Eighty Sermons

SERM. XLVI. Preached at S. Paul's, The Sunday after the Conversion of S. PAUL. 1624.

L Et us now praise famous Men, and our Fathers that begat us, (says the Wiseman) that is, that assisted our second generation, our spiritual Regeneration; Let us praise them, commemorate them. The Lord hath wrought great glory by them, through his power from the beginning, says he there, that is, It hath always been the Lord's way to glorify himself in the conversion of Men, by the ministry of Men. For he adds, They were leaders of the people by their counsel, and by their knowledge and learning meet for the people, wise and eloquent men in their instructions; and that is, That God who gives these gifts for this purpose, looks for the employment of these gifts, to the edification of others, to his glory. There be of them, that have left a name behind them. (as it is also added in that place) that is, That though God can amply reward his servants in the next world, yet he does it sometimes in this world; and, though not with temporal happiness, in their life, yet with honor, and commemorations, and celebrations of them, after they are gone out of this life, they leave a name behind them. And amongst them, in a high place, shines our blessed and glorious Apostle S. Paul, whose Conversion the Church celebrates now, and for the celebration thereof, hath appointed this part of Scripture from whence this text arises, to be the Epistle of the Day, And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice, saying, Saul, Saul, why persccutest thou me?

There are words in the text, that will reach to all the Story of S. Paul's Conversion, embrace all, involve and enwrap all; we must contract them; into less then three parts, we cannot well; those will be these; first, The Person, Saul, He, He fell to the earth; and then, his humiliation, his exinanition of himself, his devesting, putting off of himself, He fell to the earth; and lastly, his investing of Christ, his putting on of Christ, his rising again by the power of a new inanimation, a new soul breathed into him from Christ, He heard a voice, saying, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? Now, a re-distribution, a sub-division of these parts, into their branches, we shall present to you anon, more opportunely, as we shall come in due order to the handling of the parts themselves. In the first, the branches will be but these; Saul's indisposition when Christ took him in hand, and Christ's work upon him; what he found him, what he left him, will determine our first part, The person.

First then, what he was at that time, the Holy Ghost gives evidence enough against him, and he gives enough against himself. Of that which the Holy Ghost gives, you may see a great many heavy pieces, a great many appliable circumstances, if at any time, at home, you do but paraphrase, and spread to yourselves the former part of this Chapter, to this text. Take a little preparation from me; Adhuc spirans, says the first verse, Saul yet breathing threatenings and slaughter, Then when he was in the height of his fury, Christ laid hold upon him. It was, for the most part, Christ's method of curing. Then when the Sea was in a tempestuous rage, when the waters covered the ship, and the storm shaked even that which could remove mountains, the faith of the Disciples, then Christ rebukes the wind, and commands a calm. Then when the Sun was gone out to run his race as a Giant, (as David speaks) then God by the mouth of another, of Joshua, bids the Sun stand still. Then when that unclean spirit foam'd, and fum'd, and tore, and rent the possessed persons, then Christ commanded them to go out. Let the fever alone, say our Physicians, till some fits be passed, and then we shall see farther, and discern better. The note is S. Chrysostom's, and he applies it to Christ's proceeding with Saul; Non expectavit ut fatigatus debacchando mansuesceret, says he, Christ staid not till Saul being made drunk with blood, were cast into a slumber, as satisfied with the blood of Christians; Sed in media insania superavit, but in the midst of his fit, he gave him physic, in the midst of his madness, he reclaimes him. So is it also part of the evidence that the Holy Ghost gives against him, Quod petiit Epistolas, that he sued to the State for a Commission to persecute Christians. When the State will put men to some kind of necessity of concurring to the endamaging or endangering of the cause of Christ, and will be displeased with them, if they do not, men make to themselves, and to their consciences some faint color of excuse: But when they themselves set actions on foot, which are not required at their hands, where is their evasion? Then when Saul sued out this Commission, That if he found any of that way, (that is, Christians) (for he had so scattered them before, that he was not sure to find any, They did not appear in any whole body, dangerous, or suspicious to the State) but, If he found any, Any man or woman, That he might have the Power of the State, so as that he need not fear men, That he might have the impartiality, and the inflexibility of the State, so as that he need not pity women, Then when his glory was to bring them bound to Jerusalem, that he might magnify his triumph and greatness in the eye of the world, Then, then says Christ, to this tempest, Be calm, to this unclean spirit, Come out, to this Sun, in his own estimation, Go no farther.

Thus much evidence the Holy Ghost gives against him; and thus much more himself, I persecuted this way unto the death; I bound and delivered into prison, both men and women; And after, more then this, I punished them, and that oft, and, in every Synagogue, and, compelled them to blaspheme, and, was exceedingly mad against them, and persecuted them even unto strange Cities. What could he say more against himself? And then, says Christ, to this tempest, Quiesce, Be still, to this glaring Sun, Siste, stand still, to this unclean spirit, Veni foras, come forth. In this sense especially doth S. Paul call himself Abertivum, a person borne out of season, That whereas Christ's other Disciples and Apostles, had a breeding under him, and came first ad Discipulatum, and then ad Apostolatum, first to be Disciples, and after to be Apostles; S. Paul was borne a man, an Apostle, not carved out, as the rest in time; but a fusil Apostle, an Apostle poured out, and cast in a Mold; As Adam was a perfect man in an instant, so was S. Paul an Apostle, as soon as Christ took him in hand.

Now, Beloved, wilt thou make this perverse use of this proceeding, God is rich in Mercy, Therefore I cannot miss Mercy? Wouldest thou say, and not be thought mad for saying so, God hath created a West Indies, therefore I cannot want Gold? Wilt thou be so ill a Logician to thyself, and to thine own damnation, as to conclude so, God is always the same in himself, therefore he must be always the same to me? So ill a Musician as to say, God is all Concord, therefore He and I can never disagree? So ill a Historian as to say, God hath called Saul, a Persecutor, then when he breathed threatenings and slaughter, then when he sued to the State for a Commission to persecute Christ, God hath called a thief, then when he was at the last gasp; And therefore if he have a mind to me, he will deal so with me too, and, if he have no such mind, no man can imprint, or infuse a new mind in God? God forbid. It is not safe concluding out of single Instances. It is true, that if a sour, and heavy, and severe man, will add to the discomforts of a disconsolate soul, and in that souls sadness, and dejection of spirit, will heap up examples, that God hath still suffered high-minded sinners to proceed and to perish in their irreligious ways, and tell that poor soul, (as Job's company did him) It is true, you take God aright, God never pardons such as you, in these cases, these singular, these individual examples, That God hath done otherwise once, have their use. One instance to the contrary destroys any peremptory Rule, no man must say, God never doth it; He did it to Saul here, He did it to the Thief upon the Cross. But to that presumptuous sinner, who sins on, because God shown mercy to One at last, we must say, a miserable Comforter is that Rule, that affords but one example. Nay, is there one example? The Conversion of Saul a Persecutor, and of the Thief upon the Cross, is become Proverbium peccatorum, The sinners proverb, and serves him, and satisfies him in all cases. But is there any such thing? Such a story there is, and it is as true as Gospel, it is the truth of Gospel it self; But was this a late Repentance? Answer S. Cyril, Rogo te frater, Tell me, Beloved, Thou that deferrest thy Repentance, doest thou do it upon confidence of these examples? Non in fine, sed in principio conversus latro; Thou deludest thine own soul; The Thief was not converted at last, but at first; As soon as God afforded him any Call, he came; And at how many lights hast thou winked? And to how many Cals hast thou stopped thine ears, that deferrest thy repentance? Christ said to him, Hodie mecum eris, This day thou shalt be with me in paradise; when thou canst find such another day, look for such another mercy; A day that cleft the grave-stones of dead men; A day that cleft the Temple it self; A day that the Sun durst not see; A day that saw the soul of God (may we not say so, since that Man was God too) depart from Man; There shall be no more such days; and therefore presume not of that voice, Hodie, This day thou shalt be with me, if thou make thy last minute that day, though Christ, to magnify his mercy, and his glory, and to take away all occasion of absolute desperation, did here, under so many disadvantages call, and draw S. Paul to him.

But we say no more of that, of the danger of sinning by precedent, and presuming of mercy by example; we pass from our first Consideration, From what, to the other, To what, Christ brought this persecutor, this Saul. He brought him to that remarkable height, as that the Church celebrates the Conversion of no man but this. Many bloody Executioners were converted to Christ, even in the act of that bloody Execution; Then when they took a delight in tearing the bowels of Christians, they were received into the bowels of Christ Jesus, and became Christians. Man that road to Market, and saw an Execution upon the way; Men that opened a window to take air, and saw an Execution in the street; The Ecclesiastical Story abounds with examples of occasional Convertits, and upon strange occasions; but yet the Church celebrates no Conversion, but this. The Church doth not consider the Martyrs as borne till they die; till the world see how they persevered to the end, she takes no knowledge of them; Therefore she calls the days of their deaths, Natalitia, their birth-days; Then she makes account they are borne, when they die. But of S. Paul the Church makes her self assured the first minute; and therefore celebrates his Conversion, and none but his. Here was a true Transubstantiation, and a new Sacrament. These few words, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me, are words of Consecration; After these words, Saul was no longer Saul, but he was Christ: Vivit in me Christus, says he, It is not I that live, not I that do anything, but Christ in me. It is but a little way that S. Chrysostom goes, when he speaks of an inferior Transubstantiation, of a change of affections, and says Agnus ex Lupo, that here is another manner of Lycanthropy, then when a man is made a Wolf; for here a Wolf is made a Lamb, Ex lupo Agnus. Ex vepribus racemus, says that Father, A bramble is made a vine; Ex zizaniis frumentum, Cockle and tares become wheat; Ex pirata gubernator, A Pirat becomes a safe Pilot; Ex novissimo primus, The lees are come to swim on the top, and the last is grown first; and ex abortivo perfectus, He that was borne out of time, hath not only the perfection, but the excellency of all his lineaments. S. Chrysostom goes farther then this, Ex blasphemo, Os Christi, & lyraspiritus, He that was the mouth of blasphemy, is become the mouth of Christ, He that was the instrument of Satan, is now the organ of the Holy Ghost. He goes very far, when he says, In Coelis homo, in terris Angelus, Being yet but upon earth, he is an Angel, and being yet but a man, he is already in Heaven. Yet S. Paul was another manner of Sacrament, and had another manner of Transubstantiation, then all this; As he was made Idem spiritus cum Domino, The same spirit with the Lord, so in his very body, he had Stigmata, the very marks of the Lord Jesus. From such a lowness, raised to such a height, as that Origen says, many did believe, that S. Paul had been that Holy Ghost, which Christ had promised to the world, after his departing from it.

It is but a little way that S. Jerome hath carried his commendation neither, when he calls him Rugitum leonis, The roaring of a Lion, if we consider in how little a forest the roaring of a Lion is determined; but that he calls him Rugitum Leonis nostri, The roaring of our Lion, of the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, That as far as Christ is heard, S. Paul is heard too; Quem quoties lego, non verba mihi videor audire, sed tonitrua, Wheresoever I open S. Paul's Epistles, I meet not words, but thunder, and universal thunder, thunder that passes through all the world. For, Ejus excaecatio totius or bis illuminatio, That that was done upon him, wrought upon all the world; he was struck blind, and all the world saw the better for that. So universal a Priest, (says S. Chrysostom, who loves to be speaking of S. Paul ) as that he sacrificed, not sheep and goats, sed seipsum, but himself; and not only that, sed totum mundum, He prepared the whole world, as a sacrifice to God. He built an Ark, that is, established a Church; and to this day, receives, not eight, but all into that Ark: And whereas in Noah's Ark, Quem corvum recepit, corvum emisit, If he came in a Raven, he went out a Raven; S. Paul, in his Ark, Ex milvis facit columbas, as himself was, so he transubstantiates all them, and makes them Doves of Ravens. Nay, so overabsolutely did he sacrifice himself, and his state in this world, for this world, as that he sacrificed his reversion, his future state, the glory and joy of heaven, for his brethren, and chose rather to be Anathema, separated from Christ, then they should. I love thee, says S. Chrysostom to Rome, for many excellencies, many greatnesses; But I love thee so well, says he, therefore because S. Paul loved thee so well. Qualem Rosam Roma Christo, (as he pursues this contemplation) What a fragrant rose shall Rome present Christ with, when he comes to Judgment, in re-delivering to him the body of S. Paul? And though he join them both together, Iugati boves Ecclesiae, That S. Peter and S. Paul were that yoke of oxen that ploughed the whole Church, Though he say of both, Quot carceres sanctificastis? How many Prisons have you two consecrated, and made Prisons Churches? Quot catenas illustrastis? How many fetters and chains of iron have you two changed into chains of gold? Yet we may observe a difference in S. Chrysostom's expressing of persons so equal to one another, Quid Petro majus? says he, But, Quid Paulo par fuit? What can exceed Peter, or what can equal Paul? Still be all this far from occasioning any man to presume upon God, because he afforded so abundant mercy to a Persecuter: but still from this, let every faint soul establish it self in a confidence in God; God that would find nothing to except, nothing to quarrel at, in S. Paul, will not lie heavy upon thy soul, though thou must say, as he did, Quorum ego maximus, That thou art a greater sinner then thou knowest any other man to be.

We are, in our order proposed at first, devolved now to our second Part; from the person, and in that, what he was found, A vehement persecutor, And then, what he was made, A laborious Apostle, To the Manner, to his Humiliation, Cecidit super terram, He fell, and he fell to the ground, and he fell blind, as by the history, and context appears. We use to call every declination, of any kind, and in any subject, a falling; for, for our bodies, we say a man is fallen sick, And for his state, fallen poor, And for his mind, fallen mad, And for his conscience, fallen desperate; we are borne low, and yet we fall every way lower, so universal is our falling sickness. Sin it self is but a falling; The irremediable sin of the Angels, The undeterminable sin of Adam, is called but so, The fall of Adam, The fall of Angels. And therefore the effectual visitation of the holy Ghost to man, is called a falling too; we are fallen so low, as that when the holy Ghost is pleased to fetch us again, and to infuse his grace, he is still said to fall upon us. But the fall which we consider in the Text, is not a figurative falling, not into a decay of estate, nor decay of health, nor a spiritual falling into sin, a decay of grace; but it is a medicinal falling, a falling under God's hand, but such a falling under his hand, as that he takes not off his hand from him that is fallen, but throws him down therefore that he may raise him. To this posture he brings Paul, now, when he was to re-inanimate him with his spirit; rather, to pre-inanimate him; for, indeed, no man hath a soul till he have grace.

Christ, who in his human nature hath received from the Father all Judgment, and power, and dominion over this world, hath received all this, upon that condition that he shall govern in this manner, Ask of me, and I shall give thee the Heathen for thine inheritance, says the Father; How is he to use them, when he hath them? Thus, Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron, and dash them in pieces like a potters vessel. Now, God meant well to the Nations, in this bruising and breaking of them; God intended not an annihilation of the Nations, but a reformarion; for Christ asks the Nations for an Inheritance, not for a triumph; therefore it is intended of his way of governing them; and his way is to bruise and beat them; that is, first to cast them down, before he can raise them up, first to break them before he can make them in his fashion. Novit Dominus vulnerare ad amorem; The Lord, and only the Lord knows how to wound us, out of love; more then that, how to wound us into love; more then all that, to wound us into love, not only with him that wounds us, but into love with the wound it self, with the very affliction that he inflicts upon us; The Lord knows how to strike us so, as that we shall lay hold upon that hand that strikes us, and kiss that hand that wounds us. Ad vitam interficit, ad exaltationem prosternit, says the same Father; No man kills his enemy therefore, that his enemy might have a better life in heaven; that is not his end in killing him: It is God's end; Therefore he brings us to death, that by that gate he might lead us into life everlasting; And he hath not discovered, but made that Northern passage, to pass by the frozen Sea of calamity, and tribulation, to Paradise, to the heavenly Jerusalem. There are fruits that ripen not, but by frost; There are natures, (there are scarce any other) that dispose not themselves to God, but by affliction. And as Nature looks for the season for ripening, and does not all before, so Grace looks for the assent of the soul, and does not perfect the whole work, till that come. It is Nature that brings the season, and it is Grace that brings the assent; but till the season for the fruit, till the assent of the soul come, all is not done.

Therefore God begun in this way with Saul, and in this way he led him all his life. Tot pertulit mortes, quot vixit dies, He died as many deaths, as he lived days; for so himself says, Quotidie morior, I die daily; God gave him suck in blood, and his own blood was his daily drink; He catechized him with calamities at first, and calamities were his daily Sermons, and meditations after; and to authorize the hands of others upon him, and to accustom him to submit himself to the hands of others without murmuring, Christ himself strikes the first blow, and with that, Cecidit, he fell, (which was our first consideration, in his humiliation) and then, Cecidit in terram, He fell to the ground, which is our next.

I take no farther occasion from this Circumstance, but to arm you with consolation, how low soever God be pleased to cast you, Though it be to the earth, yet he does not so much cast you down, in doing that, as bring you home. Death is not a banishing of you out of this world; but it is a visitation of your kindred that lie in the earth; neither are any nearer of kin to you, then the earth it self, and the worms of the earth. You heap earth upon your souls, and encumber them with more and more flesh, by a superfluous and luxuriant diet; You add earth to earth in new purchases, and measure not by Acres, but by Manors, nor by Manors, but by Shires; And there is a little Quillet, a little Close, worth all these, A quiet Grave. And therefore, when thou readest, That God makes thy bed in thy sickness, rejoice in this, not only that he makes that bed, where thou dost lie, but that bed where thou shalt lie; That that God, that made the whole earth, is now making thy bed in the earth, a quiet grave, where thou shalt sleep in peace, till the Angels Trumpet wake thee at the Resurrection, to that Judgment where thy peace shall be made before thou comest, and writ, and sealed, in the blood of the Lamb.

Saul falls to the earth; So far; But he falls no lower. God brings his servants to a great lowness here; but he brings upon no man a perverse sense, or a distrustful suspicion of falling lower hereafter; His hand strikes us to the earth, by way of humiliation; But it is not his hand, that strikes us into hell, by way of desperation. Will you tell me, that you have observed and studied God's way upon you all your life, and out of that can conclude what God means to do with you after this life? That God took away your Parents in your infancy, and left you Orphans then, That he hath crossed you in all your labors in your calling, ever since, That he hath opened you to dishonors, and calumnies, and mis-interpretations, in things well intended by you, That he hath multiplied ficknesses upon you, and given you thereby an assurance of a miserable, and a short life, of few, and evil days, nay, That he hath suffered you to fall into sins, that you yourselves have hated, To continue in sins, that you yourselves have been weary of, To relapse into sins, that you yourselves have repented; And will you conclude out of this, that God had no good purpose upon you, that if ever he had meant to do you good, he would never have gone thus far, in heaping of evils upon you? Upon what doest thou ground this? upon thyself? Because thou shouldest not deal thus with any man, whom thou mean'st well to? How poor, how narrow, how impious a measure of God, is this, that he must do, as thou wouldest do, if thou wert God! God hath not made a week without a Sabbath; no temptation, without an issue; God inflicts no calamity, no cloud, no eclipse, without light, to see ease in it, if the patient will look upon that which God hath done to him, in other cases, or to that which God hath done to others, at other times. Saul fell to the ground, but he fell no lower; God brings us to humiliation, but not to desperation.

He fell; he fell to the ground, And he fell blind; for so it is evident in the story. Christ had said to the Pharisees, I came into the world, that they which see, might be made blind; And the Pharisees ask him, Have you been able to do so upon us? Are we blind? Here Christ gives them an example; a real, a literal, an actual example; Saul, a Pharisee, is made blind. He that will fill a vessel with wine, must take out the water; He that will fill a covetous man's hand with gold, must take out the silver that was there before, says S. Chrysostom. Christ, who is about to infuse new light into Saul, withdraws that light that was in him before; That light, by which Saul thought he saw all before, and thought himself a competent Judge, which was the only true Religion, and that all others were to be persecuted, even to death, that were not of his way. Stultus factus est omnis homo à scientia, says God in the Prophet, Every man that trusts in his own wit, is a fool. But let him become a fool, that he may be wise, says the Apostle; Let him be so, in his own eyes, and God will give him better eyes, better light, better understanding. Saul was struck blind, but it was a blindness contracted from light; It was a light that struck him blind, as you see in his story. This blindness which we speak of, which is a sober and temperate abstinence from the immoderate study, and curious knowledges of this world, this holy simplicity of the soul, is not a darkness, a dimness, a stupidity in the understanding, contracted by living in a corner, it is not an idle retiring into a Monastery, or into a Village, or a Country solitude, it is not a lazy affectation of ignorance; not darkness, but a greater light, must make us blind.

The sight, and the Contemplation of God, and our present benefits by him, and our future interest in him, must make us blind to the world so, as that we look upon no face, no pleasure, no knowledge, with such an Affection, such an Ambition, such a Devotion, as upon God, and the ways to him. Saul had such a blindness, as came from light; we must affect no other simplicity, then arises from the knowledge of God, and his Religion. And then, Saul had such a blindness, as that he fell with it. There are birds, that when their eyes are cieled, still soar up, and up, till they have spent all their strength. Men blinded with the lights of this world, soar still into higher places, or higher knowledges, or higher opinions; but the light of heaven humbles us, and lays flat that soul, which the leaven of this world had puffed and swelled up. That powerful light felled Saul; but after he was fallen, his own sight was restored to him again; Ananias says to him, Brother Saul, receive thy sight. To those men, who employ their natural faculties to the glory of God, and their own, and others edification, God shall afford an exaltation of those natural faculties; In those, who use their learning, or their wealth, or their power, well, God shall increase that power, and that wealth, and that learning, even in this world.

You have seen Saul's sickness, and the exaltation of the disease, Then when he breathed threatenings, and slaughter, Then when he went in his triumph; And you have seen his death, The death of the righteous, His humiliation, He fell to the earth; And there remains yet his Resurrection; The Angel of the great Counsel, Christ Jesus, with the Trumpet of his own mouth, rayses him, with that, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?

First, he affords him a call, A voice. Saul could not see; Therefore he deals not upon him by visions. He gives a voice; and a voice that he might hear; God speaks often, when we do not hear; He heard it, and heard it saying; Not a voice only, but a distinct, and intelligible voice; and saying unto him, that is, appliable to himself; and then, that that the voice said to him, was, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? We are unequal enemies, Thou seest I am too hard for thee, Curtu me? why wilt thou, thou in this weakness oppose me? And then, we might be good friends, Thou seest I offer parly, I offer treaty, Cur tu me? Why wilt thou oppose me, me that declare such a disposition to be reconciled unto thee? In this so great a disadvantage on thy part, why wilt thou stir at all? In this so great a peaceableness on my part, why wilt thou stir against me? Cur tu me? Why persecutest thou me?

First then, God speaks: For, beloved, we are to consider God, not as he is in himself, but as he works upon us: The first thing that we can consider in our way to God, is his Word. Our Regeneration is by his Word; that is, by faith, which comes by hearing; The seed is the word of God, says Christ himself; Even the seed of faith. Carry it higher, the Creation was by the word of God; Dixit, & facta sunt, God spoke, and all things were made. Carry it to the highest of all, to Eternity, the eternal Generation, the eternal Production, the eternal Procession of the second Person in the Trinity, was so much by the Word, as that he is the Word; Verbum caro, It was that Word, that was made Flesh. So that God, who cannot enter into bands to us, hath given us security enough; He hath given us his Word; His written Word, his Scriptures; His Essentiall Word, his Son. Our Principal, and Radicall, and Fundamental security, is his Essentiall Word, his Son Christ Jesus. But how many millions of generations was this Word in heaven, and never spoke? The Word, Christ himself, hath been as long as God hath been: But the uttering of this Word, speaking hath been but since the Creation. Peter says to Christ, To whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. It is not only, Thou art the word of eternal life; (Christ is so) But thou hast it; Thou hast it, where we may come to thee for it; In thy Treasury, in thine Ordinance, in thy Church; Thou hast it, to derive it, to convey it upon us. Here then is the first step of Saul's cure, and of ours, That there was not only a word, the Word, Christ himself, a Son of God in heaven, but a Voice, the word uttered, and preached; Christ manifested in his Ordinance: He heard a voice.

He heard it. How often does God speak, and nobody hears the voice? He speaks in his Canon, in Thunder, and he speaks in our Canon, in the rumour of wars. He speaks in his music, in the harmonious promises of the Gospel, and in our music, in the temporal blessings of peace, and plenty; And we hear a noise in his Judgments, and we hear a sound in his mercies; but we hear no voice, we do not discern that this noise, or this sound comes from any certain person; we do not feel them to be mercies, nor to be judgments uttered from God, but natural accidents, casual occurrencies, emergent contingencies, which as an Atheist might think, would fall out though there were no God, or no commerce, no dealing, no speaking between God and Man. Though Saul came not instantly to a perfect discerning who spoke, yet he saw instantly, it was a Person above nature, and therefore speaks to him in that phrase of submission, Quis es Domine? Lord who art thou? And after, with trembling and astonishment, (as the Text says) Domine quid me vis facere? Lord what wilt thou have me to do? Then we are truliest said to hear, when we know from whence the voice comes. Princes are God's Trumpet, and the Church is God's Organ, but Christ Jesus is his voice. When he speaks in the Prince, when he speaks in the Church, there we are bound to hear, and happy if we do hear. Man hath a natural way to come to God, by the eye, by the creature; So Visible things show the Invisible God: But then, God hath super-induced a supernatural way, by the ear. For, though hearing be natural, yet that faith in God should come by hearing a man preach, is supernatural. God shut up the natural way, in Saul, Seeing; He struck him blind; But he opened the super-natural way, he enabled him to hear, and to hear him. God would have us beholden to grace, and not to nature, and to come for our salvation, to his Ordinances, to the preaching of his Word, and not to any other means. Though he were blind, even that blindness, as it was a humiliation, and a diverting of his former glaring lights, was a degree of mercy, of preparative mercy; yet there was a voice, which was another degree; And a voice that he heard, which was a degree above that; and so far we are gone; And he heard it, saying, that is distinctly, and intelligibly, which is our next Circumstance.

He hears him saying, that is, He hears him so, as that he knows what he says, so, as that he understands him; for, he that hears the word, and understands it not, is subject to that which Christ says, That the wicked one comes, and catches away that that was sown. S. Augustine puts himself earnestly upon the contemplation of the Creation, as Moses hath delivered it; he finds it hard to conceive, and he says, Si esset ante me Moses, If Moses who writ this were here, Tenerem eum, & per te obsecrarem, I would hold him fast, and beg of him, for thy sake, O my God, that he would declare this work of the Creation more plainly unto me. But then, says that blessed Father, Si Hebraea voice loqueretur, If Moses should speak Hebrew to me, mine ears might hear the sound, but my mind would not hear the voice; I might hear him, but I should not hear what he said. This was that that distinguished between S. Paul, and those who were in his company at this time; S. Luke says in this Chapter, That they heard the voice, and S. Paul relating the story again, after says, They heard not the voice of him that spoke to me; they heard a confused sound, but they distinguished it not to be the voice of God, nor discerned God's purpose in it. In the twelfth of John, there came a voice from Heaven, from God himself, and the people said, It thundered. So apt is natural man to ascribe even God's immediate and miraculous actions to natural causes; apt to rest and determine in Nature, and leave out God. The Poet chides that weakness, (as he calls it) to be afraid of God's judgments, or to call natural accidents judgments; Quo morbo mentem concusse? timore Deorum, says he; he says The Conscience may be over-tender, and that such timorous men, are sick of the fear of God; But it is a blessed disease The fear of God, and the true way to true health. And though there be a moral constancy that becomes a Christian well, not to be easily shaked with the variations and revolutions of this world, yet it becomes him to establish his constancy in this, That God hath a good purpose in that action, not that God hath no hand in that action; That God will produce good out of it, not that God hath nothing to do in it. The Magicians themselves were forced to confess Digitum Dei, The finger of God, in a small matter. Never think it a weakness, to call that a judgment of God, which others determine in Nature; Do so, so far as works to thy edification, who seest that judgment, though not so far, as to argue, and conclude the final condemnation of that man upon whom that judgment is fallen. Certainly, we were better call twenty natural accidents judgments of God, then frustrate God's purpose in any of his powerful deliverances, by calling it a natural accident, and suffer the thing to vanish so, and God be left unglorified in it, or his Church unedified by it. Then we hear God, when we understand what he says; And therefore, as we are bound to bless God, that he speaks to us, and hears us speak to him, in a language which we understand, and not in such a strange language, as that a stranger who should come in and hear it, would think the Congregation mad; So also let us bless him for that holy tenderness, to be apt to feel his hand in every accident, and to discern his presence in everything that befalls us. Saul heard the voice, saying; He understood what it said, and by that, found that it was directed to him, which is also another step in this last part.

This is an impropriation without sacrilege, and an enclosure of a Common without damage, to make God mine own, to find that all that God says is spoken to me, and all that Christ suffered was suffered for me. And as Saul found this voice at first, to be directed to him, so ever after he bends his eye the same way, and observes the working of God especially upon himself; As at the beginning, so in the way too: particularly there, By the grace of God I am that I am; and then, His grace was bestowed on me, And not in vain; and again, I have labored more abundantly then all; And after all, still he considers himself, and finds himself to be the greatest sinner, Quorum ego maximus. It is called a greatness of spirit, or constancy, but it is indeed an incorrigible height of pride, when a man will not believe that he is meant in a libel, if he be not named in that libel. It is a fearful obduration, to be Sermon-proof, or not to take knowledge, that a judgment is denounced against him, because he is not named in the denouncing of that judgment. Is not thy name Simon Magus, if thou buy and sell spiritual things thyself? and is not thy servants name Gehazi, if he exact after? Is not thy name Cain, if thou rise up against thy brother? And is not thy name Zacchaeus, if thou multiply thy wealth by oppression? Is not thy name Dinah, if thou gad abroad, to see who will solicit thee? And is not the name of Putiphars Wife upon thee, if thou stay at home and solicit thy servants? Postdate the whole Bible, and whatsoever thou hearest spoken of such, as thou art, before, believe all that to be spoken but now, and spoken to thee. This was one happiness here, that Saul found this voice to be directed to him; And another (which is our last Consideration) is what this voice said; it said, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?

Here, to make sure of him, God calls him by his name, that he should not be able to transfer the summons upon any other, or say it was not he. They say that our Noctambulones, men that walk in their sleep, will wake if they be called by their names. To wake Saul out of this dream, (for, to think to oppose Christ and his cause, is, in the highest person of the world, of what power or of what counsel soever, but a vertiginous dream, and a giddy vapor) to wake him, he calls him by his name, to let him know he means him; and to wake him thoroughly, he calls him twice, Saul, and Saul again. The great desolation which was to fall upon that land, God intimates, God interminates, God intonates with such a vehemency, Terra, terra, terra, Earth, earth, earth hear the word of the Lord. God should be heard at first, believed at first; but such is his abundant goodness, as that he ingeminates, multiplies his warnings; And to this whole land he hath said, Terra, terra, terra, Earth, earth, earth hear the Word of the Lord; Once in an Invasion, once in a Powder-treason; and again, and again in pestilential contagions; And to everyone of us, he hath said oftener then so, Dust, dust, dust why doest thou lift up thyself against thy Maker? Saul, Saul why persecutest thou me?

Here Christ calls the afflictions of those that are his, in his purpose, his afflictions. Christ will not absolutely verify his own words, to his own ease; He had said before this, upon the Cross, Consummatum est, All is finished; But though all were finished in his Person, he hath a daily passion in his Saints still. This language which the Apostle learnt of Christ here, himself practiced, and spake after, Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not? Since Christ does suffer in our sufferings, be this our consolation, Till he be weary, we should not be weary, nor faint, nor murmur under our burdens; and this too, That when he is weary, he will deliver us even for his own sake; for he, though he cannot suffer pain, may suffer dishonor in our sufferings; therefore attend his leisure.

We end all in this, Cur tu me? Why doest Thou persecute Me? Why Saul Christ? Put it upon a Nation, (what is any Saul, any one man to a Nation?) Put it upon all the Nations of the World, and you shall hear God ask with an indignation, Quare fremuerunt Gentes? Why do the heathen rage, why do the people imagine a vain thing? why will they do it? what can they get? He that sitteth in the Heavens shall laugh; The Lord shall have them in derision. Christ came into the Temple and disputed with the Doctors; but he did not despise them, he did not laugh at them. When all the Midianites, and all the Amalekites, and all the Children of the East, were in a body against Israel, God did not laugh at them. Gideon his General, mustered two and thirty thousand against them. God would not employ so many in the day of Battle, yet he did not laugh at them, he did not whip them out of the field, he made the face of an Army, though it were but three hundred. But when God can choose his way, He can call in Nation against Nation, he can cast a damp upon any Nation, and make them afraid of one another, He can do an execution upon them by themselves, (I presume you remember those stories in the Bible, where God did proceed by such ways) or he can sit still in a scorn, and let them melt away of themselves; when he can cast down Saul to the earth, and never appear in the cause, benight his noon, frustrate his purposes, evacuate his hopes, annihilate him in the height of his glory, Cur tu me? why will any Saul, any Nation, any World of Saul's persecute Christ, any sinner tempt him, who is so much too hard for him?

Cur me? Why doest thou offer this to me, who being thus much too hard for thee, would yet fain be friends with thee? and therefore came to a parley, to a treaty? for, verba haec, non tam arguentis, quam defendentis, says S. Chrysostom: These are not so much offensive as defensive words; He would not confound Saul, but he would not betray his own honor. To many Nations God hath never spoken; To the Jews he spoke, but suffered them to mistake him; To some whole Christian Churches he speaks, but he lets them speak too; he lets them make their word equal to his; To many of us he hath spoken, and chidden, but given over before we are cured; As he says of Israel, in a manner, That she is not worth his anger, not worth his punishing, A people laden with sins, why should they anymore be smitten? Why should I go about to recover them? But if God speak to thee still, and speak in a mixed voice, of Correction, and Consolation too, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? Him that receives so little benefit by thee, and yet is so loath to lose thee, Him that can so easily spare thee, and yet makes thy soul more precious then his own life, Him that can resolve thee, scatter thee, annihilate thee with a word, and yet afford so many words, so many hours conferences, so many Sermons to reclaim thee, why persecutest Thou Him? Answer this question, with Saul's answer to this question, by another question, Domine quid me vis facere? Lord what wilt thou have me do? Deliver thyself over to the will of God, and God shall deliver thee over, as he did Saul to Ananias; provide thee by his Ministry in his Ordinance, means to rectify thee, in all dejection of spirit, light to clear thee in all perplexities of conscience, in the ways of thy pilgrimage, and more and more effectual seals thereof, at the hour of thy transmigration into his joy, and thine eternal rest.

SERM. XLVII. Preached at S. Paul's, The Sunday after the Conversion of S. PAUL. 27. Ian. 1627.

W Hen S. Chrysostom calls Christmas day, Metropolin omnium festorum, The Metropolitan Holyday, the principal festival of the Church, he is likely to intend only those festivals which were of the Churches later institution, and means not to enwrap the Sabbath in that comparison. As S. Augustine says of the Sacrament of Baptism, that it is Limen Ecclesiae, The threshold over which we step into the Church; so is Christmas day, Limen festorum, The threshold over which we step into the festival celebration of some other of Christ's actions, and passions, and victorious overcommings of all the Acts of his Passion, such as his Resurrection, and Ascension; for, but for Christmas day, we could celebrate none of these days; And so, that day is Limen festorum, The threshold over which we pass to the rest. But the Sabbath is not only Limen, or Ianua Ecclesiae, The door by which we enter into the Church, and into the consideration what the Church hath done, but Limen mundi, The door by which we enter into the consideration of the World, how, and when the World was made of nothing, at the Creation, without which, we had been so far from knowing that there had been a Church, or that there had been a God, as that we ourselves had had no being at all. And therefore, as our very being is before all degrees of well-being, so is the Sabbath, which remembers us of our being, before all other festivals, that present and refresh to us the memory of our well-being: Especially to us, to whom it is not only a Sabbath, as the Sabbath is a day of Rest, in respect of the Creation, but Dies Dominicus, The Lord's day, in respect of the Redemption of the world, because the consummation of that work of Redemption, for all that was to be done in this world, which was the Resurrection of our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus, was accomplished upon that day, which is our Sabbath. But yet, as it did please God, to accompany the Great day, the Sabbath, with other solemn days too, The Passover, and Pentecost, Trumpets, and Tabernacles, and others, and to call those other days Sabbaths, as well as the Sabbath it self; so, since he is pleased that in the Christian Church, other days of Holy Convocations should also be instituted, I make account, that in some measure, I do both offices, both for observing those particular festivals that fall in the week, and also for the making of those particular festivals to serve the Sabbath, when upon the Sabbath ensuing, or preceding such or such a festival in the week, I take occasion to speak of that festival, which fell into the compass of that week; for, by this course, that festival is not pretermitted, nor neglected, the particular festival is remembered: And then, as God receives honor in the honor of his Saints, so the Sabbath hath an honor, when the festivals, and commemorations of those Saints, are reserved to wait upon the Sabbath.

Hence is it, that as elsewhere, I often do so, that is, Celebrate some festival that falls in the week, upon the Sabbath: so, in this place, upon this very day, I have done the like, and return now, to do so again, that is, to celebrate the memory of our Apostle S. Paul today, though there be a day past, since his day was, in the ordinary course, to have been celebrated. The last time that I did so, I did it in handling those words, And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice, saying, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? which was the very act of his Conversion; A period, and a passage, which the Church celebrates in none but in S. Paul; though many others were strangely converted too, she celebrates none but his. In the words chosen for this day, And now behold I know &c. we shall reduce to your memories, first, His proceeding in the Church after he was called, (I have gone preaching the kingdom of God among you) And then the ease, the reposednes, the acquiescence that he had in that knowledge, which God by his Spirit had given him, of the approach of his dissolution, and departure out of this life; (I know that all you shall see my face no more.) As those things which we see in a glass, for the most part, must be behind us, so that that makes our transmigration in death comfortable unto us, must be behind us, in the testimony of a good Conscience, for things formerly done; Now behold, I know, that all ye, among whom I have gone &c.

In handling of which words, our Method shall be this; Our general parts, being (as we have already intimated) these two, His way, and his End, His painful course, and his cheerful finishing of his course; His laborious battle, and his victorious triumph: In the first, (I have gone preaching the kingdom of God among you) we shall see, first, That there is a Transivi, as well as a Requievi acceptable to God; A discharge of a Duty, as well in going from one place to another, as in a perpetual Residence upon one; Transivi, says our Apostle, I have gone among you. But then, in a second consideration, in that first part, That that makes his going acceptable to God, is, because he goes to preach, Transivi praedicans, I have gone preaching; And then lastly in that first part, That that, that makes his Preaching acceptable, is, that he preached the kingdom of God, Transivi praedicans regnum Dei, I have gone amongst you, preaching the kingdom of God. And in these three characters of S. Paul's Ministry, first, Labor and Assiduity; And then, Labor bestowed upon the right means, Preaching; And lastly, Preaching to the right end, to edification, & advancing the kingdom of God, we shall determine our first part.

In our second part, we pass from his Transition, to his Transmigration; from his going up and down in the world, to his departing out of the world, And now, behold, I know, that ye shall see my face no more. In which, we shall look first, how S. Paul contracted this knowledge, how he knew it; And secondly, that the knowledge of it, did not disquiet him, not disorder him; he takes knowledge of it, with a confidence, and a cheerfulness. When he says, I know it, he seems to say, I am glad of it, or at least not troubled with it. And lastly, that S. Paul continues here, that way, and method, which he always uses; That is, to proceed by the understanding, to the affections, and so to the conscience of those that hear him, by such means of persuasion, as are most appliable to them, to whom he then speaks; And therefore knowing the power and efficacy of a dying, a departing man's words, he makes that impression in them, Observe, recollect, remember, practice that which I have delivered unto you, for, I know, that all ye shall see my face no more. And so we shall bring up that circle, which was begun in heaven, in our last exercise, upon this occasion, in this place, when Christ said from thence, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? up into heaven again, in that Euge bone serve, which Christ hath said since unto him, Well done good and faithful servant, enter into thy Masters joy; And our Apostle, whom, in our former Exercise, for example of our humiliation, we found fallen to the Earth, in this, to the assistance of our Exaltation, in his, we shall find, and leave, upon the last step of Jacob's ladder, that is, entering into Heaven, by the gate of death.

First then, in our first Part, our first Branch is, That there is a Transivi as acceptable to God, as a Requievi; That God was served in S. Paul, by applying his labors to many places, as well as if he had resided, and bestowed himself entirely upon any one. When Christ manifested himself at first unto him, trembling and astonished, he said, Lord what wilt thou have me to do? And when Christ had told him, That in Damascus, from Ananias, he should receive his Instructions, which were, That he should bear his name before the Gentiles, and Kings, and the children of Israel, After this commission was exhibited by Ananias, and accepted by S. Paul, that Prophetical Scripture laid hold upon him, by way of acclamation, Exultavit ut gigas ad currendam viam, He rejoiced as a strong man to run a race, He labored more abundantly then they all, He carried the Gospel from Jerusalem to Illyricum, That is, as S. Jerome survayes it, à mari rubro ad oceanum, from the Red Sea (a Sea within land) to the Ocean without, from all within, to all without the Covenant, Gentiles as well as Jews, Deficiente eum prius terra, quàm studio praedicandi, He found an end of the world, but he found no end of his zeal, but preached as long as he found any to preach to. And as he exceeded in Action, so did he in Passion too; He joins both together, In labors more abundant, (There was his continual preaching) In stripes above measure, And then, In prisons more frequent, In deaths often. Who dies more then once? Yet he dies often. How often? Death that is every other man's everlasting fast, and fills him his mouth with earth, was S. Paul's Panis quotidianus, His daily bread, I protest, says he, by your rejoicing, which I have in Christ, I die daily.

Though therefore we cannot give S. Paul a greater name then an Apostle, (except there be some extraordinary height of Apostleship enwrapped in that which he says of himself, Paul an Apostle, not of men, neither by men, but by Jesus Christ, That in that place he glory in a holy exultation, that he was made an Apostle by Jesus Christ, then when Jesus Christ was nothing but Jesus Christ, then when he was glorified in heaven, and not a mortal man upon earth, as he was when he made his other Apostles; And that in his being an Apostle, there entered no such act of men, as did in the election of Matthias to that office, (though Matthias were made after the Ascension as well as he) in whose election those men presented God two names, and God directed that lot upon him, and so Matthias was reckoned amongst the eleven Apostles) Though we need not procure to him, nor imagine for him, any other name then an Apostle, yet S. Paul was otherwise an universal soul to the whole Church, then many of the other Apostles were, and had a larger liberty to communicate himself to all places, then any of them had. That is it which S. Chrysostom intends, when he extends S. Paul's dignity, Angels diversae Gentes commissae, To particular Angels particular Nations are committed; sed nullus Angelorum, says that Father, No Angel governed his particular Nation better then S. Paul did the whole Church. S. Chrysostom carries it so high; Isidore modifies it thus; He brings it from the Angels of heaven, to the Angels of the Church, Indeed the Archangels of the Church, the Apostles themselves, And he says, Apostolorum quisque regionem nactus unicam, Every Apostle was designed to some particular and certain compass, and did but that, in that, which S. Paul did in the whole world. But S. Chrysostom and Isidore both take their ground for that which they say, from that which S. Paul says of himself, Besides these things which are without, that which cometh upon me daily, The care of all the Churches; for, says he, who is weak, and I am not weak? That is, who lacks anything, but I am ready to do it for him? who suffers anything, but I have compassion for him? We receive by fair Tradition, and we entertain with a fair credulity, the other Apostles to have been Bishops, and thereby to have had a more certain center, to which, naturally, that is, by the nature of their office, they were to incline. Not that nothing may excuse a Bishops absence from his Sea; for natural things, even naturally, do depart from those places to which they are naturally designed, and naturally affected, for the conservation of the whole frame and course of nature; for, in such cases, water will ascend, and air will descend; which motion is done naturally, though it be a motion from that place, to which they are naturally affected; And so may Bishops from their particular Churches; for, Episcopus in Ecclesia, & Ecclesia in Episcopo, Every Bishop hath a superintendency, and a residence in the whole Church, and the whole Church a residence, and a confidence in him. Therefore it is, that in some Decretal, and some Synodal Letters, Bishops are called Monarchae, Monarchs, not only with relation to one Diocese, but to the whole Church; not only Regal, but Imperial Monarchs.

The Church of Rome makes Bishops every day, of Dioceses, to which they know those Bishops can never come; Not only in the Dominions of Princes of the Reformed Religion, (which are not likely to admit them) but in the Dominions of the Turk himself. And into the Council of Trent, they threw and thrust, they shov'd and shoveld in such Bishops in abundance: They created (that their numbers might carry all) new Titular Bishops of every place, in the Eastern, the Greek Church, where there had ever been Bishops before, though those very places were now no Cities; Not only not within his Jurisdiction, but not at all, upon the face of the earth. But in better times then these, (though times, in which the Church was much afflicted too) S. Cyril of Alexandria mentions six thousand Bishops at once, against Nestorius. Now if the Church had six thousand Bishops at once, certainly all of them had not Dioceses to reside upon; sometimes collateral necessities enforce a departing from exact regularity, in matter of government. So it did, when S. Ambrose was chosen Bishop of Milan in the West, and Nectarius Bishop of Constantinople in the East, when they were both not only Lay-men, but unbaptized. But yet, though there be divers cases in which Bishops may justly be excused from residence, (for they are still resident upon the Church of God, if not upon the Church of that City) yet naturally, and regularly an obligation falling upon them, of Residence, the Apostles were more bound to certain limits, by being Bishops, then S. Paul was, of whom it does not appear that he was ever so. I know some later men have thought S. Paul a Bishop: And they have found some satisfaction in that, That Niger, and Lucius, and Manaen laid their hands upon Barnabas and Paul; and that Imposition of hands, say they, was a Consecration; And this reason supplies them too, That Paul did consecrate other Bishops, as Timothy of Ephesus, and Titus of Crete. But since Niger, and Lucius, and Manaen that laid their hands upon Paul, were not Bishops themselves, Paul cannot therefore be concluded to be a Bishop, because he laid his hands upon others. Neither hath any of those few Authors, which have imagined him to be a Bishop, ever assigned or named any place of which he should be Bishop; So that S. Paul had still another manner of liberty, and universality over the Church, then the rest had, and therefore still avows his Transivi, his peregrination, I have gone among you.

So then our blessed Savior having declared this to be his way for the propagation of the Gospel, that besides the men that reside constantly upon certain places, there should be Bishops that should spread farther then to a Parish, and Apostles farther then to a Diocese, and a Paul farther then to a Nation; As in the first Plantation Christ found this necessary, so may it be still convenient, that in some cases, some persons, at sometimes, may be admitted to forbear their service, in some particular place, so they do not defraud the whole Church of God by that forbearance. For so S. Paul, though he accuse himself, That he robbed other Churches, taking wages of them, and yet served the Corinthians, thinks himself excusable in this, That he did this service in some part of the Church of Christ, though not always to them in particular, from whom he received that recompense.

Now as this condemns our Brownists abroad, that have published their opinion to be, That no particular Church, given to one man's cure, may consist of more persons then may always hear that man, all together, so neither doth this afford any favor to those men, who absent themselves from their charge, unnecessarily; and everything is unnecessary in a Church-man, that is not done for the farther advancement of the Church of God in general, and doth prejudice, or defraud a particular Church. Therefore is S. Paul's Transivi in this Text, accompanied with a Praedicavi, I have not resided in one place, I have gone among you, but I have gone among you preaching.

Athanasius in his Epistle to Dracontius, who refused to be Bishop, says, If all men had been of your mind, who should have made you a Christian? who should have been enabled to have ministered Sacraments unto you, if there had been no Bishop? But when he saw that he refused it therefore, because men when they come to that state, give themselves more liberty then such as labored in inferior places did, and Dracontius seemed loath to open himself to the danger of that temptation, Athanasius says, Licebit tibi in Episcopatu esurire, sitire, Fear not, I warrant you, you may be poor enough in a Bishopric; or if you be rich, no man will hinder you from living soberly in a plentiful fortune; Novimus Episcopos jejunantes, says he, & Monachos comedentes, I have known a Bishop fast, when a Monk, or an Hermit hath made a good meal; Nec corona pro locis, sed pro factis redditur, God doth not crown every man that comes to the place, but him only that doth the duties of the place, when he is in it. And here one of the Duties that induce our crown, is Preaching, I have gone among you preaching.

Howsoever it be in practice in the Church of Rome, that Church durst not appear to the world, but in that Declaration, Praecipuum Episcoporum munus est praedicatio, The principal office of the Bishop is to preach. And as there is no Church in Christendom, (nay, let us magnify God in the fullness of an evident truth) not all the Churches of God in Christendom, have more, or more useful preaching, then ours hath, from those to whom the Cure of Souls belongs: so neither were there ever any times, in which more men were preferred for former preaching, nor that continued it more, after their preferments, then in these our times. There may be, there should be a Transiverunt, A passing from place to place, but still it is as it should be, Praedicando, A passing for Preaching, and a passing to Preaching; And then, a Preaching conditioned so, as S. Paul's was, I have gone among you, preaching the Kingdom of God.

The Kingdom of God, is the Gospel of God; that Gospel which the Apostle calls the glorious Gospel of God. A Kingdom consists not of slaves; slaves that have no will of their own. The children of the Kingdom have so a will of their own, as that no man is damned, but for that, which he would not avoid, nor saved against his will; So we preach a Kingdom. A Kingdom acknowledges all their happiness from the King; So do we all the good use of all our faculties, will and all from the grace of the King of heaven; so we preach a Kingdom. A Kingdom is able to subsist of it self, without calling in Forrainers; The Gospel is so too, without calling in Traditions; and so we preach a Kingdom. A Kingdom requires, besides fundamental subsistence, grounded especially in offensive, and defensive power, a support also of honor, and dignity, and outward splendor; The Church of God requires also, besides unanimity in fundamental Doctrines, an equanimity, and a mildness, and a charity, in handling problematicall points, and also requires order, and comeliness in the outward face, and habit thereof; And so we preach a Kingdom. So we preach a Kingdom, as that we banish from thence, all imaginary fatality, and all decretory impossibility of concurrence, and cooperation to our own salvation, And yet we banish all pride, and confidence, that any natural faculties in us, though quickened by former grace, can lead us to salvation, without a continual succession of more and more grace; And so we preach a Kingdom; So, as that we banish all spiritual treason, in setting up new titles, or making anything equal to God, or his Word, And we banish all spiritual felony or robbery, in despoyling the Church, either of Discipline, or of Possessions, either of Order, or of Ornaments. Be the Kings Daughter all glorious within; Yet, all her glory is not within; For, Her clothing is of wrought gold, says that text. Still may she glory in her internal glory, in the sincerity, and in the integrity of Doctrinal truths, and glory too in her outward comeliness, and beauty. So pray we, and so preach we the Kingdom of God. And so we have done with our first Part.

Our second Part, to which in our order we are now come, is a passionate valediction, Now I know, that all you shall see my face no more; where first we inquire how he knew it. But why do we inquire that? They that heard him did not so: They heard it, and believed it, and lamented it. When S. Paul preached at Berea, his story says, that he was better believed there, then at Thessalonica; And the reason is given, That there were Nobler persons there; Persons of better quality, of better natures, and dispositions, and of more ingenuity; and so, as it is added, They received the word with all readiness of mind. Prejudices, and disaffections, and under-valuations of the abilities of the Preacher, in the hearer, disappoint the purpose of the Holy Ghost, frustrate the labors of the man, and injure and defraud the rest of the Congregation, who would, and would justly, like that which is said, if they were not misled, and shaked by those hearers: And so work also such jealousies and suspicions, that though his abilities be good, yet his end upon his Auditory, is not their edification, but to work upon them, to other purposes. Though we require not an implicit faith in you, that you believe, because we say it, yet we require a holy Noblenesse in you, A religious good nature, a conscientious ingenuity, that you remember from whom we come, from the King of heaven, and in what quality, as his Ambassadors; And so be apt to believe, that since we must return to him that sent us, and give him a relation of our negotiation, we dare not transgress our Commission. The Bereans are praised for this, That they searched the Scriptures daily, whether those things that Paul said were so; But this begun not at a jealousy, or suspicion in them, that they doubted, that that which he said, was not so, nor proceeded not to a gladness, or to a desire, that they might have taken him in a lie, or might have found, that that which he said, was not so; But they searched the Scriptures, whether those things were so, that so, having formerly believed him when he preached, they might establish that belief, which they had received, by that, which was the infallible rock, and foundation of all, The Scriptures; They searched; but they searched for confirmation, and not upon suspicion.

In our present case, they to whom S. Paul said this, do not ask S. Paul how he knew, that they should see his face no more; they believed as we do, that he had it by revelation from God; and such knowledge is faith. Tricubitalis er at, & coelum attingit, says S. Chrysostom; S. Paul was a man of low stature; but four foot and a half high, says he; and yet his head reached to the highest heaven, and his eyes saw, and his ears heard the counsels of God. Scarce any Ambassador can show so many Letters of his Masters own hand, as S. Paul could produce Revelations; His King came to him, as often as other Kings write to their Ambassadors. He had his first calling by Revelation; He had his Commission, his Apostle-ship by Revelation; So he was directed to Jerusalem, And so to Rome; to both by Revelation; and so to Macedonia also. So he was confirmed, and comforted in the night, by Vision, by Revelation; And so he was assured of the lives of all them, that suffered shipwreck with him at Malta. All his Cate chismes in the beginning, all his Dictats in his proceeding, all his encouragements at his departing, were all Revelation.

Every good man hath his conversation in heaven, and heaven itself had a conversation in S. Paul; And so, even the book of the Acts of the Apostles, is, as it were, a first Part of the book of Revelation; Revelations to S. Paul, as the other was to S. John. This is the way that Christ promised to take with him, I will show him, how great things he must suffer for my sake. And this way Christ pursued, At Cesarea, Agabus a Prophet came from Judea to Paul, and took Paul's girdle, and bound his own hands, and feet, and said, Thus saith the Holy Ghost, So shall the Jews bind the man that owes the girdle, and shall deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles. This then was his case in our text, (for, that revelation, by Agabus his Prophesy, of his suffering was after this) he had a revelation that he should never be seen by them more; but when, or how, or where he should die, he had not had a particular revelation then. He says, a little before our text, I go bound in the Spirit to Jerusalem: That is, so bound by the Spirit, that if I should not go, I should resist the Spirit; But, says he, I know not the things that shall befall me there; not at Jerusalem; much less the last, and bitterest things, which were farther off; the things that should befall him at Rome, where he died. But from the very first, he knew enough of his death, to shake any soul, that were not sustained by the Spirit of God; which is another Branch in this Part, That no revelations, no apprehensions of death removed him from his holy intrepidnesse, and religious constancy.

We have a story in an Author of S. Jerome's time, Palladius, that in a Monastery of S. Isidors, every Monk that died in that house, was able, and ever did tell all the society, that at such a time he should die. God does extraordinary things, for extraordinary ends; but since we see no such ends, nor use of this, we are at our liberty, to doubt of the thing it self. God told Simeon, that he should not die, till he had seen Christ; but he did not tell him, that he should die as soon as he had seen him; But so much as was told him, was enough to make him content to die, when he had seen him, and to come to his Nunc dimittis, to that cheerfulness, as to sing his own Requiem. God accustomed S. Paul, no doubt, to such notifications from him, and such apprehensions in himself of death, as, because it was not new, it could not be terrible. When S. Paul was able to make that protestation, I protest by your rejoicing, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily; And again, I am in prisons oft, and often in deaths, I die often; No Executioner could have told him, you must die tomorrow, but he could have said, Alas I died yesterday, and yesterday was twelve-month, and seven year, and every year, and month, and week, and day, and hour before that. There is nothing so near Immortality, as to die daily; for not to feel death, is Immortality; and only he shall never feel death, that is exercised in the continual Meditation thereof; Continuall Mortification is Immortality.

As Cordials lose their virtue and become no Cordials, if they be taken every day, so poisons do their venom too; If a man use himself to them, in small proportions at first, he may grow to take any quantity: He that takes a dram of Death today, may take an ounce tomorrow, and a pound after; He that begins with that mortification of denying himself his delights, (which is a dram of Death) shall be able to suffer the tribulations of this world, (which is a greater measure of death) and then Death it self, not only patiently, but cheerfully; And to such a man, death is not a dissolution, but a redintegration; not a divorce of body and soul, but a sending of both divers ways, (the soul upward to Heaven, the body downward to the earth) to an indissoluble marriage to him, who, for the salvation of both, assumed both, our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus. Therefore does S. Paul say of himself, If I be offered upon the sacrifice, and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all, that is, It is a just occasion of our common joy, on your part, and on mine too; And therefore does S. Augustine say in his behalf, whatsoever can be threatened him, Si potest vivere, tolerabile est, Whatsoever does not take away life, may be endured; for, if it could not be endured, it would take away life; and, Si non potest vivere, says he, If it do take away life, what shall he feel, when he is dead? He adds the reason of all, Opus cum fine, merces sine fine; Death hath an end, but their reward that die for Christ, and their peace, that die in Christ, hath no end. Therefore was not S. Paul afraid of melancholique apprehensions, by drawing his death into contemplation, and into discourse; he was not afraid to think, nor to talk of his death; But then S. Paul had another end in doing so here, (which is our last consideration) To make the deeper impression in them, to whom he preached then, by telling them, that he knew they should see his face no more.

This that S. Paul says, he says to the Ephesians; but not at Ephesus: He was departed from thence the year before: for, upon the news that Claudius the Emperor, who persecuted the Christians, was dead, he purposed to go by Jerusalem to Rome. In that peregrination and visitation of his, his way fell out after to be by Miletus, a place not far from Ephesus; He was bound in the Spirit, as he says here, to go to Jerusalem; and therefore he could not visit them at Ephesus. A man may have such obligations, even for the service of God upon him, as that it shall not be in his power, to do that service which he may owe, and desire to pay in some particular Church. It was in part S. Paul's case: But yet he did what he could; from Miletus he sent to Ephesus, to call the Elders of that Church thither; And then he preached this short, but powerful Sermon. And, as his manner ever was, (though still without prevaricating or forbearing to denounce the judgments of God upon them, in cases necessary) to make those whom he preached or writ to, as benevolent, and well-affected to him as he could, (for he was Omnia omnibus, Made all things to all men ) to which purpose it is that he speaks, and pours out himself, with such a loving thankfulness to the Galatians, Ye received me as an Angel of God, even as Christ Jesus himself; pursuing, I say, this manner of a mutual endearing, and a reciprocal embowelling of himself in the Congregation, and the Congregation in him, (as, certainly, if we consider all unions, (the natural union of Parents and children, the matrimonial union of Husband and Wife) no union is so spiritual, nor so near to that, by which we are made Idem spiritus cum Domino, The same Spirit with the Lord, as when a good Pastor, and a good flock meet, and are united in holy affections to one another) to unite himself to his Ephesians inseparably, even after his separation, to be still present with them, in his everlasting absence, and to live with them even after death, to make the deeper impressions of all his past, and present instructions, he speaks to them as a dying man, I know you shall see my face no more.

Why did he so? S. Paul did not die in eleven years after this: But he died to them, for bodily presence, now; They were to see him no more. As the day of my death is the day of Judgment to me, so this day of his departing was the day of his death to them. And for himself, from this time, when he gave this judgment of death upon himself, all the rest of his life was but a leading far off, to the place of execution. For first, very soon after this, Agabus gave him notice of manifold afflictions, in that Girdle which we spake of before. There he was bound, and emprisoned at Jerusalem; from thence sent bound to Cesarea; practiced upon to be killed by the way; forced to appeal to Caesar; upon that Appeale sent prisoner to Rome; ship-wracked upon the way at Malta; Emprisoned under guard, though not close prisoner, two years after his coming thither; and, though dismissed, and so enabled to visit some Churches, yet laid hold upon again by Nero, and executed. So that as it was literally true, that the Ephesians never saw his face, after this valediction, so he may be said to have died then, in such a sense, as himself says to the Corinthians, That some men were baptized, Pro mortuis, for dead, that is, as good as dead, past all hope of recovery. So he died then.

Now beloved, who hath seen a Father, or a friend, or a neighbor, or a malefactor die, and hath not been affected with his dying words? Nay Father Abraham, says Dives, that will not serve, That they have Moses and the Prophets; Sermons will not serve their turns; But if one went to them from the Dead, they would repent. And the nearest to this is, if one speak to them that is going to the dead. If he had been a minute in Heaven thou wouldst believe him; and wilt thou not believe him a minute before? Did not Jacob observe the Angels ascending, as well as descending upon that ladder? Trust a good soul going to God, as well as coming from God? And then, as our Casuists say, That whatsoever a man is bound to do, In articulo mortis, at the point of death, by way of Confession or otherwise, he is bound to do, when he comes to the Sacrament, or when he undertakes any action of danger, because then he should prepare himself as if he were dying: so, when you come to hear us here, who are come from God, hear us with such an affection, as if we were going to God, as if you heard us upon our death-beds. The Pulpit is more then our death-bed; for, we are bound to the same truth, and sincerity here, as if we were upon our death-bed, and then God's Ordinance is more expressly executed here, then there. He that mingles falsehood with his last dying words, deceives the world inexcusably, because he speaks in the person of an honest man, but he that mingles false informations in his preaching, does so much more, because he speaks in the person of God himself.

They to whom S. Paul spake there, are said all to have wept, and to have fallen on Paul's neck, and to have kissed him; But it is added, they sorrowed most of all for those words, That they should see his face no more. When any of those men, to whom for their holy calling, and their religious pains in their calling, you owe and pay a reverence, are taken from you by death, or otherwise, there is a godly sorrow due to that, and in a great proportion. In the death of one Elisha, King Joash apprehended a ruin of all; He wept over his face, and said, O my father, my father, the Charet of Israel, and the horsemen thereof; He lost the solicitude of a father, he lost the power and strength of the Kingdom, in the loss of one such Prophet. But when you have so sorrowed for men, upon whom your devotion hath put, and justly put such a valuation, remember that a greater loss, then the loss of a thousand such men may fall upon you. Consider the difference between the Candle and the Candlestick, between the Preacher of the Gospel, and the Gospel it self; between a religious man, and Religion it self: The removing of the Candlestick, and the withdrawing of the Gospel, and the profaning of Religion, is infinitely a greaten loss, then if hundreds of the present laborers should be taken away from us. The children of the kingdom may be cast into utter darkness; and That kingdom may be given to others which shall bring forth the fruits thereof; and, The Lord may come, and come quickly and remove our Candlestick out of his place; pray we that in our days he may not. And truly where God threatens to do so in the Revelation, it is upon a Church, of which God himself gives good testimony, The Church of Ephesus; of her Labors, that is, Preaching; of her Patience, that is, suffering; of her Impatience, her not suffering the evil, that is, her integrity and impartiality, without connivence or toleration; And of her not fainting, that is, perseverance; and of her having the Nicolaitans, that is, sincerity in the truth, and a holy animosity against all false Doctrines: And yet, says he, I have something to say against thee.

When thou hast testified their assiduity in Preaching, their constancy in suffering, their sincerity in believing, their integrity in professing, their perseverance in continuing, their zeal in hating of all error in others, when thou thyself hast given this evidence in their behalf, canst thou Lord Jesu have anything to say against them? what then shall we, we that fail in all these, look to hear from thee? what was their crime? Because they had left their first love; Left the fullness of their former zeal to God's cause. Now, if our case be so much worse then theirs, as that we are not only guilty of all those sins, of which Christ discharges them, and have not only left our first love, but in a manner lost all our love, all our zeal to his glory, and be come to a luke warmness in his service, and a general neglect of the means of grace, how justly may we fear, not only that he will come, and come quickly, but that he may possibly be upon his way already, to remove our Candlestick, and withdraw the Gospel from us? And if it be a sad thing to you, to hear a Paul, a holy man say, You shall see my face no more, on this side the Ite maledicti, Go ye accursed into hell fire, there cannot be so sad a voice, as to hear Christ Jesus say, You shall see my face no more. Facies Dei est, qua Deus nobis innotescit, says S. Augustine, That is the face of God to us, by which God manifests himself to us. God manifests himself to us in the Word, and in the Sacraments. If we see not them in their true lines and colors, (the Word and Sacraments sincerely and religiously preached and administered) we do not see them, but masks upon them; And, if we do not see them, we do not see the face of Christ; And I could as well stand under his Nescio vos, which he said to the negligent Virgins, I know you not, or his Nescivi vos, which he said to those that boast of their works, I never knew you, as under this fearful thunder from his mouth, You shall see my face no more, I will absolutely withdraw, or I will suffer profaneness to enter into those means of your salvation, Word, and Sacraments, which I have so long continued in their sincerity towards you, and you have so long abused.

Blessed God say not so to us yet; yet let the tree grow another year, before thou cut it down; And as thou hast digged about it, by bringing judgments upon our neighbors, so water it with thy former rain, the dew of thy grace, and with thy later rain, the tears of our contrition, that we may still seethy face; here and hereafter; here, in thy kingdom of Grace; hereafter in thy kingdom of Glory, which thou hast purchased for us, with the inestimable price of thine incorruptible blood. Amen.

SERM. XLVIII. Preached at S. Paul's in the Evening, Upon the day of S. PAULS Conversion. 1628.

T He scene, where this canonization, this super-canonization, (for, it was not of a Saint, but of a God) was transacted, was the I will of Malta: The person canonized, and proclaimed for a God, was S. Paul, at that time by shipwreck cast upon that Island. And having for some years heretofore continued that custom in this place, at this time of the year, when the Church celebrates the Conversion of S. Paul, (as it doth this day) to handle some part of his Story, pursuing that custom now, I chose that part, which is knit and wound up in this Text, Then they changed their minds, and said, He is a God. S. Paul found himself in danger of being oppressed in judgment, and thereby was put to a necessity of Appealing to Caesar: By virtue of that Appeale being sent to Rome, by Sea, he was surprised with such storms, as threatened inevitable ruin; But the Angel of God stood by him, and assured him, that none of those two hundred seventy six persons, which were in the ship with him, should perish; According to this assurance, though the ship perished, all the passengers were saved, and recovered this land, Malta. Where being courteously received by the Inhabitants, though otherwise Barbarians, S. Paul doing so much for himself and for his company, as to gather a bundle of sticks to mend the fire, there flew a Viper from the heat, and fastened on his hand. They thereupon said among themselves, No doubt, this man is a murderer, whom, though he have escaped the Sea, yet Vengeance suffereth not to live. But when he shaked off the Viper into the fire, and received no harm, and they had looked, that he should have swoln, and fallen down dead suddenly, after they had looked a great while, and saw no harm come to him, Then (and then enters our Text) They changed their minds, and said, He is a God. Almighty God had bred up S. Paul so; so he had catechized him all the way, with vicissitudes, and revolutions from extreme to extreme. He had taught him how to want, and how to abound; how to bear honor, and dishonor: He permitted an Angel of Satan to buffet him, (so he gave him some sense of Hell) He gave him a Rapture, an Extasie; and in that, an appropinquation, an approximation to himself, and so some possession of Heaven in this life. So God proceeded with him here in Malta too; He passed him in their mouths from extreme to extreme; A Viper serses him, and they condemn him for a murderer; He shakes off the Viper; and they change their minds, and say, He is a God.

The first words of our Text carry us necessarily so far back, as to see from what they changed; And their periods are easily seen; Their Terminus à quo, and their Terminus ad quem, were these; first, that he was a Murderer, Then that he was a God. An error in Morality; They censure deeply upon light evidence: An error in Divinity; They transfer the Name and estimation of a God, upon an unknown Man. Place both the errors in Divinity; (so you may justly do) And then there is an error in Charity, a hasty and inconsiderate condemning; And an error in faith, a superstitious creating of an imaginary God. Now, upon these two general Considerations will this Exercise consist; first, that it is natural Logic, an argumentation naturally imprinted in Man, to argue, and conclude thus, Great calamities are inflicted, therefore God is greatly provoked; These men of Malta were but natural men, but Barbarians, (as S. Luke calls them) and yet they argue, and conclude so; Here is a judgment executed, therefore here is evidence, that God is displeased. And so far they kept within the limits of humanity and piety too; But when they descended hastily and inconsiderately, to particular, and personal applications, This judgment upon this man is an evidence of his guiltiness in this offense, then they transgressed the bounds of charity; That because a Viper had seised Paul's hand, Paul must needs be a murderer.

And then when we shall have passed thorough those things, which belong to that first Consideration, which consists of these two Propositions, That to conclude so, God strikes, therefore he is angry, is natural, but hastily to apply this to the condemnation of particular persons, is uncharitable, we shall descend to our second Consideration, to see what they did, when they changed their minds, They said, He is a God. And, as in the former part, we shall have seen, That there is in man a natural Logic, but that strays into uncharitableness; So in this we shall see, That there is in man a natural Religion, but that strayes into superstition and idolatry; Naturally man is so far from being devested of the knowledge and sense of God, from thinking that there is no God, as that he is apt to make more God's then he should, and to worship them for God's, whom he should not. These men of Malta were but Natural men, but Barbarians, (says S. Luke ) yet they were so far from denying God, as that they multiplied God's, and because the Viper did Paul no harm, they change their minds, and say, He is a God.

And from these two general considerations, and these two branches in each, That there is in man a Natural Logic, but that strayes into Fallacies; And a Natural Religion, but that strayes into Idolatry, and Superstition, we shall derive, and deduce unto you, such things as we conceive most to conduce to your edification, from this knot, and summary abridgement of this Story, Then they changed their minds, and said, He is a God.

First then for the first Proposition of our first part, That this is natural Logic, an argumentation imprinted in every man, God strikes, therefore God is angry, He, whom they that even hate his name, (our Adversaries of the Roman persuasion) do yet so far tacitly reverence, as that, though they will not name him, they will transfer, and insert his expositions of Scriptures, into their works, and pass them as their own, that as Calvin, He, Calvin, collects this proposition from this story, Passim receptum omnibus saeculis, In all ages, and in all places this hath ever been acknowledged by all men, That when God strikes, God is angry, And when God is angry, God strikes; and therefore, says he, Quoties occurrit memorabilis aliqua calamitas, simul in mentem veniat, as often as you see any extraordinary calamity, conclude that God hath been extraordinarily provoked, and hasten to those means, by which the anger and indignation of God may be appeased again. So that for this Doctrine, a man needs not be preached unto, a man needs not be catechized; A man needs not read the Fathers, nor the Councils, nor the Schoolmen, nor the Ecclesiastical story, nor Summists, nor Casuists, nor Canonists, no nor the Bible it self for this Doctrine; for this Doctrine, That when God strikes he is angry, and when he is angry he strikes, the natural man hath as full a Library in his bosom, as the Christian.

We, we that are Christians have one Author of ours, that tells us, Vindicta mihi, Revenge is mine, saith the Lord; Moses tells us so; And in that, we have a first and a second Lesson; First, that since Revenge is in God's hands, it will certainly fall upon the Malefactor, God does not mistake his mark; And then, since Revenge is in his hands, no man must take Revenge out of his hands, or make himself his own Magistrate, or revenge his own quarrel. And as we, we that are Christians, have our Author, Moses, that tells us this, the natural man hath his secular Author, Theocritus, that tells him as much, Reperit Deus nocentes, God always finds out the guilty man. In which, the natural man hath also a first, and a second Lesson too; First, that since God finds out the Malefactor, he never scapes; And then, since God does find him at last, God sought him all the while; Though God strike late, yet he pursued him long before; and many a man feels the sting in his conscience, long before he feels the blow in his body. That God finds, and therefore seeks, That God overtakes, and therefore pursues, That God overthrows, and therefore resists the wicked, is a Natural conclusion as well as a Divine.

The same Author of ours, Moses, tells us, The Lord our God is Lord of Lord's, and God of gods, and regardeth no man's person. The natural man hath his Author too, that tells him, Semper Virgines Furiae, The Furies, (they whom they conceive to execute Revenge upon Malefactors) are always Virgins, that is, not to be corrupted by any solicitations. That no dignity shelters a man from the justice of God, is a natural conclusion, as well as a Divine. We have a sweet Singer of Israel that tells us, Non dimidiabit dies, The bloody and deceitful man shall not live out half his days: And the natural man hath his sweet singer too, a learned Poet that tells him, that seldom any enormous Malefactor enjoys siccam mortem, (as he calls it) a dry, an un-bloody death. That blood requires blood, is a natural conclusion, as well as a Divine. Our sweet Singer tells us again, That if he fly to the farthest ends of the earth, or to the sea, or to heaven, or to hell, he shall find God there; And the natural man hath his Author, that tells him, Qui fugit, non effugit, He that runs away from God, does not scape God. That there is no sanctuary, no privileged place against which God's Quo Warranto does not lie, is a natural conclusion, as well as a divine; Sanguis Abel, is our Proverb, That Abel's blood cries for revenge, And sanguis Aesopi is the natural man's Proverb, That Aesop’s blood cries for revenge; for Aesop’s blood was shed upon an indignation taken at sacrifice, as Abel's was. S. Paul's Deus Remunerator, That there is a God, and that that God is a just rewarder of men's actions, is a natural conclusion, as well as a Divine.

When God speaks to us, us that are Christians, in the Scriptures, he speaks as in a Primitive, and Original language; when he speaks to the natural man, by the light of nature, though speak as in a translation into another language, yet he speaks the same thing; Every where he offers us this knowledge, That where he strikes, he is angry, and where he is angry, he does strike. Therefore Calvin might, as he doth, safely and piously establish his Quoties occurrit, As often as you see an extraordinary calamity, conclude that God is extraordinarily provoked: And he might as safely have established more then that, That wheresoever God is angry, and in that anger strikes, God sees sin before; No punishment from God, where there is no sin. God may have glory in the condemnation of man; but except that man were a sinful man, God could have no glory in his condemnation. At the beginning of thy prayer, the commandment went out, says Gabriel to Daniel; But till Danicl prayed, there went out no commandment. At the beginning of the sinners sin, God bends his bow, and whets his arrows, and at last he shoots; But if there were no sin in me, God had no mark to shoot at; for God hates not me, nor anything that he hath made.

And farther we carry not your consideration upon this first branch of our first Part, Naturally man hath this Logic, to conclude, where God strikes, God is angry; when God is angry, he will strike: But God never strikes in such anger, but with relation to sin. These men of Malta, natural men, did so, and erred not in so doing; They erred when they came to particulars, to hasty and inconsiderate applications, for that is uncharitableness, and constitutes our second branch of this part.

When one of the Consuls of Rome, Caninius, died the same day that he was made Consul, Cicero would needs pass a jest upon that accident, and say, The State had had a vigilant Conful of Caninius, a watchful Consul, because he never slept in all his Consulship; for he died before he went to bed. But this was justly thought a fault in Cicero, for calamities are not the subject of jests; They are not so casual things. But yet, though they come from a sure hand, they are not always evidences of God's displeasure upon that man upon whom they fall. That was the issue between Job and his friends; They relied upon that, pursued that which they had laid down, Remember, whoever perished being innocent, or where were the righteous cut off? Job relied upon that, pursued that which he had laid down; If I justify myself, mine own words shall condemn me; (self-justification is a self-condemnation) If I say I am perfect, that also shall prove me perverse, says Job. (No man is so far from purity and perfection, as he that thinks himself perfect and pure) But yet, says he there, Though I were perfect, this is one thing, and therefore I say it, God destroyeth the perfect and the wicked. God's outward proceeding with a man in this world, is no evidence to another, what he intends him in the next. In no case? In no case, (on this side of Revelation) for the world to come. Till I be a Judge of that man's person and actions, and being his Judge have clear evidence, and be not misled by rumors from others, by passion, and prejudices in myself, I must pass no judgment upon him, in this world, nor say, This fell upon him for this crime. But whatsoever my capacity be, or whatsoever the Evidence, I must suspend my judgment for the world to come. Therefore says the Apostle, Judge nothing before the time: When is the time? When I am made Judge, and when I have clear evidence, then is the time to pass my judgment for this world; But for a final condemnation in the world to come, the Apostle expresses himself fully in that place, Judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and manifest the counsels of the heart.

It was a wise and a pious counsel that Gamaliel gave that State, Abstinete, forbear a while, give God sea-room, give him his latitude, and you may find, that you mistook at first; for God hath divers ends in inflicting calamities, and he that judges hastily, may soon mistake God's purpose. It is a remarkable expressing which the holy Ghost hath put into the mouth of Naomi, Call not me Naomi, says she there; Naomi is lovely, and loving, and beloved; But call me Mara, says she, Mara is bitterness: But why so? For, says she, The Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me: Bitterly, and very bitterly. But yet so he hath with many that he loves full well. It is true, says Naomi, but there is more in my case then so; The Almighty hath afflicted me, and the Lord hath testified against me; Testified, there is my misery; that is, done enough, given evidence enough for others to believe, and to ground a judgment upon it, that he hath abandoned me utterly, forsaken me forever. Yet God meant well to Naomi for all this Testification, and howsoever others might mis-interpret God's proceeding with her.

That Ostracisme which was practiced amongst the Athenians, and that Petalisme which was practiced amongst the Syracusians, by which Laws, the most eminent, and excellent persons in those States were banished, not for any crime imputed to them, nor for any popular practices set on foot by them, but to conserve a parity, and equality in that State, this Ostracisme, this Petalisme was not without good use in those governments. If God will lay heaviest calamities upon the best men, If God will exercise an Ostracisme, a Petalisme in his state, who shall search into his Arcana imperii, into the secrets of his government? who shall ask a reason of his actions? who shall doubt of a good end in all his ways? Our Savior Christ hath shut up that way of rash judgment upon such occasions, when he says, Suppose ye, that those Galileans whom Herod slew, or those eighteen whom the fall of the Tower of Siloam slew, were greater sinners then the rest? It is not safely, it is not charitably concluded. And therefore he carries their thoughts, as far on the other side, That he that suffered a calamity, was not only not the greatest, but no sinner; for so Christ says, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents; (speaking of the man that was born blind.) Not that he, or his Parents had not sinned; but that that calamity was not laid upon him, in contemplation of any sin, but only for an occasion of the manifestation of Christ's Divinity, in the miraculous recovery of that blind man. Therefore says Luther excellently, and elegantly, Non judicandum de cruce, secundùm praedicamentum Quantitatis, sed Relationis; We must not judge of a calamity, by the predicament of Quantity, How great that calamity is, but by the predicament of Relation, to what God refers that calamity, and what he intends in it; For, Deus ultionum Deus, (as S. Jerome reads that place) God is the God of revenge, And, Deus ultionum libere agit, This God of revenge, revenges at his own liberty, when, and where, and how it pleases him.

And therefore, as we are bound to make good constructions of those corrections that God lays upon us, so are we to make good interpretations of those judgments which he casts upon others. First, for ourselves, that which is said in S. Matthew, That at the day of judgment shall appear in heaven, the sign of the Son of Man, is frequently, ordinarily received by the Fathers, to be intended of the Cross; That before Christ himself appear, his sign, the Cross shall appear in the clouds. Now, this is not literally so, in the Text, nor is it necessarily deduced, but ordinarily by the Ancients it is so accepted, and though the sign of the Son of Man, may be some other thing, yet of this sign, the Cross, there may be this good application, That when God affords thee, this manifestation of his Cross, in the participation of those crosses and calamities that he suffered here, when thou hast this sign of the Son of Man upon thee, conclude to thyself that the Son of Man Christ Jesus is coming towards thee; and as thou hast the sign; thou shalt have the substance, as thou hast his Cross, thou shalt have his Glory. For, this is that which the Apostle intends; Unto you it is given, (not laid upon you as a punishment, but given you as a benefit) not only to believe in Christ, but to suffer for Christ. Where, the Apostle seems to make our crosses a kind of assurance, as well as our faith; for so he argues, Not only to believe, but to suffer; for, howsoever faith be a full evidence, yet our suffering is a new seal even upon that faith. And an evident seal, a conspicuous, a glorious seal. Quid gloriosius, quam Collegam Christi in passion factum fuisse? What can be more glorious, then to have been made a Colleague, a partner with Christ in his sufferings, and to have fulfilled his sufferings in my flesh. For that is the highest degree, which we can take in Christ's school, as S. Denys the Areopagite expresses it, A Deo doctus, non solùm divina discit, sed divina patitur, (which we may well translate, or accommodate thus) He that is thoroughly taught by Christ, does not only believe all that Christ says, but conforms him to all that Christ did, and is ready to suffer as Christ suffered. Truly, if it were possible to fear any defect of joy in heaven, all that could fall into my fear would be but this, that in heaven I can no longer express my love by suffering for my God, for my Savior. A greater joy cannot enter into my heart then this, To suffer for him that suffered for me. As God saw that way prosper in the hands of Absalom, he sent for Joab, and Joab came not, he came not when he sent a second time, but when he sent Messengers to burn up his corn, then Joab came, and then he time, but when he sent Messengers to burn up his corn, then Joab came, and then he complied with Absalom, and seconded and accomplished his desires: So God calls us in his own outward Ordinances, and, a second time in his temporal blessings, and we come not; but we come the sooner, if he burn our Corn, if he draw us by afflicting us.

Now, as we are able to argue thus in our own cases, and in our own behalfes, as when a vehement calamity lies upon me, I can plead out of God's precedents, and out of his method be able to say, This will not last: David was not ten years in banishment, but he enjoyed the Kingdom forty: God will recompense my hours of sorrow, with days of joy; If the calamity be both vehement and long, yet I can say with his blessed servant Augustine; Et cum blandiris pater es, & pater es cum caedis, I feel the hand of a father upon me when thou strokest me, and when thou strikest me I feel the hand of a father too, Blandiris ne deficiam, caedis ne peream, I know thy meaning when thou strokest me, it is, lest I should faint under thy hand, and I know thy meaning when thou strikest me, it is, lest I should not know thy hand; If the weight, and continuation of this calamity testify against me, (as Naomi said) that is, give others occasion to think, and to speak ill of me, as of a man, for some secret sins, forsaken of God, still Nazianzens refuge is my refuge, Hoc mihi commentor, This is my meditation, Si falsa objicit convitiator, non me attingit, If that which mine enemy says of me, be false, it concerns not me, he cannot mean me, It is not I that he speaks of, I am no such man; And then, Si vera dicit, If that which he says betrue, it begun not to be true, then when he said it, but was true when I did it; and therefore I must blame myself for doing, not him for speaking it; If I can argue thus in mine own case, and in mine own behalf, and not suspect God's absence from me, because he lays calamities upon me, let me be also as charitable towards another, and not conclude ill, upon ill accidents; for there is nothing so ill, out of which, God, and a godly man cannot draw good. When John Hus was at the stake to be burnt, his eye fixed upon a poor plain Country-fellow, whom he observed to be busier then the rest, and to run oftener, to fetch more and more fagots, to burn him, and he said thereupon no more but this, O sancta simplicitas! O holy simplicity! He meant that that man, being then under an invincible ignorance, misled by that zeal, thought he did God service in burning him. But such an interpretation will hardly be appliable to any of these hasty and inconsiderate Judges of other men, that give way to their own passion; for zeal, and uncharitableness are incompatible things; zeal and uncharitableness cannot consist together: and there was evident uncharitableness in these men of Maltas proceeding, when, because the Viper seized his hand, they condemned him for a murderer.

It is true, they saw a concurrence of circumstances, and that is always more weighty, then single evidence. They saw a man who had been near drowning; yet he scaped that. They saw he had gathered a bundle of sticks, in which the Viper was enwrapped, and yet did him no harm when it was in his hand; He scaped that. And then they saw that Viper dart it self out of the fire again, and of all the company fasten upon that man. What should they think of that man? In God's Name, what they would, to the advancement of God's glory. They might justly have thought that God was working upon that man, and had some great work to do upon that man. We put no stop to zeal; we only tell you, where zeal determines; where uncharitableness enters, zeal goes out, and passion counterfeits that zeal. God seeks no glory out of the uncharitable condemning of another man. And then, in this proceeding of these men, we justly note the slipperiness, the precipitation, the bottomelesnesse of uncharitableness, in judgment; they could consist nowhere, till they charged him with murder, Surely he is a murderer. Many crimes there were, and those capital, and such as would have indueed death, on this side of murder, but they stopped at none, till they came to the worst. And truly it is easy to be observed, in the ways of this world, that when men have once conceived an uncharitable opinion against another man, they are apt to believe from others, apt to imagine in themselves any kind of ill, of that man; Sometimes so much, and so falsely, as makes even that which is true, the less credible. For, when passionate men will load a man with all, sad and equitable men begin to doubt whether any be true; and a Malefactor scapes sometimes by being overcharged.

But I move not out of mine own sphere; my sphere is your edification, upon this center, The proceeding of these men of Malta with S. Paul; upon them, and upon you I look directly, and I look only, without any glance, any reflection upon any other object. And therefore having said enough of those two Branches which constitute our first Part, That to argue out of God's judgments, his displeasure is natural, but then that natural Logic should determine in the zeal of advancing God's glory, and not stray into an uncharitable condemning of particular persons, because in this uncharitableness there is such a slipperiness, such a precipitation, such a bottomelesnesse, as that these hasty censurers could stop nowhere till they came to the highest charge; having said enough of this, we pass, in our order, to our second Part, to that which they did, when they changed their minds, They changed their minds, and said he was a God.

In this second part we consider first, the incongruity of depending upon anything in this world; for, all will change. Men have considered usefully the incongruity of building the tower of Babel, in this, That to have erected a Tower that should have carried that height that they intended in that, the whole body of the earth, the whole Globe, and substance thereof would not have served for a basis, for a foundation to that Tower. If all the timber of all the forests in the world, all the quarries of stones, all the mines of Lead and Iron had been laid together, nay if all the earth and sea had been petrified, and made one stone, all would not have served for a basis, for a foundation of that Tower; from whence then must they have had their materials for all the superedifications? So to establish a trust, a confidence, such an acquiescence as a man may rely upon, all this world affords not a basis, a foundation; for everything in this world is fluid, and transitory, and sandy, and all dependence, all assurance built upon this world, is but a building upon sand; all will change. It is true, that a fair reputation, a good opinion of men, is, though not a foundation to build upon, yet a fair stone in the building, and such a stone, as every man is bound to provide himself of. For, for the most part, most men are such, as most men take them to be; Neminem omnes, nemo omnes fefellit; All the world never joined to deceive one man, nor was ever any one man able to deceive all the world. Contemptu famae contemnuntur & virtutes, was so well said by Tacitus, as it is pity S. Augustine said it not, They that neglect the good opinion of others, neglect those virtues that should produce that good opinion. Therefore S. Jerome protests to abhor that Paratum de trivio, as he calls it, that vulgar, that street, that dunghill language, Satis mihi, as long as mine own conscience reproaches me of nothing, I care not what all the world says. We must care what the world says, and study that they may say well of us. But when they do, though this be a fair stone in the wall, it is no foundation to build upon, for, They change their minds.

Who do? our text does not tell us who; The story does not tell us, of what quality and condition these men of Malta were, who are here said to have changed their minds. Likeliest they are to have been of the vulgar, the ordinary, the inferior sort of people, because they are likeliest to have flocked and gathered together upon this occasion of Paul's shipwreck upon that Island. And that kind of people are always justly thought to be most subject to this levity, To change their minds. The greatest Poet lays the greatest levity and change that can be laid, to this kind of people; that is, In contraria, That they change even from one extreme to another; Scinditur incertum studia in contraria vulgus Where that Poet does not only mean, that the people will be of divers opinions from one another, for, for the most part they are not so; for the most part they think, and wish, and love, and hate together; and they do all by example, as others do, and upon no other reason, but therefore, because others do. Neither was that Poet ever bound up by his words, that he should say In contraria, because a milder, or more modified word would not stand in his verse; but he said it, because it is really true, The people will change into contrary opinions; And whereas an Angel it self cannot pass from East to West, from extreme to extreme, without touching upon the way between, the people will pass from extreme to extreme, without any middle opinion; last minutes murderer, is this minutes God, and in an instant, Paul, whom they sent to be judged in hell, is made a judge in heaven. The people will change. In the multitude of people is the Kings honor; And therefore Joab made that prayer in the behalf of David, The Lord thy God add unto thy people, how many soever they be, a hundred fold. But when David came to number his people with a confidence in their number, God took away the ground of that confidence, and lessened their number seventy thousand in three days. Therefore as David could say, I will not be afraid of ten thousand men, so he should say, I will not confide in ten thousand men, though multiplied by millions; for they will change, and at such an ebb, the popular man will lie, as a Whale upon the sands deserted by the tide. We find in the Roman story, many examples (particularly in Commodus his time, upon Cleander, principal Gentleman of his Chamber) of severe executions upon men that have courted the people, though in a way of charity, and giving them corn in a time of dearth, or upon like occasions. There is danger in getting them, occasioned by jealousy of others, there is difficulty in holding them, by occasion of levity in themselves; Therefore we must say with the Prophet, Cursed be the man, that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord. For, They, the people, will change their minds.

But yet there is nothing in our text, that binds us to fixe this levity upon the people only. The text does not say, That there was none of the Princes of the People, no Commanders, no Magistrates present at this accident, and partners in this levity. Neither is it likely, but that in such a place as Malta, an Island, some persons of quality and command resided about the coast, to receive and to give intelligence, and directions upon all emergent occasions of danger, and that some such were present at this accident, and gave their voice both ways, in the exclamation, and in the acclamation, That he was a murderer, and that he was a God. For, They will change their minds; All, High as well as low, will change. A good Statesman Polybius says, That the people are naturally as the Sea; naturally smooth, and calm, and still, and even; but then naturally apt to be moved by influences of Superior bodies; and so the people apt to change by them who have a power over their affections, or a power over their wills. So says he, the Sea is apt to be moved by storms and tempests; and so, the people apt to change with rumors and windy reports. So, the Sea is moved, So the people are changed, says Polybius. But Polybius might have carried his politique consideration higher then the Sea, to the Air too; and applied it higher then to the people, to greater persons; for the Air is shaked and transported with vapors and exhalations, as much as the sea with winds and storms; and great men as much changed with ambitions in themselves, and flatteries from others, as inferior people with influences, and impressions from them. All change their minds; High, as well as low will change. But I am the Lord; I change not. I, and only I have that immunity, Immutability; And therefore, says God there, ye sons of Jacob are not consumed; Therefore, because I, I who cannot change have loved you; for they, who depend upon their love, who can change, are in a woeful condition. And that involves all; all can, all will, all do change, high and low.

Therefore, It is better to trust in the Lord, then to put confidence in man. What man? Any man. It is better to trust in the Lord, then to put confidence in Princes. Which David thought worth the repeating; for he says it again, Put not your trust in Princes. Not that you may not trust their royal words, and gracious promises to you; not that you may not trust their Counsels, and executions of those Counsels, and the distribution of your contributions for those executions; not that you may not trust the managing of affairs of State in their hands, without jealous inquifitions, or suspicious mis-interpretations of their actions. In these you must trust Princes, and those great persons whom Princes trust; But when these great persons are in the balance with God, there they weigh as little, as less men. Nay, as David hath ranked and disposed them, less; for thus he conveys that consideration, Surely men of low degree are vanity; that is sure enough; there is little doubt of that; men of low degree can profit us nothing; they cannot pretend or promise to do us good; But then says David there, Men of high degree are a lie; They pretend a power, and a purpose to do us good, and then disappoint us. Many times men cannot, many times men will not; neither can we find in any but God himself, a constant power, and a constant will, upon which we may rely: The men of Malta, of what rank soever they were, did; all men, low and high, will change their minds.

Neither have these men of Malta (consider them in what quality you will) so much honor afforded them, in the Original, as our translation hath given them. We say, they changed their minds; the Original says only this, they changed, and no more. Alas, they, we, men of this world, worms of this dunghill, whether Basilisks or blind worms, whether Scarabs or Silkworms, whether high or low in the world, have no minds to change. The Platonique Philosophers did not only acknowledge Animā in homine, a soul in man, but Mentem in anima, a mind in the soul of man. They meant by the mind, the superior faculties of the soul, and we never come to exercise them. Men and women call one another inconstant, and accuse one another of having changed their minds, when, God knows, they have but changed the object of their eye, and seen a better white or red. An old man loves not the same sports that he did when he was young, nor a sick man the same meats that he did when he was well: But these men have not changed their minds; The old man hath changed his fancy, and the sick man his taste; neither his mind.

The Mind implies consideration, deliberation, conclusion upon premisses; and we never come to that; we never put the soul home; we never bend the soul up to her height; we never put her to a trial what she is able to do towards discerning a temptation, what towards resisting a temptation, what towards repenting a temptation; we never put her to trial what she is able to do by her natural faculties, whether by them she cannot be as good as a Plato, or a Socrates, who had no more but those natural faculties; what by virtue of God's general grace, which is that providence, in which he inwraps all his creatures, whether by that she cannot know her God, as well as the Ox knows his Crib, and the Stork her nest; what by virtue of those particular graces, which God offers her in his private inspirations at home, and in his public Ordinances here, whether by those she cannot be as good an hour hence, as she is now; and as good a day after, as that day that she receives the Sacrament; we never put the soul home, we never bend the soul up to her height; and the extent of the soul is this mind. When David speaks of the people, he says, They imagine a vain thing; It goes no farther, then to the fancy, to the imagination; it never comes so near the mind, as Consideration, Reflection, Examination, they only imagine, fancy a vain thing, which is but a waking dream, for the fancy is the seat, the scene, the theater of dreams. When David speaks there of greater persons, he carries it farther then so, but yet not to the mind; The Rulers take counsel, says David; but not of the mind, not of rectified and religious reason; but, They take counsel together, says he; that is, of one another; They sit still and hearken what the rest will do, and they will do accordingly. Now, this is but a Herding, it is not an Union; This is for the most part, a following of affections, and passions, which are the inferior servants of the soul, and not of that, which we understand here by the Mind, The deliberate resolutions, and executions of the superior faculties thereof.

They changed, says our Text; not their minds; there is no evidence, no apparance, that they exercised any, that they had any; but they changed their passions. Nay, they have not so much honor, as that afforded them, in the Original; for it is not They changed, but They were changed, passively; Men subject to the transportation of passion, do nothing of themselves, but are merely passive; And being possessed with a spirit of fear, or a spirit of ambition, as those spirits move them, in a minute their yea is nay, their smile is a frown, their light is darkness, their good is evil, their Murderer is a God. These men of Malta changed, not their minds, but their passions, and so did not change advisedly, but passionately were changed, and in that distemper, they said, He is a God.

In this hasty acclamation of theirs, He is a God, we are come to that which was our principal intention in this part, That as man hath in him a natural Logic, but that strayes into Fallacies, in uncharitable judgments, so man hath in him a natural Religion, but that strayes into idolatry, and superstition. The men of Malta were but mere natural men, and yet were so far from denying God, as that they multiplied God's to themselves. The soul of man brings with it, into the body, a sense and an acknowledgment of God; neither can all the abuses that the body puts upon the soul, whilst they dwell together, (which are infinite) devest that acknowledgement, or extinguish that sense of God in the soul. And therefore by what several names soever the old heathen Philosophers called their gods, still they meant all the same God. Chrysippus presented God to the world, in the notion and apprehension of Divina Necessitas, That a certain divine necessity which lay upon everything, that everything must necessarily be thus and thus done, that that Necessity was God; and this, others have called by another name, Destiny. Zeno presented God to the world, in the notion and apprehension of Divina lex; That it was not a constraint, a necessity, but a Divine law, an ordinance, and settled course for the administration of all things; And this law was Zenoes God; and this, others have called by another name, Nature. The Brachmans, which are the Priests in the East, they present God, in the notion and apprehension of Divina lux, That light is God; in which, they express themselves, not to mean the fire, (which some natural men worshipped for God) nor the Sun, (which was worshipped by more) but by their light, they mean that light, by which man is enabled to see into the next world; and this we may well call by a better Name, for it is Grace. But still Chrysippus by his Divine Necessity, which is Destiny, and Zeno by his Divine law, which is Nature, and the Brachmans by their Divine light, which is Grace, (though they make the operations of God, God) yet they all intend in those divers names, the same power.

The natural man knows God. But then, to the natural man, who is not only finite, and determined in a compass, but narrow in his compass, not only not bottomless, but shallow in his comprehensions, to this natural, this smite, and narrow, and shallow man, no burden is so insupportable, no consideration so inextrieable, no secret so inscrutable, no conception so incredible, as to conceive One infinite God, that should do all things alone, without anymore God's. That that power that establishes counsails, that things may be carried in a constancy, and yet permits Contingencies, that things shall fall out casually, That the God of Certainty, and the God of Contingency should be all one God, That that God that settles peace, should yet make wars, and in the day of battle, should be both upon that side that does, and that side that is overcome, That the conquered God, and the victorious God, should be both one God, That that God who is all goodness in himself, should yet have his hand in every ill action, this the natural man cannot digest, not comprehend. And therefore the natural man eases himself, and thinks he cases God, by dividing the burden, and laying his particular necessities upon particular God's. Hence came those enormous multiplications of God's; Hesiods thirty thousand God's; and three hundred Jupiter's. Hence came it that they brought their children into the world under one God, and then put them to nurse, and then to school, and then to occupations and professions under other several God's. Hence came their Vagitanus, a God that must take care that children do not burst with crying; and their Fabulanus, a God that must take care, that children do not stammer in speaking; Hence came their Statelinus, and their Potinus, a God that must teach them to go, and a God that must teach them to drink. So far, as that they came to make Febrem Deem, To erect Temples and Altars to diseases, to age, to death it self; and so, all those punishments, which our true God laid upon man for sin, all our infirmities they made God's. So far is the natural man from denying God, as that he thus multiplies them.

But yet never did these natural men, the Gentiles ascribe so much to their God's, (except some very few of them) as they of the Roman persuasion may seem to do to their Saints. For they limited their devotions, and sacrifices, and supplications, in some certain and determined things, and those, for the most part, in this world; but in the Roman Church, they all ask all of all, for they ask even things pertaining to the next world. And as they make their Saints verier God's then the Gentiles do theirs, in asking greater things at their hands, so have they more of them. For, if there be not yet more Saints celebrated by Name, then will make up Hesiods thirty thousand, yet they have more, in this respect, that of Hesiods thirty thousand, one Nation worshiped one, another another thousand; In the Roman Church, all worship all. And howsoever it be for the number, yet, saith one, we may live to see the number of Hesiods thirty thousand equalled, and exceeded; for, if the Jesuit, who have got two of their Order into the Consistory, (they have had two Cardinals) and two of their Order into heaven, (they have had two Saints Canonized) if they could get one of their Order into the Chair, one Pope; As we read of one General that knighted his whole Army at once; so such a Pope may Canonize his whole Order, and then Hesiods thirty thousand would be literally fulfilled.

And, that, as we have done, in the multiplication of their gods, so, in their superstition to their created gods, we may also observe a congruity, a conformity, a concurrence between the Heathen and the Roman Religion; As the Heathen east such an intimidation, such an infatuation, not only upon the people, but upon the Princes too, as that in the Story of the Egyptian Kings we find, that whensoever any of their Priests signified unto any of their Kings, that it was the pleasure of his God, that he should leave that kingdom, and come up to him, that King did always without any contradiction, any hesitation, kill himself; so are they come so near to this in the Roman Church, as that, though they cannot infatuate such Princes, as they are weary of to kill themselves, yet when they are weary of Princes, they can infatuate other men, to those assassinats, of which our neighbor kingdom hath felt the blow more then once, and we the offer, and the plotting more then many times.

That that I drive to, in this consideration, is this, That since man is naturally apt to multiply God's to himself, we do with all Christian diligence shut up ourselves in the belief and worship of our one and only God; without admitting anymore Mediators, or Intercessors, or Advocates, in any of those Modifications or Distinctions, with which the later men have painted and disguized the Religion of Rome, to make them the more passable, and without making any one step towards meeting them, in their superstitious errors, but adhere entirely to our only Advocate, and Mediator, and Intercessor Christ Jesus; for he does no more need an Assistant, in any of those offices, then in his office of Redeemer, or Savior; and therefore, as they require no fellow Redeemer, no fellow-Savior, so neither let us admit any fellow-Advocate, fellow-Mediator, fellow-Intercessor in heaven. For why may not that reason hold all the year, which they assign in the Roman Church, for their forbearance of prayers to any Saint, upon certain days? Upon Good-Friday, and Easter-day, and Whit sunday, say they, we must not pray to any Saint, no not to the blessed Virgin, Quia Christus, & Spiritus Sanctus, sunt tune temporis, supremi, & unici Advocati. Because upon those days, Christ, and the Holy Ghost, are our principal, nay upon those days, our only Advocares. And are Christ, and the Holy Ghost out of office a week after Easter, or after Whitsuntide? Since man is naturally apt to multiply God's, let us be Christianly diligent, to conclude ourselves in One.

And then, since man is also naturally apt to stray into a superstitious worship of God, let us be Christianly diligent, to preclude all ways, that may lead us into that temptation, or incline us towards superstition. In which, I do not intend, that we should decline all such things, as had been superstitiously abused, in a superstitious Church; But, in all such things, as being in their own nature indifferent, are, by a just commandment of lawful authority, become more then indifferent (necessary) to us, though not Necessitate medii, yet Necessitate praecepti, (for, though salvation consist not in Ceremonies, Obedience doth, and salvation consists much in Obedience) That in all such things, we always inform ourselves, of the right use of those things in their first institution, of their abuse with which they have been depraved in the Roman Church, and of the good use which is made of them in ours. That because pictures have been adored, we do not abhor a picture; Nor sit at the Sacrament, because Idolatry hath been committed in kneeling. That Church, which they call Lutheran, hath retained more of these Ceremonies, then ours hath done; And ours more then that which they call Calvinist; But both the Lutheran, and ours, without danger, because, in both places, we are diligent to preach to the people the right use of these indifferent things. For this is a true way of shutting out superstition, Not always to abolish the thing it self, because in the right use thereof, the spiritual profit, and edification may exceed the danger, but by preaching, and all convenient ways of instruction, to deliver people out of that ignorance, which possesses people in the Roman captivity.

From which natural inclination of man, we raise this, by way of conclusion of all, That since man is naturally apt to multiply God's to himself, and naturally apt to worship his God's superstitiously, since there is a proneness to many God's, and to superstition, in nature, There cannot be so unnatural a thing, no such Monster in nature, or against nature, as an Atheist, that believes no God. For, when we, we that are Christians, have reproached this Atheist, thus far, our way, Canst not thou believe one God? such a debility, such a nullity in thy faith, as not to believe one God? we require no more, and canst thou not do that, not one? when we, we that are Christians, have reproached him so far, The natural man of whose company he will pretend to be, will reproach him so much farther, as to say, Canst not thou believe one God? We, we who proceed by the same light that thou doest, believe a thousand. So that the natural man is as ready, readier then the Christian, to excommunicate the Atheist; For, the Atheist that denies all God's, does much more oppose the natural man, that believes a thousand, then the Christian, that believes but one.

Poor intricated soul! Riddling, perplexed, labyrinthicall soul! Thou couldest not say, that thou believest not in God, if there were no God; Thou couldest not believe in God, if there were no God; If there were no God, thou couldest not speak, thou couldest not think, not a word, not a thought, no not against God; Thou couldest not blaspheme the Name of God, thou couldest not swear, if there were no God: For, all thy faculties, how ever depraved, and perverted by thee, are from him; and except thou canst seriously believe, that thou art nothing, thou canst not believe that there is no God. If I should ask thee at a Tragedy, where thou shouldest see him that had drawn blood, lie weltering, and surrounded in his own blood, Is there a God now? If thou couldst answer me, No, These are but Inventions, and Representations of men, and I believe a God never the more for this; If I should ask thee at a Sermon, where thou shouldest hear the Judgments of God formerly denounced, and executed, re-denounced, and applied to present occasions, Is there a God now? If thou couldest answer me, No, These are but Inventions of State, to souple and regulate Congregations, and keep people in order, and I believe a God never the more for this; Be as confident as thou canst, in company; for company is the Atheists Sanctuary; I respite thee not till the day of Judgment, when I may see thee upon thy knees, upon thy face, begging of the hills, that they would fall down and cover thee from the fierce wrath of God, to ask thee then, Is there a God now? I respite thee not till the day of thine own death, when thou shalt have evidence enough, that there is a God, though no other evidence, but to find a Devil, and evidence enough, that there is a Heaven, though no other evidence, but to feel Hell; To ask thee then, Is there a God now? I respite thee but a few hours, but six hours, but till midnight. Wake then; and then dark, and alone, Hear God ask thee then, remember that I asked thee now, Is there a God? and if thou darest, say No.

And then, as there is an universal Atheist, an Atheist over all the world, that believes no God, so is he also an Atheist, over all the Christian world, that believes not Christ. That which the Apostle says to the Ephesians; Absque Christo, absque Deo, As long as you were without Christ, you were without God, is spoken (at least) to all that have heard Christ preached; not to believe God, so, as God hath exhibited, and manifested himself, in his Son Christ Jesus, is, in S. Paul's acceptation of that word, Atheism: and S. Paul, and he that speaks in S. Paul, is too good a Grammarian, too great a Critique for thee to dispute against.

And then, as there is an universal Atheist, he that denies God, And a more particular Atheist, he that denies Christ; so in a narrower, and yet large sense of the word, there is an actual Atheist, a practical Atheist, who though he do pretend to make God, and God in Christ the object of his faith, yet does not make Christ, and Christ in the holy Ghost, that is, Christ working in the Ordinances of his Church, the rule and pattern of his actions, but lives so, as no man can believe that he believes in God.

This universal Atheist, that believes no God, the heavens, and all the powers therein, shall condemn at the last day; The particular Atheist, that believes no Christ, the glorious company of the Apostles, that established the Church of Christ, shall condemn at that day; And the practical Atheist, the ungodly liver, the noble army of Martyrs, that did, and suffered so much for Christ, shall then condemn. And condemn him, not only as the most impious thing, but as the most inhumane; Not only as the most ungodly, but as the most unnatural thing: for an Atheist is not only a Devil in Religion, but a monster in nature; not only elemented and composed of Heresies in the Church, but of paradoxes, and absurdities in the world; Natural men, the men of Malta, even Barbarians, though subject to levity and changing their minds, yet make this their first act after their change, to constitute a God, though in another extreme, yet in an evident and absolute averseness from Atheism; They changed their minds, and said, he was a God. And be this enough for the Explication of the words, and their Application, and Complication to the celebration of the day.

The God of heaven rectify in us our natural Logic; That in all his Judgments we glorify God, without uncharitable condemning other men. The God of heaven sanctify to us our natural Religion, That it be never quenched nor damped in us, never blown out by Atheism, nor blown up by an Idolatrous multiplying of false, or a superstitious worship of our true God. The God of heaven preserve us in safety, by the power of the Father; In saving knowledge, by the wisdom of the Son; And in a peaceful unity of affections, by the love and goodness of the holy Ghost. Amen.

SERM. XLIX. Preached on the Conversion of S. PAUL. 1629.

W E consider ordinarily in the Old Testament, God the Father; And in the Gospels, God the Son; And in this Book, the Acts, and in the Epistles, and the rest, God the Holy Ghost, that is, God in the Government and Administration of his Church, as well in the ordinary Ministry and constant callings therein, as in the extraordinary use of general Councils; of which, we have the Model, and Platforme, and precedent in the fifteenth Chapter of this Book. The Book is noted to have above twenty Sermons of the Apostles; and yet the Book is not called The Sermons, The Preaching of the Apostles, but the Practice, the Acts of the Apostles. Our actions, if they be good, speak louder then our Sermons; Our preaching is our speech, our good life is our eloquence. Preaching celebrates the Sabbath, but a good life makes the whole week a Sabbath, that is, A savor of rest in the nostrils of God, as it is said of Noah's Sacrifice, when he came out of the Ark. The Book is called The Acts of the Apostles; But says S. Chrysostom, and S. Jerome too, it might be called the Acts of S. Paul, so much more is it conversant about him, then all the rest. In which respect, at this time of the year, and in these days, when the Church commemorates the Conversion of S. Paul, I have, for divers years successively, in this place, determined myself upon this Book. Once upon the very act of his Conversion, in those words, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? Once upon his valediction to his Ephesians at Miletus, in those words, Now I know that all ye shall see my face no more; And once upon the escape from the Vipers teeth, and the viperous tongues of those inconstant and clamorous beholders, who first rashly cried out, He is a murderer, and then changed their minds, and said, He is a God. And now, for the service of your devotions, and the advancement of your edification, I have laid my meditations upon this his Stratagem, and just avoiding of an unjust Judgment, When Paul percived that one part were Sadducees, and the other Pharisees, &c.

In handling of which words, because they have occasioned a Disputation, and a Problem, whether this that Paul did, were well done, To raise a dissention amongst his Judges, we shall stop first upon that Consideration, That all the actions of holy men, of Apostles in the New Testament, of Patriarchs in the old, are not to be drawn into example and consequence for others, no nor always to be excused and justified in them that did them; All actions of holy men, are not holy; that is first. And secondly, we shall consider this action of S. Paul, in some circumstances that invest it, and in some effects that it produced in our Text, as dissention amongst his Judges, and so a reprieving, or rather a putting off of the trial for that time; and these will determine our second Consideration. And in a third, we shall lodge all these in ourselves, and make it our own case, and find that we have all Sadducees and Pharisees in our own bosoms, (contrary affections in our own hearts) and find an advantage in putting these home- Sadducees, and home- Pharisees, these contrary affections in our own bosoms, in colluctation, and opposition against one another, that they do not combine, and unite themselves to our farther disadvantage; A Civil war, is, in this case, our way to peace; when one sinful affection crosses another, we scape better, then when all join, without any resistance. And in these three, first the General, How we are to estimate all actions, And then the Particular, what we are to think of S. Paul's Action, And lastly, the Individual, How we are to direct and regulate our own Actions, we shall determine all.

First then, though it be a safer way, to suspect an action to be sin that is not, then to presome an action to be no sin, that is so, yet that rule holds better in ourselves, then in other men; for, in judging the actions of other men, our suspicion may soon stray into an uncharitable mis-interpretation, and we may sin in condemning that in another, which was no sin in him that did it. But, in truth, Transilire lineam, To depart from the direct and straight line, is sin, as well on the right hand, as on the left; And the Devil makes his advantages upon the over-tender, and scrupulous conscience, as well as upon the over-confident, and obdurate; and many men have erred as much, in justifying some actions of holy men, as in calumniating, or mis-condemning of others. If we had not evidence in Scripture, that Abraham received that Commandment from God, who could justify Abraham's proceeding with his son Isaac? And therefore who shall be afraid to call Noah's Drunkenness, and his undecent lying in his Tent, Or Lots Drunkenness, and his iterated Incest with his Daughters, or his inconsiderate offer to prostitute his Daughters to the Sodomites, Or to call David's complicated and multiplied sin, a sin? When the Church celebrates Samsons death, though he killed himself, it is upon a tender & holy supposition, that he might do this not without some instinct and inspiration from the Spirit of God. But howsoever the Church interprets such actions, it is a dangerous and a fallacious way, for any private man to argue so, The Spirit of God directed this man in many actions, therefore in all; And dangerous to conclude an action to be good, either because he that did it, had a good purpose in doing it, or because some good effects proceeded from it. Bonum been, are the two horses that must carry us to heaven; To do good things, and to do them well; To propose good ends, and to go by good ways to those good ends. The Mid-wives lie, in the behalf of the Israelites children, was a lie, and a sin, howsoever God, out of his own goodness, found something in their piety, to reward. I should not venture to say, as he said, nor to say that he said well, when Moses said, Dele me, Forgive their sin, or blot me out of thy Book; Nor when S. Paul said, Anathema pro fratribus, I could wish that myself were separated from Christ for my Brethren. I would not, I could not without sin, be content that my name should be blotted out of the Book of Life, or that I should be separated from Christ, though all the world beside were to be blotted out, and separated, if I staid in.

The benefit that we are to make of the errors of holy men, is not that, That man did this, therefore I may do it: but this, God suffered that holy man to fall, and yet loved that good soul well, God hath not therefore cast me away, though he have suffered me to fall too. Bread is man's best sustenance, yet there may be a dangerous surfeit of bread: Charity is the bread that the soul lives by; yet there may be a surfeit of charity; I may mis-lead myself shrewdly, if I say, surely my Father is a good man, my Master a good man, my Pastor a good man, men that have the testimony of God's love, by his manifold blessings upon them; and therefore I may be bold to do whatsoever I see them do. Be perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven, is perfect, is the example that Christ gives you. Be ye followers of me, as I am of Christ, is • he example that the Apostle gives you. Good Examples are good Assistances; but no Example of man is sufficient to constitute a certain and constant rule; All the actions of the holiest man are not holy.

Hence appears the vanity and impertinency of that calumny, with which our adversaries of the Roman persuasion labor to oppress us, That those points in which we depart from them, cannot be well established, because therein we depart from the Fathers; As though there were no condemnation to them, that pretended a perpetual adhering to the Fathers, nor salvation to them, who suspected any Father of any mistaking. And they have thought that one thing enough, to discredit, and blast, and annihilate that great and useful labor, which the Centuriators, the Magdeburgenses took in compiling the Ecclesiastical Story, that in every age as they pass, those Authors have laid out a particular section, a particular Chapter De navis Patrum, to note the mistakings of the Fathers in every age; This they think a criminal and a heinous thing, enough to discredit the whole work; As though there were ever in any age, any Father, that mistook nothing, or that it were blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, to note such a mistaking. And yet, if those blessed Fathers, now in possession of heaven, be well affected with our celebrating, or ill, with our neglecting their works, certainly they find much more cause to complain of our adversaries, then of us. Never any in the Reformation hath spoken so lightly, nay, so heavily; so negligently, nay, so diligently, so studiously in diminution of the Fathers, as they have done. One of the first Jesuits proceeds with modesty and ingenuity, and yet says, Quaelibet aetas antiquitati detulit, Every age hath been apt to ascribe much to the Ancient Fathers; Hoc autem asserimus, says he, Iuniores Doctors perspicaciores, This we must necessarily acknowledge, that our later Men have seen farther then the elder Fathers did. His fellow Jesuit goes farther; Hoc omnes dicunt, sed non probant, says he, speaking of one person in the Genealogy of Christ, This the Fathers say, says he, and later men too; Catholics, and Heretics; All: But none of them prove it; He will not take their words, not the whole Churches, though they all agree. But a Bishop of as much estimation and authority in the Council of Trent, as any, goes much farther; Being pressed with S. Augustine's opinion, he says, Nec nos tantillum moveat Augustinus, Let it never trouble us, which way S. Augustine goes; Hoc enim illi peculiare, says he, ut alium errorem expugnans, alteri ansam praebeat, for this is inseparable from S. Augustine, That out of an earnestness to destroy one error, he will establish another. Nor doth that Bishop impute that distemper only to S. Augustine, but to S. Jerome too; Of him he says, In medio positus certamine, ar door feriendi adversarios, premit & socios, S. Jerome lays about him, and rather then miss his enemy, he wounds his friends also. But all that might better be borne then this, Turpiter errarunt Patres, The Fathers fell foully into errors; And this, better then that, Eorum opinio, opinio Haereticorum, The Fathers differ not from the Heretics, concur with the Heretics. Who in the Reformation hath charged the Fathers so far? and yet Baronius hath.

If they did not oppress us with this calumny of neglecting, or undervaluing the Fathers, we should not make our recourse to this way of recrimination; for, God knows, if it be modestly done. and with the reverence, in many respects, due to them, it is no fault to say the Fathers fell into some faults. Yet, it is rather our Adversaries observation then ours, That all the Ancient Fathers were Chiliasts, Millenarians, and maintained that error of a thousand years temporal happiness upon this earth, between the Resurrection, and our actual and eternal possession of Heaven; It is their observation rather then ours, That all the Ancient Fathers denied the dead a fruition of the sight of God, till the day of Judgment; It is theirs rather then ours, That all the Greek Fathers, and some of the Latin, assigned God's foreknowledge of man's works, to be the cause of his predestination. It is their note, That for the first six hundred years, the general opinion, and general practice of the Church was, To give the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, to Infants newly baptized, as a thing necessary to their salvation. They have noted, That the opinion of the Ancient Fathers was contrary to the present opinion in the Church of Rome, concerning the conception of the blessed Virgin without Original sin. These notes and imputations arise from their Authors, and not from ours, and they have told it us, rather then we them.

Indeed neither we nor they can dissemble the mistakings of the Fathers. The Fathers themselves would not have them dissembled. De me, says S. Jerome, ubicunque de meo sensu loquor, arguat me quilibet, For my part, wheresoever I deliver but mine own opinion, every man hath his liberty to correct me. It is true, S. Augustine does call Julian the Pelagian to the Fathers; but it is to vindicate and redeem the Fathers from those calumnies which Julian had laid upon them, that they were Multitudo caecorum, a herd, a swarm of blind guides, and followers of one another, And that they were Conspiratio perditorum, Damned Conspirators against the truth. To set the Fathers in their true light, and to restore them to their luster and dignity, and to make Julian confess what reverend persons they were, S. Aug. calls him to the consideration of the Fathers, but not to try matters of faith by them alone. For, Sapientiam sibi adimit, qui sine judicio majorum inventa probat, That man devests himself of all discretion, who, without examination, captivates his understanding to the Fathers.

It is ingenuously said by one of their later Writers, (if he would but give us leave to say so too) Sequamur Patres, tanquam Duces, non tanquam Dominos, Let us follow the Fathers as Guides, not as Lord's over our understandings, as Counselors, not as Commanders. It is too much to say of any Father that which Nicephorus says of S. Chrysostom, In illius perinde at que in Dei verbis quiesco, I am as safe in Chrysostom's words, as in the Word of God; That is too much. It is too much to say of any Father that which Sophronius says of Leo, That his Epistles were Divina Scriptura, tanquam ex ore Petri prolata, & fundamentum fidei, That he received the Epistles that Leo writ, as holy writ, as written by S. Peter himself, and as the foundation of his faith; that is too much. It is too much to say of S. Peter himself that which Chrysologus says, That he is Immobile fundamentum salutis, The immovable foundation of our salvation, & Mediator noster apud Deum, The Mediator of man to God. Their Jesuit Azorius gives us a good Caution herein; He says it is a good and safe way, in all emergent doubts, to govern ourselves Per communem opinionem, by the the common opinion, by that, in which most Authors agree; But says he, how shall we know which is the common opinion? Since, not only that is the common opinion in one Age, that is not so in another, (The common opinion was in the Primitive Church, that the blessed Virgin was conceived in Original sin, The common opinion now, is that she was not) But if we confider the same Age, that is the common opinion in one place, in one country, which is not so in another place, at the same time; That Jesuit puts his example in the worship of the Cross of Christ, and says, That, at this day, in Germany and in France it is the common opinion, and Catholic Divinity, That 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Divine worship is not due to the Cross of Christ; In Italy and in Spain it is the common opinion, and Catholic Divinity, that it is due. Now, how shall he govern himself, that is unlearned, and not able to try, which is the common opinion? Or how shall the learnedest of all govern himself if he have occasion to travail, but to change his Divinity, as often as he changes his Coine, and when he turns his Dutch Dollers into Pistolets, to go out of Germany, into Spain, turn his Devotion, and his religious worship according to the Clime? To end this Consideration, The holy Patriarchs in the Old Testament, were holy men, though they straid into some sinful actions; the holy Fathers in the Primitive Church, were holy men, though they straied into some erroneous opinions; But neither are the holiest men's actions always holy, nor the soundest Fathers opinions always sound. And therefore the question hath been not impertinently moved, whether this that S. Paul did here, were justifiably done, Who, when he perceived that one part were Sadducees, and the other Pharisees, &c. And so we are come to our second part, from the consideration of Actions in general, to this particular action of S. Paul.

In this second part we make three steps. First we shall consider, what Council, what Court this was, before whom S. Paul was convented, ( He cried out in the Council, says the text) whether they were his competent Judges, and so he bound to a clear, and direct proceeding with them; And secondly, what his end and purpose was, that he proposed to himself; which was to divide the Judges, and so to put off his trial to another day; for, when he had said that, (says the text) that that he had to say, there arose a Dissention, and the multitude, All, both Judges, and spectators, and witnesses, were divided; And then lastly, by what way he went to this end; which was by a double protestation; first that, Men and brethren, I am a Pharisee; And then that, Of the hope and Resurrection of the dead, I am called in question.

First then, for the competency of his Judges, Whether a man be examined before a competent Judge or no, he may not lie: we can put no case, in which it may be lawful for any man to lie to any man; not to a midnight, nor to a noon thief, that breaks my house, or assaults my person, I may not lie. And though many have put names of disguise, as Equivocations, and Reservations, yet they are all children of the same father, the father of lies, the devil, and of the same brood of vipers, they are lies. To an Incompetent Judge, if I be interrogated, I must speak truth, if I speak; but to a Competent Judge, I must speak: With the Incompetent I may not be false, but with the Competent, I may not be silent. Certainly, that standing mute at the Bar, which, of late times hath prevailed upon many distempered wretches, is, in it self, so particularly a sin, as that I should not venture to absolve any such person, nor to administer the Sacrament to him, how earnestly soever he desired it at his death, how penitently soever he confessed all his other sins, except he repented in particular, that sin, of having stood mute and refused a just trial, and would be then content to submit himself to it, if that favor might possibly at that time be afforded him. To an incompetent Judge I must not lie, but I may be silent, to a competent I must answer.

Consider we then the competency of S. Paul's Judges, what this Council, this Court was. It was that Council, which is so often in the New Testament called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , and in our Translation, the Council. The Jews speak much of their Lex Oralis, their Oral, their Traditionall Law; that is, That Exposition of the Law, which, say they, Moses received from the mouth of God, without writing, in that forty days conversation which he had with God, in the Mount; for, it is not probable, say they, that Moses should spend forty days in that, which another man would have done in one or two, that is, in receiving only that Law which is written: But he received an exposition too, and delivered that to Joshua, and he to the principal men, and according to that exposition, they proceeded in Judgment, in this Council, in this their Synedrion. Which Council having had the first institution thereof, Numb. 11.16. where God said to Moses, Gather me seventy men of the Elders of Israel, Officers over the people, and I will take of the Spirit that is upon thee, and put it upon them, and they shall bear the burden; that is, I will impart to them that exposition of the Law, which I have imparted to thee, and by that they shall proceed in Judgment, in this Council, this Synedrion of Seventy, had continued (though with some variations) to this time, when S. Paul was now called before them. Of this Council of Seventy, this Synedrion, our blessed Savior speaks, when he says, He that says Raca, (that is, declares his anger by any opprobrious words of defamation,) shall be subject to the Council. Of this Council he speaks, when he says, for my sake, they will deliver you up to the Council; And from this Council it is, not inconveniently, thought, that those messengers were sent, which were sent to examine John the Baptist, whether he were the Messias or no; for there it is said, That Priests and Levites were sent; and this Council, says Josephus, at first, (and for a long time) consisted of such persons, though, after, a third Order was taken in, that is, some principal men of the other Tribes. To this Council belonged the Conusance of all causes, Ecclesiastical and Civil, and of all persons; no Magistrate, no Prophet was exempt from this Court. Before this Council was Herod himself called, for an execution done by his command, which, though it were done upon a notorious malefactor, yet was done without due proceedings in law, and therefore Herod called before this Council for it.

But (by the way) this was not done when Herod was King, as Baronius doth mischievously and seditiously infer and argue, as though this Council were above the King. Herod at that time, was very far from any imagination of being King; His Father, Antipater, who then was alive, having, at that time, no pretense to the Kingdom. But Herod, though young, was then in a great place of Government, and for a misdemeanor there, was called before this Council, which had jurisdiction over all but the King. For so, in the Talmud it self, the difference is expressly put; Sacerdos magnus judicat & judicatur, The High Priest, the greatest Prelate in the Clergy, may have place in this Council, and may be called in question by this Council, Iudicat & judicatur;