be filching God's honor: like Herod, that was smitten with worms for his labor. He had a worm of pride within him, which engendered the worms that devoured him. There is nothing that the devil can worse abide, than that Glory should be given to Christ: he would fain have it himself. How large a proffer does he make for a little worship. The Angels sing, Glory to God on high: but it is the devils study, to mar the Angels melody, and to bring in his black Sanctus; to pull down Glory from on high, quite out of heaven; and to confine it to himself in his own hell. But if he cannot have it himself, yet let man take it: Any where he is content to see it bestowed, rather than upon Christ. His first incantation was the false promise of a higher glory: that same Eritis sicut Dii, is not yet gotten out of the ambitious hearts of men. The Popish gloss is not reformed yet: that Dominus Deus noster Papa will not be left out. It is a common Text in Kings Courts, I have said ye are gods: but if the next verse be read by the Preacher, ye shall die like men; yet the glass must first be out, and the Sermon done before he comes at it. There will be havoc made of peace, religion, and piety, and all to achieve glory. That which the Apostles rent their clothes to put from them, we would rend our very skins to pluck to us. Let God's glory shift for it self, our honor must be preserved. Nay we are not content with our own allowance, but we must invade God's propriety: Out of our own commons, we break into his Several: no glory must serve our turns, but His: As if no honor could satisfy the ambitious subject, but the kingdom: It is nothing to be great at Court, he must have the Crown. But of all breaches of the eight Commandment, there is none like theft: all of thefts, none like Sacrilege: of all sacrileges none like robbing God of his glory. As his glory is a treasure, which he will not give to another: so the very attempt to rob him of that, is a sin to which he hath seldom granted a pardon.

4. Men are commanded to give this glory: but how can they give it? Giving presupposeth having: we have no glory, how then should we give it? We may as well find fire in the bottom of the sea, or a well of water in the body of the Sun, as glory in man. Besides, if honor be in honorante; than as the less is blessed of the greater, so here the giver of glory should be more excellent than the receiver. But properly, neither can we give it, nor can God receive it: For both he is so infinitely full of glory, that no more can be added unto him: and we are quite empty, and have not one drop to give him. Yet both we are said to give, and he to receive: We to give what he hath first given us: and he to receive, what before he had in himself. It is his grace planted in our hearts, that brings forth the fruit of glory to his Name: and if we have the former, we cannot but give the latter. Suum Simile; it is natural to grace, to beget the like: for beneplacitum Dei, to beget beneplacitum Deo. If we think to spin this glory out of our own bowels; and thereof to make a garment of honor for Christ, we are grossly deceived: for he will not accept it, he scorns to wear it. So heretics will undertake to blason Christ's arms; but the Device must be their own. These are false Heralds; let them keeper their honor to themselves. But if out of those innumerable graces, which his holy Spirit hath set in our hearts, we shall ransack our garden for flowers, and thereof make a garland of thankfulness; this he will accept, and account it a honor to wear. Those coronation flowers of humble gratitude, and hearty love, he will stick in his own Crown. If we could make a happy marriage between a perfect Red (suppose the Prince of the land of Roses) and a perfect white, (suppose the Lady of the nation of Lilies) between the zeal of a religious profession, and the innocence of a spotless life; they would beget the best color: the Lord would be well pleased with us, if we could present him such a glory. But to talk of any glory of our own, or to offer that; were as if the darkness should proffer light to the day, or the dry pit to lend water to the spring. The Lord found us polluted in our blood; there was all our beauty. We come up, and are cut down like a flower; there was all our glory: And were not this rich stuff, to offer unto Christ? Once we did so, and he was contented with it: Our sin was all the favor, and our death all the honor, and our condemnation all the glory we gave him. We lodged him in a stable at his birth, and housed him with contempt all his life, and for a farewell nailed him to the cross at his death: and there we left him. From under all these clouds of abuse, our Sun rose glorious, to his own orbe in heaven: Have we no better thing to present him with now? Will no glory yet come from us?

From some, too many, it will not. We have our irreligious Politicians, that think on their own glory, not his. All happy successes they ascribe to their own heads, not to the Head of the Church. Perhaps if anything fall out cross, Christ may be blamed for it. These men do that in earnest, which we have seen boys do in sport; stand on their heads, and shake their heels against heaven. We have our impious blasphemers, that pierce his side with oaths, and swear all his wounds open again. The Jews did but crucify him below, on the earth; when he came to suffer: these crucify him above, in heaven, where he sits on his throne. From such men Christ hath injury and infamy enough, but not one spark of glory. From us yet let him speed better: some glory, yea all glory we must give him on earth, or he will give us none in heaven. If we lock up his glory, he will lock us out of his glory. He asks for our glory, and we beg his; Petimúsque damúsque vicissim: Let us give, and we shall receive: as below, Grace for grace: so above Glory for glory. You have glorified me by your good works, in the day of thralldom: Come now ye blessed, and I will glorify you by my mercies in may eternal kingdom.

But wherein can we glorify him? Not in giving him what he hath not, but in making known what he hath. To publish his glory, is all that we can do for him: or to magnify his works. To magnify him, is not Magnum facere, sed Magnum dicere. His glory by our praises, is not made Major, but Notior. Nothing is added to the latitude or extent of it; but to the appearance and manifestation of it. We magnify him, not by increasing the luster of his glory, but by plucking off the veil of darkness from the faces of sinners. As it is a kind of honor to the Sun, when by opening the eyes of the blind, or bringing prisoners out of an obscure dungeon, we enable them to take knowledge of his light. Nor hath the Sun so much cause to thank us for this, as they that by this help come to behold the Sun. Yet he that is ever infinite, is pleased to enlarge himself by the number of our prayers: and takes our frequent petitions as it were an augmentation of his Greatness: as Princes are made famous by the multitude of clients. Still for all this, we are beholden to him, not he to us. That he will suffer us to take his glorious Name in our mouths, is a great honor: That he will take his Name any ways dignified by our mouths, is a greater honor. O what an honor hath God given to men, that they may either speak to him, or speak of him? We are worms, yea, worse by nature: why are we suffered to crawl on his earth? We are serpents, in respect of the venomous corruption of our sins: why are we suffered to hiss?

David professeth himself a dead dog, to his king Saul: and so doth Mephibosheth to his king David. Yet David speaks to Saul, and Mephibosheth speaks to David. We have no measure to try any comparison with God: proportion is no measure for infinitensse. Yet let it suffice to our comfort, that God doth not esteem us so little to himself, as a dead dog is to a King. Whatsoever we are indeed, yet his mercy doth make more account of us. The man that hath but a torn cottage to hide his head in; he that hath no cottage, no harbor, but is fain to rest his weary limbs on the cold earth; he that hath no more of this world but a grave: he that hath his grave but lent him, till a better man must be buried in the same grave: he that hath no grave but a dunghill: he that hath no more earth but that which he carries, but that which he is: he that hath not that earth which he is, but even in that is another's slave: yet hath as much proportion to God, as if all David's worthies, all the monarchs of the world, and all those imaginary giants, were kneaded and incorporated into one; and as though that one were the surviver of all the sons of men, to whom God had given the earth. Therefore how little soever we be, though we are as if we were not: yet he that calls things that are not, as though they were; gives us leave both to call upon him, and to call upon others to honor him; and puts the promulgation of his glory into our unworthy lips. If we were but mere dust and ashes, we might speak unto the Lord: For the Lord's hand made us of this dust, and the Lord's hand shall recollect these ashes. The Lord's hand was the wheel, upon which these vessels of clay were framed: and the Lord's hand is the vrne, in which these ashes shall be preserved. We are the dust and ashes of the Temple of the holy Ghost; and what marble is so precious? Yea, we are more than dust and ashes: we are our best part: every man is his soul: and being so, the very breath of God, he may breath back the praises of God. Yea, for this cause he hath his breath given him: and when he fails in that duty, he deserves to have his breath taken from him. It is man's greatest honor, that he may set forth the glory of his Maker as it was a high credit to him, Cujus dignatur ab ore Caesar in orbe loqui. In this respect every man is a Preacher, every creature a Text, every occasion a doctrine, every blessing a reason, every thanksgiving an use, men and Angels the auditors, and the whole Sermon is God's Glory.

Quomodo: To him, but How? Since we must all give glory to him; all glory, by all means, and at all times; it is requisite that we know How.

1. Justly; for we may not think that we are at any cost with God, or do bestow ought upon him out of our own bounty: we owe it to him, & Justice requires that we pay our debts. If it be Benevolentia, yet it is Debita: well taken, when it is freely given: but if not given, strictly to be accounted for. There is nothing for which Christ will reward us, but that whereby his glory is the greater for us. These are they which came out of great tribulation: in tribulation they confessed Christ: in the midst of that firy trial they honored his Name: therefore they stand with joy before his Throne. Such is the mercy of our good God, that he gives us a reward for doing that, which without any thanks we are bound to do. As a Father gives his obedient son the Inheritance; because he is his son, not for his obedience. But the omission of this duty shall be called to a woeful reckoning. He that denieth me before men, shall be denied before the Angels of God. His refusal of us, for us neglect of him, is both just and grievous. Because they knew God, and did not glorify him as God, what shall become of them? To be cast out from his presence, and debarred of those infinite joys that accompany it, is the extremity of sorrow. But there is more in it than so: Depart from me ye cursed: there is torment upon torment: Cast that unprofitable servant into utter darkness, where is weeping and gnashing of teeth; because he did not glorify God with his talent. It is not then left arbitrary, but imposed as necessary: No indifferent matter, whether we render him glory, or not: but if we do not, we shall die for it. He is a self-willed fool, that will not open his mouth, to save his life: but more sottish he, that will not open it to save his soul. This is not therefore matter of courtesy, but of duty: nor a free largesse, but a just debt. Render unto God the things that are God's: Not Date, but Reddite; what is God's; and glory is his without all question. They are mistaken that think their gratitude a gravity: as if God were beholden to us for rendering him his own. Indeed it is often called a gift, though it be a debt: a gift in respect of our liberal mind, a debt in its own nature. In our common speech we say, What is more due than debt? And again, What is more free than gift? The one doth not destroy the other. Indeed what we frankly pay as a debt, God will graciously accept as a gift. Not that he useth us as we do desperate debtors; glad to take this or nothing: for our Creditor can pay himself at his pleasure. If we do not render him glory with all our hearts, he will fetch it out of our carcasses. Have it of us he will; either in the liberty of this earth, or in the prison of hell: Either our pleasure, or our pain must pay him. Yet such is his goodness, to accept kindly, what we pay heartily: and to take that as a courtesy, which is indeed our duty. His wrath is revealed from heaven, against those that with-hold the truth in unrighteousness? If we with-hold the truth of his glory, it is great injustice.

2. Freely: that is but a sour praise, which is pressed or wringed out, like Verjuyce from a Crabbe. I will get me honor upon Pharaoh; but no thanks to Pharaoh: he shall get little by it, unless we call plagues and death a commodity. Forced praise may be for the honor laudatorum, but it is nothing to the comfort laudantium. The very devils were driven to acknowledge Christ: their scholars, the Sorcerers of Egypt were compelled to say, This is the finger of God: yet they are all of them in hell. This is to give Christ the glory, because we cannot do the contrary; to praise him against our wills. There is a confession upon the rack: but commonly execution follows it: and such malefactors have no more favor, than to be had from the rack to the Gibbet: God hath vim coactivam. Hophni with his flesh-hook could say, Da vel auferam. So to part with it, as one delivers his purse, or as a Porter bears his load, groaning under it, is little to our comfort. Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily: so voluntarily, as if God had neither racks nor skrewes to force it out of you. God loves a cheerful giver: if he looks for this in our charity to the poor, much more in our piety to his honor. We call upon you for this tribute, and you put us off till To morrow. Favors that come with grudging, are viscata beneficia: they stick to the fingers like birdlime, and will not come off. We are all put into that holy office: Christ hath made us Priests to himself, and sent us into the world to preach his glory. If we do it, there is no merit to be talked of, for a necessity is laid upon us: but if we do it not, there is a woe to be thought of, for a curse will befall us.

Do it then, but do it cheerfully, even with love and good will: let it be the offering of a free heart. The willingness of the mind, is ever the fat of the sacrifice: and without that, all is lean and dry. Sustali quod sanctum est e dome mea: I had an holy portion due to God among my goods, I have severed it from the rest, I have brought and laid it upon his Altar. I have taken my best goods the love and fidelity of mine heart, and consecrated them to God in cheerful praises? God had touched the harts of them that honored the King: so all those that give glory to Christ, have God's stamp upon their hearts. But for those men of Belial, that despise him, and bring him no presents of praises; there is the print of the Devils claws upon them. Praised he ought to be, and that freely: not feinedly, Quemadmodum ad hypocritis; not by custom, sicut à secularibus: not according to our own imagination, sicut ad haereticis: not by bodily representations, sicut à superstitiosis: not by compulsion, sicut à mancipiis: but with all sincerity and cheerfulness, as it becometh Christians. We need not grudge it, for we are no losers by it. It does not diminish our flocks, nor dis-furnish our houses, nor disquantitie our sums, nor disparage our Credites, nor impair our healths: nay, it is the only way to conserve all unto us. We are not the poorer, but the richer by this gift. Though we do not condition for the praising of Christ, as Judas did for the selling of Christ, Quid dabis? yet we are sure of a reward, good servant, the glory of thy Lord hath entered into thee; thou hast loved it in thy heart, and published it with thy lips: now Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. As it was before in the charge, Freely you have received, freely give: so it is now for the reward, Freely you have given, freely receive: As my glory was advanced by you, so be you advanced into my glory.

3. Fervently: there is no thanks to a cold commendation: it is well if it may have a pardon. Laus in ore invido, parùm differt à vituperio. The praise that sticks in our teeth, and is loath to come forth; that pincheth God of his right, as Pharaoh higgled with him about the release of Israel: some he shall have, not all: the glory of such a deliverance, another came another ways; is fraus, rather than laus, a secret cozenage, rather than an act of Justice. When we write to great persons, we rather make their Titles excessive, than defective: they take it for a dishonor, if we speak them short: they would not lose one inch of their height. Hyperbole's do well; but Aposiopeses are intolerable. The new Lady snuffes to be called Mistress. Set up the string of honor as high as you may, as high as the Instrument will bear, till it even crackes again; and that sounds well, the music pleaseth us. And shall we bate God of his Celsitude? Is any praise too high for him? His glory is above the earth and heaven. Above the earth it may well be; for the earth is but the Cellar or Vault of the world. Indeed here be Excelsa, and Excelsi, high places, and high persons, both: the highest places are mountains, and the highest persons kings. I will ascend above the height of the clouds, I will be like the most High; said one of them. Babylon was the high place, and the King of Babylon the high Person: yet he was so modest as to challenge no more, but Similis Altissimo, not Altissimus. But as high as they are, There be higher than they. The Glory of Christ is higher than theirs, for it is above the earth: yea, above heaven too.

Altissimus was the ancient style of God: Melchizedek so termed him first. Therefore let us give him the highest Glory: Laudate Deum in excelsis: so the Angels sung, Glory to God on high. All glory is high; yet there is one glory higher than another: and One star differeth from another in glory. Glory, like Fame; Ingreditur solo, & caput nubila condit. If any be higher, let us give Christ that; Praise Him in the heights, as high as we can go. Glory it self is an altitude; higher than wealth, higher than pleasure: the highest pitch that man can fly; an Eagle for the King. Good reason that we should wish him that is highest the highest thing we have. Praise him upon the high sounding Cymbals; that our voices, and applauses, and thanks may be heard up to the very heavens, and so be in altissimis indeed. To shorten the glory of God, is not laus, but sacrilegium. To call him only, Great, happy, wise, good, is but a positive: not enough, if there be a greater, better, wiser, happier, in the comparative. Parva laus, tantum miseris anteferri. No, give it him in the superlative, in the highest; Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens. With our highest wishes, and highest affections, and highest expressions, and highest endeavors, let us set forth the praise and glory of the most high God, Jesus Christ.

4. Intentively, and with an earnest desire to glorify him. Though we cannot go so high as we would, yet let us go as high as we can. I know it is impossible to shoot home to the mark, and to give Christ condign praises: he is worthy of all praise, but no praise can be worthy of Him. As his humility was so deep, that we cannot sound it: so his sublimity is so high, that we cannot reach it. Yet let us draw to our utmost strength, and loose the arrows of our praises, so that they may come as near heaven, as the arm of flesh can send them: and even that shall be accepted. He does not look for such Glory from us, as He is worthy to receive, but as we are able to give. Our praises of Him are not sins, yet they are not without some touch of sin: praises and infirmities come from us together, but Christ parts them; forgiving the infirmities, and receiving the praises. They are full of weaknesses, yet doth He not except against them for their imperfections. He takes them well in worth, though there be no worth in them: and vouchsafes them a reward, which had been sufficiently honored with a pardon. Christ says of Mary's annointing Him, Quod potuit fecit: yet this was somewhat, for the Ointment cost a round sum: and of the Widows charity, Quod habuit dedit; and that (God wot) was but two Mites: yet well taken though. Actionis infirmitas shall not hinder, if Voluntatis integritas be ready. There may be weakness in the act of rendering Glory; but if there be goodness in the desire, the Mercy of Christ will look graciously upon it. God's good will towards us, will accept of our good will toward Him. He is attentive to their prayers, that desire to fear his Name: and even for David, whom God commended for a man after his own Heart; his honest true heart was the fairest flower in his garden. Every action is measured according to the proportion of the Agent: Desire in them that cannot speak, speech in them that cannot do, doing good in them that lack strength to suffer evil, finds favor at the hands of Christ. As in extreme sickness; when the tongue cannot utter words, yet the heart venting groans, receives compassion. Though the Totum hominis be but Votum mentis; that will is taken for the deed. Great acts from weak persons, are entertained with wonder. The Leper was not praised, Quia in lege doctus: the Centurion was wondered at, Quia legis ignarus: yet they both had faith. In modico sermon sapientiae plus laudatur rusticus, quàm in magno Philosophus. The witty speech of a child is admired: the same falling from the mouth of a man would not be regarded. None returned with thanks but the Samaritan: if Christ have his Tythe out of a strange field, when his own Parish pays Him none, He may well take notice of it. Faithful observance is most accepted, where it is least expected. If they offer Gold to the Tabernacle, whom we deemed scarce worth Goats hair: If Mary that was so great a sinner, spend more tears upon Christ's feet, than Simon that thought himself so righteous a Saint; shall she not be more rewarded? But as there may be a desire without ability, so commonly there is an ability without a desire. Some few would do much for Christ's Glory, and cannot: thousands of us can do much for his Glory, and will not. These latter rejoice for what they can do, and are in danger of hell: the former mourn for what they cannot do, and are accepted in heaven. God will give Glory to that very willingness, which desires to glorify his Son Jesus.

5. Principally; before all others, and above all others. Principaliter, is not only a numeral, but an ordinall term: signifying both First in number, and Chief in order. For Precedencie, let Christ be the First: and for Supremacy, let him be the chiefest. Both; for we know that in civil equipage, some go before who are not the chief, nay, furthest off from the Chief: as the fore rank are farthest from the Person of the Prince, though they go before the Prince. And Saint Paul in placing those three Divine graces, sets the greatest last; Vltima charitas, sed maxima charitas. So the son is set after the brother, yet is dearer than brother: wife after child, yet dearer than child; and friend after all, who is the dearest of all. But let Christ be both Primus in Ordine, and Primus in Dignitate. Begin thy works with his glory, and so let him be the first of all: reduce all thy works to his glory, and so let him be the chief of all. There be many others to whom we owe honor: but Christ's glory must be set before all, and kept above all. Men have their glory, and with his allowance: Honor to whom honor belongeth. There be distinctions of men upon earth; some higher than others: why have we else such diversity of Titles? Worship, Lordship, Honor, Grace, Excellencie, Majesty, are stiles of honor; everyone transcending another. There are degrees of glory in the celestial bodies, among the stars. Parents we are commanded to honor: and spiritual parents, good Pastors are worthy of double honor: above all men, honor the King. The politic Atheist would have all glory given to the King, and let God stand for a bare Name. The sottish Anabaptist would have all glory given to God, and the king to stand for a cypher. These think that God hath not his due honor, unless the king lay down his Scepter, that God and Caesar, Christ and the Christian Magistrate, are the whole heaven asunder: and will not come near one another. But Christ says, Give Caesar that which is Caesars, and to God that which is God's. He joins them both arm in arm, in one verse; and fears not the loss of his own honor, by the honor of the Prince. This is one difference between the Court-parasite, and the Anabaptistical hypocrite: The former is hot for Quae Caesaris, and quite skips over Quae Dei: the other stands upon Quae Dei, and would annihilate Quae Caesaris. But both have their due places; for God is the God of order, not of confusion. O ye sons of men, Christ doth not grudge you your honors, why should you deny him his? You may enjoy your Lordships, and Worships, and all your several Titles, without his envy: yea more, he commands men to give you all your due respects: not out of courtesy, for love; nor out of slavery, for fear; nor out of flattery, for gain; but out of duty, for conscience. He upholds your names, you may do well to uphold his. The factious Sectary, that would bring all things to a parity, thinks that God's glory is not entire, unless Caesars Image be quite blotted out. The profane polititian, that would flatter the king into a God, thinks that Caesar hath never enough, till God hath nothing left. As if both could not be preserved in their several rights: as if we must needs so look upon the one, as to lose the sight of the other; and so give ear to the one, as if we never cared for hearing of the other. But Caesar may have his honor, without God's prejudice: and God may have his glory without any impeachment to Caesar. Yea, Caesar holds all his honor in Capite: and as he is the head of his subjects, so Christ is the head of Caesar. By me Kings reign: It is Christ's Prerogative royal, to be the King of kings. Glory and honor, both are in his hand, and at his disposing.

To speak to us all; God is a careful Preserver of our honors: he hath made a strong fence about our good names; hedged them in with a precept, a precept delivered in thunder, and to be required with rigor; the breach whereof is punishable with quenchlesse fire: He hath bestowed a whole Commandment upon them. He gave but ten in all, and one of the ten he hath set to guard our honors. We are not only forbidden to speak evil of the Ruler, but even of our neighbor. So provident hath the Lord been to preserve our honor. To the conviction of them that stand upon piety to God, and forget civility to men: that think it enough to do some homage to Christ on the Sabbath, though they dishonor their brethren all the week. By reason of a sinful custom crept into the world, it is usual for one duty of godliness to devour all her fellows. We cannot raise the price of one virtue, but we must cry down all the rest. Not extol Preaching, but Prayer must grow out of request: not bring up alms, and the works of mercy, but presently the works of devotion must be laid down. No way but by the sale of Christ's ointment, to provide for the poor. No way to honor God, but by the despising of men. If we be so pious, as to give Christ the glory: then so impious as to befoul the good names of his servants with ignominy. I am not as other men, extortioners, adulterers, unjust. Too many of the pure brotherhood are of the Pharisees opinion right. No extortioner, no adulterer, as if there was no other way to hell, but by these enormities: as if God could be displeased with nothing, but adultery and extortion. But as the Pharisee left out of his Catalogue, Pride: he says, No extortioner, no unjust man; he says not, No proud man: So the precise arrogant dissembler brags, that he is no adulterer, no blasphemer; but he says not, I am no slanderer. No tongue so bitter as theirs, when they light upon a name that is not in their own Register: none makes so deep an incision into the credit of their neighbors. They complain of the profane ones, (as they call them) that they make drunken catches of them in the Taverns: I excuse it not: but by their leaves, they make worse libels of good men in their private conventicles. If it be a fault in the other, to censure men in their drink: is it no fault in these, to speak worse of men at their meat? Why should Ceres have a greater privilege than Bacchus? Why should our names be the fiddles, to draw down their morsels? Why do they blame the Papists for slighting the second commandment, when they make no reckoning of the ninth? As they take it ill for others to scandalize them under the name of hypocrites, so let them take heed of scandalizing others with the name of dissolutes. God is tender of all our reputations, why are not we so one of another's? This honor he affords us in our several stations: we have it, and much good do us with it. His glory doth not so swallow up ours, but that we are honored in him, by him, and for him. But then our honor goes beyond the bounds, when it encroacheth upon his glory. It is the presumption, and the ruin of it, to invade Christ's propriety. All our glory is but a beam of his: and shall a poor and small ray brave it out, as if it were the body of the Sun? The glory of making all good, the glory of repairing what we had made evil, the glory of disposing all to good, the glory of giving all good, the glory of doing all good; this glory he will not give to another. And he that presumes to take it, when as God denies to give it; shall find it too hot, or too heavy for him: he shall never carry it to his grave. All the glory we have, is the resultance of his: all our honor consists in being his instruments: We have the glory that belongs to the instruments, let him have the glory that belongs to the Agent. This is one strong motive to preserve his honor, because he preserves ours. We deserve to live with shame, and die with infamy, if both in life and death we do not give Christ the glory.

6. Entirely; and that two ways. First, Ex parte Christi, that he have it all to himself. Secondly, Ex parte nostrâ, that we give it to him with all the powers we have. Totum illi, & ex toto nostri: he must have all the glory which can be rendered by all our ability.

1. It must be entirely his: To him, and none but him. Not to another above him, not to another beneath him, not to another for him, not to another with him, not to another besides him; but only to himself. Gloria is not enough, nor gloria Deo, without Soli. To the only wise God be honor. Not unto us; as if the Saints were afraid to touch any part of it. So we are taught to acknowledge in our Prayer, and to pray for that acknowledgement; Thine is the glory. Thine, and no Creatures else. Some Creatures may have some glory, but none of Christ's glory: that same Gloria in Altissimis is only his. The Angels sung it to Him; and if we sing it to any but Him, we sing a false note. This was their music to Him, when he lay in the Cratch: much more now he wears his Crown: To Christ, and none but Christ the glory. No sharers; he will have all, or none. Let petty lords content themselves with a mediocrity of honor: they that have right to none, will take any. Satan was never so audacious, as when he would persuade his Maker to a geniculation, to an adoration of his Creature, of his professed enemy. Never did Christ say, Avoid Satan, till then. It is a just indignation, that is conceived at the motion of a rivality with God. Certainly, Idolatry is a most dear sin to the devil, or else he would not be so importunate to compass it. How are the Papists sure, that they do not make a rivall with Christ, when they set an Image before their eyes at the time of their worship? Why may not the Saint represented in that picture, yea, why may not the picture it self go halves with Christ in the glory? How is it to him entirely, if either a Saint in heaven, or an Image on earth, be his partner? And how are they so certain of the constancy of their minds, that no thought of theirs shall ever stick upon the picture? There is flesh in the holiest of them, as well as spirit: and when the Spirit would give all the glory to Christ, will not the flesh steal away some, to bestow upon the image?

The philosophical opinion of our souls, that they are made of harmony, is little better than a poetical fiction: But the poetical fiction, that the Thebans sprang of the seed of the Serpent, and so became warring brethren, is more than a Philosophical opinion. For since the Serpent beguiled our first parents, The flesh fighteth against the spirit, and the spirit fighteth against the flesh: Et cum hac controversia nati sumus. These twins make a perpetual war within us, and that war makes many wounds, and those wounds will never perfectly be cured, till we are advanced to Heaven. Christ may now cover them with his own garment of righteousness, as that king bound up the wounds of his soldiers with his own robe: but they are never thoroughly healed, till we come to that Heavenly Jerusalem, which signifies the vision of peace, the beatifical vision of God. And so long as this flesh, this corruption of our nature sticks to us, we are in danger of making some rivall with Christ. Though our grace, the better part, the Israel within us, would give all glory to him; yet within us there is a Philistine faction too, corrupt nature, that will set up their Dagon. Though they cannot agree together, yet they must dwell together. And Paul does forbid the dominion of the worse, not the cohabitation of both. David thought it a great woe, To dwell in Mesech: but it is a far greater woe, for Mesech to dwell in us. Yet there it will dwell, till death turns them both out of doors: and sendeth our sin down to Hell, to the Devil that begot it; and our soul up into Heaven, to our Redeemer that bought it. Good cause have we therefore to take heed, least that our sin betray our grace, and like a sly thief filch away some of that honor we intended to Christ.

Entirely Christ is to have his Glory, and entirely He cannot have it if with a Partner; and there is no way to set Him up a Partner, but by Idolatry. When S. John had told us, that Christ is the true God, he immediately chargeth to keep ourselves from Idols. Me thinks this should stagger all those Romists, that have any respect to their conscience, least in their invocations they should make Saints and Angels, yea, even dead pictures, Corrivals with Christ. It is a vain help, to be told that they should not do so: It were a far better course to remove the picture, and so to prevent all danger. As Apelles when he had drawn a picture, would stand close behind the curtains, to listen how the passengers did censure it; and according as they found just faults, to amend them. I would to God our superstitious neighbors, the Papists, hearing our just censures of their Idols, Images, and pictures, would even make a clear riddance of them. It is not safe enough to charge those clients, that they never ascribe any honor to such dead representations, but for better security to cast them forever out of their devotions.

For ourselves, we are not free from idolatry: It is miserable to see, how Satan draws the world insensibly into this sin, which they profess to detest. Those that would rather hazard the furnace, than worship gold in a Statue; yet do adore it in the stamp, and find no fault with themselves. They that would not endure to worship the virgin Mary's image, though it were in gold: yet having Caesars image in gold, they fondly worship it. Facilius est Idola à Templis, quàm à cordibus separare. And what difference is there upon the matter, whether we worship the workmanship of the carver, or of the coiner? Whether the Painters pencil, or the Minters stamp, most take our hearts? The Papist worships it as it is hangd up in his chamber, the Worldling worships it as it is laid up in his coffer: both are evil, which is worse? If our hearts be drawn to an over-high respect of any creature, we are idolaters: and idolatry (we know) sets up a rivall with Christ: and if rivalls be admitted, how does he sit alone in the throne? how is the glory entirely his?

All the titles of God's Power have been attributed to potent men by their subjects, saving only his glory. As his Greatness, his Grace, his Highness, his Excellency, his Majesty, his Omnipotency, but never his Glory. To some we say, your Honor: to some, your Grace: to a Superior, your Highness: to a Prince, your excellency: to the King, your Majesty: and the parasiticall Jesuits flatter the Pope with his Omnipotency: but never hath it been said to any of them, your Glory: This no Prince hath taken, no sycophant hath given: As if God on purpose had preserved that style to himself, and not suffered any creature to usurp it: My Glory I will not give to another.

Let the application of this be brought home to our own hearts. Christ hath appropriated divine glory to himself, yet still we are catching at it: we silly and sinful worms will be proffering to pilfer it, they that Seek their own glory, will never seek Christ's. Whereas all should be referred to the honor of Christ, they will refer even his honor to themselves. There is no practice stirring, but such a man must be at the one end of it: and some line of it, how crooked soever, must be drawn to his Center. But Christ will take glory from no hands but the humble: like some mighty Prince, that looks for lowliness in his attendants, and will not be served but upon their knees. Our prayers are a part of Christ's glory, and our posture to present them in is kneeling. Haman was proud to his fellow-peers, yet humble to Ahasuerus: but it must be an humble Mordecai, from whom Christ will accept glory. He accepted water from a Samaritan, and kisses from a Mary Magdalene: humble sinners do him more honor than proud Saints. There can be no greater folly, than the arrogation of glory to ourselves: what is it that we can glory in?

1. In our wealth, Dives sum? Saint Augustine answers him, Sarcinam tuam commemoras. Will any Ass praise his burden? Tace laudes tuas, & considera miserationes. The safest time to praise a rich man, is when he is dead: Quando nec laudantem movet adulatio, nec laudatum tentat elatio. Dionysius fell from a tyrant over men, to be a tutor over boys, and so to get his living. Perses son and heir was fain to learn an occupation, the black smiths trade, to relieve his necessity. Henry the fourth, that victorious Emperor, after he had fought two and fifty pitched battles, became a petitioner for a prebend, to maintain him in his old age. Geliner, that potent king of the Vandals, was so low brought that he entreated his friend, to send him a harp a spung and a loaf of bread: a harp to consort with his misery, a spunge to dry up his tears, and a loaf to satisfy his hunger. Yet this is the wind that blows up the worlds bladder: wealth is the foundation of secular glory. Evagrius makes it the high praise of the Emperor Maurice, that in the height of all his majesty, he retained his ancient piety. And Thucydides reports it for a strange thing in the men of Chius, that for all their prosperity they were sober. Scarce one of a thousand, Cui praesens faelicitas si arrisit, non irrisit. Be not these goodly things to glory in? Let the rich man tremble to hear of his own praises; Qui de praeterito meminit se habere quod doleat, & de futuro videt sibi superesse quod timeat. Honor God with thy substance: If thou takest this honor to thyself, thou playest the thief with thine own goods.

2. In our strength? Alas, it is vanity: Morbi ludibrium: a sorry fever will fillip down an Alexander. I know that much wrong is built on the presumption of power: Id in summa fortuna aequius, quod validius. Let them have might, and they have right enough. Sua retinere privatae domus: de alienis certare, regia laus est. They devour a man and his heritage. Quia in potestate manus. Would you have me be contented with mine own, says the oppressor? That is for peasants and base spirits: but to get that by force, which belongs to others, that is gentleman-like. You would have me use my servant well: O demens, ita servus homo est? Is my man a man? Is my tenant my neighbor? Is my neighbor my brother? Doth the Senate deny my master the Consul-ship? Hic ensis dabit, says Caesars soldier. Will not Nabaoth sell Ahab his vineyard for money? Jezebel will help him to it for nothing. A counterfeit hand, with Ahab's seal, shall do it. These men will have the law in their own hands: Nec leges metuunt, sed cedit viribus aequum: Maestaque victriei jura sub ense jacent: their right hand shall right them. They eat up God's people as bread: but it is not so soon digested, as eaten: in the end it will choke them. This nettles God, and makes him an enemy. For the oppression of the poor, I will rise, saith the Lord. And woe to thee that spoilest, for thou shalt be spoiled. Where will the mighty appear, when the Almighty comes to Judgment? They call to the rocks and mountains for shelter: and yet these were no babes, but great, rich, mighty men, no less than Captains and Kings. God takes pleasure to cast down the mighty: not out of envy to their greatness: alas, the greatest potentates be to him no more than the bigger size of worms. But this is the ground of his just quarrel: they rob him of his glory, and therefore shall taste of his fury. Men may be strong: as when Germanicus had besieged a town, one Pulio in his army, by throwing a stone at a battlement, and overturning it, with all the men upon it, so amazed them with his strength, that they gave up the town. It is reported of Marius, one of the 30. Tyrans, that he could turn over a loden wane with one of his fingers. Pliny writes of one Aristomenes, who in a battle, slew 300. Lacedemonians in one day. It was a song made of Aurelian the Emperor, Mille mille vivat, qui mille mille occidit. These were all famous men in their generations; yet their strength was but the strength of flesh, vincible at their best. The strongest man upon earth is but the push of a pike, or the clappe of a pistoll. Or if they escape these violences, an ague can make them as weak as water, age will shrink their nerves, and dry up their bloods, and consume their spirits: death is stronger than they all. Abimelech was killed by the hand of a woman: so was Pyrrhus. Totilas, that had vanquished Rome, which had vanquished the world, slain by Narses, a Semi-vir, an eunuch. It is recorded of Solomon, that having a great German brought prisoner to him, of very envy to the German nation, he caused him to be bound hand and foot, and then set his dwarf upon him, like a child with a knife to hacke a tree in sunder; who with many courses and careers, at last dispatched him. Such is the mockery of puissance, when God will give it over into the hand of weakness. Take heed ye potentates, least whiles you boast of what you can do if you will, you provoke God to do what he can; to lay you, and your principality in the dust. Woe worth that mightynesse, which shall offer to rob Christ of his glory.

3. Of our wisdom? Alas, that is a foolish glory: there is no wisdom in it. Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom. As by way of concession, every greater includes the less: he that can lift a talent, can easily lift a pound: So by way of denial, every greater excludes the less: if nobles may not be let into thy counsel, much less groomes. Wisdom it self is debarred any corrivality with Christ, in matter of glory: what place then is there for strength, or riches? Wealth is not comparable to strength: wealth tolles in enemies; but strength can both repel them from entering, and expel them if they be entered. Riches will make the thief more venturous, but seldom do they make the true man more hardy. Therefore doth the Prophet exclude the better at first, that the worse might with less ado be removed. If the more excellent cannot be allowed this liberty, the inferior may not by any reason challenge it. Wealth comes not more short of strength, than strength does of wisdom. The poor wise man by his wisdom delivered the city; that was the wise Solomon's observation. Then said I, wisdom is better than strength: that was his conclusion upon it. Sertorius commanded to be brought forth two horses; the one fat and lusty, the other a spittle, a poor lean Iade; both of them to be broken. He picked out two of his soldiers, the one strong and hearty, the other weak and sickly: to his lean horse he puts the strong soldier, the weak soldier to the pampered horse. The strong man went roughly to work, and thought to do the fear with dead strength; but he both tired himself, and became a mockery to the beholders: the weaker fellow by his sleight and cunning, did the deed, and went away with the applause. Strength therefore cannot boast, where wisdom is denied: and where strength cannot prevail, riches hath no hope. The best wisdom is to give all glory to Christ. Pharaoh ascribed great wisdom to Joseph, but Joseph quickly takes it off from himself, and sends it away to the right owner; Absque me, Deus respondebit prospera Pharaoni. So Daniel to Nebuchadnezzar; There is a God in Heaven that revealeth secrets. He blesseth God for the knowledge he had, and so does not deny it; but he returns the praise to him that gave it. It is written of Saint Bernard, that having done many wonders in France, he did thus put off all glory from himself: I have learned in the Scripture, that signs are done Vel per fictos, vel per perfectos: Ego nec fictionis, nec perfectionis mihi conscius sum: Let them have a good opinion of me, but give all the praise to God. in that holy man, Vincebat sublimitatem nominis, humilitas cordis: Nec poterat universus mundus tantùm eum erigere, quantum se ipse dejicere solus. Hypocrites labor to seem saints, not to be so; but the Holy labor to be, more than to seem Saints. The Kite may fly aloft, but her eye and mind is to the Earth: She seems to be a gallant Bird at her pitch, till she falls down upon a carrion. O how the dissembling Zealot makes a show to honor Christ with his lofty profession, as if he were altogether a man of Heaven: tarry but a little, throw the bait of glory in his way, and he will stoop to a carrion, and be taken with the pride of his own commendation. They say, there stands a Globe of the World at one end of a famous Library, and at the other end a Sceleton: We need not search long for a good lesson in this Library: for though a man were learned in all that he sees in the Map of this World, yet he must die, and so himself become a Map of mortality. Nothing a man hath wherein he can glory, but Christ will indict him for it, and that of a Sacrilegious fellonie.

To conclude with some Use. All the Prophets and Fathers of the Primitive Church, used to cry out against those particular sins, wherewith their times were pestered: If I were to touch the sore of the daughter of this people; (we have many sores, from the crown of the head, to the sole of the foot) that which doth most rankle and apostemate, it should be this robbing of Christ of his Glory, by the proud affectation of our own. And if I should further insist upon it, my Argument and Text here would bear it well enough. It is an epidemical infection: Every Man will proclaim his own goodness. In a concourse of several companies in this or any other city, still they only that are called, appear and answer. If Stationers be called, none answer but Stationers: at the call of Mercers, Embroyderers do not stand up: nor if Goldsmiths be named, do Habberdashers present themselves. But to the Proclamation of, O all ye that are good and honest men, approach, we stand up every man of us, none disappeares. We are all so proud, that we would be accounted such, though we are not so conscionable as to be such. But if we cloth ourselves with Christ's Glory, he will uncloth us of his favor, and then what will become of our honor? Suppose the King should set a Subject in his chair of State, give him royal attendants, and sumptuous cheare, but withal hang him a naked Sword over his head in a twine thread, with the point downwards: would that honor make him merry? Would he desire to be thus seated? Suppose that GOD should give thee this liberty, and suffer thee to ruffle it in the royal Robes of his Glory; Crown thy head with Rose buds, and wash thy paths with butter: or say unto thee, wrap thyself up in Purple and Scarlet, and fare deliciously every day: Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it with pleasures: Only, Faciem meam nunquam videbis, you shall never come at me, never see my Face; Would we think we had a good offer? Would we accept the condition? No, Lord, lift up the light of thy countenance upon us. Rather let my abode be a Prison, a Dungeon, a kind of Hell; but let the light of thy Countenance, O sweet Savior, shine in at some little cranny; and that shall make it a Palace, a Court, a very Heaven. Let our bread be the bread of affliction, and let our tears be our drink: but let the Light of thy Countenance shine upon us, and then our bread shall be transubstantiated into Manna, the food of Angels; and our Water be turned into Wine, our Tears congealed into Pearls, to enrich our Consciences with so many Heavenly joys. For all this felicity, he asks no more but his Glory. When Thales Milesius had imparted to another Philosopher some admirable discourse of Heaven, he freeed his Scholar from all reward but this; That whensoever he divulged this secret; Tibi non ascripseris, sed me ejus repertorem praedicaveris. The invention it self he was willing to communicate unto others, but the honor of the invention he wovld keep to himself; Vbi mea legit, me agnosce. We have received all our Wisdom, Strength, Honor, and Wealth from Christ: he requires no more, but that we acknowledge the Author; Vbi meis uteris, me agnosce: Take thou the comfort of them, but give me the Glory. To do this, Summa ratio docet, & Christianos decet. Lord, the whole World is a great Book of thy mercy; every benefit is a lesson, and wheresoever we read it, we will give thee the Glory.

2. It must be entirely his, ex parte nostra. We owe both body and soul to His Glory for our Creation, and might have paid it: God did not set us up without a sufficient stock to do it. But we must needs be trading with the Serpent, for the commodity of forbidden Knowledge, and so take in sin for an Apprentice: and he cussened us of all, and so quite undid us. So that the Statute of Bankrupt was sued out against us, for our Creditor would not be compounded withal: and if we had been sold to our skins, we were not able to satisfy him. Non habuimus unde, no payment could be made. At last there was a rich and merciful Prince in Heaven, that took pity on us: He bought out our bondage, paid our debts with His own Blood, and once again did set us up with the wealthy stock of his own Righteousness. Thus are we re-enabled to pay him the debt of Glory: if we do not, we are worthy to perish: If we break once again, let us never look to be soaldred up. Our bodies and souls are his by a double right; therefore, in both let us glorify Him: In our souls, Bless the Lord O my Soul: With our bodies; giving up them A living sacrifice. With both entirely; the whole soul; I will praise the Lord with my whole heart: with the whole body, even all our members, not one left out, All that is within us. Quoad intra, and quoad extra too. With our hearts, with our lips, and with our hands. The lips without the heart, proves us Hypocrites: the heart without the lips proves us cowards: the heart and lips without the hand, proves us niggards. The heart is the leader, but what glory will there be without followers? Secrecie destroys the nature of glory, for it is quiddam conspicuum: Celata gloria non est gloria. Therefore the mouth is made to interpret the meaning of the heart: the lips are the Trumpet, but it is the heart that gives it breath, and makes it sound forth God's glory. The hands must come in with their part, or the song is marred: neither a thinking glory, nor a speaking glory, will please God without a working glory. The praise of God is thus bred, and borne, and brought up: Conceived in the heart, borne in the lips, and brought up with the hand. Paratum cor; there it is conceived. Parata lingua; there it is borne: Parata manus; there it is nursed and brought up. As good desires breed it, so good works feed it. If the young and tender grace of thankfulness, do not fall into the hands of uberous and fruitful obedience, it will languish and pine away, even to death: and we may say of it, that it was starved at nurse. It is too common for good resolutions, borne in our hearts, to die in our hands: And not seldom, the glory of Christ speeds so with us; we have our well wishes to it, but no works to nourish it: it dies in our hands. So that it is not enough to pray for honest hearts; Create in me a clean heart: nor for gracious lips, Open thou my lips: but also for working hands; Prosper thou the work of our hands. For we may say of too many, full of grace are their lips; but you see none of it in their lives. Let us consider them all apart, and mark whether, like courtiers in their several offices, they glorify God in their proper places.

1. The heart must begin this holy song. Bless the Lord from the ground of the heart: Make melody in your hearts to the Lord. Otherwise we shall but set forth his praises, as ignorant Papists say their Latin prayers; their hearts not knowing what their tongue utters. Sing ye praises with understanding. The heart bears the inner part, and if that be left out, it disgraceth the music. There may be parata cithara, and parata lingua, and parata manus, and paratum canticum: but if there be not Paratum Cor, no harmony. The heart is a little man within: therefore Peter calls it, the man of the heart. There is the hidden heart of a man, and the hidden man of the heart. The former is so hidden, that it cannot be seen: the other will be seen, though it be hidden. The heart lies close in the body, there is no window into it. It may profess holiness, and be believed, because it cannot be discerned: but the man that is the Master of his own heart, will make demonstration of his integrity, by good actions. The heart of man is deceitful, but the man of the heart scorns to dissemble. It is not Cor hominis, but homo cordis, that does the deed, in giving Christ his glory. Indeed, grace is the heart of the heart: and a heart without grace is no better than a man without a heart. Nature hath given us an heart, but grace gives a heart to that heart, which makes it a heart indeed. It is Cor cordis, and animae anima. Therefore Sursum cordae; that is ever the cliffe, or first note in the song of praise. My soul doth magnify the Lord: the soul ever leads. The tongue is not enough, that organ would sound but harshly, unless the affection of the soul do give it breath, and the understanding of the soul keep it in tune. They honor God with their lips, but their heart is far from him: but-no heart, no harmony. The lips, hands, and feet may be in motion: but if the heart be not amongst them, to regulate their motion, there will be nothing but discord and confusion. Let a deaf stranger, who never saw that sportive excercise before, pass by men as they are a dancing; and because, he hears none of their music, he will think them mad. When Christ hears us talking of him, or spending our discourse upon his creatures, without a heart desirous of his glory, he knows us for mere hypocrites. The Virgins that press to the wedding, and leave the bride behind them, shall never be welcome to the Bridegroom: Vbi sponsa mea? will be his first question. If the bride of Christ, our heart or soul be absent in his solemn services, there is no entertainment for us. Devotion that hath not deeper root than the lips, is like that unprosperous corn sown in the high ways. Diverse great warriors, dying in foreign countries, have yet sent their hearts home to be buried: Let us send our hearts up into heaven, whatsoever becomes of our bodies.

2. The tongue follows with her part; the only vocal Instrument in the consort of man. The heart is primum mobile, and that sets this wheel a going. I believed, and therefore I spake: if the heart believes, presently the tongue confesses. My heart is inditing of a good matter, my tongue is the pen of a ready writer. To sing the praises of the heavenly king, is a good matter indeed: the ditty is honorable: no sooner can the heart prick the notes, than the tongue is ready to sing them. It can sing at first sight, yea it can sing by heart. The heart is the most noble part, but not the most able part of man: it hath an affective, not an effective power. Yet as a king, whose bodily constitution is but weak, can move great armies by his authority: so the heart hath command over the strongest members of the body. And as a king cannot subsist, but by his subjects: so nor can the heart do anything, but by those instruments. The heart then hath need of the tongue for an Interpreter: loose that colt, and let it go for the Lord hath need of it: but let it not go without a bridle. God will not hear the tongue, but by the heart: as man cannot hear the heart, but by the tongue. The praises of Christ conceived in the heart, without the utterance of the tongue, are still-borne; they never live to speak. Why is our tongue called our Glory, but for the setting forth of God's glory? It doth not service enough by calling upon God in our private prayers: Open thou my lips and my mouth shall show forth thy praise: He hath not opened our lips, that our mouth might show Him his praise, but that it might show forth his praise. Solitude is not much better than a grave: Lord, in the grave no man shall praise thee: and in a wall, in an Hermitage, in a separation from all society, no man shall hear us praise thee. What holy use is there of our tongues, but to confess our sins, to inform our brethren, and in all to praise our Maker? But there is a dumb Devil that possesseth the world, and stops the mouths of men from those useful and necessary services. It is no small honor, whereof that malicious Spirit shall rob his Maker, if he can close up the mouth of his only rational and vocal Creature: and turn the best of his workmanship into a dumb Idol, that hath a mouth and speaks not.

Praise is not more necessary than complaint; praise of God, than complaint of ourselves: yea, in complaining of ourselves, we do no less than give praise to God. There needed no other evidence against Achan, when God had accused him: yet as the sin was hatched in his heart, so Joshua will have it out of his mouth: Give Glory to God. As his honor is blemished by our sin, so the humble confession of our sin makes to his Glory. The only amends we can make to God, when we have not had the grace to avoid sin, is to confess the sin we have not avoided. I am merciful, saith the Lord: Only acknowledge thine iniquity: as if He asked no more. This is the spunge that wipes out all the blurs of our lives. If we confess, He is faithful to forgive. There is no way to purge the sick soul, but upwards; by casting up the vicious humors wherewith it is clogged. Therefore the Devil strives to hold the lips close, that the soul may not disburden it self by confession. We have a tongue for God, when we praise his Name; a tongue for ourselves, when we pray and confess our sins: a tongue for our brethren, when we inform them in the truth. To fail in these duties, is to yield to the dumb Devil. Where do we not find that accursed Spirit? He is in the conversation of men, when the tongue belies the heart, flatters the guilty, and forbears repróofes even in the foulest crimes. When the partial Judge determines not for truth and innocence, that dumb Devil is on the bench. When the Preacher shall humor the times, and adulterate the message of God, that dumb Devil is in the Pulpit. When the irreligious Iuror dares lend an oath to fear, to hope, to gain, he is at the Barre. When the consciencelesse Chapman shall for his penny, sell his truth and his soul, he is in the market. Where is the Glory of Christ all this while? In that we are dumb: but take us to anything else, and we have wind at will, and tongue enough. Christ opened his mouth for us, Father forgive them: yea, He opened his side for us, his very blood did speak, Father forgive them: and shall we be dumb in his praise? It is an easy labor to speak: for ourselves we can talk fast enough: and are we tongue-tied when it comes to the point of Christ's Glory? No, My lips shall rejoice when I sing of thee, my tongue shall talk of thy righteousness all the day long.

3. The hand must not be left out; in our words men hear his Glory, but in our good works they see it. Then doth our Light shine indeed, when Men see our good works, and thereby glorify our heavenly Father. This is a full evidence: all the Sermons of Christ did not move the people so much, as his miraculous works. Healing diseases, ejecting devils, over-ruling elements, raising the dead; these works convinced them, and they went away glorifying God: We never saw it on this fashion. And when He forbids us the doing of such works to be seen of men; Non prohibit videri, ut Deus laudetur; sed videri, ut nos laudemur; as Saint Augustine expounds it. And as our lips must not be labra muta, so nor our works opera mutila; lame and defective. Shall I accept this of your hand, saith the Lord. The best testimony that can be given to Christ, is our holy conversation. Inutilis & mortuus aequiparantur injure: Our hands are counted dead in Law, because they give nothing. If we do not glorify Christ in our actions, men will never believe our words. Such men are like dissolute Choristers, that sing Gloria Patri in the Queere, but chant Carmina Bacchi in the Tavern. Let us do something to his Glory, yea, Do all things to his Glory. Defend we the honor of Christ, not only with our speeches; (though they may not be left out, like parentheses) but with our goods, with our bloods, when just occasion calls for them. Thus did the Matyrs give Him Glory, by dying for the witness of his Gospel. Potiùs quàm Christus perderet gloriam, Christianus perdidit vitam. This makes his praise beautiful; white and red, and in both most lovely: White, In innocentia viventium; and Red, in sanguine morientium. If a blow be coming, the arm naturally lifts up it self to receive it, and to defend the head, whereof it is a member. What injury soever is meant to our Head, the Lord Jesus, if we be Christians, we strive to intercept it; and had rather be wounded to death, than the least finger of his honor should be scratched.

Yes, we all pretend a forwardness to this interposition; and say, we would rather lose our life, than the least part of our glory. This is a good saying, but all this while where is the doing? Let us hear the bells of Aaron strike on both sides; with a holy profession, which is one stroke, that other stroke of a holy conversation. As we have commonly seen upon those bells that hang out for signs; upon the one side is written, Fear God: on the other, Honor the King. Whiles we only say, we fear God, and glorify Christ, all this while the bell doth but toule, it strikes but on one side; But when we come to honor the King, to do good to all men, which is the practice and exercise of holy works, then the bell rings out to God's glory, it sounds forth his praises on every side. It is true that our well doing extends not to God: not immediately, but mediately it does, or at least he so takes it. What you have done to these little ones, you have done to me. If we defend not his Church, how do we glorify him? They mean small honor to the Head, that do not their best to save the Body. We have and enjoy plentiful blessings: blessed be his Name that gives them to us: But let us eat our sweet Passover with sour herbs, and be mindful of the affliction of Joseph. Some tribes of the Lord's Israel do not fare so well: shall we do nothing for them, for Christ in them? If Herod was so taken with Herodias dancing, that he promised her a boone to the one half of his kingdom. Shall not we be moved with Rachel weeping, weeping for her children because they are not; and they are not, because bloody Herod hath taken them away? Can we see the Churches tears, and not do our utmost endeavors to comfort her? Ephorus an Historian, and scholar to Isocrates, had no remarkable thing to write of his country, and yet was willing to insert the name of it in his History: and therefore brings it in with a cold parenthesis: Athens did this famous thing and Sparta did that; and at that time my countrymen, the Cumins did nothing. God forbid that England should be so recorded in the Ecclesiastical History, as to have her name put in with a blank: Such a Church did thus nobly, and such a Church suffered thus pitifully; and at that time my countrymen of England did nothing. I think it would be no more honor for us, so to be put into the Chronicle, than it was for Pilate to have his name mentioned in the Creed. To be more particular; we abound with riches, our brethren are necessitous: we feast upon delicates, they want bread: we are strong and healthy, they feeble and sickly: yet we are so far from relieving them with charitable deeds, that we scarce vouchsafe them our hearty prayers. Think of it thou rich churl, from whose iron hands no persuasion can skrew a poor alms: if thou wilt not be moved with the compassion of thine own bowels, yet vouchsafe to learn charity by fair examples. There be not only walls upon Earth, but a book in Heaven, wherein the names of pious benefactors are written. Wouldest thou not be glad at the last day, to find thine own name there? Such a man did so much, and such a man gave so much, for the glory of Christ and succor of poor Christians: and at that time thou didst nothing, thou gavest nothing. Something thou hast done to the grief of others, nothing to their comfort: So nothing shalt thou receive to thy comfort, enough to thy everlasting sorrow.

To conclude; let us sacrifice all we have, all we are, to the glory of Christ. If our lives be not called for, yet our goods may: if we have no goods to give, yet our hearts and lips we have, the poorest among us may give praises to God. And the more he spares us in our blood and estates, the more our tongues are obliged to thankfulness. When tribute was to be paid to Caesar, and Christ himself was to pay it; rather than fail, the fish shall bring it in his mouth. There is not a fish that swims in our waters so dumb, not a beggar amongst us so poor but he hath gold in his mouth to pay this tribute: to give praise and Glory to Jesus Christ. Gratitude can give eloquence, even where nature hath commanded silence: They are more mute than fishes, that do not pay this tribute of thankfulness. Be we never so rich, we are still begging for more comforts: Blessings we receive, but what blessings do we restore? God looks to be blessed of us, as well as we look to be blessed of God. One of Philip's soldiers, being courteously and plenteously entertained by his Host, where for a good space he was billeted, did yet at his going away beg some of his Hosts lands: but king Philip branded him with Ingratus hospes; he set that mark on his forehead. If we be still praying for new favors, without praising God for the old, we deserve to be branded with the ignominious title of unthankful Clients. Indeed God would have us pray, he commands us to pray, he teaches us to pray, he holds himself honored by our prayers, he grants the blessings for which we pray: but withal, he would have us pay still as we take up; and clear the old score, before we run farther in debt. In a word, he looks that we should pay him the rent of thanks, for all his favors to us in Jesus Christ.

[unspec 5] Quando, when must this Glory be rendered? Nunc, Now, without any delay. All time is God's: Antiquus dierum: though some be more specially his, as the Sabbath is called Dies Domini. The day is thine, and the night is thine: therefore at all times we are bound to praise him: If we can find a time, which is not God's own propriety, we may take that time wherein to give him no Glory. Every work hath the own season; only God's work requires every season: especially this work of praising his Name. Some actions of God's service may vary according to their occasions: when he frowns upon us, that is a time of mourning; when he smiles, then our hearts are set a dancing. Their is a time to get, and a time to lose; a time to get his favor; and alas, there may be a time to lose it. There is a time to rent our hearts with repentance, and a time to sew them up again with faithful assurance. These acts have their several times: but for the promulgation of God's glory, no time is excluded. There is a time to keep it, but no time to cast it away: a time to speak, but no time to keep silence. What, not in adverse fortunes? when the hand of God hath undone us, by losses on sea or land; when he hurles us down from a rich state to beggary; shall we then praise him? then give him glory? Yes, Job did so; Blessed be his name, not only for giving, but even for taking away. I confess, this is a hard task put upon flesh and blood; to be smitten, and yet to bless; to give thanks for misery. Job's wife could hardly be got to do so, though she dwelt in a family where religion was so truly observed by morning and evening sacrifice, and by a constant devotion: yet her husbands extreme calamity made her so far forget herself, as to say to him, Doest thou still retain thine integrity? Curse God and die. To curse God, was the way to die indeed, even to be stoned to death; and to end all his miseries with a worse beginning. I know there are some so favorable interpreters of her weakness, that they would fain excuse her; and that from the doubtful acception of the word, which signifies to bless, as well as to curse: Bless God and die; pray for thy dissolution, and cessation of this trouble. But why then does Job reply; Loqueris vt stulta calling her fool for her counsel? Yes, for even that was a foolish advice: though a Cupio dissolvi, only to be with Christ, be a good desire: yet wearynesse under the cross is base and degenerate cowardice, far from the valor of a Christian. They allege farther, that if Satan had power to destroy all that Job had, his goods, his servants, his children, why not also his wife? They answer that she was out of his commission: Only upon himself put not forth thy hand: only himself was exempted, and his wife was himself: una caro. Besides, of her body were the other seven sons and three daughters begotten; for we do not read that Job had a second wife. And lastly, when Job offered sacrifice, to expiate the sins of his friends, he offered none for his wife: therefore in all likelihood she was holy. Yet against all this it might be said, that she was una caro with him, not unus spiritus: many a religious husband is knit to an ungodly wife: And it is the opinion of the Fathers, that the Devil spared her, on purpose to vex him: what tempter could he find more fit, than her that lay in his bosom? Nor did her speech a little trouble him: for during all his trial, not one other so hasty a word dropt from him, as to call anybody fool. Besides, which strikes it home, she expostulates with him about his integrity: as if she took it ill that he took it no worse: his patience made her impatient. O how rare a grace is it in men, to bless God for their crosses, to kiss the hand that strikes them? Behold this evil is of the Lord, says that mad-braind king of Israel, What should I wait for the Lord any longer? We are soon weary of our attendance: we can wait at the gates of the Divine bounty, so long as we feel benefits a coming, like insatiate beggars for more alms: but if we be corrected for our unruliness, then why should we wait on the Lord any longer? This evil is of the Lord: this evil, this one evil: None of his mercies or good turns are thought on, but this one evil sticks in our stomachs. In unthankful hearts, one of God's afflictions mars the glory of all his blessings. Now therefore we must praise him: now, even in the time of our adversity: For shall we receive good things of God, and not evil? Nullum tempus occurit Regi: none must prevent Christ of his right, which is his glory.

We have three considerations here: or this Nunc may be considered in three relations: By way of Position, by way of Opposition, and by way of Composition. First, Positively, in the right and true nature of it: what it signifies in it self. Secondly, Oppositively, as it is opposed to that external duration after this world, when time shall be no more. Now, and forever: this short Now, compared with that long For ever. Thirdly, Compositively, as it respects all times, and all occasions: every opportunity is a Nunc, and this Nunc is nothing else but opportunity.

1. All the term we have in this world, is but a Nunc: that which was in the morning, is past: what may be in the evening, is not yet come: the former may be already lost, and the future we are not sure of; we can only make much of our Nunc. The time past is irrecoverable, the future to us is contingent, and the very Nunc is slippery and transient: And yet this is all the term we have: we must enjoy this or nothing. Aut nunc, aut nunquam, is a frequent offer. To call back the the elapsed time, is a foolish imagination: to bid the Sun, when it is full South, to go back to the East; or when it is noon, to make it but the third hour of the day: who would attempt this but a mad man? And as we cannot revocare praeteritum, so nor accelerare futurum: we have planted trees, but we must stay for the fruit until the Season comes. When it is ripened of it self, we may reach out our hand, and gather it before it fall off: but we cannot hasten the ripening of it: we cannot make the Winter-fruit mellow in June. In the curing of a Fever, till there be some concoction of the disease, the Physicians themselves must be Patients. Any disorder of the Patient, any pretermission of the Physician, may exalt the disease, and increase the violences of it: no diligence can hasten the maturity; they must all tarry the season. And why should we look for that in a disease, which is the disorder, the irregularity, and rebellion of the body, which we cannot find in nature it self? It were scarce a disease, if it could be ordered, and made obedient to our times. The great Lady, in matter of childebirth, cannot put off her ninth month to a tenth; nor hasten it to a sixth, without bearing an abortive issue. Men in authority will not be put to change their seasons: we must take them in their Nunc, or fail of our purpose. We cannot look for this indulgence in time: there is an opportunity, which is the Nunc of time: let slip that, and time will not be at our beck. O that such and such sins were to do again; we then would never admit them: this is Vox lugentium in infernis. O that the time of doing such and such things were come: this is Vox insipientium in terris. O that I were made a Judge in the land: What an excellent Judge would Absalom be? But when by offering violence to time, he had skrew'd out a Nunc for his affected Magistracy, he proved an unnatural Traitor. Take therefore thy Nunc, the opportunity that God sends thee: use it, and be thankful.

The Scripture is very liberal, when it calls our life a day: for in the day there be twelve hours, saith our Savior. It is too much to call it an hour, which is but the twelfth part of a day; for in the hour there be sixty minutes: Nay, call it a minute, the sixtieth part of an hour. Minutum is little, yet not little enough: we must come to Punctum, and take that for all the certainty of our allowance: we can be sure of no more than our very Nunc. I will bless the Lord while I live: and no certain tenure of life more than for a Nunc. The wicked are brought into desolation as in a moment: In momento, let that be our Memento: within the compass of a Nunc, we may be gone. That same dies salutis is called but a Nunc: the day of salvation may be longer to the world, no particular man can challenge more than his Nunc. When was the longest Nunc in the world? In the days of Joshua, when the Sun stood still in Gibeon. Why was this extension of time? Why this stoppage in the wheels of nature, as if the plummet had been down? It was for that purpose, for which our Nunc is here given us, that God might have the Glory. Israel was then in pursuit of their enemies; it was the time of execution: they cut them off with the sword, God with hailstones. Had Joshua only respected the slaughter; he knew that God's Ordnance from Heaven could have done that sufficiently: the Sun needed not stand still to direct the shot. God can as well hit as shoot; kill, as hit. But that all Nations might know, that the same hand commands in Earth, in the Clouds, in Heaven; the Sun and Moon shall stand still in Heaven, whiles volleyes of shot play upon them from the Clouds. The whole Earth could not see that Cloude of hail, which because of the heavy burden flew but low: all the Earth might see the Sun and Moon. All the world must needs be witnesses of that, which the eye of the world stood still to see. Who would not inquire the reason why the Sun rested from motion? Or what wonderful business was in hand, that he stayed his course to behold it? All was for the glory of God: he never had got himself so much honor among those Heathen by one days work, as he did by that, when the Sun and Moon suspended their courses, to become spectators. That was a long Nunc indeed; never any like it. A Nunc of twelve hours long, for so it appeared to be; because the Sun which is the measure of Time, stood still about a whole day. We cannot look for such a favor, to have our Nunc stretched out to twelve hours; that the Sun should stand still in Heaven, whiles we are killing up our enemies, and by the sword of repentance doing execution upon our sins. But Now, while the word is sounding, let us fall a repenting: and at every Nunc, upon every occasion, let us give glory to Christ.

This easily solves that riddle; what is the longest, and the shortest? the oldest, and the youngest thing in the world? Time: It is the longest, for it reacheth from the beginning of the world to the end: the shortest for it is but a Nunc; gone in the turning of a hand, in the twinkling of an eye: it lasts but for a moment. The oldest thing, for it is just as old as the Creation, as the beginning of the world: it is five days older than man. As Time is the register of all things below, so the world is the register of time: it was borne on the first day, the first moment of the first morning; older than the Sun and Stars, Death is grown a very old man, though he hath yet strength enough to kill: sin is older than death, man is older than sin, time is older than man. Yet still is time the youngest thing: it is borne, and dies within the compass of a Nunc. It makes all things aged, yet is it self never above a minute old. That which was heretofore is not: that which shall be hereafter, is not: that which is, was not heretofore, nor shall be hereafter. We stand by a river: the present water that is now passing by, was never there before, nor shall it ever return again. Nunc is all we have; this only is our certain tenure.

2. In respect of opposition to forever: Now let us glorify Christ, as we hope to do it forever. For this we pray; that his will may be done in Earth now as it is in Heaven forever. His Will is his Glory; and must have the nunc temporis here, as it hath the Diem aeternitatis there. Punctum may be something ad lineam, because continued points make a line: Nunc may be something ad diem; though there be many Nunc's in a minute, and many minutes in an hour, and twelve hours in one day: yet still there is a proportion between Now and Day; because Nunc is a part of the whole. Points enough will make up a line; and store of Nunc's will run out to a full days length: But there is no proportion between time and eternity: for eternity is not a duration of time, not an extension of time, nor can time be any part of eternity. Now therefore we must glorify him, or not forever: here below, or not there above. Nay, if we do not glorify him, Nunc, in aeterno nostro: he will not glorify us Tunc, in aeterno suo. Our surest course is to do it now, whilst we may: lest we unhappily wish that we had done it, when we may not. We acknowledge in our prayer, Thine is the Kingdom: that it is a powerful kingdom, for Thine is the Power: that it is a glorious kingdom, for Thine is the glory: that it is an everlasting kingdom, For ever and ever. God, as he is three Persons, hath three Kingdoms. There is Regnum potentiae, the kingdom of power and providence: and this we attribute to the Father. There is Regnum gloriae, the kingdom of peace in Heaven: and this we attribute to the Son, and to his purchase: Come ye blessed, inherit the Kingdom: He gives it. Between them two, there is Regnum gratiae, the kingdom of grace, which we attribute to the Holy Ghost: Because he takes them, whom the King of Power hath preserved, and the King of Glory hath redeemed; and brings them along through the Kingdom of Grace to the Kingdom of Glory. The two former Kingdoms, of Power and of Grace, are in this World; but neither of them is of this World, because they both refer to the Kingdom of Glory. The Kingdom of the Father, which is the Providence of God, doth preserve us. The Kingdom of the Holy Ghost, which is the Grace of God, doth sanctify us. And the Kingdom of the Son, which is the Glory of God, doth crown us. Power and Grace are exercised on Earth, Glory is exhibited in Heaven. Though to the Saints, this World be the way to their Kingdom; yet their Kingdom is not of this World. My Kingdom is not of this World, saith the King of all: if not his, much less ours. In two of these Kingdoms we have our Nunc: For ever, belongs to the Kingdom of Glory. All the Kings in Heaven shall glorify Christ forever there: we that hope for that Kingdom, must do it in our Nunc here. The Gospel is our Nunc; and this (we know) is called a Kingdom, the very Kingdom of Heaven. First, Because it revealeth a Kingdom; discovers a Kingdom before it be utterly unknown to the World. Secondly, Because it prepares us for a Kingdom: for only grace can make us fit for glory. Thirdly, because it promiseth a Kingdom, and makes good that Promise. Fourthly, Because it rules us as a Kingdom, subduing our wills and affections to the obedience of Christ. Our Nunc lies in this Kingdom, during the reign of the Gospel. As Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius, and of Cyrus the Persian: so let our goodness prosper under the reign of both these Kingdoms: of God the Father, over us in his Providence, and of God the Holy Ghost, over us in his Grace; that so God the Son may advance us to his glory. Out of this flower Nunc, we may suck a double sweetness; both encouragement, and instruction.

1. For our Encouragement, it is but a short time that we have to serve: our apprenticeship will soon run out. They that mind their work, and ply their business with delight, never think the time long; as Jacob's service of seven years, for Rachel seemed but a few days. O God, our age is nothing unto thee: and if we be men after David's heart, as he was a man after God's heart, our sixty years spent in his service, is but like a Saint Lucies day; nay, but as a pleasant dream when one awaketh; a very Nunc, the next degree to nothing. A hackney jade, that knows the shortness of his journey, will scour it away. The hope of a reward in the evening, and rest at night, will make a hireling accomplish his day: How base are we, if we go groaning under our Nunc, and cannot carry our burden one stride? Yet a little while, and he will not tarry. A very little while indeed: we cannot imagine a less space in time, than a Nunc: as we cannot find a less place in the mathematickes, than a point: Put them together, and it is but Punctum temporis. Two things show time to be exceeding precious. First, Because they that have lost time, that are swallowed up into the eternity of hell, had rather be owners of one Nunc, of one moment to repent in, than to be Lord's of the whole world. Secondly, Because a very Nunc made use of, a short time employed in the work of salvation, shall gain us an everlasting kingdom. In the doing of evil, Breve est quod delectat, aeternum quod cruciat: But in the doing of good, breve est quod laborat, aeternum quod coronat. The husbandman lies to all the year, for one short harvest: Eleven months labor, for one months profit; and yet that hoped for profit may miscarry too: either by ill weather abroad, or by vermin in the barn. God hath set us but one months task, for a whole years harvest: Nay, the labor lasts but for a Nunc, the fruit forever. And it is such fruit as cannot miscarry; joy and glory laid up for us in heaven. Therefore hath he made our life of labor so short, and our life of rest so long; that we might not grudge to work out our Nunc, for that reward of peace whereof there is no end. I will run the way of thy commandments, saith holy David It were folly to ask him why he makes such hast, when we know he would fain be at home.

2. For our Instruction: so must we glorify Christ Nunc in our militant estate, as we desire to do in aeternum, in our triumphant estate. The draught and abridgment of heaven is in every sanctified heart upon earth: As it is said of the good Prince, that he carries the pattern of his governing the people always about him; and so rules himself, as he would have them ruled by him: So the Christian hath ever the pattern of heaven in his conscience, and so lives here, as the Saints do there. It is true that the glory of heaven is not visible to mortal eyes: Eye hath not seen: yet a man may have the map of a city which he never saw. All Homers Iliades have been drawn into a small volume: we have seen the counterfeit, the image of a king in a little tablet. When a pitched field is to be painted or printed, with in the compass of a sheet of paper, but a few soldiers can be presented entire; not many stations or postures whole and complete: but the greater number appear to us only by their heads or helmets; and the several troupes or companies by their colors. Yet by this portraiture we may guess at the battle, and conceive the module or platform of it in our imaginations. So though heaven be too immense to be measured by an human line, and none but the Angel with his golden reed can mete out the new Jerusalem: Yet the just man hath the compendium of it in his breast: the holiness and peace of his soul is a brief of it: and his sounding forth of God's praises here, is an Echo of the music above. As the joy or triumph for the kings coronation begins at the Court, and from thence spreads into the country: so the hymns of praise harmoniously sung to Christ in heaven, have a reverberation upon earth. S ^t . Paul tells us, that the foundation of that high building is laid here below: if no holiness here, no blessedness there. Let us never look for a house above the stars, if we do not feel the groundwork of it in our own hearts. It is a vain fancy, to expect a house without a foundation. The heir apparent of a kingdom, during his minority, may be brought up in a foreign country: yet even there, he may have the figure of his kingdom in his hand, and the copy of it in his heart. Who doth not pretend to the kingdom of heaven? Many a one that wants his pattern. Presumptuous hypocrite, doest thou lay title to a kingdom, whereof thou hast no form? What royal blood runs in thy veins? What grace and holiness is in they heart? Where be those noble actions that become a Prince? There is fullness of joy above: is thy laughing and singing in a taverne the pattern of it? There is honor and glory above: is thy covetous and base drudgery, to scrape together the mucke of worldly riches which should rather be spread abroad to dung the land; is this any pattern of it. There is music and harmony above: be thy wanton sonnets and drunken catches any patterns of it?

There is peace and rest above: is thine idle security and slepy neglect, any pattern of it? There is beauty and claritie above: is they piecing up the defects of nature with art, the laying of vermilion upon dust, or dressing up of mortal limbs in rich and curious attires; any Image of it? There is light above: be thy works of darkness any reflection of it? Will a man draw the Sun with a coal? There is perfect obedience above: is thy rebellion any module of it? There is pure innocence above: be thy rapes and rapines, thy rage and bloodiness, any resemblance of it? The language above, is the praises of Christ: be thy oaths, curses, and blasphemies, of a like sound to it? These sins be rather the Image of hell, than of heaven. Shall we like those Sun-burnt pagans, that painted the Angels black, in favor of their own complexion? Shall we measure the joys of heaven by our own corrupt and sensual pleasures upon earth? Or think that the Saints there stand affected, as we do here? This were to measure things that be unmeasurable, by things that be measurable, by things that be miserable. This were for heaven to take a pattern from us, not we to take a pattern from heaven, and to imagine the Saints (though in a higher degree) to be of like disposition with us; not we striving to be of like disposition with them. Will the covetous ask, what money there is in heaven? The purchaser, what land there is to be sold in heaven? The voluptuous, what dainties there be in heaven? Or the ambitious, what place he may get in the court of heaven? These be base and brutish thoughts. The module of heaven is within a man's heart: it is not meat and drink, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the holy Ghost. There is nothing that I can think of upon earth, that bears any resemblance of heaven; but Peace: there is no war in heaven: and Music; there is an everlastingness of that in heaven. Holynes, obedience, joy, peace, concentred in the praise and glory of Christ; this is the pattern and picture of heaven. This if we have in our Nunc of grace, it shall make us blessed in the For ever of glory.

3. In respect of Composition: for Now, like the eye of a well drawn picture, looks upon all times, upon all occasions. There is no action but challengeth a Nunc: no accident but hath the Nunc. Now such a thing is done: now such an event happened. The good tree brings forth fruit Tempore suo, in her season; that is the Nunc of it. My hour is not yet come: Christ himself tarries for his Nunc. Presently after, he changed the water into wine; then his Nunc came. Tempus à temperando; because it distinguisheth things in order. To everything there is a season. It is taken both strictly, and more at large: in the one sense, it is filia unius momenti: in the other, Soror totius vitae. And thus must it be understood here: let us be giving glory to Christ Now; that is, all our life long. So Dies mortalitatis it opposed to Dies aeternitatis, Now, in this life; that For ever, in the life to come. Now therefore, is in effect, Always: we have no time, which cannot be called Nunc. When we are young, that is our Nunc: when we are old; that is also our Nunc: the age betwixt these, is our Nunc too. David took in all times and seasons to the praise of his Maker. In the morning; I will sing of thy mercy in the morning: yea he prevented the morning; waiting for the Lord, more than they that watch for the morning. In the night: at midnight I will rise to give thanks unto thee. All the day; My tongue shall talk of thy righteousness all the day long. Seven times a day do I praise thee; very frequently. I will bless the Lord at all times, his praise shall continually be in my mouth. Omni tempore, no hour excluded: Semper laus ejus in ore meo, no occasion excepted. I will sing praise unto thy Name forever, This is the end of our redemption, to serve him all the days of our life: If all our days, then our days of sadness too: daily shall he be praised. It is usual, when God crowneth the year with his goodness, and drops fatness upon the pastures, for the little hills to rejoice on every side: