Commentary on 2 Peter

THere are two especial motives to bring us into the way of goodness: the bitterness of this life, which we feel; and the sweetness of the future life, which we expect. For the former, howsoever some besorted Earth-dwellers have deified this World, and call it by no meaner a title than their god, and their maker; yet they shall find it rather a destroyer. There be diverse kinds of makers, in an abusive sense: So drunkenness makes Beasts; that's a kind of maker: so pride makes Devils; that's another maker. The Devil made sin; he is a maker too: Sin made death; that is a maker too: Death made destruction; and hath a stroke in making also. But all these makers be properly unmakers, marrers; destroyers. So we use to say, that wealth makes a man: but what does it make him? It may make him proud, it may make him licentious, it may make him a fool, a sinner, sewell for the fire of Hell: it can never make him a man, much less a Saint. The way for a man to have the world his friend, is not to be friends with it. Men are naturally friends to their friends, and enemies to their enemies: But the cross humorous, and pevish world is his enemies friend, and his friends enemy. Insequeris? fugio: fugis? Insequor. Scorn it, and it will woo thee: love it, and it will undo thee. But is not the world kind to the covetous or voluptuous man, her darling, the worldling? Yes, as Dalilae was to Sampson, or Jael to Sisera: she will cut his throat in kindness, and for pure love send his soul to Hell. But to the poor man that despiseth it, it is indeed a friend, and a means to help him unto blessedness: in the same sense that the law is said to help a man to salvation, or righteousness. For the Law shows him that he hath no righteousness of his own; and so occasions him to seek it where it may be found, which is only in Christ. So the world shows him that it hath no happiness of its own; and therefore sends him to seek it in this new world; there he is sure to find it. And that is the other motive. In heaven there is a constant and eternal fullness of joy: therefore Sursum corda, thither let us lift up our hearts. Wherefore beloved, seeing that, &c.

Generally in the words, we have an insinuation, and an injunction; a matter granted, and a charge imposed. In the insinuation, there is a word of tender affection; Beloved: and a word of charitable persuasion: Ye do look for these things. upon this ground of encouragement is the rest of this Text and charge built: This is the Propter quod of all that follows. First let me dispatch these two, before I come to the distribution of the rest.

Beloved.] There is no better cognizance of Christ's servants than love: there is no love but wisheth good to the person loved: there is no such good to any person, as to be saved. Thus our Apostle expresseth his love to us, by persuading us to diligence in the great business of our salvation. All affections are radicated in love: there is a fear to lose, and that fear is grounded on love, there is a desire to enjoy, and that desire is love: there is a sorrow for parting, and that sorrow proceeds from love. Mary wept for their Abstulerunt Dominum; and this was a Dilexit multùm. Christ was all love: not a word he spake, not an action he did, not a passion he suffered, but was an argument, a character of his love. When he complained of the heaviness of his soul, Non hoc fecit stupor, sed amor: nec amissus erat animus, sed submissus. He opened the windows of his body, that through them we might see the love that was in his heart. He brought love, he bought love, he exercised love, he bequeathed love, he is love. As the Jews said of Esdras, that if knowledge had put out her candle, at his brain she might light it: so if all our love were extinguished, yet at the love of Christ we might easily re-kindle it. Here is the fire, but where is the victima, the sacrifice, our practiall charity? We say, charity begins at home, but Christ's charity began abroad: to show love to us, he neglected to love himself. But our love will neither begin at home, nor abroad: neither at his nor our own fire. Love is the fulfilling of the Law; and the want of it is the transgression of the Law. We complain that the Papists rob God of one commandment: but he that wants love, robs him of all; and so commits the worst sacrilege.

There is too little of this love in the world: Lustful love there is enough, too much, but charitable love is very scant. To that question, Lovest thou me? We answer readily with Peter, yes, Lord I love thee: But to that other question, If thou lovest me, what wilt thou do for me? we are dumb: or if our lips make a fair promise, yet our hands will fail in the performance. Some men indeed at sometimes will be beneficial; that at most times they may be injurious. Their love is like the laughter of Apollo, who was said to smile semel in anno. Such is most men's love to their Pastor, that they will spend ten times as much in law to maintain wrong, as they will give him by way of right. It was a byword; Love and a weapon will kill any man: the worlds love is joined with a weapon; it dwells at the swords point: you shall sooner feel it cold at your heart, than warm in your kitchen. Witness these bloody days, so full of desperate homicides; as if violence would leave nature nothing to do. The mercenary soldier can hardly be justified; for when he puts on his armor, he puts off his charity, and only fights for money. This is Vti robore contra eum qui dedit. When Moses saw the Egyptian smiting the Hebrew, he smote the Egyptian; we may smite our enemies to help our brethren; but when we find our brethren quarrelling, and say to one of them, Why smitest thou my brother? he is ready to reply, Who made thee a Judge? But for us that are tied together by so may bonds; of nature; nation, grace, neighbourhood; upon every flight occasion to be vexing and wounding one another; here is a love that fills the channells with blood: we may truly say, This love lies a bleeding. Miles ornatus, & cives armatus; a curious and spruce soldier, and a furious and rough Citisen, are two of the worst fights.

There is store of love in the world, but it is naught. There is a love to other men's wives, and it is adultery or wantonness: a love to other men's goods, and it is rapacity or covetousness: a love to other men's bloods, and it is murder and revenge: a love to other men's honors and places, and it is envy and ambition. As the Pharisaical Jews had a gramatical devotion, so we have a bastard dilection. But for that love which is the true borne child of goodness; charity to men's persons, to their estates, to their lives, to their names, to their souls; alas it is an Individuum vagum: it is dead in the cold, and buried in the grave of uncharitableness. So that now to preach charity, or to persuade men to be in love with love, is but our oration at the end of a funeral Sermon; which is to go on a dead man's errand. As water is of divers colors in diverse places: in divers places: in the Sea it is green, in puddles black, against rocks foamy, among green herbs clear: So love is according to her different objects: when it affects carnal beauty, it is concupiscence; when riches, it is covetousness; when honor, it is ambition; when any sin, it is malice. It is discouloured according to those sensual things, upon which it reflects. But let it be set upon goodness, upon God himself, and such things as are in ordine ad Deum, in relation to him; as the welfare of the Church, of the state, of ourselves, of our neighbors; it is then clear and perfect: no crystal so diaphanous, no flower so sweet and lovely, as charity. Then in the heart it is compassion, in the eye pity, in the tongue comfort, in the hand beneficence.

If there be love in the Pastor, he will feed his people: if there be love in the people, they will not wrong their Pastor. There is indeed a kind of love in this City to Preachers; but generally it is shown to those voluntaries, that will content themselves with the pay of a benevolence, and graze on the commons. But if he once require his own several, and challenge a proper maintenance by right; though he were an Angel of God, they would abhor him. But it is not Quid dabis? what wilt thou give? But Quid debes, what didst thou owe? First, pay thy debts and just dues; then talk of a benevolence, and work of supererogation. It is far more fit that the Preacher should receive what God gives him, than stand to the people's courtesy: which as it is not honorable for the Priest, so nor is it safe for the people: for then he must square out his positions according to their dispositions; and not dare to speak to the full extent of his conscience: for fear least by displeasing his Auditory, he should loose his Salary; and where is he then? Most of our Patrons are worse; for they love a Divine, as the Usurer loves an unthrift heir; that he may suck his estate, and squeese him, and leave him nothing. The Church at first chose lay men for their Patrons; and now those Patrons have made Churchmen their slaves. In the council of Carthage, some eminent men were chosen to defend the Church against Pagans; they were ordained to oppose the tyranny of others: now they are the worst tyrants to it themselves. O where is charity? It is our prayer frequently, From envy, hatred and malice, and from all uncharitableness, good Lord deliver us. Surely there is more included than some men suddenly think on: we may thus enlarge it in our thoughts: From quarrelling swaggerers, from biting usurers, from litigious neighbors, from seditious lawyers, from corrupt justicers, from simonicall Patrons, from political Church-robbers, from costive engrossers, from all oppressors, and from all their uncharitableness, Good Lord deliver us. Let each one be the others Beloved, Let God be the Beloved of us all, that we all may be the Beloved of God in his only Beloved Son, JESUS CHRIST.

Seeing that ye look for such things. This is the second branch of the insinuation; wherein he presumes of their well disposedness towards it.

1. Expectation is an action of hope, and hope is not without some ground. Blessed be God, who hath begotten us again to a lively hope, and to an Inheritance incorruptible, reserved in Heaven for us. Generavit, He begat us once in the first Adam, to this life: but this being corrupted, Regeneravit, He begat us again in the second Adam, to the hope of a better. This act of regenerating is doubly determined: to hope first, then to the Inheritance: to hope in the state of grace, to inheritance in the state of glory. This is no dead hope, but lively: they that are begotten, are begotten to life; this is somewhat. Yea, to an Inheritance, which is more: for all that are begotten, are not begotten to inherit. Poor men's children, younger brothers, are begotten; but where is the Inheritance? Yet in Inheritances there is some odds: one may be better than another: this is the best of all. And if this were in our old world we would suspect some encombrances: but it is in the new, in Heaven, and there kept. Earth could not keep it: here it were in hazard to be lost every moment: It would go the same way, Paradise went: but there it is safe. These, and there be the things we should look for: But do we? Our wants, our wanton desires find us looking work enough all our lives long; but our looking fails us in the modo, and ubi. Seek the things that are above. So we do; but it is ambitious supra: we would be above one another, in honor, favor, and power. There be high places, which we would not have taken away; but offer in them, and offer for them too, rather than go without them. But such things are too low and base: our Expectation should be higher, above the hills; higher yet, above the clouds; yea, higher yet, beyond our sight, even above the Heavens: there we are right.

2. Expectation is a fervent desire of having. The earnest Expectation of the Creature waiteth for the manifestation of the Sons of God. Do we thus look for it, that we long to enjoy it? No, we are so taken up with worldly things, and with looking upon them, that we have no mind to heavenly things: no looking after them. The possession of the vanity we have, thrusts out the expectation of the felicity we might have. But who does not desire the glory of this new World? Some do not believe it, therefore never desire it: some believe it, but never mind it: others desire it, but not yet: they would have a large share of this world before it. Most men are content to embrace it, but they will take no pains for it, nor seek the way to it. We have fat desires, but lean endeavors: as C. Flaminius played upon Philoxomenes; that he had Pulchras manus, & pulchra crura; sed ventrem non habuit: he had goodly arms, and strong thighs, but he had no belly. He meant that Philoxomenes had brave and valiant Soldiers, fair Troupes of Horse and foot, but no money, to pay them. It may be inverted upon us: for we are all belly, full of appetite and desire to happiness; but we have neither hands nor feet; we will not move nor labor to attain this happiness. If death do but offer to prefer us to it, we will none we thank him: nay, we refuse him with deprecations, and fortify ourselves against him with antidotes and preservatives. Where is our desire of Heaven, when we rather die Necessitatis vinculo, quàm voluntatis obsequio? Instead of looking for it, we look from it: and then only pretend a faint desire to it, when we can make no other shift, but that we must needs venture on it.

3. There is an Expectation of fear. There remains a fearful looking for of Judgment. So the timorous Traveler looks for the Thief: so the conscious Malefactor looks for the coming of the Judge; but had rather he would never come. There is an Expectation of hope: I looked for thy saving health. So in the pangs and sickness of our bodies, we look for ease: so in the agonies and sorrows of our souls, we look for comfort. There is an Expectation of desire; My soul thirsteth for God, even for the living God. We give many a look toward the thing that we love: the chaste Spouse is still looking for her Bridegroom. There is an Expectation of Faith: So Abraham looked for a City which hath a foundation, whose Builder and Maker is God. Our conversation is in Heaven, Whence we look for the coming of our Lord Jesus. A Merchant in a foreign country, that hath wife and children at home, fixeth all his cares, employeth all his endeavors, to confirm an estate to himself, not where he is, but in the place whence he came, and where he desires to be. We make use of spectacles, to succor our eyes in reading: yet we take no pleasure in looking upon the spectacles, but upon the object which is presented through them, and which they help us more clearly to behold. All temporal things are but spectacles, through which we look at the joys of Heaven.

Lastly, besides all these, the expectation of our eyes, of our desires of our hearts, there is also an expectation of our hands: when our profession and our conversation speak all one language; that we earnestly endeavor to be saved. This is the right looking for it; and when either of these part, we take the wrong way, and our souls will miss of their desired end. It is well, quando ea petimus, quae appetimus: prayer is good and necessary; and without this constant devotion, we shall never see the glory of these new Heavens. But if we do not join Orationem and Operationem, prayer and endeavor together, we shall no more get to the new Jerusalem, than our bodies can from one place to another without motion or transportation. There is an heresy in faith, which believes a lie: and there is an heresy in manners, which causeth a lie to be believed. The Devil persuades men, that Christ's death shall save them, though they live not such a life as he hath commanded them. This is a strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: and that is a lie which sensual men believe. Hypocrites with their fair profession, make a show of going to Heaven, though Hell it self be in their hearts: and this is a lie which ignorant men believe. Either of these lies, passive or active, the one which sinners receive, the other which they make is enough to send them to the father of lies. But as we look for that we would have, so let us strive to have that we look for: our eyes, hands, hearts, and all must be employed about this weighty business. Then have we Correctum, when Cor erectum; then pure eyes, when they rest upon none but pure objects; then clean hands, when they meddle only with clean actions. Then indeed are our souls in the way to glory, when they are set forwards by the works of grace. Then may we look for these new Heavens, then do these new Heavens look for us; and the blessed renewer and purchaser of both bring us all together.

Wherefore seeing that, &c.] This is Axis & Cardo: the very point upon which the whole Text turneth. It is as it were a Copula between Heaven and Earth; an argument to win us, a ligament to unite us. We look for a glorious place, wherefore let us be gracious men. Joy and honor is our expectation, wherefore let holiness and innocence take up our conversation. We hope to have an inheritance in that world, wherein dwelleth righteousness: wherefore righteousness looks to have her habitation in us, while we dwell here. This is the sum of all; which I should press in general, before I come to express in particular.

Let Righteousness dwell in us; that is the substance of this verse: Oh that it were granted in all our hearts. If you ask, what is righteousness? you have it here described to be undefilednesse, unblameablenesse, and peaceableness. In these consist righteousness, and that righteousness must now dwell in us, if we look to dwell in those Heavens, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Indeed Christ is The Lord our righteousness: let him dwell in us, and then we shall be sure of righteousness. Let us hear the end of all: Through this righteous and holy life, without spot and blameless, God will be won to dwell with us, which is the perfection of this life: and we shall be admitted to dwell with him, which is the last and highest perfection of the life to come. For with whomsoever Christ vouchsafes to dwell here, they shall dwell with him there. He sends down his grace to us, that he may dwell with us below: he will advance us to his glory, that we may dwell with him above.

I have done with the general scope of the Text; which persuades us to a pious and sanctified life here, by the hope and expectation we have of dwelling in the new Heavens hereafter. I come now to the particulars; in the handling whereof, I shall desire pardon for the prolixity: the profit (I hope) will make amends for the length of my discourse. If I have not run over things with a brief dexterity; yet (I am confident) with an honest sincerity. Nor would the ampleness of the argument bear with a quick dispatch. The Scripture is like a house of many rooms, that hath many doors; and those doors have their several locks, and those locks require their own proper keys, to let in our understandings to the view of those hidden treasures. So therefore I would, if I were able, distribute a Text, as our blessed Savior did the loaves, when he commanded the broken remainder to be gathered up; that not a syllable might be lost. All places of holy writ are not only to be examined secundum sonum, according to the literal word; but secundum sensum, according to the mystical sense.

Be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot and blameless. This the Apostle makes the use of his former doctrine, the application of all. Wherein we have four dependencies, like so many links of one chain. First, here is an industry required; Be diligent. Secondly, the object of that industry, which is innocence or holiness: without spot and blameless. Thirdly, the end of that object, that we may so be found of the Judge in that day. Fourthly, the blessedness of that end, to be found of him in peace; that is in his love and favor. First, there is no remedy, but we must be found. Secondly, there is no comfort for us, if we be not found in peace. Thirdly, we cannot be found in peace without an unspotted innocence. Fourthly, and we shall never be without spot and blameless, unless we be very diligent so to keep ourselves.

[unspec 1] Be diligent: 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 : this some render, Satagite: which they would have to signify more than a sufficiency of doing; even a vehemency of action. As Quintilian relates of Manlius Sura; who was so nimble and expedite in a design, that Afer said of him; non agere, sed satagere. They take it for some anxiety and distraction about the difficulty of an enterprise: Cum non solummodo agerentur, sed & angerentur sollicitudine. They stretch it very far, and for my part, I would not shorten or restrain the acception of it, in this place, and in this matter: being a business of such consequence, that our eternal life lies upon it. Be as careful as you can; and all little enough: we can never be too diligent in the work of our salvation. Morally we may be Over-just, and press justice so hard, till it grow rank rigor. We may be over-zealous, till our anger against the errors and infirmities of others, become cruelty to their persons. We may be over-patient, till injury grows insolent, and oppressors make use of our insensibleness. We may be over-merciful, and wrong many innocents by favoring one malefactor. But we can never be over-good, nor over-holy, nor over- diligent in our care to be saved. We will never say of such men, with that Heathen: Non amo nimium diligentes, Though we strive never so hard to enter, we shall find the gate of Heaven strait enough. Run we never so fast; we are in danger of being cast behind, or coming short.

[unspec 2] Be diligent. The other reddition is Studete: the former makes it a work of the hand, this of the head: there it is labor, here affection: in both an earnest endeavor. Study is a busy intention of the mind, a searching of the spirit. Scopebam spiritum meum: I communed with mine own heart, and my spirit made diligent search. So that one referreth to action; Satagite: the other to affection, Studete. There be two works that argue spirit and life to be in us; motion and sense. In the Agite, there is motion; in the Studete, sense. There is motus laesus in them that labor not, and Sensus laesus in them that mind not. We must both Satagenda studere, and Studenda satagere; mind what we are to do, and do what we mind. Both together; one is little worth without the other. There be many that will Satagere, find themselves work enough, though they have no thanks for their labor. So Martha was troubled about many things, but she neglected the necessary one. So Peter undertook enough to save his Master, though thereby he had lost himself. Here was Satagere, too much; but without a Studere; no knowledge to guide it right.

There be others that have their Studere, their knowledge in some good measure; but at the Satagere they are quite out. Sapiunt quae caeli, rapiunt quae terra. They have competent science, but are the worst doers in a Country. Less of their study, and more of their practice would do better. Pariter intelligent nobiscum, pariter non diligunt. They understand something of this future blessedness, but they are coldly affected with it. But Studete and Satagite would be kept together. For as in a natural body, it fares between the head and the stomach: a rheumatic head spoils the stomach with distillations; and a distempered crude stomach fills the head with raw vapors: in vicem laedunt. So an erring mind misguides the endeavor, and a wrong endeavor puts the mind out of frame. If there want a Studeie, a mind to Heaven; our Satagere or endeavor will tend to the worse: If there want a Satagere, the endeavor of a good life to come thither, our Studere or contemplation of it is to no purpose. The Studere of the head, without the Agere of the hand, will not stir a foot: The Agere of the hand without the Studere of the head and heart, will move, but out of the way: better sit still. Put them both together in their joint offices, and then give them as much diligence as may be.

But herein alas, our diligence flagges. A runagate son, leaving his father, and living in foreign Countries, was brought to want: and finding little charity among strangers, he was driven to work for sustenance. Industry brought in gains, and the sweetness of gains whetted on industry: soon he grew rich, became a Merchant, and dealt in traffic with diverse Nations: and, among the rest, with some of that Nation wherein his father lived. Hearing news how potent and opulent his father was grown; of his wealth and authority in the city, he resolves to steer his course thitherward. Four businesses he puts in his head: One was to congratulate with his friends and allies, another to be merry with his old companions, the third, to gather up his debts, the last and principal, to be reconciled to his father. Being arrived there, he follows his three former employments close; he fails in none of them: but these did so wholly take up his time, that he quite forgot the main, the reconciliation to his father. The Mariners on a sudden call a-bord, the Tide tarries no man; presently he must take ship, and so leaves that business utterly undone. We are all strangers upon Earth, our Father is the Almighty King of Heaven: we are charged but with four businesses here. First, Honestly to provide for ourselves and our families. Secondly, To perform all just duties to our neighbors. Thirdly, to solace our hearts with the sober and thankful use of God's Creatures. Fourthly, chiefly of all, to serve our Maker in all holy obedience, to acknowledge our sins with humble penitence, to get his pardon through the merits of his Son Jesus, and to make sure our inheritance in these new Heavens. We are diligent in the rest; we heap up riches, we sat ourselves with pleasures, we are indulgent to our bodies: But for the matter of most moment, the pleasing of our God, and the salvation of our souls, we are as negligent, as if they were things not concerning us. Death calls us a-bord, carries us away in his deep bottom; and the main business we came for, is left uneffected. when we truly examine our life, the whole course of it to this day, do we not find this true? We cannot but confess it, let us also amend it: and what ever become of our riches, of our pleasures, of our bodies, let us be diligent to save our souls.

Be diligent: to make up the composition of diligence there must go three ingredients; vigilancy, laboriousnesse, and speed: where either of these is wanting, there is no true diligence.

1 There is no right study without some watchfulness: be diligent, must needs include, be vigilant. Awake thou that sleepest, and Christ shall give thee light. They that be called into Christ, and yet live in sin, are sleepers. They that sleep, sleep in the night. But our day is broken, why then do we sleep? When the Sun is once up, all good husbands think of rising. The slumber of the body and soul are not much unlike. First, when the body is a-sleep, the senses have done working: the eyes are closed, and suspend the act of seeing. In this spiritual slumber, sinners do not hear God's Word, nor see his Sacraments, nor feel his grace and comforts. We do not say they cannot; but we are sure they do not. Secondly, in sleep there is an interruption of the working of the animal faculties: So there is a suspension of graces powerful operation in the soul, during this spiritual slumber. Charity is cold, Faith benumbed, Zeal obstupefied; neither Patience, nor Temperance awake. Thirdly, the ascending of vapors from the stomach, causeth sleep: so worldly thoughts in a covetous heart, hinder the influences of God's Spirit. Spiritual sleep is more dangerous than corporal: this only hinders some actions of mortal life: that robs us of our prayers, meditations, repentance, and things that conduce to our salvation, it borders upon death: when the Divine should preach, he sleeps: when the Magistrate should do justice, he sleeps: when the rich man should show mercy, and hear the complaints of the poor, widows and Orphans, he is fast a-sleep. Call you this diligence? Indeed it is so in one acception, even a diligent course to perdition.

2. The endeavor to be saved, is no easy task: it will require some labor. It is not wickedness glossed over with a fair pretence or profession, as Popery is, but Atheism dipt in the colors of religion. It is not like the trade of usury, to sit still and receive money. Nor a walking in some pleasant Gallery; where that Epicure spent his time, as if he had been hired to do errands from picture to picture. It is not a tumbling upon Roses and Violets, Like the old Sibarites, or our new Libertines; that know no felicity but delicacy, nor other Heaven than sensuality. No, but Heaven is the reward of labor: no labor, no reward. I exercise myself always to have a good conscience, saith Paul. Idleness is allowed to no man, no not to the great man. Quo major sum, magis laboro. And as bodies inclined to be fat, had need of most exercise: so men that have the world coming too fast upon them, and are in great danger to be rich, should be most busy in the works of charity. If riches increase, set not thy heart upon them. If they increase: there is not so much danger till then. S. Paul knew that Nothing could separate him from the love of God in Christ: yet who was in labors more abundant? Nullus labor durus, quo gloria aeternitatis acquiritur. Refuse no work for such a reward; we go to Heaven as Paul went to Rome; when they were glad to row for their lives, to throw their goods over-bord with their own hands; and yet when we are got a-shore, think it a saving voyage.

The Wicked take pains to do mischief: as an able Beggar creeps on his hands and knees in the mire, to get money. Ask the Covetous, whether it be not in vain, that he riseth so early, and so late takes rest. Ask the proud Popinjay, that, like to the fantastical Builder, Diruit, aedificat, mutat quadrata rotundis; is still dressing and undressing, changing tires, yea, changing colors, turning pale into red; and she never out of exercise. As it was said of Cain, Erat aedificans, he did never finish: so of her, Est adornans, she hath never done. Ask the Ambitious, whether with lofty eyes, and an haughty heart, he does not exercise himself in matters too high for him. Ask the pragmatical Censurers of other men's labors; and there is some labor in that too. Howsoever it was the Philosophers answer to that question; What is the easiest thing in the world? To find fault: yet the wits of this age make it their excercise. There is no vanity without weariness: and that which the flesh accounteth her greatest pleasure, is accompanied with labor. Let us run so much the faster, as we run for a better prize. It is a shame that voluptuous men should contend harder for this old earth, than we for that new Heaven. Reward is the encouragement of labor: now the greater reward challengeth the greater labor: We must all confess, that our reward is better: For he that soweth to the flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption: but he that soweth to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. The ends are divers, the ways are divers, the pains is much at one.

Heat is the state of grace, Coldnesse the state of sin, Lukewarmness medium obtinet: It neither ebbs nor flows, but is just standing water. Sicut à frigore per teporem transitur ad calorem: ita à calore quoque per teporem reditur ad frigus. The sweet and pure waters are ever in motion: but aquae stagnantes breed nothing but venomous and noxious things. Houses that are not inhabited, soon abound with Vermin. Grounds untilled, will be overrunne with weeds. Birds are taken while they sit, not so easily flying: and dum morantur in nidis, they moult and lose their feathers: idleness doth neither get nor save. What is profuseness and the wasting our estates, but the effect of negligence? Earth useth to comsume other men, but the prodigal heir consumes earth. He runs out of his wits first, then out of his patrimony: applauding himself in his witty riot, that though he should sell it for six pence, yet he should be no loser by it, for it never cost him a groat. But that a man should loosely squander away his eternal patrimony, and be so prodigal of the purchase of Jesus Christ, which cost Him no cheaper than his own heart-blood: Ad quid perditio haec? It hath been said, that of all crafts-men, Musicians were the happiest; because they did earn monie with making themselves merry: But to buy everlasting woe and pains, with the expense of a short merriment, is no less than extreme madness. There is a great deal of diligence in the world, a world of diligence; but it is all for the world. If men by chance think on Heaven, they think withal, that a very little diligence will bring them thither. But it will grieve them when it is too late, to find how they have deceived their own souls. The Laborers, not Loiterers, have the reward. The Crown is laid up, not for Cowards, but for Conquerers. There is Corona miseriae, which is worn below: but Corona gloriae is laid up, and you know for whom: even for those who have fought a good fight. Be diligent then, and in this point that you may be saved: yea, in this point of an holy life be diligent, and you shall be saved.

3. Be diligent.] As this implies more than a simple act of diligence; even an habit, which is a continued act: so it binds us to the present. It is a charge that does not only bind semper, but ad semper. It allows no dilation; not Be diligent hereafter: no cessation, not Be diligent until such a day, and then give over: no interruption, not Be diligent sometimes, at other times take your liberty. But it imposeth a constant course, a perpetual practice of diligence upon us. Lingring is dangerous; especially where the days be short, and the ways not very fair. Teach us to number our days: Our life is called Days; for the Brevity, Clarity, Misery of them. First, for Brevity; the longest day will have a night: and Qui numerat dotes, numerat dies. Every day that does not abate our reckoning, increaseth it. Secondly, for Clarity; all works are seen in the day: we may sin in tenebris, by doing opera tenebrarum: but the darkness and the light are all one to God. A man that is in darkness, better sees another that is in the light; than he that is in the light, can discern him that is darkness. But on the contrary; God is in light, yet He plainly sees us in darkness: but we that are in darkness, cannot perceive Him being in light. Thirdly, for Trouble; the day is full of business: our work, we complain, is never at an end. There is no rest till night comes; then we fall asleep. Therefore let me pray; Sit somnus meus, ut laboris, sic peccati cessatio: ne quid per somnia cogitem, quod te offendat, vel me polluat. Death makes a stop of all; whether sin or trouble: it silenceth all tongues; both that which hath discoursed of the Sun and stars; and that which hath conversed with Fiends and Devils. Sleep is the image of death: Let me think therefore, Longum somnum, somuum mortis; Lectum sepulchri, stramentum vermium, operimentum pulveris. Let us do the work of Him that sent us while it is day; for in the night no man can work.

In the driving of a nail, we begin easily; but proceed to the redoubling of our blows: and the oftener we strike, the more is the nail fastened, and the harder to be drawn forth. In the same manner doth sin fortify it self in the soul: so that in our old age, when we grow weaker, the old man in us waxeth stronger: and the sin we are not able to do, we take pleasure to think. What madness is it to defer our amendment to such an unable estate; which is so far unfit to sustain those austere excercises, that both the conversion of a sinner, and convention of a Christian require, that it is scarce able to sustain it self? what caryer will lay the heaviest burden upon the weakest beast? will God accept of the blind, lame, or sick for Sacrifice? If He require the best of our substance, much more the entire substance of ourselves. Heaven and Hell are diametrally opposite; and the ways unto them are full contrary: if we travel altogether the way to Hell, is it possible that in the end of our journey, we should arrive at Heaven? I know it is impiety, to abridge either God's mercy, or his power: but when ever did he promise a happy death to a sinful life? Say that men should repent in their last hour, doth it not rather procecde from fear, than from love? Or if it be from love, is it not rather the love of themselves, than of God? And what thanks shall they have, to forsake their sins, when they have no longer time to enjoy them? Such an advantage the Devil gathers by their delay; that if he can possess them all their life, he will hardly loose them at the hour of their death. I know that God never faileth in his Promise of receiving a sinner, whensoever he turneth to him: but whether this turning to God, when Men are turning out of the World, be a true conversion or not; here is the doubt. They returned not to the most high; they cried not unto him with their hearts, though they lay howling upon their beds.

To die well is a long art, but we have no long time to learn it. Die (we know) we must all: all by the bond of necessity, the righteous by a willing surrender of their souls. Nor is death an easy passion; the very dissolution of the holy, is not without pains. Si sit horribilis mors innocentis, quanto horribilior nocentis. When impediments shall be multiplied, helps diminished, the distraction great, the inclination small, the leisure none: in this hurly-burly of businesses, pangs, assaults, vexations; where shall we get room for a preparation to die well? Shall a man in one days sickness, learn more cunning than he could in many years health? Dare we adventure to cross those Seas, without any fear, wherein so many Passengers have miscarried? whereof so many skillful Pilottes make a doubtful and fearful report? Christ died, that sin should die, and we might live: and shall we suffer that sin to live, which will make us die? look to thy Clock-house, the Time past, and be sorry for the misspense of it: to thy Storehouse, and dispose of thy temporal trash: to thy Closet-house, thy inward Conscience, and cleanse that by repentance. Resipiscere is but Resapere, a point of after-wit. To this Reason, Equity, Law, do bind thee: to this Heaven, Earth, and Hell, Life, and Death, Justice and Mercy, do partly invite, partly enforce, altogether call thee. Wilt thou still desperately persist in sin? The Devils sinned, having no example of Justice to restrain them: thou hast seen many examples of God's just vengeance upon sin; is not thy wickedness, in that respect worse than the Devils? For fear of human laws, thou dost moderate thy delights: and wilt thou not forbear one sinful pleasure for the love of God? A table of delicate meats is presented unto thee: but a friend tells thee in private; Take heed how you eat, for some of the dishes are poisoned: here thy discretion can bridle thine appetite, and thou wilt rather be content with homelyer fare, so it be wholesomer. The whole World is a Table spread full of pleasing daynties: the Prophets and Apostles tell us plainly, there is danger in tasting: we will not believe them, but eat and perish.

Why should we presumptuously sin against that Majesty, which is only able to pardon our sins? If we be persuaded of his mercy, we are ungrateful to offend him: If we doubt of his mercy, we are unwise to provoke him. If by his mercy we ever come to repentance, the longer we have been without it, the greater sorrow we shall find in it: for our sorrows, in some decree, must be answerable to our sins. Therefore, Explora, Deplora, Implora. Explora; try and examine thine heart: search out the secret sins that there lie sculking. Deplora; weep, mourn, lament for them. Implora, pray for mercy to pardon them, for grace to amend them. Let there be an echo resounding in the thickets of our hearts: Seek ye may face: thy face O Lord, will I seek. And as the echo never answers the voice so well, as where be ruins and ragged buildings: so doth sorrow best echo unto sin, where the heart is ruined and broken with afflictions. The waters stand in the valleys, and fill the furrows: the tears of repentance are found in the humble soul: you shall be sure of them in the fractures and breaches of a contrite heart. We weep, are those tears for our own sins, or for the sins of others? Take either of them, they have a large field to water. The two mid-wives that stifle the brattes of sin in us, are repentance and circumspection; and these are only available in their season. There is abundance of sorrow in Hell, but not one dram of comfort. You remember the story of him, that being often reproved for his ungodly and vicious life, and exhorted to repentance, would still answer, that it was but saying three words at his death, and he was sure to be saved. Perhaps the three words he meant, were Miserere mei Deus, Lord have mercy on me. But one day riding over a bridge, his horse stumbled, and both were falling into the river: and in the article of that precipitation, he only cried, Capiat omnia Diabolus; Horse and Man, and all to the Devil: Three words he had, but not such as he should have had. He had been so familiar with the Devil all his life, that he thinks on none else at his death.

Worldly men let slip no advantage of gain, no occasion of getting riches: but Lord, how many opportunities of getting grace, and pardon for our sins, and of doing good works, pass by us without acceptance, without regard! Alexander having set his army in battle array, and finding a Soldier then mending his arms, cashiered him; saying that that was the time of dealing blows, not of preparing weapons. We use to bridle our horse before we ride, not in the midst of our race: If we do not rein in our passions before our dying time, they will scorn to be checked then. We have our season, and that season is in time, as the joint in a member: if you hit on the joint, you may easily divide: if on this side, or beyond, you shall not do it, or not do it so well. Delay, and diligence are incompatible things: the time is all; the main matter; and more ado ever about that, than the thing it self: of that let us take special care. It was not without great cause that our Savior complained of that point; If thou known in this thy day the things which belong unto thy peace! And so was fain to break off, the tears coming so fast, that he was not able to speak out, but to weep out the rest of the sentence. Those tears show what time is: they show that opportunity is a grace, even to have it: that it is a second grace to know it, but a third grace, and better than both the rest, to make good use of it.

Without spot and blameless.] Some would have these duo nomina synonyma: and indeed they are so in effect; unum signantia; they both tend to holiness of life: that is the main object of this diligence. But can there be such a perfection in this life? Some may be without blame; but is there any without blemish? The World doth blame some that are without spot: and God finds spots in many that appear without blame. There be four sorts of Men; as Saint Bernard makes four habitudes or states of Conscience. First Tr •• quilla, non bona: the way of Nabal, whose heart was dead within him. Secondly, Bona non tranquilla: the way of David, who still was blest in GOD'S Love, yet still complained of his anger, Thirdly, Nec bona, nec tranquilla: the way of Cain; without giving one look toward Heaven. Fourthly, Tam bona, quàm tranquilla: the way of Angels filled with joy above their fellows. So of men. First, some scape without public blame, that are not without inward spots: such are hypocrites. Secondly, some are not spots of scandal, yet undergo much blame: as they picked quarrels with Daniel about his God, and charge Paul with sedition, who had no fault but his devotion: these are maligned innocents. Thirdly, some are both polluted with many spots, and convinced of just blame: and such are dissolute and incorrigible sinners. Fourthly, others are pure from spots, and free from blame; and these be happy Saints. This undefilednesse is proper to Christians; and not as they are in themselves, but as they are in Christ: It is not a legal perfection, but an evangelical righteousness: Holy, unspotted, and blameless they are; vel comparative, in regard of the profane: vel reputative, in regard of the worlds just challenge: vel potius imputatione, in respect of Christ's righteousness made theirs: which doth both cover their sins from the eyes of God, and justify their persons in the presence of God.

Without spot.] That we may be found thus immaculate, two things are required of our diligence: First, that we get off the spots we have, and then keep ourselves from contracting new.

First, we are spotted by nature, we came not into the world without uncleanness: but for this God hath ordained a Laver, a Sacramental Font to wash us in, the blood of Christ. And this remedy must be applied with all diligence: for so God's mercy provided for us, that presently after we are borne according to nature, we should be new borne by his grace: and that the blood of the second Adam, might cleanse us from the sin of the first. Thus cleansed we are: but alas, we not sooner come to able years, than we gather new stains. Wherewithall shall a young man cleanse his way? The youngest man needs cleansing. But can he do it himself? So it seems by the Prophet; Clense thy heart O Jerusalem: and by the Apostle too; Every man that hath this hope, purifieth himself. Ezekiel indeed seems to speak otherwise: I will sprinkle clean water upon you, saith the Lord, and ye shall he clean. Joel saith, Turn ye to the Lo • d: but Jeremiah says, Lord do thou turn me, and I shall be turned. Doth not that of Joel cross that of Jeremiah? Is there Prophet against Prophet? No, cleanse your hands ye sinners, and Lord, Do thou cleanse us, and we shall be clean; may both well stand together. Indeed God only and freely does it: When the filthy sinner is condemned, Inculpabilis Dei Iustitia: when another is purified and cleansed, Ineffabilis Dei gratia. As it is in generation, so in regeneration. Generare is not to make him that was an imperfect man before, to become perfect; sed efficere ut sit homo. So Regenerare is not to help one that desires to be good, sed efficere ut sit Iustus. All is from above nature: That grace which to man in statu primo was natural, in statu lapso is supernatural to him. I will take away your stony heart, and give you a heart of flesh. Non dicit se transtaturum, sed ablaturum. There is no more pliableness in a man's nature to be pure and holy, than there is aptitude in a stone to be soft. Can the Ethiopian change his skin? or the Leopard his spots? Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? No man; only The Lord washeth away the filth of Zion, and purgeth out the blood of Jerusalem.

Christ was long knocking at the Churches door, but she could not open: at last He put in his hand, and removes the bar; loe then she could rise and open to Him. Accedat gratia, & fiunt omnia. By the grace of God I am what I am. In the first act of Regeneration, the will is so cleansed, that it wills it own cleansing. For it is not like to a piece of Wax, merely passive; which without any act of it own, only receives and suffers an Impression: But rather like to Fire, which as soon as it is Fire, burneth; and so soon as it burneth, is Fire. So the will of man, in the same instant that it is converted, moveth it self conversion. I labored more abundantly than they all; yet not I, but the grace of God which it with me. Betwixt Not I, and With me, comes in the Grace of God, in the midst: That grace which is Not I, but With me. He might well say, With me, that had first said Not I. In the Commandment it is manifest, Quid facere debemus: in the punishment, quod non fecimus: in our not doing it, Quid meremur: in faith and prayer, unde gratia habenda: in our conversation and cleansing, a quo recepta: in our perseverance, per quem retenta. Still neither young man, nor old man, nor any man can cleanse away his own spots: only the blood of Christ cleanseth us from all our sins. But in every sin, besides the guiltiness, there is filthiness: and Cùm remittitur reatus, remanet labes. These we daily contract, and there is no hour added to our lives, wherein some uncleanness is not added to our souls. These stains God leaves to our own cleansing: here is work for repentance. And thus must those Scriptures and Fathers be understood, that say, Repentance doth peccata diluere: they mean not secundum reatum, but secundum labem. The blood of Christ gives us all the right tincture: that dies us into the color of righteousness: and this color is in grain: it will never wear out. If we be thoroughly dipped in his blood, that tincture shall last with us; both to justify us on earth, and to glorify us in Heaven. But the garment thus heavenly coloured, may get some stains; and those must be daily washed off with our penitent tears. For this cleansing of our spots, three acts are required: first, cernere, to perceive them: then, spernere, to hate them: and lastly, prosternere, to cast them off.

1. Our first care must be to discern them: for we may have spots, and not be aware of them. A man may have a moale upon his back, and yet because he never saw it, think his skin clear. Polygamie was a sin, and therefore a blemish: yet because it could plead age and example, it was admitted by those elder Saints: and even good Elkanah was tainted with that sin of Lamech. As fashions of attire, at their first coming forth, are disliked for uncomely: but when through custom they are grown common, they be taken up of the gravest: Licita quae solita. The continuance of an unknown sin, currant with the time, doth not hinder the uprightness of a man's heart with God: the least touch of knowledge or willfulness mars his sincerity. Who can understand all his errors? Clense thou me from secret sins. We have many spots which God does not hear from us, because we see them not in ourselves. Who will acknowledge that error, whereof he does not know himself guilty? The sight of sins is a great hapinesse; for it causeth an ingenuous confession. Then Peccavi, we cry; and that our sins are lata, What place have we been in, and not left behind us some witness or monument of our wickedness? Longa, even from our mothers breasts; yea, from her womb: We were conceived in sin: and we have done wickedly even unto this day. Multa, more innumerable than the hairs of our head. Magna, great in quantity; Pardon mine iniquity, for it is great-Alta, ad coelum clamore pertingentia. Our trespass is grown up unto the Heavens. Profunda; We have deeply corrupted ourselves. Gravia; they are a burden too heavy for us to bear. Crassa, we have hailed them on with cords and cartropes: as if they could not come fast enough without a violent attraction. They have given themselves over to lasciviousness, to work all unclennesse with greediness. Qualitate pessima; both because they are committed durâ frontê, with a whores forehead, that refuseth to be ashamed: and done gratis propter vana; What fruit had ye then of those things, whereof ye are now ashamed? No fruit doth appear, but rather we have served the Devil for nothing.

This liberal confession is a degree to our purgation. In the courts of men, confess and be punished: before the Throne of Grace, confess, and be acquitted. Being charged with a same of uncleanness here, we answer, not guilty: and that is a kind of purging: There we charge ourselves; guilty O Lord, I am unclean, and that is the way to be purged. and pronounced clean. This benefit comes by the sight of our sins: for first there must be knowledge, before there will be an acknowledgement. God's Law is the glass that shows us all our spots: let us hold it right to our intellectual eye. Not behind us, as the wicked do; they Cast God's Words behind them. This is to stand in our own light: Can a man see the spots on his face, by setting the glass behind his back? He that rejects this Glass, the sacred Word, cannot but have a leptous soul. Not besides us: there was a rich Worldling that called to Christ for this Glass; and when it was shown him, he thought himself well favored, a very honest man: All this have I kept from my youth up. Surely he held the Glass to the wrong side: that part of him which was spotted with filthy worldliness, he could not see. So Paul while he was a Pharisee, thought himself concerning the righteousness of the Law, blameless: but then the Glass was on the wrong side of him. Afterward, I had not known sin but by the Law: there he held it right. Neither let us turn the backside of the Glass toward us; which is the trick of Hypocrites. I am not as other men are, Extortioners, Unjust, Adulterers, or even as this Publican. Cunning Dissembler! He kept the back of the Glass to him; so that he could see no reflection of himself at all. If he had held it right, he should have discerned a deformed and polluted Creature. As one of the Persecutors in Queen Mary's days, pursuing a poor Protestant, and searching the house for him, charged an old woman to show him the Heriticke: she points to a great chest of linen, on the top whereof lay a fair looking glass: he opens the chest, and asks where the Heriticke was: she suddenly replied; Do you not see one? Meaning that he was the Heriticke, and that he might easily see himself in the Glass. So rightly if he had looked, that Pharisee might have seen the resemblance of an Hypocrite. Nor (lastly) let us look upon ourselves in this Glass, when we are muffled, masked, or cased: for under those veils we cannot discern our own complexions. But let us set the clear Glass before our face, and our open face to the Glass: The fight of our filthiness is the first step toward cleanness.

2. Next, we must learn to detest our spots: The Leopard is full of spots, but he does not dislike them, because they are rather an ornament to him: but shall men think so of their sins? There be some that do: even glory in their shame: but mark their end; It is no better than destruction. Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? Did they blush at their blemishes? When the proud Dame hath a scar or blemish upon her skin, if with artificial colors and medicines she cannot remove it, yet she will carefully hide it: By her good will she would rather have a foul foul, than a foul face. She hath a glass that tells her all her defects: and she studies by it the art of pride, even to the placing of a pin, and ordering of an hair; all which diligence is not worth a pin or hair. Do sinners hate their spots? Do they not rather take a pride in them, and count them an honor? Did you never hear men swear in a bravery? Can there be fouler spots upon the conscience, than vain and outrageous oaths? And, yet is not this esteemed a grace among our Gallants? What say you to a long extravagant lock at the ear; a bush for the sign of a fantastical head? Would any men wear this but for pride? And is not pride the bespottedness of the soul? Is the nature of it so changed since it came to hell, or from hell; that that which made devils, should be thought to become Christians? Alas, for the meretricious foreheads of sinners; that they should glory in the foulness of their spots? Did you ever read of a Leper, that took pleasure in his sores and ulcers? Would not Naaman have given all his wealth and glory, for the cure of his Leprosy? If we could perceive the lothesomnesse of our impieties, it were not possible not to abhor them, not to abhor ourselves for them. Shall we love our own filthiness, as the Ethiopians do their own swarthiness? No, but rather let us hate the garment spotted of the flesh. Be thy sin never so dear to thee, it should not be so dear as thy soul. How well soever thou thinkest it becomes thee, it is a spot, that makes thee odious to God, to Saints and Angels. Away with it though it lies in thy bosom: mortify it, though it stick on thy skin. Will any beautiful woman drink that potion, which she knows will turn her fair body into a leprosy, though it be pleasant to the taste of her palate? Skin for skin, and all that a man hath, will he give for his life. If a man will give skin for skin, to save his life; will he not give spot for spot, to save his sovle?

3. Lastly we must cleanse them: when we come to behold the number of our sports, we easily see the necessity of our tears. Polluere, that is opus peceati: Diluere, that is opus paenitentiae. It is true, that Christ righteousness is a garment, so covering our spots that they cannot be seen: and his blood a medicine so cureing our spots that the • shall not be. But Christ never shed his blood for that man's sins, that for his own sins will not shed so much as tears. One soweth and another reapeth: Indeed Christ sowed and we reap: he sowed in tears, and we reap in joy: yea he sowed in blood and death, and we reap in peace and life: Yet we must sow in tears too, that we may reap in joy. Must not we also have a wet seed time, that look for so glorious a harvest? That Lamb takes away the sin of the world: he did not die to take away our sorrow, but our sin: not to free us from a seasonable contrition, but to save us from everlasting destruction. From the sole of the foot to the head there was no soundness in us; but wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores: As there was no whole part in us by reason of sin, so nor in him by reason of sorrow. His head was full of thorns, his back full of scourges, his eyes full of tears, his body full of wounds, his soul full of sorrows; and all because we were full of sins. And shall not this fullness of sin work in us a fullness of remorse? shall not our eyes also be full of tears, our bosom full of sighs, our mouths full of cries, our hearts full of sorrows? Did he weep for us, that we should spend our days in laughter? Donec ego in error, ill in maerore: still whilst we are sinful, he is sorrowful: and shall we not be grieved, for thus grieving him? Our griefs are not meant to requite him: but they are the echoes of thankfulness to him.

What was it that did put him to so much pains, but our sins; and shall we not mourn for them? If we do not weep for them as they are our spots, yet in reason we should, as they were his torments. They were his torture, they are still his displeasure. As the Disciples in that tempest to him, Master carest thou not that we perish? So he to us, care you not that I did perish for your sakes? He did not with Job curse his nativity, nor with David cry out on his sufferings: but is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? Have ye no regard? our carelessness of what he suffered; this was his grief. Have we not so much as the oil of tears, to pour into his wounds? the end of all he suffered, was to save us: no marvel if the disrespect of that grieved him. Justly therefore should that cost us tears, which cost him blood: especially let us weep for putting him to such charges. His bleeding does not take away our weeping: no soul is justified by his death, that does not daily die unto sin. And death cannot be without pain. Thou swearest, and that oath is a spot upon thy heart: weep for that. Thou liest, and that falsehood is a spot upon thy conscience: weep for that. Thou lustest, and that filthy desire is a spot on thy soul: weep for that too: weep for all. How many be our blemishes, yet how few our tears? The beloved of Christ are all fair, and have no spot in them: how got they this fairness? Like a flock of sheep, they come up from the washing. The Martyr upon the wheel could smile in the midst of his torture: which being wondered at, he told his friend, that there was a young man whom they saw not, (some Angel sure) who by continual pouring of cool water upon his distorted limbs, so mitigated his pains, that he could smile at them. We see pious and devout men, militant Saints, falling into diverse infirmities: they have their spotts: but repentance is the good Angel that pours upon them cool water, continual tears to wash them away. This is the Bath that renders us Immaculatos, without spot.

What is there which they used not to cleanse under the Law? their cities, their gates, garments, their very Altars. we have our Cities also to cleanse, the corporation of our affections: our gates, which be our eyes, ears, and senses, those doors, windows, and in-lets of the soul: our garments, our lives and conversations, which are the visible apparel of our spirits: our very altars, our hearts, upon which we offer all our sacrifices. Our hands must not escape, those instruments of lust and rapine; Cleanse your hands ye sinners. For his eyes, Job had his Pepegi foedus, as if he had bound them to the good behavior. Especially our hearts: it can be neither time nor labor lost, that is spent in cleansing of the fountain. Should any now make it their work, God would look graciously down from Heaven upon such Laborers, to whom his own Son hath given that benediction; Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Mans heart is like Moses his Rod: so long as he held it in his hand, it was a Rod: but when he threw it to the ground, it turned to be a Serpent. All the while that we hold our heart in the continual awe and love of God, it shall remain pure and clean: but if our boisterous and unruly sins once throw it to the earth, it changeth presently, and becomes a soul Serpent. If there be any, whose conscience tells them, that their hearts are now turned into Serpents, crawling upon the earth living upon riches, that better esteemed mucke of the world; let them be persuaded, by stretching forth a hand of sorrow and true repentance, to take them up again, in what shape soever they appear: for then he that was exalted on the Cross, as the Serpent in the Wilderness, will turn those serpents into hearts again, their venom into innocence, and wash them clean in his own immaculate blood.

The sum of this consideration presseth us with the necessity of repentance: For seeing we gather aspersions every day, how should we be found without spots at the last day, unless we wash them off with repentance? O that our sorrows were but so manifest as our spots! Do we spend the night in weeping, that have wasted the day in sinning? Our neighbors of Rome tell us of a Purgatory hereafter; but by this trick they make a shift to purge men's purses here. They have many strange devises; as Iejunium viventium, spes mortuorum: the Churches Treasury is the Alms of Purgatory: They might better say, the wealth they get by Purgatory, maintains the Churches treasury. They all refer to this common term money. All Christendom they would have to be the Popes kingdom: Rome is his Court, France his Garden, Spain his Shambles or slaughter-house by their Inquisition; England was once his Brew-house, Italy his Kitchen, but Purgatory his Larder: from thence he fetcheth all his fat; his Brewis comes out of that Caldron. In Purgatory is nothing but extreme pain; and the Pope (they say) can free all at his pleasure: but why then are any detained there? doth he want power or will? If he want power, he is weak: if will he is wicked. If he would and cannot, he is unable: if he can and will not, he is uncharitable. But I will be more favorable, and quite deliver you out of Purgatory; I mean from the tedious trouble of further discourse of it. Keep yourselves from Hell, and never fear Purgatory.

All men depart this life vel mundi, vel immundi; none hereafter mundandi. In this life there is a double Purgatory: the blood of the Redeemer, and the tears of the Redeemed: without the former we have no cleanness of justification: no justification of our cleanness without the latter. They have washed their clothes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb: therein consists our pureness; And everyone that hath this hope, purifieth himself: thereby we have the knowledge of it. The Sun draws up vapors from the Earth; not for it self, but to restore them back to the Earth in showers and dews, to moisten and cleanse it, Christ, that Sun of Justice, exhales tears from our eyes, not for his own, but our benefit, even to wash and cleanse our souls.

And this cleansing must be done in time: forget not that. Let us be failing to our lustful desires, before Desire fails us. It is hard for a man grown old in evil, deponere animum puerilem: adhuc pueritia, & quod gravius est, puerilitas remane • . They may have the authority of ancients, but withal the vanity of children. Satan in youth casts in those suggestions, which he would have kept in the soul for breed. Give no place to the devil: what, not in youth? No, no place, at no time. Where uncleanness hath gotten a haunt, it will be busily frequent: out of long possession, it will plead prescirption. How long is it ago since this came unto him? Of a child. Oh then hard to be helped. It was the beggar woman's praise of her son, whom she had brought up to her own trade: while he was young, I begged for him: now he is grown towardly, and able to beg for himself. At first concupiscence was an advocate for sin, now sin is become an advocate for concupiscence. But as Hannibal was wont to say of the Romans, that they could not be overcome, but in their own country: so let us fight against our sin in the very heart, the country where it breeds. It was St. Bernard's exposition of that same conteret caput tuum; that the head of the serpent is then truly said to be bruised, when sin is there stifled, where it was first borne. As malefactors, wheresoever they be taken, are sent to the country where they did the mischief, for execution. He is a religious Herod, that kills such infants: nor shall he want the name of Happy, that dasheth these little ones against the stones. The more we do to get out our spotts at first, the less work we find afterwards. I know that continual blemishes will come: every day we wash our hands; every hour let us wash our hearts, in the blood of Christ by faith, in our own tears by repentance. This is the way to be without spot.

Next; all this cleansing is not enough unless we continue so: This the Text requires of our diligence, that we be found without spot. We cannot be found such, unless we die such: and we cannot die such, unless we live such. It is something to undertake a journey, but the matter is to hold out. To keep ourselves clean a good way & then to fall into a puddle is a foul unhappynesse. So Asa, who in the prosperous reign of forty years long, sought unto God; in his old age, passing by God, seeks to Physicians. The latter end of a horse-race is by some called the Sobbe: so the last conflict of a Christian is the sorest: If we can hold out that brunt, there is prize and victory for us. The old experienced soldier fears not the rain and storms above him, nor the numbers falling before him, nor the troupes of enemies against him, nor the shott of thundering ordnance about him; but looks to the honorable reward promised him. But the delicate soldier only thinks of flying, and, instead of glory, brings home ignominy. If either the reproaches cast upon us, or the adversaries rage against us, or the example of sinners before us, or the temptations of the world about us, or the pleasure of our own lusts within us, can make us with Ephraim, turn our backs in the day of the Lord's battle, our spiritual warfare, we shall not be found without spot in the day of remuneration. Abraham did not give over his sacrifice, because the fowls were busy about him. Christ had compassion on the multitude, that continued with him three days, without meat, they did not leave him without audience, nor he them without comfort. Our Pilgrimage hath three days in this desert. The first day is the fear of God, which takes up the beginning of our conversion. 2. The love of God, which is spent in contemplating the sweetness of his mercy. 3. Our actual and constant obedience to his commandments: If in this day we be found unspotted, we shall find an estate forever blessed. It is not enough to get off the present, but to keep ourselves from future spotting. That is True religion, and undefiled before God, which keeps us unspotted from the world. To do this, there must be a desire, then an endeavor.

1. The desire of pureness is the first step towards it; an honest purpose bears out many errors in the eye of mercy. King Asa had divers (no small) faults: yet with one breath, doth God report both these; The high places were not removed, and Nevertheless Asa's heart was perfect. It were pity that the best man should be judged by every of his actions, and not by all. It is the main course of our life, that must either allow or condemn us, not some sudden and particular eruptions. How pleasing a thing is the sincerity of heart, that in favor thereof, our just God digests many an error! He will not see weaknesses, where he sees truth. If our whole desire be set upon holiness, though we have many spots, yet we shall be found without them. O God, let our hearts go upright, though our feet slide: the fall or blemish may shame us, may pain us: but through thy grace it shall not condemn us.

The first thing that takes the fire of holiness in us, is the will: Desiderium gratiae must be gratia desiderii: what we would be, we are: yea, and what we would have done, shall be reckoned to us as done. We do it, quoad con • tum, though non quoad effectum. As the wicked sin more than they sin, in their desire: so the righteous do more good than they do, in their will to do it. God esteems our charitable beneficence, not only secundùm quod habemus, but secundum quod tribuere velimus. Yea, the highest way of serving God, which is by martyrdom, hath a name and acceptance in Heaven, though it have no real being upon Earth, If there be a paratum cor, though there be not a perforatum cor, a proffer of blood, though no expense of blood; for the honor of Christ, it is taken for martyrdom. As Origen testified of one; Non ill martyrio, sed martyrium illi defuit. I know thy poverty, but thou art rich, saith the Spirit to the Church of Smyrna: poor in thy condition, rich in thy affection to goodness. Facultao secundùm voluntatem, non voluntas secundùm facultatem aestimanda est. Ye shall drink of my cup: Shall, because you are willing. Volens & dolens; the vehement desire of godly sorrow, is godly sorrow. We are charged to forsake all, houses, lands, friends, liberties, lives, for Christ: yet many die with houses, lands and riches in their possession, whom Christ receives, and crowns in Heaven, because they did part with all secundùm animae praeparationem. If our heart be set upon holiness, more than half our work is done; the rest will be easy. In sin it is so. Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery in his heart: that very lust is a deed of the heart. As the deed of the hand is the outward action, so the deed of the heart is the thought. The heart conceives a sinful purpose, wich is never borne into action: yet it hath done what it could, and is accounted guilty. So in righteousness, the heart desires to do some holy act, which it cannot accomplish: yet Quia fecit quod potuit, it shall be rewarded tanquam si fecerit quod voluit.

2. This is some comfort for us, that our very desire to lead a holy life, shall find a merciful acceptation. But this is not enough, our endeavor must second our desire. As Grace is that primus motor, so Will is the primum mobile: endeavor hath the motion from desire, as desire hath hers from God. There may be an endeavor without a desire; as the slave is compelled to labor: and there may be a desire without an endeavor; as the slothful would be rich, but he will take no pains for it. Action is the soul of desire, the very life of purpose; without which they both die abortive. Thoughts are not always determined in resolutions: we cannot evermore say, this was concluded. Actions are always determined in effects; we can say this was done. Then are laws in their full state and majesty, when the Bench is witness of their execution. Then have counsels of war their honor, when we see the seal of an army set to them. Then purposes of goodness shine in their luster, when they are crowned with actual performance. As matrimony is scarce to be called matrimony, where there is a resolution against the fruits of matrimony, against the having of children: so the intentions of goodness are not intentions, but transient motions and mere illusions, where the practice is negligently suspended. The Orbe and Sphere of all arts is said to be the head; yet two of them are referred to the hand: Logic, the art of proving; and Rhetoric, the art of persuading; are expressed, the one by a hand contracted, the other by a hand enlarged. Our desire of holiness lies in the heart: but what evidence, what demonstration can be taken from that? Who searches these Rolls? The proof of all lies in the hand. The head and the hand too are required to a perfect natural man: Counsel and action too, to a perfect civil man: Faith and works too, to a perfect spiritual man. The very truth, whether of grace or corruption, that is in the heart, may be dissembled in the mouth, but it will visibly appear in the hand. It is true, that God principally looks to the heart; but he does not take off his eye, till he come to the hand: he regards that also.

First therefore keep thy heart with all diligence: it is best to begin there, but he that ends there, that comes not to the hand, never began at all. The heart is seated in man with all advantage of intelligence; almost in the very center, with a curious net of veins spread over it: like the spider in the midst of her web: which feeling the least touch that shakes her work, retires instantly from the danger. If thou wouldest keep thy heart from spots, let it avoid the very complement and first address of sin; shrink at the least noise, murmur, or whispering of it; and be sensible of peril at the least glimpse of a temptation. There is a world of fowl thoughts busy about the door of the heart: their very assaults will give a dash, but their entertainment sticks a hateful blot on the soul Ill thoughts are the Vshers to ill actions, and ill actions bring sinners back again in a circle to ill thoughts: for impii in circuitu: they walk the round. First, they act a sin, because the thought hath pleased them: and then they think that sin over again, because the act hath pleased them: so by a damnable arithmetic multiplying one sin to a thousand.

First then look to thy heart; keep out sin there: as Physicians do in a dangerous sickness, by cordials to drive it from the heart. Into the other parts it must not be admitted neither: in any place it is a spot of filthiness. If it get into the eyes, there it is envy, covetousness or adultery: If into the mouth, there it is scurrility or blasphemy: If into the ears; there it is an itching petulancy: If into the belly, there it is excess and gluttony: If into the knees, there it is superstition and idolatry: If into the hair or garments, there it is pride and vanity: wheresoever it comes, it is a spot of impiety. If we do not guard everyone, we are in danger to lose all. And as we find the slippery condition of man in his highest mortal happiness, that the defect of any one thing conducing to this happiness, may ruin it: but it must have all the pieces together to make it up. So all places and parts of us must be guarded, to secure our safety: but the neglect of any one may be the loss of all. Yet alas, when all is done we have abundance of spots, and where is there water enough to wash them away? Our sins are an Ocean, and yet there is a red sea greater than this Ocean, and there is a little spring, through which this Ocean may pour it self into that red sea. Christ's blood is the red sea, our eyes are the spring. If by the spirit of true repentance, we can pass all our sins, through our eyes in tears, into the wounds of Christ, we shall be clean, and presented to him without spot, in that great day of retribution.

And blameless:] The former might be an inward, this is an external righteousness. There be two things dear to man's body; life and health: we would 〈1 page duplicate〉 〈1 page duplicate〉 all live and live happy. So there is Duplex vita; Realis & metaphorica. Real, O that Ishmael might live in thy sight. Metaphoricall, as vivat Rex, that is, free from misery; which indeed is vita vitalis. We do all, appetere vitam; and though with Saint Paul, we desire to be dissolved; yet mortem quaerimus ut vivamus: it is not to be unclothed, but clothed upon. So there be two thing precious to the soul; Bonitas conscientiae, and Sanitas famae. To be good, which is the comfort of our conscience at home: and to be reputed good, which is the testimony of the world abroad. There is Spotlesnesse in the one, unblameablenesse in the other. Some care nec esse, nec videri; neither to be, nor to be thought holy: such are our dissolute ruffians, and penurious misers. Some care for the videri, to feeme good, no matter for the esse, whether they be so or not: these are dissembling hypocrites. Some look to the esse, but are not so respectful of the videri; which may be good men, but are not good patterns: They will make no show of purity before others, yet are diligent to keep it in their own he • ns. These are Christians, but cowardly ones: Sons indeed, like Reuben, but not excellent sons. Others regard both the esse and videri: they will be as good as they seem, and they will strive to appear as good as they are. As they have light, so it shall shine; that not only themselves, but others shall be the better for it. In the one they are spotless, blameless in the other: holy within, righteous without, blessed in all, through the merits of him that blesseth all, Jesus Christ.

That we may lead a blameless life, many cautions are required.

1. The abstaining from gross and scandalous sins; for they (of all other) deserve blame. There be some that discommon communities; mere murderers: Men think there is no murder, but where the hands are besmeared with blood; yea, there be pretences for Mans slaughter: God's Word never knew any such distinction; but Si non pavisti, occidisti. The engrossers arguments are forged in Hell. Homicide finds the patronage of valor; Reputation is dearer than life: This is the Devils sophistry, whereby he provides dishes for his own table before they be cold. But he that maliciously strikes another's body, is first stricken in soul; and indeed is dead, before he kills. These be notorious crimes; no man thinks they should pass without blame. The Usurer that desires to live with less faith and more security, hath some reasons for his legal theft; but he took them all out of the Devils lectures: he is not without evident blame. Drunkenness is such a scandalous fault: Reason is the essential difference between man and beast; and this drunkenness takes away. It is a coupling and combining sin; therefore more pernicious. The usurer and adulterer desire to enjoy their sins alone; but the chief delight of a drunkard is to infect others. This is the Dragons special venom; wherewith his elves, being intoxicated, strive to make others more beasts than themselves. The Ale-house is the Study, the Circle the • ot, the Drunkard the Conjurer, good fellowship the Charme, the Characters healths, the Goblin raised, is the Goblet or spirit of the Buttery; and to empty the purse of money, the head of reason, and the pot of liquor, (the Ale-wise of Kesgraves three outs) is all the business. There is Poculum charitatis, a cup of love; and there is Charitas poculi, a love to the cup. These and such like be monstrous sins: the doers of them shall be more than blamed.

2. The avoidance of injurious sins, such as bring detriment to others. Qui mihi injuriam, sibi culpam infert: If a man makes me smart, I may charge him with blame. The generation of one man's riches, is not seldom the corruption of another's. There is no blame in gaining of that, whereby our neighbor is no loser. But he that hasteth to be rich, shall not be innocent: he is sure of blame. This toucheth some of those, that have now (let them consider by what means) more plate, than their fathers had pewter. If they did not prefer opulency before innocence, and cared more to be wealthy than worthy, they would rather have eaten their meat in a wooden dish. The hire of laborers kept back by fraud, crieth; and that cry is entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabbath. They would never cry against you, if ye were not to blame. Such worldlings consult shame to their house, and sin against their own soul. He that oppresseth another, sins against his own soul. The stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it. The senseless walls and stones shall cry them down guilty. Do our Church-robbers quit themselves from blame -worthiness? Sacrilege is plain Idolatry: or if they be not both one, yet Saint Paul puts them both in a bag. Let Achan's pillage assure them, that they are not free from blame. He was stoned, with all his family: they shall not only smart themselves, but enwrappe all they have in the judgment. They that defile themselves with holy goods, are enemies to their own flesh and blood, even to all their posterity. It hath been proverbially spoken of him that desires to be soon rich, that he must have two Muches, and two Littles: Much greediness, and much diligence; Little shame, and little conscience: blame enough he cannot miss of.

3. Cold negligence and perfunctorinesse in the worship of God must be abandoned. Even Peter might deserve blame, and Paul does not stick to tell him of it for he was to be blamed. Outward adoration is a part of God's worship: though He chiefly requires the heart, yet the body is not privileged from his service. Christ that could bow the Heavens, did yet in prayer bow his knees. If both our body and soul be cleansed from their Leprosy, and but one of them return to give thanks, it is plain ingratitude. We have some that hold kneeling at the Communion to be Popish and Idolatrous, because it was once abused. Hezekiah brake down the brazen Serpent, because there was no further use of it: But did Licurgus well to cut down all the Vines, because some were made drunk with the Grapes? We continue this laudable custom of kneeling for divers reasons. First, to withstand profaneness: Atheism is more to be feared than Papism; Contempt than Superstition. Secondly, to stir us up to a reverent estimation of these holy and dreadful Mysteries: Thirdly, to put a difference between this, and other common bread and wine. Fourthly, to excite us to prayer, that we may receive Christ in humility. They therefore that refuse to submit themselves to this and other seemly gestures in the Church, are duly to be blamed. Our irreverent behavior in these holy places, is most intolerable. Servants in their masters house and presence, especially in their solemn attendance, will not presume to be covered; nor Courtiers or Nobles in the Kings presence-chamber. Yet when we appear before our heavenly Master, the King of Kings, in his own Temple, on go our hats, young and old; as if we were too good to be uncovered in his sight, that is able to cover us with confusion. Jacob had another thought; How dreadful is this place? This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of Heaven. Pretend what peevish reasons they can, without all question they will not be found blameless.

4. We must give no occasion of evil: though we do not commit sin ourselves, yet if we occasion sin in others, we are not blameless. We know evil by our nighbour, and report it animo calumniandi: it is true what we speak, we are no liars: it is malicious what we speak, and we are depravers, A rumor is like a spark of fire that is thrown abroad; which, lighting upon such fit matter as catching ears, proves to a flame, whereby not only guiltiness is scorched, but even innocence it self is sindged. Such occasion is is sometimes given by the very behavior of men and women, that there follows a generation of sins: We may well esteem a painted woman, a Sorceresie; one that tempts under Satan's visible colors. Who can suppose but she minds temptation, that dresseth her self like a Tempter? She that so attires her self, as to draw men to folly, though she prevail not, is more guilty than another that falls into sin upon weakness. Her carriage is blame -worthy, that hath given the occasion to be tried. True chastity scorns to have it ever come to this, that she must deny: but rather wears a deportment which keeps lust at such a distance, that it can have no hope. But she that baits her desires with prostituted looks, whose gestures and very countenance are enticements, shall be as free from blame, as whoredom is from diseases. Let her be clear from sin, she cannot be from blame: Et si illa non perit, tamen perdit. Many Israelites offended by reason of the high places, left in Judah: King Asa worshipped not there: he escaped sin in the one, not blame in the other. That Joseph was fair, it was not his fault; that his mistress inordinately loved him, it was his unhappiness: but if he had still continued in her prefence, he could not have been excused from blame. Some Divines have fetched dancing within this compass, of giving the occasion of foul thoughts: and there is some kind of it that cannot be defended. One spake smartly; that a fool and a dancer differed but in this: a fool is a fool all his life, and a dancer while he is dancing. But if we would be free from blame, we must give no occasion of sin.

5. Lastly, to be blameless, we must abstain from all appearance of evil. Our first rule debarreth gross sins; such as was David's uncleanness, Peters denial of his Lord, and cursing himself to get credit amongst a cursed crew, be like accustomed to such fashions. The second forbids injurious sins, albeit glossed over with fair pretences: as Monopolies, which do a common mischief, yet bear the show of a common good. Not unlike to some Executioners of the Inquisition, who have been so kind in their cruelties; that when Christians were to be strangled for Religion, they have greased the halters, to dispatch them quickly. The third forbids all disorderly sins, by suffering that evil to be done which we do not ourselves. For this the holy Ghost blamed the Church of Thyatira: because they suffered the woman Jezebel to teach and seduce God's servants: Contrary to that express Canon of the Apostle; I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man. At home she may have imperium apud virum, by persuasion; not imperium in virum, by dominion. But for her to minister in the Church is most intolerable. We read but of one woman-Preacher throughout the whole Bible; and she was a Whore. That one act of Zipporah in circumcising her son, is neither warrant nor argument that women may administer the Sacrament of Baptism. The fourth rule excludes all occasional inducements to sin: as the erecting of licentious places; which may be the nests of unclean birds, and refuges of excess. The last forbids all show and semblance of sin: the three former are sins, these two latter may turn to sins: there we cannot escape blame, here we may incur it. Even lawful actions perverted, become damnable sins: as eating to provoke or maintain lust; drinking to scurrility or wantonness. David daunced before the Ark, without sin: the Israelites danced before their Calf, and it was Idolatry: as appears by that which Paul quotes: Neither be ye Idolaters, as were some of them: as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. As a fair Virgin espoused, and shortly to be married to some noble Prince, whom she dearly loves, will not touch the thing which (she but doubts) may dedignifie her, and make her unworthy of his regard: So the good soul detests the very appearance of that evil, which may make her unfit for the embraces of Christ.

[unspec 3] To be found blameless] That is the main matter: the Crown of all is Perseverance. To be found we are sure enough: all our care should be to be found blameless. Of the ten Lepers that came to Christ, after their healing, nine left Him: only one stayed with Him. Many begin well, but few continue; because Many are called, but few chosen: You shall see a tree in the Spring making a glorious show, with her leaves and blossoms: but in Autumn where be the fruits? Many a man's life is like an ill play; which begins bravely, goes on dully, and flagges in the conclusion. Rivers, the farther they run, the fairer streams they bear: the righteous have an eternal Spring of grace that feeds them, and in their running they gather in many waters: they flow with good works: till at their end, they empty themselves into the Ocean of Mercy.

God will take men as He finds them: not what they have been, but what they are, so He accounts them. When a man turns from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, the righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned: but in the sin that he hath sinned, he shall die. Were his head of Gold, in his first profession; his arms of Silver, somewhat embased in his progression; yet if his feet prove of Clay, if his latter end be dirty, fouled with earthly cares: in that state shall he be found, and according to that state judged. Such are not unlike the Philistine Kine, that brought the Ark to the land of Israel: and then turned back again to their Calves at home. Qui non proficit, deficit: qui in viâ subsistit, in luto haeret. Saint Augustine in every petition of the Pater noster, hath found out our prayer for Perseverance: I may not stand to amplify it. The Leopard doth not run after his prey like other beasts, but pursues it saliendo: and if at three or four jumpes he cannot seize it, for very indignation he gives over the chase. There be some, that if they cannot leap into Heaven, by a few good works, they will even let it alone: as if it were to be ascended Per saltum, non per scansum. But they are more unwise, that having got up many rounds of Jacob's Ladder, and finding difficulties in some of the uppermost; whether wrestling with assaults and troubles, or looking down upon their old allurements; even fairly descend with Demas, and take Heaven they that can get it.

But it will be unhappy to be found so: when the Lord found a guest without his wedding garment, He questioned his entrance: and receiving no answer, He pronounced his sentence; Take him, and bind him hand and foot, and throw him in outer darkness. He was found in a miserable case, and cast into a miserable place. But Paul desired to be found in Christ, and in the clothing of his righteousness. We are all sure to be found of him; Oh happy are we, if we be found in Him. We are in Him by faith, in Him by love, in Him by renovation, in Him by sanctification: But if our faith fails, if our love falls, if our newness decays, if our holiness corrupts, if we be not found in Him, all will go wrong with us. There will be an universal day of finding: many labor to find out the day of Judgment: in all sober judgment they might save that labor. For Generalis Iudicii tempus non invenies, particularis inveniet te. To be found, there is no doubt: but to be found without spot and blameless, there is the comfort. This i • our time of finding Christ; that his time of finding us. For this cause shall everyone that is godly pray unto thee, in a time when thou mayest be found: this belongs to us. In that day God shall judge the secrets of all hearts by Jesus Christ: that belongs to Him.

If we do not seek Him while He may be found, He will meet with us when we would not be found. It is his complaint; Ye will not come unto me, that you might have life: they will not seek Him. At last they shall cry to the mountains and rocks, Fall upon us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the Throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: so loath are they to be found of Him. Ahab will not seek after Elias, to make his peace: Elias shall find out Ahab, and that with a woeful message. Our only way to get favor of Christ, in that his last office of a Judge, is now wholly to rely upon Him, in his present office of a Mediator. If we take other refuges here, we shall be to seek there. The Papists promise themselves divers Sanctuaries: they have their choice of Saints, and above all the blessed Virgin, to whom they direct their prayers. But as the Jews might not offer sacrifice, but at the Altar, so nor may we offer up our prayers but in Christ. And if we must not pray but in his Name, Shall we in his Name pray to Creatures, and make Him our Mediator to his servants, whiles we intend to make them our mediators to Him? No, but as Epiphanius writes of some of the Jews, that coming to a dying man, they will say; If Jesus be the Messias He deliver thee from all thy sins: though in life their hard hearts will not let them believe it, yet in death they are glad to make some doubtful use of it. So whatsoever the Romists tell us while they live, I am persuaded, this is the only refuge they cleave unto when they die; Christ, and none but Christ. In those legal or typical sacrifices, the people were to lay their hands on the head of the beast; testifying all their shares to be there, both in respect of the sin, and the deserved punishment. In like manner let us transfer all our sins upon our Head Christ, who was once sacrificed for us: so shall we be found of Him blameless, because He hath taken all our blame from us; and He will never condemn us to die for that, for which Himself hath died already.

In peace. So to be found is the consummation of happiness. Peace to Righteousness is Filia, Sponsa, Soror: the sister of a Queen, the daughter of a Queen and a Queen herself: Glory to GOD in the highest, and on Earth peace: there let her stand for a Queen, and be Righteousness her King, both married together in Christ. Righteousness and Peace have kissed each other: there they kiss and embrace like Man and Wife. Love the Truth and Peace: there let her be Soror, the sister of Truth and Righteousness: twinne-sisters of that Heavenly Parentage, never to be parted. Here in my Text, let her be Filia, the daughter of righteousness: for if we maintain holiness in heart and life, without spot and blameless, we shall be found in peace. Mark the upright man and behold the Just, for the end of that man is peace. If it be long before she comes to the Crown, yet she is borne to be a Queen, and in the end she shall have it. Yea, besides all these relations of Spouse, Sister, Daughter, she may also be called Mater justitiae, the mother of righteousness: Follow peace and holiness, without which no man shall see God: the mother is placed before the daughter. First be reconciled to thy brother, before thou offer thy gift at the Altar: Christ himself gives it the precedency, and sets Piety after Peace. And indeed Peace prepares the way for righteousness, and helps to prosper religion. Turbulent spirits have neither time nor means to be holy: but Peace makes us both capable of holiness, and acceptable to God in our holiness. Howsoever, let us not part them: such inseparable companions doth our Apostle wish them to us, that he would not have us found without them. Peace in this world is a precious earnest, a fair and lovely type of that everlasting peace of the world to come: And war in this world is a shrewd and fearful emblem of the everlasting discord, tumult and torment of Hell. Therefore our blessed God bless us with external, and internal, and make them both lead us to eternal peace.

If therefore we desire to be found in peace at that day, there; let us live in peace all our days here. Why should they find peace above, that fly peace below? I know no fairer or surer way to prepare you for the one, than by persuading you to the other. There may be many opposers of our Peace: the peace of Doctrine is opposed by Sectaries, the peace of tranquility is opposed by the contentious, and the peace of plenty is opposed by the oppressors: Against all these let us maintain peace; and that in respect of the Church, of the State, and of our own private carriage.

1. Let us begin at home, and keep peaceable bosoms. Be at peace among yourselves. Love is Fomentum pacis, the vessel that contains the treasure of peace: if the vessel once breaks, Peace instantly runs out. Love is opposed to malice, so it covers offenses with the mantle of peace: To churlishness, and so it is liberal in giving: Opus charitatis: To hard-heartedness, and so it is charitas operis. There is one possessive, Meum, which is a general peace-breaker, a common barretor that sets us all together by the ears. If men would yield a little of their own right, with a small loss of riches, they should purchase abundance of peace. Abraham to avoid contention with his cosin Lot, gave him free choice of the ground. Though he were the elder, and every way the better, and had the better cause too, yet he goes to his Nephew to deprecate strife. He that doth so now, that will follow the practice of our Father Abraham, must not acquaint a Lawyer with the matter: for if he consult him, there is nothing but law in his mouth.

Nor must this desire of peace be straitened: but Live peaceable with all men: not only with our friends, and such as love us; but even with our enemies, and such as hate us. Some mistaking that of saint Paul; Follow peace with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart; fall to abridge our peace, denying it the full extent and latitude. Thus out of a surly singularity, they will have peace with none but the pure; and the pure in their own sense. As for others that are not of their pure strain, they are out of all peace with them. They will not so much as afford them the common duties of humanity; Nec monstrare vias, eadem nisi sacra colenti; not show him the way, that goes not the same way with them. But though we must have peace with the Saints especially, yet not only; but with all men. I know that some are given to contention, and we may dwell among them that hate peace: in this case it is enough for us to seek peace with them, to speak peace to them, and to be peaceably affected towards them: And if they will not have peace with us, yet our peace shall return into our own bosoms. We shall have the comfort of it in ourselves, and the reward of it with God, though we have not the fruit or effect of it with men. Still therefore Seek peace, and pursue it: Run after it, follow it with no slow pace, but with an earnest and eager pursuit. We are not to stay till peace comes to us, or think it enough to accept peace when it is offered: but Go thy way to thy brother: tarry not till he come to thee, but go thou to him with an Olive branch of peace in thy mouth. Though it be unwilling to come, sue for it: though it turn from thee, follow after it: at the gates of Heaven be sure thou shalt overtake it.

2. The peace of the State wherein we live, would not be disturbed neither. We see a fearful combustion all over the Christian world; wars in some places, rumors of war in all places; we therefore if we love peace, have cause to fall to our prayers for peace; Pacem spirare & suspirare coram Deo: that he would so rule the Rulers of Nations and Kingdoms, that their hearts may be disposed to peace. So our Church hath taught us to pray; Give peace in our time O Lord: and that he would give unto all Nations unity peace and concord. For ourselves at home, blessed be the God of peace for it, we have abundance of peace: we dwell in the Tabernacles of peace: we lie down and rise up in peace: we go to our Temples in peace, we go to our graves in peace. Yet the quietest waters may be moved by the winds; and we are not without some such tempestuous spirits, that as if they had fed so long upon the sweet plenty of peace, till they had taken a surfeit, are loud advocates for war. Fear the Lord and the King, and meddle not with them that are given to change. The desire of change is the mother of murmuring, which breeds a whispering and buzzing of false rumors into others ears. They speak out of the ground, and whisper out of the dust. These whispers and murmurings, like vapors rising out of the earth, multiply into the storms of sedition, sedition grows into mutiny, and mutiny ends in confusion. They that are troubled with the itch of innovation, will be rubbing upon Majesty it self; and had rather than do nothing, undo all. Out of their popular and vain-glorious humor, they would be counted Angels, though it be but for troubling the waters. Be the Garden never so fair, they would make the world believe that there is a Snake under every leaf. Be the intention never so sincere, they will prognosticate and predivine sinister and mischievous effects from it. Such men have little hope to be found of Christ in peace, for The way of peace they have not known. A troubled spirit is a sacrifice to God, but a troublesome spirit is far from it: it is rather a sacrifice to the Devil.

3. But woe to them that break the peace of the Church; that blend religion with contention; and put those a-sunder, which God hath joined together, Truth and peace. With what violent passions do many men bandy controversies? How do they wrangle in print, and fight with their pens, as Soldiers with their Pikes; all wounding the peace of the Church? With what bitterness of spirit do they defy one another? I would to God we had less of the Polemicall, and more of the Positive Divinity. I deny not, but wisdom ought to be justified of her children: An indifferency to contrary opinions in fundamental doctrines; a shuffling of religions together in the bag, and making it all one which they choose, is a cursed stupidity. So a Turk might say in scorn of us both, Protestants and Papists: They call you Heretics, you call them Idolaters; why may not Idolaters and Heretics agree well enough together? But a true Christian will never make contrarieties in fundamental things indifferent: nor the word of God, and Traditions of men, all one. But what needs this frequency of disputations? This multiplying of volumes? Why should we answer every dog that barks with barking again? Why should we think the truth utterly lost, unless we weary the Press with vindications of it? The tongue is a fire; but the pen goes farther; adds fuel to this fire, and shoots it abroad where the tongue cannot reach. Of all which, being of so peace-breaking a nature, like those Books of curious arts, if there were a good fire made, the Church might well endure to warm her hands at it. For it were certainly better for us to want some truth, then to have no peace: And a man that never studied controversies, may without controversy be saved. Strive not about words to no profit, but the subverting of the hearers. For thereby the whole are often wounded, but the weak are seldom strengthened. If any seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, nor the Churches of God. The custom of the Church is to follow peace, to fly contention.

Seek peace, when she is hidden; pursue her, when she is flying: they know not the value of peace, that lose her so easily, or so faintly follow her. There be some indeed that do persequi pacem, but in a wrong sense: they turn prosecution into persecution; and do not overtake her, but overturn her. But if we desire to be found in peace then, let peace be found in us now: And if we have no other means to obtain it, our prayers we have: by lifting up of our eyes, hands, and hearts to the God of peace; and bowing our knees to the Prince of peace. And that our prayers may speed the better, let us make our peace with God by our repentance, that God may make peace with us by his forgiveness. And the work of righteousness shall be peace. This preparation is necessary for all them, that desire to be found in peace: let us keep the peace, as we would have the peace to keep us. Follow peace with all men; there is the one: I will lay me down in peace and sleep, for thou, O Lord, makest me dwell in safety: there is the other.

Let us consider the blessedness of that peace, there; by the sweetness of the peace we have here. There is no peace, that is not separated from righteousness, but it is most delectable. Pax summa bonorum, the breviary and abridgment of all that is good. Peace or nothing; Peace and everything. The Jews had such a saying, cum non est pax, nihil est: as if all were nothing, or nothing worth without peace. They included all good, plenty, prosperity, (and what not?) under the name of peace. It is the chiefest, and the choicest good, a fundamental happiness, a mother-blessing; that which blesseth all other blessings to us, and without which they are no blessings.